Construction Grammar and English Language Teaching

This paper begins by noting that disappointments have been expressed with the communicative approach to language teaching, before discussing a number of problems involved in its implementation. This leads to the question of how English language teaching can attend to grammatical form, but without sacrificing the focus on communicative function. The paper then points to a convergence between strands of research in both theoretical and applied linguistics. In theoretical linguistics, the increasing prominence of ‘construction grammars\u27 resonates nicely with recent suggestions that ‘lexical phrases\u27 or ‘formulaic sequences\u27 should be given greater focus in language teaching. The rest of the paper goes on to consider the pedagogical value of the notion of a construction

Are Asians comfortable with discussing death in health valuation studies? A study in multi-ethnic Singapore

BACKGROUND To characterize ease in discussing death (EID) and its influence on health valuation in a multi-ethnic Asian population and to determine the acceptability of various descriptors of death and "pits"/"all-worst" in health valuation. METHODS In-depth interviews (English or mother-tongue) among adult Chinese, Malay and Indian Singaporeans selected to represent both genders and a wide range of ages/educational levels. Subjects rated using 0–10 visual analogue scales (VAS): (1) EID, (2) acceptability of 8 descriptors for death, and (3) appropriateness of "pits" and "all-worst" as descriptors for the worst possible health state. Subjects also valued 3 health states using VAS followed by time trade-off (TTO). The influence of sociocultural variables on EID and these descriptors was studied using univariable analyses and multiple linear regression (MLR). The influence of EID on VAS/TTO utilities with adjustment for sociocultural variables was assessed using MLR. RESULTS Subjects (n = 63, 35% Chinese, 32% Malay, median age 44 years) were generally comfortable with discussing death (median EID: 8.0). Only education significantly influenced EID (p = 0.045). EID correlated weakly with VAS/TTO scores (range: VAS: -0.23 to 0.07; TTO: -0.14 to 0.11). All subjects felt "passed away", "departed" and "deceased" were most acceptable (median acceptability: 8.0) while "sudden death" and "immediate death" were least acceptable (median acceptability: 5.0). Subjects clearly preferred "all-worst" to "pits" (63% vs. 19%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION Singaporeans were generally comfortable with discussing death and had clear preferences for several descriptors of death and for "all-worst". EID is unlikely to influence health preference measurement in health valuation studies

Studies on Silica-Scaled Chrysophytes from Iowa. II. Common Synura Species

Synura (Synuraceae, Chrysophyceae) includes some of the more common and conspicuous planktonic algal forms in lowa. This genus, with its covering of characteristic overlapping siliceous scales is representative of the Synuraceae. Since 1955 published identifications of species in this family by specialists have not been considered accurate unless they are based on electron microscopy of scales. However, little effort has been made to correlate light microscopy with electron microscopy. In this paper scales are illustrated with transmssion and scanning electron micrographs as well as light micrographs. Four of the most common Synura species are discussed. Three of them, S. uvella Ehrenberg, S. echinulata Korshikov, and S. spinosa Korshikov have not previously been identified from Iowa material on the basis of electron microscopy. The fourth species, S. petersenii Korshikov, has been reported once previously

An easy-to-use diagnostic system development shell

The Diagnostic System Development Shell (DSDS), an expert system development shell for diagnostic systems, is described. The major objective of building the DSDS is to create a very easy to use and friendly environment for knowledge engineers and end-users. The DSDS is written in OPS5 and CommonLisp. It runs on a VAX/VMS system. A set of domain independent, generalized rules is built in the DSDS, so the users need not be concerned about building the rules. The facts are explicitly represented in a unified format. A powerful check facility which helps the user to check the errors in the created knowledge bases is provided. A judgement facility and other useful facilities are also available. A diagnostic system based on the DSDS system is question driven and can call or be called by other knowledge based systems written in OPS5 and CommonLisp. A prototype diagnostic system for diagnosing a Philips constant potential X-ray system has been built using the DSDS

An Atlas on Global Water Cycle

What do climate models predict for the rainfall where you live? What about evaporation or runoff? Should your local community consider constructing new dams or do the existing water storages appear adequate? What about the availability of water for irrigation farming? Do the predictions differ between different climate models or do all the models basically predict the same changes in water availability where you live? These are all simple questions but it is surprisingly hard for an individual, whether they be a farmer, water resources engineer, teacher or interested citizen, to answer them. As researchers active in the field we could not answer the questions either. In fact, we had never seen a compilation of the rainfall, evaporation and runoff predictions made by all the different climate models. The Atlas contains maps and tables that document model predictions contributed by international climate modelling groups to the 2007 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The predictions are made available here via the wonders of the internet and ongoing cooperation by the international climate modelling community who routinely archive their results. The maps and tables in the Atlas document rainfall, evaporation and runoff estimates for the 20th century along with predictions of the same quantities at the end of the 21st century. Whatever your interest, we hope you find the Atlas as helpful as we do

Magnetic properties of exchange biased and of unbiased oxide/permalloy thin layers: a ferromagnetic resonance and Brillouin scattering study

Microstrip ferromagnetic resonance and Brillouin scattering are used to provide a comparative determination of the magnetic parameters of thin permalloy layers interfaced with a non-magnetic (Al2O3) or with an antiferromagnetic oxide (NiO). It is shown that the perpendicular anisotropy is monitored by an interfacial surface energy term which is practically independent of the nature of the interface. In the investigated interval of thicknesses (5-25 nm) the saturation magnetisation does not significantly differ from the reported one in bulk permalloy. In-plane uniaxial anisotropy and exchange-bias anisotropy are also derived from this study of the dynamic magnetic excitations and compared to our independent evaluations using conventional magnetometryComment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submited to Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte

The activation energy for GaAs/AlGaAs interdiffusion

Copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. This article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 82, 4842 (1997) and may be found at

An optical study of interdiffusion in ZnSe/ZnCdSe

Copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. This article appeared in Applied Physics Letters 69, 1579 (1996) and may be found at

Studies on Silica-Scaled Chrysophytes from Iowa

References in the literature to the silica-scaled chrysophytes of Iowa are few and, since the advent of the electron microscope, identifications of taxa in this group are no longer considered valid without accompanying electron micrographs. Using scanning electron microscopy for critical identifications, eight taxa genera of the Synuraceae are reported here including the first known report of the genus Paraphysomonas from Iowa. From the other two genera, Mallomonas and Synura, only one of the taxa in this paper, Mallomonas pseudocoronata, has been reported from Iowa previously. Mallomonas acaroides var. striatula, M. tonsurata, M. tonsurata var. alpina, M. teilingii, M. pseudocorcnata, Mallomonas sp., Synura petersenii, and Paraphysomonas imperforata are the taxa reported