Development of adolescent reading comprehension in language 1 and language 2: A longitudinal analysis of constituent components.

This study investigated the relationship between reading comprehension development of 389 adolescents in their dominant language (Language 1 [L1], Dutch) and a foreign language (Language 2 [L2], English). In each consecutive year from Grades 8 through 10, a number of measurements were taken. Students' reading comprehension, their linguistic knowledge (vocabulary and grammar knowledge) and processing efficiency (speed of word recognition and sentence comprehension) in both languages, and their metacognitive knowledge about reading were assessed. The relative strengths of the effects of these components of reading were analyzed to distinguish among 3 hypotheses about the relationship between L1 and L2 reading comprehension: the transfer hypothesis, the threshold hypothesis, and the processing efficiency hypothesis. The transfer hypothesis predicts a strong relationship between L1 and L2 reading comprehension and a strong effect of metacognitive knowledge on L2 reading comprehension, whereas the threshold and processing efficiency hypotheses predict a more important role of language-specific knowledge and processing skills. Results support the transfer hypothesis, although language-specific knowledge and fluency also contribute to L2 reading performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

混流式水轮机整体结构有限元分析

由于混流式水轮机整体结构的复杂性,因没有成熟的理论指导,在设计阶段对动力特性难加以考虑.通过有限元建立其动力学控制方程,以大型有限元软件为平台建立有限元计算模型,并使用先进的Lanczos法对结构整体与局部模态分析确定结构的固有频率和振型等动力特性.同时与其他振源频率进行了比较分析,研究其出现共振的可能性.     

Consumers' beliefs, attitudes and intentions towards genetically modified foods, based on the 'perceived safety vs. benefits' perspective

It has been repeatedly claimed that the application of genetic engineering in the field of agricultural and food production is both beneficial and advantageous. However, biotechnology is developing in an environment where public concerns about food safety and environmental protection are steadily increasing. The present study aims at gaining an insight into Greek consumers’ beliefs, attitudes and intentions towards genetically modified (GM) food products. The objectives of this study are summarized as follows (i) to provide evidence that consumer beliefs are built around the ‘safety‐benefits’ axis, and (ii) to segment the Greek market in terms of consumer beliefs about GM food products and identify a number of clusters with clear‐cut behavioural profiles. Although the overall attitude of Greek consumers towards GM food is negative, the research very interestingly concludes that there exists a market segment of substantial size, whose beliefs about GM food appears to be positive. This finding suggests that there is not a ‘consensus’ regarding the rejection of GM foods in the Greek market as one might have expected thus ‘encouraging’ the implementation of adequate marketing strategies to target this segment of ‘early adopters’ in the first place.     

Upper-bound analysis of the pressure-assisted injection forging of thick-walled tubular components with hollow flanges

An upper-bound analysis of the pressure-assisted injection forging (PAIF) of thick-walled tubular components with hollow flanges was conducted to predict the maximum forming-pressure requirements. The polymeric pressurizing material and the pure aluminium work material employed were assumed to obey the von-Mises’ yield criterion, the two materials being divided into three and six zones, respectively, and described using kinematically admissible velocity fields. An upper-bound solution was derived based on this model. Experiments were conducted to validate the solution. The results suggest that the upper-bound analysis has sufficient accuracy for the prediction of the forming-pressure requirements. Subsequently, a parametric analysis was conducted to study the effects of variation of the principal parameters of the process and the geometry, such as tube thicknesses, flange dimensions and friction, on the forming-force requirements, which showed other useful applications of the upper-bound solutions.     

Generalized null space uncorrelated Fisher discriminant analysis for linear dimensionality reduction

We propose a generalized null space uncorrelated Fisher discriminant analysis (GNUFDA) technique integrating the uncorrelated discriminant analysis and weighted pairwise Fisher criterion. The GNUFDA can effectively deal with the small sample-size problem and perform satisfactorily when the dimensionality of the null space decreases with increase in the number of training samples per class and/or classes, C. The proposed GNUFDA can extract at most C-1 optimal uncorrelated discriminative vectors without being influenced by the null-space dimensionality.     

T(x) phase diagram of the Cu2Se-Al2Se3 system

Twenty alloys of various compositions in the Cu₂Se-Al₂Se₃ system were prepared and investigated. The T(x) phase diagram of the Cu₂Se-Al₂Se₃ system was obtained from x-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis, and microstructure investigation for the first time. The homogeneity region of the CuAlSe₂ semiconducting compound was established. Previous articles by this author were presented with the spelling of his name as B.V. Korzun.     

三参量速度分析的迭代算法

采用预求倾角法进行三参量速度分析时，首先要确定地下界面的倾向和倾角。若没有准确速度，就求不准倾向和倾角，因此无法一次求得准确的结果。若采用迭代算法，则可以使三参量逐渐向精确值逼近。在地层倾角小于４５＾０的情况下，迭代是收敛的。在有噪音的情况下，噪音会使叠加道集上同相轴的时间发生变化，从而影响倾向的确定，因此在迭代的每一步，都必须估算倾向。理论实际资料的试算表明，采用迭代方法求取地下界面参数是切实可