Using keystroke logging to understand writers’ processes on a reading-into-writing test

Background Integrated reading-into-writing tasks are increasingly used in large-scale language proficiency tests. Such tasks are said to possess higher authenticity as they reflect real-life writing conditions better than independent, writing-only tasks. However, to effectively define the reading-into-writing construct, more empirical evidence regarding how writers compose from sources both in real-life and under test conditions is urgently needed. Most previous process studies used think aloud or questionnaire to collect evidence. These methods rely on participants’ perceptions of their processes, as well as their ability to report them. Findings This paper reports on a small-scale experimental study to explore writers’ processes on a reading-into-writing test by employing keystroke logging. Two L2 postgraduates completed an argumentative essay on computer. Their text production processes were captured by a keystroke logging programme. Students were also interviewed to provide additional information. Keystroke logging like most computing tools provides a range of measures. The study examined the students’ reading-into-writing processes by analysing a selection of the keystroke logging measures in conjunction with students’ final texts and interview protocols. Conclusions The results suggest that the nature of the writers’ reading-into-writing processes might have a major influence on the writer’s final performance. Recommendations for future process studies are provided

Large-scale flood risk assessment under different development strategies: the Luanhe River Basin in China

© The Author(s) 2021. Increasing resilience to natural hazards and climate change is critical for achieving many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In recent decades, China has experienced rapid economic development and became the second-largest economy in the world. This rapid economic expansion has led to large-scale changes in terrestrial (e.g., land use and land cover changes), aquatic (e.g., construction of reservoirs and artificial wetlands) and marine (e.g., land reclamation) environments across the country. Together with climate change, these changes may significantly influence flood risk and, in turn, compromise SDG achievements. The Luanhe River Basin (LRB) is one of the most afforested basins in North China and has undergone significant urbanisation and land use change since the 1950s. However, basin-wide flood risk assessment under different development scenarios has not been considered, although this is critically important to inform policy-making to manage the synergies and trade-offs between the SDGs and support long-term sustainable development. Using mainly open data, this paper introduces a new framework for systematically assessing flood risk under different social and economic development scenarios. A series of model simulations are performed to investigate the flood risk under different land use change scenarios projected to 2030 to reflect different development strategies. The results are systematically analysed and compared with the baseline simulation based on the current land use and climate conditions. Further investigations are also provided to consider the impact of climate change and the construction of dams and reservoirs. The results potentially provide important guidance to inform future development strategies to maximise the synergies and minimise the trade-offs between various SDGs in LRB.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Towards a Sustainable Earth (TaSE) programme (NE/S012427/1)

Dissecting mitosis by RNAi in Drosophila tissue culture cells

Here we describe a detailed methodology to study the function of genes whose products function during mitosis by dsRNA-mediated interference (RNAi) in cultured cells of Drosophila melanogaster. This procedure is particularly useful for the analysis of genes for which genetic mutations are not available or for the dissection of complicated phenotypes derived from the analysis of such mutants. With the advent of whole genome sequencing it is expected that RNAi-based screenings will be one method of choice for the identification and study of novel genes involved in particular cellular processes. In this paper we focused particularly on the procedures for the proper phenotypic analysis of cells after RNAi-mediated depletion of proteins required for mitosis, the process by which the genetic information is segregated equally between daughter cells. We use RNAi of the microtubule-associated protein MAST/Orbit as an example for the usefulness of the technique

Aurora-A Interacts with AP-2α and Down Regulates Its Transcription Activity

Aurora-A is a serine/threonine protein kinase and plays an important role in the control of mitotic progression. Dysregulated expression of Aurora-A impairs centrosome separation and maturation, which lead to disrupted cell cycle progression and tumorigenesis. However, the molecular mechanism by which Aurora-A causes cell malignant transformation remains to be further defined. In this report, using transcription factors array and mRNA expression profiling array, we found that overexpression of Aurora-A suppressed transcription activity of AP-2α, a tumor suppressor that is often downregulated in variety of tumors, and inhibited expression of AP-2α-regulated downstream genes. These array-based observations were further confirmed by microwell colorimetric TF assay and luciferase reporter assay. Downregulated transcription activity of AP-2α by Aurora-A was found to be associated with reduced AP-2α protein stability, which appeared to be mediated by Aurora-A enhanced ubiquitin-dependent proteasomal degradation of AP-2α protein. Interestingly, Aurora-A-mediated AP-2α degradation was likely dependent Aurora-A kinase activity since inhibition of Aurora-A kinase activity was able to rescue Aurora-A-induced degradation of AP-2α. Moreover, we defined a physical interaction between Aurora-A and AP-2α, and such interaction might bridge the suppressive effect of Aurora-A on AP-2α protein stability. These findings provide new insights into molecular mechanism by which Aurora-A acts as an oncogenic molecule in tumor occurrence and malignant development

Theorizing construction industry practice within a disaster risk reduction setting: is it a panacea or an illusion?

Construction industry practice is strongly influenced by the culture surrounding its operations and, with the prevailing emphasis on achieving efficiency, there is a strong focus on outcome metrics such as profitability and employee productivity. With the recent increases in natural hazard events worldwide, and the likelihood that this will worsen still further with anticipated climate changes, the industry is increasingly contributing to building resilience within disaster-affected communities. Existing industry expertise, its educational approaches and the related theoretical frameworks, however, all require adjustment if these changing needs are to be fully addressed. Most importantly, an agenda shift is required from the philosophical side and a more pragmatic approach is needed if community resilience goals and objectives are to be met, rather than the narrower focus of the current metrics-driven management system. A synthesis of the current literature is therefore presented, along with relevant case histories illustrating how such an agenda shift within a disaster management context may influence the development of appropriate theory, as well as impacting upon grass-roots educational requirements. The research concludes by discussing how the ‘mainstreaming’ of disaster management within construction industry practice could drive forward developments in theorizing expertise and educational provisions across the constituent discipline

A Novel Sperm-Delivered Toxin Causes Late-Stage Embryo Lethality and Transmission Ratio Distortion in C. elegans

The evolutionary fate of an allele ordinarily depends on its contribution to host fitness. Occasionally, however, genetic elements arise that are able to gain a transmission advantage while simultaneously imposing a fitness cost on their hosts. We previously discovered one such element in C. elegans that gains a transmission advantage through a combination of paternal-effect killing and zygotic self-rescue. Here we demonstrate that this element is composed of a sperm-delivered toxin, peel-1, and an embryo-expressed antidote, zeel-1. peel-1 and zeel-1 are located adjacent to one another in the genome and co-occur in an insertion/deletion polymorphism. peel-1 encodes a novel four-pass transmembrane protein that is expressed in sperm and delivered to the embryo via specialized, sperm-specific vesicles. In the absence of zeel-1, sperm-delivered PEEL-1 causes lethal defects in muscle and epidermal tissue at the 2-fold stage of embryogenesis. zeel-1 is expressed transiently in the embryo and encodes a novel six-pass transmembrane domain fused to a domain with sequence similarity to zyg-11, a substrate-recognition subunit of an E3 ubiquitin ligase. zeel-1 appears to have arisen recently, during an expansion of the zyg-11 family, and the transmembrane domain of zeel-1 is required and partially sufficient for antidote activity. Although PEEL-1 and ZEEL-1 normally function in embryos, these proteins can act at other stages as well. When expressed ectopically in adults, PEEL-1 kills a variety of cell types, and ectopic expression of ZEEL-1 rescues these effects. Our results demonstrate that the tight physical linkage between two novel transmembrane proteins has facilitated their co-evolution into an element capable of promoting its own transmission to the detriment of organisms carrying it

The Novel Mouse Mutation Oblivion Inactivates the PMCA2 Pump and Causes Progressive Hearing Loss

Progressive hearing loss is common in the human population, but we have few clues to the molecular basis. Mouse mutants with progressive hearing loss offer valuable insights, and ENU (N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea) mutagenesis is a useful way of generating models. We have characterised a new ENU-induced mouse mutant, Oblivion (allele symbol Obl), showing semi-dominant inheritance of hearing impairment. Obl/+ mutants showed increasing hearing impairment from post-natal day (P)20 to P90, and loss of auditory function was followed by a corresponding base to apex progression of hair cell degeneration. Obl/Obl mutants were small, showed severe vestibular dysfunction by 2 weeks of age, and were completely deaf from birth; sensory hair cells were completely degenerate in the basal turn of the cochlea, although hair cells appeared normal in the apex. We mapped the mutation to Chromosome 6. Mutation analysis of Atp2b2 showed a missense mutation (2630C→T) in exon 15, causing a serine to phenylalanine substitution (S877F) in transmembrane domain 6 of the PMCA2 pump, the resident Ca2+ pump of hair cell stereocilia. Transmembrane domain mutations in these pumps generally are believed to be incompatible with normal targeting of the protein to the plasma membrane. However, analyses of hair cells in cultured utricular maculae of Obl/Obl mice and of the mutant Obl pump in model cells showed that the protein was correctly targeted to the plasma membrane. Biochemical and biophysical characterisation showed that the pump had lost a significant portion of its non-stimulated Ca2+ exporting ability. These findings can explain the progressive loss of auditory function, and indicate the limits in our ability to predict mechanism from sequence alone

A Pre-mRNA–Associating Factor Links Endogenous siRNAs to Chromatin Regulation

In plants and fungi, small RNAs silence gene expression in the nucleus by establishing repressive chromatin states. The role of endogenous small RNAs in metazoan nuclei is largely unknown. Here we show that endogenous small interfering RNAs (endo-siRNAs) direct Histone H3 Lysine 9 methylation (H3K9me) in Caenorhabditis elegans. In addition, we report the identification and characterization of nuclear RNAi defective (nrde)-1 and nrde-4. Endo-siRNA–driven H3K9me requires the nuclear RNAi pathway including the Argonaute (Ago) NRDE-3, the conserved nuclear RNAi factor NRDE-2, as well as NRDE-1 and NRDE-4. Small RNAs direct NRDE-1 to associate with the pre-mRNA and chromatin of genes, which have been targeted by RNAi. NRDE-3 and NRDE-2 are required for the association of NRDE-1 with pre-mRNA and chromatin. NRDE-4 is required for NRDE-1/chromatin association, but not NRDE-1/pre-mRNA association. These data establish that NRDE-1 is a novel pre-mRNA and chromatin-associating factor that links small RNAs to H3K9 methylation. In addition, these results demonstrate that endo-siRNAs direct chromatin modifications via the Nrde pathway in C. elegans