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Mentored online intercultural interaction offers foreign language learners the opportunity to develop different competences, including intercultural, linguistic, and digital competence (O'Dowd, 2021). Such virtual exchange (VE) projects typically involve computer-mediated communication via, for example, Zoom. However, the use of high-immersion virtual reality (VR) for synchronous online collaboration in VE projects has received little attention. This study investigated the effect of VR on students' levels of presence and engagement, on students' communication and on students' views on using VR for intercultural encounters compared to traditional videoconferencing tools. Twenty-seven university students from the Netherlands and Germany utilised VR to carry out intercultural learning tasks using English as a lingua franca during a four-week implementation period. Participants responded to pre- and post-intervention questionnaires, completed reflection journals, audio- or video-recorded their VR meetings and participated in interviews. Results showed that the levels of presence and engagement and preferences of social VR compared to videoconferencing for intercultural encounters depended on students individually. A VR immersion experience and comfortability scale was created based on the data which showed mixed experiences. VR influenced participants' interactions, topics of conversation and communication strategies when they explored their spaces together. The results showed that students' attitudes towards VR and their subjective experience of VR seem to play an important role in the VE-VR setting. VR provided a safe space for many participants. Positive attitudes towards communicating in the VR environment are highly correlated with positive attitudes towards meeting students from other countries in VR. Implications for language education are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Quiroga: Revista de Patrimonio Iberoamericano is the property of Quiroga: Revista de Patrimonio Iberoamericano and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Potestas: Estudios del Mundo Clásico e Historia del Arte is the property of Potestas Estudios del Mundo Clasico e Historia del Arte and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Together with their undeniable role in the ecology of arid and semiarid ecosystems, Agave species are emerging as a model to dissect the relationships between crassulacean acid metabolism and high efficiency of light and water use, and as an energy crop for bioethanol production. Transcriptome resources from economically valuable Agaves species, such as Agave tequilana and A. salmiana, as well as hybrids for fibers, are now available, and multiple gene expression landscape analyses have been reported. Key components in molecular mechanisms underlying drought tolerance could be uncovered by analyzing gene expression patterns of roots. This study describes an efficient protocol for high-quality total RNA isolation from phenolic compounds-rich Agave roots. Our methodology involves suitable root handling and collecting in the field and using saving-time commercial kits available. RNA isolated from roots free of lignified out-layers and clean cortex showed high values of quality and integrity according to electrophoresis and microfluidics-based platform. Synthesis of long full-length cDNAs and PCR amplification tested the suitability for downstream applications of extracted RNA. The protocol was applied successfully to A. tequilana roots but can be used for other Agave species that also develop lignified epidermis/exodermis in roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premise: Of all orchid species described, 70% live on phorophytes. Trees offer a vital space with characteristics that influence the successful establishment and life cycle of orchids. Field inventory and distribution analysis suggest that phorophyte selection is biased to certain tree species that would serve as better hosts. Phorophyte bark is known as an important factor that influences this preference, but the chemical and physical properties of bark that contribute to creating a favorable space for orchids are still poorly understood. In this work, the effect of bark physical characteristics on phorophyte preference of tropical orchids was studied. Methods: Orchids and their phorophytes were counted and identified along transects inside two natural reserves in Southeast Mexico. A rhytidome classification was used to describe the bark decoration patterns of the phorophytes. To quantify bark fissuring, we developed a new protocol based on image processing of light micrographs using free‐access software. Bark topology characterization was complemented with scanning electronic microscopy. Maximum and minimum water content was also determined. Results: Analyses of bark decorations and bark fissuring were not enough to explain the preference found for some tropical trees. In contrast, a positive relationship was found among water‐storage capacity, bark porosity, and phorophyte preference. The host trees preferred by most orchids have bark with higher pore density and higher water retention after draining. Conclusions: Unexpectedly, the phorophytes preferred by orchids are not those with more fissured bark but those with a higher ability to retain minimum water content after draining, which is a bark property positively correlated with higher pore density. Our data indicate that the bark microenvironment, determined by topology and water storage capacity, has a pivotal role in phorophyte specificity, a key factor that affects orchid diversity and distribution in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ars Bilduma is the property of Ars Bilduma and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Imago (22549633) is the property of IMAGO Revista de Emblematica y Cultura Visual and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Organizing and implementing telecollaboration projects in foreign language curricula is not an easy endeavour (Belz & Thorne, 2006; Guth & Helm, 2010), as pedagogical, organizational and technical issues have to be addressed before cross-cultural interaction sessions can be carried out (O'Dowd & Ritter, 2006; O'Dowd, 2011). These issues make many teaching practitioners reluctant to try to integrate telecollaboration in their teaching, as they are more aware of the burden such initiatives might impose than of the benefits they might have for language learners.Within the European project NIFLAR1 we have tried to study the added value that integrating synchronous collaboration projects through video-web communication or Second Life might have in language learning. The study presented in this paper measures the oral communicative growth of language students, who were allocated at random to one of three research conditions: (1) the VC experimental group carried out interactions with native peers through video-web communication; (2) the SL experimental group carried out the same tasks with native peers in Second Life and (3) the control group performed the tasks face to face with classroom peers and had no opportunity to interact with native experts. Communicative growth was measured by comparing oral pre- and post-tests across conditions. Results show significant differences, the experimental groups outperforming the control group. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Within a European project on Networked Interaction in Foreign Language Acquisition and Research (NIFLAR), Second Life was used as a 3D virtual world in which language students can communicate synchronously with native speakers in the target language, while undertaking action together. For this context, a set of design principles for interaction tasks was developed aiming at maximizing authentic social interaction and intercultural awareness, while exploiting the specific affordances of the virtual environment being used. These design principles were applied and tested in a case study in which two foreign language learners of Spanish and two pre-service teachers carried out four interaction tasks in the virtual world of Second Life. In this article we first present and discuss the framework for task development and assessment. We then show the results of the case study conducted in Second Life which aimed at: (1) applying and assessing the design principles for task elaboration, (2) analyzing the kind of interaction the tasks elicited in the virtual world, (3) exploring whether the specific affordances of the virtual environment were adequately used for enhancing interaction, and (4) studying whether and how the condition anonymity versus familiarity may play a role in modeling virtual interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]