A Study on the Cross-Cultural Adaptation of International Chinese Teachers at Confucius Institutes in South Korea

International Chinese teachers are one of the determinants of the quality development of Confucius Institutes,and their cross-cultural sociocultural adaption,psychological adaption,and job adaption are in need of in-depth investigation and research.Based on previous research,this paper analyzed the cross-cultural adaptation of international Chinese teachers at Confucius Institutes in South Korea during 2022-2023 through surveys and personal interviews.The study found that the teachers’adaptation was best in terms of work,followed by sociocultural adaptation,and weakest in terms of psychological adaptation.In terms of work adaptation,attention should be focused on adapting to teaching language and teaching methods.In terms of sociocultural adaptation,the focus should be on adapting to personal communication.In terms of psychological adaptation,attention should be paid to feelings of loneliness and anxiety.The study also focused on the internal and external factors influencing their cross-cultural adaptation,as well as the true inner feelings of international Chinese teachers.The study found that factors such as English proficiency,gender,education,professional background,and overseas experience had little impact on teachers’cross-cultural adaptation,while factors such as Korean proficiency,participation in cross-cultural training before going to South Korea,understanding of Korean culture before going to South Korea,and length of time spent in working in South Korea had a greater impact on the cross-cultural adaptation of the research subjects.This study provides reliable reference materials for international Chinese teachers going to South Korea to improve their cross-cultural adaptation abilities and promote the reform and innovation of international Chinese education.

On the Understanding of Cross-cultural Adaptation

This paper puts its emphasis on the process of cross-cultural adaptation from a theoretical perspective.First,the term cross-cultural adaptation will be interpreted.Second,the process of cross-cultural adaptation during which enculturation,acculturation,assimilation and deculturation may occur,is going to be discussed.Finally,some possible strategies for effective cross-cultural adaptation will be probed in the hope of making intercultural communication a less stressful and more positive and enjoyable experience.

Cross-cultural Adaptation Analysis and Countermeasures of Overseas Chinese Students——Take University of Lincoln as an Example

This paper is an exploratory,empirical study of the Cross-Cultural Adaptation(CCA)issues of Overseas Chinese Stu⁃dents(OCS)studying at the University of Lincoln.The project identifies OCS own language proficiency,motivation of studying abroad and intercultural adaptation attitudes and strategies as the main influencing factors in students’CCA.Research methods in⁃clude Language class observation,a questionnaire survey and interviews.Additional data collection methods include using network communication tools to conduct interviews with OCS,such as Wechat,QQ,Skype and e-mail etc.Further analysis of its causes makes a meaningful contribution to practical strategies and suggestions on how to better develop and cultivate cross-cultural adapt⁃ability.

Problems and Strategies:A Study of Cross-Cultural Adaptation of Chinese Undergraduates in the Philippines

Investigating the intercultural adaptation of Chinese undergraduates in the Philippines provides an effective example of bridging the gap between theories of intercultural adaptation.A questionnaire and interviews were conducted to explore the problems and challenges faced by Chinese undergraduates in the Philippines,thereby providing some first-hand information for subsequent studies on cultural adaptation.Chinese undergraduates in the Philippines faced four main challenges,namely interpersonal communication,living environment,social services,and course study.As coping strategies,four suggestions are presented,including cultural integration,life experience,bridge building,and rational docking.

A Brief Introduction of Kim's Theory of Communication and Cross-Cultural Adaptation

This paper introduces Kim's integrative theory of communication and cross-cultural adaptation. Building on a broad range of existing concepts, models, and research data across disciplines, Kim's theory addresses two central questions: (a) What is the essential nature of the adaptation process? and (b) why are some strangers more successful than others in the adaptation process? The first question is addressed in the form of a process model. The second question is addressed in the form of a structural model. It is by far the most broad-based theoretical account of cross-cultural adaptation.

Cross-cultural adaptation of the Management of Aggression and Violence Attitude Scale for nurse in emergency department

Objective: To follow the guidelines of intercultural adaptation provided by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons’(AAOS) Evidence-Based Medicine Committee, translating the original scale and evaluating the reliability and validity, and then to compile the Chinese version of the Management of Aggression and Violence Attitude Scale (MAVAS) for nurses in emergency room in the mainland of China. Methods: This study consists of two phases of testing:(1) translation: forward translation, synthesis, back translation, expert committee review, and pretesting;(2) psychometric properties: content and construct validity, internal consistency, and test–retest reliability. Results: The Chinese version of MAVAS and the original version showed excellent similarities and equivalence. The average Scalelevel Content Validity Index was 0.904, and the Item-level Content Validity Index ranged from 0.80 to 1.00. The construct validity was tested using confirmatory factor analysis by LISREL 8.7;χ2/df of the scale was 4.781<5, NFI, NNFI, CFI, IFI>0.90, indicating that the scale’s factor structure model fitted better. The internal consistency was satisfactory (scale, Cronbach’s α=0.94;subscales, Cronbach’s α=0.74–0.90), and the test–retest reliability over 2 weeks was good (scale, Pearson’s coefficient=0.996;subscales, Pearson’s coefficient=0.801–0.963). Conclusions: The Chinese version of MAVAS had an excellent feasibility. It was found to be a valid and reliable tool to assess nurses’ attitude toward patients’ violence in emergency department.

The Process of Cross-cultural Adaptation:An Analysis of Outsourced

This paper employs Kim's(2001)‘Process of Cross-cultural Adaptation theory'to analyze the film—Outsourced,which talking about cross-cultural boundaries and how the protagonist Todd adapting to the Indian culture. Stress, adaptation and growth are three crucial phrases in the process of cross-cultural adaptation, which are correlated to each other and perform in a cyclic and continual way of‘draw-back-to-leap'. In this paper, each phrase is analyzed via employing theories and illustrating examples that Todd has experienced and encountered in India to highlight Todd's process of cross-cultural adaptation. Moreover, implications will be explored by the paper and suggestions will be offered to the sojourners for their better adaptation in the host country. In addition, the paper presents the differences between American culture and Indian culture, which are to some extent, the obstacles affecting successful cross-cultural adaptation.

Evaluation of the Translation,Cross-cultural Adaptation and Properties of Measurement of the FACT-BMT Questionnaire

Various questionnaires have been described which evaluate the quality of life in patients undergoing cancer treatment,but most were originally developed in English and have not been adequately validated for other languages.To evaluate the process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation and the measurement properties of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Bone Marrow Transplantation(FACT-BMT)questionnaire,a systematic review was conducted with two independent evaluators.The search for articles was carried out in four databases:MEDLINE,EMBASE,CINAHL and SCIELO,using the terms“questionnaire”,“quality of life”,“oncology”,and“valid”and their descriptors according to MeSH and DeCs.The searches yielded 6,877 studies,of which only three performed the stages of translation,cross-cultural adaptation,and evaluation of the measurement properties of the FACT-BMT questionnaire.The instruments in Arabic,Chinese,Korean and Portuguese showed and presented good methodological quality,but none of the four studies followed all the validation criteria for the questionnaire.The adapted versions of the FACT-BMT have methodological weaknesses in their process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation and evaluation of measurement properties,therefore the questionnaires possibly being used inadequately in other languages.

Cross-Cultural Adjustment and Coping:U.S.Students in Taiwan Residents Higher Education

The aim of this study was to investigate the adjustment problems of students from the United States enrolled in universities in the East,specifically in Taiwan,their problems related to cultural adaptation,and the process of adjustment to student life in Taiwan.Under investigation were cultural adjustment and coping skills as these students transitioned from West to East.Qualitative data were collected from interviews with participants and faculty members as well as participant observations.Results indicated that U.S.students found their own ways to acclimate to their new academic setting as well as to social relations,cross-cultural issues,and the linguistic environment in Taiwan to achieve effective adaptation.They made changes in themselves to cope with all situations they encountered.This study provides suggestions for international students abroad in Taiwan,for the Taiwan Residents government,and for universities or colleges in terms of what they should offer to current and future international students.

A Cognitive Study on Politeness Intention Processing and Its Association with Pragmatic Failure in Cross-Cultural Communication

Although a large number of studies have focused on various aspects of politeness,very little is known about how politeness intention is activated cognitively during verbal communication.The present study aims to explore the cognitive mechanism of politeness intention processing,and how it is related to pragmatic failure during cross-cultural communication.Using 30 Chinese EFL university students who were instructed to finish a probe word judgment task with 96 virtual scenarios,the results indicate that within both mono-and cross-cultural contexts,the response time in the experimental scenarios was significantly slower than that of the filler scenarios.This suggests that politeness intention was activated while understanding the surface meaning of the conversation;however,the EFL learners could not completely avoid the negative transfer of their native politeness conventions when they were comprehending the conversational intention of the target language.Furthermore,no significant differences in response time were found between the groups with high and low English pragmatic competence,illustrating that transferring the pragmatic rules and principles into cross-cultural communication skills was more cognitively demanding.Overall,this study adds to the literature on politeness research and provides some implications for foreign language pragmatic instructions.

The Transmission,Establishment and Cross-cultural Integration of Chinese Medicine in the Mainstream Healthcare,through the Eyes of a Generation of Visionaries and Pioneers

It has historically been very difficult to trace the history of the westward transmission of Chinese medicine through the accounts of its protagonists. Many of the early scholars such as Jack Worsley, Dick Van Buren, and Joe Goodman were reluctant to divulge information about the source of their knowledge, or their professional qualifications. Others, such as John Shen and Hong Yuan-bain were early 20th century immigrants who transmitted highly personalized versions of acupuncture and Chinese medicine to select disciples. Eventually, a new class of scholars appeared, including names such as Ted Kaptchuk, Peter Deadman, Nigel Wiseman, William Morris, Peter Eckman, John Mc Donald, Charles Buck, and the late Giovanni Maciocia who looked for answers back in China, developed translation methodologies and terminology, compiled the main textbooks currently in use at TCM colleges, overcame enormous scholastic adversity, developed courses and pursued the regulation and accreditation of TCM in various countries. This special issue synopsizes the path towards the global acculturation of TCM over the last 50 years, the main protagonists, the enormous accomplishments they have achieved for the profession, their philosophy, their clinical perspectives and visions for the future.

Understanding the Global Identification with China’s Stories: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Cross-cultural storytelling is a primary way for humankind to seek mutual recognition of value orientations between cultures,which facilitates the ability to jointly address the problems of human existence in the context of globalization.In this study,we conducted an interview survey of 6,130 respondents who were college students or graduates from 107 countries.The results show that there were a number of cross-cultural values embodied in China’s stories seen by the respondents as part of a common vision for the future of humankind and widely identified guidance on collaborative responses to global challenges.These cross-cultural values are common prosperity,ecological harmony,individual-collective integration,the urgency of global peace,as well as respect for multicultural and indigenous development paths.

Population genomic data reveal low genetic diversity,divergence and local adaptation among threatened Reeves's Pheasant(Syrmaticus reevesii)

Population genomic data could provide valuable information for conservation efforts;however,limited studies have been conducted to investigate the genetic status of threatened pheasants.Reeves’s Pheasant(Syrmaticus reevesii)is facing population decline,attributed to increases in habitat loss.There is a knowledge gap in understanding the genomic status and genetic basis underlying the local adaptation of this threatened bird.Here,we used population genomic data to assess population structure,genetic diversity,inbreeding patterns,and genetic divergence.Furthermore,we identified candidate genes linked with adaptation across the current distribution of Reeves’s Pheasant.The present study assembled the first de novo genome sequence of Reeves’s Pheasant and annotated 19,458 genes.We also sequenced 30 individuals from three populations(Dabie Mountain,Shennongjia,Qinling Mountain)and found that there was clear population structure among those populations.By comparing with other threatened species,we found that Reeves’s Pheasants have low genetic diversity.Runs of homozygosity suggest that the Shennongjia population has experienced serious inbreeding.The demographic history results indicated that three populations experienced several declines during the glacial period.Local adaptative analysis among the populations identified 241 candidate genes under directional selection.They are involved in a large variety of processes,including the immune response and pigmentation.Our results suggest that the three populations should be considered as three different conservation units.The current study provides genetic evidence for conserving the threatened Reeves’s Pheasant and provides genomic resources for global biodiversity management.

Irrigated Agriculture Facing the Challenge of Climate Change: Adaptation Strategies for Farmers in the Irrigated Perimeters of Môle Saint-Nicolas, Haiti

Môle Saint-Nicolas, like all other communes in the Republic of Haiti, faces increasing climate variability, impacting agricultural production and water resources. Consequently, there is a pressing need for adaptation to these climatic changes. This research aims to showcase the adaptation strategies deployed by farmers to cope with the increasing climate variability. Surveys were conducted through group and individual discussions with a randomly selected cohort of 150 farmers. Two types of analysis were performed: quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data analysis was conducted using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The findings reveal that farmers have perceived changes in rainfall patterns, temperature, wind, and their environment. These changes manifest as irregular rainfall, higher temperatures, prolonged drought periods, violent winds accompanied by rain, premature cessation of rains, and reduced flow from water sources. In response, the most common adaptation strategies adopted include selecting new cultivars, early-maturing varieties, crop rotation and diversification, canal dredging, new soil preparation methods, upstream water source protection, and micro-watershed management. The significance of this research lies in its contribution to enhancing farmers’ adaptive capacities by alerting stakeholders in the irrigated perimeters about the consequences of climate change, thereby incorporating the real needs of farmers in future projects.

The ABA synthesis enzyme allele OsNCED2^(T)promotes dryland adaptation in upland rice

Upland rice shows dryland adaptation in the form of a deeper and denser root system and greater drought resistance than its counterpart,irrigated rice.Our previous study revealed a difference in the frequency of the OsNCED2 gene between upland and irrigated populations.A nonsynonymous mutation(C to T,from irrigated to upland rice)may have led to functional variation fixed by artificial selection,but the exact biological function in dryland adaptation is unclear.In this study,transgenic and association analysis indicated that the domesticated fixed mutation caused functional variation in OsNCED2,increasing ABA levels,root development,and drought tolerance in upland rice under dryland conditions.OsNCED2-overexpressing rice showed increased reactive oxygen species-scavenging abilities and transcription levels of many genes functioning in stress response and development that may regulate root development and drought tolerance.OsNCED2^(T)-NILs showed a denser root system and drought resistance,promoting the yield of rice under dryland conditions.OsNCED2^(T)may confer dryland adaptation in upland rice and may find use in breeding dryland-adapted,water-saving rice.

Exercise-induced adaptation of neurons in the vertebrate locomotor system

Vertebrate neurons are highly dynamic cells that undergo several alterations in their functioning and physiologies in adaptation to various external stimuli.In particular,how these neurons respond to physical exercise has long been an area of active research.Studies of the vertebrate locomotor system’s adaptability suggest multiple mechanisms are involved in the regulation of neuronal activity and properties during exercise.In this brief review,we highlight recent results and insights from the field with a focus on the following mechanisms:(a)alterations in neuronal excitability during acute exercise;(b)alterations in neuronal excitability after chronic exercise;(c)exercise-induced changes in neuronal membrane properties via modulation of ion channel activity;(d)exercise-enhanced dendritic plasticity;and(e)exercise-induced alterations in neuronal gene expression and protein synthesis.Our hope is to update the community with a cellular and molecular understanding of the recent mechanisms underlying the adaptability of the vertebrate locomotor system in response to both acute and chronic physical exercise.

Comparative proteomics reveals the response and adaptation mechanisms of white Hypsizygus marmoreus against the biological stress caused by Penicillium

White Hypsizygus marmoreus is a popular edible mushroom.Its mycelium is easy to be contaminated by Penicillium,which leads to a decrease in its quality and yield.Penicillium could compete for limited space and nutrients through rapid growth and produce a variety of harmful gases,such as benzene,aldehydes,phenols,etc.,to inhibit the growth of H.marmoreus mycelium.A series of changes occurred in H.marmoreus proteome after contamination when detected by the label-free tandem mass spectrometry(MS/MS)technique.Some proteins with up-regulated expression worked together to participate in some processes,such as the non-toxic transformation of harmful gases,glutathione metabolism,histone modification,nucleotide excision repair,clearing misfolded proteins,and synthesizing glutamine,which were mainly used in response to biological stress.The proteins with down-regulated expression are mainly related to the processes of ribosome function,protein processing,spliceosome,carbon metabolism,glycolysis,and gluconeogenesis.The reduction in the function of these proteins affected the production of the cell components,which might be an adjustment to adapt to growth retardation.This study further enhanced the understanding of the biological stress response and the growth restriction adaptation mechanisms in edible fungi.It also provided a theoretical basis for protein function exploration and edible mushroom food safety research.

Low-Rank Optimal Transport for Robust Domain Adaptation

When encountering the distribution shift between the source(training) and target(test) domains, domain adaptation attempts to adjust the classifiers to be capable of dealing with different domains. Previous domain adaptation research has achieved a lot of success both in theory and practice under the assumption that all the examples in the source domain are welllabeled and of high quality. However, the methods consistently lose robustness in noisy settings where data from the source domain have corrupted labels or features which is common in reality. Therefore, robust domain adaptation has been introduced to deal with such problems. In this paper, we attempt to solve two interrelated problems with robust domain adaptation:distribution shift across domains and sample noises of the source domain. To disentangle these challenges, an optimal transport approach with low-rank constraints is applied to guide the domain adaptation model training process to avoid noisy information influence. For the domain shift problem, the optimal transport mechanism can learn the joint data representations between the source and target domains using a measurement of discrepancy and preserve the discriminative information. The rank constraint on the transport matrix can help recover the corrupted subspace structures and eliminate the noise to some extent when dealing with corrupted source data. The solution to this relaxed and regularized optimal transport framework is a convex optimization problem that can be solved using the Augmented Lagrange Multiplier method, whose convergence can be mathematically proved. The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated through extensive experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets.

Comparative genomic analysis revealed that dietary habits affected the adaptation of Bifidobacterium bifidum to the intestinal tract in different geographic populations

Recent research on the genome of Bifidobacterium bifidum has mainly focused on the isolation sources(intestinal tract niche)recently,but reports on the isolation region are limited.This study analyzed the differences in the genome of B.bifidum isolated from different geographical populations by comparative genomic analysis.Results at the genome level indicated that the GC content of American isolates was significantly higher than that of Chinese and Russian isolates.The phylogenetic tree,based on 919 core genes showed that B.bifidum might be related to the geographical characteristics of isolation region.Furthermore,functional annotation analysis demonstrated that copy numbers of carbohydrate-active enzymes(CAZys)involved in the degradation of polysaccharide from plant and host sources in B.bifidum were high,and 18 CAZys showed significant differences across different geographical populations,indicating that B.bifidum had adapted to the human intestinal environment,especially in the groups with diets rich in fiber.Dietary habits were one of the main reasons for the differences of B.bifidum across different geographical populations.Additionally,B.bifidum exhibited high diversity,evident in glycoside hydrolases,the CRISPR-Cas system,and prophages.This study provides a genetic basis for further research and development of B.bifidum.

Complementary-Label Adversarial Domain Adaptation Fault Diagnosis Network under Time-Varying Rotational Speed and Weakly-Supervised Conditions

Recent research in cross-domain intelligence fault diagnosis of machinery still has some problems,such as relatively ideal speed conditions and sample conditions.In engineering practice,the rotational speed of the machine is often transient and time-varying,which makes the sample annotation increasingly expensive.Meanwhile,the number of samples collected from different health states is often unbalanced.To deal with the above challenges,a complementary-label(CL)adversarial domain adaptation fault diagnosis network(CLADAN)is proposed under time-varying rotational speed and weakly-supervised conditions.In the weakly supervised learning condition,machine prior information is used for sample annotation via cost-friendly complementary label learning.A diagnosticmodel learning strategywith discretized category probabilities is designed to avoidmulti-peak distribution of prediction results.In adversarial training process,we developed virtual adversarial regularization(VAR)strategy,which further enhances the robustness of the model by adding adversarial perturbations in the target domain.Comparative experiments on two case studies validated the superior performance of the proposed method.