Learning analytics (LA) has demonstrated great potential in improving teaching quality, learning experience and administrative efficiency. However, the adoption of LA in higher education is often ...beset by challenges in areas such as resources, stakeholder buy-in, ethics and privacy. Addressing these challenges in a complex system requires agile leadership that is responsive to pressures in the environment and capable of managing conflicts. This paper examines LA adoption processes among 21 UK higher education institutions using complexity leadership theory as a framework. The data were collected from 23 interviews with institutional leaders and subsequently analysed using a thematic coding scheme. The results showed a number of prominent challenges associated with LA deployment, which lie in the inherent tensions between innovation and operation. These challenges require a new form of leadership to create and nurture an adaptive space in which innovations are supported and ultimately transformed into the mainstream operation of an institution. This paper argues that a complexity leadership model enables higher education to shift towards more fluid and dynamic approaches for LA adoption, thus ensuring its scalability and sustainability. Author abstract
This study briefly describes the prosodic and pragmatic characteristics of the discourse marker
("you know") in spoken Chinese. It mainly explores the interaction between its prosody and pragmatics ...using instrumental methods. It is the first attempt to use acoustic and statistical analysis to examine the prosodic parameters and prosody-pragmatics interaction of a Chinese discourse marker. The corpus includes 71 interview conversations totaling more than 30 h, in which 490 discourse marker tokens of
were found.
mainly fulfilled four broad pragmatic functions of initiating a topic when occurring sentence-initially, of holding the floor when appearing within clauses, of marking coherence when making its presence between clauses, and of projecting attitudes and feelings when showing up sentence-finally. Drawing on the algorithm of random forest in R, the acoustic and statistical analysis of the performance of
in these four functions showed that its prosodic features, including duration, tempo, pre-pause, post-pause, F
, and intensity, significantly relate to and thus imply its pragmatic functions, that the interaction between its prosody and pragmatics can be modeled statistically, and that the established pragmatics classification model based on prosody can be utilized to predict the pragmatics of
. These findings seem to strengthen the hypothesis that prosodic variables play a role in deciphering the different pragmatic functions of
. This study uses prosodic evidence to more objectively reveal not only the part of
in dynamically constructing and embodying specific contexts but also its communicative functions and the underlying meta-pragmatic awareness behind it. This study breaks through the limitations of traditional discourse marker research, which mainly relies on context and discourse characteristics for subjective reasoning.
The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) is a novel class of Internet of Things (IoT), and is defined as the network of smart interconnected underwater objects. IoUT is expected to enable various ...practical applications, such as environmental monitoring, underwater exploration, and disaster prevention. With these applications, IoUT is regarded as one of the potential technologies toward developing smart cities. To support the concept of IoUT, Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) have emerged as a promising network system. UWSNs are different from the traditional Territorial Wireless Sensor Networks (TWSNs), and have several unique properties, such as long propagation delay, narrow bandwidth, and low reliability. These unique properties would be great challenges for IoUT. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive study of IoUT, and the main contributions of this paper are threefold: (1) we introduce and classify the practical underwater applications that can highlight the importance of IoUT; (2) we point out the differences between UWSNs and traditional TWSNs, and these differences are the main challenges for IoUT; and (3) we investigate and evaluate the channel models, which are the technical core for designing reliable communication protocols on IoUT.
Most theoretical and empirical studies of discourse marker multifunctionality do not approach it using a formal, systematic annotation model. Drawing on a domain-function taxonomy, this study ...examines 270 tokens of the discourse marker ni zhidao in Chinese media interviews. All values of the two-dimensional model designed for the whole category of discourse markers apply to ni zhidao, demonstrating its equally potent affordance on a particular discourse marker case cross-linguistically. By putting this model to the test, we found that “emphasis” needs to be added to the original 15 functions in the model, and that domains and functions need to be treated as dependent layers of pragmatic meaning. Functions determine domains, and domains need to be regarded as macro-functions to which specific functions are attributed. As such, we tentatively put forth an updated version that provides finer granularity and greater affordance, shedding new light on the pragmatic meaning of ni zhidao and the speaker’s underlying communicative intent. We propose that the sample be divided into uni-functional and multi-functional categories before being analyzed within the updated model to capture the multifunctional discourse markers in the same context-specific utterances. This study has implications for the need of more exhaustive, speech-friendly annotation models of DM multifunctionality and the cross-linguistic adaptation or refinement of established DM annotation models to cater to the unique traits of spoken DMs in different languages.
This study aimed to establish an effective prognostic nomogram with or without plasma Epstein-Barr virus DNA (EBV DNA) for nondisseminated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
The nomogram was based on a ...retrospective study of 4630 patients who underwent radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from 2007 to 2009. The predictive accuracy and discriminative ability of the nomogram were determined by a concordance index (C-index) and calibration curve and were compared with EBV DNA and the current staging system. The results were validated using bootstrap resampling and a prospective cohort study on 1819 patients consecutively enrolled from 2011 to 2012 at the same institution. All statistical tests were two-sided.
Independent factors derived from multivariable analysis of the primary cohort to predict recurrence were age, sex, body mass index (BMI), T stage, N stage, plasma EBV DNA, pretreatment high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and hemoglobin level (HGB), which were all assembled into the nomogram with (nomogram B) or without EBV DNA (nomogram A). The calibration curve for the probability of recurrence showed that the nomogram-based predictions were in good agreement with actual observations. The C-index of nomogram B for predicting recurrence was 0.728 (P < .001), which was statistically higher than the C-index values for nomogram A (0.690), EBV DNA (0.680), and the current staging system (0.609). The C-index of nomogram B (0.730) and nomogram A (0.681) remained higher for predicting recurrence among patients treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (P < .001). The results were confirmed in the validation cohort.
The proposed nomogram with or without plasma EBV DNA resulted in more accurate prognostic prediction for NPC patients.
Due to the restricted use and ban of brominated flame retardants, organophosphorus compounds (OPs), extensively used as flame retardants and plasticizers, are ubiquitous in various environmental ...compartments worldwide. The present study shows that the release of OPs from a wide variety of commercial products and wastewater discharge might be considered as primary emission sources and that high potential of long-range atmospheric transport and persistence of OPs would be responsible for their presence in various matrices on a global scale. The occurrence and environmental behaviors of OPs in diverse matrices (e.g., dust, air, water, sediment, soil and biota) are reviewed. Human exposures to OPs via dermal contact, dust ingestion, inhalation and dietary intake are comprehensively evaluated. Finally, this study identifies gaps in the existing issues and generates a future agenda for the emerging contaminants OPs.
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•Organophosphorus compounds (OPs) are ubiquitous in various environmental matrices worldwide.•Release of OPs from products and wastewater discharge are treated as primary emission sources.•High potentials of LRAT and persistence of OPs account for their global occurrence.•Dust intake is more important than inhalation and food intake for human, especially for toddlers.•Research gaps are concluded to define the directions and the primary emphasis of future studies.
The emission sources, environmental occurrence, toxicity and human exposure of organophosphorus flame retardants and plasticizers are fully reviewed.
The reexamination of the failure of the fine-grained soils through the laboratory undrained cyclic loading tests demonstrates that some special fine-grained soils follow a different failure pattern. ...Indeed, compared with typical fine-grained soils, these special fine-grained soils show an obvious “collapse failure” pattern. In this context, five basic dynamic properties of the fine-grained soils with a collapse failure characteristic, namely the axial (or shear) strain, the excess pore water pressure, the effective cyclic stress path, the hysteresis curve, and the viscous energy dissipation, are described in detail, and all the properties indicate the characteristics of collapse failure in the final loading stage. The reinvestigation of the traditional behaviour classification suggests that the behaviour of the fine-grained soils with a collapse failure characteristic can be classified as either “cyclic mobility with limited liquefaction” or “cyclic mobility with larger liquefaction potential” that shows more pronounced liquefaction characteristics. Additionally, the assessment of the soil indexes of the fine-grained soils with a collapse failure characteristic reveals a certain regularity in their particle size characteristics; in fact, the clay content, the plasticity index, and the ratio of the water content to the liquid limit of the fine-grained soils range from 3.0 to 20.0%, from 0 to 9.6, and from 0.85 to 1.11 respectively. The results of the current work confirm that the fine-grained soils with limited ranges of the soil indexes have the potential to exhibit collapse failure. The findings obtained herein make a major contribution to our understanding of the collapse failure of fine-grained soils.
The genetic control and signaling pathways of vascular development are not comprehensively understood. Transcription factors Islet2 (Isl2) and nr2f1b are critical for vascular growth in zebrafish, ...and further transcriptome analysis has revealed potential targets regulated by isl2/nr2f1b. In this study, we focused on the potential activation gene signal‐transducing adaptor protein 2b (stap2b) and revealed a novel role of stap2b in vascular development. stap2b mRNA was expressed in developing vessels, suggesting stap2b plays a role in vascularization. Knocking down stap2b expression by morpholino injection or Crispr‐Cas9‐generated stap2b mutants caused vascular defects, suggesting a role played by stap2b in controlling the patterning of intersegmental vessels (ISVs) and the caudal vein plexus (CVP). The vessel abnormalities associated with stap2b deficiency were found to be due to dysregulated cell migration and proliferation. The decreased expression of vascular‐specific markers in stap2b morphants was consistent with the vascular defects observed. In contrast, overexpression of stap2b enhanced the growth of ISVs and reversed the vessel defects in stap2b morphants. These data suggest that stap2b is necessary and sufficient to promote vascular development. Finally, we examined the interaction between stap2b and multiple signaling. We showed that stap2b regulated ISV growth through the JAK–STAT pathway. Moreover, we found that stap2b was regulated by Notch signaling to control ISV growth, and stap2b interacted with bone morphogenetic protein signaling to contribute to CVP formation. Altogether, we demonstrated that stap2b acts downstream of the isl2/nr2f1b pathway to play a pivotal role in vascular development via interaction with multiple signaling pathways.
Using genetic approaches, biochemical assays, and transgenic fish tools, we demonstrated that stap2b is necessary and sufficient for vessel formation and patterning. We also explored the regulation of stap2b mediated by Jak–STAT, Notch, and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signals to control intersegmental vessel (ISV) growth and caudal vein plexus (CVP) formation in zebrafish.
This open access book illustrates the key steps and procedures of developing mental health scales into linguistically and culturally appropriate translations. Through illustrative case studies, we ...demonstrate that traditional forward and backward translation have significant methodological limitations when applied in mental health scale translation, such as linguistic and cultural inaccessibility and inaccuracy in the clinic. Our book will stimulate more academic debates and further systematic research into the significant, interdisciplinary area of mental health translation, which has been underexplored in Translation Studies.
A flexible Li–S battery based on an integrated structure of sulfur and graphene on a separator is developed. The internal graphene current collector offers a continuous conductive pathway, a modified ...interface with sulfur, and a good barrier to and an effective reservoir for dissolved polysulfides, consequently improving the capacity and cyclic life of the Li–S battery.
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