Online Synchronous Language Learning: SLMS over the Internet

Learning a second language at a distance poses a tremendous challenge to learners. Physical distance from teachers and peers coupled with possible isolation from the relevant language community makes language learning extremely difficult. However, live interaction supported by synchronous learning management systems (SLMS) over the Internet holds great potential to address various difficulties facing distance language learners. By allowing students and instructors to negotiate linguistic issues together in real-time virtual settings, the interactive functions of such systems—online chat, whiteboards, and videoconferencing technology—can help foster vital learning communities in second language instruction. The study in this article offers an illustration that may contribute to further research and innovation in the use of SLMS to support language instruction in distance learning environments. This article will first discuss the needs of distance language learners and the importance of online synchronous interaction in distance-based language learning. It will then proceed to discuss the capabilities of an advanced SLMS over the Internet and to report the initial results from a pilot study involving learners' evaluation of this SLMS. The implications of these findings for future research will then be explored. The Needs of Distance Language Learners Along with its many advantages, including flexibility and low costs, traditional distance education often has disadvantages—such as a lack of communication, a sense of disconnectedness, and a lack of confidence commonly felt by learners. Distance language learners face even greater difficulties. Despite their wish to improve their proficiency in a given language, distance language learners find little opportunity to communicate in the language itself within this particular learning environment, and these same learners become very frustrated when they cannot converse spontaneously in face-to-face situations. This proble

3D printing for bio-synthetic biliary stents

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is an additive manufacturing method that holds great potential in a variety of future patient-specific medical technologies. This project validated a novel crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol (XL-PVA) 3D printed stent infused with collagen, human placental mesenchymal stem cells (PMSCs), and cholangiocytes. The biofabrication method in the present study examined 3D printing and collagen injection molding for rapid prototyping of customized living biliary stents with clinical applications in the setting of malignant and benign bile duct obstructions. XL-PVA stents showed hydrophilic swelling and addition of radiocontrast to the stent matrix improved radiographic opacity. Collagen loaded with PMSCs contracted tightly around hydrophilic stents and dense choloangiocyte coatings were verified through histology and fluorescence microscopy. It is anticipated that design elements used in these stents may enable appropriate stent placement, provide protection of the stent-stem cell matrix against bile constituents, and potentially limit biofilm development. Overall, this approach may allow physicians to create personalized bio-integrating stents for use in biliary procedures and lays a foundation for new patient-specific stent fabrication techniques