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Bringing light to a hidden genre: The peer review report
Full text linkWhile early career researchers (ECRs) often read and produce articles for peer reviewed journals, they are of ten less familiar with peer review reports (PRRs). Most ECRs learn about the genre of PRRs by reading reports written about their authored manuscripts, and through hands-on experience crafting their own PRRs, albeit often with little guidance or exposure to exemplars. To demystify this ‘hidden’ academic genre, this article reports on a genre analysis of 62 ‘quality’ PRRs, focusing on their communicative purposes, and the structural, content, and linguistic elements that serve to support those purposes. Findings show that the central role of the PRR is to elicit various actions on the part of manuscript authors. Other functions serve to circumvent manuscript authors' potential negative emotional response to PRRs, and this is also seen in limited use of high modality verbs and emotional language. PRRs follow a fairly uniform structure, and focus on all elements of the manuscript, with most attention given to the methods section. The article provides numerous examples that provide a practical guide to support writing pedagogies related to this important academic practice
Feminist counselling practice in Australia: Who, where & how?
No full textResearch examining feminist counselling in Australia is exceedingly limited, even though feminism has a central place in the development and delivery of sexual assault services and domestic violence intervention. This study aimed to offer a contemporary understanding of how feminist counselling is being practiced in Australia. A convergent mixed methods design was applied between June–August 2020 with mental health practitioners Australia-wide, whereby the FTB-R scale was utilised through an online survey (n = 62) and semi-structured in-depth interviews (n = 8) were conducted. Survey results indicate that whilst feminist counselling is still being practiced predominantly by women and for women, an intersectional framework is being applied with broader populations. Emergent themes of practice include advocacy and education, attending to power and client-centred practice. Results highlight the need for a model of feminist counselling in Australia to ensure its practice can continue within a system that seeks to suppress its efficacy
Factors affecting mangrove cover in northern Vietnam
Full text linkVietnam, with 3,260 km of coastline, is one of the most vulnerable countries to global warming. The mangrove area in Vietnam has declined markedly in the past 60 years. Many afforestation and reforestation projects have been undertaken in Vietnam but these efforts have not always been successful. This PhD study was undertaken in Thai Binh, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An Provinces, in north-central Vietnam, where mangrove forests play a vital role in reducing the impacts of natural disasters from typhoons and storms. From an understanding of historic change in mangrove cover, the thesis explored mangrove growth, health and survival in field experiments.
Chapter 2, through a review of the literature, provides background to the research undertaken in the thesis with particular reference to (i) mangrove health and tree decline, (ii) mangrove restoration projects; and (iii) the sustainable management of mangroves. Chapter 3 used satellite imagery from 1973 to 2020 for two provinces to determine the spatial extent of mangroves, and identified factors responsible for the temporal change in mangrove cover. The drivers of change over this period were in the order of aquaculture > other land use > natural factors > afforestation. By comparing the data in project documents and government audits, it was estimated that the average rate of success of mangrove restoration programs is about 30%.
Afforestation trials (Chapter 4) were established in Thanh Hoa and Thai Binh provinces to explore two species (Sonneratia apetala and S. caseolaris), two seedling ages at planting (12-month and 18-month), shore position (upper shore and lower shore), and planting configuration (monoculture, mixed culture) on mangrove survival and growth. After 18 months, the survival rate of both species was >90%. In the upper shore site, 12-month-old seedlings grew faster than 18-month-old seedlings, but the opposite occurred in the lower shore site. For the same age of seedlings, trees in the lower shore site grew faster than in the upper shore site. Also, tree growth was influenced by planting configurations in both the upper and lower shore site.
The potential contribution of fungal pathogens to canopy decline in the afforestation trials was assessed in Chapter 5. Fungi were isolated from the main symptoms observed in the field, namely shoot dieback, and pink and black leaf spots. Using morphological and molecular methods, it was found that Neopestalotiopsis sp.1 and Pestalotiopsis sp.3 were associated with shoot dieback; Pestalotiopsis aff. humus, Pestalotiopsis aff. neolitseae and Pestalotiopsis sp.1 were associated with pink leaf spots; whilst Curvularia aff. tsudae, Pestalotiopsis sp.2 and Pestalotiopsis sp.4 were associated with black leaf spots. Pathogenicity of the main isolates was confirmed by inoculating Sonneratia apetala and S. caseolaris seedlings in a nursery.
Data on the spatial and temporal extent of mangrove cover in Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces should assist local authorities to better manage coastal mangrove forests in the future. The early results from the afforestation trials showed that where care is taken in site selection and planting that it is possible to achieve good outcomes in afforestation projects in Vietnam. The data will increase our knowledge of best practices for design and species selection in mangrove afforestation. Although tree survival was high, the presence of fungal pathogens may be a threat for the long-term health and survival of planted mangroves. The field trials provide a base for future long-term studies on mangrove performance in northern Vietnam
A narrative review of psychological theories of post‐traumatic stress disorder, voice hearing, and other psychotic symptoms
Full text linkBackground
Most voice hearers report childhood trauma. Many voice hearers report comorbid post-traumatic stress symptoms and that the content of their voices (auditory verbal hallucinations) is directly (voices repeat phrases spoken by perpetrators) or indirectly (voice content and trauma is thematically similar) related to their trauma. The factors that maintain trauma-related voices are unknown, and there is limited research in this area. This study aimed to identify potential maintaining factors of trauma-related voices by reviewing models of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and positive symptoms of psychosis.
Method
Models of PTSD and positive symptoms were reviewed to identify potential factors that are unique and common to both sets of symptoms.
Results
We reviewed 10 models of PTSD, 4 models of positive symptoms, and 2 trauma-informed models of voice hearing. One model provided a theoretical explanation of different types of trauma-related voices. Twenty-one factors were extracted from 16 theoretical models. No existing model incorporated all these factors.
Discussion
Existing PTSD and positive symptom models present a range of common and unique factors. There may be value in extending existing integrative models to include a broader range of potential factors that could explain different pathways to, and expressions of, trauma-related voices. A future research agenda is presented to investigate how such an extension could lead to more complete individualized case formulations and targeted treatments
Co-Design of adaptive event generator and asynchronous fault detection filter for Markov jump systems via genetic algorithm
No full textThis article investigates the co-design problem of adaptive event-triggered schemes (AETSs) and asynchronous fault detection filter (AFDF) for nonhomogeneous higher-level Markov jump systems, involving the hidden Markov model (HMM), higher-level Markov chain (MC), and conic-type nonlinearities. The transformation of the system transition probability can be reflected by the designed higher-level MC. An HMM with another conditional transition probability is applied to detect higher-level Markov processes and make the system be more practical. In order to balance the utilization of network resources and system performance, a novel AETS is proposed and used in the construction of the AFDF. By the Lyapunov theory, sufficient conditions are given to ensure the existences of the AETS and AFDF. It is not only an appropriate tradeoff between the utilization of network resources and system performance, but also reduces the conservatism. Finally, a numerical example is given to detect the faults effectively by the co-designed AFDF
Asynchronous text-based communication in online communities of foreign language learners: Design principles for practice
Full text linkAssessing the rate of torque development in sprint cycling: A methodological study
No full textThe present study examined (i) the magnitude of the rate of torque development (RTD) and (ii) the between-day reliability of RTD at the start of a cycling sprint when sprint resistance, sprint duration, and the pedal downstroke were altered. Nineteen well-trained cyclists completed one familiarisation and three testing sessions. Each session involved one set of 1-s sprints and one set of 5-s sprints. Each set contained one moderate (0.3 N m kg−1), one heavy (0.6 N m kg−1), and one very heavy (1.0 N m kg−1) resistance sprint. RTD measures (average and peak RTD, RTD 0–100 ms, and RTD 0–200 ms) were calculated for downstroke 1 in the 1-s sprint. For the 5-s sprints, RTD measures were calculated for each of the first three downstrokes, as an average of downstrokes 1 and 2, and as an average of downstrokes 2 and 3. Whilst RTDs were greatest in downstroke 3 at all resistances, the greatest number of reliable RTD measures were obtained using the average of downstrokes 2 and 3 with heavy or very heavy resistances, where average and peak RTD, and RTD 0–200 ms were deemed reliable (ICC ≥ 0.8, CV ≤ 10%). Since only 1–2 downstrokes can be completed within 1 s, the greatest RTD reliability cannot be achieved using a 1-s sprint; therefore, the average of downstrokes 2 and 3 during a >2-s cycling sprint (e.g. 5-s test) with heavy or very heavy resistance is recommended for the assessment of RTD in sprint cyclists
Reporting of methods for automated devices: A systematic review and recommendation for studies using FlowCam for phytoplankton
Full text linkAccurate and detailed reporting of methods is essential for scientific progress, yet it is widely accepted that authors across all scientific fields tend to provide insufficient methods detail. Given the recent proliferation of automated and semi-automated technologies for data collection, to address this widespread issue the details needed for interpretation and reproducibility for each specific technique first need to be identified. A systematic literature review assessed the comprehensiveness of method details reported by 116 peer-reviewed studies published between 2017 and 2020 using the FlowCam (a widely used imaging flow cytometer) to image phytoplankton, finding all to be lacking in critical details, inhibiting reproducibility, and limiting the veracity of some findings. Through this review and three case studies, we identify several key method details that should be reported by FlowCam studies to ensure their findings are credible, comparable, and replicable and illustrate the wide-reaching implications for not doing so. Future studies using FlowCam for phytoplankton analyses should ensure clear reporting of all relevant details relating to the FlowCam unit, sample preparation, run settings, post-processing of images, and the considered use of only verified measurement outputs. A methods reporting template is presented as a guideline intended to enhance the quality, interpretability, and repeatability of future FlowCam papers. The pervasiveness of inadequacies in FlowCam methods reporting identified here highlights how vital it is for users of any automated or semi-automated scientific technologies to have a clear understanding of the impact of all method details on their findings, and to report these details adequately
Ancient Rhamnaceae flowers impute an origin for (fire-prone) flowering plants exceeding 250-million-years ago
No full textSetting the molecular clock to newly described 100-million-year-old flowering shoots of Phylica in Burmese amber enabled us to recalibrate the phylogenetic history of Rhamnaceae. We traced its origin to ~260 million years ago (Ma) that can explain its migration within and beyond Gondwana since that time, and implies an origin for flowering plants that stretches well beyond 290 Ma. Ancestral trait assignments also revealed that hard-seededness, fireproneness and, to a lesser extent, heat-released seed dormancy, have a similarly long history in this clade
Terminal time regulator‐based exact‐time sliding mode control for uncertain nonlinear systems
No full textThis article proposes a sliding mode control scheme with exact convergence time for uncertain nonlinear systems. Terminal time regulator is defined for designing the global exact-time time-varying sliding mode. The proposed method has the following advantages: first, the reaching phase is absolutely eliminated from the initial time such that the sliding mode invariance is identically guaranteed on an entire dynamics; second, on the sliding mode, the system state converges to the origin exactly at the predefined settling time instant, rather than at an uncertain time instant with boundedness as obtained by existing methods; third, the control signal of the proposed controller is bounded even when the time approaches to the predefined settling time; and fourth, low-pass filtering is utilized to suppress the signal chattering in the discontinuous control while maintaining the system transient behaviors by selecting a proper time constant. Lyapunov analysis verifies that for any initial condition the closed-loop system can terminally converge to zero exactly at the predefined time instant. The proposed control is finally generalized for Euler–Lagrange (EL) systems