Trans-Cultural Journeys of East-Asian Educators: The Impact of the Three Teachings

This paper presents the joint journeys, from the East to the West, of three emerging educators, who reflect on their lived experiences in an Asian educational context and their shaped identities through a connection between the motherland and the places to which they immigrated. They have grounded their identities in the inequities they experienced in Asian education and described their experiences through a cultural and social lens as Asian teachers studying in Canadian institutions. They story their lived experiences by using a Photo-voice research method to elicit the narratives of their East-to-West transcultural journeys. The major finding is the reconstructed identity of each of the researchers. The data collected through ‘Photo-voice’ sheds light on the influence on teachers’ mindset of the Three Teachings or Religions—Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism — across Asia on teachers' mindset, which are seen to cause inequities among the marginalized. The purpose of this research is an attempt by the authors, who have immersed themselves in each other’s journeys, to discuss how they have reformed their educator identities in a Canadian educational context in which equity, diversity, and inclusion are acknowledged

Effects of Grain Magnetic Properties and Grain Growth on Synthetic Dust Polarization of MHD Simulations in Protostellar Environments

Thermal dust polarization is a powerful tool to probe magnetic fields ($\textbf{B}$) and grain properties. However, a systematic study of the dependence of dust polarization on grain properties in protostellar environments is not yet available. In this paper, we post-process a non-ideal MHD simulation of a collapsing protostellar core with our updated POLARIS code to study in detail the effects of iron inclusions and grain growth on thermal dust polarization. We found that superparamagnetic (SPM) grains can produce high polarization degree of $p \sim 10-40\%$ beyond $\sim 500$ au from the protostar because of their efficient alignment by magnetically enhanced Radiative Torque mechanism. The magnetic field tangling by turbulence in the envelope causes the decrease in $p$ with increasing emission intensity $I$ as $p\propto I^{\alpha}$ with the slope $\alpha \sim -0.3$. But within 500 au, SPM grains tend to have inefficient internal alignment (IA) and be aligned with $\textbf{B}$ by RATs only, producing lower $p \sim 1\%$ and a steeper slope of $\alpha \sim -0.6$. For paramagnetic (PM) grains, the alignment loss of grains above $1\mu m$ in the inner $\sim 200$ au produces $p << 1\%$ and the polarization hole with $\alpha \sim -0.9$. Grain growth can increase $p$ in the envelope for SPM grains, but cause stronger depolarization for SPM grains in the inner $\sim 500$ au and for PM grains in the entire protostellar core. Finally, we found the increase of polarization angle dispersion function $S$ with iron inclusions and grain growth, implying the dependence of B-field strength measured using the DCF technique on grain alignment and grain properties.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS. 31 pages, 23 figures, 13 pages in Appendi

Application of Black-Scholes-Merton Model in Option Pricing and Intangibles Assets

Major: Finance and Mathematics Faculty Mentor: Dr. Joseph Shomberg, Mathematics The Black-Scholes model was developed by Fisher Black and Myron Scholes in the 1970s to price stock options. Since then the model has been suited to price so-called intangible assets such as trademarks and patents. In this paper, we investigate the related Black-Scholes-Merton model and the relevant characteristics of patents in order to associate patents as real options. After describing patents as options, we apply the Black-Scholes-Merton model to the valuation of the intangible assets. Special attention is given to modeling volatility and the cost of delay in order to obtain the best patent price and the optimal time to commercialize the patent. Finally, we apply our patent price model to study the case of an upcoming Apple product

ENGLISH TEACHERS’ QUESTIONS IN A VIETNAMESE HIGH SCHOOL READING CLASSROOM

Recently, developing students’ thinking, especially critical thinking (CT), has become a hot issue. Critical thinking has been claimed to have an important impact on learners’ reading comprehension because it can help them analyze, evaluate, construct their thinking, solving problems and reasoning (Ennis, 1989). However, the extent that teachers’ classroom activities contribute to developing students’ critical thinking has rarely been researched. The current case study was conducted with six EFL high school teachers and 10 reading lessons in Vietnam to explore the teachers’ use of questions and to analyze if these questions could facilitate the students’ critical thinking. Classroom observations and the cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy were adapted as the research instruments. The study results reveal common types of questions are often used by high school teachers in their reading lessons. Suggestions are made on types of questions that teachers should function more in their class in order to enhance students’ critical thinking

Living a queer life in Vietnam

In this autoethnographic study, I recount my lived experiences as a queer boy raised in a heteronormative family in Vietnam, where social life and culture, families, and institutions are infused with binaried gendered roles and hierarchies, alongside conservative Confucianism and Buddhism. Following queer theory, encompassing conceptions of queerness, queer sense, and queer identities, I examine, through the praxis of my lived experiences, notions of masculinity and interlocking conceptions of hegemonic masculinity and hegemonic femininity, analyzing theories of gendered hegemonies, particularly gender stereotypes, offering perspectives on gender fluidity, queer performances, and hegemonic queerness, framed by my experiences as a queer boy and youth in Vietnam

Learning Pattern Classification Tasks with Imbalanced Data Sets

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Towards enhanced surface roughness modeling in machining: an analysis of data transformation techniques

Data transformation methods are utilized to convert datasets into non-integer formats, potentially altering their distribution patterns. This implies that the variance and standard deviation of the dataset may be altered after the dataset undergoes data transformation operations. Improving model accuracy is a primary application of these methods. This study compares the efficacy of three data transformation techniques: square root transformation, logarithmic transformation, and inverse transformation. The comparison is conducted within the context of developing a surface roughness model for a turning process. Eighteen experiments are performed using the Box-Behnken method, with surface roughness chosen as the response variable. The surface roughness dataset undergoes transformation using the mentioned methods. Four surface roughness regression models are then built: one without transformation, one with square root transformation, one with logarithmic transformation, and one with inverse transformation. Evaluation metrics include coefficient of determination (R-Sq), adjusted coefficient of determination (R-Sq(adj)), Mean Absolute Error (%MAE), and Mean Squared Error (%MSE). Results indicate logarithmic transformation as the most effective, followed by square root transformation, in enhancing model accuracy. The surface roughness model utilizing data transformation exhibits high R-Sq and R-Sq(adj) values, at 0.8792 and 0.7434&nbsp;respectively. On the other hand, this model has&nbsp;%MAE and %MSE values of only 10.33 and 2.05&nbsp;respectively. Conversely, inverse transformation exhibits the least effectiveness among the three method