Students Language Performance and TOEFL Preparation Program, Are they connected?

This study examines and describes the relationship between TOEFL preparation Program and Students; language performance. The study also examines the program's effect on students' TOEFL scores improvement. Using spss v.22 in analyzing the data, the researcher employed three groups of students consisting of 15 students, namely the control group, treatment 1 group, and the treatment two groups. Thus, descriptive statistics present verifiable data in numerical form, which uses statistical procedures to tabulate, describe, reflect, and summarize data properties. The two variables data examined, TOEFL paper-based testing score and FCE Cambridge speaking test score, are the focus of the research, free from context generalization of the phenomenon. The result is presented statistically using quantitative methodology. The control group was not exposed to any treatment, while 1 group was given basic general English lessons, and the treatment 2 group was trained using the specially designed TOEFL preparation course. The study result shows significant effects on the improvement of TOEFL score on the treatment 1 group's pre-test mean, the standard of deviation, and the standard error mean were 350.07, 22.745, and 5.873, respectively. The treatment 2 group's mean, the standard of deviation, and the standard error mean were 355.40, 20.117, and 5.194, respectively, and the treatment 1 group' post-test mean, the standard of deviation, and the standard error mean were 387.27, 35.204, and 9.090, respectively. The treatment 2 group's mean, standard of deviation, and standard error mean were 436.87, 44.912, and 6.925, respectively. However, the study result shows that the correlation p-value = .083 indicates no significant correlation between TOEFL Preparation students' language performance

Numerical simulation of 2D hydraulic jumps using SPH method

A hydraulic jump that generally occurs in river or spillway is a rapid transition from supercritical to subcritical flow characterized by the development of large-scale turbulence, surface waves, energy dissipation and considerable air entrainment. The hydraulic jump is widely used as energy dissipaters in hydraulic engineering due to the high energy dissipation rate. In this study, a weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics model (WCSPH) is established to simulate the 2D hydraulic jump in open channel. To test the model, two hydraulic jump cases with different inflow Froude number are simulated. The comparison between numerical conjugate depths in the subcritical section with theoretical results show generally good agreement with theory. In addition, an aeration at the jump toe can be clearly observed in numerical results with only Single-phase flow. It is proved that SPH method has unique advantages dealing with the hydraulic jumps

Regional analysis of potential polychlorinated biphenyl degrading bacterial strains from China

AbstractPolychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the chlorinated derivatives of biphenyl, are one of the most prevalent, highly toxic and persistent groups of contaminants in the environment. The objective of this study was to investigate the biodegradation of PCBs in northeastern (Heilongjiang Province), northern (Shanxi Province) and eastern China (Shanghai municipality). From these areas, nine soil samples were screened for PCB-degrading bacteria using a functional complementarity method. The genomic 16S rDNA locus was amplified and the products were sequenced to identify the bacterial genera. Seven Pseudomonas strains were selected to compare the capacity of bacteria from different regions to degrade biphenyl by HPLC. Compared to the biphenyl content in controls of 100%, the biphenyl content went down to 3.7% for strain P9-324, 36.3% for P2-11, and 20.0% for the other five strains. These results indicate that a longer processing time led to more degradation of biphenyl. PCB-degrading bacterial strains are distributed differently in different regions of China

Recent development of mechanisms and control strategies for robot-assisted lower limb rehabilitation

Robot-assisted rehabilitation and therapy has become more and more frequently used to help the elderly, disabled patients or movement disorders to perform exercise and training. The field of robot-assisted lower limb rehabilitation has rapidly evolved in the last decade. This article presents a review on the most recent progress (from year 2001 to 2014) of mechanisms, training modes and control strategies for lower limb rehabilitation robots. Special attention is paid to the adaptive robot control methods considering hybrid data fusion and patient evaluation in robot-assisted passive and active lower limb rehabilitation. The characteristics and clinical outcomes of different training modes and control algorithms in recent studies are analysed and summarized. Research gaps and future directions are also highlighted in this paper to improve the outcome of robot-assisted rehabilitation

Tetra­aqua­tetra­kis­(4,4′-bipyridine dioxide-κO)terbium(III) octa­cyanidotungstate(V)

In the title compound, [Tb(C10H8N2O2)4(H2O)4][W(CN)8], both metal atoms are eight-coordinated. The TbIII ion displays a dodeca­hedral geometry, while the Wv ion exhibits a distorted square-anti­prismatic geometry. The Tb atoms are located on a special position of site symmetry -4, whereas the W atoms are located on a twofold rotation axis. The cations are linked by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. The title compound is isotypic with the corresponding and previously described Mo compound [Qian & Yuan (2011 ▶). Acta Cryst. E67, m845]