211 research outputs found
A Comparative Study on Intonation Difference Between Chinese EFL Speakers and Native English Speakers Based on Visual Phonetic Software Praat
Acoustic features such as intonation are attached great importance by all English learners around the world, so as the Chinese EFL speakers. The study mainly conducts a comparative study between Chinese advanced EFL speakers and native speakers, analyzing the differences in intonation and the reasons behind it. Phonetic software Praat was used to visualized these voice data after the experiment. The result shows that all these Chinese advanced EFL speakers possess the awareness of intonation variation, but the detailed intonation variation is still quite different from the native speakers. The reason for this phenomenon is that most Chinese advanced EFL speakers fail to understand the extra-linguistic information conveyed from intonation variation. Acquiring phonetic theory and correcting intonation under the assistance of visual phonetic software are two practical methods to solve this problem
Early and late stage profiles for a new chemotaxis model with density-dependent jump probability and quorum-sensing mechanisms
In this paper, we derive a new chemotaxis model with degenerate diffusion and
density-dependent chemotactic sensitivity, and we provide a more realistic
description of cell migration process for its early and late stages. Different
from the existing studies focusing on the case of non-degenerate diffusion, the
new model with degenerate diffusion causes us some essential difficulty on the
boundedness estimates and the propagation behavior of its compact support. In
the presence of logistic damping, for the early stage before tumour cells
spread to the whole body, we first estimate the expanding speed of tumour
region as for . Then, for the late stage of
cell migration, we further prove that the asymptotic profile of the original
system is just its corresponding steady state. The global convergence of the
original weak solution to the steady state with exponential rate
for some is also obtained
2-roots for simply laced Weyl groups
We introduce and study "2-roots", which are symmetrized tensor products of
orthogonal roots of Kac--Moody algebras. We concentrate on the case where
is the Weyl group of a simply laced Y-shaped Dynkin diagram having
vertices and with three branches of arbitrary finite lengths , and
; special cases of this include types , (for arbitrary ), and affine , and . We show that a natural codimension-
submodule of the symmetric square of the reflection representation of
has a remarkable canonical basis that consists of 2-roots. We
conjecture that, with respect to , every element of is
represented by a column sign-coherent matrix in the sense of cluster algebras,
and we prove the conjecture in the finite and affine cases. If is a finite
simply laced Weyl group, each -orbit of 2-roots has a highest element,
analogous to the highest root, and we calculate these elements explicitly. We
prove that if is not of affine type, the module is completely reducible
in characteristic zero and each of its nontrivial direct summands is spanned by
a -orbit of 2-roots.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figure
Sandpiles and Dominos
We consider the subgroup of the abelian sandpile group of the grid graph
consisting of configurations of sand that are symmetric with respect to central
vertical and horizontal axes. We show that the size of this group is (i) the
number of domino tilings of a corresponding weighted rectangular checkerboard;
(ii) a product of special values of Chebyshev polynomials; and (iii) a
double-product whose factors are sums of squares of values of trigonometric
functions. We provide a new derivation of the formula due to Kasteleyn and to
Temperley and Fisher for counting the number of domino tilings of a 2m x 2n
rectangular checkerboard and a new way of counting the number of domino tilings
of a 2m x 2n checkerboard on a M\"obius strip.Comment: 35 pages, 24 figure
Examining the Link between Personality Traits, Cognitive Performance, and Consecutive Interpreting
Interpreting is a highly complex activity that not only demands proficient linguistic expertise, but also non-linguistic abilities such as non-linguistic cognitive
performance (Macnamara, 2012; Riesbeck et al., 1978; Wang, 2004). In addition to this, individual differences in personality may also play a potential role in the interpreter's ability to perform their job (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Rothmann & Coetzer, 2003). The current study sought to examine whether there is a relationship between personality traits, cognitive ability, and consecutive interpreting. The
five-factor model of personality (Costa & McCrae, 1988) was used to examine the personality of participants with its five categories of personality type (Openness to Experience; Conscientiousness; Extraversion; Agreeableness; and Neuroticism), and five cognitive ability tasks (Working Memory; Attentional Control; Multi-tasking; Speed of Information Processing; and Psychological Endurance) were chosen to examine their potential relationship with interpreting ability.
To fulfill this goal, an empirical study was conducted, collecting data from 80 participants in total (40 with consecutive interpreting backgrounds in the experimental group and 40 without interpreting foundations as a control group). Data was collected using online questionnaires and a set of cognitive tasks. The three online questionnaires, the Big Five (Goldberg, 1992), Attentional Control Scale (Derryberry & Reed, 2002) and Psychological Endurance Scale (Hamby et al., 2015) were used to examine participants’ personality, Attentional Control and Psychological Endurance respectively, whilst the objective cognitive tasks were designed to measure participant Working Memory, Multi-tasking ability and Speed of Information Processing using the Listening Span Test (Liu et al., 2004), Digits Symbol Substitution Test (Kaufman & Lichtenberger, 2006; Wechsler, 1939) and Linguistic Dual Task (Stachowiak, 2015; Meyer & Kieras, 1997) respectively.
The main findings of the current results were: firstly, a significant difference was found in cognitive abilities between experimental and control group in the areas of
Working Memory, Attentional Control, Multi-tasking and Psychological Endurance. Secondly, several personality traits correlated with scores on some cognitive abilities.
For example, Openness to Experience positively correlated with Attentional Control and Psychological Endurance; Conscientiousness positively correlated with Working Memory, Attentional Control and Psychological Endurance; Extraversion positively correlated with Attentional Control and Psychological Endurance; whilst Neuroticism negatively correlated with Attentional Control and Psychological Endurance. Thirdly, several personality traits (Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness and Extraversion) appear to be significantly related more to the experimental group than
the control group. Finally, mediation analysis appears to show that interpreting training has a mediating effect on the relationship between certain types of personality traits and cognitive abilities. In some cases, interpreting training and personality traits appear to exert an interacting effect and have a combining influence on some cognitive abilities. These findings can hopefully provide a
foundation for future study and be applied in practice to help interpreting training projects and cognitive ability improvement
Comparison of utilization and complications of peripherally inserted central catheters versus peripheral midline catheters in a large academic medical center
Background: Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) are a commonly used central intravenous (IV) access device, which sometimes cause severe complications. Midline catheters (MC) are peripheral IV access devices that may reduce the need for central lines, and hence central line associated blood stream infection (CLABSI). The objective of this study is to compare the utilization and safety of PICC and MC.
Methods: This was a retrospective quality improvement study. Data were collected using electronic medical records and IV team insertion data. SAS v9.3 was used for analysis. Means and standard deviations were calculated to describe central tendencies and variation. Fisher’s Exact Tests were used to describe strength of associations between variables.
Results: From January to May 2015, a total of 206 PICCs and 200 MCs were inserted in 367 individual patients. There was a total of 12 individual PICCs and 39 individual MCs involved with complications. MCs are associated with higher rate of non-serious complications as compared to PICCs. However, the severe complications were not significantly different between PICCs and MCs (4.9% vs. 9.0%, P=0.1182). Among the 206 PICCs, four readmissions were related to PICC issues, while among the 200 MCs, no readmission was caused by MC issues.
Conclusions: The reduction of CLABSIs could be a reasonable trade off for the increased non-severe complications associated with MCs. As technology of these devices is evolving, longer-term data will be essential to assure safety of MCs. Additional prospective studies could more objectively assess the safety and efficacy of these two devices.
Public Health Importance: A CLABSI is one of the most costly health care-associated infections (HAIs), and can cause prolonged hospital stays, increased costs and risk of mortality
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