Thinking out of the textbook : Toward authenticity and politeness awareness

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Strengthening the interface between research and pedagogy in business English and beyond

As part of the special issue “Business English: Research into Professional Practice”, this article aims to contribute to a major discussion in the field of business English concerning ways of strengthening the research–pedagogy interface. The article is a commentary on my previously published paper, “Forging a link between research and pedagogy: A holistic framework for evaluating business English materials” (2009). In this commentary, I discuss various aspects of the paper, including the significance of its proposed approach to connecting research with pedagogy, the influence of the paper on business English and other fields, and the application of its ideas by practitioners to business English materials evaluation and beyond. I also reflect on the paper’s influence on my subsequent work as both a researcher and a practitioner. I conclude by suggesting future directions that should help to bring research closer to pedagogical practice.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Introduction

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Properties of Channel Interference for Wi-Fi Location Fingerprinting

Localization systems for indoor areas have recently been suggested that make use of existing wireless local area network (WLAN) infrastructure and location fingerprinting approach. However, most existing research work ignores channel interference between wireless infrastructures and this could affect accurate and precise positioning. A better understanding of the properties of channel interference could assist in improving the positioning accuracy while saving significant amounts of resources in the location-aware infrastructure. This paper investigates to what extent the positioning accuracy is affected by channel interference between access points. Two sets of experiments compare how the positioning accuracy is affected in three different channel assignment schemes: ad-hoc, sequential, and orthogonal data is analyzed to understand what features of channel interference affect positioning accuracy. The results show that choosing an appropriate channel assignment scheme could make localization 10% more accurate and reduces the number of access points that are required by 15%. The experimental analysis also indicates that the channel interference usually obeys a right-skewed distribution and positioning accuracy is heavily dependent on channel interference between access points (APs)

Limb Idleness Index (LII): a novel measurement of pain in a rat model of osteoarthritis

SummaryObjectivesMechanical allodynia during ambulation in osteoarthritis (OA) animal models can be assessed as decreased extent of loading or decreased duration of loading. We propose to measure gait adaptation to pain by both mechanisms with the development of Limb Idleness Index (LII) in a rat model of knee OA.MethodsRats were assigned to anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT), Sham, or Normal group (n = 6). Gait data were collected at pre-injury, 1, 2, 3 and 6 months post-injury. Ratios of target print intensity, anchor print intensity, and swing duration were combined to obtain LII. The association of gait changes with pain was assessed by buprenorphine treatment at 3 and 6 months post-injury. At 6 months, OA-related structural changes in knee joints were examined by μCT and results from histological scoring were correlated with LII.ResultsAs compared to pre-injury level (range 0.75–1.20), LII in ACLT group was increased at 6 months post-injury, which was significantly higher than that in Sham and Normal groups (P = 0.024). The increase in LII in ACLT group was effectively reversed by buprenorphine treatment (P = 0.004). ACLT group exhibited a significantly higher maximum Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) score as compared to Sham (P = 0.005) and Normal (P = 0.006) groups. Significant correlation was found between LII and side-to-side difference in OARSI score (r = 0.893, P < 0.001).ConclusionsLII presents a good measurement for OA-related knee pain in rat model

Ecologically Sensitive Wetlands on Maui: Groundwater Protection Strategy for Hawaii

The EPA Ground-Water Protection Strategy has established differential protection levels based on the beneficial uses of groundwaters. Groundwater resources that are: (1) Irreplaceable sources of drinking water; and/or (2) Ecologically Vital are designated as of unusually high value. To determine those groundwaters that meet the EPA criteria for qualifying as “Ecologically Vital” we have examined 24 groundwater based (wetland) ecological systems on the island of Maui. An inventory of the physical, biological and cultural characteristics of each area including “red flag” features has been developed and coded. Using this “habitat code” a rating system that reflects the sensitivity, i.e. “uniqueness” of “nonrenewable” attributes of each system was designed and 18 “ecologically vital” habitats were identified that meet the EPA criteria for Class 1 level of groundwater protection. Insufficient information was available to determine the sensitivity of one of the sites.Department of Health, State of Hawai

Multiplier-less low-delay FIR and IIR wavelet filter banks with SOPOT coefficients

In this paper, a new family of multiplier-less two-channel low-delay wavelet filter banks using the PR structure in [3] and the SOPOT(sum-of-powers-of-two) representation is proposed. In particular, the functions α(z) and β(z) in the structure are chosen as nonlinear-phase FIR and IIR filters, and the design of such multiplier-less filter banks is performed using the genetic algorithm. The proposed design method is very simple to use, and is sufficiently general to construct low-delay wavelet bases with flexible length, delay, and number of zero at π (or 0) in their analysis filters. Several design examples are given to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method