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Let Q (x) be a positive definite integral quadratic form with the determinant D being squarefree, and r (n , Q) denote the number of representations of n by the quadratic form Q. In this paper, we apply the Hardy-Littlewood-Kloosterman circle method to derive the asymptotic formula for the shifted convolution sum of the divisor function d (n) and Fourier coefficients r (n , Q). With more efforts, our method should have a number of applications for other multiplicative functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beliefs about oral corrective feedback, especially those held by young EFL learners, are under-researched. This paper reports on a study designed to investigate whether Chinese junior secondary students and teachers share similar beliefs about oral corrective feedback (OCF) in English instruction and how students’ English proficiency may relate to their OCF beliefs. A questionnaire was completed by 87 teachers and 597 students, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 students with varying English proficiency. Statistical analyses of the questionnaire data found significant differences between student and teacher beliefs with respect to general attitude toward OCF, uptake of OCF, preference for certain types of OCF, and provision of OCF based on the gravity of errors. Students at different proficiency levels were also found to hold different beliefs about the timing and uptake of OCF. A content analysis of the interviews revealed more detailed similarities and differences between the OCF views held by students with varying English proficiency. These findings suggest that student beliefs are shaped by various individual, situational, contextual and cultural factors. Pedagogical efforts that can be made to maximize the effects of OCF in the classroom are discussed in light of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few years, the field of big data has multiplied, with more academic papers written about it. This bibliometric research was done to look at and understand the trends regarding countries, organizations, authors, and keywords that are creating the most publications and citations in big data. This study was done to understand the current state of scientific publications in the field. The research used Web of Science (WoS) database information from 1993 to 2021. The study of 32,085 papers showed that, on average, each document has 14.7 citations and 3.46 citations per year. According to the results, the United States, China, and the United Kingdom have the most scholarly publications about big data. The Chinese Academy of Science, Harvard University, and Stanford University were the three most productive groups. When researching big data, most writers work together, and most terms are related to big data analytics, machine learning, and cloud computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores Chinese English-major students' intertextual competence and factors shaping their ability to paraphrase in academic writing. Multiple instruments were employed to collect data from 212 English-major students at different academic levels from nine universities in mainland China. The data were analyzed to determine how a range of personal and contextual variables related to their ability to paraphrase an academic text. Two groups of variables were found to be associated with their performance on the paraphrasing task. The first group comprised knowledge and attitudinal variables, including previous training on plagiarism, knowledge of blatant plagiarism, inability to recognize plagiarized texts, and condemnatory attitudes toward plagiarism. The second group consisted of ability measures or their proxy variables, namely English proficiency, instructional context and inadequate academic ability as a perceived cause of plagiarism. The observed relationship between the two groups of variables indicated that the effects of knowledge and attitudinal variables depended on or were mediated by the ability variables. These findings call for a multipronged and coordinated pedagogical approach to developing students' intertextual competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key points: Retraction notices are widely criticized for pervasive opacity and uninformativeness.Retraction notices as a high‐stakes academic genre serve three communicative purposes, namely correcting the literature, deterring potential offence, and repairing the tarnished image.A comprehensive content inventory of retraction notices is developed, drawing on de jure and de facto retraction notice contents.Five criteria for disclosing information in retraction notices are proposed.Retraction notices following the content inventory and the disclosure criteria can maximize their transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key feature of scientific writing is the use of shell noun phrases to turn human experiences into abstract entities. This paper reports on a diachronic study of shell noun phrases in 120 chemical engineering research articles over a span of 40 years, focusing on their lexico-grammatical patterns, functional categories and alternative expressions. A corpus-based analysis revealed a significant decline of cataphoric shell noun constructions, a substantial decline in discourse and cognition shell noun phrases and concomitant changes in the frequencies of alternative constructions (i.e., reporting clauses). These observed patterns of shell noun use can be explained by the joint influences of a general move toward greater authorial visibility in the academic writing of hard disciplines, disciplinary developments specific to chemical engineering, the informalization of academic discourse in response to the perceived need for knowledge and identity negotiation, and the functional interrelationships among various linguistic resources. They demonstrate that diachronic changes to academic writing are contextually embedded and respond to discipline-internal developments, shifting epistemologies, larger social changes, and the versatility of linguistic resources. • We examined uses of shell noun phrases (SNPs) in 120 chemical engineering articles. • We found a decline of cataphoric shell noun constructions over a span of 40 years. • We also found a marked decline in the use of discourse and cognition SNPs. • Concomitant changes were observed in the use of alternative constructions. • Reporting clauses involving discourse and research acts increased markedly over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on an experimental study that set out to investigate and compare the effectiveness of a direct and an indirect approach to data-driven learning (DDL) in facilitating Chinese learners' mastery of a challenging type of lexico-grammatical resource (i.e. hedges) in an undergraduate English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) writing class. The study adopted a pretest/posttest/delayed posttest randomized two treatment design. The two experimental groups received, respectively, direct and indirect DDL instruction in the use of hedges in English academic writing. The direct approach involved students in conducting guided searches and analyses of target hedges in online corpora, whereas the indirect approach featured the use of corpus-informed, paper-and-pen learning tasks. Within- and between-group analyses of the participants' performances on the three tests yielded evidence of both the strengths and limitations of the two approaches. A questionnaire survey revealed the participants' favorable attitudes toward the incorporation of corpora in classroom teaching, as well as their perceptions of the affordances and constraints of DDL. The article concludes with a discussion of the present study's limitations and recommendations for future DDL research in EFL classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linguistic expressions of interest as emotive responses are not uncommon in academic discourse but have hardly attracted any research attention. This paper reports on a study designed to examine how the deployment of such expressions in academic writing is mediated by an academic author's disciplinary background and gender. Drawing on a semantic frame developed for interest markers found in a corpus of 640 research articles sampled from four disciplines, corpus-based quantitative analyses were conducted on the incidence of the various elements of the Interest frame. Text-based interviews were also conducted with 16 disciplinary informants to explore considerations behind their use of interest markers. The corpus analyses found that although discipline and gender did not reliably predict academic authors' overall use of interest markers, they were robust predictors of several frame elements. The analyses of the interview data revealed that the observed quantitative differences were related to disciplinary knowledge-making practices, knowledge/knower epistemological orientations prevailing in the disciplines, gender-preferential discursive practices and an author's relative status in academia. • We examined linguistic expressions of interest in 640 research articles. • These articles were authored by male and female academics from four disciplines. • We developed a semantic frame with four frame elements to study these expressions. • Disciplinary background influenced the use of Trigger, Explanation and Degree. • Gender differences were found in the use of Explanation, Degree and Experiencer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP), a microsporidian responsible for hepatopancreatic microsporidiosis, is a major pathogen in commercial shrimp production. Among the affected species, Palaemon carinicauda (formerly Exopalaemon carinicauda) is commercially important in China and represents a potential research model for studying crustaceans. However, little information is available on its response to EHP infection. Hence, this study analyzed the transcriptome and metabolome of P. carinicauda's hepatopancreas using high-throughput sequencing and liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to determine its response during the early stage of infection. The transcriptomic analyses identified 730 differentially expressed genes, of which those associated with EHP infection were enriched in metabolic pathways as well as detoxification and antioxidant pathways. In addition, 144 differential metabolites were identified using a combination of positive and negative ion modes in LC-MS. The Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathway analyses further indicated that the degradation of aromatic compounds, the AMP-activated protein kinase signaling pathway and C5-branched dibasic acid metabolism were significantly enriched after EHP infection. These results could provide useful insights into the effects of EHP on shrimps during the early stages of infection and help to understand the mechanisms underlying the stunted growth of shrimps after infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let λ f (n) be the normalized Fourier coefficients of a Hecke-Maass or Hecke holomorphic cusp form f for congruence group Γ 0 (N) with level N and nebentypus χ N. Let Q (x) be a positive definite integral quadratic form, and r (n , Q) denote the number of representations of n by the quadratic form Q. In this paper, we apply Jutila's circle method to derive a sharp bound for the shifted convolution sum of Fourier coefficients λ f (n) and r (n , Q). We generalize and improve previous results without the Ramanujan conjecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the digital revolution, online education based on the B2B2C (Business to Business to Consumer) model is growing Understanding students’ expectations, concerns, and experiences of these courses are crucial to the successful of education. Based on the research framework of value co-creation and value co-destruction and the theory of social practice, this paper adopts online content analysis to study the comment data of Tencent Classroom to establish a theoretical framework of practical value for students’ experience in B2B2C online education. Six categories of value experience are identified, namely, technical effect, online teaching, learning interaction, course support, recommendation, and thanking. Then, based on the practice types of co-creation, co-destruction, co-recovery, and co-reduction, the research reveals value formation in the online teaching experience. Subsequently, the formation of experiential value in the response situation is discussed, and the practice experience of value co-creation and value co-destruction is recognized. This study explores the online education experience of B2B2C mode, which helps to deepen the management of B2B2C mode education. At the same time, this study establishes a thematic framework of value co-creation and co-destruction for online education experience research and provides a new theoretical perspective of management science for related research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined editorial differences between potential predatory and mainstream journals in the discipline of language and linguistics. A keyword search of the relevant journals on Beall's updated list of potential predatory journals led to a sample of 66 journals. An equal number of journals were selected from those indexed by Web of Science (WoS) via stratified random sampling. Analyses showed that the two groups of journals did not differ in terms of certain publication frequencies, mean number of annual articles, mention of peer review time, availability of the author guides and aims/scope sections, absence of editorial boards, mean number of editorial board numbers, article processing charge (APC) for open access, claimed indexation by ERIC and DOAJ and availability of ISSNs. However, these two groups of journals differed markedly in terms of contact information, years of editorial activity, certain publication frequencies, specialized focus, mention of acceptance rate, mean peer review time, claimed adoption of peer review, submission mode, listing of editors‐in‐chief, relevance of their expertise, mean number of editors, relevance of the editorial board members' expertise, mean APC, claimed indexation by Google Scholar/Scopus/WoS, reporting of fake impact factors, provision of Index Copernicus Value, claimed COPE membership, availability of ethical guidelines and various policies and existence of DOIs. These differences can be used as warning signs that a journal may not be legitimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retraction of published research is laudable as a post-publication self-correction of science but undesirable as an indicator of grave violations of research and publication ethics. Given its various adverse consequences, retraction has a stigmatizing effect both in and beyond the academic community. However, little theoretical attention has been paid to the stigmatizing nature of retraction. Drawing on stigma theories and informed by research on retraction, we advance a conceptualization of retraction as stigma. We define retraction stigma as a discrediting evaluation of the professional competence and academic ethics of the entities held accountable for retraction. Accordingly, we identify seven core dimensions of retraction stigma, consider its functional justifications at both social and psychological levels, and distinguish its various targets and stakeholders. In view of the central role of retraction notices, we also discuss how retraction stigma is communicated via retraction notices and how authors of retraction notices may exercise their retraction stigma power and manipulate the stigmatizing force of retraction notices. We conclude by recommending retraction stigma as a theoretical framework for future research on retraction and pointing out several directions that this research can take. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel Cycle-GAN for specular highlight removal based on unpaired data. • The network is guided by a highlight mask to focus on highlight regions. • The training is divided into two steps through a luminance guidance structure. • The proposed method obtained high-quality highlight-free images even on unpaired natural images Specular highlight removal is an important yet challenging problem in image enhancement. Recent methods based on deep learning and trained by massive paired or unpaired data have demonstrated promising performance for this task. Methods based on unpaired data have recently gained more attention for easier training data collection. In this paper, we present a Mask-Guided Cycle-GAN for specular highlight removal on unpaired data. Incorporating the idea that specular highlight mainly has characteristics in lightness, we attempt to train a module only on luminance channel before considering all channels, and then adopt the training results to guide the subsequent highlight removal module. We further convert the highlight removal problem to image-to-image translation by using cycle-consistent adversarial network (Cycle-GAN). In the proposed network, a non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) based method is incorporated to obtain accurate highlight masks. The proposed method is evaluated using the specular highlight image quadruples (SHIQ) and the LIME datasets, and the advantages are demonstrated via comparative experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to identify editorial features that can distinguish predatory and legitimate open access journals in the discipline of language and linguistics. Fifty-six journals from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and an equal number of journals from Beall's updated list of potential predatory journals (PPJs) were selected for a close examination. Analyses showed that these two groups of journals differed markedly in a large number of editorial features: certain publication frequencies, contact address and contact information, mean number of articles published per year, specialized focus, mean peer review time, claimed adoption of peer review, submission mode, listing of editor(s)-in-chief, relevance of their expertise, mean number of editorial board members, availability of the guide for authors and aims/scope sections, an APC for open access, mean APC, claimed indexation by DOAJ, provision of ethical guidelines and publishing policies, and presence of DOIs. Nevertheless, they did not differ significantly with regard to mean years of editorial activity, mention of average peer review time, mention of acceptance rate, mean number of editorial board members, mean number of editors, listing of editorial boards, claimed indexation by Google Scholar/ERIC/Scopus/Web of Science, COPE membership, and availability of ISSNs. These findings point to distinguishing editorial features that language and linguistics scholars need to consider when they look for legitimate open access journals to disseminate their research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second language (L2) motivation has been widely discussed as a determinant of success or failure in L2 learning. L2 teachers, especially those of junior secondary students (aged between 13 and 15 years), can play a critical role by deploying effective motivational strategies (MSs) to enhance and sustain their students' L2 motivation. Previous studies have revealed considerable misalignments between teachers' stated beliefs and reported practices regarding L2 MSs. However, little is known about what factors may contribute to such misalignments and what can be done to bridge them. To fill this lacuna, this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study examined 210 teachers' perceptions of L2 MSs and the L2 motivational practices reported by 166 of them in the context of Chinese junior secondary schools. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 20 teachers on their motivational teaching practices and influencing factors. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data showed that the teachers as a group reported underusing many L2 MSs relative to their perceived importance. This misalignment of stated beliefs and reported practices was found to result from both external and internal constraints. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for professional development programs to improve their trainees' classroom motivational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student engagement has attracted much research attention in higher education because of various potential benefits associated with improved engagement. Despite extensive research on student engagement in higher education, little has been written about graduate students' engagement with supervisory feedback. This paper reports on a study on student engagement with supervisory feedback on master's theses conducted in the context of Nepalese higher education. The study employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design that drew on interviews and a questionnaire-based survey involving supervisors and students from four disciplines at a comprehensive university in Nepal. Analyses of the qualitative and quantitative data revealed significant differences between supervisors' and students' perceptions of all types (i.e., affective, cognitive, and behavioral) of student engagement. Significant disciplinary variations were also observed in supervisors' and students' perceptions of negative affect, cognitive engagement, and behavioral engagement. Furthermore, disciplinary background and feedback role interacted to shape perceptions of student engagement. These findings have implications for improving student engagement with supervisory feedback. • 102 master's supervisors and 462 master's students participated in this study. • We examined their perceptions of student engagement with supervisory feedback. • Students rated their feedback engagement markedly higher than supervisors did. • There were also significant variations in perceptions of engagement across disciplines. • Disciplinary background and feedback role jointly shaped the participants' perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Synergising CDA and stance analysis to examine marketisation discourse of Ghanaian HEIs. 2. Prominent use of boosters and attitude markers in vision and mission statements. 3. Competitive climate and social trends motivating rhetorical choices. 4. Neoliberal ideologies and agendas are discursively manifested in university rhetoric. 5. Differences between institutional types shape marketisation strategies. A key manifestation of market forces permeating higher education is the marketised discourse in universities' vision and mission statements, promoting institutional brands and offerings. This study set out to explore how 59 Ghanaian universities marketise themselves in their vision and mission statements. Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and a metadiscourse model of stance, a textual analysis revealed six key marketisation strategies: (1) trumpeting excellence, global aspirations and partnerships; (2) highlighting niche specialisations; (3) declaring commitment to knowledge creation and dissemination; (4) pledging positive societal impact: (5) promising holistic and quality education; (6) emphasising ethical, value-based education. In comparison with the public universities, the private and technical universities adopted a more assertive marketing language replete with boosters, attitude markers and hedging expressions. Thus, the identified discoursal differences align with university types and market orientations. These findings offer important implications for higher education development, policy-making of educational stakeholders and further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) are localized states despite in a radiation continuum, rendering the ultra-high quality factor for enhanced lightâ€"matter interactions and supporting exotic topological properties. So far, most of studied BICs in photonic crystal (PhC) slabs are only vertically localized, i.e. allowing propagations in the plane of slab therein but forbidding radiations, and the density of optical states (DOS) at their frequencies is limited due to the steep dispersion characteristics. Here, we report a BIC existing on a flatband of symmetry-broken PhC slab. The flatband, associated with largely reduced group velocity, significantly sharpens the DOS at the frequency of BIC, which can be realized via finely controlling broken vertical symmetry in the PhC slab. The effect of broken symmetry is revealed in a simple effective Hamiltonian near the second-order Î" point of such system. Our results show the simultaneous engineering of dispersion and leaky characteristics of modes, offering new opportunities to boost lightâ€"matter interactions and to enhance the performance of photonic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retraction notices are expected to be transparent about entities accountable for retractions and their reasons for retraction. No previous research on retraction notices has investigated accountable entities other than authors of retracted publications and their reasons for retraction from a cross‐disciplinary and a diachronic perspective. Drawing on a dataset of 7650 unique retraction notices published before 2020 and indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection, this study identified 457 retraction notices that held four types of non‐author entities accountable. Journal authorities (i.e., editors and publishers) were found responsible for retractions in 62.14% of the retraction notices, followed by unidentifiable entities (26.91%), third parties (6.13%), and dual entities (i.e., both authors and journal authorities, 4.81%). The three most frequent reasons for retraction were republication of valid publications (36.76%), unspecified reasons (26.91%), and publication of unpublishable work (17.07%). Accountable non‐author entities were more identifiable in the retraction notices published between 2010 and 2019 than in those published before 2010. Retraction notices in soft disciplines were more likely than those in hard disciplines to identify journal authorities as accountable entities. These findings offer implications for handling retractions more effectively and efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant scholarship on citation has examined a limited number of citational features, adopted disciplinary and ethnolinguistic perspectives disjunctively, and paid little systematic attention to the nature of cited sources. Drawing on appraisal theory, the present study investigated the nature of cited sources, namely personalization (i.e., whether humans are foregrounded as a cited source) and identification (i.e., whether and how the cited sources are identified), to understand their dialogic functionality in knowledge making. We analyzed citations in a corpus of 84 research articles sampled from two disciplines and two languages. Greater citation-based dialogic contraction was found in the medical articles than in the applied linguistic articles, whereas the cross-linguistic contrasts revealed a mixed picture. The differences are explained in terms of divergent epistemologies, cultural beliefs, discursive practices, institutional settings, and co-patterning of different citation features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promotion of standard languages as mediums of instruction as well as the worldwide spread and popularity of English have generated various issues related to attitudes towards and ideologies underpinning different languages, language practices, and language teaching and learning in different contexts. With the promotion of the English-as-a-Medium-of-Instruction (EMI) policy in Chinese higher education, it is worthwhile to investigate how multilingual speakers perceive English in EMI programmes and its relationship to their first languages (L1s). This study investigated how Chinese university students from a minority language group perceived the effectiveness of EMI and how they constructed and negotiated their identity. The findings from the interview and focus group data collected from a group of Teochew speakers, representative of minority language students, revealed that the participants’ L1 was marginalised in comparison to the dominant use of English and Putonghua in academic settings, although they held mixed attitudes towards EMI. We argue that an unquestioned embrace of EMI in higher education does not benefit linguistic diversity (i.e. the use of other languages in academic settings) but would endanger the L1s of minority language students. Accordingly, we call for language policymakers in particular and society in general to take an inclusive multilingual perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments around the globe are in a quest for successful e-government services. In this pursuit, one of the most significant barriers to e-government resilience is insufficient training. The objective of this study is to examine the impact of ICT training programs on the success of e-government services to improve digital competency along with decreasing the digital divide concerning developing societies. The pragmatic research process served as a baseline of this study, and a quasi-experimental research approach was implemented for testing the control group. The results of e-government training revealed a significant increase in the trainees' self-efficacy regarding the use of e-government applications. This study proved that e-government ICT training programs directed at citizens can create a positive impact in conjunction with increasing digital literacy. Such training programs could also lessen the digital divide, enrich citizens' potential, and promote more equitable usage of public services in developing societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The left-sided position of the mouth in amphioxus larvae has fascinated researchers for a long time. Despite the fundamental importance of mouth development in the amphioxus, the molecular regulation of its development is almost unknown. In our previous study, we showed that Hh mutation in the amphioxus leads to no mouth opening, indicating a requirement of Hh signaling for amphioxus mouth formation. Nevertheless, since the Hh mutant also exhibits defects in early left-right (LR) patterning, it remains currently unknown whether the loss of mouth opening is affected directly by Hh deficiency or a secondary effect of its influence on LR establishment. Results: We demonstrated that knockout of the Smo gene, another key component of the Hh signaling pathway, in the amphioxus resulted in the absence of mouth opening, but caused no effects on LR asymmetry development. Upregulation of Hh signaling led to a dramatic increase in mouth size. The inability of Smo mutation to affect LR development is due to Smo's high maternal expression in amphioxus eggs and cleavage-stage embryos. In Smo mutants, Pou4 and Pax2/5/8 expression at the primordial oral site is not altered before mouth opening. Conclusions: Based on these results and our previous study, we conclude that Hh signal is necessary for amphioxus mouth formation and that the Hh-mediated regulation of mouth development is specific to the mouth. Our data suggest that Hh signaling regulates mouth formation in the amphioxus in a similar way as that in vertebrates, indicating the conserved role of Hh signaling in mouth formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although much has been written about Chinese students' understandings of illegitimate intertextual practices, few studies have investigated Chinese university teachers' perceptions of plagiarism, let alone the effects of their disciplinary background on their knowledge of and attitudes toward plagiarism. This paper reports on a study that examined the knowledge that 128 Chinese university teachers of different disciplinary backgrounds had of plagiarism, their attitudes toward identified plagiarism, and their own ability to engage in legitimate paraphrasing. Multiple regression analyses showed that disciplinary background and teaching experience were significant predictors of the participants' knowledge of plagiarism, whereas disciplinary background and overseas experience significantly predicted their stance on plagiarism. A logistic regression analysis identified disciplinary background as a significant predictor of the participants' ability to produce legitimate paraphrases. Qualitative analyses of the participants' open-ended responses revealed that their criteria for plagiarism aligned with Anglo-American conceptions of plagiarism and that intertextual competence was dependent in no small measure on linguistic competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been much research detailing how English as a foreign language (EFL) students attending English for academic purposes (EAP) courses struggle with a wide array of challenges when adjusting to university English-medium instruction, how these students use feedback to self-regulate their academic English learning and what contributes to or hinders this remain unknown. This study investigates Chinese university students' feedback behaviour and preferences in academic English course settings and their associations with English language self-efficacy within the context of recent feedback research in higher education. Apart from a dominant preference for teacher evaluative feedback, the students were found to be more likely to act on teacher feedback than to proactively seek feedback. English language self-efficacy was also shown to have significant influence on both feedback behaviour and preference. In the light of these results, this paper argues for a pressing need to extend the notion of feedback in academic English courses from viewing it as information transmission or 'telling' to recognising it as an iterative process whereby students make sense of information from various sources and use it to enhance their academic English learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In analogy to Lifshitz transitions in electronic systems, topological transitions have recently attracted widespread attention in photonic metamaterials, metasurfaces, and two-dimensional materials, enabling exotic regimes for light-matter interactions. Here, we discuss and study enhanced photonic local density of states in twisted hyperbolic bilayers, enabled by topological transitions emerging at specific twist angles. Our results enhance the understanding of nanoscale light-matter interactions in stacked optical materials as they are rotated with respect to each other in the context of twistronics and suggest emerging applications of these concepts for photonics, including for the manipulation of radiative heat transfer and the control and harvesting of light at the nanoscale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supervisory feedback on thesis drafts and presentations is arguably the most important source of information for graduate students, particularly those writing their theses in English-as-a-foreign-language contexts, to conduct, complete, report and improve graduate research and benefit from the process. Despite its critical role in scaffolding students' research and thesis writing, supervisory feedback on master's theses has been under-researched, compared with the attention given to doctoral supervision. This is particularly the case in non-Western, developing countries such as Nepal. The present study examined supervisory comments on thesis drafts (n = 97) in four disciplinary areas (education, English studies, physics and engineering). Supervisors' beliefs underlying their practices and students' expectations were explored through interviews with 16 supervisors and 16 students. Analyses revealed that supervisory feedback varied across the disciplinary areas and, in many cases, did not cater to students' needs or expectations. Pedagogical implications of these findings are derived with a view to improving the effectiveness of supervisory feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growth of research on language teachers’ emotion and professional identity in the past decades, little is known about the emotional life of language teacher educators (LTEs), much less about their emotional vulnerability. Accordingly, the present study drew on activity theory and explored 14 Iranian LTEs’ emotional vulnerability and professional identity construction. Drawing on data from narrative frames and semi-structured interviews, our study demonstrated how context created tensions that profoundly shaped the LTEs’ emotional vulnerability and identification processes. Specifically, we found that LTEs’ emotional vulnerability results from others’ malpractice and/or their own lack of autonomy, leading to further identity investment. Although they faced a myriad of challenges serving as sources of emotional and professional identity tensions, the LTEs adhered to ethics in maintaining their identity standards to positively contribute to teachers’ professional growth. We provide implications for institutional policymakers to better acknowledge the professional status of LTEs so that they become less emotionally vulnerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let d k (n) denote the k -th divisor function. In this paper, we study the asymptotic formula of the sum ∑ 1 ≤ n 1 , n 2 , ... , n l ≤ x d k (n 1 2 + n 2 2 + ⋯ + n l 2) , where n 1 , n 2 , ... , n l ∈ Z + , k ≥ 4 and l ≥ 3 are integers. Previously only the cases of k = 2 , 3 are studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we apply the circle method to study the average behavior of the triple divisor function over values of quadratic form n 1 2 + n 2 2 + ⋯ + n l 2 with l ⩾ 3. We improve and generalize previous results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leveraging state-of-the-art scientometric and analytical techniques, this paper provides a diachronic, quantitative, systematic overview of English-for-specific-purposes (ESP) research, as represented by the publications cited in two flagship journals of the field from 1980 to 2018. A co-citation analysis of 1092 main articles and their 25,147 unique references have identified 11 major clusters of co-cited references, representing the field's major areas of research. These clusters are mapped onto three evolutionary stages of the field, namely the initial conceptualizing stage (1970s–1990s) centering on needs analysis, the maturing stage (1990s–2000s) characterized by the development of major methodological approaches (e.g., genre-based, corpus-based, contextual, and critical approaches), and the flourishing stage (2000s-) ushering in a diversity of research interests (e.g., move analysis, cross-disciplinary and cross-linguistic variation, lexical bundles, vocabulary lists, metadiscourse, and academic writing in a global context). The co-citation analysis has also identified 52 landmark studies, 11 of which experienced recent citation bursts, indicating current research interests of the field. Thus, this scientometric review provides a systematic account that complements existing narrative reviews. • We report a diachronic systematic review of English for specific purposes as a field. • We conducted a co-citation analysis of articles published in ESPJ & JEAP (1980–2018). • We generated 11 clusters of co-cited references representing major research areas. • We mapped these clusters onto three stages of the field's evolution. • We identified landmark publications associated with the clusters and the stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Linguistic expressions of interest were examined in 640 research articles. • The research articles were sampled by geo-academic location and time of publication. • A 4-element semantic frame was proposed to examine these linguistic expressions. • The grouping variables reliably predicted the overall use of interest markers. • They were also significant predictors of the presence of several frame elements. Linguistic expressions of interest that signal academic authors' epistemic attitude toward propositional content in their research articles are inherently associated with knowledge-making practices. Drawing on a semantic frame developed for expressions of interest, this study examined how an academic author's geo-academic location and time of publication mediated the deployment of such interest markers in a 4-million-word corpus of 640 research articles sampled from four disciplines. To complement the corpus-based analyses of the interest markers, text-based interviews were conducted with 16 specialists from the four disciplines to explore their considerations in employing these markers. The corpus-based analyses found that time of publication and geo-academic location reliably predicted the overall use of interest markers and/or the presence of several frame elements. As revealed by the analysis of the interview data, these identified patterns of use were attributable to the Periphery-based scholars' disadvantaged positions in academia and increasing competition for international publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a cognitive approach to genre-specific language, this corpus-based study investigated the disciplinary and paradigmatic effect on the use of a specific type of attitude markers—surprise markers—with an analytical framework informed by frame semantics. A Surprise frame was generated and then used to analyze the use of surprise markers in a 2,000,000-word corpus consisting of 320 full-length empirical research articles collected from two social sciences (applied linguistics vs. clinical psychology) cutting across two research paradigms (qualitative vs. quantitative). Results from multiple binary logistic regression analyses show that the research paradigm can reliably predict the absence or presence of five categories across four frame elements of the Surprise frame. This study not only extends the application of frame semantics to discourse analysis but also has the potential to create a new direction for research in English for academic purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on plagiarism has increased awareness and knowledge of the various aspects of this issue, such as contributing factors to plagiarism, students' and teachers' perceptions of plagiarism, and institutional policies and regulations on plagiarism. Yet much of this research, especially on the latter two aspects, has been conducted in Anglo-American contexts or English-as-a-second-language (ESL) settings (where English is an official or important language in the larger societal context), while the diversity of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) contexts (where English as a foreign language is largely used only in the language classroom) remains relatively under-researched. Of those studies that did focus on EFL contexts, the majority were based on survey data that were limited in the depth of information collected. To address this relative lack of in-depth understanding of how plagiarism is understood and acted against in EFL contexts, this paper reports on an interview study with 13 EFL teachers from 12 universities in mainland China. The study focused on the teachers' knowledge and attitudes concerning plagiarism, plagiarism-related pedagogical practices, as well as perceived stances and expectations of their institutions in plagiarism prevention. Its findings contribute to the current knowledge base of EFL academics' views and practices regarding plagiarism, add to our understanding of EFL teachers' experiences concerning plagiarism in specific educational settings, and inform institutions' efforts to develop and improve strategies and policies for preventing plagiarism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, two rich and exciting research fields, layered two-dimensional (2D) materials and metamaterials, have started overlapping. Metamaterials are artificial, engineered materials with broad metaphotonic prospects such as negative refraction, perfect lensing, subwavelength imaging, and cloaking. The possibility of achieving metaphotonic properties using metamaterials based on layered 2D materials has been extensively exploited. Because they are highly tunable and adjustable with the ease of micro- and nanofabrication, 2D materials exhibit diverse optical properties such as natural negative refraction, natural anisotropic behavior, and even hyperbolic dispersion. A combination of 2D materials with conventional metamaterials promises a variety of prospective applications. In this review, we illustrate how the concept of metamaterials and their associated metaphotonic capabilities are naturally born in 2D materials. The multifunctionality of 2D materials may enable the manufacture of novel optical devices that work in a broad frequency range, from visible to terahertz, with particularly low loss, high speed, gated tunability, and miniaturized sizes. This new area of research links the fields of photonics, optoelectronics, and plasmonics with that of metamaterials and may provide insights to future innovations for 2D-material-inspired metaphotonic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the within- and cross-language metalinguistic contribution of three components of metalinguistic awareness (i.e., phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and syntactic awareness) to reading comprehension in monolingual Chinese-speaking children from Mainland China (n = 190) and English–Chinese bilingual children from Singapore (n = 390). Moreover, the effect of home language use on the relationship between metalinguistic awareness and reading performance was investigated. For monolingual children, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that after partialing out the effects of age, nonverbal intelligence, and oral vocabulary, syntactic awareness uniquely predicted 7%–13% of the variance in reading comprehension measures, whereas this relationship was not observed between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. For the bilingual children, within-language regression analyses revealed that English/Chinese morphological awareness and syntactic awareness both contributed significantly to English/Chinese reading measures over and above vocabulary and phonological awareness. Cross-linguistically, structure equation modeling results demonstrated that the bilingual children's English and Chinese metalinguistic awareness were closely related and jointly supported reading comprehension in both languages, thus lending support to Koda's transfer facilitation model. Furthermore, home language use was found to contribute to the bilingual children's reading proficiency via its impact on metalinguistic awareness. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy and pedagogical implications that can be drawn from these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phonon polaritons provide useful opportunities, complementary to those provided by plasmon polaritons, in the study of the interaction of light with matter at small scales. The focus of this review is on phonon polaritons in low‐dimensional van der Waals (vdW) materials and heterostructures. Phonon polaritons confined in vdW materials exhibit large electromagnetic localization and are easy to hybridize with other collective modes. The extreme optical anisotropy in vdW systems produces the natural hyperbolic dispersion, enabling the access to deep subdiffractional optics and often yielding improved figures of merit over hyperbolic metamaterials. These virtues hold promises for practical nanophotonic applications, including optical sensing, super‐resolution imaging, energy and emission engineering, quantum optics, and a next generation of optical circuit elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let K3 be a non-normal cubic extension over ℚ:We study the higher moment of the coefficients of Dedekind zeta function over sum of two squares where 2 ⩽ l ⩽ 8 and n1; n2; l∈ ℤ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrated the facile synthesis of a new class of functionalized polyethylene containing precisely sequenced diphenyl ether moieties via acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization of a series of α, ω-diene monomers (M1 - M3) with central diphenyl ether segments and subsequent exhaustive hydrogenation. 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy have provided unambiguous evidence for precise primary architectures of the synthesized monomers and the resulting polymers. The thermal behaviors of all polymers were systematically investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results indicate that the introduction of diphenyl ether segments significantly enhanced the thermal stability of the polyethylenes. Ring-opening insertion metathesis polymerization (ROIMP) of M1 - M3 with cis -cyclooctene was also performed, and after exhaustive hydrogenation, a series of irregularly sequenced copolymers with less regular chain structure and lower diphenyl ether content were yielded. Those copolymers possess a broad and ill-defined melting transition compared with the precisely-defined saturated homopolymers. Image 1 • Three symmetric α, ω-diene monomers containing diphenyl ether segments were designed and synthesized. • ADMET polymerization of those α, ω-diene monomers with ruthenium-based G-II catalyst were conducted. • ROIMP of those α, ω-diene monomers with cis -cyclooctene (COE) was carried out. • Thermal properties of all polymers revealed structure-property relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Although academic discourse has a reputation for its emotionless objectivity, the emotion of surprise is often expressed in scientific writing. Paradoxically, surprise is cognitive in nature and recognized as a knowledge emotion. Given the connection between surprise and knowledge-making, it is surprising that linguistic expressions of surprise (i.e., surprise markers) in academic discourse have received little research attention. This article reports on an empirical study of surprise markers in research articles. Informed by Charles Fillmore's frame semantics, the study identified and analyzed all the surprise markers in a corpus of 320 research articles. A total of 439 surprise markers were found to evoke seven interconnected semantic frames. These semantic frames contained eight conceptually distinct frame elements, five of which were markedly more frequent than the rest and appeared in 12.76–100% of the frame instances identified. Based on the results of the analyses, a genre-specific Surprise frame with five key frame elements was generalized and is presented in this article as a conceptual tool for understanding how surprise and its linguistic expressions partake in the construction of scientific knowledge. Recommendations are made about how the conceptual frame can inform future research. Highlights • Drawing on frame semantics, this study examined surprise as a knowledge emotion. • Surprise markers were identified and classified in a corpus of 320 research articles. • Semantic frames evoked by the surprise markers and their relations were analyzed. • A surprise frame was generalized from the identified frames and key frame elements. • Recommendations are made about the frame as a conceptual tool for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ever-intensifying globalization and marketization of higher education are placing increased pressure on doctoral students to publish during candidature. This paper reports a study of Chinese nursing doctoral students' endeavors to publish in English. Drawing on Activity Theory, the study employed a multiple-case study design and collected multiple types of data from six doctoral students and one supervisor from a major research-intensive university in mainland China. Thematic and activity systems analyses of the data revealed a tension concerning the students' dual role as student and expert scholarly writer. The tension was manifested in the students' developing, but still limited grasp and use of some conceptual tools needed to publish their work. The analyses also showed that the students dealt with this tension by relying on mediating resources, such as cultural artifacts and social others that facilitated not only their publishing efforts, but also their socialization into the academic culture and community. These findings point to a deep-seated structural tension in doctoral education that, while constraining doctoral students' scholarly publishing endeavors, could also enable them to acquire the skills of the trade to publish and to be socialized into their disciplinary communities. • Doctoral students seeking to publish face challenges arising from their dual role. • They are expected to be student and expert scholarly writers at the same time. • A tension exists between their developing, yet limited, grasp of conceptual tools. • Cultural artifacts and social others mediate students' overcoming of the tension. • The tension-ridden process brings along learning and socialization opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a cross-disciplinary study of the effects of instructional medium and disciplinary background on teacher questions and student responses in 20 subject classes at a Chinese university. These classes were sampled to operationalize the distinction between hard and soft disciplines based on the hypothesis that these two disciplinary clusters may depend on verbal interaction to different extents. Data comprised 20 lessons delivered by different Chinese teachers in their EMI subjects, where both English and Chinese were used as instructional mediums. All the teacher questions and student responses in the lessons were identified, and their cognitive and linguistic complexity were assessed with multiple measures. Analyses revealed that an overwhelming majority of teacher questions and student responses were cognitively and linguistically simple. Instructional medium did not have any statistically significant effect on the incidence, cognitive or syntactic complexity of teacher questions and student responses. The only cross-disciplinary difference found was that student responses in the soft disciplines were syntactically more complex than those in the hard disciplines. These results suggested that questioning and responding in the EMI classrooms were unlikely to achieve the dual goal of facilitating students' subject learning and improving their English proficiency envisioned by policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper reports on a cross-disciplinary study of the rhetorical structure of Three Minute Thesis (3MT) presentations, an increasingly popular yet largely unexamined academic speech genre. The study analyzed a corpus of 142 presentations by PhD students from four disciplines chosen to operationalize two widely discussed disciplinary distinctions (i.e., hard vs. soft and pure vs. applied disciplines). The analysis identified eight distinct rhetorical moves in the 3MT presentations, including six obligatory moves (i.e., Orientation, Rationale, Purpose, Methods, Implication, and Termination) and two optional ones (i.e., Framework and Results). Further analyses revealed statistically significant associations between disciplinary affiliation and the likelihood to employ three moves (i.e., Framework, Methods, and Results). These relationships are explained in terms of the dominant epistemological codes at work in the different disciplines. The findings have important implications for graduate students, 3MT tutors, EAP instructors, and other academics involved in preparing PhD students for 3MT competitions and teaching spoken academic discourse in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers’ instructional practices surrounding written assignments have been little researched, despite writing remaining the primary means of assessment in higher education, including postgraduate professional development programmes. In this paper, we report a study that explored what a sample of lecturers in a Master of Education programme at an English-medium university in Hong Kong did to support students’ assignment writing. We integrate perspectives provided by the relevant higher education literature, the academic literacies approach and North American rhetorical genre studies to shed light on the findings derived from our analyses of interview and documentary data. We showed that our lecturer participants both engaged in direct instruction on assignment writing and provided indirect support. Our study contributed to the existing literature and raised questions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers discusses media literacy education in schools and the teaching approach of teachers in media literacy education classrooms. Topics discussed include the role of teachers in creating a conducive learning environment, teacher education research related to media literacy, and the factors that impact teachers' professional practice.

While research on peer feedback in the L2 writing classroom has proliferated over the past three decades, only limited attention has been paid to how students respond to their peers’ writing in specific contexts and why they respond in the ways they do. As a result, much remains to be known about how individual differences and contextual influences shape L2 students’ peer feedback practices. To bridge the research gap, this case study examines two Chinese EFL university students’ peer feedback practices and the factors influencing their feedback practices. Analyses of multiple sources of data including interviews, video recordings of peer feedback sessions, stimulated recalls, and texts reveal that the students took markedly different approaches when responding to their peers’ writing. The findings also indicate that their peer feedback practices were situated in their own distinct sociocultural context and mediated by a myriad of factors including beliefs and values, motives and goals, secondary school learning and feedback experience, teacher feedback practices, feedback training, feedback group dynamics, as well as learning and assessment culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supervisory feedback plays a key role in thesis writing, especially in L2 contexts. How supervisors perceive the purposes, foci, and challenges of supervisory feedback as well as student engagement can greatly influence how they design and adapt their feedback to foster their students' learning from the writing of a graduate thesis. Surprisingly, little research attention has been given to the beliefs and perceptions held by master's thesis supervisors about supervisory feedback. To bridge this research gap, this study collected supervisors' feedback perceptions with in-depth interviews (n = 16) and a questionnaire survey (n = 102). The supervisors came from four disciplines (i.e., English education, English studies, physics, and engineering) at a comprehensive Nepalese university. Analyses of the qualitative and quantitative data revealed that the supervisors were more positive about the purposes and foci of their supervisory feedback than student engagement with such feedback. They also held positive expectations of supervisory feedback and viewed the major challenges for supervisory feedback as arising from student and institutional constraints. Furthermore, the supervisors' perceptions varied significantly across the disciplines. Finally, perceptions of the foci and challenges of supervisory feedback significantly predicted different types of perceived student engagement. These findings have pedagogical and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]