Aviation English Training in China: Current Trends, Challenges, and Future Directions

In recent years, with major developments in civil aviation in China, more and more universities and institutes are focusing on how they could best address the national and global needs of teachers tasked to train student pilots across various language and communication needs. The presenter puts forward the problems or challenges typically encountered by Aviation English teachers for student pilots in China and explores the possibility of integrating task-based and situational teaching materials and approaches in Aviation English classes

The effect of online consumer reviews on new product sales : a study of amazon.com

In recent years, online word-of-mouth (WOM) communication in the form of online consumer reviews has become a major information source for consumers planning to purchase a new product. With the help of online reviews, consumers can access diverse opinions from others who have bought or used the new products before making their purchase decisions. This study compares the impact of online reviews on the sales of two types of new products (experience vs. search products) over time, in terms of the volume and valence of online consumer reviews. Using the data collected from Amazon.com over a period of nine months, we find that the volume of online consumer reviews has a greater effect on the new product sales in the late stage of product life cycle (PLC) than in the early stage of PLC. Moreover, the effect of valence of online consumer reviews is greater than that of volume of online consumer reviews. Online negative consumer reviews affect new product sales more than online positive consumer review, but not in a negative way. The results also indicate that the volume and valence of online consumer reviews have greater impact on experience products than search products. The findings suggest that online consumer reviews provide a meaningful decision aid to consumers planning to purchase new products and that online WOM gains momentum over time and significantly affects the sales of new products beyond the initial period. Practitioners need to pay greater attention to online WOM, devise suitable marketing strategies, and promote consumer advocacy to generate positive reviews when they launch new products. They may also incorporate the valuable consumer feedback in the development of new products

Black Hole Mass Formula Is a Vanishing Noether Charge

The Noether current and its variation relation with respect to diffeomorphism invariance of gravitational theories have been derived from the horizontal variation and vertical-horizontal bi-variation of the Lagrangian, respectively. For Einstein's GR in the stationary, axisymmetric black holes, the mass formula in vacuum can be derived from this Noether current although it definitely vanishes. This indicates that the mass formula of black holes is a vanishing Noether charge in this case. The first law of black hole thermodynamics can also be derived from the variation relation of this vanishing Noether current.Comment: 7 page

Insertion Loss Reduction using Rounded Corners to Mitigate Surface Roughness Effect in Pcb Transmission Lines

Signal integrity (SI) can be interpreted as a measure of the distortion of the incident pulse, which is attributed to various contributors, e.g., inter-symbol interference (ISI), crosstalk, jitter, etc. The channel insertion loss is generally the most critical concern in SI designs, since it determines the working bandwidth of a high-speed channel, and the bandlimited channels are known as the root cause of ISI. At the tens of Gigabit rates in use today, PCB transmission lines may have appreciable losses, which can be divided into frequency-dependent dielectric loss and conductor loss, and noticeable amount of losses can be generated at high-frequencies due to the skin effect and copper rough surfaces. In order to reduce the additional conductor loss due to the surface roughness, the employment of low-profile copper foils is a common practice in high-speed digital design. However, this existing method is not cost-effective. In this paper, insertion loss reduction using rounded corners are proposed and verified using both 2D and 3D full-wave simulations for the first time. Rounded corners can mitigate the increased insertion loss due to copper surface roughness in PCB transmission lines and can be applied in high-speed interconnect designs to increase eye margins. The impact of applying rounded corners on far-end crosstalk is also discussed

Surgical management of chronic calcific deposit resembling tendon sheath infection in the index finger: A rare case report and literature review

BackgroundCalcific tendonitis rarely occurs in the fingers, and it is easily misdiagnosed. Herein we describe the case of a patient with multiple calcific lesions within the flexor digitorum superficialis and the extensor digitorum tendons of the distal interphalangeal joints of the right index finger, and the surgical treatment of those lesions.Case presentationThe patient was a 66-year-old man who reported pain and swelling in his right index finger for one year. He was diagnosed with chronic calcific tendonitis based on his symptoms and radiology images. He was successfully treated surgically, and histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis. After one month, the patient had healed well, and there was no recurrence.ConclusionsThis is the first report of a patient suffering from chronic calcific tendonitis in a finger who failed conservative treatment and was successfully treated with surgery. The outcome demonstrates that surgical debridement can yield a good outcome in patients with chronic calcific tendonitis