English for specific purposes (ESP) in four technological and vocational higher education institutions in Taiwan, with particular reference to the Department of Applied Foreign Languages

This thesis examines problems in the teaching of English for Specific Purposes(ESP) in four technological and vocational higher education institutions in Taiwan,with particular reference to the Department of Applied Foreign Languages - English (DAFL-E)/ Department of Applied English (DAE), a newly established department intended to meet the high demand in the job market for English specialists with adequate business knowledge. The Department provides courses in English for specific purposes, in this study, for business purposes. However, students' low English proficiency results in inadequate meeting of the needs of industry.To understand ESP and the problems that arise in the DAFL-E/DAE, the writer conducted interviews with the Heads and teachers, and surveyed students, in four selected institutions, to seek their views and attitudes towards the work of the Departments and the difficulties they confronted. The policies regarding new teacher qualification requirements and discontinuation of the 5-year junior college programmes were reviewed.It was found that the DAFL-E/DAE face many challenges. First, specific goals and distinctive features have not been established. ESP is neither recognised nor its specific purposes served. Teacher training to teach ESP is also not developed. Secondly, the departments do not adequately prepare students for future employment, in terms of course design, English proficiency qualification and industrial placement. Students express dissatisfaction towards the Departments. Recommendations are made to the departments, teachers and students with respect to teacher training, team teaching, course design, needs analysis, English proficiency qualification and industrial placement. It is concluded that ESP should be incorporated in business-related English courses, in order to promote satisfactory attainment in English competence and business-related knowledge, and so contribute effectively to meeting the growing demands of industry

Women with endometriosis have higher comorbidities: Analysis of domestic data in Taiwan

AbstractEndometriosis, defined by the presence of viable extrauterine endometrial glands and stroma, can grow or bleed cyclically, and possesses characteristics including a destructive, invasive, and metastatic nature. Since endometriosis may result in pelvic inflammation, adhesion, chronic pain, and infertility, and can progress to biologically malignant tumors, it is a long-term major health issue in women of reproductive age. In this review, we analyze the Taiwan domestic research addressing associations between endometriosis and other diseases. Concerning malignant tumors, we identified four studies on the links between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, one on breast cancer, two on endometrial cancer, one on colorectal cancer, and one on other malignancies, as well as one on associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome, one on links with migraine headache, three on links with pelvic inflammatory diseases, four on links with infertility, four on links with obesity, four on links with chronic liver disease, four on links with rheumatoid arthritis, four on links with chronic renal disease, five on links with diabetes mellitus, and five on links with cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc.). The data available to date support that women with endometriosis might be at risk of some chronic illnesses and certain malignancies, although we consider the evidence for some comorbidities to be of low quality, for example, the association between colon cancer and adenomyosis/endometriosis. We still believe that the risk of comorbidity might be higher in women with endometriosis than that we supposed before. More research is needed to determine whether women with endometriosis are really at risk of these comorbidities

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

English for specific purposes (ESP) in four technological and vocational higher education institutions in Taiwan, with particular reference to the Department of Applied Foreign Languages

This thesis examines problems in the teaching of English for Specific Purposes(ESP) in four technological and vocational higher education institutions in Taiwan,with particular reference to the Department of Applied Foreign Languages - English (DAFL-E)/ Department of Applied English (DAE), a newly established department intended to meet the high demand in the job market for English specialists with adequate business knowledge. The Department provides courses in English for specific purposes, in this study, for business purposes. However, students' low English proficiency results in inadequate meeting of the needs of industry. To understand ESP and the problems that arise in the DAFL-E/DAE, the writer conducted interviews with the Heads and teachers, and surveyed students, in four selected institutions, to seek their views and attitudes towards the work of the Departments and the difficulties they confronted. The policies regarding new teacher qualification requirements and discontinuation of the 5-year junior college programmes were reviewed. It was found that the DAFL-E/DAE face many challenges. First, specific goals and distinctive features have not been established. ESP is neither recognised nor its specific purposes served. Teacher training to teach ESP is also not developed. Secondly, the departments do not adequately prepare students for future employment, in terms of course design, English proficiency qualification and industrial placement. Students express dissatisfaction towards the Departments. Recommendations are made to the departments, teachers and students with respect to teacher training, team teaching, course design, needs analysis, English proficiency qualification and industrial placement. It is concluded that ESP should be incorporated in business-related English courses, in order to promote satisfactory attainment in English competence and business-related knowledge, and so contribute effectively to meeting the growing demands of industry

Leaf swallowing and parasitic infection of the Chinese lesser civet Viverricula indica in northeastern Taiwan

[Background]Ingestion of plant parts purportedly for their non-nutritive and/or bioactive properties has been widely reported across the animal kingdom. Many of these examples are viewed as behavioral strategies to maintain health by controlling the level of parasite infections. One such behavior is leaf swallowing, the folding and swallowing of whole leaves without chewing. Void of any nutritional benefit, defecation of the whole leaves is associated with the physical expulsion of intestinal parasites. Fecal samples of the Chinese lesser civet Viverricula indica were collected along a fixed transect line monthly for 17 months in the Fushan Experimental Forest, northeastern Taiwan. We inspected samples for the occurrence of undigested leaves and parasite worms to test the possible antiparasitic function of the behavior in this species.[Results]Of the collected feces, 14.3%contained whole, folded, undigested leaves of grass. The co-occurrence of undigested grass and Toxocara paradoxura worms in the feces was statistically significant. Adult worms of T. paradoxura were trapped inside the fecal-grass mass or on the surface of leaves in these samples. Increases in the T. paradoxura prevalence and infection intensity were associated with a higher presence of whole leaves in the feces.[Conclusions]Reported for the first time in the context of self-medication for civet species, we propose that swallowing grass may facilitate expulsion of adult worms of T. paradoxura, which resembles behaviors widely reported in African great apes, bears, and geese