A genre analysis of abstracts on organic farming in the context of ESP teaching

Diese Masterarbeit hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt eine Genreanalyse mit Hilfe eines Korpus von landwirtschaftlichen Abstracts durchzuführen um lexiko-grammatikalische Merkmale sowie die typische Struktur dieser Textsorte aufzuzeigen. Außerdem soll diese Genreanalyse im Kontext des englischen Fachsprachenunterrichts in berufsbildenden höheren Schulen, welche sich auf landwirtschaftliche Ausbildung spezialisieren, betrachtet werden. Die Texte aus dem Korpus stammen alle aus dem Bereich biologischer Landwirtschaft. Verschiedene Arten von Wörtern wurden untersucht, unter anderem Vokabular das häufig in den Texten verwendet wird (high-frequency words), akademisches Vokabular und Fachausdrücke sowie weniger häufig vorkommende Wörter (low-frequency words). Außerdem wurden Kollokationen, Wörter die mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit zusammen erscheinen, analysiert. So wurde versucht das Vokabular auszumachen welches typisch für dieses Genre in diesem Fachgebiet ist. Die Untersuchung der Struktur der Texte (Move analysis) erfolgte manuell. Zuletzt wurde der Zusammenhang zwischen einer solchen Analyse und dem englischen Fachsprachenunterricht untersucht. Die Analyse der verschiedenen Wortarten zeigte, dass, obwohl Allgemeinvokabular den größten Anteil hat, diese Texte zu einem hohen Grad akademisch sind. In der Analyse wurden außerdem wichtige Kollokationen gefunden, die als wesentlich für landwirtschaftliche Abstracts angesehen werden können. In der Move Analysis wurde aufgezeigt, dass die Abstracts zwei verschiedenen Mustern folgen. 110 Texten beinhalten fünf Abschnitte, nämlich Einführung, Zielsetzung, Methoden, Resultate und Fazit. Die restlichen 10 Texte folgen einem anderen Muster. Zusätzliche wurden wichtige Phrasen und Kollokationen für die jeweiligen einzelnen Moves gefunden. Allgemein kann gesagt werden, dass eine Analyse, wie sie in dieser Arbeit durchgeführt wurde, ein brauchbares Instrument für verschiedene ESP Situationen darstellt, auch im Zusammenhang mit landwirtschaftlichen Schulen.A corpus-based genre analysis is conducted in this study order to reveal lexico-grammatical features as well as the genre structure of abstracts in the field of agriculture. In addition, the context of ESP teaching in higher secondary schools focusing on agriculture is investigated. A corpus of 120 abstracts from the field of organic farming was compiled. Different types of vocabulary including high-frequency words, academic and technical vocabulary and low-frequency words were analysed. In addition, concordances, collocations and clusters were investigated in order to present genre-specific as well as genre-functional formulaic language. Finally, the analysis was linked to ESP teaching. The analysis showed that general service words make up the largest part of the vocabulary. However, it was also found that the texts in the corpus are very academic in nature. In addition, important collocations and clusters were found which are constitutive of the genre of agricultural abstracts. The results of the move analysis showed that the texts mainly consist of obligatory as well as core moves. In addition, the abstracts follow two general patterns. 110 abstracts consist of five moves (introduction, purpose, methods, results, and conclusion) while 10 of the texts show a different pattern. Besides analysing the structure of the abstracts, phrases and clusters were detected that are commonly used in individual moves.It can be concluded that a corpus analysis as conducted in this study can be a useful tool for different target settings in ESP, especially in insufficiently studied areas such as agricultural education in Austria

Melting behaviour of waste glass cullet briquettes in soda-lime-silica container glass batch

The melting behaviour of representative container glass batch with and without the addition of 15wt % briquettes produced from waste cullet fine particles was investigated in the context of reducing both waste and glass melting energies. Carbonate raw material decomposition and reactions during melting were studied by DTA-TGA-MS. The decomposition kinetics of two batches, representing typical container glass batches with 0% and 15% briquette additions, were calculated by transformation degree based on the Ginstling-Brounstein and Arrhenius equations. High temperature phase transitions and fractions of silica reaction in each batch were obtained from X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The briquette additions accelerated the decomposition reactions and the silicate reaction kinetics by decreasing the activation energy for carbonate decomposition. Silica sand in the batch was shown to melt at lower temperatures with the addition of briquettes. Batch melting processes at different temperatures and briquette melting on top of the molten glass at high temperatures, were investigated by macroscopic investigations of sample cross-sections post-melting. The positive effects of briquette additions to container glass batches, in terms of increased melting rate and reduced batch reaction and decomposition temperatures, are supported by the results of this study

Thermal conductivity of refractory glass fibres

In the present study, the current international standards and corresponding apparatus for measuring the thermal conductivity of refractory glass fibre products have been reviewed. Refractory glass fibres are normally produced in the form of low-density needled mats. A major issue with thermal conductivity measurements of these materials is lack of reproducibility in the test results due to transformation of the test material during the test. Also needled mats are inherently inhomogeneous, and this poses additional problems. To be able to compare the various methods of thermal conductivity measurement, a refractory reference material was designed which is capable of withstanding maximum test temperatures (1673 K) with minimum transformation. The thermal conductivity of this reference material was then measured using various methods according to the different standards surveyed. In order to compare different materials, samples have been acquired from major refractory glass fibre manufacturers and the results have been compared against the newly introduced reference material. Materials manufactured by melt spinning, melt blowing and sol–gel have been studied, and results compared with literature values

Exploratory research in alternative raw material sources and reformulation for industrial soda-lime-silica glass batch

For energy saving and CO2 emissions reduction, in addition to extending the range of suitable raw material sources for glass manufacture, compositional reformulation, and alternative raw materials have been studied in the context of industrial container and float‐type soda‐lime‐silica (SLS) glasses. Lithium, potassium, and boron were applied to modify benchmark glass compositions. Reformulation impacts on key glass properties including the viscosity‐temperature relationship, thermal expansion, liquidus temperature, forming behavior and color. Compared to the benchmark glass, representative of commercial SLS glasses, melting temperatures (taken as temperatures corresponding to log (viscosity/dPa·s) = 2) of reformulated glasses are reduced by 11°C‐55°C. Investigation of four industrial by‐products (seashell waste, eggshell waste, biomass ash, and rice husk ash), and their potential suitability as alternative glass batch raw materials, was also conducted. Seashell waste and biomass ash were successfully introduced into representative green glass formulations

Glass Fibers: Quo Vadis?

Since the early 1930s, the process of melting glass and subsequently forming fibers, in particular discontinuous fiber glass or continuous glass filaments, evolved into commercial-scale manufacturing.[...