Communicative Language Testing: Implications for Computer Based Language Testing in French for Specific Purposes

[EN] Current evolutions of language testing have led to integrating computers in FSP assessments both in oral and written communicative tasks. This paper deals with two main issues: learners expectations about the types of questions in FSP computer based assessments and the relation with their own experience. This paper describes the experience of 23 freshmen French students enrolled in the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia who took a computer based version of a FSP test. Their attitudes were observed and annotated. The learners expressed their difficulties in taking a FSP computer delivered test. The paper suggests that the dramatic change between general French and French for Specific Purposes may imply significant differences in the students to the new computer context due to the changes in vocabulary, register and language use as well as computer ergonomics. The paper concludes: firstly, that basic notions of certain specialized forms and vocabulary should be introduced in high school; secondly, that FSP should tend to be more communicative and that FSP teaching should be more reflective and communicative than it may be in colleges at the moment; thirdly, that if computer based tests may be a valuable tool in FSP testing (Garcia Laborda et al, 2010), item choice and prompts should be carefully considered. The analysis hereby presented is contextualized in computer based language testing and is a relevant part of the OPENPAU (MINECO FFI2011-22442) project.The researchers would like to express their gratitude to the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) with co-founding with ERDF funds under the 2008-2011 plan. for supporting the development and implementation of OPENPAU project (MINECO FFI2011-22442). The researchers would also like to than the participation of the Camille Research group of Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain) for allowing Dr. López participate in this research and its evolutions from 2009 to 2013García Laborda, J.; López-Santiago, M.; Otero De Juan, N.; Alvarez Alvarez, A. (2014). Communicative Language Testing: Implications for Computer Based Language Testing in French for Specific Purposes. Journal of Language Teaching and Research (Online). 5(5):971-975. https://doi.org/10.4304/jltr.5.5.971-975S9719755

New Technique for Probing the Protecting Character of the Solid Electrolyte Interphase as a Critical but Elusive Property for Pursuing Long Cycle Life Lithium-Ion Batteries

The formation of a protecting nanolayer, so-called solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), on the negative electrode of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) from product precipitation of the cathodic decomposition of the electrolyte is a blessing since the electrically insulating nature of this nanolayer protects the electrode surface, preventing continuous electrolyte decomposition and enabling the large nominal cell voltage of LIBs, e.g., 3.3−3.8 V. Thus, the protection performance of the nanolayer SEI is essential for LIBs to achieve a long cycle life. Unfortunately, the evaluation of this critical property of the SEI is not trivial. Herein, a new, cheap, and easily implementable methodology, the redox-mediated enhanced coulometry, is presented to estimate the protecting quality of the SEI. The key element of the methodology is the addition of a redox mediator in the electrolyte during the degassing step (after the SEI formation cycle). The redox mediator leads to an internal self-discharge process that is inversely proportional to the protecting character of the SEI. Also, the self-discharge process results in an easily measurable decrease in Coulombic efficiency. The influence of vinylene carbonate as an electrolyte additive in the resulting SEI is used as a case study to showcase the potential of the proposed methodology.The author acknowledges the financial support from the Spanish Government (MINECO) through the Research Challenges Programme (Grant RTI2018-099228-A-I00) and Ramón y Cajal award (RYC2018-026086-I) as well as the NanoBat project. NanoBat has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement no. 861962

Water renewal mechanisms of the Bay of Algeciras in the Strait of Gibraltar

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A Modular Test-Suite for the Validation and Verification of Electromagnetic Solvers in Electromagnetic Compatibility Applications

Computational solvers are increasingly used to solve complex electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problems in re- search, product design, and manufacturing. The reliability of these simulation tools must be demonstrated in order to give confidence in their results. Standards prescribe a range of techniques for the validation, verification, and calibration of computational electro- magnetics solvers including external references based on measure- ment or for cross-validation with other models. We have developed a modular test-suite based on an enclosure to provide the EMC community with a complex external reference for model valida- tion. We show how the test-suite can be used to validate a range of electromagnetic solvers. The emphasis of the test-suite is on the features of interest for EMC applications, such as apertures and coupling to cables. We have fabricated a hardware implementa- tion of many of the test-cases and measured them in an anechoic chamber over the frequency range to 1–6 GHz to provide a mea- surement reference for validation over this range. The test-suite has already been used extensively in two major aeronautical research programs and is openly available for use and future development by the community.This work was supported by the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under the Flapless Air Vehicle Integrated Industrial Research program under Grant GR/S71552/01, and from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program FP7/2007-2013 under Grant 205294 on the High Intensity Radio-frequency Field Synthetic Environment research project

Ergonomics factors in English as a foreign language testing: The case of Plevalex

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