Understanding the quality of out-of-class English learning

Out-of-class learning constitutes an important context for human development, and active engagement in out-of-class activities is associated with successful language development. However, not all out-of-class experiences are equally beneficial to learning, and it is of paramount importance to understand what quality out-of-class English language learning entails. This study surveyed 82 middle school EFL students on their out-of-class English language learning in order to identify the characteristics of the experiences that are associated with good learning outcomes. The study found that out-of-class learning composed of diversified constituents that met the varied needs in language learning and complemented in-class learning by striking a balance between focus on meaning and focus on form were positively associated with good English grades, English language learning efficacy, and enjoyment. It also found that parents and teachers were significant sources of influence on the quality of students' out-of-class learning.postprin

A Mean Field Game Theoretic Approach to Electric Vehicles Charging

Electric vehicles (EVs) provide environmentally friendly transport and they are considered to be an important component of distributed and mobile electric energy storage and supply system. It is possible that EVs can be used to store and transport energy from one geographical area to another as a supportive energy supply. Electricity consumption management should consider carefully the inclusion of EVs. One critical challenge in the consumption management for EVs is the optimization of battery charging. This paper provides a dynamic game theoretic optimization framework to formulate the optimal charging problem. The optimization considers a charging scenario where a large number of EVs charge simultaneously during a flexible period of time. Based on stochastic mean field game theory, the optimization will provide an optimal charging strategy for the EVs to proactively control their charging speed in order to minimize the cost of charging. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed framework

A Game Theoretic Optimization Framework for Home Demand Management Incorporating Local Energy Resources

Facilitated by advanced ICT infrastructure and optimization techniques, smart grid has the potential to bring significant benefits to the energy consumption management. This paper presents a game theoretic consumption scheduling framework based on the use of mixed integer programming to schedule consumption plan for residential consumers. In particular, the optimization framework incorporates integration of locally generated renewable energy in order to minimise dependency on conventional energy and the consumption cost. The game theoretic model is designed to coordinatively manage the scheduling of appliances of consumers. The Nash equilibrium of the game exists and the scheduling optimization converges to an equilibrium where all consumers can benefit from participating in. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the proposed approach and the benefits of home demand management

Association between habenula dysfunction and motivational symptoms in unmedicated major depressive disorder

The lateral habenula plays a central role in reward and punishment processing and has been suggested to drive the cardinal symptom of anhedonia in depression. This hypothesis is largely based on observations of habenula hypermetabolism in animal models of depression, but the activity of habenula and its relationship with clinical symptoms in patients with depression remains unclear. High-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and computational modelling were used to investigate the activity of the habenula during a probabilistic reinforcement learning task with rewarding and punishing outcomes in 21 unmedicated patients with major depression and 17 healthy participants. High-resolution anatomical scans were also acquired to assess group differences in habenula volume. Healthy individuals displayed the expected activation in the left habenula during receipt of punishment and this pattern was confirmed in the computational analysis of prediction error processing. In depressed patients, there was a trend towards attenuated left habenula activation to punishment, while greater left habenula activation was associated with more severe depressive symptoms and anhedonia. We also identified greater habenula volume in patients with depression, which was associated with anhedonic symptoms. Habenula dysfunction may contribute to abnormal response to punishment in patients with depression, and symptoms such as anhedonia

Use of bolted steel plates for strengthening of reinforced concrete beams and columns

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures often need strengthening due to defective construction, having higher loads than those foreseen in the initial design of the structure, or as a result of material deterioration or accidental damage. The need for strengthening concrete structures has become a crucial problem not only in developed countries but also in China and other developing countries. The use of bolted steel plates to retrofit existing RC structural components has been proven experimentally and practically to be effective in solving the problem. In this article, experimental and numerical studies conducted at The University of Hong Kong on the strengthening of RCcoupling beams, floor beams, and columns using bolted external steel plates are summarised. Features and design principles of this strengthening method are discussed. © 2011 The Institution of Engineers, Singapore.postprin

Optimum Water Quality Monitoring Network Design for Bidirectional River Systems

Affected by regular tides, bidirectional water flows play a crucial role in surface river systems. Using optimization theory to design a water quality monitoring network can reduce the redundant monitoring nodes as well as save the costs for building and running a monitoring network. A novel algorithm is proposed to design an optimum water quality monitoring network for tidal rivers with bidirectional water flows. Two optimization objectives of minimum pollution detection time and maximum pollution detection probability are used in our optimization algorithm. We modify the Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) algorithm and develop new fitness functions to calculate pollution detection time and pollution detection probability in a discrete manner. In addition, the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) is used to simulate hydraulic characteristics and pollution events based on a hypothetical river system studied in the literature. Experimental results show that our algorithm can obtain a better Pareto frontier. The influence of bidirectional water flows to the network design is also identified, which has not been studied in the literature. Besides that, we also find that the probability of bidirectional water flows has no effect on the optimum monitoring network design but slightly changes the mean pollution detection time

Using the class 1 integron-integrase gene as a proxy for anthropogenic pollution

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Around all human activity, there are zones of pollution with pesticides, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, personal care products and the microorganisms associated with human waste streams and agriculture. This diversity of pollutants, whose concentration varies spatially and temporally, is a major challenge for monitoring. Here, we suggest that the relative abundance of the clinical class 1 integron-integrase gene, intI1, is a good proxy for pollution because: (1) intI1 is linked to genes conferring resistance to antibiotics, disinfectants and heavy metals; (2) it is found in a wide variety of pathogenic and nonpathogenic bacteria; (3) its abundance can change rapidly because its host cells can have rapid generation times and it can move between bacteria by horizontal gene transfer; and (4) a single DNA sequence variant of intI1 is now found on a wide diversity of xenogenetic elements, these being complex mosaic DNA elements fixed through the agency of human selection. Here we review the literature examining the relationship between anthropogenic impacts and the abundance of intI1, and outline an approach by which intI1 could serve as a proxy for anthropogenic pollution.MRG is supported by the Australian Research Council, AP is supported by the Alfred P Sloan Foundation Microbiology of the Built Environment program and the National Science Foundation RAPID award no. 1402651, KS is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) funding the Research Unit FOR 566 ‘Veterinary Medicines in Soil: Basic Research for Risk Analysis’ (Grant No. SM59/5-3) and by the Umweltbundesamt (3713 63 402), JMT is supported by the US National Science Foundation and Y-GZ is supported by the National Science Foundation of China

Innovation through internationalization: A systematic review and research agenda

Abstract In this paper we perform a systematic literature review of the diverse and somewhat fragmented current state of research on firms’ internationalization and innovation. We analyze 207 key works from 1989 through 2020 and synthesize them into an internationalization process framework that conceptually maps key internationalization-related antecedents and moderators that influence innovation behaviors and outcomes. Through an internationalization process framework, we categorize existing relevant studies into three key stages: (a) the pre-internationalization stage, (b) the internationalization entry stage, and (c) the post-internationalization stage. Furthermore, we review how firms’ various strategic decisions and operations in different stages influence their innovations by elaborating the moderating role of external country/region institutions and firm internal characteristics. Building on this review, we provide suggestions for future research to advance the developments of this domain.</jats:p