Motivation and willingness to communicate as predictors of reported L2 use: The Japanese ESL context

The purpose of this study was to examine affective variables as predictors of reported second language (L2) use in classrooms of Japanese ESL (English as a Second Language) students. The study used the socio-educational model and the willingness to communicate (WTC) model as the basis for a conceptual framework, partially replicating a study by Macintyre and Charos (1996). Descriptive statistics, reliability of the subscales, correlation, and construct validity (using principal component analysis) were examined, and a model of L2 communication was tested using structural equation modeling. Using Amos version 4.0, structural equation modeling showed that motivation and WTC affect reported L2 communication frequency in classrooms as hypothesized. Variables underlying WTC were also examined. Perceived competence and L2 anxiety were found to be causes of WTC, which led to more L2 use, and L2 anxiety was found to negatively influence perceived competence, supporting the results of the Macintyre and Charos (1996) study. Although a path from WTC to motivation was not found to be significant in the original study, it was found to be significant in the present replication. In addition, a path from perceived competence was found to exert a strong and direct influence on motivation from a data-driven path

Diverse features of dust particles and their aggregates inferred from experimental nanoparticles

Nanometre- to micrometre-sized solid dust particles play a vital role in star and planet formations. Despite of their importance, however, our understanding of physical and chemical properties of dust particles is still provisional. We have conducted a condensation experiment of the vapour generated from a solid starting material having nearly cosmic proportions in elements. A laser flash heating and subsequent cooling has produced a diverse type of nanoparticles simultaneously. Here we introduce four types of nanoparticles as potential dust particles in space: amorphous silicate nanoparticles (type S); core/mantle nanoparticles with iron or hydrogenised-iron core and amorphous silicate mantle (type IS); silicon oxycarbide nanoparticles and hydrogenised silicon oxycarbide nanoparticles (type SiOC); and carbon nanoparticles (type C), all produced in a single heating-cooling event. Type IS and SiOC nanoparticles are new for potential astrophysical dust. The nanoparticles are aggregated to a wide variety of structures, from compact, fluffy, and networked. A simultaneous formation of nanoparticles, which are diverse in chemistry, shape, and structure, prompts a re-evaluation of astrophysical dust particlesComment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Sulfuric acid as a cryofluid and oxygen isotope reservoir of planetesimals

The Sun exhibits a depletion in $^{17,18}$O relative to $^{16}$O by 6 % compared to the Earth and Moon$^{1}$. The origin of such a non-mass-dependent isotope fractionation has been extensively debated since the three-isotope-analysis$^{2}$ became available in 1970's. Self-shielding$^{3,4}$ of CO molecules against UV photons in the solar system's parent molecular cloud has been suggested as a source of the non-mass-dependent effect, in which a $^{17,18}$O-enriched oxygen was trapped by ice and selectively incorporated as water into planet-forming materials$^{5}$. The truth is that the Earth-Moon and other planetary objects deviate positively from the Sun by ~6 % in their isotopic compositions. A stunning exception is the magnetite/sulfide symplectite found in Acfer 094 meteorite, which shows 24 % enrichment in $^{17,18}$O relative to the Sun$^{6}$. Water does not explain the enrichment this high. Here we show that the SO and SO$_2$ molecules in the molecular cloud, ~106 % enriched in $^{17,18}$O relative to the Sun, evolved through the protoplanetary disk and planetesimal stages to become a sulfuric acid, 24 % enriched in $^{17,18}$O. The sulfuric acid provided a cryofluid environment in the planetesimal and by itself reacted with ferric iron to form an amorphous ferric-hydroxysulfate-hydrate, which eventually decomposed into the symplectite by shock. We indicate that the Acfer-094 symplectite and its progenitor, sulfuric acid, is strongly coupled with the material evolution in the solar system since the days of our molecular cloud.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figure

Neural responses to feedback information produced by self-generated or other-generated decision-making and their impairment in schizophrenia

Several studies of self-monitoring dysfunction in schizophrenia have focused on the sense of agency to motor action using behavioral and psychophysiological techniques. So far, no study has ever tried to investigate whether the sense of agency or causal attribution for external events produced by self-generated decision-making is abnormal in schizophrenia. The purpose of this study was to investigate neural responses to feedback information produced by self-generated or other-generated decision-making in a multiplayer gambling task using even-related potentials and electroencephalogram synchronization. We found that the late positive component and theta/alpha synchronization were increased in response to feedback information in the self-decision condition in normal controls, but that these responses were significantly decreased in patients with schizophrenia. These neural activities thus reflect the self-reference effect that affects the cognitive appraisal of external events following decision-making and their impairment in schizophrenia

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