The prevalence of antibodies to HTLV in women attending a south east London antenatal clinic between October 1990 and July 1992 was determined using sera referred for routine rubella antibody testing. Samples were screened for HTLV antibody using a modified Fujirebio gel particle agglutination test and reactive sera confirmed by ELISA (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, IL) and two commercial Western blots (Cambridge Biotech Inc., Rockville, MD, and Diagnostic Biotechnology, Genelab Diagnostics, Louvaine, Belgium). This strategy confirmed the presence of HTLV-1 antibodies in 12 out of 6,289 sera (0.19%, 95% confidence limits 0.083% to 0.30%) and HTLV-2 antibodies in 2 (0.03%) sera. Specimens from 8 of 821 (0.97%, 95% confidence limits 0.42% to 1.9%) Afro-Caribbean women, three of 1,136 (0.26%, 95% confidence limits 0.055% to 0.78%) African women, and one of 3,049 (0.033%, 95% confidence limits 0.006% to 0.18%) Caucasian women were positive for HTLV-1 antibodies. Sera from Afro-Caribbean women born in the Caribbean were 7.6 times more likely to be HTLV-1 antibody positive than sera from Afro-Caribbean women born in the UK (P = 0.012). Selective testing of Afro-Caribbean and African antenatal clinic attenders, in this setting, would have identified 11 of the 12 HTLV-1 infections at an estimated cost of prevention of HTLV-1 associated disease of 100,000 pounds per case which is considerably less than the 1.3 million pounds which has been estimated to prevent a case by universal screening of UK blood donors.

This article makes a plea for using expressive writing in EFL/ESL writing courses. It examines the current unsatisfactory state of EFL/ESL writing and locates its causes in the pragmatic approach of textbook writers and practitioners. Next it reports a longitudinal case study of a university writing class at the upper-intermediate level of English where response writing was introduced over one semester. Results show student progress along a continuum of responsiveness with growing pleasure in the opportunity for self-expression leading to increased mastery of the language and more sophisticated thinking. Based on our findings we strongly recommend that expressive writing be factored into mainstream tertiary EFL/ESL writing courses.The problematic state of EFL/ESL writing today has prompted the present study. An examination of the current malaise will uncover educational and social concerns that are fundamental to institutional teaching and learning. Once these are addressed, a better way of teaching writing can be developed. An example of such a way is offered as a report of some action research undertaken in the English department of a Middle Eastern university.

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This paper is part of a longitudinal research in which we investigate the challenges to intercultural communication competence in the use of English as a second language (L2) at a tertiary institution; a higher education learning space characterized by diversity. The paper focuses on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It further looks at spatiality where movements (migration) account for the creation of new spaces and language trajectories that culminate in the construction of new identities. The paper makes use of an integrative model to determine where misunderstanding comes from in interactions. Finally, Author's (2013) concept of integrated intercultural communication competence model is also used to signpost the central role of theorizing in this investigation. Our principal objectives of this portion of the ethnographic study wasto investigate/explore how an L2 or foreign language is used to construct identities among the diverse participants of the UWC community. The participants include students and staff from this institution. The main tools that we used for data collection were interviews, questionnaires and participant observation.The significance of such a study is to achieve/promote competence in intercultural communication and language learning where we see language learning could thrive as a social practice.

The prevalence of antibodies to HTLV in women attending a south east London antenatal clinic between October 1990 and July 1992 was determined using sera referred for routine rubella antibody testing. Samples were screened for HTLV antibody using a modified Fujirebio gel particle agglutination test and reactive sera confirmed by ELISA (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, IL) and two commercial Western blots (Cambridge Biotech Inc., Rockville, MD, and Diagnostic Biotechnology, Genelab Diagnostics, Louvaine, Belgium). This strategy confirmed the presence of HTLV-1 antibodies in 12 out of 6,289 sera (0.19%, 95% confidence limits 0.083% to 0.30%) and HTLV-2 antibodies in 2 (0.03%) sera. Specimens from 8 of 821 (0.97%, 95% confidence limits 0.42% to 1.9%) Afro-Caribbean women, three of 1,136 (0.26%, 95% confidence limits 0.055% to 0.78%) African women, and one of 3,049 (0.033%, 95% confidence limits 0.006% to 0.18%) Caucasian women were positive for HTLV-1 antibodies. Sera from Afro-Caribbean women born in the Caribbean were 7.6 times more likely to be HTLV-1 antibody positive than sera from Afro-Caribbean women born in the UK (P = 0.012). Selective testing of Afro-Caribbean and African antenatal clinic attenders, in this setting, would have identified 11 of the 12 HTLV-1 infections at an estimated cost of prevention of HTLV-1 associated disease of 100,000 pounds per case which is considerably less than the 1.3 million pounds which has been estimated to prevent a case by universal screening of UK blood donors.