Using Coh-Metrix to Analyse Writing Skills of Students: A Case Study in a Technological Common Core Curriculum Course

Pedagogy with learning analytics is shown to facilitate the teaching-learning process through analysing student’s behaviours. In this paper, we explore the possibility of using a computational linguistic tool Coh-Metrix for analyzing and improving writing skills of students in a technological common core curriculum course. In this study, we mainly focused on the investigation of syntactic simplicity, word concreteness, referential cohesion, and deep cohesion of student’s essays. We studied 25 essays from the three-year curriculum students and 26 essays from the four-year curriculum students. Results illustrate the necessity of improving student’s writing skills in their university learning, so that they can effectively circulate their ideas to the public in the future.published_or_final_versio

Correction to “Surface deformation due to a strike-slip fault in an elastic gravitational layer overlying a viscoelastic gravitational half-space” by Ting-To Yu, John B. Rundle, and José Fernández

Peer reviewe

Subsurface deformation and geoid changes due to earthquakes

Presented in the First Meeting of Special Study Group 4.176 (Models of temporal variations of the gravity field) of the International Association of GeodesyThe subsurface deformation associated with earthquake faulting is modeled within a three-dimensional homogeneous half-space. It is found that at the boundary of ruptured fault, the strike slip faulting changes mainly the horizontal displacement field, shear stress; while dip slip events affect primarily both the vertical and horizontal components, normal stress. Yiscoelastic gravitational layered model was utilized for computing the postseismic displacement. The modeled postseismic subsurface uplift for five historical events match the geoid high found in the Himalayas. Such geoid residual may serve as a signature of historical events thus can be used to study the existence of seismic gaps.Peer reviewe

Construction and Evaluation of Chloroplast Expression Vectors in Higher Plants

Plastid transformation has a number of advantages in comparison with nuclear transformation. Currently, only tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) is routinely used in plastid transformation. Here we constructed a series of chloroplast expression vectors specific for spinach (pCEV1), tomato (pCEV2 and pCEV3), and N. benthamiana (pCEV4). Selection marker aminoglycoside 3′-adenyltransferase (aadA) conferring spectinomycin resistance was used in pCEV1, pCEV2, and pCEV4, while selection marker neomycin phosphotransferase II (nptII) was used in pCEV3. The expression cassette in these vectors was integrated in the intergenic spacer between trnI and trnA of plastid genome via homologous recombination. Several transgenes, including a reporter gene encoding GFP:GUS fusion protein and genes from tomato (lycopene b-cyclase, z-carotene desaturase) and bamboo mosaic virus satellite RNA (encoding coat protein CP20), were independently cloned into some of these vectors. Transient GUS expression was detected in spinach leaves bombarded by pCEV1/GFP-GUS. Functional expression of selection markers aadA and nptII was demonstrated for spinach, tomato, and N. benthamiana. Seedling assay from T0 self-pollinated plant of transplastomic N. benthamiana confirmed maternal inheritance of transgenes, and genomic PCR analysis confirmed integration of transgenic expression cassette into the plastid genome of N. benthamiana. Moreover, auxiliary vectors pECaad and pECnpt are also reported

Geodetic signature produced by different sources in a gravitational layered Earth model

Presented in the First Meeting of Special Study Group 4.176 (Models of temporal variations of the gravity field) of the International Association of GeodesyWe describe theoretical and computational methods developed by our group for the calculation of displacement, gravity and potential changes resulting from different sources (representing magma bodies and faults) in elastic-gravitational and viscoelastic-gravitationallayered media. The existing codes corresponding to the models are also presented with the information about how they can be obtained for scientific use. The results obtained and work currently in progress are also described in this paper.Peer reviewe

Low-cost global MPPT scheme for photovoltaic systems under partially shaded conditions

Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is a technique applied to improve the efficiency of power conversion in Photovoltaic (PV) systems. Under partially shadowed conditions, the Power-Voltage (P-V) characteristic exhibits multiple peaks and the existing MPPT methods such as the Perturb and Observe (P&O) are incapable of searching for the Global Maximum Power Point (GMPP). This paper proposes a low-cost on-line MPPT scheme to overcome this drawback. By using hybrid numerical searching process, the operating point approaches Local Maximum Power Points (LMPPs) gradually and the GMPP is caught by comparing all the LMPPs. Simulation results prove the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed method. © 2013 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Equilibrium information in credence goods; Oslo Metropolitan University seminar presentation

Accepted manuscrip