Fuzzy Portfolio Model with Application to Business Cycles Analysis

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Extralinguistics in Malay language mastery by international students at a private institution of higher learning

This study examined the relationship between learning strategies and extralinguistic factors in Malay language mastery by international students at a private institution of higher learning in Malaysia and also evaluated the effectiveness of the learning strategies applied in the learning of the Malay language. The study sample was international students who had followed the National Language (B) for 14 weeks. A total of 114 paper-based questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively. Microsoft Excel 2007 was used to process the raw data and SPSS version 18 was used for the quantitative analysis. Based on the Language Learning Strategies Model (Mohamed Amin Embi, 2000) and the Socio-psychological Theory (Gardner, 1985), the 59 strategies listed in the questionnaires were divided into two categories: learning in formal and informal situations. The Malay language learning strategies were identified through the calculation of percentage, frequency and the mean value (average) of the Likert scale. This study is considered necessary due to the reason that the influencing or motivating factors for foreign speakers in learning the Malay language differ significantly compared to the locals. This is because not all the language skills are needed by foreign students. Hence, efforts to develop effective study methods are limited due to the lack of comprehensive studies that focus on the learning of the Malay language as a foreign language, especially for international students studying at private institutions of higher learning. According to the findings, the strategy most preferred and practiced formally is 'students give full attention when the teacher is teaching'. Contrastingly, for informal strategies, ‘students will try to repeat aloud the vocabulary so that it is easy to remember' is the most preferred strategy. Overall, the foreign speakers seemed passive in learning the Malay language and depended very much on the extralinguistic factors, namely the encouragement of the lecturers who act as motivators. Lecturers play an important role in guiding them so that they apply the appropriate and effective strategies to improve their Malay language mastery process, not only to meet the academic requirements but also to carry out daily social activities in Malaysia

Green Performance Assessment for Retail Industry in Taiwan

[[abstract]]The retail industry in Taiwan plays an important role in people's lives and influences consumers' purchasing behavior. Due to global warming and the depletion of energy and other resources, most retailers are required to obey the green policy of reuse, recycling, and reduction in their operational process, service, and products. Therefore, we first evaluated the environmental performance of retailers using selected green criteria. Then, we assessed the performance of sustainable environmental practices among ten selected retailers using grey relation analysis and the entropy method to derive objective weights for the selected criteria. Next, for continuous improvement of retailers' green performance, we extracted and summarized a self-assessment checklist selected from the questionnaire. Retailers can use the checklist for guidelines for continuous improvement.[[notice]]補正完

Equatorial assembly of the cell-division actomyosin ring in the absence of cytokinetic spatial cues

The position of the division site dictates the size and fate of daughter cells in many organisms. In animal cells, division-site placement involves overlapping mechanisms, including signaling from the central spindle microtubules, astral microtubules, and spindle poles and through polar contractions [1, 2, 3]. In fission yeast, division-site positioning requires overlapping mechanisms involving the anillin-related protein Mid1 and the tip complex (comprising the Kelch-repeat protein Tea1, the Dyrk-kinase Pom1, and the SH3-domain protein Tea4) [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]. In addition to these factors, cell shape has also been shown to participate in the maintenance of the position of the actomyosin ring [12, 13, 14]. The first principles guiding actomyosin ring placement, however, have not been elucidated in any organism. Because actomyosin ring positioning, ring assembly, and cell morphogenesis are genetically separable in fission yeast, we have used it to derive actomyosin ring placement mechanisms from first principles. We report that, during ring assembly in the absence of cytokinetic cues (anillin-related Mid1 and tip-complex proteins), actin bundles follow the path of least curvature and assemble actomyosin rings in an equatorial position in spherical protoplasts and along the long axis in cylindrical cells and compressed protoplasts. The equatorial position of rings is abolished upon treatment of protoplasts with an actin-severing compound or by slowing down actin polymerization. We propose that the physical properties of actin filaments/bundles play key roles in actomyosin ring assembly and positioning, and that key cytokinetic molecules may modulate the length of actin filaments to promote ring assembly along the short axis

Andrographolide induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in PC-3 prostate cancer cells.

Andrographolide (AGP), the major phytoconstituent isolated from Andrographis paniculata was found to exhibit growth inhibition and cytotoxicity against the hormone-independent (PC-3 and DU-145) and hormone-dependent (LNCaP) prostate cancer cell lines via the microculture tetrazolium (MTT) assay. Due to its greater cytotoxic potency and selectivity towards PC-3 cells, flow cytometry was used to analyze the cell cycle distribution of control and treated PC-3 cells whereas Annexin V-FITC/PI flow cytometry analysis was carried out to confirm apoptosis induced by AGP in PC-3 cells. Cell cycle and apoptotic regulatory proteins were determined by western blot analysis. AGP was found to induce G2/M cell cycle arrest which led to predominantly apoptotic mode of cell death. Mechanistically, AGP was found to downregulate CDK1 without affecting the levels of CDK4 and cyclin D1. Induction of apoptosis was associated with an increase in activation and expression of caspase 8 which then is believed to have induced cleavage of Bid into tBid. In addition, activation and enhancement of executioner caspase 9 and Bax proteins without affecting Bcl-2 protein levels were observed

Gelsolin induces colorectal tumor cell invasion via modulation of the urokinase-type plasminogen activator cascade

Gelsolin is a cytoskeletal protein which participates in actin filament dynamics and promotes cell motility and plasticity. Although initially regarded as a tumor suppressor, gelsolin expression in certain tumors correlates with poor prognosis and therapy-resistance. In vitro, gelsolin has anti-apoptotic and pro-migratory functions and is critical for invasion of some types of tumor cells. We found that gelsolin was highly expressed at tumor borders infiltrating into adjacent liver tissues, as examined by immunohistochemistry. Although gelsolin contributes to lamellipodia formation in migrating cells, the mechanisms by which it induces tumor invasion are unclear. Gelsolin’s influence on the invasive activity of colorectal cancer cells was investigated using overexpression and small interfering RNA knockdown. We show that gelsolin is required for invasion of colorectal cancer cells through matrigel. Microarray analysis and quantitative PCR indicate that gelsolin overexpression induces the upregulation of invasion-promoting genes in colorectal cancer cells, including the matrix-degrading urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA). Conversely, gelsolin knockdown reduces uPA levels, as well as uPA secretion. The enhanced invasiveness of gelsolin-overexpressing cells was attenuated by treatment with function-blocking antibodies to either uPA or its receptor uPAR, indicating that uPA/uPAR activity is crucial for gelsolin-dependent invasion. In summary, our data reveals novel functions of gelsolin in colorectal tumor cell invasion through its modulation of the uPA/uPAR cascade, with potentially important roles in colorectal tumor dissemination to metastatic sites

Syngas Production from Glycerol-dry(CO2) Reforming Over La-promoted Ni/Al2O3 Catalyst

A 3 wt% La-promoted Ni/Al2O3 catalyst was prepared via wet co-impregnation technique and physicochemically-characterized. Lanthanum was responsible for better metal dispersion; hence higher BET specific surface area (96.0 m2 g−1) as compared to the unpromoted Ni/Al2O3 catalyst (85.0 m2 g−1). In addition, the La-promoted catalyst possessed finer crystallite size (9.1 nm) whilst the unpromoted catalyst measured 12.8 nm. Subsequently, glycerol dry reforming was performed at atmospheric pressure and temperatures ranging from 923 to 1123 K employing CO2-to-glycerol ratio from zero to five. Significantly, the reaction results have yielded syngas as main gaseous products with H2:CO ratios always below than 2.0 with concomitant maximum 96% glycerol conversion obtained at the CO2-to-glycerol ratio of 1.67. In addition, the glycerol consumption rate can be adequately captured using power law modelling with the order of reactions equal 0.72 and 0.14 with respect to glycerol and CO2 whilst the activation energy was 35.0 kJ mol−1. A 72 h longevity run moreover revealed that the catalyst gave a stable catalytic performance