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Welsh-English bilingual adolescents’ performance on verbal analogy and verbal classification tasks: the role of language exposure and use on vocabulary knowledge
Get PDFIn minority language contexts, schools are constantly having to negotiate between the competing demands of minority language maintenance on the one hand, and the all-encompassing privilege of English in certain subject areas on the other. This dilemma is exacerbated in domains where English is seen to have a global tradition. Whilst the prevalence of English in STEM-related fields is well established, less is understood about the opportunities to study these subjects in languages other than English. Exploring the extent to which an English bias may influence pupils’ conscious choices around the study of STEM-related subjects, and how pupils negotiate the linguistic choice dilemma, can help inform school language policies and practices to better support pupils’ engagement with these subjects and to help address some of the limitations of a monolingual teaching approach for bilingual students. This study examined pupils’ likelihood of studying STEM-related subjects in Welsh-medium secondary schools in Wales, their linguistic choices around these subjects and their attitudes towards learning such subjects in English and/or in Welsh. The results revealed a general impression among pupils of the importance of English for STEM, which, mediated by their own linguistic backgrounds, abilities and experiences, influence pupils’ linguistic choices and desires to various extents, particularly at the latter stages of education. Since the propensity towards monolingual engagement with these subjects – in Welsh or in English – may limit the scope for scaffolding their learning across languages and the benefits that incur, we propose alternative bilingual approaches to STEM-related subject teaching
Using a theoretically informed process evaluation alongside a trial to imporve oral health for care home residents
Get PDFBackgroundPoor oral health is common among older adults residing in care homes impacting their diet, quality of life, self-esteem, general health and well-being. The care home setting is complex and many factors may affect the successful implementation of oral care interventions. Exploring these factors and their embedded context is key to understanding how and why interventions may or may not be successfully implemented within their intended setting.ObjectivesThis methodology paper describes the approach to a theoretically informed process evaluation alongside a pragmatic randomised controlled trial, so as to understand contextual factors, how the intervention was implemented and important elements that may influence the pathways to impact.Materials and methodsSENIOR is a pragmatic randomised controlled trial designed to improve the oral health of care home residents in the United Kingdom. The trial uses a complex intervention to promote and provide oral care for residents, including education and training for staff.ResultsAn embedded, theoretically informed process evaluation, drawing on the PAHRIS framework and utilising a qualitative approach, will help to understand the important contextual factors within the care home that influence both the trial processes and the implementation of the intervention.ConclusionUtilising an implementation framework as the basis for a theoretically informed process evaluation provides an approach that specifically focuses on the contextual factors that may influence and shape the pathways to impact a given complex intervention a priori, while also providing an understanding of how and why an intervention may be effective. This contrasts with the more common post hoc approach that only focuses on implementation after the empirical results have emerged
Time-delay signature suppression in delayed-feedback semiconductor lasers as a paradigm for feedback control in complex physiological networks
Get PDFPhysiological networks, as observed in the human organism, involve multi-component systems with feedback loops that contribute to self-regulation. Physiological phenomena accompanied by time-delay effects may lead to oscillatory and even chaotic dynamics in their behaviors. Analogous dynamics are found in semiconductor lasers subjected to delayed optical feedback, where the dynamics typically include a time-delay signature. In many applications of semiconductor lasers, the suppression of the time-delay signature is essential, and hence several approaches have been adopted for that purpose. In this paper, experimental results are presented wherein photonic filters utilized in order to suppress time-delay signatures in semiconductor lasers subjected to delayed optical feedback effects. Two types of semiconductor lasers are used: discrete-mode semiconductor lasers and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). It is shown that with the use of photonic filters, a complete suppression of the time-delay signature may be affected in discrete-mode semiconductor lasers, but a remnant of the signature persists in VCSELs. These results contribute to the broader understanding of time-delay effects in complex systems. The exploration of photonic filters as a means to suppress time-delay signatures opens avenues for potential applications in diverse fields, extending the interdisciplinary nature of this study.</p
Biological knowledge shortfalls impede conservation efforts in poorly studied taxa—A case study of Laboulbeniomycetes
Get PDFAbstract Most empirical research on biological shortfalls has focused on vertebrate taxa. This is important given many species in poorly studied groups such as invertebrates, plants, and fungi are predicted to possess high conservation risk. Here, we focus on Laboulbeniomycetes: a class of microfungi that are understudied. We examined four shortfalls: Linnean (knowledge gaps in species diversity), Wallacean (knowledge gaps in distributions), Latimerian (knowledge gaps in species persistence), and the newly introduced Scottian (knowledge gaps in species conservation assessments) shortfalls. The Linnean shortfall in Laboulbeniomycetes is hard to predict due to inconsistent species description rates. Analysis of distribution patterns indicates Laboulbeniomycetes are likely to experience an extremely high Wallacean shortfall, with many species having highly disjunct known distributions. Latimerian shortfall analysis shows over half (51%) of Laboulbeniomycetes have not been recorded in >50?years, while the group has a collective Scottian shortfall of 100%, given none of the 2454 described species have received an IUCN threat assessment. We suggest continued study of natural history collections, expanded citizen science programmes, and machine-learning identification approaches as important tools for reducing knowledge shortfalls in both Laboulbeniomycetes and poorly studied taxa more generally
Host density and anthropogenic stress are drivers of variability in dark spot disease in Siderastrea siderea across the Florida Reef Tract
Get PDFDark spot disease (DSD) was first reported within Florida's coral reefs in the 1990s but factors affecting its spatial distribution have not been well studied. We used a 14-yr (2005–2019) coral monitoring data set, utilizing 2242 surveys collected along Florida's coral reefs (about 530 linear km) to explore the spatial and temporal patterns of DSD occurrence. We built predictive statistical models to test for correlations between a suite of environmental and human impact factors and the occurrence of DSD in the reef coral, Siderastrea siderea. DSD in S. siderea is a chronic disease which occurred in all 14 yrs of the study. Annual DSD prevalence ranged from 0.45% to 4.4% and the proportion of survey sites that had DSD ranged from 4.8% to 30.9%. During the study period, DSD became more widespread across Florida's coral reefs and affected a higher proportion of S. siderea populations. Spatial variations in DSD correlated with environmental and human factors which together explained 64.4% of the underlying variability. The most influential factors were concentration of silica in the surface waters (a proxy for freshwater input), the total number of coral hosts, and distance to septic areas. DSD occurred in all regions, but the highest cumulative prevalence occurred in the upper Keys on reefs around major urban centers with links to coastal water discharges. Our results support the hypothesis that coastal water quality is a key component of DSD disease dynamics in Florida and provides motivation for addressing land–sea connections to ameliorate disease occurrence in the region
Artificial light and cloud cover interact to disrupt celestial migrations at night
Get PDFThe growth of human activity and infrastructure has led to an unprecedented rise in the use of Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) with demonstrable impacts on ecological communities and ecosystem services. However, there remains very little information on how ALAN interacts with or obscures light from celestial bodies, which provide vital orientating cues in a number of species. Furthermore, no studies to date have examined how climatic conditions such as cloud cover, known to influence the intensity of skyglow, interact with lunar irradiance and ALAN over the course of a lunar cycle to alter migratory abilities of species.Our night-time field study aimed to establish how lunar phase and climatic conditions (cloud cover) modulate the impact of ALAN on the abundance and migratory behaviour of Talitrus saltator, a key sandy beach detritivore which uses multiple light associated cues during nightly migrations. Our results showed that the number and size of individuals caught decreased significantly as ALAN intensity increased. Additionally, when exposed to ALAN more T. saltator were caught travelling parallel to the shoreline, indicating that the presence of ALAN is inhibiting their ability to navigate along their natural migration route, potentially impacting the distribution of the population. We found that lunar phase and cloud cover play a significant role in modifying the impact of ALAN, highlighting the importance of incorporating natural light cycles and climatic conditions when investigating ALAN impacts. Critically we demonstrate that light levels as low as 3 lux can have substantial effects on coastal invertebrate distributions. Our results provide the first evidence that ALAN impacted celestial migration can lead to changes to the distribution of a species. <br/
