The main purpose of English learning is to communicate and interact in global contexts. However, in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts as in China, most of the students have limited ...interactional competence in contrast to their grammatical and structural competence. The reason is that Chinese classrooms mostly lack an interactional climate. This calls for an urgent need to develop interpersonal interaction skills by EFL teachers via appropriate strategies. To this end, this article presents an overview of nine interpersonal communication skills/strategies which are pivotal in L2 education. It also describes their definitions and related theories. Moreover, the outcomes of such strategies in aural skills are also explained. Finally, implications, research gaps, and future avenues for research are provided.
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Constructing an efficient photocatalyst is critical for photocatalytic carbon dioxide (CO2) into valuable fuel. Herein, a high-efficiency catalyst was synthesized by a simple one-step ...electrostatic self-assembly method, in which Ti3C2 (TC) was anchored on porous g-C3N4 (PCN) with rich –NHx via NHx-Ti bond. Such a chemical interaction made the optimized TC/PCN-2 with 2 wt% loading of Ti3C2 possess highest CH4 production (0.99 μmol·h−1·g−1catalyst) under visible light (>420 nm), which was 14 times higher than that of pure PCN (0.07 µmol·h−1·gcatalyst−1) at the same condition. More importantly, the TC/PCN-2 photocatalyst still maintained satisfied activity after four cycles. Besides the formation of NHx-Ti chemical bonding and superior conductivity of Ti3C2 as a co-catalyst, which facilitated interfacial charges separation and migration, the exceptional performance could also attribute to the enhanced CO2 adsorption/activation and improved light-harvesting capability. This work provided a potential application in energy conversion with MXene as an efficient co-catalyst.
This paper delves into the multifaceted world where translation studies converge with corpus linguistics, casting a spotlight on the dynamic domain of media language. By harnessing the power of a ...corpus-based methodology, our research meticulously dissects the intricate process of translating and adapting media texts within a panoply of linguistic landscapes and cultural contexts. The core objective of the study is to excavate and analyze the pantheon of linguistic attributes and the repertoire of tactics translators wield in the realm of media, unlocking a treasure trove of understanding pertaining to cultural subtleties and the nuanced art of translation practices. Our exploration traverses a broad spectrum of media genres, encompassing the rigor of news journalism, the creative complexity of television programming, and the viral nature of digital content, to construct a comprehensive understanding of the translation phenomena at play. The findings illuminate the myriad ways in which media narratives are reconfigured and presented to global audiences, ultimately enriching the discourse on how translation shapes and is shaped by the currents of worldwide communication. This study, therefore, serves as a crucial beacon for academics, professionals, and enthusiasts poised at the crossroads of linguistics and cultural exchange, guiding them through the labyrinth of media translation and its profound influence on international dialogues and perceptions.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly becoming an integral part of our life and also multiple industries. We expect to see the number of IoT connected devices explosively grows and will reach ...hundreds of billions during the next few years. To support such a massive connectivity, various wireless technologies are investigated. In this survey, we provide a broad view of the existing wireless IoT connectivity technologies and discuss several new emerging technologies and solutions that can be effectively used to enable massive connectivity for IoT. In particular, we categorize the existing wireless IoT connectivity technologies based on coverage range and review diverse types of connectivity technologies with different specifications. We also point out key technical challenges of the existing connectivity technologies for enabling massive IoT connectivity. To address the challenges, we further review and discuss some examples of promising technologies such as compressive sensing (CS) random access, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and massive multiple input multiple output (mMIMO) based random access that could be employed in future standards for supporting IoT connectivity. Finally, a classification of IoT applications is considered in terms of various service requirements. For each group of classified applications, we outline its suitable IoT connectivity options.
With increasing global prevalence of diabetes, diabetic retinopathy (DR) is set to be the principle cause of vision impairment in many countries. DR affects a third of people with diabetes and the ...prevalence increases with duration of diabetes, hyperglycemia, and hypertension—the major risk factors for the onset and progression of DR. There are now increasing data on the epidemiology of diabetic macular edema (DME), an advanced complication of DR, with studies suggesting DME may affect up to 7 % of people with diabetes. The risk factors for DME are largely similar to DR, but dyslipidemia appears to play a more significant role. Early detection of DR and DME through screening programs and appropriate referral for therapy is important to preserve vision in individuals with diabetes. Future research is necessary to better understand the potential role of other risk factors such as apolipoproteins and genetic predisposition to shape public health programs.
•Extreme value analysis methods for non-Gaussian wind effects using short-term time history samples are investigated.•The long-term wind pressure coefficient wind tunnel data of a large-span roof are ...used as the basis for comparison.•These pressure coefficient data are featured by a variety of non-Gaussian characteristics.•New developments of the methods are presented taking into account the non-Gaussian characteristics.
This study presents a comprehensive assessment of various methods for extreme value analysis of non-Gaussian wind effects using short-term time history samples. The methods examined are peaks-over-threshold (POT) method, the average conditional exceedance rate (ACER) method, and the translation process method with various translation models. The long-term wind pressure coefficient data on a saddle-shaped large-span roof collected from wind tunnel test are used as the basis for comparison. These pressure coefficient data are featured by a variety of non-Gaussian characteristics, including mildly and strongly softening and hardening non-Gaussian processes with unique distributions. Some new developments of the methods are also presented to better predict the extreme value distribution taking into account the non-Gaussian characteristics. The declustering of process to extract independent peaks over a given threshold for POT method is discussed. The effectiveness of the ACER method is firstly examined as applied to non-Gaussian wind pressures. Regarding the translation process method, this study highlights the limitations of widely used moment-based method and the method based on three-parameter gamma distribution of the process. A mixture distribution model is introduced for better modeling the distribution tail and estimation of extreme value distribution. This mixture distribution method and the method based on curve-fitting of translation function derived from mapping of cumulative distribution functions are illustrated to be capable of capturing the upper tail of translation function, thus lead to satisfactory estimations of extreme statistics for a variety of non-Gaussian processes.
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•4 μm and 10 μm PS-MPs could accumulate in testis of mice.•Sperm quality and testosterone level of mice were declined after exposure to 0.5 μm, 4 μm, and 10 μm PS-MPs.•PS-MPs induced ...testicular inflammation and the disruption of blood-testis barrier.
Microplastics (MPs) have become hazardous materials, which have aroused widespread concern about their potential toxicity. However, the effects of MPs on reproductive systems in mammals are still ambiguous. In this study, the toxic effects of polystyrene MPs (PS-MPs) in male reproduction of mice were investigated. The results indicated that after exposure for 24 h, 4 μm and 10 μm PS-MPs accumulated in the testis of mice. Meanwhile, 0.5 μm, 4 μm, and 10 μm PS-MPs could enter into three kinds of testicular cells in vitro. In addition, sperm quality and testosterone level of mice were declined after exposure to 0.5 μm, 4 μm, and 10 μm PS-MPs for 28 days. H&E staining showed that spermatogenic cells abscissed and arranged disorderly, and multinucleated gonocytes occurred in the seminiferous tubule. Moreover, PS-MPs induced testicular inflammation and the disruption of blood-testis barrier. In summary, this study demonstrated that PS-MPs induced male reproductive dysfunctions in mice, which provided new insights into the toxicity of MPs in mammals.
•Correlation and propagation among meteorological, agricultural and groundwater droughts are firstly explored in the Yangtze River Basin and the Yellow River Basin.•The propagation time from ...meteorological to agricultural drought in the Yangtze River Basin is longer than that in the Yellow River Basin.•There is a weak linkage between groundwater drought and meteorological/agricultural drought in the two selected basins, especially in the Yellow River Basin.•Groundwater extraction is a noticeable factor triggering groundwater drought in the two basins.
The propagation of meteorological drought in the hydrological cycle not only leads to the deficits of surface soil moisture, which results in agricultural drought, but also probably affects groundwater to trigger groundwater drought. Improving the understanding about the correlation and propagation among meteorological, agricultural and groundwater droughts is necessary to lessen the risks resulted from them. Moreover, the distinction of the correlation and propagation over the basins with different climate conditions is not yet sufficiently understood. As a case study of the humid and arid/semi-arid basins in China, the standardized precipitation index, the standardized soil moisture index and groundwater drought index based on GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) are used to characterize meteorological, agricultural and groundwater drought respectively over the Yangtze River Basin with a humid climate condition and Yellow River Basin with an arid/semi-arid climate condition. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient is applied to investigate the correlation and propagation among the above three types of drought in the two basins. The results indicated that: (1) The meteorological, agricultural and groundwater droughts in the Yangtze River Basin and the meteorological and agricultural droughts in the Yellow River Basin are decreasing from April 2002 to March 2020, while the groundwater drought in the Yellow River Basin is aggravating in recent years. (2) There is a strong link between meteorological and agricultural droughts, and the propagation time from meteorological to agricultural drought in summer and autumn is shorter than that in winter and spring in the two basins. When comparing the propagation time in the two selected basins, it is longer in the Yangtze River Basin. (3) Groundwater extraction may be the main factor in the aggravation of groundwater drought in the two basins, which is different from the contributors to agricultural drought, which is mainly the propagation of meteorological drought.
Enhanced wireless communication improves the connectivity of vehicular networks in which vehicles are utilized as infrastructures for communication and computation. Thus, a new concept "Vehicular ...Edge Computing (VEC)" is formed. As VEC utilizes a collaborative multitude of near-user edge resources (i.e. vehicles) in the Internet of Vehicles, the capability of these joint resources becomes heterogeneous especially in their movements. Therefore, one critical problem is how to efficiently schedule each task under such mobile environments. For the reason, we propose a hybrid dynamic scheduling scheme (HDSS) that has the ability to optimize the task scheduling dynamically based on the changeable system environments. HDSS provides a decision function (DF) to select a better-performed scheduling algorithm from two provided candidates: the queue-based dynamic scheduling (QDS) algorithm and the time-based dynamic scheduling (TDS). QDS coincides with the Join-the-Shortest Queue scheme, which decides the scheduling by sorting out a server with the shortest queue-length; nevertheless, TDS is novel scheme that is designed to implement task allocation by estimating the waiting time of each server in order to select a server with the fastest response. Finally, this research generates formal models of each scheduling algorithm and the hybrid scheduling scheme to conduct performance evaluation with a fluid flow approximation technique. The analysis results in a superior performance of HDSS in the unstable VEC environments.
Most of the existing low-light image enhancement methods suffer from the problems of detail loss, color distortion and excessive noise. To address the above-mentioned issues, this paper proposes a ...neural network-based low-light image enhancement network. The network is divided into three parts: decomposition network, reflection component denoising network, and illumination component enhancement network. In the decomposition network, the input image is decomposed into a reflection image and an illumination image. In the reflection component denoising network, the Unet3+ network improved by fusion CA attention is adopted to denoise the reflection image. In the illumination component enhancement network, the adaptive mapping curve is adopted to enhance the illumination image iteratively. Finally, the processed illumination and reflection images are fused based on Retinex theory to obtain the final enhanced image. The experimental results show that the proposed network achieves excellent visual effects in subjective evaluation. Additionally, it shows a significant improvement in objective evaluation metrics, including PSNR, SSIM, NIQE, and so on, when compared to the results in several public datasets.
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