Comparative study of Foreign Language Anxiety in Korean and Chinese Students

This study focuses on Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) in Korean university students and which elements of English class cause the most stress. The results give valuable insights into what is causing reticence in these EFL learners and the data could be very useful for teachers or researchers designing English teaching programs who would like to maximize speaking and minimize reticence. An exploratory literature review led to the focus of reticence and FLA and Barly Mak’s 2011 study “An exploration of speaking-in-class anxiety with Chinese ESL learners” was replicated to provide both a well-rounded assessment of FLA and results from a Chinese population to compare to. This study revealed that a) the vast majority of students experienced moderate to high levels of FLA in English class situations; b) the levels of anxiety for the Chinese and Korean students were similar but the causes varied significantly, and c) speaking in front of the class caused the highest level of anxiety while pair work and longer wait times for responses emerged as viable strategies for reducing reticence

You’ve Got Mail: A Sequential Mixed Methods Linguistic Investigation of Faculty and Advisor Email

Email is one of the most prolific forms of communication in the world. As colleges and universities move more student experiences online, faculty members and advisors need to understand how to best communicate with students. In an attempt to understand how faculty and advisors write, and, more importantly, how students read, I developed this two-phase mixed methods investigation. In Phase I, I collected nine writing samples from 19 faculty and advisor participants and dissected the samples with Pennebaker Conglomerate’s 2015 Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program. In a transition phase, I leveraged Phase I data to create an instrument for Phase II. The 37 student participants in Phase II offered insight into their communication preferences through the completion of a questionnaire, writing prompts, and focus groups. Through synthesis of the Phase I and Phase II data, I drew conclusions about differences in students’ perceptions of professor and advisor emails and made recommendations for how university personnel can better communicate with students via email. While results indicated few differences in faculty and advisor participants, student participants favored social communication with faculty members and focused on impersonal objectives when communicating with advisors. Student participants also vocalized a desire for concise, bulleted communication from both faulty members and advisors

Simulation of the impact response of a sliotar core with linear and non-linear contact models

Static and dynamic models of the characteristic responses of sliotar cores made of both cork and polyurethane were studied in this work in order to understand their constitutive behaviour. Data from quasi-static tests at 10 mm/s and from dynamic impacts at speeds from 5 to 25 m/s were used to develop and evaluate the models. The quasi-static response was described well by Hertzian theory. A non-linear HunteCrossley model and a modified linear KelvineVoigt model were used to predict the dynamic response with set mass and shape coefficient parameters. The HunteCrossley model predicted well both the maximum force and maximum deflection for each ball type. The HunteCrossley model generally captured the experimental contact times well with a mean difference between experimental and model contact times of 8.3%. The mean difference between the KelvineVoigt model and experimental contact times was 7.6%, while the corresponding mean difference for the coefficient of restitution was 13.1%. Overall, the modified KelvineVoigt model predicted the parameters of contact time and coefficient of restitution well. Contact time and coefficient of restitution prediction in this linear model were not particularly sensitive to the strain rate

From screening to process optimization: AMBR technology to speed up microbial fermentation processes

Session proposals: · Therapeutic Proteins Vaccines The development of biopharmaceuticals or biotechnological products derived from microbial fermentation is a financially risky endeavor and time consuming process, requiring technical upstream solutions which reduce timelines, increase efficiency, and raise likelihood of success. We have identified in particular the early steps of strain and process development offering best prospects to speed up the entire process significantly by using a reliable screening system. Based on the well-proven ambr® principle we designed with ambr 15 fermentation system to accelerate early stage development of microbial fermentation products. The multi-fermentation unit mimics larger scale bioreactor processes, and is suitable for screening clones, strains or growth conditions. In case studies with industrial partners using E. coli and P. pastoris, consistent and efficient control of fermentations across a variety culture conditions (e.g. feed, temperature, duration, pH) could be demonstrated. In the succeeding step of process development ambr 250 has been widely applied to speed up the 2nd critical phase of the microbial upstream process development. The larger working volume and the range of features, which this multi-parallel system offers, are superior to common benchtop fermenters. Optical density supervision, off gas analysis, fed-batch processing and advanced control capabilities allow process development for most commercial-scale upstream fermentation processes. In addition to this impressive range of features ambr250 has proven its ability to reliably increase the efficiency of fermentation process development many times through its rapid setup and cleanup, advanced control software, and automation

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy-enhanced drill for bone boundary detection

Intramedullary nailing is a routine orthopedic procedure used for treating fractures of femoral or tibial shafts. A critical part of this procedure involves the drilling of pilot holes in both ends of the bone for the placement of the screws that will secure the IM rod to sections of the fractured bone. This step introduces a risk of soft tissue damage because the drill bit, if not stopped in time, can transverse the bone-tissue boundary into the overlying muscle, causing unnecessary injury and prolonging healing time due to periosteum damage. In this respect, detecting the bone-tissue boundary before break-through can reduce the risks and complications associated with intramedullary nailing. Hence, in the present study, a two-wavelength diffuse reflectance spectroscopy technique was integrated into a surgical drill to optically detect bone-tissue boundary and automatically trigger the drill to stop. Furthermore, Monte-Carlo simulations were used to estimate the maximum distance from within the bone at which the bone-tissue boundary could be detected using DRS. The simulation results estimated that the detection distance, termed the “look-ahead-distance” was ∼1.5 mm for 1.3 mm source-detector fiber separation. Experimental measurements with 1.3 mm source-detector fiber separation showed that the look-ahead-distance was in the order of 250 µm in experiments with set drill rate and in the range of 1 mm in experiments where the holes were drilled by hand. Despite this difference, the automated DRS enhanced drill successfully detected the approaching bone tissue boundary when tested on samples of bovine femur and muscle tissue

Limits and opportunities for miniaturising ultrasonic surgical devices based on a Langevin transducer

Minimally invasive surgery offers opportunities for reduced morbidities, faster post-operative recovery and reduced costs and is a major focus of surgical device innovation. For ultrasonic surgical devices, which offer benefits of high precision, low force and tissue selectivity in surgical procedures, there exist laparoscopic ultrasonic shears for minimally invasive surgeries that combine tissue cutting with vessel haemostasis and sealing functions. Another approach to laparoscopy that could enable new procedures and increase the sites of surgeries that could be reached by an ultrasonic device, involves integrating a miniature ultrasonic tool with a flexible surgical robot. However, miniaturisation presents challenges in delivering the ultrasonic vibrational energy required to cut hard and soft tissues, partly due to the concomitant small volume of piezoelectric material. This paper aims to provide insights into the trade-offs between transducer size, volume of piezoceramic material, resonance frequency, and the achievable displacement amplitude of devices that, consistent with current ultrasonic surgical tools, are based on a bolted Langevin transducer (BLT) and tip. Different configurations of BLTs are studied, including a cascaded version, simple bar versions, and BLTs with different front mass geometries. Results show that a BLT with a larger number of piezoceramic rings exhibits a higher coupling coefficient keff but with the compromise of a lower mechanical Q and stronger nonlinear response at increasing excitation levels. Displacement amplitude is reduced considerably when a BLT is excited at a higher harmonic, where the PZT rings are maintained at a nodal plane, and the resonance frequency shift at increasing excitation levels increases significantly. The electromechanical and dynamic characteristics of a cascaded transducer excited in its 3rd longitudinal mode (L3) are almost equivalent to a much shorter version of a BLT driven at the same frequency but in its 1st longitudinal mode (L1), showing that a cascaded BLT can be a realistic proxy for studying the dynamics of small BLT devices. A new figure of merit is proposed that is the product of Q, keff2 and gain, which accounts for the gain of cylindrical BLTs which is shown not to be unity. It also proves effective as it incorporates the key factors affecting the achievable displacement amplitude of a BLT, including for BLTs with gain profiles in the front mass. The order of highest to lowest amplitude of a series of six gain-profile BLTs matches the order estimated by the figure of merit. It is shown that a BLT with a stepped profile front mass can achieve displacement that has the potential to cut hard or soft tissue and exhibits the smallest shifts in resonance frequency at increasing excitation levels