Collaborative development of EFL in Vietnam through open source software

The University of Aizu, in collaboration with the University of Waikato, has been investigating the use of open source, server-based software for the enhancement of English language instruction in Vietnam. In this paper, we describe recent educational, technical, and English language reforms in Vietnam which have facilitated a new approach to the teaching and learning not only of English, but also Computer Science concepts. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the efficacy of using open source tools and highly structured instructional approaches for English language teaching in developing nations

Changes in the Structure of Wages During the 1980's: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations

Between 1979 and 1987 there were three significant changes in the wage structure in the United States. the pecuniary returns to schooling increased by about a third; the wages of older relative to younger workers with relatively low education increased to some extent; and the wages of women relative to men rose by almost ten percent. It is important for policy purposes to know why these changes occurred and whether they are temporary or permanent. The paper investigates several alternative explanations of these wage structure phenomena, including the most popular ones that their principal causes were shifts in the structure of product demand, skilled-labor saving technological change, and changes in the incidence and level of rents received by lower skilled workers. our reading of the evidence suggests that the major cause of the dramatic movements in the wage structure during the 1980's may have been some combination of changes in both production technology and the average relative nonobserved quality of different labor groups.

The History of the Mysterious Eclipses of KH 15D: Asiago Observatory, 1967-1982

We are gathering archival observations to determine the photometric history of the unique and unexplained eclipses of the pre-main-sequence star KH 15D. Here we present a light curve from 1967-1982, based on photographic plates from Asiago Observatory. During this time, the system alternated periodically between bright and faint states, as observed today. However, the bright state was 0.9 mag brighter than the modern value, and the fractional variation between bright and faint states (Delta I = 0.7 mag) was smaller than observed today (3.5 mag). A possible explanation for these findings is that the system contains a second star that was previously blended with the eclipsing star, but is now completely obscured.Comment: Accepted to AJ. 24 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables. v2: Phase error corrected in figures 8 and 1

Effects of Mismanaged Condensed Project Life Cycles in the U.S. Consumer Ready Meat Industry

Projects have been undertaken by the United States (U.S.) consumer ready meat industry to advance strategic objectives and provide consumers with desired food products. The management of the projects’ industry life cycles was impacted by diverse consumer groups’ continual demands for new and varied products. The problem addressed was the inefficient management of projects’ costs, scopes, and deliverables because of the shortened projects’ life cycles for consumer ready processing lines in the U.S. meat industry. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects inefficient management of condensed project life cycles had on stakeholders and deliverables. This study used in-depth interviews of participants involved with a variety of projects in the industry. The goal of this study was to explore the impact shortening the project life cycle had on the individuals and results of the project. This study provided a deeper understanding of the emotional effects on project stakeholders when the project life cycle process was compromised. A better understanding of causes-and-effects, as described by the participants, was applied to the Actor- Network-Theory. The resulting insights provided those involved with projects in this industry with an increased cognizance of activities that impact various aspects of a project. Following the processes of project management and the project life cycle were illustrated through biblical examples. Deviation from original project scopes have been shown to increase waste and jeopardize the desired results of projects

Tolerability, safety, and efficacy of adjunctive brivaracetam for focal seizures in older patients: A pooled analysis from three phase III studies

Introduction: This analysis was conducted to assess the tolerability, safety, and efficacy of brivaracetam (BRV) for adjunctive treatment of focal (partial-onset) seizures in patients aged ≥65 years. Methods: Safety/tolerability and efficacy data for patients aged ≥65 years were pooled from three randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, fixed-dose Phase III studies (NCT00490035, NCT00464269, and NCT01261325). Data were pooled by treatment group: placebo or the proposed therapeutic dose range of 50–200 mg/day: BRV 50, 100, 200 mg/day. Results: Thirty-two patients aged ≥65 years were randomized to placebo or BRV 50–200 mg/day. Of these, 30 patients (93.8%) completed their respective study. In the safety population (n = 32), 87.5% placebo- vs 73.3% BRV-treated patients reported treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) during the treatment period; most commonly, headache (25.0% vs 12.5%), paresthesia (0% vs 12.5%), and somnolence (50.0% vs 12.5%) for placebo- vs BRV-treated patients, respectively. During the treatment period, drug-related TEAEs were reported by 62.5% of placebo- vs 53.3% of BRV-treated patients, and serious TEAEs (SAEs) were reported by 0% of placebo- and 4.2% of BRV-treated patients; there were no drug-related SAEs and no deaths. Three SAEs (placebo 1/8; BRV 2/24) and two deaths (placebo 1/8; BRV 1/24) occurred in the post-treatment period. In the efficacy population (n = 31), median percent reduction from baseline in focal seizure frequency/28 days was 14.0% for placebo vs 25.5%, 49.6%, and 74.9% for BRV 50, 100, and 200 mg/day, respectively. The ≥50% responder rate was 14.3% for placebo vs 25.0%, 50.0%, and 66.7% for BRV 50, 100, and 200 mg/day, respectively. Conclusions: Safety/tolerability and efficacy findings in this small subgroup of older patients treated with adjunctive BRV are consistent with those observed in the much larger overall pooled population. BRV may be a suitable adjunctive treatment for older patients with uncontrolled focal seizures. Further larger studies in this population are warranted

An optimal exposure strategy for cryoprotected virus crystals with lattice constants greater than 1000 Å

Many supramolecular complexes form crystals that have lattice constants of the order of 1000 Å. An optimized method for data collection and processing is described

Economic Effects of Added Growing Season Rainfall on North Dakota Agriculture

Farm Management, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Fractional Chern Insulators from the nth Root of Bandstructure

We provide a parton construction of wavefunctions and effective field theories for fractional Chern insulators. We also analyze a strong coupling expansion in lattice gauge theory that enables us to reliably map the parton gauge theory onto the microsopic Hamiltonian. We show that this strong coupling expansion is useful because of a special hierarchy of energy scales in fractional quantum Hall physics. Our procedure is illustrated using the Hofstadter model and then applied to bosons at 1/2 filling and fermions at 1/3 filling in a checkerboard lattice model recently studied numerically. Because our construction provides a more or less unique mapping from microscopic model to effective parton description, we obtain wavefunctions in the same phase as the observed fractional Chern insulators without tuning any continuous parameters.Comment: 9+3 pages, 6 figures; v2: added refs, amplified discussion of deconfinement, improved discussion of translation invarianc