Discursive Representations of Digital Artifacts in an EFL Classroom: Analysing Discursive Voices of Pre-Service Teachers of English

The present article presents and discusses a study that seeks to analyse discursive representations of digital artifacts in the teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) by pre-service EFL teachers (henceforth – participants). The study involves a corpus of argumentative essays on a range of topics in EFL didactics written by the participants and their respective control group which is comprised of non-teacher EFL students. The analysis of the corpus of essays reveals that whilst there are discursive representations of digital artifacts that are shared between the groups of participants and controls, there appear to be discursive representations of digital artifacts that are group-specific. These findings and their linguo-didactic implications are further described in the article.

Effect of Acetamınophen on Ovulation and Implantation in Female Mice

Acetaminophen is known to inhibit prostaglandin synthesis and activate the endocannabinoid system, thereby has been linked to the regulation of mammalian reproductive processes through the same. Growing evidence tends to link acetaminophen reproductive effects in the regulation of ovulation and/or implantation. To provide further evidence, this study was designed to determine the effect of acetaminophen on ovulation and/or implantation. Female Swiss white mice were randomly divided into two experiments, one testing effects on ovulation and the other testing effects on implantation. The two groups were further sub-divided into treatment and control groups, each having N=5 mice. The mice in the treatment groups (TG1 and TG2) received 200mg/kg of acetaminophen while those in the control groups (CG1 and CG2) received the same quantities of normal saline. Mice in experiment group one (TG1, CG1) received acetaminophen/placebo before mating. Those in experiment group two (TG2, CG2) received acetaminophen/placebo for seven days post-mating. The presence of a vaginal plug confirmed mating success. The mice were sacrificed on the 7th day of pregnancy, the uterus harvested and all observed implantation sites counted and recorded. In both treatment groups (TG1 and TG2), a significant reduction in the number of implantation sites (P≤0.05) was observed when compared with the respective control group (CG1 and CG2). The observation points towards a role of acetaminophen in the regulation of ovulation and implantation in female mice reproduction.

Impact of Peracetic Acid on the Dynamic Cyclic Fatigue of Heat-Treated Nickel-Titanium Rotary Endodontic Instrument

Peracetic acid (PAA) is widely used as a sterilizing/disinfecting agent, and, in endodontics, it has been introduced as a promising irrigant in root canal treatment. It has been used at different concentrations to achieve various functions. However, endodontic instruments in contact with PAA of a certain concentration may affect their fatigue resistance. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of PAA on the cyclic fatigue resistance of three commercial heat-treated nickel-titanium (NiTi) rotary files. Three types of heat-treated NiTi rotary files were selected: One Curve (OC), ProTaper Gold (PTG), and Wave One Gold (WOG). Each type was divided into three subgroups (n = 6 for each file type): (1) untreated instruments; (2) files immersed in 0.002% PAA; and (3) files immersed in 0.35% PAA. The performance of each file type was tested in a simulated canal. The number of cycles to fracture (NCF) was determined to assess cyclic fatigue resistance of the files. Independent sample t-test was applied to compare each treated file within a subgroup with its respective control group, and one-way ANOVA was used for comparison among the main groups. All types of tested files revealed a significant decline in the cyclic fatigue resistance after exposure to 0.002% PAA except the PTG ( P = 0.209 ). After exposure of the files to a higher concentration (0.35% PAA), a dramatic reduction was demonstrated by all the groups. Before and after exposure of the files to PAA, PTG displayed the highest cyclic fatigue resistance, followed by the WOG, while the OC showed the lowest resistance. Exposure of heated-treated NiTi files to PAA in a relatively high or low concentration adversely affects the cyclic fatigue resistance. The PTG files demonstrated the best performance among the tested types and can be disinfected with 0.002% PAA for clinical purpose.

Simplified artificial blood feeding and oral infection method for mosquitoes

ABSTRACTMosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus and Culex quinquefasciatus are vectors of many pathogens that greatly affect humankind. The maintenance of these mosquitoes in laboratory permit different studies that can help understanding their biology, as well as the vector-pathogen interaction. In addition to sugar meals, the blood feeding is essential for maintenance of the reproductive cycle in several vectors. The main blood sources for many mosquito colonies are direct feeding on live animal or the use of human/animal blood through artificial feeders. However, this latter process has some disadvantages, as artificial feeders can be very laborious for assembly and decontamination. Based on these observations, a simplified technique for feeding and artificial infection was developed with cotton-pads soaked (CS) and blood or blood and viral supernatant to simulate an artificial infection. The efficiency of the CS technique was investigated through the number of mosquitoes fed/infected, when compared to their respective control group. The CS technique, with blood at room temperature, promoted a feeding rate of 61.4% for Ae. albopictus, 70.8% for Cx. quinquefasciatus and 17% for Ae. aegypti. The control group (Hemotec-feeding) presented 47.9%, 16.5% and 59.1% of feeding success, respectively. To improve the CS technique for Ae. aegypti mosquitoes, the procedure was then performed with blood at 38°C, which was possible to observe a feeding rate of 47.3%, in comparison to 53.2% for the control group (Hemotec). When using the CS technique for artificial infection with Mayaro virus, more than 80% of infection was observed for Ae. aegypti and 100% for Ae. albopictus. In the traditional infection technique (glass feeder), the infection rate was 90% (Ae. aegypti) and 96.6% (Ae. albopictus). For Cx. quinquefasciatus, the infection was positive only with the CS technique, resulting in 1 (5%) mosquito infected with Mayaro virus. Our results suggest that this simplified technique of low-cost feeding and easy assembly, offers good results for feeding (maintenance of colonies) and artificial infection of different species of mosquitoes.

Isopropyl Nitrite Induced Hemoglobin Oxidation in Diabetics Blood

The effect of isopropyl nitrite on human Type 2 Diabetes blood was undertaken using non diabetics blood as the control group. The differences in patient characteristics such as the mean ages and weights of the two groups were not statistically significant (P>0.05), and the ratios of non-smokers to smokers were similar meaning that the two groups were well matched. These studies revealed that diabetics erythrocytes with a mean HbA1C value ± SEM of 11.4 ± 0.27% were oxidized at a significantly greater rate than that of the control blood (P<0.05). The isopropyl nitrite mean oxidation time ± SEM of diabetics blood was 1.5 ± 0.05 min (n = 20). For the nondiabetics blood a mean HbA1C ± SEM value of 5.5 ± 0.08% was obtained with a mean oxidation time ± SEM of the non-diabetics blood of 4.6 ± 0.13 min (n=20). These studies demonstrate that Diabetes blood has an enhanced susceptibility of oxidation into methemoglobin by isopropyl nitrite compared to its respective control group, i.e., the normal blood. This finding could be attributed to the fact that isopropyl nitrite is a nitrite ester which contains a saturated three hydrocarbon chain similar to other analogous nitrite esters (ethyl nitrite, butyl nitrite, pentyl nitrite and hexyl nitrite) which also contain saturated hydrocarbon chains that previously showed a statistically significant increased oxidation time for diabetics blood (P<0.05) [1-6]. Thus this study confirms that the difference in the number of methylene molecules has no impact on the rate of oxidation on either diabetics blood or nondiabetics blood (P>0.05). These findings also imply that the increased susceptibility to isopropyl nitrite induced oxidation reaction in diabetics blood is a direct function of the amount of HbA1C present in the blood, i.e., a clear inverse relation appears to exist between the amount of HbA1C present and the oxidation time

Infection rate and clinical management of cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: experience from a tertiary care hospital in northern Italy

BackgroundOptimal management of patients with cancer during COVID-19 pandemic is still pending.MethodsOur patients were advised to maintain their scheduled appointments, and planned cancer treatment was continued without unnecessary delays in an outpatient setting. Additional strict preventive infection measures were rapidly implemented at our outpatient department. When COVID-19 test became widely available, universal testing of healthcare workers and vigorous screening of all patients coming to our facility for COVID-19 infection were performed by SARS-CoV-2 real-time reverse transcription PCR on rhinopharyngeal swab.ResultsAs of the data cut-off on 9 April 2020, a total of 156 oncology patients with a median age of 67 (range 26–86) years and 63 haematology patients (median age 69 years, range 23–89) were screened for COVID-19 during active cancer treatment. Prevalence (1.8%; 4/219) of COVID-19 in patients with cancer was significantly higher compared with a respective control group of asymptomatic counterparts (p=0.018). Outcomes of COVID-19 positive patients were good, with only one observed death due to progression of advanced metastatic disease.ConclusionOur data indicate that continuation of anticancer treatment in epidemic areas during the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be safe and feasible, if adequate and strict preventive measures are vigorously and successfully carried out.

The Framing of a Preferred Variety of English by Pre-Service Primary School Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

The article presents a mixed-method study on how the preferred variety of the English language was framed by pre-service primary school teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The group of pre-service primary school teachers (further referred to as “participants”) was recruited at a large university in Norway and matched with the respective control group of non-teacher students enrolled in the English course at the same university. The participants and controls were asked to write a reflective essay on their preferred variety of the English language. The corpus of the participants’ and controls’ essays was analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of the quantitative analysis revealed that British English was preferred by 47% of the participants, who framed it via the frames “Films/TV”, “Sounds”, “Spelling”, “Teacher”, and “Visit”. Those findings were further discussed in the article.

Impact of Collocation Instruction on Kuwaiti ESL/EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

Collocation refers to a group of two or more words that often go together or located in a certain manner in speech and writing. This research was intended to observe the impact of collocation instruction on Kuwaiti ESL/ EFL learners’ reading comprehension. The setting of this pragmatic research was English Language Unit (ELU), Kuwait University. For this purpose, 80 Arabic-speaking English learners, both male and female, at intermediate level were selected from English Language Unit. The participants’ age ranged 22-25 years. Their level of English was determined on the basis of their scores on Nelson Proficiency Test which was administered at the same time in four different classes i.e., two classes as the experimental group while the other two classes as the control group for the purpose of recent research. Some participants, however, were disqualified from the data analysis because a few of them didn’t show up in the pre-experimental test, while others missed some of the sessions in the experimental stage, or failed to answer the questionnaire. Due to these reasons, the participants in the experimental group and the control group were not equal. Finally, there were 32 students in the experimental group and 35 students in the respective control group. Therefore, the final total number of the sample was 67 subjects. The statistics for this study were collected from 67 participants. The paired-sample t-test showed very interesting results. The participants in the experimental group performed better than the participants in the control group in reading comprehension test. This research verified that collocation instruction, before the test is administered, had an important impact on Kuwaiti ESL/ EFL learners’ reading comprehension.

Use of microporous hydroxyapatite material in regenerative treatment of periodontal tissues in dogs: a clinical study

One of the biomaterials used in veterinary dentistry is hydroxyapatite (HAp). It aids the biological process of bone reconstruction and provides the basis on which damaged tissues can be rebuilt. It is also exceptionally osteoconductive and bioactive towards bone and other tissues. The aim of the present study was to verify the usefulness of hydroxyapatite microporus ceramics for the treatment of periodontal diseases and post-extraction defects. The study was performed on 40 dogs. Dogs were qualified for the in vivo test: 2 study groups and 2 control groups (K1, K2) were created. Group G1 comprised 10 dogs diagnosed with periodontitis with 4-8 mm gingival pockets and mobility of mandibular/maxillary incisors. In order to avoid extraction, hydroxyapatite implantation into the bone pockets was performed. Group G2 comprised 10 dogs that required the extraction of maxillary canines, following which biomaterial was introduced into the post-extraction cavities. Control groups were performed without using of microporous hydroxyapatite. In group G1, animals displayed significant shallowing of gingival pockets. The mean depth of pockets was significantly reduced in those dogs and considerably better reconstruction of periodontal tissues was observed when compared to the control group K1. In group G2, significantly faster healing of bone cavities was stated when compared to the respective control group K2. The study confirmed the validity of using microporous hydroxyapatite granules and shaped blocks in reconstructive periodontal treatment as well as prevention of oronasal fistulas after canines extraction and facilitation of the post-extraction healing process..

LAPAROSCOPIC TECHNIQUE VERSUS OPEN TECHNIQUE IN SWINES ADRENALECTOMY

Among the main benefits of laparoscopic adrenalectomy (LA) compared to open adrenalectomy (OA) the rapid recovery of patients with decreased length of stay in hospital can be highlighted. The objective of this study was to compare the open adrenalectomy with laparoscopic adrenalectomy in swine. Thirty-two swine were operated. The animals had been divided into four groups (n = 8), one group was submitted to OA and the other to LA, together with its respective control group. Parameters were evaluated regarding operative time, body temperature, hematocrit, postoperative and intraoperative complications and time to deambulation. There was no meaningful difference between operative and deambulation times, even though the latter having been higher in the group submitted to OA. The most frequent intercurrences were in bowel, damage to adrenal vessels and renal hematoma. There were no significant blood losses, and observed hypothermia did not have any clinical impact. Laparoscopy in swine experimental adrenalectomy is a reliable technique that can serve as a reference for the surgical treatment of patients with adrenal diseases with surgical indications in other animal species.