The New York State Department of Health has conducted a number of studies over the past 10 years investigating health impacts related to the September 11, 2001 (9/11) disaster among New York City residents and New York State World Trade Center (WTC) responders. Efforts to evaluate the health effects of WTC exposures in these cohorts presented numerous challenges, including study design and asso...

This study investigated first year university students' willingness and anxiety levels in speaking English EAP classrooms. UCS FLCAS were employed to create a questionnaire collect 31 participants' responses. The major findings are as follows: a) participants demonstrated higher than average WTC broad sense; b) only one third of them reported feeling anxious about classes; c) the fear being neg...

BACKGROUND Serious respiratory illnesses have been reported among rescue/recovery workers (RRW) following the World Trade Center (WTC) attacks. METHODS We studied RRW enrolled in the WTC Health Registry to assess the effects of different respiratory protection equipment (RPE) types on respiratory outcomes, such as recurrent respiratory symptoms and diseases possibly associated with 9/11 expos...

OBJECTIVE Determine if World Trade Center (WTC) disaster responders had lower lung function and higher bronchodilator responsiveness than those with respiratory symptoms and conditions. METHODS We evaluated cardinal respiratory symptoms (dyspnea, wheezing, dry cough, productive cough) and determined the difference in FEV1, FVC, and bronchodilator responsiveness. RESULTS All respiratory symp...

This study explored the effect of input vs. collaborative output tasks on Iranian EFL learners’ grammatical accuracy and their willingness to communicate (WTC). In so doing, the study utilized 3 input (i.e., textual enhancement, processing instruction, and discourse) and 3 collaborative output (i.e., dictogloss, reconstruction cloze task, and jigsaw) tasks and compared their effects on 5 Englis...

Willingness to communicate (WTC) construct plays an important role in second language (L2) teaching and learning. Almost any second language learner is likely to respond to a direct question, but many will not continue or initiate communication. The present study investigates Pakistani undergraduate students' perception of their willingness to initiate communication in English across four types...

Immediately after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC), the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYCDOHMH) was concerned about the possibility of a secondary attack with a biologic agent. Because NYCDOHMH lost communications as a result of the attacks, concern arose that this disruption would affect the ability to recognize a bioterrorist e...