Eye tracking in second language acquisition and bilingualism: a research synthesis and methodological guide. Godfroid, A. (2020). Routledge, Abingdon, 438 pages, ISBN: 978- 1-138-02467-0.

This book review evaluates Aline Godfroid’s Eye Tracking in Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism: A Research Synthesis and Methodological Guide. As one of the first on SLA eye tracking research, this book is a valuable resource for both L2 researchers and practitioners, by providing practical guidelines and a comprehensive synthesis of research in this field. This review first offers an introduction of the author’s background, the motivation, scope and goal of this book, its target readers, and a comparison of it with another book on the same subject. Then it summarizes the main points of each chapter. This is followed by analysis on its contribution to L2 research and practice. In particular, it discusses the book’s relevance for L2 researchers and practitioners, in providing inspiration for formulating new research questions and answering old questions with eye tracking, and for L2 pedagogical innovations, assessment, curriculum and materials development with findings gleaned from these studies. &nbsp

The Allocation of Micro-grid Energy Storage System Considering Controlling Parameter

This research proposes a novel method of how to integrate controlling parameters, voltage and frequency, into to the energy storage system (ESS) allocation in a microgrid with renewable sources. The goal is to use the sensitivity analysis to find the most effective bus where the ESS should be in-stored to minimize the fluctuations both in terms of voltage and frequency. Indicators, such as SAIDI and SAIFI, are used to measure system reliability after the optimum size and location of ESS are determined

The Shear Modulus and Deformation of Soils under Cyclic Loading

In this paper the dynamic deformation stages of soils under cyclic loading and the major factors affecting the shear modulus of soils are analyzed. The in-situ measurement of surface wave by larger energy source to obtain the shear modulus of the ground is described. On considering the important effect of shearing dilatancy on shear modulus of sandy soils, a modified formula is proposed. For typical soils, the axial strains under cyclic loading are determined either for estimating shear modulus or for the deformation analysis in design

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationTopological phases are new kind of quantum phases of matter with properties robust against weak disorders and interactions. They occur in two-dimensional electron liquids with quantized Hall conductance and in topological insulators etc. The description of these phases goes beyond Landau's theory of symmetry breaking. They are (partially) characterized by exotic properties, such as topology-dependent ground state degeneracy(GSD), fractional quantum numbers of anyonic excitations and topology-protected bulk-edge duality etc. In this dissertation, we systematically examine exactly solvable discrete models, particularly the so-called Levin-Wen models, for two-dimensional topological phases. They were expected to describe a large class of nonchiral (or, time reversal invariant) two-dimensional topological phases and to provide a Hamiltonian approach to some topological quantum field theories, which are related to topological invariants defined in the mathematical literature. We first show how to construct concrete models of the Levin-Wen type on a two-dimensional graph (generalized lattice), associated with the data from representation theory (the 3j- and 6j-symbols) of finite groups or quantum groups. Then an operator approach is developed to deal with the properties of the models, such as topology-dependent GSD and fractional quantum numbers for quasiparticle excitations. In this approach we are able to demonstrate the topological invariance/symmetry of the models under the mutation transformations of the graph on which the system lives, and explore this invariance to compute the topology-dependent GSD on a torus. Moreover, we use the operator approach to study the fluxon excitations, i.e., quasiparticles living on plaquettes, and to exhibit their fractional exchange (braiding) and exclusion statistics. Also, we explicitly show the correspondence between the degenerate ground states and the quasiparticle excitations: (1) the GSD on a torus is equal to the number of quasiparticle species; and (2) the modular matrices S and T obtained from the modular transformation of the torus for the ground states coincide with those obtained from the fractional exchange statistics of quasiparticles. In this way the present study reveals the first time in the literature the Hilbert space structure for the degenerate ground states as well as that for the excited states, and the interconnection between them in the Levin-Wen models

A meta-analysis of efficacy and safety of doripenem for treating bacterial infections

AbstractObjectiveThe aim of this article is to compare the efficacy and safety of doripenem for bacterial infections.MethodsWe included six randomized clinical trials identified from PubMed and Embase up to July 31, 2014. The included trials compared efficacy and safety of doripenem for complicated intra-abdominal infections, complicated urinary tract infection, nosocomial pneumonia, and acute biliary tract infection. The meta-analysis was carried on by the statistical software of Review Manager, version 5.2.ResultsCompared with empirical antimicrobial agents on overall treatment efficacy, doripenem was associated with similar clinical and microbiological treatment success rates (for the clinical evaluable population, odds ratio [OR]=1.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.93–1.69, p=0.13; for clinical modified intent-to-treatment population, OR=0.88, 95% CI 0.55–1.41, p=0.60; for microbiology evaluable population, OR=1.16, 95% CI 0.90–1.50, p=0.26; for microbiological modified intent-to-treatment (m-mITT), OR=0.98, 95% CI 0.81–1.20, p=0.87). We compared incidence of adverse events and all-cause mortality to analyze treatment safety. The outcomes suggested that doripenem was similar to comparators in terms of incidence of adverse events and all-cause mortality on modified intent-to-treatment population (for incidence of AEs, OR=1.10, 95% CI 0.90–1.35, p=0.33; for all-cause mortality, OR=1.08, 95% CI 0.77–1.51, p=0.67). In nosocomial pneumonia and ventilator-associated pneumonia treatment, doripenem was not inferior to other antibacterial agents in terms of efficacy and safety.ConclusionFrom this meta-analysis, we can conclude that doripenem is as valuable and well-tolerated than empirical antimicrobial agents for complicated intra-abdominal infections, complicated urinary tract infection, acute biliary tract infection and nosocomial pneumonia treatment

Tikhonov regularized second-order plus first-order primal-dual dynamical systems with asymptotically vanishing damping for linear equality constrained convex optimization problems

In this paper, in the setting of Hilbert spaces, we consider a Tikhonov regularized second-order plus first-order primal-dual dynamical system with asymptotically vanishing damping for a linear equality constrained convex optimization problem. The convergence properties of the proposed dynamical system depend heavily upon the choice of the Tikhonov regularization parameter. When the Tikhonov regularization parameter decreases rapidly to zero, we establish the fast convergence rates of the primal-dual gap, the objective function error, the feasibility measure, and the gradient norm of the objective function along the trajectory generated by the system. When the Tikhonov regularization parameter tends slowly to zero, we prove that the primal trajectory of the Tikhonov regularized dynamical system converges strongly to the minimal norm solution of the linear equality constrained convex optimization problem. Numerical experiments are performed to illustrate the efficiency of our approach