Syntactic complexity in English as a lingua franca academic writing

This study complements previous research on linguistic features of English as a lingua franca (ELF) from a syntactic complexity perspective. Specifically, the present study seeks to find out how ELF users express meaning relations in research articles using different syntactic structures. The same syntactic phenomena are also analyzed in comparable texts written in American English (AmE) to see in which way ELF writing is shaping research writing in English. Our findings show that the values of nine indices from four syntactic complexity dimensions in ELF research articles are significantly different from those in comparable AmE research articles. ELF authors use longer sentences to improve communication efficiency, and more coordinate phrases and complex nominals to enhance clarity and to increase explicitness. In addition, considering phrasal complexity, ELF research articles show greater reliance on nominal phrases in comparison to AmE articles. In other words, the convention of a nominal style is valued in ELF academic written discourse. These features of syntactic complexity illustrate writers’ handling of two competing goals, explicitness and conciseness, in the ELF academic writing. This study is significant in that it offers insights to the description of the emerging use of ELF in academic written discourse.Peer reviewe

The Catalytic and Non-catalytic Functions of the Brahma Chromatin-Remodeling Protein Collaborate to Fine-Tune Circadian Transcription in Drosophila.

Daily rhythms in gene expression play a critical role in the progression of circadian clocks, and are under regulation by transcription factor binding, histone modifications, RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) recruitment and elongation, and post-transcriptional mechanisms. Although previous studies have shown that clock-controlled genes exhibit rhythmic chromatin modifications, less is known about the functions performed by chromatin remodelers in animal clockwork. Here we have identified the Brahma (Brm) complex as a regulator of the Drosophila clock. In Drosophila, CLOCK (CLK) is the master transcriptional activator driving cyclical gene expression by participating in an auto-inhibitory feedback loop that involves stimulating the expression of the main negative regulators, period (per) and timeless (tim). BRM functions catalytically to increase nucleosome density at the promoters of per and tim, creating an overall restrictive chromatin landscape to limit transcriptional output during the active phase of cycling gene expression. In addition, the non-catalytic function of BRM regulates the level and binding of CLK to target promoters and maintains transient RNAPII stalling at the per promoter, likely by recruiting repressive and pausing factors. By disentangling its catalytic versus non-catalytic functions at the promoters of CLK target genes, we uncovered a multi-leveled mechanism in which BRM fine-tunes circadian transcription

Development of a beam propagation method to simulate the point spread function degradation in scattering media

Scattering is one of the main issues that limit the imaging depth in deep tissue optical imaging. To characterize the role of scattering, we have developed a forward model based on the beam propagation method and established the link between the macroscopic optical properties of the media and the statistical parameters of the phase masks applied to the wavefront. Using this model, we have analyzed the degradation of the point-spread function of the illumination beam in the transition regime from ballistic to diffusive light transport. Our method provides a wave-optic simulation toolkit to analyze the effects of scattering on image quality degradation in scanning microscopy. Our open-source implementation is available at https://github.com/BUNPC/Beam-Propagation-Method.Accepted manuscrip

Diplomats or Defendants? Defining the Future of Head-of-State Immunity

Fluorescence nanoscopy provides means to discernthe finer details of protein localization and interaction in cells by offeringan order of magnitude higher resolution than conventional optical imagingtechniques. However, these super resolution techniques put higher demands onthe optical system as well as on the fluorescent probes, making multicolorfluorescence nanoscopy a challenging task. Here we present a new and simpleprocedure which exploits the photostability and excitation spectra of dyes toincrease the number of simultaneous recordable targets in STED nanoscopy. Weuse this procedure to demonstrate four color STED imaging of platelets with ≤40 nm resolution and low crosstalk. Platelets can selectively store, sequesterand release a multitude of different proteins, and in a manner specific fordifferent physiological and disease states. By applying multicolor nanoscopy tostudy platelets, we can achieve spatial mapping of the protein organizationwith a high resolution, for multiple proteins at the same time and in the samecell. This provides a means to identify specific platelet activation states fordiagnostic purposes and to understand the underlying protein storage andrelease mechanisms. We studied the organization of the pro- and anti-angiogenicproteins VEGF and PF-4 together with fibrinogen and filamentous actin, andfound distinct features in their respective protein localization. Further,colocalization analysis revealed only minor overlap between the proteins VEGFand PF-4 indicating that they have separate storage and release mechanisms,corresponding well with their opposite rules as pro- and anti-angiogenicproteins, respectively.Updated from "Submitted" to "Published". QC 20140630</p

Enhanced mechanical, thermal and flame retardant properties by combining graphene nanosheets and metal hydroxide nanorods for Acrylonitrile–Butadiene–Styrene copolymer composite

Three metal hydroxide nanorods (MHR) with uniform diameters were synthesized, and then combined with graphene nanosheets (GNS) to prepare acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) copolymer composites. An excellent dispersion of exfoliated two-dimensional (2-D) GNS and 1-D MHR in the ABS matrix was achieved. The effects of combined GNS and MHR on the mechanical, thermal and flame retardant properties of the ABS composites were investigated. With the addition of 2 wt% GNS and 4 wt% Co(OH)2, the tensile strength, bending strength and storage modulus of the ABS composites were increased by 45.1%, 40.5% and 42.3% respectively. The ABS/GNS/Co(OH)2 ternary composite shows the lowest maximum weight loss rate and highest residue yield. Noticeable reduction in the flammability was achieved with the addition of GNS and Co(OH)2, due to the formation of more continuous and compact charred layers that retarded the mass and heat transfer between the flame and the polymer matrix

Explorar el poder predictivo del compromiso laboral y la resiliencia de los profesores de EFL en su desarrollo profesional

The complexities and constant changes of trends in teaching the English language demand teachers to work on their pedagogical knowledge and skills continuously. These are best obtainable in professional development programs. However, the role of teacher emotions in such programs has remained unaddressed. To bridge this gap, this study examined the predicating role of second language (L2) teachers’ work engagement and buoyancy in their professional development. A total of 348 Chinese teachers participated in a survey with three online questionnaires. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) and regression illustrated that both teacher work engagement and buoyancy could predict L2 teachers’ professional development. In particular, it was found that about 68% and 61% of changes in TPD could be predicted by work engagement and buoyancy, respectively. The study is momentous for L2 teaching and teacher education by calling for the integration of emotions into TPD and pedagogy.Las complejidades y los constantes cambios en las tendencias de enseñanza del idioma inglés exigen que los profesores trabajen continuamente en su conocimiento pedagógico y habilidades. Estas mejoras se obtienen mejor a través de programas de desarrollo profesional. Sin embargo, el papel de las emociones de los profesores en dichos programas ha quedado sin abordar. Para abordar esta brecha, este estudio investigó el papel predictivo del compromiso laboral y la resiliencia de los profesores de segunda lengua (L2) en el desarrollo profesional. Un total de 348 profesores chinos participaron en tres encuestas en línea. Los resultados del modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM) y los análisis de regresión indicaron que tanto la dedicación laboral como la resiliencia pueden predecir el desarrollo profesional de los profesores de L2. Específicamente, el estudio descubrió que aproximadamente el 68% y el 61% de las variaciones en el desarrollo profesional de los profesores pueden ser respectivamente predichas por el compromiso laboral y la resiliencia. Este estudio es transcendental para la enseñanza de L2 y la formación de profesores, ya que aboga por la integración de las emociones en el desarrollo profesional y la pedagogía de los profesores

Agricolture urbanizzate per nuovi paesaggi metropolitani

Le “Agricolture urbanizzate” sono l’insieme di pratiche e sperimentazioni variamente connesse alla multifunzionalità agricola nei territori della diffusione insediativa. Il lavoro di tesi delinea una strategia di paesaggio come modalità di lavoro concreta e ripetibile per la messa a punto di questi nuovi paesaggi metropolitani, forme innovative di equilibrio tra politica, agricoltura e comunità, e occasione di sperimentazione d’iniziative di Innovazione sociale. La proposta scaturisce da un’originale disamina sull’attuale “grado di fertilità” delle teorie di paesaggio di Richard Ingersoll e Pierre Donadieu rispetto a soggetti, spazi, comportamenti e politiche coinvolti nella descrizione di una possibile geografia contemporanea delle relazioni città/campagna. La valorizzazione dei contesti metropolitani locali quale obiettivo della strategia presuppone il rifiuto di una visione vincolistica del progetto di paesaggio e lo svolgimento di Laboratori di progettualità sociale, azione-chiave per la costruzione delle nuove Agricolture Urbanizzate. La Green Infrastructure è assunta come vero e proprio “dispositivo di sistema” della strategia, strumento di progetto duttile e declinabile in grado di superare i problemi di frammentazione spaziale, funzionale, e amministrativa della città contemporanea. La proposta s’inquadra nello scenario economico relativo al Periodo di Programmazione Europea 2014-2020.This thesis outlines a landscape strategy for what the author defines “Urbanised Agricultures”, and signifies a set of practices and experimentations variously associated with multifunctional agriculture, the latter being a target of European policies since years. The expression landscape strategy defines an assemblage of policies and local actions able both to restore and enhance peculiarities and dissimilarities of local metropolitan contexts (including their environmental, economic and social resources) and to fuel a new sociality, green economies, and innovative spatial configurations suitable for contemporary living needs. The thesis sketches a landscape strategy which does not coincide with an a priori pre-figuration of space. It is rather a tool to manage ordinary territorial transformations and to hold together a variety of heterogeneous but coherent interventions, mutually conditioning. These interventions can be implemented through different actions and through the involvement of public and/or private entities, at different times. For this reason, although conceived for the territory of Rome, the landscape strategy here proposed is of general interest: it can be adapted and repeated in other European metropolitan areas. Three essential features characterise the landscape strategy: - Peculiarities and differences for new Urbanised Agricultures (goals). “Peculiarities” and “differences” refer to the set of potential and needs expressed by a specific local community. Spaces, agents and activities are three categories used to interpret the metropolitan landscapes in relation to new Urbanised Agricultures. This interpretation is carried on in the light of “multifunctionality”, which guarantees an overall protection of rural land assumed as a collective good. Multifunctionality can be expressed through complex shapes, able to adapt to various contexts enriching their own specificities; - System devices for new Urbanised Agricultures: green infrastructures (tool). The landscape strategy proposed by the author overcomes spatial, functional and administrative fragmentation of the contemporary city proposing green infrastructures as a “system device”. A green infrastructure can adapt to each territory’s specificities as a result of its network structure and its mutable structure, and can concentrate a set of very different spaces back to a single, coherent project system (spaces different for protection system, property rights, transformation potential, economic and financial opportunities, capability in providing ecosystem services, etc.); - Social designing for new Urbanised Agricultures (actions). The landscape strategy does not impose any binding role to the project, and identifies the members of a community both as beneficiaries and as producers of their own life context; consequently, the landscape strategy proposes to conduct “Workshops of social designing” as key actions to define new Urbanised Agricultures. Workshops represent the place where an operational dialogue about current relations between rural and urban systems opens by using a project proposal. The goal is to build a network of individuals who share a co-responsibility in the production and management of their landscape, in relation to new job opportunities and new collective benefits (social, cultural and economic benefits, improvements in time organisation, enlarged welfare, etc.). Structure of the research. The research is divided into three parts. Each part pursues “autonomously” a specific purpose but all converge towards the same direction – albeit in different ways – namely the definition of the landscape strategy. - Part I. Modern evolutionary characters of urban/rural relationship (Concepts). The first part of the thesis aims at presenting the latest developments in the urban/rural relationship, by assuming three different points of view: organisation of rural society, urban planning, and town planning legislation. These three thematic interpretations show how city and countryside are two sides of the same evolution, outlining the historical and cultural transformation of fundamental concepts still detectable both in current dynamics (subjects of Part II), both in contemporary designers’ landscape theories (addressed in Part III); - Part II. Contemporary geography of urban/rural relationship (People/tendencies/actions). The second part of the thesis intends to delineate a possible geography of contemporary relationships between cities and countryside. The resulting “map” emerges by the analysis of individuals, spaces and activities related to agricultural practices carried out in urban areas and noticeably relevant for their potential benefits to the city (these practices are already object of several urban policies in the realm of Europe 2020 Strategy). This study tends to demonstrate how the definition of more equitable and sustainable urban paradigms in metropolitan contexts passes through experimenting new forms of local-based multifunctional agriculture; - Part III - Landscapes in progress: interpretations and proposals (critical comparative assessment and project proposal). The third part of the thesis aims to define a Landscape Strategy (goals, tools and actions) to foster new forms of Urbanized Agricultures for supporting local communities in metropolitan areas. A critical analysis of a series of landscape case studies allowed an investigation of the degree of fertility of Pierre Donadieu’s and Richard Ingersoll’s landscape theories. The examination highlights a sequence of elements able to support “potential projects” and which the author reorganised, re-interpreted and conveyed in a strategy for new metropolitan landscapes. This strategy understands a re-balance of urban-rural relations as an opportunity for experimenting initiatives of social innovation

Hydrocarbon and soot oxidation over cerium and iron doped vanadium SCR catalysts

V$_{2}$O$_{5}$−WO$_{3}$/TiO$_{2}$ (VWTi) catalysts are widely employed for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO$_{x}$. However, due to their poor thermal stability the application in diesel particulate filters (DPFs), i. e. 2‐way SCRonDPF is limited. In this study, the potential of Ce‐ and Fe‐doped VWTi systems for hydrocarbon and soot oxidation in addition to the SCR activity was systematically investigated for fresh and thermally aged samples. The formation of metal vanadates upon thermal aging, as identified by X‐ray diffraction, Raman and X‐ray adsorption spectroscopy, prevents drastic sintering of the support and maintains a high NO$_{x}$−SCR and hydrocarbon oxidation activity. Additionally, the doped VWTi catalysts show a slight increase of the CO$_{2}$ selectivity during hydrocarbon oxidation, which represents an important aspect for such multifunctional catalysts. Despite of the advantages, the formation of metal vanadates hinders the mobility of vanadium species and decreases the soot oxidation ability of the doped catalysts. Interestingly, a promising soot oxidation activity was identified for the VWTi−Fe sample after aging at 650 °C, which resulted in decomposition of the iron vanadate and generation of highly dispersed and mobile V$_{2}$O$_{5}$

Impianti per la produzione di energia elettrica da fonte rinnovabile solare fotovoltaica. Criteri per la minimizzazione e la compensazione degli impatti e per la qualità del progetto.

Questo elaborato si colloca nel quadro degli studi e ricerche inerenti l’adeguamento del piano paesaggistico della Regione Emilia-Romagna e ha affrontato il tema dell’impatto sull’ambiente e sul paesaggio degli impianti tecnologici per la produzione di energia da fonti rinnovabili. In particolare lo studio si è orientato a sviluppare l’ambito degli impianti fotovoltaici valutandone gli aspetti più prettamente progettuali e di approccio metodologico al fine della minimizzazione degli impatti sul paesaggio e sull’ambiente

Animali in città

Sempre più specie animali selvatiche trovano rifugio in città, complici la crescita delle aree urbanizzate, la devastazione di habitat naturali e la trasformazione intensiva degli spazi agricoli. La presenza della fauna selvatica aumenta i conflitti ma sta anche generando interessanti riflessioni sul rapporto uomo natura, basate sull’empatia e sulla comprensione dell’alterità animale. I nuovi percorsi di co-evoluzione all’interno delle città, habitat antropico per eccellenza, implicano un diverso modo di rapportarsi al ‘selvatico’, per produrre alleanze generative e nuovi spazi condivisi. Il progetto di paesaggio sta uscendo dalla comfort zone di una progettazione concepita esclusivamente per il consumo e il benessere dell’uomo, mettendo a punto nuovi spazi di co-operazione interspecie (simbiosi produttive), capaci di generare risposte di mutuo adattamento ai cambiamenti ambientali e climatici; nuovi spazi di co-habitat adatti sia all’uomo che alle altre specie; spazi immersivi, di cognizione empatica, emozionale capaci di sensibilizzare ed educare ad una nuova co-scienza delle interconnessioni tra tutte le specie viventi e il loro habitat comune. More and more wild animals find refuge in cities, due to the growth of urbanized areas, the devastation of natural habitats and the intensive transformation of agricultural spaces. The presence of wildlife increases conflicts but is also generating interesting considerations on the relationship between man and nature, based on empathy and the comprehension of animal. New co-evolution paths within cities, anthropic habitat par excellence, imply a different way of relating to the ‘wild’ or ‘feral’ to produce generative alliances and new shared habitat. The landscape project must come out of the comfort zone of a design conceived exclusively for human consumption and well-being: spaces of interspecies co-operation (productive symbiosis), generating responses of mutual adaptation to environmental and climatic changes; new places of co-habitat for both humans and animals; immersive spaces, for empathic and emotional cognition capable to sensitizing became aware of the interconnections between all living species and their common habitat