Nonnative English-speaking Teachers’ Self-perceived Language Proficiency Levels, Anxieties, and Learning Strategies

Research suggests that nonnative English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) suffer anxiety because of their self-perceived inadequate language ability. This paper reports on an online survey of 63 NNESTs and teacher trainees in English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) settings that investigated the participants’ perceived language abilities and their approaches to anxiety and language learning. The results reveal that more than half of the participants were content with their overall language abilities although their levels of contentment varied with distinct skills. The survey results also indicate a complex relationship between NNESTs’ perceived language proficiency levels and their anxiety about teaching English. Additionally, the survey also documented the participants’ anxiety management methods, language learning strategies, and language learning beliefs. Reflecting on the results, I propose a Christian approach to NNEST issues in terms of self-perception, professional development, and the roles of Christian teacher trainers and colleagues

Planting the Seeds of Surreality, Cultivating the Dynamism of a Nation: Winston Miranda and the Rhetoric of Resilience in Post-Revolutionary Nicaraguan Art

Winston Miranda, a surrealist painter from the historic capital of Granada, Nicaragua, is creating a contemporary, post-revolutionary path that is distinct from yet informed by its revolutionary antecedents. In essence, his art is a literal and figurative bridge between war and healing. Critical research to date, however, has not considered the rhetorical implications of the role of art in Nicaragua after the revolutionary period (1990 to the present day). Henceforth, my thesis is a pentadic criticism of the post-revolutionary components of Mirandas surrealist oil paintings. By aggregating the literal and latent content of Miranda\u27s artworks as a collective drama and performance, I was able to locate and extract key act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose elements across three layers of pentads: Dream, Play, and Lived World. I ultimately reveal the artist\u27s underlying motivation in engendering resilience for himself, his country, and the world. My analytical tool is based primarily upon Kenneth Burke\u27s (1969a) theory of dramatism, with components of art therapy and psychoanalysis incorporated to capture the overall essence of the painting aggregate. I also utilize Walter Benjamin\u27s (1968) notion of translation to facilitate explanation of the ways in which Miranda navigates from pentad to pentad via translatory tools of historic artistic voices, the 4,000-year old world-renowned performance art of puppetry, and audience participation, respectively. What ultimately emerges from the analysis of Miranda\u27s surrealist paintings is an understanding of the symbolic nature of not only recovery, but above all resilience from trauma across a plethora of experiential fronts and how this regenerative healing may be conveyed through visual imagery. I conclude this thesis by propounding the major rhetorical strategies suggested by the role of art in post-revolutionary Nicaragua and how surrealism might function to mediate those strategies and negotiate a world that is increasingly becoming more visual in its communicative practices

Effect of eddy current in shielding plate and electron gun on flux distribution in CRT

The eddy current induced in an inner magnetic shield (IMS) and an electron gun affect the flux distribution of a cathode ray tube, causing a possible degrade of picture quality. In this paper, the effect of the distance between an IMS and a deflection coil on the eddy-current distribution is examined. The eddy current induced in the electron gun, when the coils for velocity modulation (VM) are set near the electron gun, is also analyzed. It is found that the variation of flux distribution is mainly affected by the shape of VM coil.</p

Prospective and retrospective values integrated in frontal cortex drive predictive choice

予測に基づいて行動を選ぶ脳の回路の発見 --2次運動野が担う予測的な行動選択--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-01-30.Animals must flexibly estimate the value of their actions (action-value) to successfully adapt to a changing environment. The brain is thought to estimate action-values from two different sources, namely the action-outcome history (retrospective value) and the knowledge of the environment (prospective value), but how different estimates of action-values are reconciled to make a choice is not well understood. Here we found that as mice learn the state-transition structure of a decision-making task, retrospective and prospective values become jointly encoded in the preparatory activity of neurons in ALM. Suppressing this preparatory activity in expert mice returned their behavior to a naïve state. These results reveal the neural circuit that injects structural knowledge into action selection to promote predictive decision-making

Regulatory Systems for Prevention and Control of Rabies, Japan

Japan’s systems provide an effective model for elimination of rabies worldwide

Effects of Astaxanthin on Human Blood Rheology

Effects of astaxanthin (AX) derived from H. pluvialis on human blood rheology were investigated in 20 adult men with a single-blind method. The experimental group was 57.5 ± 9.8 years of age and the placebo group was 50.8 ± 13.1 years of age. A blood rheology test that measures whole blood transit time was conducted using heparinized blood of the volunteers by a MC-FAN apparatus (microchannel array flow analyzer). After administration of AX 6 mg/day for 10 days, the values of the experimental group were decreased from 52.8 ± 4.9 s to 47.6 ± 4.2 s (p<0.01) and a comparison of the values between the experimental (47.6 ± 4.2 s) and the placebo (54.2 ± 6.7 s) groups showed a significant difference (p<0.05). There were no adverse effects resulting from the administration of AX 6 mg/day for 10 days. Informed consent was obtained from each subject