Language proficiency and the speech act of complaint of Chinese EFL learners

Complaint is an under-researched speech act in the field of interlanguage pragmatics. Making a complaint runs the risk of impairing the relationship between speaker and hearer as it requires the speaker to express displeasure and frustration to what is believed to be the responsibility of the hearer. The speaker, therefore, has to use appropriate linguistic forms bearing in mind social conventions to make the hearer take some action of repair or to avoid interactional conflicts. For L2 learners, making complaints in a second/foreign language is more difficult as they may lack both sociocultural and L2 knowledge. This study investigated the ability of Chinese EFL learners to produce complaints and its relationship with their L2 proficiency. Thirty-two Chinese university students and five native speakers of American English completed a Free Discourse Completion Test (FDCT); English proficiency was measured by learners’ performance in TEM-4. Data elicited from the FDCT were analysed using a holistic rating scale for the overall appropriateness of complaints and a coding framework for complaint strategies and modifications. Results showed that learners were unable to produce appropriate complaints and L2 proficiency significantly influenced the overall appropriateness of complaints. Differences were also identified in strategies and external and internal modifications used by learners of different proficiency levels. The study suggested that the production of complaints by Chinese learners is greatly influenced by their native culture. In addition to improving L2 proficiency, lessons on cultural differences should be introduced for them to improve the ability to complain in English

A Self-Tuning procedure for resource management in InterCloud Computing

Beijing Key Laboratory on Integration and Analysis of Large-scale Stream Data, College of Computer Science, North China University of Technology, Beijing, China The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.InterCloud Computing is a new cloud paradigm designed to guarantee service quality or performance and availability of on-demand resources. InterCloud enables cloud interoperability by promoting the interworking of cloud systems from different cloud providers using standard interfacing. Resource management in InterCloud, considered as an important functional requirement, has not attracted commensurate research attention. The focus of this paper is to propose a Software Cybernetic approach, in the form of an adaptive control framework, for efficient management of shared resources in peer-to-peer InterCloud computing. This research effort adopts cooperative game theory to model resource management in InterCloud. The space of cooperative arrangements (resource sharing) between the participant cloud systems is presented by using Integer Partitioning to characterise the worst case communication complexity in peer to peer InterCloud. Essentially, this paper presents an Integer partition based anytime algorithm as an optimal cost solution to the bi-objective optimisation problem in resource management, anchored principally on practical trade-off between the desired performance (quality of service) and communication complexity of collaborating resource clouds

Bromido(2-{1-[2-(morpholin-4-yl)ethyl­imino]­eth­yl}phenolato)copper(II)

In the title complex, [CuBr(C14H19N2O2)], the CuII atom is coordinated by one phenolate O, one imine N and one amine N atom of the tridentate Schiff base ligand and by one bromide ion, resulting in a distorted CuBrN2O square-planar geometry, with the N atoms in a cis arrangement. The morpholine ring adopts a chair conformation

Electrocoagulation in Wastewater Treatment

A review of the literature published in from 2008 to 2010 on topics related to electrochemical treatment within wastewater was presented. The review included several sections such as optimization, modeling, various wastewater treatment techniques, analytical and instrumentation, and comparison with other treatment methods

Bis(μ-2-{1-[2-(dimethyl­amino)­ethyl­imino]­eth­yl}phenolato)bis­[bromido­copper(II)] monohydrate

In the centrosymmetric dinuclear copper(II) title complex, [Cu2Br2(C12H17N2O)2]·H2O, each CuII ion is five coordinated in a square-pyramidal geometry by the N,N′,O-tridentate Schiff base, one Br atom and the bridging O atom of the centrosymmetrically related Schiff base. In the crystal, the water mol­ecules link the complex mol­ecules into infinite chains along the b axis via O—H⋯Br and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

A novel low-temperature fabrication approach of composite phase change materials for high temperature thermal energy storage

Phase change materials (PCMs) are generally integrated into matrix materials to form shape-stabilized composite heat storage materials (HSMs) used for high temperature thermal energy storage applications. The conventional fabrication of composite HSMs is prevalently implemented at quite high temperatures, which is energy-intensive and narrows down the range of applicable PCMs because of thermal decomposition. Therefore, this paper establishes a novel fabrication approach to accomplish highly dense matrix to encapsulate PCMs at extremely low temperatures, based on the recently developed cold sintering process. The feasibility of the proposed approach was demonstrated by a case study of NaNO3/Ca(OH)2 composite HSMs. It was observed that the Ca(OH)2 matrix formed dense microstructure with obvious sintered boundaries and successfully encapsulated NaNO3 as PCM. The HSMs maintained stable macroscopic shape after hundreds of thermal cycles, and exhibited an energy storage efficiency of 59.48%, little leakage of PCM, and good thermal stability. Mechanical tests indicated that the HSMs possessed excellent mechanical properties when the sintering pressure is over 220 MPa. The discharging time of stored heat was presented through infrared thermography, and the heat storage capacity measured for the composite HSMs was over four times as high as those of typical solid storage materials of sensible heat, which demonstrated their excellent heat storage performances. The HSMs can be used in the form of packed bed or parallel channel with multi-layered heat storage, which is beneficial for efficiently utilizing solar heat and improving the performance of current energy storage system. This study therefore provides a novel route for energy-saving and low-carbon fabrication of shape-stabilized composite HSMs

N′-(2,5-Dihydroxy­benzyl­idene)-2-hydr­oxy-3-methyl­benzohydrazide

In the title compound, C15H14N2O4, the dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 4.1 (2)°. The mol­ecule adopts an E configuration with respect to the C=N bond. There are intra­molecular O—H⋯N and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds in the mol­ecule. In the crystal structure, mol­ecules are linked through inter­molecular N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming chains running along the c axis

2,4-Dihydr­oxy-N′-(2-hydr­oxy-4-methoxy­benzyl­idene)benzohydrazide

In the title compound, C15H14N2O5, the dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 4.3 (3)° and the mol­ecule adopts an E configuration with respect to the C=N bond. Intra­molecular O—H⋯N and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds are observed. In the crystal structure, the mol­ecules are linked through inter­molecular N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form layers parallel to the ac plane

N′-(2-Chloro­benzyl­idene)-2-hydr­oxy-3-methyl­benzohydrazide

In the title compound, C15H13ClN2O2, the dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 3.4 (5)° and the mol­ecule adopts an E configuration with respect to the C=N bond. There is an intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond in the mol­ecule, which generates an S(6) loop. In the crystal structure, mol­ecules are linked through inter­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming C(4) chains running along the a axis