Variable Slot Research Articles

An Exploration of Key Phrase Frames in Business Management Discussions for EAP Teaching

The interest in the phraseological nature of language generated many studies on phraseology in different genres. The focus of the current study is on key phrase frames in business management research article discussions. Key phrase frames are recurrent phraseological expressions with a variable slot and are specific to the studied context, for example genre or discipline. The analysis of the study is based on a corpus of research article discussions, extracted from six leading journals in business management, published between 2017 and 2021. Four-word phrase frames in the corpus were searched using the KfNgram program and refined based on the exclusion criteria to generate a list of phrase frames that was compared with the Corpus of Contemporary American English.The comparison yielded a total of 63 four-word key phrase frames in business management that were analyzed following Biber and Gray's (2013) structural classification and Simpson-Vlach and Ellis's (2010) functional taxonomy. In terms of structure, most key phrase frames were found to be non-verb content word frames while functionally, most serve referential discourse functions. The results suggest that phraseological variation in business management is associated with both lexical and grammatical constructions. These findings are crucial as they have implications on discipline-specific academic writing. most key phrase frames were found to be non-verb content word frames while functionally, most serve referential discourse functions.The results suggest that phraseological variation in business management is associated with both lexical and grammatical constructions. These findings are crucial as they have implications on discipline-specific academic writing. most key phrase frames were found to be non-verb content word frames while functionally, most serve referential discourse functions. The results suggest that phraseological variation in business management is associated with both lexical and grammatical constructions. These findings are crucial as they have implications on discipline-specific academic writing.

A methodological exploration of the P-frame approach: Implications for developing phrase lists

The widespread availability of corpora and corpus tools has led to considerable advances in our understanding of phraseology and how it can be investigated. An increasingly influential approach to investigating phraseology is the retrieval and analysis of phrase frames (p-frames), recurrent word sequences with a variable slot. Although the p-frame approach is quite well-established, pedagogically oriented research in this area is still quite new, in particular the application of phrase frames to generate useful lists of phrases. This paper aims to contribute to methodological efforts in this direction by presenting a case study to illustrate decision-making throughout the process from corpus compilation to the generation of a final pedagogical list of phrases. Using a corpus of research article (RA) introductions in Health Sciences, this study shows how key decisions including p-frame length, frequency and range thresholds were arrived at. It also discusses exclusion criteria focusing on variability and predictability of p-frame fillers, and the fine-tuning of the resulting list, focusing on semantic coherence and pedagogical usefulness. Finally, we present the results of an initial evaluation of the list by stakeholders. The main contributions of the study to p-frame research methodology lie in the clarification of threshold settings, the potential contribution of variability and predictability to decision-making and the proposal of more in-depth concordance analysis of co-text to aid in the identification of phrases.

Hope You Guys Enjoyed this Vlog: Lexical Bundles and Moves within English Travel Vlog Discourse

Lexical bundles and moves are essential for vloggers to communicate clearly and purposefully within travel vlog discourse. It is crucial for L2 learners and practitioners aiming to enter the industry to master these bundles and understand the moves used in creating travel vlogs. This corpus-based study compiled a list of 239 four-word lexical bundles serving as fixed slots and their 98 variable slots from the Travel Vlog Corpus, which comprises 434,809 running words. These bundles were categorised by function: 79 as stance expressions, 75 as discourse organisers, 80 as referential expressions, and 5 as special conversational functions. The study also identified four move types and their 19 component steps necessary for creating travel vlogs. It emphasised that lexical bundles and moves are critical knowledge with important functions for generating travel vlog discourse. The study concluded by proposing pedagogical implications and discussing future research directions.

Making requests at work: An examination of phrase frames in workplace email communication

As a method of business communication, emails play an essential role in establishing relationships and support systems among colleagues, partners, and sponsors to achieve business goals. Research has suggested that nonnative speakers of English and novice writers face challenges when composing professional email requests for business purposes. Previous studies have underscored the importance of phrase frames (p-frames), which are recurring multi-word sequences with a variable slot, to fulfill rhetorical functions in academic discourse. However, little research has explored how p-frames are used for written communications in business workplace contexts. This study investigated five-word p-frames used for rhetorical moves in business email requests. Using 1,148 authentic request emails extracted from the Avocado Research Email Collection corpus, we analyzed the distribution and linguistic characteristics of p-frames across five rhetorical moves. Results showed that p-frames were unevenly distributed across the rhetorical moves in business request emails. Two moves, making the inquiry and closing, showed the highest degree of formulaicity. P-frames were used in a variety of messages to soften demands and express politeness. This study has pedagogical implications for teaching English for business purposes to both L2 learners and novice writers.

An examination of phrase-frames in L2 english academic writing: Exploring relationships with writing quality

Corpus research has increasingly highlighted the importance of formulaic language (e.g., lexical bundles, n-grams) in various genres and registers. However, less attention has been paid to the value of discontinuous formulaic sequences. The present study extends research of this kind by targeting the use of phrase-frames (multi-word sequences with an internal variable slot [e.g., the * of the]) in relation to proficiency differences in L2 English academic essays produced by L1 Japanese university students. All texts were written in response to a common prompt, composed under similar conditions, and graded by trained raters. These essays were then assigned to high or low proficiency groupings based on the rating they received. Phrase frames of 4- and 5-words were extracted and analyzed for type count, token count, variability, and predictability differences. Major findings included higher proficiency writers making more frequent use of 4- and 5-word phrase frames (types and tokens), as well as using less variable, more predictable frames. Methodological and pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.

Phrase-frames in Low- and Intermediate-level EFL Learners’ Essays: Variability, Structures, and Functions

A recent trend in formulaic language research has been investigating phrase-frames, which are discontinuous formulaic sequences with a variable slot. The current study aims to investigate the phrase-frames used by low- and intermediate-level learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The phrase-frames are extracted from a self-compiled learner writing corpus across nine grades, and they are analyzed in terms of their variability, structures, and functions. The results show that as learners studied for more years, they would use phrase-frames that are more variable. Besides, they would use phrase-frames of different structures more flexibly, especially function word frames, and use phrase-frames for more varied functions. Through the research into the characteristics of phrase-frames and discussion about the reasons behind the differences between groups, this study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of formulaic language development in low- and intermediate-level EFL learners and provides some insights into formulaic language teaching.

“This study is not without its limitations”: Acknowledging limitations and recommending future research in applied linguistics research articles

Acknowledging limitations and making recommendations for future research are often presented in thesis handbooks and rubrics as obligatory moves that demonstrate an author's critical self-evaluation and authority. Published research articles (RAs), however, reflect nuanced variation that challenges this interpretation. Based on two specialized corpora of 100 quantitative and 100 qualitative RAs from four applied linguistics journals, this mixed methods study combines genre analysis, which highlighted the relative prominence of these moves across methodological approaches and journals, and p-frame analysis, which generated a list of linguistic frames with one or more variable slots (e.g., it is important to * (note/mention/realize)) that emphasize flexibility within formulaic language structures. The results indicate that both moves are quasi-obligatory but vary considerably across methodologies and journals. EAP instructors might use genre analysis to evaluate rhetorical moves and steps together with students and to discuss ways to incorporate variety in academic writing using the list of p-frames identified in this study.

Dynamic rate and channel use allocation for cooperative wireless networks

In this paper, we investigate the performance of link adaptation (LA) algorithms for cooperative multiple access multiple relay networks. In the first transmission phase, the sources transmit in turn in consecutive time slots. In the second cooperative retransmission phase, the destination schedules one relaying node to send redundancies. LA is a fundamental mechanism allowing the source nodes to adapt to the radio channel conditions. In this paper, we investigate the problem of rate allocation using a centralized method, where the destination is the central node that determines the source rates. Furthermore, and in sharp contrast with existing cooperative transmission schemes, we consider the packet size to be time-varying. In other words, we propose adapting the slot duration of each of the sources during the transmission phase as a new degree of freedom. Accordingly, the LA process determines the rate and the time slot duration of each source. We consider a practical performance metric namely, the network spectral efficiency. This metric being difficult to be optimized (given the complex multi-variable optimization problem), we propose best-response dynamic (BRD) algorithms to solve the rate and time duration allocation. Then, we conduct a thorough performance analysis using Monte-Carlo simulations. Our numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed BRD algorithms as they yield performance close to the corresponding exhaustive search approach. Furthermore, the results ensure the gain of exploiting the new degree of freedom of the variable slot duration.

Investigation of the Pressure Fluctuation of Piston Chambers with Variable Slot Geometry

High-pressure fluctuation and flow ripple may cause unexpected vibration and noise when the piston pump works under severe conditions, and eventually lead to hydraulic transmission failure. The geometry of the valve plate has a great influence on the pressure fluctuation of the piston chamber. In order to optimize the structure of the valve plate, a mathematical model considering the slot geometry and the flow leakage of the lubricating interfaces was established in this paper. The model was used to investigate the pressure of the piston chamber, and then the accuracy of the model was validated by comparing simulation and experimental results. Further simulation results show that the pressure fluctuation in the piston chamber can be effectively suppressed by optimizing the triangular slots parameter of the valve plate, and a good design of the slot geometry could reduce the undershoot and overshoot of the pressure in piston chamber at the starting moment.

A Novel High-Order-Harmonic Winding Design Method for Vernier Reluctance Machine With DC Coils Across Two Stator Teeth

Vernier reluctance machine (VRM) with dc field coils in stator is a competitive rare-earth-free design for variable-speed industrial applications due to its robust structure and controllable excitation, while its torque density is relatively disadvantageous. To address this issue, this article proposes a new armature winding design method for VRM with dc field coils across two stator teeth. The key is to break the traditional winding design principle based on the flux modulation effect of fundamental dc field harmonic, and instead, reconstruct a novel harmonic winding to enhance the utilization factor of the modulated high-order dc field harmonics arising from the unique magnetomotive force distribution of dc field coils across two stator teeth. By this means, the torque density can be improved by 75.6% against the existing poor counterpart. In this article, the machine structure and operation principle are introduced, with emphasis on the high-order dc field harmonics distribution rule and its influence on the armature winding design. By finite element design and optimization, a comparative study is performed to evaluate the electromagnetic performance of VRMs using two different winding configurations with variable slot pole combinations. A prototype is fabricated and tested, and the results agree well with finite element analysis, which verifies the feasibility and advantages of the proposed winding design method.

Using phrase-frames to trace the language development of L1 Chinese learners of English

A recent trend in corpus-based research emphasizes the importance to examine repeated, discontinuous word sequences in addition to continuous ones. The present study extends this trend into research on the use of phrase-frames (repeated word sequences with variable slots, e.g., it is * to) and their variants (e.g., important, easy) in a large corpus of L1 Chinese learner writing in English across five proficiency levels. Phrase-frames were automatically identified based on established frequency and range thresholds and manually filtered for meaningfulness. The analysis focuses on differences in the variability, predictability, and functions of the 100 most frequent phrase-frames (of spans three and four) across levels. The results revealed that, as learners move to more advanced proficiency levels, they tend to employ phrase-frames that are more variable and less predictable. Results also indicate that the functions expressed by high-frequency phrase-frames vary between proficiency levels. This study contributes to a better understanding of the process of L2 learners’ development of phraseological competence.

Computational Performance Analysis of a Two-slotted Bucket Savonius Rotor

The objective of the current computational study is to predict the performance output of a modified two-bucket Savonius rotor. Each bucket consists of three arc-type blades of different radius which is determined by the slot width ratio, in the range of 0.05 to 0.15 and the slot central angle, in the range of 0 to 20 deg. Nine configurations are designed with a fixed rotor diameter and a variable slot width and slot central angle, aiming to resolve the performance output and investigate the effect of the two previous parameters on the power and the static torque coefficients. The commercial CFD package Fluent® is used to solve the unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations, along with Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model. Initially, a standard Savonius rotor, was used to validate the computational procedure using experimental results available in literature. Next, the same validated model is used to resolve the designed slotted bucket configurations. The performance of the examined slotted bucket configurations indicates improved self-starting characteristics, but a lower power coefficient compared with the solid bucket Savonius rotor. Lower values of slot width ratio have improved output performance while the slot central angle, does not greatly affect the overall performance of slotted bucket rotor

How to write medical abstracts? The rhetorical structure and phrases used in Epidemiology

Introduction: Abstracts are critical in medical contexts. They contain formulaic building blocks called Lexical Frames (LFs), which are high-frequency word sequences with variable slots that can be formed around collocation nodes. LFs are abundant in written academic discourse, and , for this reason, have great importance for the production of abstracts. Extensive research has been conducted on formulaic language, especially on medical genres. Fewer studies, however, have focused on LFs from specialty-specific corpora (.e.g., epidemiology) and their relationship with the rhetorical structure of abstracts. Objective: This study aims to fill this gap by describing the structure of epidemiology abstracts, presenting their rhetorical functions, and identifying the LFs that linguistically realize these functions to help researchers write more conventional abstracts. Methods: We put together three corpora of abstracts in the field, published in English in peer-reviewed journals, and combined genre analysis and Corpus Linguistics principles to identify the linguistic realizations of the rhetorical functions in the texts. First, the rhetorical structure was described; then, the LFs were identified and analyzed. Results: 92% of the texts follow a pre-established pattern, whose structure consists of five to nine sections. Eight saliently frequent nodes (study, result, method, conclusion, review, analysis, patients, and findings) around which the LFs are constructed were identified. Conclusion: Even though both the content and function words that make up the LFs show some variation, it is possible to notice that the LFs elicited typify the linguistic realizations of the corresponding sections' rhetorical functions and, thus, are suitable to the observation of a pattern. For that reason, the data obtained in this study were used to inform the creation of a support framework for the writing of specialty-specific medical abstracts.

Informing Academic Writing Pedagogy through the Study of Phrase-frames

Second Language Development (SLD) research has investigated aspects of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) to understand how English language learners (ELLs) develop linguistic faculties related to language production, especially in academic writing (Biber & Gray, 2010; Biber, Gray & Ponpoon, 2011; Kyle & Crossley, 2018; Lu & Ai, 2015). Contributing to the current body of SLD research, this study addresses complexity in expert academic argumentative essays by investigating language at the phrasal level through phrase-frames (PFs). Phrase-frames are fixed or semi-fixed syntactic structures with a variable slot that might be considered another measure of syntactic complexity. This study aimed to identify if native and non-native expert writers in the Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers (MICUSP) displayed significant differences in their use of these frames concerning their predictability, variability, and function. Results of the study indicated expert academic writers in this corpus use highly variable, highly unpredictable structures which confirm the complexity, elaboration, and explicitness unique to the academic register. Understanding of these register features through the identified PFs was used to develop sample pedagogical materials to promote more complex writing in academic genres.

A Flexible Enhanced Throughput and Reduced Overhead (FETRO) MAC Protocol for ETSI SmartBAN

Smart body area networks (SmartBAN) is an emerging wireless body area networks (WBAN) standard proposed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). This paper first examines the potential of SmartBAN medium access control (MAC) layer with scheduled access to support a myriad of WBAN applications, having diverse data rate requirements. Extra scheduled access slots can be allocated to high date rate sensor nodes for managing their data rate requirements. High data rate sensor nodes can also be re-assigned to use the available time slots of low data rate sensor nodes in Inter-Beacon Interval (IBI) by the central hub. But these two schemes incorporate different physical (PHY) and MAC layer overheads related to frame transmission, frame acknowledgement and slot re-assignment. This redundant overhead transmission results in high overhead energy consumption and reduced effective throughput. Therefore, an innovative and flexible enhanced throughput and reduced overhead (FETRO) MAC protocol for scheduled access is proposed in this article. In the proposed scheme, the sensor node data rate requirements are considered while assigning the scheduled access slot duration by allowing minimal changes in the base-line standard implementation. This infers the provision of scheduled access slots with variable slot durations within an IBI. We also evaluate the existing techniques of extra slot allocation and slot re-assignment in SmartBAN as well as the proposed FETRO MAC protocol with variable slot length. The proposed FETRO MAC scheme results in optimizing both the overall throughput and normalized overhead energy consumption per kilo bits per second (Kbps). Additionally, the impact of various WBAN channel models over these throughput management approaches is also investigated. The proposed FETRO MAC protocol with variable slot duration gives an average reduction of 65.5 and 59.16 percent, respectively, in the hub and nodes normalized overhead energy consumption per Kbps outcomes, as compared to the de-facto SmartBAN MAC scheduling strategies.

Exploring recurrent frames in written Chinese

Patterning in frames (i.e., discontinuous word sequences with at least one variable slot) involves both syntagmatic co-occurrences and paradigmatic variations, and this has received considerable attention in phraseological research. However, few studies have attempted to extract the full set of recurrent frames in written Chinese. This study sets out to do so based on an enormous Google database. Common quantitative measures adopted in previous studies are reconsidered. Owing to the considerable quantity of data, some of these measures become less sensitive. High-frequency frames are categorised according to the grammatical category of their components. The results lend cross-linguistic support to previous major findings and show language-specific distributional patterns. Moreover, high-frequency frames are categorised according to their dominant syntactic role in context. Finally, the semantic aspect of Chinese frames is addressed. A semantically hierarchical representational network of frames is established, and significant structural and semantic correlations are identified.

A Probabilistic Patient Scheduling Model with Time Variable Slots.

One of the current challenges faced by health centers is to reduce the number of patients who do not attend their appointments. The existence of these patients causes the underutilization of the center's services, which reduces their income and extends patient's access time. In order to reduce these negative effects, several appointment scheduling systems have been developed. With the recent availability of electronic health records, patient scheduling systems that incorporate the patient's no-show prediction are being developed. However, the benefits of including a personalized individual variable time slot for each patient in those probabilistic systems have not been yet analyzed. In this article, we propose a scheduling system based on patients' no-show probabilities with variable time slots and a dynamic priority allocation scheme. The system is based on the solution of a mixed-integer programming model that aims at maximizing the expected profits of the clinic, accounting for first and follow-up visits. We validate our findings by performing an extensive simulation study based on real data and specific scheduling requirements provided by a Spanish hospital. The results suggest potential benefits with the implementation of the proposed allocation system with variable slot times. In particular, the proposed model increases the annual cumulated profit in more than 50% while decreasing the waiting list and waiting times by 30% and 50%, respectively, with respect to the actual appointment scheduling system.

Energy-Efficient and Fast MAC Protocol in UAV-Aided Wireless Sensor Networks for Time-Critical Applications.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-aided wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) can be effectively used for time-critical sensing applications. UAVs can be used to collect the sensed data from sensors and transfer them to a base station. The real-time transfer of data is highly desired in the time-critical applications. However, the medium access control (MAC) protocols designed for UWSNs so far are primarily focused on the efficient use of UAVs to collect data in the sensing areas. In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient and fast MAC (EF-MAC) protocol in UWSNs for time-critical sensing applications. EF-MAC adopts carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) for the registration of sensor nodes with a UAV and time division multiple access (TDMA) with variable slot time for the transmission of collected data. The UAV is equipped with two transceivers to minimize both energy consumption and delay in air-to-ground communication. The energy consumption and delay are formally analyzed and the performance of EF-MAC is evaluated via extensive simulation. The simulation results show that the proposed EF-MAC outperforms the conventional MAC protocols in terms of energy efficiency and communication delay.

A phraseological examination of research articles in the field of environment using key phrase frame

Given that formulaic sequences play an important role in enhancing L2 learners' academic writing skills and that phraseological sequences constitute a large proportion of written discourse, the current study was an attempt to draw up a list of key phrase frames– phraseological sequences with a variable slot– in a corpus of research articles (RAs) in the field of environment. A complete list of such frames, extracted by kfNgram software, was subjected to a series of corpus statistics such as frequency, range, and keyness, as well as manual filtering. This resulted in the generation of 65 four-word and 20 five-word key phrase frames specific to the field of environment. Structural analysis revealed that the vast majority of these key phrase frames were content word sequences, while functionally most of them belonged to referential expressions. Pedagogically speaking, L2 learners are recommended to develop a rich repertoire of formulaic sequences such as key phrase frames which are considered the cornerstone of academic discourse.

Key phrase frames in the discussion section of research articles of higher education

Recent scholarship on phraseology in academic writing has concentrated on phrase frames (p-frames), which are recurrent sequences of identical words with a variable slot. The present study purports to identify the key phrase frames in the discussion section of research articles of higher education. The corpus used in this research consists of the discussions of research articles published from 2013 to 2018 in thirteen leading journals in the field of higher education. The p-frames extracted by KfNgram were compared with the British Academic Written English Corpus11The British Academic Written English (BAWE) corpus (www.coventry.ac.uk/bawe) was developed at the Universities of Warwick, Reading and Oxford Brookes, under the directorship of Hilary Nesi and Sheena Gardner (formerly of the Centre for Applied Linguistics [previously called CELTE], Warwick), Paul Thompson (Department of Applied Linguistics, Reading) and Paul Wickens (Westminster Institute of Education, Oxford Brookes), funded by the ESRC (RES-000-23-0800). to find those phraseological items specific to the discipline of higher education, resulting in a list of 58 four-word and 40 five-word p-frames that are key to the research article discussion in this field. Moreover, the majority of these frames were found to be non-verb content word phrases, and referential expressions in terms of discourse function. Pedagogical implications for discipline-specific writing programs are offered.