Challenges in the Application of Genre Theory to Improve L2 Academic Writing: Effective Reports and Assessment

This paper examines the application of a systemic-functional linguistic (SFL) Genre Theory approach to an L2 classroom in Spain, where English systems and their formal and functional characteristics were explicated in the teaching-learning process in order to help students improve their writing skills. It analyses various facets of the effectiveness of this approach through a careful consideration of student report writing, first by analysing the assessors’ marking parameters and concentration, and second by thoroughly going through the papers themselves to summarise the nature and quantity of the various writing issues, paying particular attention to areas in which the existing assessment was questionable, incorrect, or not indicating errors in standard English

A quantitative study of the evolution of open source software communities

Typically, virtual communities exhibit the well-known phenomenon of participation inequality, which means that only a small percentage of users is responsible of the majority of contributions. However, the sustainability of the community requires that the group of active users must be continuously nurtured with new users that gain expertise through a participation process. This paper analyzes the time evolution of Open Source Software (OSS) communities, considering users that join/abandon the community over time and several topological properties of the network when modeled as a social network. More specifically, the paper analyzes the role of those users rejoining the community and their influence in the global characteristics of the network

Strategic group identification using evolutionary computation

This paper proposes to identify strategic groups among franchisors from a big set of franchisor variables. Genetic evolutionary computation was used to reduce a set of variables efficiently, and factor analysis was used to make up the strategic groups. Franchise 500 was used as database. The results suggest both that the general map of franchisor has changed since Carney and Gedajlovic’s study, and that genetic evolutionary computation is a valid way to extract knowledge from a huge set of data. This paper proposes useful information for those retail firms considering internationalization via franchising. The originality of this paper is in the use of Genetic Algorithm to discriminate the final set of variables to be used for the identification of strategic groups instead of evaluating one by one the adequacy of each variable theoretically. The ability of evolutionary computation to create new knowledge is good to produce new insights into this topi

International comparison of R&D investment by European, US and Japanese companies

Looking across the rapidly developing world, it is even more crucial for companies to benchmark their R&D investment against best international practice in their sector and to understand the ways in which their R&D investment will affect future business performance. The globalisation of technology requires a global analysis involving companies all over the world. In this study, top R&D European, US and Japanese companies are analysed and compared using R&D investment scoreboard reports. The main objective consists of extracting clusters of companies with similar R&D policies and comparing the obtained clusters with the major developed economic areas. Results will characterise companies in accordance with different R&D profiles, highlighting some asymmetries in the three major economic areas analyse

Examining the power-law distribution among eWOM communities: a characterisation approach of the Long Tail

Nowadays electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communities symbolise a significant source of information that helps customers to make informed purchasing decisions. Through eWOM communities, a great audience of users is able to acquire knowledge from reviews concerning products and services that are less popular to the majority. The Long Tail effect is a manifestation of such redistribution of demand from popular products to niche products. In this paper, a new methodology that mathematically fits the relationship between the power-law distribution and the Long Tail from an eWOM community is developed. In addition, this paper defines a tool for finding niche products inaccessible through conventional channels. The results are consistent in showing that not all the categories fitting a power-law distribution are characterised by the Long Tail phenomenon, and conversely some of those having a Long Tail do not fit a power-law distribution

Alpha decay perturbations by atomic effects at extreme conditions

The alpha tunneling effect in the presence of electron screening is calculated within the Debye model. Calculations show that very small effects are predicted by cooling the metal to low temperatures. However the alpha lifetime decay may be reduced by about 15% if solid samples of the alpha emitters are cooled and compressed to relatively high densities. These conditions can be achieved at high pressures by using existing diamond anvil cells (DACs). Even so, practical consequences for speeding-up the decay of actinides (from the nuclear waste) seem to be negligible. Keywords: Alpha decay; Lifetime reduction; Extreme atomic condition

Thermodynamic modeling of sulfate-resistant cements with addition of barium compounds

Comunicación presentada en el International Congress Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (TechnoHeritage), celebrado en Santiago de compostela del 2 al 5 de octubre de 2012.Sulfate attack by ground waters, soils, etc. is one of the threats to the built heritage in concrete. This study validated through thermodynamic modeling with GEMS geochemical code a new sulfate-resistant formulation based on the addition of BaCO3 and BaO to ordinary Portland cement (OPC), which could be used to replace weathered concrete. The thermodynamic calculations pointed out that Ba ions were able to form an insoluble salt, barite (BaSO4) with the dissolved sulfate which inhibited the formation of ettringite, the latter oc- curred when the concentrations of BaCO3 and BaO were ≥ 6 and ≥ 4 wt.%, respectively. The results of a simulated sulfate a ttack revealed that ettringite precipitated upon ingression of ≥46 ml of a Na2SO4 solution (44 wt.%) in OPC blends with 20 wt.% of BaCO3; whereas with 20 wt.% of BaO, the sulfate that precipitated besides ba rite was monosulfoaluminate when sulfate solution was ≥40 ml (tested up to 52 ml).Funding from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (Project CONSOLIDER CSD2007-00058) and the Regional Government of Madrid (Geomaterials Programme) is gratefully acknowledged.Peer Reviewe

Desarrollo de las comunidades virtuales en el ámbito de la violencia de género

En los países democráticos y con un Estado de derecho, éste debe proteger y garantizar, entre otras cosas, la vida de sus ciudadanas y ciudadanos. Por ello, la lucha contra la violencia de género se ha convertido en uno de los principales ejes sociales de actuación en los últimos años en España. Muchos pasos se han dado en búsqueda de soluciones, instrumentos y recursos para erradicar esta lacra. Sin embargo, y a pesar de la acción continua del Estado en pro de erradicarla, seguimos enfrentándonos al problema. Este trabajo muestra los avances en el Proyecto FENIX, en el cual participamos profesores de la Universidad de Sevilla, una Abogada y la empresa Flowers in the Space. Dicho proyecto se centra en la búsqueda de nuevas soluciones, basadas en las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC), para la asistencia integral de mujeres víctimas de violencia de género. Uno de los aspectos que trata es la implantación, desarrollo y mantenimiento de una comunidad virtual de mujeres víctimas de violencia de género, empleando la tecnología Web 2.0, y el posterior análisis de su aceptación tecnológica. Actualmente nos encontramos en la fase de identificación del contenido de dicha comunidad virtual a través de la técnica de elaboración de los mapas conceptuale

Big data and virtual communities: methodological issues

Virtual communities represent today en emergent phenomenon through which users get together to create ideas, to obtain help from one another, or just to casually engage in discussions. Their increasing popularity as well as their utility as a source of business value and marketing strategies justify the necessity of defi ning some specifi c methodologies for analyzing them. The aim of this paper is providing new insights into virtual communities from a methodological viewpoint, highlighting the main trends and challenge

Analysis of virtual communities supporting OSS projects using social network analysis

This paper analyses the behaviour of virtual communities for Open Source Software (OSS) projects. The development of OSS projects relies on virtual communities, which are built on relationships among members, being their final objective sharing knowledge and improving the underlying project. This study addresses the interactive collaboration in these kinds of communities applying social network analysis (SNA). In particular, SNA techniques will be used to identify those members playing a middle-man role among other community members. Results will illustrate the importance of this role to achieve successful virtual communitiesMinisterio de Educación y Ciencia DPI2007- 60128Junta de Andalucía. Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa P07-TIC-0262