Reading fluently is the goal of many L2 learners. The purpose of this study was to see how word recognition and fluency-building activities affect Iranian EFL students' reading comprehension. To do so, 93 subjects with preintermediate command of English were selected. Then, they were divided into two experimental groups and one control group, each with 31 participants. In an eight-session period, the first experimental group (word recognition group) received word and phrase recognition activities, the second treatment group (fluency group) was exposed to fluency-oriented activities, while the control group was only exposed to the Farsi translation of the assigned texts. Using a randomized pretest-posttest comparison group design, we attempted to see how reading comprehension changes in response to the treatment. Therefore, a one-way between-groups ANOVA was used to test the null hypothesis. The findings revealed that both experimental groups significantly outperformed the control group in the posttest. There was no significant difference between the two experimental groups, according to post-hoc analyses, hence the efficacy of the two implemented techniques. This study implies that material developers should include such activities in their textbooks to enhance text comprehension, especially at the preintermediate level of language proficiency. Additionally, teachers can employ these techniques in their classes with their learners at the preintermediate level.

On February 6, 2018, a moderate earthquake with a magnitude of ML6.2, known as the 0206 earthquake, struck Hualien in eastern Taiwan, resulting in significant destruction, 17 fatalities, and over 300 injuries. This research investigates the kinematic source model of the earthquake by inverting coseismic Global Positioning System (GPS) displacement recordings from the area surrounding the epicenter. The inverted source model indicates that most asperities above the hypocenter are minor, with large slips occurring at depths shallower than 10 km, which contributed to the severe damage in Hualien City. Additionally, we calculated the Coulomb stress changes at depths ranging from 6 km to 14 km, revealing that most aftershocks within a month occurred within a Coulomb stress range of >0.1 bar, extending from shallow to deep and from southwest to northeast of the epicenter. Notably, despite high Coulomb stress, few aftershocks were generated in the western part of the epicenter, suggesting a seismic gap that may lead to a more significant earthquake in the future. Two years later, two moderate earthquakes (ML=5) occurred at depths of 17.53 and 12.1 km in the region where Coulomb stress had increased, validating our predictions. Furthermore, by applying the derived seismic source model and a stochastic semi-empirical technique to assess five parameters related to building damage, we found that all damaged buildings were within the danger alert level, with some located along the Meilun Fault, indicating that the destruction was due to the combined effects of the 0206 earthquake and the fault's induced movement.

The kinematic source rupture process of the 2016 Meinong earthquake (M_w = 6.4) in Taiwan was derived from apparent source time functions retrieved from teleseismic S-waves by using a refined homomorphic deconvolution method. The total duration of the rupture process was approximately 15 s, and one slip-concentrated area can be represented as the source model based on images representing static slip distribution. The rupture process began in a down-dip direction from the fault toward Tainan City, strongly suggesting that the rupture had a unilateral northwestern direction. The asperity with an area of approximately 15 × 15 km² and the maximum slip of approximately 2 m were centered 12.8 km northwest of the hypocenter. Coseismic vertical deformation was calculated based on the source model. Compared with the results derived from InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) data, our results demonstrated that the location with maximum uplift was accurately well detected, but our maximum value was just approximately 0.4 times of the InSAR-derived value. It reveals that there are the other mechanisms to affect the vertical deformation, rather than only depending on the source model. At different depths, areas west, east, and north of the hypocenter maintained high values of Coulomb stress changes. This explains the mechanism behind aftershocks being triggered and provides a reference for predicting aftershock locations after a large earthquake. The estimated seismic spectral intensities, including spectral acceleration and velocity intensity (SIa and SIv), were derived. Source directivity effects caused damage to buildings, and we concluded that all damaged buildings were located within a SIa value of 400 gal. Destroyed buildings taller than seven floors were located in an area with a SIv value of 30 cm/s. These observations agree with those on damages caused by the 2010 Jiasian earthquake (ML 6.4) in Tainan, Taiwan.

This study explores how professional identity affects professional well-being, examining whether social support mediates between the two variables. The convenience sampling method was adopted. A total of 1,321 valid data points were selected from five undergraduate institutions in Hebei Province. This article refers to the three scales and uses SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 24.0 software to analyze the data. Professional identity positively impacts both professional well-being and social support. Social support has a positive impact on professional well-being and plays a partial mediating role. There is a significant relationship among the variables, and social support partially mediates the relationship between professional identity and professional well-being. The sampling scope is limited to some undergraduate institutions in Hebei Province, which may affect the generalizability of the research. It provides valuable practical guidance for enhancing professional well-being, such as strengthening teachers' professional identity and optimizing social support.

The present study integrated acculturation theory and the J‐curve model of cross‐cultural adjustment to explore the relationships among culture shock, loneliness, and life satisfaction among Chinese university students enrolled in Mandarin‐medium programs (MMPs) in Thailand. A total of 449 valid questionnaire responses were collected. Structural equation modeling confirmed that loneliness mediated the relationship between culture shock and life satisfaction. Furthermore, a multigroup analysis of length of residence in Thailand revealed that loneliness had partial and full mediating effects on the relationship between culture shock and life satisfaction for students who had been living in Thailand for 0–6 and 7–18 months, respectively. This cross‐sectional comparison revealed a direct correlation between culture shock and life satisfaction in the shorter residence group and an indirect correlation—through loneliness—in both length‐of‐residence groups. Overall, the results suggest that Thai educational administrators should implement targeted strategies to assist Chinese students in MMPs in managing culture shock.