The Study of Content Validation on CET Writing Section After Reform in China

The College English Test (CET) hosted by China Ministry of Education in 1987 is a large-scale standardized test, divided into CET-4 and CET-6. There are two times one year. CET-4 is for the basic requirement, while CET-6 is for higher requirement. CET is the largest exam of English in China. Since the 1980s, more and more people have focused on it, for it has a profound influence on English teaching. In order to test students’ English level, improve the quality of English teaching and meet the requirement of social development, CET conducted two reforms in 2006 and 2012 respectively. The present paper based on the college English test from 2012 to 2015 has chosen 42 sets of writing paper as the research object, and studied content validation of the writing section after reform from two aspects, design of test and content of test, aiming at examining the quality of writing part of the thesis. The results show that genre tends to be diversified; the topics are rich; the principles of openness and authenticity have been adopted appropriately; the rubrics of the writing items contain adequate information. The results also show that the subject matter of the CET writing covers a wide range, which has grasped the principle of authenticity well; openness is moderate; prompted information is sufficient; forms of prompted information are no longer model. However, genre of CET writing questions is limited to argumentation, and interaction is less. Based on these results, this paper puts forward some suggestions for future improvement in design of CET writing test items and for English writing teaching

A composition theorem for parity kill number

In this work, we study the parity complexity measures ${\mathsf{C}^{\oplus}_{\min}}[f]$ and ${\mathsf{DT^{\oplus}}}[f]$. ${\mathsf{C}^{\oplus}_{\min}}[f]$ is the \emph{parity kill number} of $f$, the fewest number of parities on the input variables one has to fix in order to "kill" $f$, i.e. to make it constant. ${\mathsf{DT^{\oplus}}}[f]$ is the depth of the shortest \emph{parity decision tree} which computes $f$. These complexity measures have in recent years become increasingly important in the fields of communication complexity \cite{ZS09, MO09, ZS10, TWXZ13} and pseudorandomness \cite{BK12, Sha11, CT13}. Our main result is a composition theorem for ${\mathsf{C}^{\oplus}_{\min}}$. The $k$-th power of $f$, denoted $f^{\circ k}$, is the function which results from composing $f$ with itself $k$ times. We prove that if $f$ is not a parity function, then ${\mathsf{C}^{\oplus}_{\min}}[f^{\circ k}] \geq \Omega({\mathsf{C}_{\min}}[f]^{k}).$ In other words, the parity kill number of $f$ is essentially supermultiplicative in the \emph{normal} kill number of $f$ (also known as the minimum certificate complexity). As an application of our composition theorem, we show lower bounds on the parity complexity measures of $\mathsf{Sort}^{\circ k}$ and $\mathsf{HI}^{\circ k}$. Here $\mathsf{Sort}$ is the sort function due to Ambainis \cite{Amb06}, and $\mathsf{HI}$ is Kushilevitz's hemi-icosahedron function \cite{NW95}. In doing so, we disprove a conjecture of Montanaro and Osborne \cite{MO09} which had applications to communication complexity and computational learning theory. In addition, we give new lower bounds for conjectures of \cite{MO09,ZS10} and \cite{TWXZ13}

Identification two novel nacrein-like proteins involved in the shell formation of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas

Nacrein-like proteins have carbonic anhydrase (CA)-like domains, but their coding regions are flanked by inserted repeat sequence, such as Gly-X-Asn. Reportedly, nacrein-like proteins show the highest similarity to human carbonic anhydrase 1(α-CA1), possess CA catalytic functions, and play a key role in shell biomineralization. In the present study, two novel nacrein-like proteins were firstly identified from the shell-forming mantle of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. With numerous analyses, it was identified and characterized that both the nacrein-like proteins F1 and F2 were secreted and most closely related to the nacrein-like protein of California mussel Mytilus californianus via phylogenetic analysis. RT-PCR analysis showed that the nacrein-like proteins F1 and F2 were expressed in multiple tissues and the expression levels remarkably rose after entering the spat stage, which were basically consistent with the increase of calcite fractions in the total shell volume. Surprisingly, the Gly-X-Asn repeat domain, which is distinctive in most nacrein-like proteins, was absent in the two newly identified nacrein-like proteins in C. gigas and replaced with a series of acidic amino acids (D/E). Regardless, nacrein-like proteins in mollusks seem to be vital to the deposition of calcium carbonate and likely perform diverse functions. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11033-014-3298-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Factors Influencing Paternal Role Adaptation among First-time Fathers: A Cross-sectional Study

บทคัดย่อ วัตถุประสงค์: เพื่อประเมินระดับการปรับตัวรับบทบาทบิดาในชายที่เป็นบิดาครั้งแรก และทดสอบปัจจัยที่อาจสัมพันธ์กับการปรับตัวรับบทบาทบิดา วิธีการศึกษา: การศึกษาภาคตัดขวางนี้มีผู้ร่วมการวิจัย 140 ราย ดำเนินการวิจัยที่คลินิกหลังคลอดของโรงพยาบาลระดับตติยภูมิในเมือง Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China โดยใช้แบบสอบถามที่ตอบด้วยตนเองโดยรวบรวมข้อมูลประชากรศาสตร์ และประเมินความสัมพันธ์สมรส ความเครียดของบิดา และการปรับตัวรับบทบาทของบิดา ทั้งหมดเป็นภาษาจีน ทดสอบความสัมพันธ์โดยใช้การทดสอบความถดถอยเชิงเส้นแบบหลายตัวแปร ผลการศึกษา: ผู้ร่วมการวิจัยมีระดับการปรับตัวรับบทบาทของบิดาระดับสูง พบว่ามีเพียงความสัมพันธ์สมรส และความเครียดของบิดาที่สัมพันธ์กับการปรับตัวรับบทบาทของบิดาอย่างมีนัยสำคัญ โดยอธิบายความแปรปรวนของการปรับตัวรับบทบาทของบิดาได้ร้อยละ 26.4 สรุป: บุคลากรทางการแพทย์ควรช่วยเหลือผู้เป็นบิดาครั้งแรกโดยการให้ความรู้และให้ทักษะในการดูแลเด็ก ควรส่งเสริมการสร้างความสัมพันธ์สมรสและลดความเครียดของบิดาซึ่งจะช่วยพัฒนาการปรับตัวรับบทบาทของบิดาได้ดีขึ้น คำสำคัญ: การปรับตัวรับบทบาทของบิดา, จีน, ความสัมพันธ์สมรส, ความเครียดของบิดา Abstract Objective: To assess paternal role adaptation of first-time fathers and examine its predictive factors. Methods: A cross-sectional survey including 140 participants was conducted at postpartum follow-up clinic of a tertiary hospital in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Self-administered questionnaires including the demographic record form, Relationship Assessment Scale, the Chinese version of the Parental Stress Scale, and Paternal Role Adaptation Questionnaire were used. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression were used to analyze data. Results: Participants had a high level of paternal role adaptation. Only marital relationship and paternal stress significantly explained 26.4% of the variability of paternal role adaptation. Conclusion: Health personnel should help first-time fathers gain parenting knowledge and childcare skills. First-time fathers should be encouraged to have good marital relationship and reduce their own stress, which can help improve paternal role adaptation. Keywords: paternal role adaptation, China, fathers, marital relationship, paternal stres