Synthesizing Grammar and Structure Problems Faced by Indonesian TOEFL Participants

The TOEFL test is one of the requirements to pass the Thesis exam at several universities in Indonesia. Grammar and Structure Score is the lowest score, and it becomes a problem for the test takers. This study aimed to analyze the factors of Grammar Structure difficulties experienced by students in solving TOEFL questions. This research approach is descriptive qualitative with a sample of 20 students and taken by purposive sampling of 70 students. Interviews and questionnaires were conducted as a data collection tool. The results showed that there were several problems which were factors that influenced the TOEFL participants' written structure and expression lower than listening and reading scores. They cannot analyze the wrong words in part B. A lack of practice on grammar causes problems, and students study independently without guidance and instruction from lecturers or experts. That four main factors cause students to have difficulty solving TOEFL questions: not preparing for the exam, lack of grammar practice, lack of vocabulary mastery, and learning independence. In this case, students and teachers have responsibility for learning achievement, even if these factors come from the TOEFL takers themselves.

An Implementation of Three-level Multi-objective ABC Algorithm for RNA Multiple Structural Alignment

Background: Structural alignment of ribose nucleic acid (RNA) is one of the most challenging multi-objective real world problems from the field of bioinformatics. Objective: RNA molecules are less stable; hence they require inclusion of most stable secondary structure during their alignment. Therefore, the structural alignment requires the consideration of similarity score and structure score, as two objectives. Trade-off between these two objectives exists since obtaining optimum similarity score at concurrent optimum structure score is not possible. This paper presents artificial bee colony algorithm based three level multi-objective approach for performing structural alignment of RNA sequences, namely MO-3LABC. Methods: Algorithm firstly builds the secondary structure of all sequences at minimum free energy (MFE). Then sequence alignment is performed in level one at average percent sequence identity (APSI) score based gap length, optimized by ABC algorithm. Level two now builds the secondary structure of these aligned sequences based on base-pair probability and co-variation. Now the scores of level one and level two move towards level three for multi-objective optimization at Pareto optimality criteria with few additional strategies. Results: The results of MO-3LABC are compared with an already established efficient strategy MO-TLPSO; multi-objective two level strategy based on particle swarm optimization. The outputs are compared for pairwise and multiple sequence alignment datasets at prediction accuracy and solution quality criteria. Conclusion: MO-3LABC is found significantly better than MO-TLPSO at all the four evaluation criteria for both the datasets.

Macrostructure in the narratives of monolingual Finnish and bilingual Finnish–Swedish children

ABSTRACTThe narrative macrostructure of 16 Finnish–Swedish bilingual children (M age = 5 years, 8 months) was assessed in both of their languages. In the case of the Finnish language, the macrostructure was compared with that of 16 monolingual same-age peers. The narratives were analyzed for story structure, structural complexity, and internal state terms in two conditions (telling and retelling). There were no differences in macrostructure between the two languages of bilingual children, or between the monolingual and bilingual children. However, the results revealed differences between elicitation tasks. The story structure score for bilingual children was lower in a telling task than in a retelling task in Finnish. Further, the retelling task elicited higher structural complexity and more internal state terms, regardless of the language.

Three Measures of Language Production for Cantonese-Speaking School-Age Children in a Story-Retelling Task

Little is known about language development in school-age children in Asian countries. This research reports on 3 measures of language development in 100 Cantonese-speaking children age 5 to 9 years. Word scores, structure scores, and the mean length of communication units (MLCU) were derived from a story-retelling task. The structure score was significantly different for all, except the 8-and 9-year-old groups. The word score and MLCU were significantly different in groups separated by 2 or more years of age. All 3 measures were strongly and significantly correlated with age. The structure score and word score accounted for 64% and 5% of the variance in age, respectively. The order of development of the 6 grammatical structures (e.g., subordinate clauses) included in this study is also reported.

Linking Tasmanian potato and poppy yields to selected soil physical and chemical properties

Selected soil properties and paddock management characteristics were measured for 121 potato and poppy crops in north and northwest Tasmania to see if variation in these characteristics explain variation in crop yield. The soil properties we selected were those that previous work found had changed the most as a result of cropping and, therefore, may be affecting yield on the particular soil type. The soil properties and management characteristics that were significantly correlated with crop yield varied with crop and soil type. None of the soil characters had correlation coefficients greater than 0.63, probably reflecting the capacity of individual farmers to overcome particular soil limitations through their management of tillage, nutrition, irrigation, weeds and pathogens. On ferrosols, a visual score of soil structure was significantly correlated with potato yield (r = 0.57) and exchangeable aluminium was significantly correlated with poppy yield (r = 0.63). Exchangeable calcium (r = 0.54) and penetration resistance (r = 0.38) correlated positively and topdressed nitrogen (r = –0.49) correlated negatively with poppy alkaloid assay, an important determinant of overall poppy yield. On dermosols, depth to 2000 kPa penetration resistance (r = 0.60) and fertiliser P (r = –0.67) were correlated with potato yield, structure score correlated with poppy yield (r = 0.59), and penetration resistance with poppy assay (r = 0.52). On sodosols, fertiliser K (r = –0.41 and r = 0.55) and N (r = –0.45 and 0.42) correlated negatively with poppy yield and positively with poppy assay. On clay loam soils such as dermosols and ferrosols, increased topsoil cloddiness appears to be having a deleterious effect on crop yield. Cloddiness is readily assessed on these soils using the structure scorecard, which could therefore become a practical diagnostic test for farmers and advisers.

Administration of Selective Endothelin Receptor Type a Antagonist Ro 61-1790 Does Not Improve Outcome in Focal Cerebral Ischemia in Cat

The authors examined the effect of selective endothelin (ET) receptor type A (ETA) antagonism on histological and functional recovery in cat at 24 hours after reversible middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). A novel and specific ETA antagonist, Ro 61-1790 [5-methylpyridine-2-sulfonic acid-6-(2-hydroxyethoxy)-5-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-2-(2-1 H-tetrazol-5-yl-pyridin-4-yl)-pyrimidin-4-ylamide sodium salt (1:2)] (Roche, Basel, Switzerland), was used at doses that produced steady-state plasma concentrations and abolished ET-induced pial arteriolar vasoconstriction. In a cranial window preparation, 8 nmol/L ET constricted pial arterioles by 33 ± 18% (mean ± SD), but this response was ablated by intravenous Ro 61-1790 treatment (10-mg/kg bolus, 4-mg/kg/h infusion). In additional animal cohorts, halothane-anesthetized cats were treated with 90 minutes of MCAO and 24 hours of reperfusion. Animals received Ro 61-1790 infusion beginning at the onset of reperfusion and continuing for 6 or 24 hours (n = 41). Control cats were treated with 0.9% saline by intravenous infusion throughout reperfusion. There was no difference in injury volume or neurologic evaluation score in saline-treated cats (n = 11; caudate 24 ± 28%, cortical injury 7.5 ± 5% of ipsilateral structure; score 52 ± 8) versus the results in cats treated with Ro 61-1790 for either 24 hours (n = 6; caudate 22 ± 23%, cortex 6 ± 5%, injury volume of ipsilateral structure; score 55 ± 3) or 6 hours (n = 11; caudate 33 ± 30%, cortex 12 ± 14%, injury volume of ipsilateral structure; score 50 ± 10). Mortality was greatest in the 24-hour drug treatment group. These data suggest that blockade of ETA receptor activity is not beneficial to tissue or functional outcomes from experimental stroke in cat.