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The dispersed nature of ocean wave energy distribution often leads to uneconomical wave energy exploitation when conversion devices are deployed only at certain locations. Inspired by the metamaterial concentrator for electromagnetic waves, an annular water wave manipulator has recently been proposed to amplify wave heights in a specific area. A computational fluid dynamics model is developed to investigate the wave evolution around this device, with the numerical predictions compared well with the experimental data. The wave energy concentration performance of the device is systematically analyzed, considering various structural designs, wave frequencies, water depths, and wave heights. The findings confirm the significant increase in wave heights within the concentrator, reaching up to two times the incident wave height in both baffled and unbaffled configurations, as a result of wave refraction and superposition. The effective channeling effect of the guiding baffles enables both the energy concentration within the concentrator and the invisibility downstream of the concentrator. The baffled design produces superior amplification as the nonlinearity of the incident wave increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's heated education policy climate in 2010 indicated an increasing national concern for improving educational quality and educational quality assessment. Despite glowing portraits of Chinese education painted by international observers, the Chinese public has expressed consistent dissatisfaction with educational quality. The inter-related research projects described in this article were launched with a desire to deepen comparative discussion of educational quality and to respond to China's drive to improve and assess educational quality across all levels of schooling. This paper will introduce how educational quality is framed in key policy reform documents shaping Chinese education over the next decade. This will provide the backdrop for findings from two research projects that represent an effort to re-focus quality and quality assessment debates on high school and college students and their educational experiences. Derived and adapted from over a decade of robust research on student engagement in the U.S., the research projects include surveys on student engagement, a key factor in effective educational practice largely missing from Chinese quality assessment frameworks and toolkits. (Contains 11 notes and 1 figure.)

Teaching and learning in higher education can integrate and accomplish student developmental goals in addition to promoting student learning of subject matter knowledge and transferrable skills. Drawn from the theoretical concept of self-authorship, the Learning Partnerships Model was implemented in teaching a graduate-level course on social research methodology. This paper describes the conceptualization and implementation of the developmentally attuned course, and reports a qualitative study that examined student development as its result. Qualitative data were collected from five cohorts of course participants, in the forms of reflective essays, student interviews, and the instructor's teaching journal. Seven themes were identified that reflected student development throughout the course. The seven themes fall into three dimensions of epistemological, intrapersonal, and interpersonal development that are interconnected, and the epistemological dimension stands out as a strong partner among the three. These findings may help university faculty understand and integrate student development into their teaching practices.

The idea of water wave control for ease of shipping or energy exploitation has been the subject of extensive research. Yet, most studies are limited to two-dimensional simulations focusing primarily on transformations of small-amplitude linear waves. This paper presents a theoretical and numerical investigation of the hydrodynamic performance of a type of shallow-water waveguides. The concept of an effective refractive index for water waves is proposed through analogy with electromagnetic waves, based on which the wave-controlling mechanism is explained. The precise wave field is revealed using computational fluid dynamics simulations. The numerical model is validated by comparing the numerical predictions with experimental data. Subsequently, the nonlinear wave fields around the waveguide are systematically studied by increasing the incident wave height. The numerical results confirm the significant increase in the wave height above the waveguide platform, as a result of wave refraction and reflection. Such an amplification effect slightly reduces as the nonlinearity of the incident wave increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mixed methods study investigates learning outcomes resulting from college attendance in the Chinese mainland. Data for this study is derived from undergraduate survey responses at 21 universities and interviews with 64 seniors at five universities. Factor analysis reduced learning outcome items to two factors, and 19 categories of learning outcomes were distilled from interview data. These categories were then reduced to four domains: knowledge, skills, intrapersonal awareness, and interpersonal competence. Compared with literature generated in the West, intercultural competency as well as quantitative and computer literacy are missing in the Chinese higher education context. Student learning is an integrated whole and takes place in diverse settings in and outside the classroom.

A point absorber wave energy converter (WEC) which converts wave energy into electrical energy with a multi‐axis power‐take‐off (PTO) system is considered here. Previous wave tank trials have proved the ability of the multi‐axis WEC to absorb wave power. In this study, the boundary element method (BEM) based software Ansys@ AQWATM was applied to model and analyze the power absorption performance of the multi‐axis WEC for a wider range of regular and irregular waves. To verify the numerical model, a laboratory‐scale physical model was manufactured and tested. Results show that the multi‐axis WEC can absorb more power from the incident regular wave power compared to single‐axis WECs and the efficiency reaches up to 45%. It is found that the wave frequency and incident angle significantly influence the amount of absorbed power from different motion modes and PTO axes. Then the numerical model is simulated at 12 nearshore locations in East and South China Sea. The results indicate that the multi‐axis WEC can absorb up to 5 kW and the efficiency can reach up to 29% at the most energetic site Shengshan. In addition, considerable differences of mean absorbed power efficiency can be found between sea states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cognitive interview method was applied to evaluate survey questions translated and adapted from a US-based college student survey instrument. This paper draws data from cognitive interviews with 45 undergraduate students in China and explores the different meanings they attribute to the term "college teacher." Students understood college teacher as course instructor, academic advisor, class headteacher and counselor, student organization supervisor, and student service personnel. Students developed the understanding through a socialization process of student-teacher interaction. This paper also discusses the importance of using cognitive interviewing to improve questionnaire design, implications for research on student-teacher relationships, and suggestions on fostering student-teacher interaction in Chinese higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]