Recategorizing ETS\u27s Griterion Topics for More Effective Topic Analyses

この論文では、English Testing Serviceにより開発された英語ライティング指導ツール、クライテリオンで提供されている全400以上のトピックを分析する。最終的には米国の言語教育で学年ごとに求めれれている能力を特定する目的であるが、ETSによる異なるライティング様式（主張分、説明文など）に基づいたトピック分類は、一部その分類の曖昧さのために、異なる学年に渡ってのより効果的な分析を難しくしている。それゆえ、本論文では、最初の段階として、カテゴリー分けに問題があるトピックを再分類し、より合理的な分類にする。主に説明文、情報文を別のカテゴリーに分類し直すことで、ETSの９種類の分類を６種類にまとめる。The paper analyzes more than four hundred topics in the Criterion service, an online writing tool developed by Educational Testing Service, in an attempt to identify what kinds of writing skills are required at what grades in the U.S. language education. The problem is that ETS’s categorization of topic contents, based on different modes of writing such as persuasive and expository, is not effective for comparative analyses of topics in different grades due to ambiguities in its methods. Thus, this paper recategorizes the topics with categorization problems as a first step toward effective analyses of the topics. The modification is conducted mainly by integrating expository essays and informative essays into other categories with the omission of the two categories and another, which reduces nine categories of ETS’s categorization to six categories

Analyses of Skill Development through Essay Writing on Criterion Topics

本論文では、English Testing Serviceにより開発された英語ライティング指導ツール、Criterionで提供されているトピックを分析する。第一にトピックが個人的・社会個人的・社会的なものであるかによって分類し、第二にそれぞれのトピックがどのような作文能力とそれに関連した能力を開発しようとしているかという観点から分析する。分析の結果、（1）学年が上がるにつれ、個人的なトピックから社会的なトピックへ、そして日常的な事柄に関する観察力から社会的な問題に関する観察力へと焦点が変わっていること、（2）小中高校では、想像力、創造力、感情的描写力、知覚的描写力、修辞的な言語能力の発達に重きをおいていること、（3）大学では説得力に重きをおくため、理由説明力、因果関係分析力、比較分析力に重きが置かれていること、（4）利点分析は大学のビジネス分野で主にみられること、(5)大学準備レベルでは人生経験について深く考えさせていること、（6）大学・GRE レベルでは哲学的思考力を鍛えようとしていることがわかった。さらに、自分を特定の相手に対して売り込む能力やイニシアティブをとる能力を鍛えるトピックの存在にも言及する。The paper analyzes essay topics in the Criterion service, an online writing tool developed by Educational Testing Service, by categoraizing them into the personal, socio-personal, or social categories and identifying what writing skills and related abilities are required in each essay topic, in order to find out how these skills and abilities are developed though writing on Criterion essay topics. The analysis offers the following six findings:（1）there is a shift in focus from personal topics to social topics with the advancement of students\u27 grades, as well as a shift on observational abilities from awareness of daily occurrences to that of social phenomena, (2) there is a focus on developing imaginativeness,creativity,emotional description, and perceptual desciption,rhetorical abilities in pre-college education, (3) abilities of explaining reasons, cause-effect analysis, and comparative analysis are focused in college-level education,which emphasizes in essay writing, (4) merit analysis is emphasized at college business-focused levels, (5) students are encouraged to philosophize about their life through reflections on their life experiences at the college preparatotory level, and (6) students are encouraged to develop their abilities in philosophical thinking for value judgment at college levels and GRE levels. In addition, it points out the two notable characteristics of essay topics in Criterion: the presence of essay topics designed to develop students\u27 abilities to assert themselves to a specific target, and the presence of essay topics designed to develop leadership abilities in students

The ER cholesterol sensor SCAP promotes CARTS biogenesis at ER–Golgi membrane contact sites

In response to cholesterol deprivation, SCAP escorts SREBP transcription factors from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi complex for their proteolytic activation, leading to gene expression for cholesterol synthesis and uptake. Here, we show that in cholesterol-fed cells, ER-localized SCAP interacts through Sac1 phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate (PI4P) phosphatase with a VAP–OSBP complex, which mediates counter-transport of ER cholesterol and Golgi PI4P at ER–Golgi membrane contact sites (MCSs). SCAP knockdown inhibited the turnover of PI4P, perhaps due to a cholesterol transport defect, and altered the subcellular distribution of the VAP–OSBP complex. As in the case of perturbation of lipid transfer complexes at ER–Golgi MCSs, SCAP knockdown inhibited the biogenesis of the trans-Golgi network–derived transport carriers CARTS, which was reversed by expression of wild-type SCAP or a Golgi transport–defective mutant, but not of cholesterol sensing–defective mutants. Altogether, our findings reveal a new role for SCAP under cholesterol-fed conditions in the facilitation of CARTS biogenesis via ER–Golgi MCSs, depending on the ER cholesterol.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version