Representación y reconstrucción de la cultura hispánica en los libros de texto de español localizados en China: Una perspectiva del discurso multimodal

This study examines how Hispanic cultures are represented and reconstructed in localized Spanish textbooks in China. A multimodal discourse perspective was applied to the textbook data to identify the texts, images, audios, and teaching videos that depict Hispanic cultures, and to analyze their reconstructions. Our findings show that despite a large number of Hispanic big “C” and small “c” cultures included in the textbooks, there is an unbalanced contribution of sub-cultures and a lack of depth in teaching. Based on the analysis of textbook data and teaching video, the study also reveals several main strategies employed by textbook writers and users (teachers) in reconstructing culture, including translation, superficialization, symbolization, comparison, localization and globalization. This study is helpful in promoting the development of Spanish language education and textbooks and in global and local contexts, and also in better understanding language teachers’ agency in teaching foreign culture. Keywords: Spanish as a foreign language, textbook analysis, culture representation and reconstruction, multimodal discourse analysisEste artículo se enfoca en cómo se representan y se reconstruyen las culturas hispánicas en los libros de texto chinos de ELE en China. Para analizar las reconstrucciones de las culturas hispánicas, se aplica una perspectiva del discurso multimodal en el estudio de datos sobre los libros de texto a través de la identificación de los textos verbales, las imágenes visuales, los audios y los vídeos de enseñanza que presentan esas culturas. El resultado indica que, a pesar de que los libros de texto contienen un gran número de culturas hispánicas de las “C” grandes y “c” pequeñas, existen una combinación de aportaciones desequilibrada de subculturas y una carencia de profundidad en la enseñanza de las culturas. Basado en el análisis de los datos de libros de texto y los vídeos de enseñanza, el estudio también indica varias estrategias principales que emplean sus autores y usuarios (profesores) a la hora de reconstruir culturas, que incluyen la traducción, la superficialización, la simbolización, la comparación, la localización y la globalización. Esta investigación es beneficiosa en promover el desarrollo de los libros de texto localizados de ELE en China y la enseñanza del español en los contextos tanto global como local, así como una mejor comprensión sobre el papel que empeña el profesor de lenguas durante la enseñanza de culturas extranjeras

Representación y reconstrucción de la cultura hispánica en los libros de texto de español localizados en China: Una perspectiva del discurso multimodal

This study examines how Hispanic cultures are represented and reconstructed in localized Spanish textbooks in China. A multimodal discourse perspective was applied to the textbook data to identify the texts, images, audios, and teaching videos that depict Hispanic cultures, and to analyze their reconstructions. Our findings show that despite a large number of Hispanic big “C” and small “c” cultures included in the textbooks, there is an unbalanced contribution of sub-cultures and a lack of depth in teaching. Based on the analysis of textbook data and teaching video, the study also reveals several main strategies employed by textbook writers and users (teachers) in reconstructing culture, including translation, superficialization, symbolization, comparison, localization and globalization. This study is helpful in promoting the development of Spanish language education and textbooks and in global and local contexts, and also in better understanding language teachers’ agency in teaching foreign culture. FUNDING INFORMATION. This paper was funded by China’s National Social Science Fund of Education (BGA210059), project led by the corresponding author Geng Zhi.Este artículo se enfoca en cómo se representan y se reconstruyen las culturas hispánicas en los libros de texto chinos de ELE en China. Para analizar las reconstrucciones de las culturas hispánicas, se aplica una perspectiva del discurso multimodal en el estudio de datos sobre los libros de texto a través de la identificación de los textos verbales, las imágenes visuales, los audios y los vídeos de enseñanza que presentan esas culturas. El resultado indica que, a pesar de que los libros de texto contienen un gran número de culturas hispánicas de las “C” grandes y “c” pequeñas, existen una combinación de aportaciones desequilibrada de subculturas y una carencia de profundidad en la enseñanza de las culturas. Basado en el análisis de los datos de libros de texto y los vídeos de enseñanza, el estudio también indica varias estrategias principales que emplean sus autores y usuarios (profesores) a la hora de reconstruir culturas, que incluyen la traducción, la superficialización, la simbolización, la comparación, la localización y la globalización. Esta investigación es beneficiosa en promover el desarrollo de los libros de texto localizados de ELE en China y la enseñanza del español en los contextos tanto global como local

Simultaneous Single-Position Oblique Lateral Interbody Fusion Combined With Unilateral Percutaneous Pedicle Screw Fixation for Single-Level Lumbar Tuberculosis: A 3-Year Retrospective Comparative Study

Objective To illustrate a simultaneous single-position oblique lateral interbody fusion (SP-OLIF) combined with unilateral percutaneous pedicle screw fixation in treating single-level lumbar tuberculosis, compared with posterior-only approach in clinical and radiographic evaluations. Methods Consecutive patients who had undergone surgeries for single-level lumbar tuberculosis from January 2018 to December 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. The patients included were divided into SP-OLIF and posterior-only groups according to surgical methods applied, with follow-up for at least 36 months. Outcomes included estimated blood loss, operative time, and complications for safety evaluation; visual analogue scale (VAS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) for efficacy evaluation; erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) for evaluating tuberculosis activity; x-ray and computed tomography scan were used for radiographic evaluation. Results A total of 136 patients had been enrolled in the study (60 for SP-OLIF and 76 for Posterior-only). The median operative time, blood loss, and hospital stay in SP-OLIF group were significantly less, with a lower complication rate. Meanwhile, the SP-OLIF group showed substantially lower VAS in 1 and 7 days and decreased ODI in the first month postoperatively, without significant difference afterward. Similarly, the median CRP and ESR in SP-OLIF group were significantly lower in 3 and 7 days postoperatively. All indicators had reduced to normal after 3 months. No recurrence had been reported throughout the whole follow-up. Conclusion SP-OLIF was an efficient minimally invasive protocol for single-level lumbar tuberculosis, facilitating earlier clinical improvement, with decreased blood loss, operative time and hospital stay compared with posterior-only approach

Understanding the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and the implication for achieving climate change mitigation targets

[No abstract

Effects of resonant absorption and inhomogeneous broadening on reflection and absorption spectra of optical lattices diamond NV centers

Using the transfer-matrix method, the effects of absorption and inhomogeneous broadening, in one-dimensional optical lattice constructed from inhomogeneously broadened spin transitions of nitrogen-vacancy color centers in single crystal diamond (NV diamond), on the reflection and absorption spectrum are presented. Further analysis show that, in realistic periodic stacks of the NV diamond, modulating the geometrical configuration of the external optical potential, the absorption lineshape scale, and the inhomogeneous broadening, one could easily access the diverse gap structures and a high band-gap reflectivity. These pretty useful calculations hold more potential for effective control of the light-matter interaction and realization in practice

Numerical Evaluation on a Direct-contact Thermal Energy Storage System

This study evaluates numerically various configurations of direct-contact PCM thermal energy storage devices, regarding inlet location, inlet flow directions, pre-heating and inlet tubes with straight fins. The direct-contact conjugate heat transfer between the heat transfer fluid (HTF) and PCM during melting process, is solved numerically by enthalpy-porosity formulation in the computational fluid dynamic approach. The results indicate that pre-heating could form channels in a short time, which improve heat transfer rate for charging stages. To further enhance heat transfer performance, inlet tubes embedded with straight fins. Compared to pre-heating method, the electric power can be saved. Each design are evaluated with respect to their heat transfer performance vis-à-vis heat storage ratio

The Effect of Diluent Mixture with Upper Critical Solution Temperature on Membrane Formation Process, Microstructure, and Performance of PVDF Hollow Fiber Membrane by TIPS Process

Thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) is a technique to prepare commercial membrane. However, the quick polymer crystallization during the quenching process will bring about a dense and thick skin layer and thus decrease permeability markedly. In this paper, a diluent mixture with upper critical solution temperature (UCST) was used to prepare polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membrane. That is, the separation between diluent (propylene carbonate (PC)) and non-diluent (dioctyl terephthalate (DOTP)) occurred during the quenching process when the temperature of the dope was lower than 110 °C. The effects of separation between PC and DOTP and the resulting coalescence of DOTP on the PVDF crystallization process, microstructure, and the permeability of the membranes were analyzed. The results showed that the suitable PC/DOTP weight ratio reduced the thickness of the skin layer near the outer surface markedly and resulted in a porous outer surface, and the microstructure evolution process was proposed. The maximum pure water flux for the prepared membrane is up to 128.5 L·m−2·h−1 even in a dry mode without using a hydrophilizing agent. The rejection rate of the carbonic particle is nearly 100%. This study presents a novel and simple way to fabricate the microporous membrane with the interconnected pore structure

A modified U-Net convolutional neural network for segmenting periprostatic adipose tissue based on contour feature learning

Objective: This study trains a U-shaped fully convolutional neural network (U-Net) model based on peripheral contour measures to achieve rapid, accurate, automated identification and segmentation of periprostatic adipose tissue (PPAT). Methods: Currently, no studies are using deep learning methods to discriminate and segment periprostatic adipose tissue. This paper proposes a novel and modified, U-shaped convolutional neural network contour control points on a small number of datasets of MRI T2W images of PPAT combined with its gradient images as a feature learning method to reduce feature ambiguity caused by the differences in PPAT contours of different patients. This paper adopts a supervised learning method on the labeled dataset, combining the probability and spatial distribution of control points, and proposes a weighted loss function to optimize the neural network's convergence speed and detection performance. Based on high-precision detection of control points, this paper uses a convex curve fitting to obtain the final PPAT contour. The imaging segmentation results were compared with those of a fully convolutional network (FCN), U-Net, and semantic segmentation convolutional network (SegNet) on three evaluation metrics: Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), Hausdorff distance (HD), and intersection over union ratio (IoU). Results: Cropped images with a 270 × 270-pixel matrix had DSC, HD, and IoU values of 70.1%, 27 mm, and 56.1%, respectively; downscaled images with a 256 × 256-pixel matrix had 68.7%, 26.7 mm, and 54.1%. A U-Net network based on peripheral contour characteristics predicted the complete periprostatic adipose tissue contours on T2W images at different levels. FCN, U-Net, and SegNet could not completely predict them. Conclusion: This U-Net convolutional neural network based on peripheral contour features can identify and segment periprostatic adipose tissue quite well. Cropped images with a 270 × 270-pixel matrix are more appropriate for use with the U-Net convolutional neural network based on contour features; reducing the resolution of the original image will lower the accuracy of the U-Net convolutional neural network. FCN and SegNet are not appropriate for identifying PPAT on T2 sequence MR images. Our method can automatically segment PPAT rapidly and accurately, laying a foundation for PPAT image analysis

Induction and identification of hexadecaploid of Pinellia ternate

Pinellia ternate (Thunb.) Breit (Araceae) is an important Chinese medicinal herb. In order to obtain the hexadecaploid plants of P. ternate with improved medicinal qualities, the shoot tips from in vitro-grown plants were treated with colchicine at various concentrations for different time to double the chromosome number. We obtained highest (42.5%) frequency of morphological variation when the tips were treated with 0.1% colchicine for 48 h. The putative hexadecaploid plants showed characteristics such as larger and thicker leaves, deeper green leaf color, stouter petiole, larger stomata, lower density of stomata across the lower epidermis of leaves and increased numbers of chloroplasts per stomata guard cell. Further analysis by \ufb02ow cytometry and chromosome counting con\ufb01rmed seven out of 129 were hexadecaploids. Besides, the growth rate (GR) of PLBs in hexadecaploid plants was 10.49% (increase rate in 1 day), 1.6 times higher than that of octoploid plants and the alkaloid content of PLBs in hexadecaploid plants was 0.0794%, 1.8 times higher than that of octoploid plant. The results indicated that we have established a successful procedure for development and propagation of hexadecaploid of P. ternate with higher GR and alkaloid content.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

New dual functional CYP450 gene involves in isoflavone biosynthesis in Glycine max L.

Glycine max L. accumulates a large amount of isoflavonoid compounds, which is beneficial for plant defense, plant-microbe symbiotic interactions, and human health. Several CYP450 subfamily genes are involved in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway in plants. In the present study, we found 24 CYP82 subfamily genes were differentially expressed in various tissues of soybean, in Phytophthora sojae-infected soybean varieties and in soybean hairy roots treated with cell wall glucan elicitor. Six of them (GmCYP82A2, GmCYP82A3, GmCYP82A4, GmCYP82A23, GmCYP82C20 and GmCYP82D26) were co-expressed with other known isoflavonoid pathway genes in soybean. Their enzymatic activity in yeast feeding assays showed that only GmCYP82D26 was able to convert naringenin to daidzein with both aryl migration and dehydration function. When GmCYP82D26 was over-expressed in soybean hairy roots, the contents of the two major isoflavonoid aglycones in soybean (daidzein and genistein) were reduced, but total flavonoids were not affected. When GmCYP82D26 was suppressed by RNAi in the hairy roots, daidzein content was decreased but genistein content was increased, with unchanged total flavonoid content. GmCYP82D26 was found to be localized in the endoplasmic reticulum at subcellular level when transiently expressed in tobacco leaf epidermis. GmCYP82D26 gene was preferentially expressed in roots, with low expression level in other tissues in soybean. Homology modeling and molecular docking showed that GmCYP82D26 could form hydrogen bond with both HEM and naringenin at C5–OH and C4 carbonyl. All these results indicated that GmCYP82D26 possesses new and dual enzymatic activity, which bridges the two branches (daidzein and genistein branch) of isoflavonoid pathway in soybean