Three new species of Helicopsyche (Trichoptera, Helicopsychidae) from northern Vietnam, with a key to Helicopsyche species of Vietnam

Three new species of Helicopsyche Siebold, 1856 are described from Vietnam: Helicopsyche melina sp. nov., Helicopsyche meander sp. nov., and Helicopsyche lamnata sp. nov. All species were described from Melinh Station for Biodiversity in the Me Linh District of Vinh Phuc Province. The species were collected mainly in Malaise traps situated across a small stream surrounded by lowland forest. Some individuals were also collected on light in traps situated at the stream bank

The intersection of race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, trans identity, and mental health outcomes

The present study examined patterns in trans individuals’ multiple identities and mental health outcomes. Cluster 1 (socioeconomic and racial privilege; n = 239) was characterized by individuals who identified as trans women or cross-dressers, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning; had associates degrees; reported household incomes of $60,000 or more a year; and were non-Latino White. Cluster 2 (educational privilege; n = 191) was characterized by individuals who identified as trans men or genderqueer, gay, or queer; had a bachelor’s degree; reported household incomes of$10,000 or less a year; and were people of color. There was a pattern of individuals in Cluster 1 who identified with two privileged identities (identifying as White and having higher household incomes), whereas individuals in Cluster 2 identified only formal education as a privilege. Individuals in Cluster 2 reported statistically significant levels of anxiety. Implications of these results for future research and clinical practice are examined.Accepted manuscrip

Iterative method for solving a nonlinear fourth order boundary value problem

AbstractIn the study of transverse vibrations of a hinged beam there arises a boundary value problem for fourth order ordinary differential equation, where a significant difficulty lies in a nonlinear term under integral sign. In recent years several authors considered finite approximation of the problem and proposed an iterative method for solving the system of nonlinear equations obtained. The essence of the iteration is the simple iteration method for a nonlinear equation, although this is not shown in the papers of the authors.In this paper we propose a new approach to the solution of the problem, which is based on the reduction of it to finding a root of a nonlinear equation. In both cases, when the explicit form of this equation is found or not, the use of the Newton or Newton-type methods generate fast convergent iterative process for the original problem. The results of many numerical experiments confirm the efficiency of the proposed approach

The interrelation between the perception and production of English monophthongs by speakers of Iraqi Arabic

The assumption that performance in second language (L2) speech perception and speech production is aligned has received much debate in L2 research. Theoretical models such as the Motor Theory (MT) and Speech Learning Model (SLM) have described the relation between these two processes based on the assumption that speech is perceived with reference to how it is produced and speech production is in turn influenced by how well speech contrast is perceptible to the second-language learner. The present study aims to investigate this relation with regard to Iraqi learners' perception and production of English vowels, focussing on the role of L1 interference and English proficiency level in shaping this relation. The results of the present study showed that accurate perception may not necessarily be a prerequisite for accurate production especially for EFL learners at the elementary level. Perception and production score means were significantly different, revealing an asymmetrical relation between the two processes. The results showed that speech production of L2 learners at the elementary level exceeded their ability in speech perception. However, for the other three proficiency levels, perception and production seemed to develop in synchrony. The level of difficulty encountered in the perception and production tasks could be attributed to L1 interference, since the vowels that were better produced than perceived are all found in the L1 vowel system, while the only vowel that was better perceived is not in the L1 vowel system

The role of the lateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate in stimulus–response association reversals

Many complex tasks require us to flexibly switch between behavioral rules, associations, and strategies. The prefrontal cerebral cortex is thought to be critical to the performance of such behaviors, although the relative contribution of different components of this structure and associated subcortical regions are not fully understood. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity during a simple task which required repeated reversals of a rule linking a colored cue and a left/right motor response. Each trial comprised three discrete events separated by variable delay periods. A colored cue instructed which response was to be executed, followed by a go signal which told the subject to execute the response and a feedback instruction which indicated whether to ‘‘hold’’ or ‘‘f lip’’ the rule linking the colored cue and response. The design allowed us to determine which brain regions were recruited by the specific demands of preparing a rule contingent motor response, executing such a response, evaluating the significance of the feedback, and reconfiguring stimulus–response (SR) associations. The results indicate that an increase in neural activity occurs within the anterior cingulate gyrus under conditions in which SR associations are labile. In contrast, lateral frontal regions are activated by unlikely/unexpected perceptual events regardless of their significance for behavior. A network of subcortical structures, including the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus and striatum were the only regions showing activity that was exclusively correlated with the neurocognitive demands of reversing SR associations. We conclude that lateral frontal regions act to evaluate the behavioral significance of perceptual events, whereas medial frontal–thalamic circuits are involved in monitoring and reconfiguring SR associations when necessary

Pancreatic transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh.

Campath-1H preconditioning with tacrolimus monotherapy is an effective immunosuppressive regimen for pancreas transplantation, with acceptable patient and graft survival rates early after transplantation. Rejection rates are low under this protocol if the tacrolimus level is kept consistently >10 ng/ml. This immunosuppressive protocol, combined with recent technical refinements, has resulted in lower rates of thrombosis and overall complications. Pancreatic transplantation en-bloc with visceral grafts has the following unique features: Diabetes is a rare indication, and HLA matching is not required. The gland is immunologically protected by the simultaneously transplanted visceral organs. Disease gravity, surgical complexity and gut alloimmunity influence the overall pancreatic allograft survival. The current UNOS listing criteria and data registry should be modified for obvious logistic and scientific reasons

Macroscopic behavior of bidisperse suspensions of noncolloidal particles in yield stress fluids

We study both experimentally and theoretically the rheological behavior of isotropic bidisperse suspensions of noncolloidal particles in yield stress fluids. We focus on materials in which noncolloidal particles interact with the suspending fluid only through hydrodynamical interactions. We observe that both the elastic modulus and yield stress of bidisperse suspensions are lower than those of monodisperse suspensions of same solid volume fraction. Moreover, we show that the dimensionless yield stress of such suspensions is linked to their dimensionless elastic modulus and to their solid volume fraction through the simple equation of Chateau et al.[J. rheol. 52, 489-506 (2008)]. We also show that the effect of the particle size heterogeneity can be described by means of a packing model developed to estimate random loose packing of assemblies of dry particles. All these observations finally allow us to propose simple closed form estimates for both the elastic modulus and the yield stress of bidisperse suspensions: while the elastic modulus is a function of the reduced volume fraction $\phi/\phi_m$ only, where $\phi_m$ is the estimated random loose packing, the yield stress is a function of both the volume fraction $\phi$ and the reduced volume fraction

Time-varying Learning and Content Analytics via Sparse Factor Analysis

We propose SPARFA-Trace, a new machine learning-based framework for time-varying learning and content analytics for education applications. We develop a novel message passing-based, blind, approximate Kalman filter for sparse factor analysis (SPARFA), that jointly (i) traces learner concept knowledge over time, (ii) analyzes learner concept knowledge state transitions (induced by interacting with learning resources, such as textbook sections, lecture videos, etc, or the forgetting effect), and (iii) estimates the content organization and intrinsic difficulty of the assessment questions. These quantities are estimated solely from binary-valued (correct/incorrect) graded learner response data and a summary of the specific actions each learner performs (e.g., answering a question or studying a learning resource) at each time instance. Experimental results on two online course datasets demonstrate that SPARFA-Trace is capable of tracing each learner's concept knowledge evolution over time, as well as analyzing the quality and content organization of learning resources, the question-concept associations, and the question intrinsic difficulties. Moreover, we show that SPARFA-Trace achieves comparable or better performance in predicting unobserved learner responses than existing collaborative filtering and knowledge tracing approaches for personalized education