Unraveling the Biological Roles of Reactive Oxygen Species

Murphy, Michael P.,Holmgren, A.,Larsson, N.G.,Halliwell, B.,Chang, Christopher J.,Kalyanaraman, B.,Rhee, S.,Thornalley, Paul J.,Partridge, L.,Gems, D.,Nystrom, T.,Belousov, V.,Schumacker, Paul T.,Wint Cell Press 2011 Cell metabolism Vol.13 No.4

Reactive oxygen species are not only harmful agents that cause oxidative damage in pathologies, they also have important roles as regulatory agents in a range of biological phenomena. The relatively recent development of this more nuanced view presents a challenge to the biomedical research community on how best to assess the significance of reactive oxygen species and oxidative damage in biological systems. Considerable progress is being made in addressing these issues, and here we survey some recent developments for those contemplating research in this area.

Evaluating SLA Textbook Comprehensibility: Comparing Coh-Metrix Results With EFL Teachers' Ratings

MURPHY ODO DENNIS 현대영어교육학회 2018 현대영어교육 Vol.19 No.2

Target language textbooks are widely used in English teacher preparation programs, but the decision to use them is commonly made with minimal consideration of their difficulty level for the teacher candidates. The purpose of this study was to assess their readability for bilingual pre-service teachers. To accomplish this task, the Coh-Metrix linguistic analysis software was used to analyze the readability and easability of five widely-used SLA textbooks. Coh-Metrix readability indicators showed many of the texts to be at the post-secondary level for L1 speakers. Easability results revealed that texts often lacked many of the features that would make them easier to comprehend. Human readability ratings suggested that many pre-service teachers found them to be moderately challenging revealing somewhat of a mismatch with Coh-Metrix results. EFL teacher educator should consider readability when selecting textbooks for teacher education programs as they may need to provide teacher candidates with access to materials to scaffold their comprehension of these textbooks.

Good Text in, Good Text out: The Impact of Extensive Reading on Lexical Complexity in Second Language Writing

MURPHY ODO DENNIS 현대영어교육학회 2020 현대영어교육 Vol.21 No.2

Extensive reading (ER) is widely agreed to improve L2 learners’ vocabulary and writing, but the precise effects that ER has on particular characteristics of L2 vocabulary used in L2 writing remain unclear. To address this issue, university level Korean EFL learners in an L2 essay writing class engaged in extensive reading over a semester and wrote argumentative essays about a topic of their choosing. These essays were analyzed for two key indicators of lexical complexity (i.e., lexical density and number of different words) using a computerized text analysis tool. Analysis results generally affirmed previous studies’ conclusions that ER has a positive influence on L2 writing adding that the more words learners read, the greater variety of words they used in their essays. Likewise, in accord with other research showing gains in English word recognition and recall, learners’ perceptions about the difficulty of their ER materials had an effect on the lexical density of their written essays thus providing additional evidence that ER impacts L2 vocabulary use in essay writing. Somewhat unexpectedly, learners’ perceived enjoyment had no effect on either lexical complexity variable which indicates that, contrary to some claims, selecting reading material based on its entertainment value may not actually lead to vocabulary development in L2 writing.

INDONESIA AND GLOBALIZATION

Murphy, Ann Marie 경남대학교 극동문제연구소 1999 ASIAN PERSPECTIVE Vol.23 No.4

Using the L1 to Promote Literacy Development in the Second and Foreign Language Classroom

( Murphy Odo Dennis ) 부산대학교 과학교육연구소 2019 교사교육연구 Vol.58 No.3

Recently, an ever-growing number of researchers and educators have begun to extol the value of bringing the mother tongue into the second and foreign language classroom. This paper begins by discussing research that encourages the use of various types of bilingual texts to promote biliteracy development. From there, the various types of dual-language text structures available are reviewed. Lastly, a “flexible biliteracy scaffold process” scheme is presented that allows these various types of bilingual text to be integrated into a coherent sequence that gradually eases learners into literacy in the second or foreign language. The main purpose of this paper is to introduce the flexible biliteracy scaffold process and explain how second and foreign language learners can develop their L2 literacy through following this process.

An Analysis of Lexical Bundles in a High-stakes Test of L2 Reading: A Corpus Based Study

MURPHY ODO DENNIS 부산대학교 과학교육연구소 2023 교사교육연구 Vol.62 No.1

Formulaic language has traditionally not been given sufficient consideration by ELT materials developers. Thus, the lexical bundles (LBs) used in reading texts found in high stakes language tests may not reflect the kinds of phrasings used in the target domain of the test calling its validity into question. To investigate this issue in the English section of the Korean college scholastic ability test (CSAT), all of the reading texts from the 2017 through 2021 CSAT examinations were used to build a CSAT corpus which was compared with the Manually Annotated Sub-Corpus (MASC) reference corpus and Martinez & Schmitt’s (2012) PHRASE list. LBs were extracted for the analysis using Wordsmith 8. The analysis involved examining the frequency and distribution of lexical bundles and other linguistic features in the two corpora. It was found that only two LBs were shared between the top ten most frequent phrases in the CSAT and MASC, indicating that most of the high-frequency LBs in the CSAT were not the same as those in the MASC. The structures and functions of LBs were also compared, and while there were some minor differences between the two corpora, they were generally similar. Additionally, the CSAT contained fewer useful LBs than the MASC, but the difference was not large. Based on these findings, it is suggested that CSAT creators give more consideration to the formulaic language used in the adapted texts used in the CSAT.

Supporting Pre-Service English Teachers’ Academic Reading and Writing With Online Machine Translation

MURPHY ODO DENNIS 영상영어교육학회 2020 영상영어교육 (STEM journal) Vol.21 No.2

Literacy demands placed upon learners of English for academic purposes continues to increase with growing online access to scholarly communities from around the world. To gain full access to these resources, English learners need to develop the requisite skills to consume and produce these texts. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to examine whether online machine translation (MT) can support the academic reading and writing development of second language learners. A pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design was used where the treatment group was provided with opportunities to read academic articles with MT support to establish whether it could improve their academic vocabulary knowledge, written grammar ability and academic writing. Results were that machine translation tools allow learners to scaffold their comprehension of challenging academic texts to improve their L2 written grammar but not support their vocabulary development or overall L2 writing ability. These findings help to establish the value of using machine translation tools to support academic literacy in English by showing that they contribute to gains in L2 written grammar. Academic writing teachers may consider integrating these tools more into their courses to improve their students’ academic literacy and develop their L2 learning autonomy.

The Impact of Extensive Reading on Pre-service Teachers’ Attitudes toward Reading

MURPHY ODO DENNIS 한국영미어문학회 2017 영미어문학 Vol.- No.125

The present research explored the use of extensive reading(ER) with pre-service Korean English teachers to determine its viability for cultivating more positive attitudes toward English language reading. Pre and post ER intervention surveys were administered to establish whether one semester of extensive reading can impact participants’ attitudes toward L2 reading. Results revealed that having pre-service teachers engage in ER results in higher levels of comfort with English reading, but there was minimal effect on anxiety and intellectual value. They viewed reading as having less practical value after the intervention as well. Participants also believed that ER changed their views about reading in English and most felt ER improved their English reading to some extent. Findings point to the potential value of engaging in ER during pre-service teacher education courses to improve pre-service teachers’ L2 reading attitudes and counteract the previous negative L2 reading experiences that many have had.

Changes in Dietary Guidance: Implications for Food Composition Tables

Murphy, Suzanne P. The Korean Nutrition Society 2004 Nutritional Sciences Vol.7 No.2

New Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) forthe United States and Canada have recently been set for both macronutrients and micronutrients, and are likely to be of interest to health professionals in Korea as well. DRIs are now available for nutrients that did not have Recommended Dietary Allowances set in the past (amino acids, n-3 and n-6 fatty acids, total fiber, added sugar, choline, boron, nickel, and vanadium). Furthermore, the units for the DRIs do not always match those traditionally carried on food composition tables (FCTs). FCT developers will also need to consider carrying new variables to allow the calculation of folate intake in $\mu$g of dietary folate equivalents, vitamin E intake as mg of a-tocopherol (not as mg of a-tocopherol equivalents), and vitamin A intake as $\mu$g of retinol activity equivalents (not as $\mu$g of retinol equivalents). Because the new recommendations for upper levels of intake sometimes refer to a specific form or source of a nutrient, nutrients occurring in foods must be separated from added or supplemental forms for vitamin E, niacin, and folate; pharmacological magnesium must be carried as a separate variable; and preformed vitamin A must be separated from vitamin A from carotenoids. For more information on the DRIs, see: www.nap.edu.

Improved spatial accuracy of functional maps in the rat olfactory bulb using supervised machine learning approach

Murphy, Matthew C.,Poplawsky, Alexander J.,Vazquez, Alberto L.,Chan, Kevin C.,Kim, Seong-Gi,Fukuda, Mitsuhiro Elsevier 2016 NeuroImage Vol.137 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Functional MRI (fMRI) is a popular and important tool for noninvasive mapping of neural activity. As fMRI measures the hemodynamic response, the resulting activation maps do not perfectly reflect the underlying neural activity. The purpose of this work was to design a data-driven model to improve the spatial accuracy of fMRI maps in the rat olfactory bulb. This system is an ideal choice for this investigation since the bulb circuit is well characterized, allowing for an accurate definition of activity patterns in order to train the model. We generated models for both cerebral blood volume weighted (CBVw) and blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fMRI data. The results indicate that the spatial accuracy of the activation maps is either significantly improved or at worst not significantly different when using the learned models compared to a conventional general linear model approach, particularly for BOLD images and activity patterns involving deep layers of the bulb. Furthermore, the activation maps computed by CBVw and BOLD data show increased agreement when using the learned models, lending more confidence to their accuracy. The models presented here could have an immediate impact on studies of the olfactory bulb, but perhaps more importantly, demonstrate the potential for similar flexible, data-driven models to improve the quality of activation maps calculated using fMRI data.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> We applied machine learning to compute activation maps in the rat olfactory bulb. </LI> <LI> Results from learned models were compared to results from general linear models. </LI> <LI> Spatial accuracy of activation maps was significantly improved with learned models. </LI> <LI> CBV and BOLD activation maps showed increased agreement using learned models. </LI> </UL> </P>