Modulation Of Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis In The Sjl/j Mice By Cytokines And Anti-cytokine Antibodies

Immunization with myelin basic protein in complete Freund\u27s adjuvant resulted in only mild chronic-relapsing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) with very low incidence in SJL/J mice, and no disease at all in A/J, BALB/c, C3H/HeJ, DBA/2, AKR and NZW mice. However, treatment of mice with anti-IFN{dollar}\gamma{dollar} (aIFN) monoclonal antibody (mAb) at the time of immunization determined severe disease in all those strains except AKR. Similarly, the passive induction of EAE in the SJL/J mice and in two of three resistant strains examined was significantly enhanced by aIFN mAb administration. In the SJL/J mice, administration of anti-interleukin 2 (aIL2) mAb had only a marginal effect in the active induction, but drastically reduced the manifestation of passive EAE. This was also observed even when aIL2 mAb was mixed with a disease-enhancing dose of aIFN mAb.;Kinetic studies revealed that aIFN mAb exerted its effect within 24 hr following the challenge or cell transfer. In several experiments, biotinylated aIFN (bt-aIFN) mAb was used to allow its deliberate removal by avidin. The results of these studies demonstrated that (i) the aIFN mAb exerted its effect within 24 hr after its administration, even prior to cell transfer, and (ii) given a period of 24 hr after the removal of bt-aIFN, the animals appeared to revert to the pretreatment disease susceptibility status.;The function of IFN{dollar}\gamma{dollar} and aIFN mAb in the early events of antigen-induced T cell activation was investigated in vitro. Pretreatment of murine peritoneal exudate cells (PEC) with IFN{dollar}\gamma{dollar} led to a significant increase in their ability to activate antigen (Ag) specific, short-term T cell lines. When exogenous IFN{dollar}\gamma{dollar} was added to cocultures of T cells and Ag-pulsed PEC or Ag-pulsed thymocytes or splenocytes, the T cell proliferation and interleukin 3 (IL3) production were considerably reduced. Anti-IFN{dollar}\gamma{dollar} mAb added to these cultures neutralized the inhibitory effect of the exogenous IFN{dollar}\gamma{dollar} but had no detectable effect on class II major histocompatibility gene expression by the Ag-pulsed PEC present in the same cultures. A reduction in T cell proliferation and IL3 production was also observed when the T cells were treated with IFN{dollar}\gamma{dollar} prior to coculture with the Ag-pulsed PEC. Furthermore, both the expression of IL2 receptor and calcium flux were reduced in the IFN{dollar}\gamma{dollar} treated T cell population. Determination of cell viability revealed that IFN{dollar}\gamma{dollar} rendered T cells less responsive to the Ag-pulsed PEC but did not kill them.;Inasmuch as IFN{dollar}\gamma{dollar} and interleukin 4 (IL4) antagonized each other in many aspects, the role of IL4 in EAE was also examined. The disease-enhancing effect of aIFN mAb in the active induction of EAE was clearly outweighed by anti-IL4 receptor (aIL4R) mAb administration. Both disease severity and incidence were reduced by the inclusion of aIL4R to the aIFN mAB treatment. When mouse recombinant IL4 was given under conditions that would increase its retention time and biological activities, severity and incidence of actively induced EAE were enhanced. (Abstract shortened by UMI)

Color and its utilization in e-marketing : the application in Finnish environment from the consumer perspective

In our daily life, there are plenty of things that we have taken for granted in the sense that we do not notice, acknowledge, enjoy them fully or sometimes even complain about. Among those precious gifts existing in our life there are the ability to see things in colors and the color itself. The objective of this thesis research is to examine whether color is worth to consider during marketing activities, and if it is, then why it is significant and how to utilize it into companies’ marketing strategy and operation, especially within the e-commerce sector. The focus for this thesis research is onto people living in Finland due to the distinctions in gender, culture, climate and educational background would influence greatly on consumer behavior and perceptions on color. Therefore, the outcomes of the research would be able to deliver more meaningful benefits to companies operating in Finland. Theoretical framework was built around sequential effects of response to marketing, e-marketing and online consumer behavior, insights about color, and several e-marketing tools employing color and visual elements. The research data was collected through an electronic survey that aimed to reveal Finnish inhabitants’ perspective on e-marketing elements, more importantly visual and color components as online consumers. Based on the research results data, it can be assured that the majority of respondents pay attention to and acknowledge the importance of visual marketing elements and color in daily life in general and when shopping online in particular, whether consciously or subconsciously. In order to be effectively utilized in e-marketing, the color must function properly from both technical and psychological aspects. Color choice need to be carefully considered to fit the brand image, convey the right marketing messaging, and address the desired target market, since people react differently to colors. Further academic research could be conducted via other methods such as observation of consumer behavior to produce more precise results

EFFECTS OF EXTENSIVE READING ON EFL LEARNERS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE

Extensive Reading (ER) is considered as a good learning technique to enhance every skill in language learning. It is considered to assist the improvement of other skills of language learners especially English as a Foreign Language (EFL) leaners. This study is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of ER on EFL learners’ writing performance and to identify the EFL learners’ attitude towards the effects of ER on writing performance. The study recruited a group of 59 non-English majors at a public university in Vietnam. The participants were divided into two groups, i.e., experimental group and control group. The participants in the experimental group were assigned extensive reading materials as their homework to support their learning of writing meanwhile the participants in the control group were guided to write without the support of extensive reading materials. To check the differences of the participants’ writing ability before and after the intervention, pre-test and post-test were employed. A questionnaire was also delivered to the experimental group after the treatment. The results from the tests revealed that ER supported EFL learners in their writing performance. The experimental group had more significant enhancement. The results obtained from the questionnaire also indicated that the EFL learners had positive attitudes towards the use of extensive reading materials provided in their writing learning process.   Article visualizations

FRESHMAN EFL LEARNERS’ ANXIETY IN SPEAKING CLASSES AND COPING STRATEGIES

This study aims to investigate what speaking anxiety freshman EFL learners encountered in their classes and what strategies they used to reduce their anxiety. A mixed methods approach was employed to collect the data, including a questionnaire following the quantitative method and individual semi-structured interviews following the qualitative method. The participants were 185 freshman EFL learners at several universities in the Mekong Delta. The combination of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale developed by Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope (1986) and the theories about three kinds of anxiety proposed by Ellis (1994) was adapted to measure freshman EFL learners’ kinds of speaking anxiety in classes. Additionally, the five categories of coping strategies in Kondo and Ling (2004) were adapted to measure the participants’ coping strategies for reducing their speaking anxiety. The results of the study showed that the participants encountered all three kinds of speaking anxiety including trait anxiety, specific-situation anxiety, and state anxiety in classes. Furthermore, the study also indicated five kinds of strategies utilized by the participants to reduce their anxiety in speaking class namely preparation strategies, relaxation strategies, positive thinking strategies, peer-seeking strategies, and resignation strategies. From the results, it was also indicated that preparation strategies were used more frequently than the other strategies by the participants in speaking classes.  Article visualizations

Is riverbank vegetation important for the estimation of flood water levels?

Freshwater plants are one of the main components of the aquatic ecosystem and significantly influence river processes at different scales, and they are also affected by the river flow (Nikora, 2010; Nepf, 2012). Thus, a proper flood risk management requires to include understanding the processes of mutual interactions (flowbiota), which are still challenging (Nikora, 2010; Nepf, 2012). It is essential to know that such vegetation is a crucial component of the environment, which provides important tool for nature-based solutions for river engineering and management. Considering appropriate placement of plants along the stream, various possibilities for using vegetation as a nature-based solution may include facilitate sediment transport in the channel, control to direct overbank flows, and the reduction of scour and river channel erosion processes (Shields Jr. et al., 2017). However, a proper prediction of processes occurring in rivers with vegetated bank? (e.g., vegetationinduced turbulence) needs sufficient studies of vegetation seasonality due to its dynamic nature. Past approach to the subject of river management (e.g., Ree 1949) did not include the ecological meaning (wildlife habitat) of riverine vegetation and thus, all the actions were focused only on reducing the source of flow resistance by cutting the vegetation to reduce flooding (Nepf, 2012). Hence, current methods should be developed in such a way as to comply with the assumptions of finding the balance in predicting the channel resistance in the presence of vegetation between ecological management and flood control (Nilsson et al. 2005; Nepf, 2012). Flow-biota-sediment interactions, due to continuous vegetation development, are vulnerable to extensive knowledge gaps in the investigation linking the fluid mechanics, biomechanics, ecology and transport processes that prevent a full understanding of these phenomena (Nikora, 2010; Łoboda et al., 2018). To expand knowledge in this research field, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of riverbank vegetation on the flood water levels, considering various riverbank vegetation coverage due to its variation throughout the annual seasons. For that purpose, the hydrodynamic model Delft3D Flexible Mesh will be used to simulate river flow hydrodynamics on the part of the Meuse river as a case study. This study will investigate various static vegetation scenarios considering seasonal changes in vegetation roughness and their life cycle, e.g., due to leaf loss or plant dying. The main focus will be drawn to short periods including before, during and after the flood event (i.e., period of approximately two weeks; starting two days before the flood event). As Nepf (2012) highlighted, vegetation is not distributed uniformly, which plays an important role in the reach-scale flow resistance. Thus, the proposed study will consider the density of plant coverage on the riverbanks as well as species variety

FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY AS A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL; AN ASSESSMENT

The study is about breast lesions which is a common cause of mortality and morbidity among females. To avoid negative consequences, there is need for urgent diagnosis and treatment. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) is a useful diagnostic tool and possess higher level of accuracy. In this study, the objective was to determine the accuracy of FNAC in diagnosis of palpable breast lumps. Additionally, the objective was to find the correlation between cytological findings and histopathological examination of surgical specimens. The methodology of the study was based on retrospective study method. FNAC of breast lump was conducted on 271 patients out of which 104 formed the base group. The results showed that there were 104 patients of base study who had average age of 32 years. There were 54 patients with lump in left breasts, and 46 patients with lump in right breasts and 4 patient had bilateral lump. There were 77 patients with benign, 34 patients with malignant, and 3 had atypica;/suspicious lesions on cytological examination. Based on histopathological examination, 77 cases were related to benign, 26 were related to malignant, and 1 with atypical/suspicious. Cyto-histological concurrence was 93.05% and 79.2% for Fibroadenoma and Infiltrating ductal carcinoma respectively. Overall sensitivity of FNAC procedure was 94.17%, specificity 100% and accuracy 93.26%.  On the basis of result, it is concluded that FNAC is a simple, reliable method for diagnosis of both benign and malignant lesions and can be used in the evaluation of breast lesions.

RESEARCH ON THE MANUFACTURING MAGNESIUM FROM THANHHOA DOLOMITE BY PIDGEON PROCESS

The magnesium and magnesium alloys has applied widely in different industrial aspects in Vietnam in the modern life. Especially, the products from magnesium alloys implementing in the automotive have increased rapidly since the car elements tend to be generated by the light alloys in order to save the fuel. However, in the current time, Vietnam has no factories to produce the magnesium to adapt the domestic demand although it owns an enrich resource of raw materials. This research indicates the possibility of using the dolomite ore in Thanhhoa – Vietnam to make the magnesium as well as evaluate the primary factors like recovering temperature, reducing agent rate, recovering time having effect on the reduction efficiency of Thanhhoa dolomite by metallothermic method in vacuum (Pidgeon Process). This is basic process, low investment and suitable for the small and medium scales in Vietnam. The experiment includes heating, indicating the chemical ingredients and recovering experiment on the dolomite after calcination (dolime) by using ferrosilicon. The thermodynamic model is created to estimate the recovering efficiency in the Pidgeon. The result shows that the CaO/MgO molar ratio of calcination dolomite in Thanhhoa is nearly 1.5 which is suitable to produce magnesium in the case of highly-required efficiency and pureness. Besides, the result from the furnace of the experiment is lower than the one in the model. The samples are set up to check the influence of the rate of ferrosilicon in the compound. The result indicates that the ideal efficiency reaches 85 % with 30 % ferrosilicon. Moreover, the study confirms that the optimal operating conditions in this process are recovering during three hours at 1200 °C and 100 Pa pressure. This result proves the potential application of Thanhhoa dolomite in the industry suitable with the current condition in Vietna