FACTORS INFLUENCING ADOLESCENT EFL LEARNERS’ ENGAGEMENT IN ONLINE CLASSES: INSIGHTS FROM LEARNERS’ PERSPECTIVES

Learners’ engagement has been identified as a crucial factor contributing to effective teaching and learning (Chiu, 2022); yet research focusing on this particular topic remains limited (Werang & Leba, 2022). In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, in-depth investigations into this aspect have become increasingly urgent, especially in such contexts as Vietnam where online instruction has become “a new normal”. This descriptive case study, as a part of a more comprehensive study, responded to such as pressing call by exploring two aspects: (1) adolescent EFL learners’ engagement levels, and (2) factors influencing learners’ engagement in synchronous online classes. Quantitative data were collected through questionnaires administered to 193 Vietnamese adolescent EFL learners at an EFL language center in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Results revealed that learners’ perception of adolescent learners’ engagement level was high. Specifically, learners were more behaviorally engaged compared to the other dimensions, namely emotional, cognitive and agentic engagement. Two categories of factors, namely teacher-related aspects and teaching content and activities were found to have the most significant influence on learners’ engagement. These findings provide teachers, curriculum developers, and institution administrators with important practical implications for measures to effectively foster higher engagement in virtual classrooms.  Article visualizations

Folding model study of the elastic α+α\alpha + \alpha scattering at low energies

The folding model analysis of the elastic $\alpha + \alpha$ scattering at the incident energies below the reaction threshold of 34.7 MeV (in the lab system) has been done using the well-tested density dependent versions of the M3Y interaction and realistic choices for the $^4$He density. Because the absorption is negligible at the energies below the reaction threshold, we were able to probe the $\alpha + \alpha$ optical potential at low energies quite unambiguously and found that the $\alpha + \alpha$ overlap density used to construct the density dependence of the M3Y interaction is strongly distorted by the Pauli blocking. This result gives possible explanation of a long-standing inconsistency of the double-folding model in its study of the elastic $\alpha + \alpha$ and $\alpha$-nucleus scattering at low energies using the same realistic density dependent M3Y interaction

Integrating Biomechanics, Hemodynamics, and Vascular Adaptation to Relate Mechanisms of Vascular Adaptation to Arterial Pulsatile Pressure in Health and Disease

The inherent complexity of the mammalian systemic arterial system has presented numerous challenges to relating basic vascular biology to clinically-relevant derangements of blood pressures and flows. The field of biomechanics has identified how local changes in pulsatile blood pressures and flows lead to changes in local endothelial shear stress and circumferential wall stress. The field of mechanobiology has identified how local changes in wall circumferential stress and endothelial shear stress lead to changes in arterial radii, wall thicknesses and stiffnesses. The field of pulsatile hemodynamics has identified how changes in local radii, wall thicknesses and stiffnesses lead to changes in the complex distributions of pressures and flows throughout an arterial network. These three fields have primarily been studied in isolation, and yet the properties of a single vessel emerge from the interaction of these three processes. The effect of adaptation of one artery on hemodynamics, stress, and structure of all other vessels in the network makes the arterial system a complex adaptive system that is difficult to study experimentally. This dissertation addresses this unmet need by integrating hemodynamics, vessel mechanics, and vascular adaptation by developing a novel framework with mathematical models at different scales. Allowing arteries simultaneously to adapt to mechanical stresses in a computational model of the human systemic arterial system, the present work illustrated that simple arterial adaptation to wall circumferential and endothelial shear stresses are sufficient to explain nine salient features of the cardiovascular system when traversing away from the aortic root towards the peripheral arteries: decrease in lumen radii, wall thicknesses, vessel compliances, shear stresses, wall stresses and pulsatile flows, and increase in wall stiffnesses, pulse wave velocities, and pulsatile pressures. In addition, it revealed that pulse pressure homeostasis emerges to mechanical perturbations such as reduced ejection fraction, increased peripheral resistance and aortic coarctation. Finally, it illustrated how changes in sensitivity of arterial adaptation to pulsatile wall stress can lead to manifestations of disease states such as increased pulse wave velocity and isolated systolic hypertension. The governing principles leading to the emergence of complex, adaptive behavior in the systemic arterial system have thus been identified

Elastic transfer and parity dependence of the nucleus-nucleus optical potential

Background: A recent coupled-reaction-channel (CRC) study shows that the enhanced oscillation of the elastic 16O + 12C section at backward angles is due mainly to the elastic α transfer or the core exchange. Such a process gives rise to a parity-dependent term in the total elastic S matrix, an indication of the parity dependence of the 16O + 12C optical potential (OP). Purpose: To explicitly determine the core exchange potential (CEP) induced by the symmetric exchange of the two 12C cores in the elastic sup>16O + 12C scattering at Elab = 132 and 300 MeV and explore its parity dependence. Method: S matrix generated by CRC description of the elastic 16O + 12C scattering is used as the input for the inversion calculation to obtain the effective local OP that contains both the Wigner and Majorana terms. Results: The high-precision inversion results show a strong contribution by the complex Majorana term in the total OP of the 16O + 12C system and thus provide for the first time a direct estimation of the parity-dependent CEP. Conclusions: The elastic α transfer or exchange of the two 12C cores in the 16O + 12C system gives rise to a complex parity dependence of the total OP. This should be a general feature of the OP for the light heavy-ion systems that contain two identical cores

Suppression of the nuclear rainbow in the inelastic nucleus-nucleus scattering

The nuclear rainbow observed in the elastic $\alpha$-nucleus and light heavy-ion scattering is proven to be due to the refraction of the scattering wave by a deep, attractive real optical potential. The nuclear rainbow pattern, established as a broad oscillation of the Airy minima in the elastic cross section, originates from an interference of the refracted far-side scattering amplitudes. It is natural to expect a similar rainbow pattern also in the inelastic scattering of a nucleus-nucleus system that exhibits a pronounced rainbow pattern in the elastic channel. Although some feature of the nuclear rainbow in the inelastic nucleus-nucleus scattering was observed in experiment, the measured inelastic cross sections exhibit much weaker rainbow pattern, where the Airy oscillation is suppressed and smeared out. To investigate this effect, a novel method of the near-far decomposition of the inelastic scattering amplitude is proposed to explicitly reveal the coupled partial-wave contributions to the inelastic cross section. Using the new decomposition method, our coupled channel analysis of the elastic and inelastic $^{12}$C+$^{12}$C and $^{16}$O+$^{12}$C scattering at the refractive energies shows unambiguously that the suppression of the nuclear rainbow pattern in the inelastic scattering cross section is caused by a destructive interference of the partial waves of different multipoles. However, the inelastic scattering remains strongly refractive in these cases, where the far-side scattering is dominant at medium and large angles like that observed in the elastic scattering.Comment: Dedicated to the memory of Jacques Raynal; to be published in EPJ

Multitasking Correlation Network for Depth Information Reconstruction

In this paper, we propose a novel multi-tasking network for stereo matching. The proposed network is trained to approximate similarity functions in statistics and linear algebra such as correlation coefficient, distance correlation and cosine similarity. By doing this, the proposed method decreases the amount of time needed to calculate the disparity map by using CNN's ability to calculate multiple pairs of image patches at the same time. We then compare the execution time and overall accuracy between the traditional method using functions and our method. The results show the model's ability to mimic the traditional method's performance while taking considerably less time to perform the task

ASSESSING THE STATUS OF BUILDING COLLECTIVE MARKS FOR CRAFT VILLAGE PRODUCTS IN THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCE

Abstract: Thua Thien Hue is a locality with many potentials to develop craft village products. In the context of deep integration, the use of intellectual property tools, namely collective mark, is one of the prerequisites for craft villages to show their strength and value of brands and better export products to international markets. This study clarifies the status of building collective marks for craft village products in Thua Thien Hue province. The research analyzes the secondary data, uses the descriptive statistics of primary data obtained from in-depth interviews with 5 experts and surveys 28 collective mark owners in the locality. The results reflect the status of collective marks for craft products in Thua Thien Hue province through two aspects: (i) the status of collective mark registration and (ii) support activities for building and managing collective marks for craft village products of management agencies in Thua Thien Hue province. Thereby, the study points out outstanding issues and proposes solutions to building and developing collective marks for craft village products in Thua Thien Hue.Keywords: collective mark, craft village product, Thua Thien Hu

FACTORS AFFECTING WORK MOTIVATION OF CIVIL SERVANTS IN THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCIAL PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the factors affecting the motivation of civil servants at the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue province. Based on data collected from 181 officers at the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue Province,  researchers processed all data by SPSS with some techniques such as: descriptive statistics, Cronbach's Alpha, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Multivariate Regression Analysis... The research results show that there are 6 factors affecting the motivation of officers at the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue province, including: (i) Working conditions; (ii) Nature of work; (iii) Career development opportunities; (iv) Income and benefits; (v) Relationship with leaders and (vi) Relationships with colleagues. Based on the research results, a number of solutions have been proposed to improve the work motivation in the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue.Keywords: work motivation, civil servants, Thua Thien Hue Provincial People's Committe