What does “good writing” Really Mean? Linguistic Dimensions of Contrastive Rhetoric in Chinese and American Students’ College Essays

A perpetual intrigue in teaching writing is what counts as good writing. Composition specialists have designed rubrics to evaluate writing quality, rhetoricians have delineated patterns of clear thought, and linguists have looked to dexterity in the linguistic manipulation of texts. For writing teachers, these disciplinary perspectives guide them, largely at abstract levels, in informing students of characteristics of good writing. In the Chinese EFL context of teaching and judging writing, there is also a potential conflict of rhetorical traditions between the eight-legged orthodox of the East and five-paragraph linearity of the West. Kaplan\u27s pioneering work on contrastive rhetoric has triggered a 40-year debate on the veracity of his thesis, while recent corpus-based research has identified clusters of co-occurring linguistic features of different registers. Yet, except for a cursory interdisciplinary esprit de corps where scholars of one field address the concerns of another, there is little effort in truly examining the interaction between a writer\u27s control of linguistic skills and her rhetorical competence. This paper, based on a Sino-American joint study of 100 college essays written by Chinese and American students, explores the interrelatedness of linguistic skill and quality of writing. Through analysis of linguistic properties of student-produced texts and an rhetorical evaluation process, the research endeavors to reveal the following: 1) the relationship between linguistic felicity and rhetorical adroitness, 2) contrastive rhetorical patterns shown by Chinese and American college writers, and 3) pedagogical implications on what should be focused on in teaching English writing in both Chinese and American contexts

Seismic b-Value for Foreshock AE Events Preceding Repeated Stick-Slips of Pre-Cut Faults in Granite

In this study, the b-values for acoustic emission (AE) events during stick-slip cycles of pre-cut faults in granite (as an analogue of unfavorably oriented immature faults) under triaxial compression (confining pressure: 40 MPa) are investigated. Using a multi-channel AE waveform recording system and two peak detectors, we recorded AE waveforms at 16 bits and at a sampling rate of 25 MHz, as well as the maximum amplitude of AE events with a dynamic range of 55 dB. For stick-slip events, the b-value decreases from 1.2 to 1.5 to approximately 0.6 as the shear stress increases, and then quickly jumps back to 1.0 to 1.3 immediately prior to the dynamic stress drop. The minimum b-value coincides with the maximum event rate and a stress level of 70 to 95% of the shear strength. It is also observed that the AE activity during each cycle was linked with the pre-failure fault slip, which accounts for 30% of the dynamic slip. Our results on b-value evaluation preceding repeated stick-slips can be used as an indicator of the degree of fault maturity and shear stress acting on the fault, which is important in seismic hazard assessment and earthquake prediction, especially for the injection-induced seismicity for fields in which reactivated shear rupture of unfavorable and immature faults or tensile fractures is important

Simultaneous removal of Ni(II) and fluoride from a real flue gas desulfurization wastewater by electrocoagulation using Fe/C/Al electrode

Large amounts of anions and heavy metals coexist in flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater originating from coal-fired power plants, which cause serious environmental pollution. Electrocoagulation (EC) with Fe/C/Al hybrid electrodes was investigated for the separation of fluoride and nickel ions from a FGD wastewater. The study mainly focused on the technology parameters including anode electrode type, time, inter-electrode distance (5–40 mm), current density (1.88–6.25 mA/cm2) and initial pH (4–10). The results showed that favorable nickel and fluoride removal were obtained by increasing the time and current density, but this led to an increase in energy consumption. Eighty-six percent of fluoride and 98% of Ni(II) were removed by conducting the Fe/C/Al EC with a current density of 5.00 mA/cm2 and inter-electrode distance of 5 mm at pH 4 for 25 min and energy consumption was 1.33 kWh/m3. Concomitant pollutants also achieved excellent treatment efficiency. The Hg, Mn, Pb, Cd, Cu, SS and chemical oxygen demand were reduced by 90%, 89%, 92%, 88%, 98%, 99.9% and 89%, respectively, which met stringent environmental regulations

Key grouting technology and engineering demonstration for green mines

This study proposed the multi-coupling grouting system with the aim to tackle green mine problems such as surface collapse, water resources destruction and coal based solid waste accumulation.Successfully applied, this system yielded the following major achievements: this study (1) probed into the patterns of development and evolution in mining separation space and primary fracture space, and conducted the intelligent identification of grouting space by means of theoretical analysis, physical and numerical simulation and field detection.(2) prepared multi-source inorganic high-performance grouting materials for different scenarios by using coal-based solid wastes (coal gangue, fly ash), and developed a new KEP grouting material with underwater dispersion resistance, high volume coefficient and high plastic strength.(3) applied cluster well and feather well to grouting hole drilling and and developed an all-weather, high pump pressure and large flow intelligent grouting system; The reinforcement grouting technology is applied for the first time to strengthen the effect of grouting to reduce settlement.(4)put forward the technology system of grouting effect monitoring and detection, and emphatically expounded the borehole detection method of combining drilling core and well logging.(5)formed an intelligent technology system based on the methods of separation space grouting to reduce settlement and treat waste, caving zone grouting to treat waste, goaf grouting to strengthen foundation bearing capacity and treat waste, and roof fissure grouting to control water gushing as the core.Engineering demonstrations of this system have been carried out in Xiadian coal mine, Xinpu phosphate mine, Caojiatan coal mine, Gaojiabao coal mine and other places, which yielded good results

The Compact Pulsed Hadron Source Construction Status

This paper reports the design and construction status, technical challenges, and future perspectives of the proton-linac based Compact Pulsed Hadron Source (CPHS) at the Tsinghua University, Beijing, Chin

CEPC Conceptual Design Report: Volume 2 - Physics & Detector

The Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) is a large international scientific facility proposed by the Chinese particle physics community to explore the Higgs boson and provide critical tests of the underlying fundamental physics principles of the Standard Model that might reveal new physics. The CEPC, to be hosted in China in a circular underground tunnel of approximately 100 km in circumference, is designed to operate as a Higgs factory producing electron-positron collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 240 GeV. The collider will also operate at around 91.2 GeV, as a Z factory, and at the WW production threshold (around 160 GeV). The CEPC will produce close to one trillion Z bosons, 100 million W bosons and over one million Higgs bosons. The vast amount of bottom quarks, charm quarks and tau-leptons produced in the decays of the Z bosons also makes the CEPC an effective B-factory and tau-charm factory. The CEPC will have two interaction points where two large detectors will be located. This document is the second volume of the CEPC Conceptual Design Report (CDR). It presents the physics case for the CEPC, describes conceptual designs of possible detectors and their technological options, highlights the expected detector and physics performance, and discusses future plans for detector R&D and physics investigations. The final CEPC detectors will be proposed and built by international collaborations but they are likely to be composed of the detector technologies included in the conceptual designs described in this document. A separate volume, Volume I, recently released, describes the design of the CEPC accelerator complex, its associated civil engineering, and strategic alternative scenarios

CEPC Conceptual Design Report: Volume 2 - Physics & Detector

The Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) is a large international scientific facility proposed by the Chinese particle physics community to explore the Higgs boson and provide critical tests of the underlying fundamental physics principles of the Standard Model that might reveal new physics. The CEPC, to be hosted in China in a circular underground tunnel of approximately 100 km in circumference, is designed to operate as a Higgs factory producing electron-positron collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 240 GeV. The collider will also operate at around 91.2 GeV, as a Z factory, and at the WW production threshold (around 160 GeV). The CEPC will produce close to one trillion Z bosons, 100 million W bosons and over one million Higgs bosons. The vast amount of bottom quarks, charm quarks and tau-leptons produced in the decays of the Z bosons also makes the CEPC an effective B-factory and tau-charm factory. The CEPC will have two interaction points where two large detectors will be located. This document is the second volume of the CEPC Conceptual Design Report (CDR). It presents the physics case for the CEPC, describes conceptual designs of possible detectors and their technological options, highlights the expected detector and physics performance, and discusses future plans for detector R&D and physics investigations. The final CEPC detectors will be proposed and built by international collaborations but they are likely to be composed of the detector technologies included in the conceptual designs described in this document. A separate volume, Volume I, recently released, describes the design of the CEPC accelerator complex, its associated civil engineering, and strategic alternative scenarios