Explore Instructional Leadership in Chinese Program of Ekamai International School in Thailand

It is well known that language learning is always closely linked with surrounding environment. Beyond the influence of outer environment, students’ autonomy is another vital aspect. Instructional leadership is predicated on the assumption that teachers and principals need to work together as colleagues to improve teaching and learning in school. Chinese is regarded as a third language in Thai international school, so Chinese learning is closely linked with students’ autonomy and their social community circumstances. Principals take the lead in operative and professional endeavor, in the end it is the teachers who determine their success. Two very important strands of students’ Chinese learning quality lie in self-agency of students (including academic self-efficacy, behavior self-control, and academic self-determination) and their relationship (teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, home-school relationship). Weiner’s theory of Causal Attribution posits that an individuals’ effort in their ability to manage their own learning will be predictive of their active participation in current learning, which will in turn be predictive of instructional leadership at school. In this study, Ekamai International School (EIS) selected Chinese language subject from elementary level diversity students as the sample of study to exam their current situation, namely, their interpersonal support and social relationship influence. This paper described a small-size validation study of a questionnaire to measure for primary level students. The original was first developed by researchers in America in 2005. It was slightly modified for the current study and completed by a sample of students (n=37) who selected Chinese class in EIS in Thailand. The modified questionnaire is composed of six parts (Believe in me, My teacher, Take charge, My classmates, Following the class rules and Talk with my parents) contain 41 items. The reliability analysis result manifests five of six parts is valid and reliable. The Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficients of Take change is .288, less than 0.6; it indicated the part of “Take change” has no reliability

The Development of Principal Curriculum Leadership Capabilities Model for Secondary Schools in Shanghai, China

The purpose of this study aimed to develop principal curriculum leadership capabilities model for secondary schools in Shanghai. Both qualitative content analysis and quantitative survey were employed by this study. From the findings, the highest curriculum leadership capabilities of principals of current practice and expectations are the same factor, namely, empathizing. Findings from the gap analysis showed that the priorities of improvement of curriculum leadership capabilities for principals listed by the ranking of: (1) knower and expertise, (2) skills in curriculum development process, (3) diagnosis, (4) building a learning school, (5) strategy, (6) influencing, (7) self-regulation, (8) flexibility and responsiveness, and (9) decisiveness. All above major findings and the foundational theories including Shanghai context and academic leadership capabilities framework (Fullan & Scott, 2009) along with its supported theories were utilized to create the model. The proposed model was constructed in form of bloom graphics presenting its vision, mission, objectives, as well as its applications. It will be applied to equip principals well to shape the future curriculum leadership: leading from curriculum to currere in order to meet the needs of students and the society, and also, make principals become change capable curriculum leaders who have been dedicating to school sustainable development orientated to “Go global, and Stay local”

Collisions of young disc galaxies in the early universe

In the local universe, disc galaxies are generally well evolved and Toomre stable. Their collisions with satellite galaxies naturally produce ring structures, which has been observed and extensively studied. In contrast, at high redshifts, disc galaxies are still developing and clumpy. These young galaxies interact with each other more frequently. However, the products of their collisions remain elusive. Here we systematically study the minor collisions between a clumpy galaxy and a satellite on orbits with different initial conditions, and find a new structure that is different from the local collisional ring galaxies. The clumpness of the target galaxy is fine-tuned by the values of Toomre parameter, $Q$. Interestingly, a thick and knotty ring structure is formed without any sign of a central nucleus in the target galaxy. Our results provide a promising explanation of the empty ring galaxy recently observed in R5519 at redshift $z=2.19$. Moreover, we show that the clumpy state of the collided galaxy exists for a much longer timescale, compared to isolated self-evolved clumpy galaxies that have been widely investigated.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Studies on photoactive ruthenium(II) and iridium(III) polypyridyl complexes

This thesis reports studies into several photoactive transition metal complexes. The photochemistry of [Ir(tpy)Cl3], hitherto used mainly as a synthetic precursor in thermal reactions, is reported in Chapter 2. Results showed that photosubstitution occurred under light, with solvent replacing one chloride ligand to give [Ir(tpy)(S)Cl2]+, where S is solvent (H2O, MeOH, MeCN). Two isomeric photoproducts were discovered in DMSO: one identified as [Ir(tpy)(kS-DMSO)Cl2]Cl (2A) and the other as [Ir(tpy)(kO-DMSO)Cl2]Cl (2B). 2A was the primary product under green light (505nm), whereas 2B predominated at long-wave UV wavelengths. Furthermore, these isomers could interconvert photochemically in a bi-directional linkage isomerism process that could be cycled at least five times over 250 hours without evidence of photodecomposition. Instances of photoswitches with photochemically driven forward and reverse processes such as this are relatively uncommon and lead to promising applications, e.g. in erasable information storage. Further study showed the conversion of 2A to 2B was an intermolecular process, and that 2A was also photoactive in other solvents. The photobiological activity of [Ir(Menphen)2Cl2]Cl (n=0, 2 or 4)] is reported in Chapter 3. Cytotoxicity was determined both with and without irradiation, against several cancer cell lines, and intra-cellular accumulation was tracked using fluorescence microscopy. The complexes accumulated mainly in lysosomes, and their toxicity increased under light (>390nm). [Ir(Me2phen)2Cl2]Cl showed promise as an effective light-activated anticancer agent and we recommend further biochemical studies with this complex. Further biological testing, including cell cycle analysis and protein expression, indicated that these complexes are probably very similar to so-called cationic amphiphilic drugs (CAD), which have been shown to have some efficacy against cancer, but also potentially harmful side effects. For these iridium complexes, CAD characteristics are only activated under light, which increases selectivity. Chapter 4 investigates the photocytotoxicity of mononuclear Ru(II) complexes with and without the tetradentate ligand bb7, which could increase structural strain and thereby enhance photochemistry. We found instead that these structures remained relatively unstrained with no enhancement in their photoactivity. However, [Ru(Me4phen)3]2+ was found, for the first time, to have promise as a photoactive anticancer agent

Dynamic evolution of a hydraulic-mechanical-electric system with randomly fluctuating speed based on Chebyshev polynomial approximation method

The research proposed in this paper focuses on the dynamic evolution of a hydraulic-mechanical-electric system under the effect of randomly fluctuating speed. The rapid growth of installed wind power capacity may potentially affect the stability of power grids, causing larger fluctuations of the generator speed to hydropower stations. In this work, a probabilistic component is associated to the generator speed of a deterministic hydraulic-mechanical-electric system providing a novel random model. This latter is analyzed to investigate the dynamic evolution of the system adopting the Chebyshev polynomial approximation method. A careful comparison of the numerical application results obtained by the deterministic and the probabilistic approaches is carried out. In addition, the influence of the fluctuation intensity (D) on the differential gain (kd) of the PID is investigated, proposing a law for kd as function of D. Finally, the operating ranges of the grid water hammer and of the elastic water hammer models are compared in order to validate the consistence of the law. The results of the study provide robust bases for the stable and safe operation of hydropower stations.National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaFundamental Research Funds for the Central UniversitiesNorthwest A&F Universit

Effective adsorption of heavy metal ions in water by sulfhydryl modified nano titanium dioxide

Background: The monitoring and removal of heavy metal ions in wastewater will effectively improve the quality of water and promote the green and sustainable development of ecological environment. Using more efficient adsorption materials and more accurate detection means to treat heavy metal ions in water has always been a research focus and target of researchers.Method: A novel titania nanomaterial was modified with sulfhydryl group (nano TiO2-SH) for detection and adsorption of heavy metal ions in water, and accurately characterize the adsorption process using Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) and other effective testing methods.Results: The maximum adsorption efficiency of nano TiO2-SH for the Hg2+, Cd2+, Pb2+ three heavy metal ions reached 98.3%, 98.4% and 98.4% respectively. And more importantly, after five cycles of adsorption and desorption, the adsorption efficiency of nano TiO2-SH for these three metal ions is still above 96%.Conclusion: These results proved the nano TiO2-SH adsorbent has great potential in practical water pollution purification

Dynamic safety assessment of a nonlinear pumped-storage generating system in a transient process

This paper focuses on a pumped-storage generating system with a reversible Francis turbine and presents an innovative framework for safety assessment in an attempt to overcome their limitations. Thus the aim is to analyze the dynamic safety process and risk probability of the above nonlinear generating system. This study is carried out based on an existing pumped-storage power station. In this paper we show the dynamic safety evaluation process and risk probability of the nonlinear generating system using Fisher discriminant method. A comparison analysis for the safety assessment is performed between two different closing laws, namely the separate mode only to include a guide vane and the linkage mode that includes a guide vane and a ball valve. We find that the most unfavorable condition of the generating system occurs in the final stage of the load rejection transient process. It is also demonstrated that there is no risk to the generating system with the linkage mode but the risk probability of the separate mode is 6 percent. The results obtained are in good agreement with the actual operation of hydropower stations. The developed framework may not only be adopted for the applications of the pumped-storage generating system with a reversible Francis turbine but serves as the basis for the safety assessment of various engineering applications.National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaFundamental Research Funds for the Central UniversitiesScientific research funds of Northwest A&F UniversityScience Fund for Excellent Young Scholars from Northwest A&F University and Shaanxi Nova progra

Distinct MicroRNA Subcellular Size and Expression Patterns in Human Cancer Cells

Introduction. Small noncoding RNAs have important regulatory functions in different cell pathways. It is believed that most of them mainly play role in gene post-transcriptional regulation in the cytoplasm. Recent evidence suggests miRNA and siRNA activity in the nucleus. Here, we show distinct genome-wide sub-cellular localization distribution profiles of small noncoding RNAs in human breast cancer cells. Methods. We separated breast cancer cell nuclei from cytoplasm, and identified small RNA sequences using a high-throughput sequencing platform. To determine the relationship between miRNA sub-cellular distribution and cancer progression, we used microarray analysis to examine the miRNA expression levels in nucleus and cytoplasm of three human cell lines, one normal breast cell line and two breast cancer cell lines. Logistic regression and SVM were used for further analysis. Results. The sub-cellular distribution of small noncoding RNAs shows that numerous miRNAs and their isoforms (isomiR) not only locate to the cytoplasm but also appeare in the nucleus. Subsequent microarray analyses indicated that the miRNA nuclear-cytoplasmic-ratio is a significant characteristic of different cancer cell lines. Conclusions. Our results indicate that the sub-cellular distribution is important for miRNA function, and that the characterization of the small RNAs sub-cellular localizome may contribute to cancer research and diagnosis