Emergent Online Teaching Effect on International Graduate Students’ Academic Performance in Japan during COVID-19

International graduate students reluctantly partook in the distance learning with the closure of national borders with the outbreak of COVID-19. Different instructional modes (in-person, online, and hybrid) and timing of the online learning exposure would play a role in international students’ academic achievement considering the expectations and motivations to learn abroad. Based on 267 course-based panel data, for the same courses, online-mode teaching yielded worse Grade Point Averages (GPAs) and less of a sense of class community compared to the in-person mode. Similarly, students who started the program after COVID-19 (i.e., Class of 2022) performed worse than those who changed their mode of study during their study due to COVID-19 (i.e., Class of 2021). The more frequent interactions with schoolmates and professors partially mediated this detrimental effect of international online learning. Online learning, on average, decreases the GPA by 0.2 standard deviations (p<0.05). However, this effect became insignificant in the model with the frequency of interacting with classmates or professors that raise the GPA by 0.686 and 0.216 standard deviations (p,0.05), respectively. As the study sheds light on the predicament of emergent distance learning, the study addresses some cautious notes on designing effective and sustainable international education in the post-pandemic era

Economical And Systematical Evaluation On Rainfall Harvesting System (Case Study : Rainfall Harvesting System Designed In Taebaek City, Republic Of Korea)

Recently, climate change has caused drought to become more frequent and is becoming one of the serious natural disasters, resulting damages in infrastructure facilities, economy and private property losses etc. Taebaek city of Gangwon-do lies in the northeast Korean Peninsula along the steep mountain slopes, all the way to the sea. Thu, this city exhibit the Marine Climatic Characteristics. During the past 10 years, the average rainfall of Taebaek city is 849.9mm/year, which is less than the average rainfall for the whole country (1,274mm/year). This research is still ongoing. The next assessment will be on the construction cost of rainfall harvesting system (through school types) and the LCC (Life Cycle Cost) of Maintenance Administration. After which, discussion for the impacts Rainfall Harvesting System on the water supply self-sufficiency of Taeback city will be made. Lastly, conclusion on the future economic benefit for Taeback city will be given. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research was supported by a grant(12-TI-C01) from Advanced Water Management Research Program funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korean governmen

Nasopharynx as a Microbiologic Reservoir in Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media: Preliminary Study

ObjectivesThe present study was designed to identify the correlations of bacterial strains of the middle ear and the nasopharynx in chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) patients who were scheduled for operations.MethodsSixty-three patients with CSOM were enrolled in the study. Culture specimens were collected from the middle ear and nasopharynx of patients who were admitted for operation. Samples collections were performed 3 times; from the middle ear and nasophaynx at the admission day, from the middle ear during the operation, and from the external auditory canal post-operatively. Bacteria were identified by gram staining and biochemical tests. The correspondence rate of organisms which simultaneously exist in the middle ear and the nasopharynx was measured.ResultsSixty-eight organisms were isolated from the middle ear and 57 organisms from the nasopharynx among 63 patients. Of 68 bacteria identified in middle ear, 26.52% (18 bacteria) corresponded with those of nasopharynx. MRSA had the high correspondence rate, and of 18 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated from middle ear, 33.3% (6 bacteria) corresponded with nasophaynx. Meanwhile, 3 organisms of MRSA were detected from the external auditory canal post-operatively, although they were only found in nasopharynx pre-operatively.ConclusionThe current trend of middle ear swab alone for bacterial detection would be insufficient to identify the potent MRSA and impede early antibiotic intervention for the effective middle ear surgery. Therefore, it is necessary to perform nasopharynx cultures together with conventional middle ear culture to control potent risk for infection pre-operatively

The hepatocyte glucose-6-phosphatase subcomponent T3: its relationship to GLUT2

AbstractGlucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) is a multiple protein complex in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) that includes a mechanism (known as T3) for glucose exit from the ER to the cytosol. The molecular identity of T3 is not known. T3 has been shown to be functional in the absence of GLUT2, indicating that it is not GLUT2. Here we found a 55-kDa protein in high-density microsomal fraction (HDM) of rat hepatocytes that is recognized by polyclonal GLUT2 antibody raised against the GLUT2 C-terminal 14-amino-acid-sequence peptide. HDM contained calnexin but no integrin-β1 or Na/K ATPase in Western blotting. Significant GLUT2 immunoreactivity was colocalized with colligin, an ER marker, in confocal microscopy. Furthermore, the 55-kDa protein in HDM was labeled with a covalently reactive, impermeable glucose transporter substrate, 1,3-bis-(3-deoxy-d-glucopyranose-3-yloxy)-2-propyl 4-benzoyl-benzoate (B3GL) when hepatocyte homogenates, but not intact cells, were labeled. In addition glucose efflux from HDM vesicles was sensitive to B3GL treatment in a dose-dependent manner. Based on these findings, we suggest that T3 may be a novel facilitative glucose transporter that is highly homologous to GLUT2 in the C-terminal sequence, thus cross-reacting with the GLUT2 antibody. The finding will be useful in molecular identification and cloning of T3

Algorithmic decomposition for efficient multiple nuclear spin detection in diamond

Efficiently detecting and characterizing individual spins in solid-state hosts is an essential step to expand the fields of quantum sensing and quantum information processing. While selective detection and control of a few 13C nuclear spins in diamond have been demonstrated using the electron spin of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers, a reliable, efficient, and automatic characterization method is desired. Here, we develop an automated algorithmic method for decomposing spectral data to identify and characterize multiple nuclear spins in diamond. We demonstrate efficient nuclear spin identification and accurate reproduction of hyperfine interaction components for both virtual and experimental nuclear spectroscopy data. We conduct a systematic analysis of this methodology and discuss the range of hyperfine interaction components of each nuclear spin that the method can efficiently detect. The result demonstrates a systematic approach that automatically detects nuclear spins with the aid of computational methods, facilitating the future scalability of devices.Comment: 4 figures, 2 table