Use of Verb-Noun Collocations by Advanced Learners of Chinese

The important role of collocations has been widely accepted in the current literature, but to date there are still relatively few studies on language learners’ collocation knowledge and development within different local contexts. The current study intends to contribute to the literature by investigating the oral production of Chinese verb-noun (V-N) collocations by a group of highly proficient learners comprised of both Chinese as a foreign language learners (CFL learners) and Chinese heritage language learners (CHL learners), as compared to Chinese native speakers (CNSs). The study brings together current literature on collocation and heritage language learners both from a Western perspective and from the Chinese linguistic and sociolinguistic perspective. Samples of spoken language data discussing both academic and non-academic topics were collected through one-on-one interviews with 10 CFL learners, 10 CHL learners and 10 CNSs. The data are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively to yield the following three findings: (1) There is a significant difference in using Chinese verb-noun (V-N) collocations among CFL learners, CHL learners, and CNSs. In general, CNSs produced significantly more V-N collocations in terms of both number (token) and range (type) than CFL learners and CHL learners, (2) The two different oral topics are also found to affect learners’ production of collocations. All three groups used more monosyllabic V-N collocations in discussing daily topics and more disyllabic V-N collocations in discussing academic topics. Moreover, CFL learners and CFL learners exhibited both similarities and differences in applying collocations under the two oral contexts, (3) There are different categories and characteristics of collocation usage in terms of the acceptability and communicativeness of non-conventional collocations produced by learners. The discussion further analyzes several factors that tend to influence CFL learners’ and CHL learners’ production of collocations. The findings of this study expand our understanding about advanced learners’ knowledge and production of Chinese V-N collocations. Moreover, they also provide invaluable information for educators and practitioners who are involved in FL and HL instruction of Chinese

Sulfanilamide benzotriazole tetrazole inhibits neuronal apoptosis in neonatal rats by targeting JNK and p38 MAPK pathways

Purpose: To investigate the neuroprotective effect of sulfanilamide benzotriazole tetrazole (SBT) in neonatal rats exposed to isoflurane, and also to elucidate the underlying mechanism. Methods: Rat pups (n = 60) were randomly assigned to six groups of 10 pups each: normal control group, negative control group, 5 mg/kg SBT group, 10 mg/kg SBT group, 15 mg/kg SBT group, and 20 mg/kg SBT group. With exception of normal control group, pups were exposed to isoflurane (0.75 %) for 6 h on postnatal day 7. The negative control group was not treated, while pups in the four treatment groups received 5, 10, 15 and 20 mg/kg SBT, respectively, 1 h after exposure to anaesthesia. TUNEL assay was used to determine the extent of apoptosis in cornu ammonis area-1 (CA-1), cornu ammonis area-3 (CA-3) and dentate gyrus of rat hippocampal tissues. Expressions of apoptotic and anti-apoptotic proteins were determined using Western blotting. Evaluation of learning and memorizing ability was done using Morris water maze test. Results: Isoflurane significantly increased the extent of apoptosis in CA-1, CA-3 and dentate gyrus of rat hippocampal tissues (p < 0.05). However, treatment with SBT significantly and dose-dependently reduced neuronal apoptosis (p < 0.05). The expression of caspase 3 was significantly upregulated by isoflurane, but was significantly and dose-dependently down-regulated by SBT (p < 0.05). Isoflurane significantly increased Bax expression, and decreased the expression of bcl-2 (p < 0.05). The effects of isoflurane on the expression of these proteins were significantly and dose-dependently reversed by SBT (p < 0.05). The expression of bcl xL in rat hippocampal tissues was significantly down-regulated by isoflurane, but was significantly and dose-dependently upregulated by SBT (p < 0.05). The escape latency of pups was significantly higher in negative control group than in normal control group, but SBT treatment significantly and dose-dependently reversed this trend (p < 0.05). Conclusion: These results suggest that SBT prevents neuronal apoptosis, and improves the ability to learn and memorize in neonatal rats exposed to isoflurane via regulation of apoptotic, JNK and p38 MAPK protein expressions

Influence of Visual Cues of E-WOM on Consumers\u27 Purchase Intention

E-WOM is considered to be an important factor affecting consumers\u27 purchasing decisions. Now many scholars focus on the specific presentation of e-WOM to study consumer behavior, and the research on the influence mechanism of the form-based characteristics of e-WOM information on consumers is relatively lacking. Based on clue utilization theory and the perspective of consumer psychology processing, we explores the impact of visual cues of e-WOM on consumer perception and purchase intention. The experimental results show that the visual cues of e-WOM promote the mental imagery of consumers, and then have a significant impact on their perceptual diagnosis and purchase intention. Finally, the corresponding marketing management inspiration is proposed

A Crowdsourcing Mode of Tourism Customization Based on Sharing Economy

China’s latest innovations of Internet Economy are partly reflected in video living broadcast, shared bicycles etc. In recent years, tourism industry in China obtains rapid development by utilizing Internet. However, it is still difficult to meet the growing tourist demands. In order to solve this problem, in this paper, we put forward a Tourism Crowdsourcing Model (TCM), which utilizes the public creativity to meet the increasing demands for personalized tourism. Firstly, the main problems of the tourism industry are analyzed. Secondly, the pattern of TCM is elaborated, and a matching algorithm between the tourist requirements and the workers’ abilities is well designed to find the qualified service providers efficiently and accurately. Finally, an example is given to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the TCM based on shared economy. The results shows that TCM has some significant advantages to satisfy the tourism personalized needs by motivating the public to participate in the tourism industry initiatively

Ability Discovery and Weak Centralized Based Crowdsourcing Service Release System in Social Network

Crowdsourcing developed rapidly for its inspiring public abilities. But how to effectively find qualified participants and how to find and prevent malicious workers may be the main difficulties to ensure the crowdsourcing quality. In this paper, the related theories of social network were used in crowdsourcing services, the task publisher (Seeker) was regarded as the network center, his Abilities Set (AS) would be quantified and his Friends Abilities Matrix (FAM) would be generated according to the communication between them, thus his social network was re-constructed. Subsequently, some friends that conformed to the ability requirements of the task would be chosen to be the task receivers (Solvers). The natural trust relationship in the social network was fully used to build a crowdsourcing service release system on weak centralization. By using the social network, even the privacy information needn’t to be shared with others, the system could help the seeker find solvers accurately in the seeker’s own social network according to task demands, and then help to reduce fraud and invalid data. The simulation experiments showed that the release system could help the seeker discover his own abilities, construct the FAM, and select the appropriate solvers precisely and automatically