The advantages and disadvantages of quantitative methods in schoolscape research (2023)

Evacuation in university gymnasiums is a critical issue for campus safety. Human factors play an important role in the evacuation process. In order to explore the human factors that influence evacuation performance in university gymnasiums, this study conducted a questionnaire survey to 1287 participants. The data from the questionnaire survey were analysed by factor analysis, multiple linear regression analysis and T-test. The results showed that there were four human factors that affected evacuation performance in university gymnasiums: crowdedness, familiarity, attention and subjective physical condition. Among which familiarity and subjective physical condition had positive effects, while crowdedness and attention had negative impacts. Gender differences in participants’ evacuation performance were observed as well. The findings will help researchers to understand the evacuation in university gymnasiums comprehensively, and provide instructions for the prevention of evacuation accidents.

Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, Volume 155, 2016, pp. 46-53

In this paper, a new strategy of introducing an extra solvent mode in the three-way EEMs data to construct a four-way EX–EM-solvent-samples data set was used in order to investigate the ‘third-order advantage’ by comparing the performances of two four-way calibration algorithms with those of two three-way calibration algorithms. The results of the self-weighted alternating normalized residue fitting (SWANRF) and the parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) algorithms were both disappointing in this work due to serious collinearity and high background interference. In contrast, the satisfactory results (average recovery, 100.0–107.4% and standard deviation, 1.0–3.0%) were obtained by the third-order calibration methods based on both four-way self-weighted alternating normalized residue fitting (four-way SWANRF) and four-way parallel factor analysis (four-way PARAFAC) algorithms. In addition, for prediction of Dulbecco's modified eagle medium (DMEM) samples, the root-mean-square error of prediction (RMSEP) values for schizandrol B obtained from two three-way calibration algorithms were 60.91 and 35.46μgmL⁻¹ with 80% ethanol in the aqueous solvent, which were obviously much larger than these (0.0832 and 0.0825μgmL⁻¹) obtained using two algorithms of the four-way calibration. The results demonstrated that third-order calibration can extract more inherent information from the data, and can easily solve the problems of serious collinearity and high background interference. In short, among the advantages of this method over the existing methods, low cost, non-toxic and non-destructive analysis can be cited.

Linguistics and Education, Volume 38, 2017, pp. 1-10

This qualitative study critically examines the intelligibility of the teacher talk of novice native speaker English language teachers. It focuses on difficulties teachers face in adjusting their own English so that their learners can understand them. The paper uses two data sources: learners’ perceptions of recorded teacher talk and analysis of the teacher talk itself. For the teacher talk analysis, the study develops an integrated framework based on key concepts from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). This analysis showed the complex interplay between different levels of meaning, as well as the roles played by both the immediate situational context and the broader cultural context. In particular, the analysis illustrated the crucial roles that both textual meaning (e.g. coherence and cohesion) and context play in the intelligibility of teacher talk. The broader implications of the study for research and teaching relating to intercultural discourse both inside and outside the classroom are discussed.

Linguistics and Education, Volume 44, 2018, pp. 45-57

This work looks at how language learners’ experiential engagement with place is achieved through design. It proposes a new language learning model, one that emerges through the availability and support of mobile technologies, and in which semiotic resources and learners’ participation in and experience of events are central. In this model, language learning is languaging in place, where place is a 3D holographic experience. Within such place and through such experience, knowing co-arises with design, place-based interactive experiences with others, and through mobile game narrative. The findings also suggest experiencing events together creates community, one that is emergent, dynamic, place-making and ecological in nature. Drawing on the constraints and affordances of community gives rise to linguistic choices and skilled linguistic action. By employing an eclectic toolkit from multimodal analysis, cognitive event analysis, and communicative project, we describe our mobile game design and describe our analysis of the game playing process to explain how we conceptualize the relationship between language learning, place, events and mobile technologies.

Research Methods, 2018, pp. 429-452

Standard Handbook Oil Spill Environmental Forensics, 2016, pp. 789-847

Detailed chemical analysis of petroleum – often referred to as “chemical fingerprinting” – has played a vital role in the identification of oil from accidental spills in the marine and riverine environments (e.g., sediments). The analytical tools used to identify and quantify the spilled oil must provide sufficient chemical resolution to separate the oil from any pre-existing (historical or naturally occurring) background hydrocarbons ubiquitous in many environments. Qualitative chemical fingerprinting analysis is a visual comparison between various spectroscopic or chromatographic fingerprints and is most successfully applied when the oil signature is unweathered and/or not mixed with other hydrocarbon sources (e.g., background). Quantitative chemical fingerprinting is the use of target compound calibration standards during the chemical analysis (e.g., GC/MS) of the sample to quantify the concentrations of source diagnostic hydrocarbons such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and biomarkers (e.g., triterpanes and steranes). These quantitative results can then be used to develop interpretive tools, such as diagnostic ratios, that allow the forensic scientist to compare spill and source oils and also to develop mixing models capable of allocating hydrocarbons derived from the spilled oil versus any background hydrocarbon signatures. Although the utility of diagnostic ratios has been discussed extensively in regard to oil spill identification in the scientific literature, the same is not true for the development and application hydrocarbon mixing models at oil spill sites. This chapter examines the applications and limitations of qualitative and quantitative oil fingerprinting methods and provides four oil spill case studies where mixing models were used to identify and or allocate liability in complex mixtures of spilled oils and various forms of background hydrocarbons.

Linguistics and Education, Volume 35, 2016, pp. 100-108

Much of the literature on explicit teaching about language has suggested that equipping students with metalinguistic knowledge is as an important means of enhancing students’ participation in learning. Yet in the context of international jurisdictions which are placing a renewed emphasis on knowledge about language, there is a notable lack of research into the nature of learners’ metalinguistic understanding about writing, as evident in their ability to reflect on written language. Using an analytical framework shaped by Vygotsky's and Hallidayan theories of concept formation and language learning, this paper provides insights into the nature of metalinguistic understanding as manifested in ways in which learners engage with grammatical concepts. Drawing on data selected from two parallel studies in Australia and England in which students aged 9–13 were interviewed about their metalinguistic understanding of writing, our analysis has found that learners’ metalinguistic understanding is more strongly oriented to identification – naming and specifying taught grammatical concepts. The findings have important implications for pedagogical strategies that might facilitate higher-level metalinguistic understanding, enabling learners to elaborate, extend and apply their grammatical knowledge.