Protein adsorption on heterogeneous surfaces

The adsorption of the protein bovine serum albumin from an aqueous solution onto substrata made from pure silica, pure zirconia, and a mixture of the two has revealed that the adsorption behavior of the protein onto the mixture very significantly diverges from the corresponding mean of the behaviors with the pure substrata. A tentative explanation in terms of matching substratum heterogeneity with protein surface heterogeneity is offered

Estimation of the urban heat island for UK climate change projections

Copyright © 2010 by SAGE PublicationsCities are known to exert a significant influence on their local climate, and are generally warmer than their surroundings. However, climate models generally do not include a representation of urban areas, and so climate projections from models are likely to underestimate temperatures in urban areas. A simple methodology has been developed to calculate the urban heat island (UHI) from a set of gridded temperature data; the UHI may then be added to climate model projections and weather data files. This methodology allows the UHI to be calculated on a monthly basis and downscaled to hourly for addition to weather generator data. The UHI intensities produced are found to be consistent with observed data.Practical application: There is overwhelming consensus amongst the scientific community that the Earth’s climate is warming. In addition to the effects of climate change the urban heat island (UHI) effect can increase air temperatures significantly in urban areas above those of the rural areas around them. The proposed methodology for calculating the UHI from a set of gridded temperature data allows the UHI to be added to climate model projections such as UKCP09 or HadRM3 and weather data files. The methodology also allows for the temporal downscaling of the UHI from monthly values to hourly data for use in building thermal simulation software

相互行為能力と繰返しタスク

この論文では、日本人英語学習者の英語の相互行為能力（Interactional Competence, IC）の向上を目的にした、現在進行しているプロジェクトについて報告する。プロジェクトは日本にある二つの大学で行なわれ、特に日本の大学においてよく用いられる形態である小グループ討論に参加する能力を焦点に展開される。プロジェクトの中核として、教授法としてのツールや方法論の開発を置く。主に研究者によってデザインされたルーブリックを使用し、生徒が彼らの相互行為を評価したり、英語能力の上位者をピアとして自分自身を評価したりできるようにしていく。この評価とプロセスによって、生徒自身が英語での小グループ議論や討論における英語でのIC を理解し、ひいては活用していけるようにする。生徒は評価後に、もう一度同じ議論をする機会を持つことにより、自分の評価から、また効果的なピアから学んだ実用的な英語を実際に使用する機会を得、実践することでより実用的な英語の習得が期待できる。この論文ではIC のコンセプトについて説明するとともに本研究の理論的根拠の大枠について述べる。そしてIC と第二言語学習の向上との関係、またどのようにIC が評価されうるかについて議論する。本プロジェクトにおいて繰り返しタスクは一つの中心的な見地であるため、そちらについても過去の研究について触れたのち、現在のファーストドラフトであるルーブリックについて、また今後の研究について記載する。この論文では、幅広い対象に向けて本プロジェクトについて紹介し、教師や研究者が本研究内容を実践で利用したり、アイディアについて発展させていくことを目的とする

Report on the ELA Writing Courses for Graduate School Students (2015- 2020): The Past, Present, and Directions for the Future

This paper is a status report of academic writing courses offered by theGraduate School of Arts and Sciences, International Christian University inTokyo. These writing courses are taught by academic staff from the Englishfor Liberal Arts Program to overseas graduate students whose first language isnot English. These graduate students are often faced with two intertwiningissues: they need to engage in designing and conducting their research, butthey also have to write up their research project in English. The aim of thispaper is to present the status of the writing courses by providing a descriptiveaccount of the current program over the past five years in particular, and tofollow the trajectory of how the courses have evolved and continue to developin order to meet the needs of the graduate students from non-English speakingbackgrounds. It concludes by presenting an outline of the newly restructuredcurriculum of this program that will come into effect from April 2021 as wellas to outline some of the concerns and suggestions for further considerations

Implementing a New Senior Thesis Science Writing Course

Scientific writing presents a unique set of challenges. Communicatingscientific research methodologies, results, and implications is often impededby poor writing. Natural Science (NS) Professors at International ChristianUniversity (ICU) have long recognised this problem and have expressed theirconcerns to the Director of the English for Liberal Arts Program (ELA). Aseries of meetings between professors from the NS Department and the ELAProgram led to two science writing workshops being held for science majorswho are required to write their senior thesis in English. Following the successof these workshops, a new science writing course was proposed to thecurriculum committee. The proposal was accepted, and a new course entitled“Senior Thesis Science Writing” was offered for the first time in Fall AY2017.This paper describes the background, workshops, and new course design, andconcludes with a reflection on difficulties faced, and suggestions for how thecourse may develop in the future

教室でのディスカッション開始方法の発展について

This study is part of a larger ongoing series of projects that aims to both raise awareness of, and develop, L2 interactional competence (IC) in the context of classroom group discussions. While discussion is a common activity in university classrooms, Japanese learners of English may sometimes lack appropriate discussions skills. For example, Hauser (2009) reports on the “monologic” nature of discussions in English classes, where rather than developing a discussion together, Japanese students give their opinions in turn and unchallenged. This can lead to problems for Japanese students who find themselves unfamiliar with classroom discussion practices when studying overseas. For instance, in a study conducted on Japanese students studying in Australia, Yanagi and Baker (2016) reported that 79% of the students had difficulty speaking in classroom discussions. Specifically, students faced issues with turn-taking and breaking into a conversation to express opinions. Among other factors, this may possibly be a result of the students’ lack of knowledge and experience of the appropriate discourse practices for turn-taking in English classroom discussions.A previous project by the authors of the current study has introduced a rubric for Japanese university students to use when analysing recordings of their group discussions (Stone & Kershaw, 2019). The rubric encourages students to notice and develop their own L2 IC in small-group discussions. As Pekarek-Doehler and Pochon-Berger have shown, there is “empirical evidence testifying to the fact that interactional competence is not simply transferred from the L1 to the L2, but is recalibrated, adapted in the course of L2 development” (2015, p. 235). This means that participants need to learn how to interact in the L2, rather than simply relying on the interaction practices that they use in the L1

Setting up an effective pronunciation lab

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タスクの反復 : 習得と発展の機会

この論文では、授業におけるタスクの反復と学習者自身がパフォーマンスの振り返りと分析を行う過程が、学習者の相互行為能力（Interactional Competence, IC) を向上させるかを調べるプロジェクトについて報告する。目的は、学生が授業ディスカションにおけるIC をより理解できるような教材をデザインし、学生に自分自身の対話行為を向上させる機会を提供することである。以前に提案されていたCommunicative Competence は個人が保有している能力という前提があった。一方で、IC というのは相手との関わりの中で、会話に参加し、行為を遂行していく能力のことである。IC は文脈によって違うものなので、一つの場合に適当なIC も、他の場合においては、異なることもありうる。授業におけるディスカションでのIC は、実際にどういうものかを見せるため、熟達した英語の話し手がディスカションを行う場面を録画した。そして、学習者も熟達したスピーカーと同じトピックでディスカションを行っている場面を録画した。研究者が作成した教材を使用し、学習者は熟達したスピーカーのビデオを分析し、自分自身のパフォーマンスと比べた。この教材は、学習者が熟達したスピーカーの使用する特定の表現に注視して、その表現が相互行為能力において何を達成しているかを問う。また、学習者に学習の短期的な目標を書くように依頼し、もう一度同じトピックでディスカションを行った。この論文では、学習者達自身が集中した一つの特定の実践活動である、「言葉探し」という実践に焦点を当てる。会話分析を使用して、学習者の対話を分析すると同時に、熟達したスピーカーを録画したディスカションも分析した。1回目と２回目のディスカションにおける「言葉探し」がどの様に異なるかを示し、それだけでなく、熟達したスピーカーの対話における場合も比較した。２回目の対話に学習者が「言葉探し」の実践を開始する量は上がったが、他よりも上手くいかなかったと判断されうるケースもあった。最後に、プロジェクトの教育的な意味について討論した

Birds of a feather talk together: user influence on language adoption

Language is in constant flux be it from changes in meaning to the introduction of new terms. At the user level it changes by users accommodating their language in relation to whom they are in contact with. By mining diffusion’s of new terms across social networks we detect the influence between users and communities. This is then used to compute the user activation threshold at which they adopt new terms dependent on their neighbours. We apply this method to four different networks from two popular on-line social networks (Reddit and Twitter). This research highlights novel results: by testing the network through random shuffles we show that the time at which a user adopts a term is dependent on the local structure, however, a large part of the influence comes from the global structure and that influence between users and communities is not significantly dependent on network structures

Ultradian glucocorticoid exposure directs gene-dependent and tissue-specific mRNA expression patterns in vivo

In this paper we report differential decoding of the ultradian corticosterone signal by glucocorticoid target tissues. Pulsatile corticosterone replacement in adrenalectomised rats resulted in different dynamics of Sgk1 mRNA production, with a distinct pulsatile mRNA induction profile observed in the pituitary in contrast to a non-pulsatile induction in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). We further report the first evidence for pulsatile transcriptional repression of a glucocorticoid-target gene in vivo, with pulsatile regulation of Pomc transcription in pituitary. We have explored a potential mechanism for differences in the induction dynamics of the same transcript (Sgk1) between the PFC and pituitary. Glucocorticoid receptor (GR) activation profiles were strikingly different in pituitary and prefrontal cortex, with a significantly greater dynamic range and shorter duration of GR activity detected in the pituitary, consistent with the more pronounced gene pulsing effect observed. In the prefrontal cortex, expression of Gilz mRNA was also non-pulsatile and exhibited a significantly delayed timecourse of increase and decrease when compared to Sgk1, additionally highlighting gene-specific regulatory dynamics during ultradian glucocorticoid treatment