Intermediate Reference Research Articles

The Astrometric Performance of the China Space Station Telescope (CSST) Sky Survey in Extending the Gaia Celestial Reference Frame

The multi-color imaging sky survey conducted by the China Space Station Telescope (CSST) holds significant promise for advancing the development of the celestial reference frame. In this study, we focus on assessing the astrometric performance of the CSST celestial reference frame (CSST-CRF) in extending the Gaia Celestial Reference Frame 3 (Gaia-CRF3). First, the orientation precision of the CSST reference frame is evaluated using a simulated set of extragalactic sources with CSST g magnitudes ranging from 18 to 25 mag. The estimated orientation uncertainty caused by random error insignificantly affects the alignment between Gaia-CRF3 and the CSST-CRF. Then, the systematic effect of incomplete CSST sky coverage on the alignment between CSST-CRF and Gaia-CRF3 is discussed by analyzing the differences between the subset of Gaia-CRF3 in the CSST observation region (Gaia-CRF3′) and Gaia-CRF3 as a whole. Using the third International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF3) S/X band as an intermediate reference frame, the orientation offset between Gaia-CRF3′ and Gaia-CRF3 is estimated to be 20 μas. This offset is marginally larger than the orientation offset between Gaia-CRF3 and the ICRF3, approximately 15 μas. The residual spin and glide rate of Gaia-CRF3′ are derived from the proper motions, consistent with that of Gaia-CRF3 within the formal error. Finally, we explore the role of CSST in establishing a multi-band celestial reference frame by comparing its limiting magnitude and observation accuracy with existing catalogs in the infrared and ultraviolet bands. Thanks to its broad wavelength coverage and high-precision measurements, CSST is well-positioned to make significant contributions to the development of a multi-band celestial reference frame.

Evaluation of GeneNAT Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Analyzer and Pre-loaded Chip-Based Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Detection in the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis (TB) is still the second causative agent of death worldwide after COVID-19. It is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection. The aim of the current study was to compare the performance of GeneNAT real-time polymerase chain reaction analyzer and pre-loaded chip-based MTB screening and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) detection kit (Smart SureTM MTB & MDR-TB, Genetix Biotech Asia Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India) against the established WHO-approved GeneXpert Ultra (MTB/rifampicin (RIF)), line probe assay (LPA), and mycobacteriagrowthindicatortube(MGIT) culture at point of care (POC) level. A total of 450 pulmonary TB (PTB) suspect patients were enrolled from October 2023 to March 2024 at the Intermediate Reference Laboratory, Department of Medicine, All India Instituteof Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. GeneXpert and GeneNAT tests were done directly from sputum specimens. However, processed sputum specimens were used for both LPA (GenoType MTBDRplus) and liquid culture and drug susceptibility testing (MGIT culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST)). On comparing with GeneXpert, for the detection of MTB and rifampicin (RIF), Smart SureTM showed a sensitivity of 98.18% and 97.5% with a specificity of 100% and 98.92%, respectively. While comparing mutations in therpoB gene with LPA, the Smart SureTM MDR-TB kit exhibited sensitivity and specificity of 96.77% and 99.12%, respectively. For katG and inhA genes, sensitivity and specificity were 97.6% & 85.71% and 98.66% & 98.01%, respectively, for both genes. Smart SureTM MDR-TB showed comparable results with MGIT-DST with sensitivity and specificity of 96.88% & 96.15% and 98.99%& 99.02%, respectively, for both RIF and isoniazid (INH) drugs. The GeneNAT system test may provide the status of RIF and INH resistance in PTB cases in a short time with the use of minimal specimens. It required very little infrastructurewith less skilled laboratory staffin comparison with other WHO-approved diagnostics used in resource-limited countries with TB and drug-resistant TB burdens.

Diagnostics Evaluation of Smart Sure™ Mycobacterium tuberculosis Screening Kit and Smart Sure™ Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis Detection Kit on Nonsputum Specimens at a Tertiary Care Center of North India.

Tuberculosis (TB) is caused due to the infection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and it can infect the various parts of the human body. The disease is highly prevalent and is the second most common cause of death worldwide after COVID-19. Apart from sputum specimen, it is exceedingly difficult to diagnose due to its paucibacillary nature. The current study was intended to evaluate the accuracy of Smart Sure™ MTB and multidrug-resistant-TB (MDR-TB) kits (Genetix Biotech Asia Pvt. Ltd., India) with Xpert ultra and Mycobacterium growth indicator tube (MGIT) culture on nonsputum specimens from TB suspects. A total of 205 nonsputum specimens were received between October 2023 and May 2024 at Intermediate Reference Laboratory, Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Xpert ultra and Smart Sure™ MTB and MDR-TB tests were done directly on samples. However, processed specimens were used for MGIT culture and drug-susceptibility testing (DST). Invalid and MGIT contaminated specimens were excluded from the final calculation. Overall, sensitivity and specificity of Smart Sure™ MTB screening kit was 71.59% and 98.28%, respectively, with Xpert ultra and 68.35% and 90.83%, respectively, with MGIT culture. While comparing with both Xpert ultra and MGIT-DST to detect rifampicin (RIF) resistant, Smart Sure™ MDR-TB kits showed sensitivity of 75.0% and 100% of specificity. However, for isoniazid (INH) resistance, Smart Sure™ MDR-TB kits showed 100% of sensitivity and specificity with MGIT-DST. For the detection of MTB and its drug-resistance patterns (RIF and INH) in the specimens other than sputum, Smart Sure™ MTB and MDR-TB kits could play a vital role in TB endemic countries. While comparing the set-ups and skilled staffs, it required almost same as compared with previously approved WHO diagnostics used in resource-limited countries.

Semiotic Power in Films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul

This research aims to analyze the semiotic power in the films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul through a qualitative study approach. The researcher employs methods of textual and contextual analysis, utilizing semiotics theory and intermedial references, including intermedial topography. Data are collected from films, articles, interviews, and critiques. Additionally, in-depth individual interviews are conducted to reflect and support the data obtained from film analysis. The selection of purposive sampling focuses on feature-length entertainment films where Apichatpong Weerasethakul serves as both the screenwriter and director, and the films have received awards or nominations at international film festivals such as Cannes. The total number of films selected for analysis is five: "Blissfully Yours" (2002), "Tropical Malady" (2004), "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" (2010), "Cemetery of Splendour" (2015), and "Memoria" (2021). The research findings reveal that semiotic analysis, following semiotics theory, delves deep into the films, encompassing both denotative and connotative meanings. It emphasizing themes like medicine and public health, forests, myth, gender, politics, memory, love, sleep, truth & illusion, marginal people, time, instinct, and orchids. Through intermedial analysis, the use of symbols to create meaning is evident, fostering diverse media networks that broaden understanding and interpretation. These symbols span various genres such as auteur, ghosts of Thai folklore, experimental, sci-fi, Hollywood, and postmodernist. In-depth interviews correlate with themes of semiotic power related to forests, politics, medicine, and public health, facilitating creative exchanges. Even without direct communication, symbols convey connotative meanings effectively. With their performance skills and memories, the director and actors act as intermediaries, fostering profoundly meaningful works.

Anti-PD-1/L1 antibody plus anti-VEGF antibody vs. plus VEGFR-targeted TKI as first-line therapy for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: a network meta-analysis.

This article is based on our previous research, which was presented at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting I and published in Journal of Clinical Oncology as Conference Abstract (JCO. 2023;41:e16148. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2023.41.16_suppl.e16148). Both anti-programmed death 1/ligand-1 (PD-1/L1) antibody + anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) antibody (A + A) and anti-PD-1/L1 antibody + VEGF receptor (VEGFR)-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor (A + T) are effective first-line therapies for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. However, there lacks evidence from head-to-head comparisons between these two treatments. We conducted a network meta-analysis on the efficacy and safety of them. After a rigorous literature research, 6 phase III trials were identified for the final analysis, including IMbrave150, ORIENT-32, COSMIC-312, CARES-310, LEAP-002, and REFLECT. The experiments were classified into three groups: A + A, A + T, and intermediate reference group. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), and secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR), and incidence of treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs). Hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for OS and PFS, odds ratio (OR) for ORR, and relative risk (RR) for all grade and grade ≥3 TRAEs were calculated. Under Bayesian framework, the meta-analysis was conducted using sorafenib as intermediate reference. With the rank probability of 96%, A + A showed the greatest reduction in the risk of death, without significant difference from A + T (HR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.65-1.04). A + T showed the greatest effect in prolonging PFS and improving ORR with the rank probability of 77%, but there were no statistical differences with A + A. A + A was safer than A + T in terms of all grade of TRAEs (RR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.82-1.00) and particularly in those grade ≥3 (RR: 0.65, 95% CI: 0.54-0.77). A + A had the greatest probability of delivering the longest OS, while A + T was correlated with larger PFS benefits at the cost of a lower safety rate.

Dynamic Analysis Strategy of Generalized Deployable Units via NCF-IGA with Force Constraint

Space deployable mechanisms typically employ modular designs, where each unit that can be independently deployed is defined as a generalized deployable unit (GDU), typically consisting of rigid components, flexible components and generalized kinematic pairs. Given the high-performance demands of spatial transmission mechanisms, generalized kinematic pairs frequently integrate flexible factors like torsion springs and flexible hinges, which control the motion according to the attitude and position of the component. In this investigation, a new modeling and solution strategy for rigid-flexible coupled dynamics is established by combining NCF and IGA. It can not only accurately describe the large deformation and large rotation of flexible components, but also consider the influence of flexible factors in the kinematic pairs. The rigid components are modeled by the Natural Coordinate Formula (NCF), and the flexible components are discretized in the inertial coordinate system using spline curves in Isogeometric Analysis (IGA). The intermediate reference coordinates were integrated into the NCF-IGA framework, overcoming the boundary constraints between B-spline and NCF elements, and the geometric constraint equation of the kinematic pair was established. Subsequently, this paper proposes the concept of force constraint in controllable deployable mechanisms. Based on the force constraint equation, the mechanical model of flexible joints is established. The dynamic equations of GDUs are derived considering both geometric and force constraints, and generalized-[Formula: see text] method is introduced to solve the equations. Finally, three numerical examples are provided to illustrate the applicability and superiority of the proposed method.

‘We Become Visible’: Television References As Intermedial Sites for Cultural Encounters in Jenny Erpenbeck’s Gehen, Ging, Gegangen

ABSTRACT The 2015 Refugee Crisis was the European media event of the decade. It shed new light on European migration policies and narratives of migration. Through the device of intermedial references, Jenny Erpenbeck’s (2015) novel, Gehen, Ging, Gegangen, presents intercultural encounters as a superable challenge. The novel suggests that media like television continue to function as national mediums, and while they may serve as an impetus for engaging with others, encounters between strangers necessitate modes of engagement that extend beyond listening and watching. The references in the novel encourage a discussion of national frameworks, limits of seeing, embodied nationhood, hospitality, and the enduring relevance of unmediated testimony, especially in light of constant new developments in media.

Between Death and Rebirth: Visual and Religious Intermediates in Chinese Ten Kings of Hell Paintings

In some schools of Chinese Buddhism, it was believed that after death, the deceased passed through the courts of the Ten Kings of Hell before being reborn. Paintings depicting this theme act as manifestations of the kings’ courts, instilling fear in the viewer through their vivid depictions of the king as a judge overseeing the torture of the deceased. Existing scholarship on the Ten Kings focuses on the iconography and style of Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasty examples, emphasizing a compositional evolution from the iconographic and narrative, scripture-based modes, to the hanging scroll format, where each king is represented in his own court. However, limited surviving paintings from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) leave a gap in the understanding of the Ten Kings and Buddhist hell during this time period.
 Using a five Ming dynasty Ten Kings of Hell scrolls at the Harvard Art Museums, I argue that religious contexts, visual characteristics, and intermedial references within these paintings embody the notion of the intermediate. Hell in Chinese Buddhism is a state of intermediate existence; I first discuss the ritual contexts and religious iconographies of these paintings as visualizing the passage between death and rebirth. Next, I analyze the visual and stylistic characteristics of the Harvard set, assessing how pictorial motifs are arranged and recycled throughout the set in a formula that allows the paintings to convey the notion of a liminal, intermediate space. Finally, I discuss how the pigments in the Harvard set perform reference textiles and decorative arts of the Ming dynasty; these period-specific references mediate the experience of the viewer by creating a convincing and comprehensible vision of hell.

Travelling without arriving: A study of Anthony Burgess’s ‘The Endless Voyager’

Anthony Burgess’s short story ‘The Endless Voyager’ takes the reader on a whirlwind journey around the world. However, like the story’s main character, Norbert Paxton, the reader never seems to arrive anywhere. This postmodern short story flips the legend of the Flying Dutchman on its head, encouraging the reader to test the limits of their understanding of nationalism and citizenship and contemplate this work of fiction in a metatextual way. The present study will begin with a discussion of Burgess’s understanding of the purpose of art, followed by an analysis of the story, focusing on intertextual and intermedial references. Finally, the impact these references may have on reader reception will be examined, which will ultimately lead to a consideration of the story’s brevity and of the question of freedom for the characters, the author and the story’s readers.

Estimation of First Line Anti-Tubercular Drugs resistance and their genetic analysis by Geno Type MTBDRplus assay from an Intermediate Reference Laboratory in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India

Estimation of First Line Anti-Tubercular Drugs resistance and their genetic analysis by Geno Type MTBDRplus assay from an Intermediate Reference Laboratory in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India

Minor characters, genre, and relationality: Antigone’s sister in contemporary literature

This essay investigates the distinction between major and minor characters by analysing the contemporary literary reception of a minor figure from one of the most canonical works in world literature: Ismene, Antigone’s sister in Sophocles’s Antigone. While Sophocles’s tragedy continues to elicit a startling number of rewritings and adaptations, the last two decades have seen a remarkable increase in rewritings which bring the heroine’s sister Ismene, a minor character in the original play, to the forefront. This multilingual, multi-generic, world literary corpus engages with Ismene’s relationship to heroism and sacrifice, moving away from tragedy and instead turning to a variety of genres: monologues, short stories, non-tragic plays, comedies, as well as hybrid forms that incorporate intermedial references. While much has been written about postcolonial and feminist rewritings of canonical Western texts, very little has been said about the attachments which secondary figures might elicit in peripheral literatures and minor authors. This focus, as this essay will show, helps refine notions of agency, solidarity, and connectivity in theories of the minor. The analysis presented here underscores the aesthetic, generic, and political implications of the revisionary representation of minor figures by contrasting Jeremy Menekseoglu’s theatrical rewriting Ismene (US, 2004) and Lot Vekemans’s monologue Zus van (Sister of, The Netherlands, 2005) as two distinct modes of engaging with Ismene as a paradigmatic minor figure. Pursuing the genre-theoretical and political questions raised by what Jeremy Rosen has termed “minor-character elaborations”, this essay identifies the practice of rewriting as a key literary strategy to decentre the major position of certain figures and genres in world literature. In dialogue with Rosen’s theoretical work, I argue for an aesthetic, enunciative, stylistic understanding of genre, which is best able to raise both the question of the minor character and that of minor-character elaborations within debates surrounding the minor.

Intermedial ecocriticism in Blindness by Saramago

This article analyzes pictorial representations of the natural world in Blindness (1995), by José Saramago. It covers the moment when an anonymous character describes some paintings he saw in a museum just before he went blind. Some of them are pastorals, suggestive of the lives of the characters before they became blind; but there are also descriptions of paintings that mirror the desperate situation analogous to the situation of the blind people in the asylum. As far as intermedial ecocriticism is concerned, I rely mainly on Jørgen Bruhn’s article “Towards an Intermedial Ecocriticism,” and when referring to culture, nature, and animals, I count on Raymond Williams’ and Greg Garrard’s concepts. Claus Clüver and Liliane Louvel become the main voices when analyzing the intermedial references to painting in the literary text.

Integration of landmark and saccade target signals in macaque frontal cortex visual responses

Visual landmarks influence spatial cognition and behavior, but their influence on visual codes for action is poorly understood. Here, we test landmark influence on the visual response to saccade targets recorded from 312 frontal and 256 supplementary eye field neurons in rhesus macaques. Visual response fields are characterized by recording neural responses to various target-landmark combinations, and then we test against several candidate spatial models. Overall, frontal/supplementary eye fields response fields preferentially code either saccade targets (40%/40%) or landmarks (30%/4.5%) in gaze fixation-centered coordinates, but most cells show multiplexed target-landmark coding within intermediate reference frames (between fixation-centered and landmark-centered). Further, these coding schemes interact: neurons with near-equal target and landmark coding show the biggest shift from fixation-centered toward landmark-centered target coding. These data show that landmark information is preserved and influences target coding in prefrontal visual responses, likely to stabilize movement goals in the presence of noisy egocentric signals.

Photography as Cinematic Ekphrasis: Intermedial Study in Garin Nugroho’s Opera Jawa

The Opera Jawa (2006), directed by Garin Nugroho is an Indonesian film with unique hybridity of art media (music, dance, visual art installation, acting, photography). This study aims to provide an overview of photographic ekphrasis’s form, process, and function. This research used a descriptive qualitative method. Data collection was through observation with the note-taking documentation technique. Through intermedial studies, data analysis was carried out using Agnes Petho’s cinematic ekphrasis and photo-filmic theory. The results of the study show that Opera Jawa displays the characteristics of intermedial reference media through cinematic ekphrasis of photography in film. This matter is manifested at the diegetic media level through family photos of the character Setyo-Siti, and the extra-diegetic media through photographic frames introducing film characters. Cinematic Ekphrasis works with exchange strategies and crossing the borders of basic media modalities (material, sensory, space-time, semiotic) from film to photography. Cinematic ekphrasis ultimately forms a metaphor that mediates the experience and knowledge of film audiences toward the target media and the source media. Thus, Opera Jawa, as the target media, can offer its ideology as a result of Sinta Obong’s source media interpretation.

Proving and Disproving Equivalence of Functional Programming Assignments

We present an automated approach to verify the correctness of programming assignments, such as the ones that arise in a functional programming course. Our approach takes as input student submissions and reference solutions, and uses equivalence checking to automatically prove or disprove correctness of each submission. To be effective in the context of a real-world programming course, an automated grading system must be both robust, to support programs written in a variety of style, and scalable, to treat hundreds of submissions at once. We achieve robustness by handling recursion using functional induction and by handling auxiliary functions using function call matching. We achieve scalability using a clustering algorithm that leverages the transitivity of equivalence to discover intermediate reference solutions among student submissions. We implement our approach on top of the Stainless verification system, to support equivalence checking of Scala programs. We evaluate our system and its components on over 4000 programs drawn from a functional programming course and from the program equivalence checking literature; this is the largest such evaluation to date. We show that our system is capable of proving program correctness by generating inductive equivalence proofs, and providing counterexamples for incorrect programs, with a high success rate.

Study of gene patterns for Rifampicin in LPA, which were discordant in CBNAAT in the state of Telangana, India

Introduction: Among the first line drugs used for treatment of Drug Sensitive Tuberculosis, Rifampicin plays a crucial role. Hence it is important to know the resistance of Rifampicin using molecular technologies like CBNAAT and line probe Assay. However, a diagnostic dilemma occurs when there is discordance in result of rifampicin resistance at periphery and in higher laboratories like Intermediate Reference Laboratory (IRL). Aims and objectives: To study various patterns of Gene for rifampicin that is demonstrated in probes of Line Probe Assao for First line –Line Probe Assay, which showed discordance with CBNAAT at periphery. Methodology: A retrospective observational study was conducted from 1st January 2021 to 31st December 2021 for all those samples which showed rifampicin discordance. Result: A total of 203 results were found discordant in Rifampicin. The resolution for rifampicin discordance is resolved using the NAAT facility at (IRL). Most of the resolution occurred in concurrence with result of Rifampicin in field. Eight of them gave inconclusive results (MTB not detected) Conclusion: It is very important to understand the gene patterns in LPA for providing appropriate regimen to the patients.

Comparative efficacy and safety of anti-PD-1/L1 antibody plus anti-VEGF antibody and anti-PD-1/L1 antibody plus VEGFR-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor as first-line therapy for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC): A systematic review and network meta-analysis.

e16148 Background: Anti-PD-1/L1 antibody combined with anti-VEGF antibody and anti-PD-1/L1 antibody combined with VEGFR-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor are both effective first-line therapies for uHCC in clinical practice widely. However, direct comparisons across the two regimens are not available. We conducted a network meta-analysis of them in terms of overall survival (OS), progression free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR) and incidence of treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs). Methods: After a literature research performed in PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane library and several major scientific societies from January 1 2007 to November 6 2022, 3,279 records were obtained. 6 phase III trials has been identified for the final analysis: REFLECT, IMbrave150, ORIENT-32, COSMIC-312, Qin 2022 and LEAP-002. The experiments were broadly classified into three groups: anti-PD-1/L1 antibody + anti-VEGF antibody (IMbrave150 and ORIENT-32), anti-PD-1/L1 antibody + VEGFR-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor (COSMIC-312, Qin 2022 and LEAP-002) and intermediate reference group (lenvatinib vs sorafenib, REFLECT). We derived hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) for OS and PFS, odds ratio (OR) for ORR and relative risks (RR) for all grade and grade ≥3 TRAEs. With fixed effect models to estimate the indirect pooled HRs, ORs, RRs and 95%CI, a frequentist network meta-analysis was conducted using sorafenib as intermediate reference. Results: 4,012 patients were included in the analysis overall, among them, 1815 patients were treated with anti-PD-1/L1 antibody+VEGF-antibody (A+A), 1,099 patients were treated with anti-PD-1/L1 antibody+VEGFR-TKI (A+T), 877 patients were treated with lenvatinib (LEN) and 1,320 patients were treated with sorafenib (SOR). With a p-score of 98%, the combination of A+A provided the greatest reduction in the risk of death, was not significantly different from A+T (HR=0.84, 95%CI: 0.66-1.06). Besides, A+T were associated with the greatest effect in prolonging PFS and improving ORR with 91% for p-score, but there are no statistical differences with A+A (HR=1.06, 95%CI: 0.87-1.30, OR=0.82, 95%CI: 0.47-1.46). Considering the risk of TRAEs, A+A were significantly safer than A+T (RR=0.91, 95%CI: 0.84-0.98) in all grade of TRAEs and ≥3 grade (RR=0.91, 95%CI: 0.84-0.98). Conclusions: The combination of anti-PD-1/L1 antibody and anti-VEGF antibodies has the greatest probability of delivering the longest OS, while anti-PD-1/L1 antibody plus VEGFR-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor is correlated with larger PFS benefit at the cost of a lower safety rate.

Language of Intermediality: Merging Arts, Cultures and Literature

The paper demonstrates through specific examples the peculiarities of intermedial ‘language’ employed by E.M. Forster to enlarge the contextual field of his novel Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905). Thus, through the application of the close reading technique and hermeneutical method, it covers the specificity of pictorial depictions and theatrical medium, as well as intermedial references integrated into the canvas of the literary artefact to extend its contextual field, draw borders between cultures, deepen the conflicts. It concludes that the writer applies specific intermedial language patterns and frameworks to extend the context of the plot and deepen the conflicts and oppositions between English and Italian, own and strange, old and new.

Analysis of Second Language Writing Based on Discourse Coherence Theory- A Case Study of High School Students in A Chinese International School

Students’ discourse coherence has always been a topic that is often discussed in writing. For intermediate-level students with the purpose of taking exams, discourse coherence is also an important part of writing. Based on the students’ discourse analysis, this paper obtains the frequency of students’ use in the second language writing process, and uses the form of interviews to study the thinking of students’ writing process. The results of the study found that students at the intermediate level use reference and conjunction much more than the other methods, as others students at the advanced level. However, substitution and ellipsis devices are almost missing in their writing. Such results may be influenced by the test-oriented writing teaching mode in the second language writing class, which will increase the huge difference and partial loss between the different methods used by students. Therefore, in second-language writing teaching for intermediate-level students, teachers can modify the classroom according to the current problems of students.

Docu-musical, migration and media reflexivity in The Harvest (2017) and Dimmi chi sono (2019)

ABSTRACT In the documentaries The Harvest (2017, Andrea Paco Mariani) and Dimmi chi sono (Sarita, 2019, Sergio Basso), the directors seek to raise awareness of a rarely told story, true to the tradition of politically engaged documentary. The Harvest denounces the slavery-like conditions in which Indian harvest hands work in Italy, while Dimmi chi photosono serves both as an archive for forgotten stories of the stateless Lhotshampa (an ethnic group displaced from Bhutan to Nepal) and to reveal the role of audio-visual media as vehicles for individual and collective memory. Though they tell very different stories, the films are united by their search for a suitable documentary language, since they can no longer rely on the authenticity effects that have been made hackneyed by the mass media to lend credibility to their accounts. The directors therefore combine conventional documentary methods with intermedial references to painting and photography, in particular pastiches of Hollywood/Bollywood musical scenes, so as to question Western concepts of authenticity.