Source Categories Research Articles

Sources of Second Language Speaking Anxiety: An Investigation into the Lecturers’ Perspective

‘Anxiety’ experienced in speaking English as a second language has been a topic of much interest in the field of language learning as it is debilitating and it creates an impact on the achievement of the language learners in an adverse manner. This nervousness or anxiety seems to be inducing when the students are asked to speak in the second language in the class. Presumably, speaking has become a complete fallout in acquiring the language. Thus, it was of paramount importance to embark in a research on this circumstance with the aim of investigating the perspectives of the lecturers in order to integrate students into an English speaking environment with greater ease and to increase the students’ enjoyment when learning and communicating in English. To accomplish the objectives of this study, a total of 40 academics from the Faculty of Social Sciences & Languages, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka were selected. The data gathered were analyzed through a mixed approach which consisted of both qualitative and quantitative data analyzing methods using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages. A total of 40 academics participated in the study. The majority of the participants were females (92.5%), aged between 31- 40 years (52.5%) with 3-5 years of working experience (47.5%). The responses revealed some intriguing findings and three categories of possible sources for second language speaking anxiety were explored as psychological, methodological and social. It was distinct through the lecturers’ perspectives, that psychological causes of speaking fears could stem from the lack of self-confidence, low esteem, fear of failing the subject, fear of negative evaluation, the need to be perfect & accurate and previous negative experiences. It was also apparent that the instructional methods employed in the classroom such as anxiety-ridden classrooms, monotonous teaching style, competition within the classroom, boring topics and activities evaluations and grades as well as social causes such as public embarrassment, negative judgement from teachers and students, unhealthy relationship with peers and isolation will contribute to second language speaking anxiety. Hence, this study can be taken as a reference for the lecturers in determining the possible sources of second language speaking anxiety. Thereby, to decide on the effective strategies that can be employed in order to alleviate the speaking anxiety of the students. The findings also pave the path for the lecturers to realize their own reactions that can possibly enhance or lessen the speaking anxiety of the students.

Google Images Search Results as a Resource in the Anatomy Laboratory: Rating of Educational Value.

Preclinical medical learners are embedded in technology-rich environments, allowing them rapid access to a large volume of information. The anatomy laboratory is an environment in which faculty can assess the development of professional skills such as information literacy in preclinical medical learners. In the anatomy laboratory, many students use Google Images searches in addition to or in place of other course materials as a resource to locate and identify anatomical structures. However, the most frequent sources as well as the educational quality of these images are unknown. This study was designed to assess the sources and educational value of Google Images search results for commonly searched anatomical structures. The top 10 Google Images search results were collected for 39 anatomical structures. Image source websites were recorded and categorized based on the purpose and target audience of the site publishing the image. Educational value was determined through assessment of relevance (is the searched structure depicted in the image?), accuracy (does the image contain errors?), and usefulness (will the image assist a learner in locating the structure on an anatomical donor?). A reliable scoring rubric was developed to assess an image's usefulness. A total of 390 images were analyzed. Most often, images were sourced from websites targeting health care professionals and health care professions students (38% of images), while Wikipedia was the most frequent single source of image results (62/390 results). Of the 390 total images, 363 (93.1%) depicted the searched structure and were therefore considered relevant. However, only 43.0% (156/363) of relevant images met the threshold to be deemed useful in identifying the searched structure in an anatomical donor. The usefulness of images did not significantly differ across source categories. Anatomy faculty may use these results to develop interventions for gaps in information literacy in preclinical medical learners in the context of image searches in the anatomy laboratory.

On the Composition of Two Spherical Twists

Abstract Segal [17] proved that any autoequivalence of an enhanced triangulated category can be realised as a spherical twist. However, when exhibiting an autoequivalence as a spherical twist one has various choices for the source category of the spherical functor. We describe a construction that realises the composition of two spherical twists as the twist around a single spherical functor whose source category semi-orthogonally decomposes into the source categories for the spherical functors we started with. We give a description of the cotwist for this spherical functor and prove, in the special case when our starting twists are around spherical objects, that the cotwist is the Serre functor (up to a shift). We finish with an explicit treatment for the case of $\mathbb {P}$-objects.

Estimated Black Carbon Emissions from Priority Source Categories in Russia

Estimated Black Carbon Emissions from Priority Source Categories in Russia

РАСЧЕТНЫЕ ОЦЕНКИ ВЫБРОСОВ ЧЕРНОГО УГЛЕРОДА ОТ ПРИОРИТЕТНЫХ КАТЕГОРИЙ ИСТОЧНИКОВ В РОССИИ

Black carbon is commonly considered as a short-lived climate forcer, the relatively short lifetime of which can cause climatic effects at the regional level. The lack of mandatory reporting on black carbon emissions and a unified methodology for black carbon inventory leads to high uncertainty of existing estimates of black carbon emissions in Russia. The estimates of emissions from priority source categories are provided in the present paper. According to the estimates, averaged black carbon emissions for the period of 2010-2020 from intentional fuel combustion at anthropogenic sources in Russia, including fuel combustion at energy and industrial enterprises, small and domestic combustion, transport, hydrocarbon flaring, are 100 *103 t per year, and those from open combustion sources on non-forest lands are 10 *103 t per year. Emissions from forest fires have the greatest interannual variability and vary from 100 to 300*103 t of black carbon per year.

How to Remediate Heavy Metal Contamination in Soil?

The issue of heavy metal soil pollution has risen to the forefront. In addition to harming the pedosphere as a whole, soil pollution also has an impact on other significant sectors, such as air and water pollution. The two primary categories of pollution sources are natural sources and man-made sources. Mainly Hg, Cd, Pb, Cr, As, Zn, Cu, Ni, and other heavy metals are involved. The safety of agricultural products and the proper growth of people are of utmost importance. Thus, the origins of soil heavy metal pollution, the state of soil remediation research, and the development of soil heavy metal pollution remediation technology are all covered in this review. The technologies currently employed in soil heavy metal pollution remediation primarily include physical remediation, chemical restoration, bioremediation, agroecological restoration, and joint restoration. These methods are described, along with the conditions under which they can be used, application examples, and an analysis of their benefits and drawbacks. The most popular restoration technique is bioremediation.

Akty wewnętrzne w samorządowych ustawach ustrojowych

The subject of the article is the issue of internal acts issued by self-governing bodies on the basis of authorizations contained in the local government laws. The article is of a scientific and research nature. In the scope related to its area, it includes the analysis of the applicable normative material and jurisprudence of administrative courts. The article focuses on internal acts from self-governing bodies issued on the basis of authorizations under local government laws. Internal acts of law in administrative law occupy an important position, both as a category of sources of administrative law and when discussing legal forms of administration. The justification for taking up the issue of internal acts issued by self-governing bodies is the pursuit of a broader understanding of legislative activity that goes beyond the issue of the acts of local law. Internal acts in administrative law are often discussed from the perspective of acts originating from government administration bodies. This observation also justifies considering in the indicated area. The aim of the conducted research is to: find out about the legal nature of internal acts issued by self-governing bodies on the basis of authorizations contained in local government laws; presentation of legal regulations and jurisprudence of administrative courts, as well as postulates de lege ferenda on the admissibility of supervision measures against internal acts in the form of ordinances of the commune head (starost, voivodeship marshal); drawing attention to the impact of internal acts on external entities. The considerations presented in the article may be a contribution to a broader and in-depth scientific reflection on the specification of the category of internal acts originating from self-governing bodies within internal acts. The criterion for distinguishing such a group is not only the category of the entity, but the conclusions indicated in the article referring in particular to the non-uniform legal nature of self-government internal acts and the legitimacy of supervising and controlling each internal act.

New contributions of measurements in Europe to the global inventory of the stable isotopic composition of methane

Abstract. Recent climate change mitigation strategies rely on the reduction of methane (CH4) emissions. Carbon and hydrogen isotope ratio (δ13CCH4 and δ2HCH4) measurements can be used to distinguish sources and thus to understand the CH4 budget better. The CH4 emission estimates by models are sensitive to the isotopic signatures assigned to each source category, so it is important to provide representative estimates of the different CH4 source isotopic signatures worldwide. We present new measurements of isotope signatures of various, mainly anthropogenic, CH4 sources in Europe, which represent a substantial contribution to the global dataset of source isotopic measurements from the literature, especially for δ2HCH4. They improve the definition of δ13CCH4 from waste sources, and demonstrate the use of δ2HCH4 for fossil fuel source attribution. We combined our new measurements with the last published database of CH4 isotopic signatures and with additional literature, and present a new global database. We found that microbial sources are generally well characterised. The large variability in fossil fuel isotopic compositions requires particular care in the choice of weighting criteria for the calculation of a representative global value. The global dataset could be further improved by measurements from African, South American, and Asian countries, and more measurements from pyrogenic sources. We improved the source characterisation of CH4 emissions using stable isotopes and associated uncertainty, to be used in top-down studies. We emphasise that an appropriate use of the database requires the analysis of specific parameters in relation to source type and the region of interest. The final version of the European CH4 isotope database coupled with a global inventory of fossil and non-fossil δ13CCH4 and δ2HCH4 source signature measurements is available at https://doi.org/10.24416/UU01-YP43IN (Menoud et al., 2022a).

Size or Content of the Pie? Source of Income and Perceived Income Adequacy of Older Europeans

ABSTRACT While public pensions are usually the main source of income in old age, other sources of income may have various consequences for pensioners’ economic well-being across households and countries. In this study, we analyze how perceived income adequacy of older Europeans is shaped by the source and the income level. We hypothesize that the source of income can be related to a household’s perceived income adequacy beyond the money it provides. We distinguish four categories of income sources: (old age) pensions, other social benefits, work, and capital. We show that the source of income is related to perceived adequacy beyond the money it provides. Compared with pensions, income from other social benefits or work is associated with lower, and income from capital with higher perceptions of adequacy. Perceived adequacy of income from different sources varied further across the household income level. The results convey important messages to the policy makers. Pensions are a powerful policy tool, as they provide positive externalities beyond their monetary value. Attention should also be paid to the low-income households’ possibilities to save.

Comparison of Health Risk from Sources of Perfluoroalkyl Substances in Taihu Lake for Different Years

Pollution characteristics and spatial distributions of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in surface water samples were investigated in Taihu Lake in 2010 and 2019, respectively. A hybrid model based on the positive matrix factorization (PMF) and the health risk assessment model were employed for quantifying the contributions of sources to PFASs concentrations and the source risks. The method contained two stages:1 the sources of PFASs were apportioned using the PMF model, and 2 the contribution of health risks from each source was quantitively estimated. Three factors (source categories) were extracted using PMF, including:coating industry sources, textile and electroplating sources, and fluoride-processing industry sources. Their contributions to PFASs concentration were 29.59%, 25.68%, and 44.72% for 2010 and 67.69%, 10.26%, 22.05%, for 2019, respectively. The health risk of PFASs in the water assessed by the health risk assessment (HRA) model was 4.56E-07 for 2010 and 2.69E-07 for 2019, which was lower than 1E-06. The source contributions to health risks estimated by the PMF-HRA hybrid model were:64.86% (2010) and 92.48% (2019) for textile and electroplating sources, 31.30% (2010) and 5.04% (2019) for coating industry sources, and 3.84% (2010) and 2.48% (2019) for fluoride-processing industry sources. For the two years, the concentrations of PFOA and PFOS were reduced significantly, indicating the effective control of their emissions during the past ten years in Taihu Lake. However, it was also shown that the concentrations of PFBS and PFHxS were increased. These findings suggest that the above short chain-PFCs species should be the focus for further control and management, and their health risks should be studied in future research.

Distribution characteristics, source apportionment, and chemical reactivity of volatile organic compounds in two adjacent areas in Shanxi, North China

To determine the pollution characteristics, source apportionment, and chemical reactivity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in two adjacent areas, VOC samples were collected using 3.2-L stainless steel canisters between 2017 and 2018 in Taiyuan and Yuci areas. The concentrations of 48 VOCs were determined using a gas chromatography-mass selective detector/flame ionization detector. The average concentrations of the 48 VOCs (total VOCs [TVOCs]) in the Taiyuan and Yuci areas were 30.09 and 24.08 ppbv, respectively; the highest concentrations were recorded for ethane, which accounted for 21.40% and 25.49% of the TVOCs detected in the Taiyuan and Yuci areas, respectively. Alkanes accounted for the highest proportion of the TVOCs, followed by alkenes, alkynes, and aromatics. Through positive matrix factorization, six source categories were identified in Taiyuan and Yuci, namely gasoline evaporation (24.38%), petrochemical industrial sources (15.46%), biogenic emissions and LPG usage (8.75%), combustion sources (28.33%), solvent use (12.95%), and vehicle exhaust (10.13%). The backward trajectory and weighted potential source contribution function analysis results indicated that Taiyuan and Yuci were potential source areas for each other in September, and that Taiyuan was the potential source area of Yuci in November and December. Among the TVOCs detected in the Taiyuan and Yuci areas, alkenes contributed the most to ozone formation potential (OFP), followed by aromatics and alkanes; alkynes contributed the least to OFP. Aromatics contributed the most to secondary organic aerosol formation potential (SOAFP), accounting for 92.80% and 92.37% of the SOAFP in the Taiyuan and Yuci areas, respectively. These results indicate that the TVOCs in the Taiyuan and Yuci areas must be controlled, particularly aromatics with high SOAFP and alkenes with high OFP. Our results help to clarify the migration, transformation, and sources of ambient VOCs in adjacent areas; they also provide fundamental data on pollution control and the prevention of regional organic air pollution.

Identification and Characterization of PM2.5 Emission Sources in Shanghai during COVID-19 Pandemic in the Winter of 2020

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic broke out in Wuhan at the end of 2019 and spread around the whole of China in 2020. In order to reduce the spread of COVID-19, transportation and industrial activities in different regions were limited to varying degrees. This study uses bivariate concentration polar plots, integrated with k-means clustering and temporal variation analyses for PM2.5 time series data, to understand the PM2.5 source characteristics in Shanghai during the COVID-19 pandemic in the winter of 2020. Our findings show that 34.33% of the PM2.5 particles arise from external sources while 65.67% are from local sources. The results of source apportionment combined with land use, wind speed, and direction data are further used to locate the most likely directions of different source categories and geographic origins of PM2.5. During the lockdown period in 2020, traffic and industrial activity were still primary local sources of PM2.5 emissions in Shanghai. The growth of motor vehicle ownership, limited public transport, and a large volume of freight transport in Shanghai result in a higher level of PM2.5 concentrations on weekends than in midweeks. On the other hand, the regional-scale transport of air pollutants from the Yangtze River Delta, the Central Plains, the inland area of northern China, and coastal cities in the north and south of Shanghai aggravates PM2.5 pollution in Shanghai under unfavorable meteorological conditions. The methods and results presented here lay a basis for further study on the complicated effects of meteorological and anthropogenic factors on PM2.5 pollution and on the development of detailed and urgent strategies for the improvement of air quality.

Multisource-Refined Transfer Network for Industrial Fault Diagnosis Under Domain and Category Inconsistencies.

Unsupervised cross-domain fault diagnosis has been actively researched in recent years. It learns transferable features that reduce distribution inconsistency between source and target domains without target supervision. Most of the existing cross-domain fault diagnosis approaches are developed based on the consistency assumption of the source and target fault category sets. This assumption, however, is generally challenged in practice, as different working conditions can have different fault category sets. To solve the fault diagnosis problem under both domain and category inconsistencies, a multisource-refined transfer network is proposed in this article. First, a multisource-domain-refined adversarial adaptation strategy is designed to reduce the refined categorywise distribution inconsistency within each source-target domain pair. It avoids the negative transfer trap caused by conventional global-domainwise-forced alignments. Then, a multiple classifier complementation module is developed by complementing and transferring the source classifiers to the target domain to leverage different diagnostic knowledge existing in various sources. Different classifiers are complemented by the similarity scores produced by the adaptation module, and the complemented smooth predictions are used to guide the refined adaptation. Thus, the refined adversarial adaptation and the classifier complementation can benefit from each other in the training stage, yielding target-faults-discriminative and domain-refined-indistinguishable feature representations. Extensive experiments on two cases demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method when domain and category inconsistencies coexist.

Evaluating the performance of chemical transport models for PM2.5 source apportionment: An integrated application of spectral analysis and grey incidence analysis.

Evaluating the performance of source apportionment (SA) models is difficult due to the non-observable nature of source contribution in reality. Here we propose a new approach to assess the performance of Chemical Transport Models (CTMs) for SA based on wavelet time-frequency spectral analysis and Grey Incidence Analysis (GIA). For each source category, certain species that better reflect the periodic characteristics of the emission sources were selected as the chemical tracers. The consistency of the time series between the simulated source contributions and the observed source-specific chemical tracers was then examined using a GIA model based on the perspective of similarity, and characterized by the GIA scores. By applying this method to six typical pollution episodes, we evaluated the performance of the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions-Particle Source Apportionment Technology (CAMx-PSAT) model for PM2.5 SA from different temporal and spatial scales. The source- and episode-dependent optimal average time and main source regions were obtained. This approach is robust for facilitating a relatively meticulous evaluation of the performance of CTMs for PM2.5 SA, and provides additional insight for decision-making for heavy pollution emergencies.

Domain adaptation based on source category prototypes

Domain adaptation based on source category prototypes

Source apportionment of air pollution in European urban areas: Lessons from the ClairCity project

Air pollution has become a major threat to human health in the last decades, with an increase of acute air pollution episodes in many cities worldwide. Source apportionment modelling provides valuable information on the contribution from different emission source sectors and source regions to distinct air pollutants concentrations. In this study, the CAMx model, with its PSAT tool, was applied to quantify the contribution of multiple source areas, categories and pollutant types to ambient air pollution, namely to PM and NO2 concentrations, over six European urban areas: Bristol (United Kingdom), Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Liguria Region (Italy), Sosnowiec (Poland) and Aveiro Region (Portugal). Results indicate overall higher annual NO2 and PM concentrations located in the urban centres of the case studies. A comparison between the different areas showed that Liguria is the region with highest NO2 annual mean concentrations, while Ljubljana, Liguria Region and Sosnowiec are the case studies with the highest PM annual mean concentrations. The annual average contributions denote a major influence from road transport to NO2 concentrations, with up to 50%, except in Aveiro region, where road transport presents a lower contribution to NO2 concentrations, and the greatest contributor is the industrial combustion and processes sector with 45%. These results indicate a negligible contribution of the transboundary transport to NO2 concentrations, highlighting the relevance of local sources, while for PM concentrations the transboundary transport is the major contributor. The results highlight the relevance of long-range transport of PM across Europe. The transboundary transport reduces its importance during winter, when residential and commercial combustion increases its contribution. In the case of the Aveiro region, the industrial combustion and processes sector also plays an important contribution to PM concentrations.

Social Media May Cause Emergent SARMs Abuse by Athletes: A Content Quality Analysis of the Most Popular YouTube Videos

Objectives Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMs) social media interest is at an all-time high. The aim of this study is to analyze the: (1) quality; (2) educational content; and (3) reliability of the most relevant YouTube videos on SARMs to explain growing SARMs abuse by recreational and professional athletes. Methods ‘SARMs’ was queried (November 28, 2021) through the YouTube video library. The top 100 videos filtered by relevance were categorized by source, type of content, educational quality by Global Quality Score (GQS), reliability by Journal of American Medicine Association (JAMA) criteria, YouTube tags, attitude towards SARMs use, and whether the video provided specific support on how to use SARMs. For all outcome variables, descriptive statistics and comparison among source types and category types were performed. Results Mean JAMA score was 1.6 ± 0.7 out of 4. Mean GQS score was 2.5 ± 1.1 out of 5. Patient videos were of lower educational quality than athletic trainer videos (GQS: 2.11 ± 0.95 vs. 2.95 ± 1.00, p < 0.01), and videos categorized as user experience were of lower educational quality than videos categorized as general SARMs information (GQS: 1.92 ± 0.90 vs. 2.72 ± 1.07, p < 0.05). User experience and dosing recommendation videos were statistically significantly more positive in attitude than both general SARMs information and SARMS vs. other PEDs. Conclusion Quality, content, and reliability of SARMs YouTube videos was low. Social media likely causes SARMs abuse through disseminating biased SARMs misinformation. These results serve to educate public health oversight bodies, healthcare providers, and sports team members to better identify signs of SARMs abuse, and promote discussion to discourage SARMs abuse.

Distinct Responses of Biofilm Carbon Metabolism to Nanoplastics with Different Surface Modifications.

Recently, there is an increasing concern regarding the toxicity of nanoplastics (NPs) on freshwater organisms. However, knowledge about the potential impacts of NPs with different surface modification on freshwater biofilms is still very limited. In this research, biofilms were cultured in lab and exposed to nano polystyrene (PS) beads: non-functionalized PS NPs, PS-COOH NPs, and the carbon source utilization of biofilms were measured by BIOLOG ECO microplates. The results showed that both two types of PS NPs significantly reduced the total carbon metabolic activity of biofilms, compared with the controls, whereas the carbon metabolic rate increased notably, especially for the PS-COOH NPs treatments at day 14. Moreover, results from six categories of carbon sources analysis suggested that PS NPs with different surface chemical properties exhibit distinct effects on the carbon utilization of biofilms, and the divergent changes of the specific carbon source category were observed at day 21 from the two PS NPs treatments. In addition, the metabolic functional diversity of biofilms were not altered by the PS NPs treatments. These findings highlighted that chemical properties of NPs play an important role in the toxic effects on the carbon metabolism activities of the biofilms. This study offers new insights that nanoplastics of different chemical characteristics have the ability to affect the microbial-mediated carbon cycling process in aquatic ecosystems.

Temporal Source Apportionment of PM2.5 Over the Pearl River Delta Region in Southern China

AbstractThe key problems in addressing air pollution include determining the source of the pollutants and developing a means to control them. In addition to the source area and source category of pollutants, the contributions of pollutants emitted during various periods is an important factor that must be better understood for effective and efficient policymaking. A temporal source apportionment module in the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions was developed and applied to analyze the temporal contributions of emissions to the concentration of atmospheric particulate matter with a diameter ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5) in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. The results showed that in addition to cross‐boundary transport, the PM2.5 concentration in the PRD region was generally influenced by emissions on the current day and previous day. Local emissions from 06:00–17:59 on the current day accounted for approximately 30% of the PM2.5 concentration, whereas regional sources (cross‐city transport) had greater contributions during earlier emission periods. During the periods of episodic pollution, a weak wind situation hindered the transportation and diffusion of pollutants; thus, pollutants from 2 days earlier were trapped within the PRD region. When only the emissions from the PRD region were considered, particulate nitrate was more affected by regional emissions from the previous day, whereas the main contributors of other major components of PM2.5 were emissions from the current day. Our results suggest that emission control measures should be implemented 2 days in advance when adverse meteorological conditions are predicted.

Second Generation Biofuel – An Alternate Source of Energy

The use of fossil fuels in the current situation has been increased. These fossil fuels do not come under the category of sustainable sources due to its depleting nature. Fossil fuels also pollutes the environment by increased emission of Greenhouse Gases (GHG). In order to produce an alternate renewable energy and to reduce the percentage of environmental pollution caused, many technologies like solar energy, tidal energy, wind energy etc. came into existence. But all these forms of energy can be produced in terms of electricity. To meet the increasing fuel demand, renewable biofuels came into the field where biomasses are utilized to produce biofuels. Second generation renewable biofuels are produced from conventional plant sources with higher oil content whose efficiency is determined by the amount of Green House Gases (GHG) emitted and the life cycle cost whether positive, neutral or negative. High yielding energy crops such as sugarcane, corn, switchgrass, wheat etc. are subjected to various processes / fermentation to yield biofuels like bioethanol, biobutanol, biohydrogen, biodiesel etc. The US and Brazil are replacing the demand for gasoline with around 15% of bioethanol and it has a higher octane rating, increased engine’s compression ratio, increased thermal efficiency and ultimately reduces atmospheric pollution emissions. In future biofuels will be recognized as alternative fuel in transportation, energy generation, heat producer, charging electronics, environmental friendly cleaners, cooking, lubricants, adhesives etc. This review provides a brief outline about the second generation biofuels which would serve as an alternative energy in the near future.