Language Use as a Resource: E-Communication Dimensions of Register Variation in a Professional Context

The recent development in [critical] genre analysis moved the focus more into the institutionalized and conventionalized practices of the place discourse community; yet, examining the textual artifacts and register variations maintained their vital importance in the analysis. Using a functional multi-dimensional framework, this study examined register variation in more than 350 electronic messages that were exchanged in a professional context to explore register variations in the emails. The study revealed that the corpus of emails, if examined as a single genre, included instances of the seven dimensions of register variation. However, if it is examined as four types of genres based on the intentions of the communication, as in AlAfnan (2015a), it becomes apparent that the four types of email genres belong to different registers. The register of the emails that were parts of long strings discussing work related issues is ‘overtly argumentative’ and ‘narrative discourse’ registers. The register of the emails that intended to request information and/or respond to requests is ‘involved production’ register. The register of the emails that intended to inform recipients about general interest issues is ‘abstract style’ and ‘informational production’ registers. The register of the emails that intended to deliver attachments is ‘non-narrative discourse’ register. This study also revealed that the communicative purposes influenced language use, word choice, grammatical patterns and the syntactical structure of the emails.

Politic Driving Behavior in Africa: An Investigation into Positive and Negative Politeness through Signs and Signals

The study examines the use of nonverbal positive and negative politeness through the ‘encoding’ by ‘giving signals’ and the ‘decoding’ by ‘following signs’ of the politic-driving behavior in Africa. The thematic framework is basically based on the work of Brown and Levinson (1987) and AlAfnan (2022). The research sample included 723 drivers from 16 African countries [1]that belong to the five African regions. The examination looked into four variables that are the age, gender, level of education, and country of origin of respondents. The study found a positive correlation between education and politic driving behavior as educated drivers, especially female drivers, tend to be more cautious about their self-image and other drivers’ self-esteem than uneducated drivers. The study also reveals that age plays a significant role in following politic driving behavior as elder drivers are more polite than younger drivers, regardless of gender. The study also showed that Algerian male and female, Moroccan male and female, Tunisian male and female, and Cameroonian female drivers have the highest frequency of ‘following signs’ and that Moroccan male and female, Egyptian male, Algerian female, Tunisian male, Botswana male, and Cameroonian male drivers have the highest frequency of ‘giving signals’, which reflects their self-awareness and interest in other drivers’ self-esteem and self-worth

Politeness as a Nonverbal Communication Behavior: An Investigation into Driving Habits in Asia

Politeness is mainly investigated in verbal and written communicative encounters. This study novelistically examines politeness and politic behavior as a nonverbal communicative event concerning driving habits in Asia. Politeness is investigated based on four variables that are the country of origin, gender, age, and level of education. The novel framework is based on Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory. This study revealed that Asian drivers use deference, hedges, and indirectness to minimize imposition while driving. The study showed that Hong Konger, Singaporean and Malaysian drivers are the most polite in Asia. This study also revealed that Hong Konger female drivers and Malaysian male drivers are the most polite in Asia concerning giving signals before changing lanes. It also revealed that Malaysian female drivers and Singaporean male drivers are the most polite in Asia concerning following traffic signs and speed limits. The study also found that Malaysian, Indonesian, Thai, Indian, Filippo, and Singaporean male drivers are more polite than their female counterparts with respect to following signs, while Hong Konger, Singaporean, and Taiwanese female drivers are more polite than their male counterparts pertaining to giving signals before changing lanes. It is also apparent that Malaysian, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Pakistani, and Filipino male drivers are more polite than their female counterparts pertaining to giving signals before changing lanes. This study also established that old drivers are more polite than young drivers and old female drivers are more polite than old male drivers. In reference to the level of education, the study revealed a positive correlation between politic driving behavior and high level of education. Interestingly, highly educated male drivers are more polite than highly educated female drivers in Asia

Pore Network Modeling of Gas Transport in Source Rocks

Source rocks such as resource shale are a special subclass of petroleum reservoirs where the hydrocarbons are generated and stored in the same place. They consist of diverse minerology including clays, silt, quartz, carbonates as well as varying amount of organic material. This diversity creates a multi-scale pore network including pores down to a few nanometers, micro-cracks and fractures, which influences the fluid storage and transport in the formation. In this dissertation, initially I present an upscaling study to gas transport in nano-scale within the organic material of the source rock via pore network modeling approach. The nanoscale transport effects are linked to the reservoir scale honoring the multi-physics and multi-scale nature of the formation. The pore network model is built in accordance with three-dimensional nano-scale imaging of shale samples where, in most of the cases, the organic material is observed as a network of pores with some micro-cracks of larger size cutting through, or by the edge of, the material. The interaction between the networks of organic pores and micro-cracks could be important for natural gas production from source rock, because it can control the rates at which the fluid is transported from the organic constituents of the formation. The matrix-fracture interactions could also be influenced by the existing in-situ stresses. Understanding the transient flow behavior would eventually help us optimize production. At high pressure, gas is stored in the organic material as a compressed free gas and adsorbed gas. Its transport is driven by pressure gradient with some additional fluxes caused by the degree of confinement and the presence of an adsorbed layer which can be mobile under some conditions of high pressure gradient. A modified pressure dependent definition of a scaled up organic material permeability is obtained taking into account the previously mentioned factors and using the concept of percolation theory. This permeability can be used with the classical governing equations of flow and transport. The coupling term relating the fluid exchange between the organic material and the associated micro-cracks and fractures is derived and validated through the concept of dual porosity relating the total fluid exchange to the pressure difference at the fracture-matrix interface with some modifications to account for the captured transient effect and the pressure dependency of the gas properties. At the final part of the thesis, I present a reservoir grid-block scale application of the derived organic nanoporous matrix-fracture coupling by implementing the formulation into conventional diffusivity formulation. The results show the retardation effect on production due to presence of organic nanopores. In addition, the role the transport mechanisms in the organic material play on the production is analyzed

Positive and Negative Politeness in Nonverbal Communication Contexts: An Examination into Driving Behaviors in Europe

This study examines politeness as a nonverbal politic behavior in 29 European countries and territories using Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory. The examination looked into the nonverbal acts of ‘following road signs and speed limit’ and ‘giving signals before changing lanes’ as they reflect (1) negative politeness in the form of avoiding imposition and reducing face-threatening-acts and (2) positive politeness in the form of noticing and appreciating other drivers’ wants and interests to drive without imposition respectively. The examination looked into four variables that are the gender of drivers, age of drivers, level of education of drivers and their country of origin. The study found that European drivers are generally polite and they tend to use the positive politeness act (giving signals) of noticing and appreciating other drivers more often than the negative politeness act (following sigs and speed limits) of reducing imposition and avoiding face-threatening acts. The study also found that the level of education did not play a significant role in the adherence to the driving politic behavior. However, this study found a positive coloration between the age of drivers and their adherence to the driving politic behavior as older drivers follow the driving politic behavior more often than young drivers. This study also found that female drivers in Europe are more polite than male drivers as they notice and appreciate other drivers (positive politeness). This study also revealed that Danish (female), British (male and female), Irish (male), Finish (male), Dutch (male and female), Belgium (female), Austrian (female), Greek (female) and Spanish (male)  drivers have the highest frequency of adherence to the driving politic behavior. The study also found that Portuguese male and female, Croatian male and female, Macedonian male and female, Scottish male and female, Albanian male, Norwegian male, Czech male, Austrian female, Romanian male and Swedish female drivers have the lowest frequency of adherence to the driving politic behavior in Europe. The study also found that Cypriot (male), Catalonian (female), French (male and female), German (male and female), Hungarian (male and female), Italian (male and female), Polish (male and female), Russian (male and female), Serbian (male and female), Slovakian (male and female), and Turkish (male and female) drivers’ adherence to driving politic behavior is relatively moderate to high

A Speech Act Analysis of the United Nations Secretary-General's Opening Remarks to the General Assembly Emergency Special Session on Ukraine

This study examines language use as social action. Using Austin’s (1962), Bach’s (2003), and Searle’s (1969) speech act theory and categorizations of constative utterances, performative utterances, illocutionary acts, and perlocutionary acts, this study examines the speech acts used by the UN’s Secretary-General in his opening remarks in the Emergency Special Session on Ukraine. The study likewise examines the intended social actions and the social effects they have on the audience. This study reveals that the UN’s Secretary-General made use of a balance between the usage of utterances that express a belief, intention, and desire (constative utterances) and utterances that carry social actions (performative utterances). This study furthermore reveals that reporting, informing, and announcing are the most popular constative utterances in the speech to provide Security Council members a comprehensive idea about the situation in Ukraine and the possible consequences. The study also affirms that directive and assertive illocutionary acts are the most popular performative utterances used in the speech to achieve the perlocutionary effects of asserting, stating, claiming, concluding, requesting, urging, advising, requiring, and ordering. Speech analysis reveals that the UN’s Security General did not use any declarative illocutionary act as he intended to avoid jumping to conclusions, on the one hand and avoid taking sides, on the other hand

Pore Network Modeling of Gas Transport in Source Rocks

Source rocks such as resource shale are a special subclass of petroleum reservoirs where the hydrocarbons are generated and stored in the same place. They consist of diverse minerology including clays, silt, quartz, carbonates as well as varying amount of organic material. This diversity creates a multi-scale pore network including pores down to a few nanometers, micro-cracks and fractures, which influences the fluid storage and transport in the formation. In this dissertation, initially I present an upscaling study to gas transport in nano-scale within the organic material of the source rock via pore network modeling approach. The nanoscale transport effects are linked to the reservoir scale honoring the multi-physics and multi-scale nature of the formation. The pore network model is built in accordance with three-dimensional nano-scale imaging of shale samples where, in most of the cases, the organic material is observed as a network of pores with some micro-cracks of larger size cutting through, or by the edge of, the material. The interaction between the networks of organic pores and micro-cracks could be important for natural gas production from source rock, because it can control the rates at which the fluid is transported from the organic constituents of the formation. The matrix-fracture interactions could also be influenced by the existing in-situ stresses. Understanding the transient flow behavior would eventually help us optimize production. At high pressure, gas is stored in the organic material as a compressed free gas and adsorbed gas. Its transport is driven by pressure gradient with some additional fluxes caused by the degree of confinement and the presence of an adsorbed layer which can be mobile under some conditions of high pressure gradient. A modified pressure dependent definition of a scaled up organic material permeability is obtained taking into account the previously mentioned factors and using the concept of percolation theory. This permeability can be used with the classical governing equations of flow and transport. The coupling term relating the fluid exchange between the organic material and the associated micro-cracks and fractures is derived and validated through the concept of dual porosity relating the total fluid exchange to the pressure difference at the fracture-matrix interface with some modifications to account for the captured transient effect and the pressure dependency of the gas properties. At the final part of the thesis, I present a reservoir grid-block scale application of the derived organic nanoporous matrix-fracture coupling by implementing the formulation into conventional diffusivity formulation. The results show the retardation effect on production due to presence of organic nanopores. In addition, the role the transport mechanisms in the organic material play on the production is analyzed

Analysing faults and SFCL response in electric aircraft

Aircraft technology moves towards electrification in order to achieve environmentally friendly goals. However, one of the main challenges facing the electrification of aircraft technology is the weight of the electric devices necessary for operating a fully electric aircraft. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) proposed the use of the superconductive technology in electric aircraft (EA) to overcome this challenge in addition to its other benefits. The proposed EA is called N3-X and it has an on-board DC superconducting network including a superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL). The SFCL is a self-mechanism device that very effectively limits the current within a few milliseconds, thus improving the stability of the system. As the grounding of this network is different from traditional networks, analysing the behaviour of different fault types and how to manage them becomes critical. In this paper, one set of the EA's systems (one generator, AC/DC rectifier and four motors with their DC/AC variable frequency drives) has been modelled in MATLAB/Simulink environment to carry out the fault analysis and to demonstrate the effect of the SFCL on this network under different types of faults