The use of a language eliciting procedure as a tool in the establishment of teaching goals

This paper reviews a study to examine the feasibility of using elicited language samples as a basis for planning language instruction and as a measure of progress in language development.

¿Ser o no ser? Esa es la cuestión (Coyuntura)

Este artículo realiza un análisis de los principales elementos de la coyuntura actual en la región andina, así como de las perspectivas del proceso andino de integración, tomando como punto de referencia la posición de los miembros de la CAN frente al ALCA y a la firma de acuerdos bilaterales con Estados Unidos. Finalmente el autor explora las perspectivas de la CAN a la luz de la nueva orientación propuesta desde la Secretaría General.

Chronic pesticide poisoning from persistent low-dose exposures in Ecuadorean floriculture workers: toward validating a low-cost test battery

Chronic pesticide poisoning is difficult to detect. We sought to develop a low-cost test battery for settings such as Ecuador’s floriculture industry. First we had to develop a case definition; as with all occupational diseases a case had to have both sufficient effective dose and associated health effects. For the former, using canonical discriminant analysis, we found that adding measures of protection and overall environmental stressors to occupational category and duration of exposure was useful. For the latter, factor analysis suggested three distinct manifestations of pesticide poisoning. We then determined sensitivity and specificity of various combinations of symptoms and simple neurotoxicity tests from the Pentox questionnaire, and found that doing so increased sensitivity and specificity compared to use of acethylcholinesterase alone – the current screening standard. While sensitivity and specificity varied with different case definitions, our results support the development of a low-cost test battery for screening in such settings.

An incomplete step toward a banking union. CEPS Commentary, 5 July 2012

In this Commentary, Daniel Gros applauds the decision taken by Europe’s leaders at the eurozone summit at the end of June to transfer responsibility for banking supervision in the eurozone to the European Central Bank. It represents explicit recognition of the important fact that problems might originate at the national level, but, owing to monetary union, they can quickly threaten the stability of the entire eurozone banking system. In his view, the next small, incremental step, although one not yet officially acknowledged, will necessarily be the creation of a common bank rescue fund.