The composing processes of unskilled ESL student writers: Six case studies.

This research was an attempt to investigate the composing processes of unskilled ESL writers in fulfilling classroom tasks through a case study approach. Six subjects (two Arabic speakers, two Japanese speakers and two Spanish speakers) were chosen from a Level One class in the Summer Session II of the Intensive English Program in West Virginia University. The purpose of the study was to describe the composing processes of these unskilled ESL writers, the role of L1, the role of transfer of L1 composing strategies into L2 composing, and the implications and suggestions for ESL composing pedagogy. Data collection methods included classroom observation, structured and open-ended interviews, questionnaire responses and written product analysis. The researcher found that when the complex composing process was divided into four distinct stages and the subjects had several chances to write on the same topic, it made composing easier and the subjects wrote better. Although the whole process was divided into four stages, the recursiveness and the interplay of each stage were conspicuous throughout the research. The six subjects differed in degree of reliance on their L1 in L2 composing, nevertheless, it seemed that these unskilled ESL writers had to use their L1 in L2 composing for both content and vocabulary concern. Many writing strategies they learned in L1 did transfer to L2 composing. However, there were evidences of both positive and negative transfer in their written products. The researcher concluded that composing was a creative, dynamic and meaning discovering cognitive process. Roen\u27s theory of avoiding cognitive overload in composing proved to be both insightful and practical. It helped the unskilled ESL writers to build up their confidence and made the anxiety-filled experience more enjoyable. L1 and L1 writing strategies helps rather than hinders L2 composing process. Nevertheless, knowledge of contractive rhetoric should be taught to help ESL students to adjust their own culture to the expectations and conventions of the target culture

In situ crystal growth of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF) on electrospun polyurethane nanofibers

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.This paper reports for the first time in situcrystal growth of ZIF-8 on electrospun polyurethane (PU) nanofibers. In SEM images, continuous and compact ZIF-8 nanocrystals grow along electrospun PU nanofibers. The highest loading capacity of ZIF-8 on PU reaches 63%. By N2adsorption–desorption, ZIF-8-PU shows a high surface area of 566 cm2g−1. Combining the good flexibility of PU with the high adsorption properties of ZIF-8, ZIF-8-PU can be easily tailored into clothes or other forms as adsorption material. Furthermore, the gas adsorption ability of ZIF-8-PU was measured for H2, N2, O2and CO2at room temperature (20 °C) under different pressure gradients. The results show that the adsorption capacity of ZIF-8-PU for CO2is nearly 11 times that for H2, 50 times that for O2and 75 times that for N2at 800 mmHg

The efficient expression of nattokinase in Escherichia coli by sequence optimization

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Kinetics and mechanisms of catalyzed dual-E (antithetic) controllers

Homeostasis plays a central role in our understanding how cells and organisms are able to oppose environmental disturbances and thereby maintain an internal stability. During the last two decades there has been an increased interest in using control engineering methods, especially integral control, in the analysis and design of homeostatic networks. Several reaction kinetic mechanisms have been discovered which lead to integral control. In two of them integral control is achieved, either by the removal of a single control species E by zero-order kinetics (“single-E controllers”), or by the removal of two control species by second-order kinetics (“antithetic or dual-E control”). In this paper we show results when the control species E1 and E2 in antithetic control are removed enzymatically by ping-pong or ternary-complex mechanisms. Our findings show that enzyme-catalyzed dual-E controllers can work in two control modes. In one mode, one of the two control species is active, but requires zero-order kinetics in its removal. In the other mode, both controller species are active and both are removed enzymatically. Conditions for the two control modes are put forward and biochemical examples with the structure of enzyme-catalyzed dual-E controllers are discussed.publishedVersio

Alpha-mangostin attenuates oxidative stress and inflammation in adjuvant-induced arthritic rats

Purpose: To examine the protective effect of α-mangostin on Freund’s adjuvant-induced rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in rats.Methods: Male Wistar rats were divided into four groups (n = 6). The rats were made arthritic using a single intradermal injection of 0.1 ml complete Freund's adjuvant. α-Mangostin (100 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered for 21 days. After the experimental period, the animals were sacrificed and various biochemical markers were assessed.Results: Arthritis-induced rats showed a significant (p < 0.05) increase in malondialdehyde (16.28 ± 1.43 vs 7.22 ± 1.03) and nitric oxide (3.82 ± 0.87 vs 6.12 ± 1.23) with a concomitant reduction of antioxidants in the paw tissue. α-Mangostin intervention significantly (p < 0.05) reduced malondialdehyde and nitric oxide levels and restored antioxidant levels to normalcy by mitigating oxidative stress. The arthritic rats exhibited elevated tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) serum concentrations, upregulated TNF-α and IL–6 protein levels, and upregulated nuclear factor αB (NF-αB) mRNA expression in paw tissues. Treatment with α-mangostin significantly (p < 0.05) reduced serum levels and downregulated inflammatory markers to normalcy.Conclusion: The results suggest that α-mangostin displayed a protective effect against adjuvantinduced arthritis in rats mediated through antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.Keywords: Rheumatoid arthritis, Freund’s adjuvant, α-Mangostin, Oxidative stress, Inflammatio

Driving maneuvers prediction based on cognition-driven and data-driven method

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) improve driving safety significantly. They alert drivers from unsafe traffic conditions when a dangerous maneuver appears. Traditional methods to predict driving maneuvers are mostly based on data-driven models alone. However, existing methods to understand the driver's intention remain an ongoing challenge due to a lack of intersection of human cognition and data analysis. To overcome this challenge, we propose a novel method that combines both the cognition-driven model and the data-driven model. We introduce a model named Cognitive Fusion-RNN (CF-RNN) which fuses the data inside the vehicle and the data outside the vehicle in a cognitive way. The CF-RNN model consists of two Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) branches regulated by human reaction time. Experiments on the Brain4Cars benchmark dataset demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms previous methods and achieves state-of-the-art performance

Plan de marketing para el lanzamineto de Airpods personalizables de Apple

El plan de Marketing para Apple va a consistir en identificar oportunidades y amenazas, analizar las fortalezas y debilidades que tiene la compañía y constituir un plan de acción que pueda hacer frente a los descensos de ventas que hubo durante estos últimos años e incentivar de una nueva forma a los consumidores para que tengan una mayor motivación de compra hacia la marca más emocional con un producto más personalizado y una comunicación basada en el entretenimiento con la marca. Para ello se ha llevado a cabo un análisis tanto interno como externo, estudiando las distintas variables que conforman el contexto y la situación actual de la empresa. En primer lugar, realizamos un análisis PESTEL, estudiando la importancia de la tecnología y comunicación y los cambios en el comportamiento del consumidor. En segundo lugar, nos hemos centrado en el análisis DAFO para estudiar los valores, cultura, riesgos y necesidades que cubren y dejan de cubrir la compañía en sí, pero principalmente observamos la estrategia de marketing mix que actualmente lleva a cabo. Una vez realizado el análisis, se han definido los objetivos que se deberán conseguir en este plan atendiendo a los resultados del análisis realizado y plantear el plan de acción. Las acciones que se han propuesto se basan en dar a conocer la marca y el nuevo Airpods personalizable con una nueva forma de comunicación integrada basada en la experiencia y contenido, apelando más a la emoción del consumidor en vez de las históricas campañas cognitivas en el q1ue se quería destacar más los beneficios funcionales para involucrar al target. Finalmente, el Plan de Marketing finaliza con su presupuesto y un plan de control