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Language culture and land use: a case study of the dialect cultural regions in Anhui Province, China
Get PDFThe unity of material and spiritual civilization is among the important criteria for sustainable development and modernization construction. However, defining the relationship between the two has posed a challenge to researchers. In terms of spiritual civilization, many studies on dialect maps reflect the dialect characteristics and cultural features of different regions. Regarding material civilization, changes in land use and behavior have attracted the attention of many scholars, who have extensively discussed their regional heterogeneity. However, few studies have focused on the connection between the two, and discussions on the possible bidirectional interaction between dialects and land use have been limited. Thus, in order to bridge the gap between the spiritual civilization related to language and the material civilization related to land use, this study proposes an interactive theoretical framework and conducts an in—depth analysis by taking Anhui Province in China as an example. Firstly, it comprehensively identifies the dialect types within Anhui Province and maps the dialects. This fundamental work provides a crucial basis for understanding the distribution of different dialect regions. Subsequently, a profound analysis of the spatiotemporal changes in land use in this province over time is carried out. To further explore the characteristics of land use behaviors, this study employs the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model to mine the latent semantic topics in the land use-related data, thus enabling a more detailed understanding of the diverse patterns of land use behaviors in different regions. Finally, by uncovering the characteristics of land use changes and behavior differences in different dialect regions, this study explores the possible bidirectional interaction mechanisms. The results show that significant spatial heterogeneity in land use behavior and its driving factors can be observed within different dialect regions. Its bidirectional interaction is manifested in land use behaviors regulating people’s activities through constructing “fields” and forming habits that influence regional dialects and cultures. Meanwhile, under mobility mechanisms, new dialect systems replace indigenous languages in immigration destinations. Land use methods from emigration areas are spread through convenient communication, affecting the cultural psychology and land use behaviors of social groups in immigration destinations. This study expands the boundaries of linguistic and cultural geography, offering a new perspective for the identification of spatial differentiation and new ideas for the governance of spatial differences
Discovery of H+3 and infrared aurorae at Neptune with JWST
Get PDFEmissions from the upper-atmospheric molecular ion
have been used to study the global-scale interactions of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus with their surrounding space environments for over 30 years, revealing the processes shaping the aurorae. However, despite repeated attempts, and contrary to models that predict it should be present, this ion has proven elusive at Neptune. Here, using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, we detect
at Neptune, as well as distinct infrared southern auroral emissions. The average upper-atmosphere temperature is a factor of two cooler than those derived 34 years ago by Voyager 2, showing that the energy balance of this region is regulated by physical processes acting on a timescale shorter than both Neptunian seasons (40 yr) and the solar cycle
Affordance and constraint: how Japanese EFL learners enact and enhance agency in a self-directed language learning unit
No full textDespite recent interest in the construct of language learner agency, our understanding of
the dynamic interplay between learners, instructors, technologies, activities, and resources
through which agency emerges remains limited. This project investigated a study unit
(SDLU) targeting self-directed language learning at a Japanese university. Operating at the
intersection of classroom-based instruction and language learning beyond the classroom
(LLBC), SDLU provided a fertile environment for examining conditions that facilitate or
constrain agency.
Conducted as a practitioner research case study of 14 learners, the investigation drew on
multiple sources of data including observation, a teacher journal, learners’ written
reflections, and stimulated recall interviews. Agency was operationalised in terms of how
learners aligned their learning behaviours with their feelings, beliefs, and volitions as they
interacted with SDLU. The study aimed to uncover the processes through which this
alignment occurred, or failed to occur, and thereby the extent to which agency was stifled
or enhanced for particular learners. Data were investigated through thematic content
analysis, employing both inductive and deductive coding. Five overarching themes – feeling,
exploring, reflecting, regulating, and relating – emerged as pivotal in shaping participants’ agency.
Although the intricate interplay between these themes in individual cases highlighted the
complexity of the agency construct, relating was particularly associated with agency
enhancement. For example, learners who prioritised using English for real-world purposes
were more likely to engage in LLBC than those who focused on studying the language
itself. While the former uncovered multiple learning affordances and reported positive
emotions in relation to language learning, the latter often seemed unable to move beyond
methodologies internalised at school which were poorly suited to their learning objectives.
The findings have important implications regarding strategies for enhancing language
learner agency and support recent claims that agency may best be characterised as relational
rather than individual in nature
Paying attention to verb-noun collocations among returnees and heritage speakers: how vulnerable are L2 English collocations to attrition?
Get PDFIt is well established that verb-noun collocations are difficult for L2 learners, but little is known about the extent to which such collocations are vulnerable to attrition under conditions of reduced input. The study is novel in that we focus on L2 attrition rather than L1 attrition, and because we focus on Saudi Arabian returnees, who have so far hardly been studied. These are compared to child, adolescent and adult heritage speakers in the US. Receptive knowledge of English collocations was measured with a novel online acceptability judgement task and an online gap-filling task. We found that child returnees experienced more difficulties than the adolescent returnees, because the child returnees had not acquired collocations to the same extent as the adolescent returnees, and they experienced more crosslinguistic influence from Arabic. The current study also provides some counter evidence against the claim that every bilingual is an attriter
Effect of chirality and amphiphilicity on the antimicrobial activity of tripodal lysine-based peptides
Get PDFA series of tripodal (three-arm) lysine-based peptides were designed and synthesized and their self-assembly properties in aqueous solution and antimicrobial activity were investigated. We compare the behaviors of homochiral tripodal peptides (KKY)3K and a homologue containing the bulky aromatic fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc) group Fmoc-(KKY)3K, and heterochiral analogues containing k (d-Lys), (kkY)3K and Fmoc-(kkY)3K. The molecular conformation and self-assembly in aqueous solutions were probed using various spectroscopic techniques, along with small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and cryogenic-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). In cell viability assays using fibroblast cell lines, the tripodal peptides without Fmoc were observed to be noncytotoxic over the concentration range studied, and the Fmoc functionalized tripodal peptides were only cytotoxic at the highest concentrations (above the critical aggregation concentration of the lipopeptides). The molecules also show good hemocompatibility at sufficiently low concentration, and antimicrobial activity was assessed via MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) and MBC (minimum bactericidal concentration) assays. These revealed that the Fmoc-functionalized tripodal peptides had significant activity against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, and in the case of Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus, the antimicrobial activity for Fmoc-(kkY)3K was improved compared to polymyxin B. The mechanism of the antimicrobial assay was found to involve rupture of the bacterial membrane as evident from fluorescence microscopy live/dead cell assays, and scanning electron microscopy images
Baseline climate variables for earth system modelling
Get PDFThe Baseline Climate Variables for Earth System Modelling (ESM-BCVs) are defined as a list of 132 variables which have high utility for the evaluation and exploitation of climate simulations. The list reflects the most heavily used elements of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) archive. Successive phases of CMIP have supported strong results in science and substantial influence in international climate policy formulation. This paper responds both to interest in exploiting CMIP data standards in a broader range of climate modelling activities and a need to achieve greater clarity about the significance and intention of variables in the CMIP Data Request. As Earth System Modelling (ESM) archives grow in scale and complexity there are emerging problems associated with weak standardisation at the variable collection level. That is, there are good standards covering how specific variables should be archived, but this paper fills a gap in the standardisation of which variables should be archived. The ESM-BCV list is intended as a resource for ESM Model INtercomparison Projects (MIPs) developing requests to enable greater consistency among MIPs, and as a reference for modelling centres to enhance consistency within MIPs. Provisional planning for the CMIP7 Data Request exploits the ESM-BCVs as a core element. The baseline variables list includes 98 variables which have modest or minor data volume footprints and could be generated systematically when simulations are produced and archived for exploitation by the WCRP community. A further 34 variables are classed as high volume and are only suitable for production when the resource implications are justified
drought response in the transcriptome and ionome of wild and domesticated Lablab purpureus L. Sweet, an underutilized legume
Get PDFHunger remains a prevalent issue worldwide, and with a changing climate, it is expected to become an even greater problem that our food systems are not adapted to. There is therefore a need to investigate strategies to fortify our foods and food systems. Underutilized crops are farmed regionally, are often adapted to stresses, including droughts, and have great nutritional profiles, potentially being key for food security. One of these crops, Lablab purpureus L Sweet, or lablab, is a legume grown for humans or as fodder and shows remarkable drought tolerance. Understanding of lablab's molecular responses to drought and drought's effects on its nutritional qualities is limited and affects breeding potential. Using transcriptomics at three time points, changes in gene expression in response to drought were investigated in wild and domesticated lablab. The effect of drought on the elemental profile of lablab leaves was investigated using ionomics to assess drought's impact on nutritional quality. Differences in drought response between wild and domesticated lablab accessions were revealed, which were mainly due to differences in the expression of genes related to phosphorus metabolic response, cell wall organization, and cellular signaling. The leaves of wild and domesticated lablab accessions differed significantly in their elemental concentrations, with wild accessions having higher protein, zinc, and iron concentrations. Drought affected the concentration of some elements, with potential implications for the use of lablab under different environments. Overall, this study is an important first step in understanding drought response in lablab with implications for breeding and improvement of drought‐tolerant lablab
Housing supply elasticity and government-owned land: evidence from Hong Kong
Get PDFHousing supply elasticity is known to be related to three types of development constraints: topography, regulations, and scarcity of undeveloped land. This paper shows that land ownership can also explain the spatial heterogeneity in supply elasticity if development costs differ between private and public land. Using data from Hong Kong (2003–2018), where government-owned land is common and has development advantages, this paper confirms that the availability of government land contributes significantly to housing supply elasticity, in addition to the three constraints. This paper sheds light on the potential of utilizing public land to increase housing supply
Enhancing underwater video from consecutive frames while preserving temporal consistency
Get PDFCurrent methods for underwater image enhancement primarily focus on single-frame processing. While these approaches achieve impressive results for static images, they often fail to maintain temporal coherence across frames in underwater videos, which leads to temporal artifacts and frame flickering. Furthermore, existing enhancement methods struggle to accurately capture features in underwater scenes. This makes it difficult to handle challenges such as uneven lighting and edge blurring in complex underwater environments. To address these issues, this paper presents a dual-branch underwater video enhancement network. The network synthesizes short-range video sequences by learning and inferring optical flow from individual frames. It effectively enhances temporal consistency across video frames through predicted optical flow information, thereby mitigating temporal instability within frame sequences. In addition, to address the limitations of traditional U-Net models in handling complex multiscale feature fusion, this study proposes a novel underwater feature fusion module. By applying both max pooling and average pooling, this module separately extracts local and global features. It utilizes an attention mechanism to adaptively adjust the weights of different regions in the feature map, thereby effectively enhancing key regions within underwater video frames. Experimental results indicate that when compared with the existing underwater image enhancement baseline method and the consistency enhancement baseline method, the proposed model improves the consistency index by 30% and shows a marginal decrease of only 0.6% in enhancement quality index, demonstrating its superiority in underwater video enhancement tasks
Distributive politics and asymmetric participation
Get PDFHow do distributive politics affect participation under incomplete information? We theorize a novel mechanism that we call asymmetric participation, which explains participation as a self-selection process induced by a broadly targeted welfare benefit. Incomplete information about the de facto allocation of benefits causes asymmetric participation. When citizens expect particularistic distribution and access to the benefit depends on voter registration, supporters of the incumbent, who supplies the benefit, self-select into the electorate. This creates an incumbency advantage. We illustrate this argument using the case of the Renda Básica de Cidadania (RBC) in Maricá, Brazil, the largest unconditional cash transfer program in Latin America. Based on qualitative evidence, we develop a formal model, which we test against novel survey data. We find that under the de facto procedure of implementation, supporters of the incumbent supplying the RBC, self-select into the electorate, and engage more in activities that signal party loyalty