Teaching Chinese International Students Two-Word Verbs Through Three C’s Approach

This field project probes into miscommunication problems between Chinese international students and native English speakers due to the formers’ lack of knowledge of two-word verbs. Research findings indicated that difficulty in the acquisition of two-word verbs lies in the polysemy and a large number of two-word verbs. The traditional classroom teaching method, which relies on memorizing the meanings of two-word verbs by rote, also brings challenges to Chinese students’ language learning. Furthermore, the frequent use of two-word verbs by native speakers of English in everyday scenarios leads to miscommunication issues with Chinese students who are unfamiliar with the meaning and context of two-word verbs. However, such miscommunication may bring various adverse effects to students, such as avoidance of two-word verbs, social isolation, and diminished self-confidence. Therefore, it is necessary to implement effective and contextualized methods to support Chinese international students in learning two-word verbs that are frequently used in daily life and study so as to enlarge their two-word verb reserve and reduce miscommunication. This project created a free website for self-study of two-word verbs with rich resources to help Chinese international students learn two-word verbs independently. The website presents and delivers two-word verbs through the Three C’s Approach, enabling students to grasp the meaning and retain the memory of these words well. The highlight of the website is the customized and characteristic exercises for two-word verbs selected from the PHrasal VErb Pedagogical List. Moreover, the website provides online real-time feedback to help students self-check what they have learned, making their learning more efficient and targeted

The Development and Application of Organic Rankine Cycle for Vehicle Waste Heat Recovery

The development of engine waste heat recovery (WHR) technologies attracts ever increasing interests due to the rising strict policy requirements and environmental concerns. Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) can convert low medium grade heat into electrical or mechanical power and has been widely recognized as the most promising heat-driven technologies. A typical internal combustion engine (ICE) converts around 30% of the overall fuel energy into effective mechanical power and the rest of fuel energy is dumped through the engine exhaust system and cooling system. Integrating a well-designed ORC system to ICE can effectively improve the overall energy efficiency and reduce emissions with around 2–5 years payback period through fuel saving. This book chapter is meant to provide an overview of the technical development and application of ORC technology to recover wasted thermal energy from the ICE with a particular focus on vehicle applications

High Precision Ranging and Range-Rate Measurements over Free-Space-Laser Communication Link

We present a high-precision ranging and range-rate measurement system via an optical-ranging or combined ranging-communication link. A complete bench-top optical communication system was built. It included a ground terminal and a space terminal. Ranging and range rate tests were conducted in two configurations. In the communication configuration with 622 data rate, we achieved a two-way range-rate error of 2 microns/s, or a modified Allan deviation of 9 x 10 (exp -15) with 10 second averaging time. Ranging and range-rate as a function of Bit Error Rate of the communication link is reported. They are not sensitive to the link error rate. In the single-frequency amplitude modulation mode, we report a two-way range rate error of 0.8 microns/s, or a modified Allan deviation of 2.6 x 10 (exp -15) with 10 second averaging time. We identified the major noise sources in the current system as the transmitter modulation injected noise and receiver electronics generated noise. A new improved system will be constructed to further improve the system performance for both operating modes