ANALYSIS ON THE COREEELATION BETWEEN ROLE-PLAYING VIDEO GAMES AND ENGLISH VOCABULARY RANGE

ANALYSIS ON THE COREEELATION BETWEEN ROLE-PLAYING VIDEO GAMES AND ENGLISH VOCABULARY RANGE

Wasted opportunities: Problematic alcohol and drug use among gay men and bisexual men

This report describes the findings from a qualitative and quantitative study of alcohol and drug use among gay and bisexual men and other men that have sex with men (MSM) in England. The qualitative element describes the experiences and understandings of men who identified themselves as being concerned about their alcohol or drug use. The quantitative element shows the broader picture of use and concern about use among MSM. So we go from a broad picture of the extent of alcohol and drug use and concern about it, to a narrower and more detailed focus on men experiencing concern and problems related to alcohol and drug use. The aims of the study are to qualitatively explore the contexts and attendant needs of men who are concerned about their substance use, to locate that use within the broader MSM population and to suggest ways in which the drug-related needs of MSM might be better met. So we have specifically recruited men who were concerned about their substance use and investigated the way these men used drugs and alcohol, what drugs and alcohol mean to them and the harms caused by drugs and alcohol. Many men, perhaps the majority, use alcohol and other drugs without any mishap or unhappiness. However, the range of experiences described highlight the pervasive and often detrimental role that alcohol and other drugs play in the social and personal lives of many men. Although there is some research which examines the effects of substance use treatments on sexual risk behaviour (that is, do drugs services reduce unsafe sex), there is little or no research which investigates the accessibility, acceptability or effectiveness of current substance use services for gay men and other MSM. So in the qualitative interviews we also sought information about the role services played in meeting drug-related needs, for example information, motivational and practical support

Whither the AIDS epidemic - or lies, damned lies and statistics?

The current HIV/AIDS pandemic is the worst plague ever to afflict humanity, and unfortunately it is at its most severe in southern Africa. Approximately 5 million people are currently infected in South Africa, and therein lies the rub, for our estimates are always based on data that contain uncertainties. While the impact on health is undeniably profound, the uncertainties around the statistics create debate. Our main source of data on the epidemic is the annual report of the Department of Health on HIV prevalence in a sample of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in the public sector.1 This needs to be extrapolated to the general population, and to do this a series of assumptions (that may differ between different researchers) are needed. Even the population of South Africa is uncertain. While the official population in the 2001 census is 44 819 778,2 this figure is of questionable accuracy. There was an undercount of about 1 in 6 of the population,3 so assumptions and statistical models were required to arrive at the final estimate

Is adding charcoal to soil a good method for CO2 sequestration? - Modeling a spatially homogeneous soil

Carbon sequestration is the process of capture and long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) with the aim to avoid dangerous climate change. In this paper, we propose a simple mathematical model (a coupled system of nonlinear ODEs) to capture some of the dynamical effects produced by adding charcoal to fertile soils. The main goal is to understand to which extent charcoal is able to lock up carbon in soils. Our results are preliminary in the sense that we do not solve the CO2 sequestration problem. Instead, we do set up a flexible modeling framework in which the interaction between charcoal and soil can be tackled by means of mathematical tools. We show that our model is well-posed and has interesting large-time behaviour. Depending on the reference parameter range (e.g. type of soil) and chosen time scale, numerical simulations suggest that adding charcoal typically postpones the release of CO2

How Will the Use of Technology in Translation and Testing Affect Language Learning?

Technology has an ever increasing impact on how we work and live. Article adressed the issue of the impact of technology in two key areas of language learning. On the one side learners increasingly used technology to translate. Given this trend, was there any real need to learn a language. On the other side, educational institutions increasingly used technology to rate language proficiency. Given this trend, would the work of the teacher become less and less important. The survey was conducted by using quantitative method. The respondents' age range was 18-25. There were 53 respondents, 35% were male and 65% were female. The instrument was a questionaire having 9 questions describing the students' reliance on computer in translation. It can be concluded that learners of English indicate that they accept and welcome the role of technology in language learning, but there is a doubt that the role and participation of humans in the learning process will be completely replaced. The human element remains an important ingredient. (EE

Establishing microbial baselines to identify indicators of coral reef health

Microorganisms make a significant contribution to reef ecosystem health and resilience via their critical role in mediating nutrient transformations, their interactions with macro-organisms and their provision of chemical cues that underpin the recruitment of diverse reef taxa. However, environmental changes often cause compositional and functional shifts in microbial communities that can have flow-on consequences for microbial-mediated processes. These microbial alterations may impact the health of specific host organisms and can have repercussions for the functioning of entire coral ecosystems. Assessing changes in reef microbial communities should therefore provide an early indicator of ecosystem impacts and would underpin the development of diagnostic tools that could help forecast shifts in coral reef health under different environmental states. Monitoring, management and active restoration efforts have recently intensified and diversified in response to global declines in coral reef health. Here we propose that regular monitoring of coral reef microorganisms could provide a rapid and sensitive platform for identifying declining ecosystem health that can complement existing management frameworks. By summarising the most common threats to coral reefs, with a particular focus on the Great Barrier Reef, and elaborating on the role of microbes in coral reef health and ecosystem stability, we highlight the diagnostic applicability of microbes in reef management programs. Fundamental to this objective is the establishment of microbial baselines for Australia's coral reefs.AIMS@JCU PhD Scholarship; GBRMPA Science Management Research Award; Advance Queensland PhD Scholarship; Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) [SFRH/BPD/110285/2015

Has HIV prevalence peaked in South Africa? - Can the report on the latest antenatal survey be trusted to answer this question?

On the weekend of Friday 29 August, the National Department of Health placed their report on the results of the 2007 national antenatal survey, carried out a little over 10 months ago, on their website.1 The Department uses these results (showing an overall HIV prevalence of 28%) to reinforce those of the previous survey2 and argue that 'South Africa may be making some real progress in its response to the HIV epidemic' and that the 'South African HIV epidemic is on a downward trend'. While this may or may not be true, in order for one to infer a trend in indicators from a sequence of surveys they need to be comparable, year on year, with one another. Unfortunately this is not the case with the antenatal surveys of the past 2 years