Intercultural Communicative Competence: Beliefs and Practices of Adult English as a Second Language Instructors

Effective and appropriate communication is critical for the successful integration of newcomers in Canada. In this paper, we describe the intercultural communicative competence beliefs and practices of 70 adult English as a second language (ESL) instructors. Responses to an online survey indicated a strong belief in the value of integrating intercultural communicative competence into their instruction; however, instructors’ reported classroom practices revealed that culture was addressed in varying degrees and that intercultural communicative competence was not systematically developed. Findings suggest that enhanced instructor education, appropriate materials development, and research investigating the effective pedagogical development of intercultural communicative competence in the language learning classroom are needed.   La communication efficace et appropriée est critique pour une intégration réussie des nouveaux arrivants au Canada. Dans cet article, nous décrivons les croyances et les pratiques relatives à la compétence communicative interculturelle de 70 enseignants d’anglais langue seconde aux adultes. D’après leurs réponses à un sondage en ligne, les enseignants croient fermement en la valeur de l’intégration de la compétence communicative interculturelle  dans leur pédagogie; toutefois, les commentaires des enseignants portant sur leur pratiques en salle de classe indiquent qu’ils traitent la culture à des degrés variables et qu’ils ne développent pas de la compétence communicative interculturelle systématiquement. Les résultats portent à croire qu’il faudrait offrir une formation accrue aux enseignants, développer du matériel approprié et entreprendre de la recherche traitant du développement efficace de la compétence communicative interculturelle dans les cours de langue.   

A New Physical Picture for AGNs Lacking Optical Emission Lines

In this work, we use ~500 low-redshift (z ~ 0.1) X-ray AGNs observed by XMM-Newton and SDSS to investigate the prevalence and nature of AGNs that apparently lack optical emission lines (``optically dull AGNs''). Although 1/4 of spectra appear absorption-line dominated in visual assessment, line extraction with robust continuum subtraction from the MPA/JHU catalog reveals usable [OIII] measurements in 98% of the sample, allowing us to study [OIII]-underluminous AGNs together with more typical AGNs in the context of the L$_{\mathrm{[OIII]}}$--L$_{X}$ relation. We find that ``optically dull AGNs'' do not constitute a distinct population of AGNs. Instead, they are the [OIII]-underluminous tail of a single, unimodal L$_{\mathrm{[OIII]}}$--L$_{X}$ relation that has substantial scatter (0.6 dex). We find the degree to which an AGN is underluminous in [OIII] correlates with the specific SFR or D$_{4000}$ index of the host, which are both linked to the molecular gas fraction. Thus the emerging physical picture for the large scatter seems to involve the gas content of the narrow-line region. We find no significant role for previously proposed scenarios for the presence of optically dull AGNs, such as host dilution or dust obscuration. Despite occasionally weak lines in SDSS spectra, >80% of X-ray AGNs are identified as such with the BPT diagram. >90% are classified as AGNs based only on [NII]/H$\alpha$, providing more complete AGN samples when [OIII] or H$\beta$ are weak. X-ray AGNs with LINER spectra obey essentially the same \lxo\ relation as Seyfert 2s, suggesting their line emission is produced by AGN activity.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures, submitted to ApJ. Comments welcom

Diels–alder reactions of alkyl 2H-azirine-3-carboxylates with furans

Methyl 2-(2,6-dichlorophenyl)-2H-azirine-3-carboxylate 1 and furan give the aziridine 2 by a Diels–Alder cycloaddition reaction. The hydrolysis of compound 2 leads to a dihydrofuranol 11 by cleavage of a C–N bond. X-Ray crystal structures of compounds 2 and 11 have been determined. Compound 2 reacts with alcohols in a similar way to give 2-alkoxy-2,5-dihydrofurans as mixtures of cis and trans isomers. The structures of these compounds have been determined from an X-ray crystal structure of one of the methyl ethers, the trans isomer 13. The reaction of the azirine 1 with 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran leads to the formation of two isomeric 1 : 1 adducts that have been identified as the products of endo and exo cycloaddition, 3 and 4. The endo isomer 3 is converted into the exo isomer 4 by heat. Similar Diels–Alder reactions have been carried out between furans and benzyl 2H-azirine-3-carboxylate 6. Hydrolysis of the adduct 7 formed with furan again produces a dihydrofuranol 25 as the major product together with three minor products, two of which are 1-azabicyclo[4.1.0]hept-3-ene-2,5-diols 27 and 28 that result from C–O bond cleavage. Protection of the mixture of alcohols with TBS triflate gives the bis(TBS) ether 31 of the trans-1-azabicyclo[4.1.0]hept-3-ene-2,5-diol as the major product, showing that this ring system can be produced from the dihydrofuranol 25. The bis(TBS) ether 30 of the cis-2,5-diol is a minor product and its structure has been established by independent synthesis through a Diels–Alder reaction between the azirine 6 and 1,4-bis(tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)butadiene 32.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - POCTI/32723/QUI/2000. FEDER. EPSRC

The merger fraction of post-starburst galaxies in UNIONS

Funding information: CB gratefully acknowledges support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) as part of their post-doctoral fellowship program (PDF-546234-2020) and VW acknowledges STFC grant ST/V000861/1.Post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) are defined as having experienced a recent burst of star formation, followed by a prompt truncation in further activity. Identifying the mechanism(s) causing a galaxy to experience a post-starburst phase therefore provides integral insight into the causes of rapid quenching. Galaxy mergers have long been proposed as a possible post-starburst trigger. Effectively testing this hypothesis requires a large spectroscopic galaxy survey to identify the rare PSBs as well as high-quality imaging and robust morphology metrics to identify mergers. We bring together these critical elements by selecting PSBs from the overlap of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Canada–France Imaging Survey and applying a suite of classification methods: non-parametric morphology metrics such as asymmetry and Gini-M20, a convolutional neural network trained to identify post-merger galaxies, and visual classification. This work is therefore the largest and most comprehensive assessment of the merger fraction of PSBs to date. We find that the merger fraction of PSBs ranges from 19 per cent to 42 per cent depending on the merger identification method and details of the PSB sample selection. These merger fractions represent an excess of 3–46× relative to non-PSB control samples. Our results demonstrate that mergers play a significant role in generating PSBs, but that other mechanisms are also required. However, applying our merger identification metrics to known post-mergers in the IllustrisTNG simulation shows that 70 per cent of recent post-mergers (≲200 Myr) would not be detected. Thus, we cannot exclude the possibility that nearly all PSBs have undergone a merger in their recent past.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Galaxy mergers can rapidly shut down star formation

Galaxy mergers trigger both star formation and accretion onto the central supermassive black hole. As a result of subsequent energetic feedback processes, it has long been proposed that star formation may be promptly extinguished in galaxy merger remnants. However, this prediction of widespread, rapid quenching in late stage mergers has been recently called into question with modern simulations and has never been tested observationally. Here we perform the first empirical assessment of the long-predicted end phase in the merger sequence. Based on a sample of ~500 post-mergers identified from the Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS), we show that the frequency of post-merger galaxies that have rapidly shutdown their star formation following a previous starburst is 30-60 times higher than expected from a control sample of non-merging galaxies. No such excess is found in a sample of close galaxy pairs, demonstrating that mergers can indeed lead to a rapid halt to star formation, but that this process only manifests after coalescence.PostprintPeer reviewe

Transverse Spin at PHENIX: Results and Prospects

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), as the world's first and only polarized proton collider, offers a unique environment in which to study the spin structure of the proton. In order to study the proton's transverse spin structure, the PHENIX experiment at RHIC took data with transversely polarized beams in 2001-02 and 2005, and it has plans for further running with transverse polarization in 2006 and beyond. Results from early running as well as prospective measurements for the future will be discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, presented at Transversity 2005, Como, Ital

Collision geometry scaling of Au+Au pseudorapidity density from sqrt(s_NN) = 19.6 to 200 GeV

The centrality dependence of the midrapidity charged particle multiplicity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 19.6 and 200 GeV is presented. Within a simple model, the fraction of hard (scaling with number of binary collisions) to soft (scaling with number of participant pairs) interactions is consistent with a value of x = 0.13 +/- 0.01(stat) +/- 0.05(syst) at both energies. The experimental results at both energies, scaled by inelastic p(pbar)+p collision data, agree within systematic errors. The ratio of the data was found not to depend on centrality over the studied range and yields a simple linear scale factor of R_(200/19.6) = 2.03 +/- 0.02(stat) +/- 0.05(syst).Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRC-R

Centrality and pseudorapidity dependence of elliptic flow for charged hadrons in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 200 GeV

This paper describes the measurement of elliptic flow for charged particles in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(sNN)=200 GeV using the PHOBOS detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The measured azimuthal anisotropy is presented over a wide range of pseudorapidity for three broad collision centrality classes for the first time at this energy. Two distinct methods of extracting the flow signal were used in order to reduce systematic uncertainties. The elliptic flow falls sharply with increasing eta at 200 GeV for all the centralities studied, as observed for minimum-bias collisions at sqrt(sNN)=130 GeV.Comment: Final published version: the most substantive change to the paper is the inclusion of a complete description of how the errors from the hit-based and track-based analyses are merged to produce the 90% C.L. errors quoted for the combined results shown in Fig.

Rapidity and k_T dependence of HBT correlations in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV with PHOBOS

Two-particle correlations of identical charged pion pairs from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV were measured by the PHOBOS experiment at RHIC. Data for the most central (0--15%) events were analyzed with Bertsch-Pratt (BP) and Yano-Koonin-Podgoretskii (YKP) parameterizations using pairs with rapidities of 0.4 < y < 1.3 and transverse momenta 0.1 < k_T < 1.4 GeV/c. The Bertsch-Pratt radii decrease as a function of pair transverse momentum. The pair rapidity Y_pipi roughly scales with the source rapidity Y_YKP, indicating strong dynamical correlations.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of Seventeenth International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (Quark Matter 2004), Oakland, California from January 11-17, 2004. Submitted to Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physic

The significance of the fragmentation region in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions

We present measurements of the pseudorapidity distribution of primary charged particles produced in Au+Au collisions at three energies, sqrt(s_{NN}) = 19.6, 130, and 200 GeV, for a range of collision centralities. The centrality dependence is shown to be non-trivial: the distribution narrows for more central collisions and excess particles are produced at high pseudorapidity in peripheral collisions. For a given centrality, however, the distributions are found to scale with energy according to the "limiting fragmentation" hypothesis. The universal fragmentation region described by this scaling grows in pseudorapidity with increasing collision energy, extending well away from the beam rapidity and covering more than half of the pseudorapidity range over which particles are produced. This approach to a universal limiting curve appears to be a dominant feature of the pseudorapidity distribution and therefore of the total particle production in these collisions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure