The Types of Grammatical Metaphors Used in Native and Nonnative Request Emails

The present study investigates the frequency of grammatical metaphor (GM) use by native speakers of English in request emails compared to non-native speakers of English. A total of 50 request emails written by native and non-native speakers were analyzed in terms of different types of GM to identify the possible similarities and differences in native and nonnative request emails in terms of different types of GM were assessed. Applying Halliday and Matthiessen’s (1999) conceptual framework, it was found that GM was used in 72% of the native request emails (18 out of the 25 request emails) and in 46% of the non-native request emails (11 out of 25 request emails). It was also found that GM was utilized in 117 out of 600 clauses, giving rise to a GM to the number of clauses (GMC) ratio of 0.19 in native request emails. As for non-native request emails, GM was used in 63 out of 500 clauses, giving rise to a GMC ratio of 0.12. Moreover, the results revealed that there were thirteen types of GM in native and non-native request emails and the e-mail writers used mostly type 2 (nominalizing a verbal process) and type 13 (expanding the noun resulting from nominalizing a verb)  compared to the other types of GM. The findings of the study can be beneficial for researchers, EFL teachers, and even businessmen working in international companies where they use can opt for different types of GM in their everyday request emails

Performance of steel structures subjected to fire following earthquake

Includes bibliographical references.2016 Summer.Fires following earthquakes are considered sequential hazards that may occur in metropolitans with moderate-to-highly seismicity. The potential for fire ignition is elevated by various factors including damage to active and passive fire protections following a strong ground motion. In addition, damage imposed by an earthquake to transportation networks, water supply, and communication systems, could hinder the response of fire departments to the post-earthquake fire events. In addition, the simultaneous ignitions – caused by strong earthquake – might turn to mass conflagrations in the shaken area, which could lead to catastrophic scenarios including structural collapse, hazardous materials release, loss of life, and the inability to provide the emergency medical need. This has been demonstrated through various historical events including the fires following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the 1995 Kobe earthquakes, among others, making fire following earthquake the most dominant contributor to earthquake-induced losses in properties and lives in the United States and Japan in the last century. From a design perspective, current performance-based earthquake design philosophy allows certain degrees of damage in the structural and non-structural members of steel-framed buildings during the earthquake. The cumulative structural damages, caused by the earthquake, can reduce the load-bearing capacity of structural members in a typical steel building. In addition, potential damage to active and passive fire protections following an earthquake leaves the steel material exposed to elevated temperatures in the case of post-earthquake fire events. The combined damage to steel members and components following an earthquake combined with damage to fire protection systems can increase the vulnerability of steel buildings to withstand fire following seismic events. Therefore, there is a pressing need to quantify the performance of steel structures under fire following earthquake in moderate-to-high seismic regions. The aim of the study is to assess the performance of steel structural members and systems under the cascading hazards of earthquake and fire. The research commences with evaluation of the stability of hot-rolled W-shape steel columns subjected to the earthquake-induced lateral deformations followed by fire loads. Based on the stability analyses, equations are proposed to predict the elastic and inelastic buckling stresses in steel columns exposed to the fire following earthquake, considering a wide variety of variables. The performance of three steel moment-resisting frames – with 3, 9, and 20 stories – with reduced beam section connections is assessed under multi-story fires following a suite of earthquake records. The response of structural components – beams, columns, and critical connection details – is investigated to evaluate the demand and system-level instability under fire following earthquake. Next, a performance-based framework is established for probabilistic assessment of steel structural members and systems under the combined events of earthquake and fire. A stochastic model of the effective random variables is utilized for conducting the probabilistic performance-based analysis. This framework allows structural engineers to generate fragility of steel columns and frames under multiple-hazard of earthquake and fire. The results demonstrate that instability can be a major concern in steel structures, both on the member and system levels, under the sequential events and highlights the need to develop provisions for the design of steel structures subjected to fire following earthquake. Furthermore, a suite of recommendations is proposed for future studies based on findings in this dissertation

A New Approach to Synthetic Image Evaluation

This study is dedicated to enhancing the effectiveness of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) systems, with a special emphasis on Arabic handwritten digit recognition. The choice to focus on Arabic handwritten digits is twofold: first, there has been relatively less research conducted in this area compared to its English counterparts; second, the recognition of Arabic handwritten digits presents more challenges due to the inherent similarities between different Arabic digits.OCR systems, engineered to decipher both printed and handwritten text, often face difficulties in accurately identifying low-quality or distorted handwritten text. The quality of the input image and the complexity of the text significantly influence their performance. However, data augmentation strategies can notably improve these systems\u27 performance. These strategies generate new images that closely resemble the original ones, albeit with minor variations, thereby enriching the model\u27s learning and enhancing its adaptability. The research found Conditional Variational Autoencoders (C-VAE) and Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks (C-GAN) to be particularly effective in this context. These two generative models stand out due to their superior image generation and feature extraction capabilities. A significant contribution of the study has been the formulation of the Synthetic Image Evaluation Procedure, a systematic approach designed to evaluate and amplify the generative models\u27 image generation abilities. This procedure facilitates the extraction of meaningful features, computation of the Fréchet Inception Distance (LFID) score, and supports hyper-parameter optimization and model modifications

Single-Appointment Fabrication of Interim Immediate Denture: A Clinical Report

Objective: An immediate complete denture is fabricated before the extraction of all teeth. It has several advantages such as preservation of esthetics, muscular tone, normal speech and reduction of post-operative pain. This report describes a method of using patient’s current fixed partial denture (FPD) for single-appointment construction of interim immediate denture.Case: We used patient’s existing maxillary FPD for single-appointment fabrication of an interim immediate denture; which was delivered to the patient after the extraction of his remaining maxillary teeth.Conclusion: Within a short time, an interim immediate denture can be fabricated for patients to preserve occlusion, vertical facial height and facial appearance until the fabrication of final prosthesis

Exploring L2 writers’ collaborative revision interactions and their writing performance

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Over the last few decades, researchers and practitioners have acknowledged the social aspects of language learning. This study drew on Vygotsky’s sociocultural learning theory to investigate EFL students’ interactional dynamics during a collaborative revision activity. It also examined the impact of this jointly performed task on participants’ writing performance. Participants included five pairs of EFL learners enrolled in an L2 essay-writing course at an Iranian university. Each pair attended one collaborative revision session during which they jointly revised their argumentative texts utilizing the feedback provided by their instructor. The researchers collected the participants’ interactions during collaborative revision and their revised drafts. Data analysis revealed that students employed a variety of functions in their negotiations including scaffolding. It was also observed that scaffolding wasmutual and both partners benefited from the joint revision task regardless of their level of L2 writing proficiency. These findings suggest that collaborative revision can be incorporated in EFL writing pedagogy as a method to improve writing and revision skills

Causal structure and the geodesics in the hairy extension of the Bertotti-Robinson spacetime

A hairy extension of the Bertotti-Robinson regular spacetime has been recently introduced in the context of the Einstein-Maxwell-Scaler theory that surprisingly is a singular black hole formed in the $S_{3}$ background spatial topology [CQG39(2022)167001]. In this research, we first clarify the topology of the spacetime based on the coordinate transformations as well as the energy-momentum configuration and the causal structure of the black hole. Furthermore, we investigate the geodesics of the null and timelike particles in this spacetime. It is shown that in the radial motion on the equatorial plane, while photons may collapse to the singularity or escape to the edge of the universe, a massive particle always collapses to the singularity. The general geodesics of null and massive particles reveal that all particles except the outgoing light ray, eventually fall into the black hole.Comment: 19 pages and 12 figure

Static Analysis of Partial Referential Integrity for Better Quality SQL Data

Referential integrity ensures the consistency of data between database relations. The SQL standard proposes different semantics to deal with partial information under referential integrity. Simple semantics neglects tuples with nulls, and enjoys built-in support by commercial database systems. Partial semantics does check tuples with nulls, but does not enjoy built-in support. We investigate this mismatch between the SQL standard and real database systems. Indeed, insight is gained into the trade-off between cleaner data under partial semantics and the efficiency of checking simple semantics. The cost for referential integrity checking is evaluated for various dataset sizes, indexing structures and degrees of cleanliness. While the cost of partial semantics exceeds that of simple semantics, their performance trends follow similar patterns under growing database sizes. Applying multiple index structures and exploiting appropriate validation mechanisms increase the efficiency of checking partial semantics

EFL learners’ written reflections on their experience of attending process-based, student-centered essay writing course

Peer collaboration and process-based writing pedagogy are relatively unattended concepts in Iranian EFL composition classes where single-draft, single-reviewer essay writing practice maintains its dominance despite its failure to improve L2 learners’ writing skills. The current global popularity of process writing and peer collaboration tasks on the one hand, and its absence in an Iranian EFL writing curriculum on the other, formed the primary motivation to incorporate this approach into an L2 essay writing course and explore students’ reflections on their new experience. The results of feedback provided by 111 students at the end of a new process genre-based academic writing course revealed that participants showed a favourable attitude towards multiple drafting and collaborative tasks, even though they reported some concern

Finite Element Modeling of Masonry Infill Walls Equipped with Structural Fuse

Masonry infill walls in multi-story buildings are intended to function as envelope and partition walls, and without sufficient gaps between the infill and the frame, the infill tends to contribute to lateral seismic load resistance, which can lead to damage. By isolating the infill walls from the frame, vulnerability to damage will be reduced; however, the potential benefit from the strength and stiffness of the infill walls will be lost too. The compromise solution seems to be a controlled engagement of the masonry infill walls by employing a structural fuse concept. In this chapter, initially, a review of the literature on seismic performance of masonry infill walls is presented. This is then followed by explanation of the concept of the masonry infill structural fuse. Then a discussion on experimental tests carried out on different types of fuse elements as well as ¼ scale specimen of frame and infill walls with fuse elements is presented. Finally, the results of finite element computer modeling studies are discussed. The study has found that the concept of using structural fuse elements as sacrificial components in masonry construction is practical and can be given consideration for more refined design and detailing toward practical application