327 research outputs found
The Early Childhood Educatorsâ Attitudes Towards Innovative Instructional Applications about Digital Learning Activities for Young Children
The innovative value and practices of digital learning activities assist early childhood educators in employing effective instruction to improve young childrenâs performance as well as advance their own professional autonomy to implement digital learning activities for young children. This study examined the factors and relationships about early childhood educatorsâ attitudes towards the integration and behavioral intention of digital learning tools into young childrenâs innovative pedagogical activities using a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire consisted of five factors, including digital innovative value (DIV), digital innovative practices (DIP), perception of instructional use (PIU), instructional professional autonomy (IPA), and behavioral intention to use (BIU). The researcher used structural equation modeling to analyze the survey data. The results showed that early childhood educatorsâ perceptions about innovative value and applications of digital learning activities play a key role in the success of young childrenâs performance and competence in preschool. The early childhood educators with positive attitudes towards the innovative consideration and practical instructional applications of digital learning activities had more behavioral intention to plan and design instructional activities with innovative applications of digital learning tools
Sound absorption properties of polyurethane-based warp-knitted spacer fabric composites
Sound absorption properties of polyurethane-based warp-knitted spacer fabric composites (PWSF) have been studied. The warp-knitted spacer fabrics (WSF) are produced on a double-needle bar warp knitting machine using different structural parameters including inclination angle of spacer yarn, thickness, spacer yarnâs diameter and surface layer structure. The composites are fabricated based on a flexible polyurethane foam. Accordingly, the acoustical behaviors of composites are evaluated properly by using two-microphone transfer function techniques in impedance tube. The findings reveal that the composites possess excellent sound absorption properties and their sound absorbability can be tailored to meet the specificend-use requirements by varying the fabric structural parameters
Sex-Specific Correlations of Individual Heterozygosity, Parasite Load, and Scalation Asymmetry in a Sexually Dichromatic Lizard
Heterozygosity-fitness correlations (HFCs) provide insights into the genetic bases of individual fitness variation in natural populations. However, despite decades of study, the biological significance of HFCs is still under debate. In this study, we investigated HFCs in a large population of the sexually dimorphic lizard Takydromus viridipunctatus (Lacertidae). Because of the high prevalence of parasitism from trombiculid mites in this lizard, we expect individual fitness (i.e., survival) to decrease with increasing parasite load. Furthermore, because morphological asymmetry is likely to influence individuals\u27 mobility (i.e., limb asymmetry) and male biting ability during copulation (i.e., head asymmetry) in this species, we also hypothesize that individual fitness should decrease with increasing morphological asymmetry. Although we did not formally test the relationship between morphological asymmetry and fitness in this lizard, we demonstrated that survival decreased with increasing parasite load using a capture-mark-recapture data set. We used a separate sample of 140 lizards to test the correlations between individual heterozygosity (i.e., standardized mean d2 and HL based on 10 microsatellite loci) and the two fitness traits (i.e., parasite load and morphological asymmetry). We also evaluated and excluded the possibility that single-locus effects produced spurious HFCs. Our results suggest male-only, negative correlations between individual heterozygosity and parasite load and between individual heterozygosity and asymmetry, suggesting sex-specific, positive HFCs. Male T. viridipunctatus with higher heterozygosity tend to have lower parasite loads (i.e., higher survival) and lower asymmetry, providing a rare example of HFC in reptiles
Effects of mGluR5 Antagonists on Parkinson's Patients With L-Dopa-Induced Dyskinesia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Background: Modulation of Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) may be a novel therapeutic approach to manage Parkinson's disease (PD) Patients with L-dopa-induced dyskinesia (LID).Objectives: The objective of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of mGluR5 antagonists for the treatment of LID patients.Methods: Several electronic databases were consulted up to July 30, 2017. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that compared mGluR5 antagonists vs. placebo in LID patients were included. Pooled weighted mean difference (WMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using random-effects models.Results: Nine trials including 776 patients met all inclusion criteria. We pooled the whole data and found apparent difference between mGluR5 antagonists and placebo in terms of mAIMS (p = 0.010). However, there was no significant improvements on antidyskinetic in terms of LFADLDS (p = 0.42) and UPDRS Part IV (p = 0.20). Meanwhile, the effect size of UPDRS part III was similar in mGluR5 antagonist groups with in placebo groups (p = 0.25). Adverse events incidence was higher with mGluR5 antagonists than with placebo, especially at the expense of increased dizziness (16.3 vs. 4.3%), visual hallucination (10.1 vs. 1.1%), or fatigue (10.1 vs. 4.8%).Conclusions: mGluR5 antagonists had a greater treatment effect on the mAIMS in LID patients, however, there was no improvements on antidyskinetic in terms of LFADLDS and UPDRS Part IV compared with placebo. According to these results, we unable to recommend mGluR5 antagonists for the routine treatment of LID patients right now
Effect of dispersion on indistinguishability between single-photon wave-packets
With propagating through a dispersive medium, the temporal-spectral profile
of laser pulses should be inevitably modified. Although such dispersion effect
has been well studied in classical optics, its effect on a single-photon
wave-packet, i.e., the matter wave of a single-photon, has not yet been
entirely revealed. In this paper, we investigate the effect of dispersion on
indistinguishability of single-photon wave-packets through the Hong-Ou-Mandel
(HOM) interference. By dispersively manipulating two indistinguishable
single-photon wave-packets before interfering with each other, we observe that
the difference of the second-order dispersion between two optical paths of the
HOM interferometer can be mapped to the interference curve, indicating that (1)
with the same amount of dispersion effect in both paths, the HOM interference
curve must be only determined by the intrinsic indistinguishability between the
wave-packets, i.e., dispersion cancellation due to the indistinguishability
between Feynman paths; (2) unbalanced dispersion effect in two paths cannot be
cancelled and will broaden the interference curve thus providing a way to
measure the second-order dispersion coefficient. Our results suggest a more
comprehensive understanding of the single-photon wave-packet and pave ways to
explore further applications of the HOM interference
Biotin tagging coupled with amino acid-coded mass tagging for efficient and precise screening of interaction proteome in mammalian cells
In mammalian cells, when tandem affinity purification (TAP) approach is employed, the existence of untagged endogenous target protein and repetitive washing steps together result in overall low yield of purified/stable complexes and the loss of weakly and transiently interacting partners of biological significance. To avoid the trade-offs involving in methodological sensitivity, precision, and throughput here we introduce an integrated method, biotin tagging coupled with amino acid-coded mass tagging (BioCAT) for highly sensitive and accurate screening of mammalian protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Without the need of establishing a stable cell line, using a short peptide tag which could be specifically biotinylated in vivo, the biotin-tagged target/bait protein was then isolated along with its associates efficiently by streptavidin magnetic microbeads in a single step. In a pulled-down complex amino acid-coded mass tagging (AACT) serves as âin-spectraâ quantitative markers to distinguish those bait-specific interactors from non-specific background proteins under stringent criteria. Applying this BioCAT approach, we first biotin-tagged in vivo a multi-functional protein family member, 14-3-3Δ, which was expressed at close to endogenous level. Starting with approximately 20 millions of 293T cells which were significantly less than what needed for a TAP run, 266 specific interactors of 14-3-3Δ were identified in high confidence
Prescribing patterns of antidepressants, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers in bipolar patients misdiagnosed with major depressive disorder in China
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94515/1/hup2262.pd
Chitosan Grafted With ÎČ-Cyclodextrin: Synthesis, Characterization, Antimicrobial Activity, and Role as Absorbefacient and Solubilizer
We synthesized chitosan grafted with ÎČ-cyclodextrin (CD-g-CS) from mono-6-deoxy-6-(p-toluenesulfonyl)-ÎČ-cyclodextrin and chitosan. Two different amounts of immobilized ÎČ-cyclodextrin (ÎČ-CD) on CD-g-CS (QCD: 0.643 Ă 103 and 0.6 Ă 102 ÎŒmol/g) were investigated. The results showed that the amino contents of CD-g-CS with QCD = 0.643 Ă 103 and 0.6 Ă 102 ÎŒmol/g were 6.34 ± 0.072 and 9.41 ± 0.055%, respectively. Agar diffusion bioassay revealed that CD-g-CS (QCD = 0.6 Ă 102 ÎŒmol/g) was more active against Staphylococcus xylosus and Escherichia coli than CD-g-CS (QCD = 0.643 Ă 103 ÎŒmol/g). Cell membrane integrity tests and scanning electron microscopy observation revealed that the antimicrobial activity of CD-g-CS was attributed to membrane disruption and cell lysis. Uptake tests showed that CD-g-CS promoted the uptake of doxorubicin hydrochloride by S. xylosus, particularly for CD-g-CS with QCD = 0.6 Ă 102 ÎŒmol/g, and the effect was concentration dependent. CD-g-CS (QCD = 0.6 Ă 102 and 0.643 Ă 103 ÎŒmol/g) also improved the aqueous solubilities of sulfadiazine, sulfamonomethoxine, and sulfamethoxazole. These findings provide a clear understanding of CD-g-CS and are of great importance for reducing the dosage of antibiotics and antibiotic residues in animal-derived foods. The results also provide a reliable, direct, and scientific theoretical basis for its wide application in the livestock industry
- âŠ