An action research on developing English speaking skills through asynchronous online learning

This action research aims at developing an action plan to alleviate foreign language speaking anxiety, and accordingly improving speaking performance. The research was carried out by the teacher-researchers of 19 prospective Chemical Engineering students at CEFR-A1 level at Ege University School of Foreign Languages (EUSFL). The research took place over a 12-week period in the fall term of 2015-2016 academic year. The participants created WhatsApp groups; the researchers sent them written or voice messages with English speaking tasks; and they performed these tasks and sent their voice messages to their groups. Data were gathered through the Turkish form of Second Language Speaking Anxiety Scale (SLSAS) developed by Woodrow (2006), participants’ speaking exam grades and semi-structured interviews. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test elicited a statistically significant change in English speaking anxiety of students (z=-2.660, p=.008, r=-.84); that is, their anxiety level decreased. The students’ speaking exam grade average was found to be 12.68 out of 15 (with 84.56% success rate). Also, the results obtained from the qualitative data matched with the results of the quantitative data indicating that the asynchronous online English speaking group (AOESG) worked well to alleviate students’ English speaking anxiety and to enhance their speaking performance

Discovery of large genomic inversions using long range information.

BackgroundAlthough many algorithms are now available that aim to characterize different classes of structural variation, discovery of balanced rearrangements such as inversions remains an open problem. This is mainly due to the fact that breakpoints of such events typically lie within segmental duplications or common repeats, which reduces the mappability of short reads. The algorithms developed within the 1000 Genomes Project to identify inversions are limited to relatively short inversions, and there are currently no available algorithms to discover large inversions using high throughput sequencing technologies.ResultsHere we propose a novel algorithm, VALOR, to discover large inversions using new sequencing methods that provide long range information such as 10X Genomics linked-read sequencing, pooled clone sequencing, or other similar technologies that we commonly refer to as long range sequencing. We demonstrate the utility of VALOR using both pooled clone sequencing and 10X Genomics linked-read sequencing generated from the genome of an individual from the HapMap project (NA12878). We also provide a comprehensive comparison of VALOR against several state-of-the-art structural variation discovery algorithms that use whole genome shotgun sequencing data.ConclusionsIn this paper, we show that VALOR is able to accurately discover all previously identified and experimentally validated large inversions in the same genome with a low false discovery rate. Using VALOR, we also predicted a novel inversion, which we validated using fluorescent in situ hybridization. VALOR is available at https://github.com/BilkentCompGen/VALOR

Immobilization of catalase via adsorption into natural and modified active carbon obtained from walnut in various methods

In the present work, the immobilization of catalase into natural active carbon and active carbon modified by hydrochloric acid was carried out. In the experimental section, the effects of pH, ionic strength andreaction temperature were chosen as parameters, with experiments performed in batch system. For the optimization of immobilization procedure, values of kinetic parameters were evaluated. It was observedthat storage and operational stabilities of the enzyme increased with immobilization. The results obtained from experiments showed that active carbon is a valuable support for the adsorption of enzymes

Determining the origin of synchronous multifocal bladder cancer by exome sequencing

Background: Synchronous multifocal tumours are commonly observed in urothelial carcinomas of the bladder. The origin of these physically independent tumours has been proposed to occur by either intraluminal migration (clonal) or spontaneous transformation of multiple cells by carcinogens (field effect). It is unclear which model is correct, with several studies supporting both hypotheses. A potential cause of this uncertainty may be the small number of genetic mutations previously used to quantify the relationship between these tumours. Methods: To better understand the genetic lineage of these tumours we conducted exome sequencing of synchronous multifocal pTa urothelial bladder cancers at a high depth, using multiple samples from three patients. Results: Phylogenetic analysis of high confidence single nucleotide variants (SNV) demonstrated that the sequenced multifocal bladder cancers arose from a clonal origin in all three patients (bootstrap value 100 %). Interestingly, in two patients the most common type of tumour-associated SNVs were cytosine mutations of TpC*dinucleotides (Fisher's exact test p < 10-41), likely caused by APOBEC-mediated deamination. Incorporating these results into our clonal model, we found that TpC*type mutations occurred 2-5× more often among SNVs on the ancestral branches than in the more recent private branches (p < 10-4) suggesting that TpC*mutations largely occurred early in the development of the tumour. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that synchronous multifocal bladder cancers frequently arise from a clonal origin. Our data also suggests that APOBEC-mediated mutations occur early in the development of the tumour and may be a driver of tumourigenesis in non-muscle invasive urothelial bladder cancer. © 2015 Acar et al

Early postzygotic mutations contribute to de novo variation in a healthy monozygotic twin pair

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Background: Human de novo single-nucleotide variation (SNV) rate is estimated to range between 0.82-1.70×10-8 mutations per base per generation. However, contribution of early postzygotic mutations to the overall human de novo SNV rate is unknown. Methods: We performed deep whole-genome sequencing (more than 30-fold coverage per individual) of the whole-blood-derived DNA samples of a healthy monozygotic twin pair and their parents. We examined the genotypes of each individual simultaneously for each of the SNVs and discovered de novo SNVs regarding the timing of mutagenesis. Putative de novo SNVs were validated using Sanger-based capillary sequencing. Results: We conservatively characterised 23 de novo SNVs shared by the twin pair, 8 de novo SNVs specific to twin I and 1 de novo SNV specific to twin II. Based on the number of de novo SNVs validated by Sanger sequencing and the number of callable bases of each twin, we calculated the overall de novo SNV rate of 1.31×10-8 and 1.01×10-8 for twin I and twin II, respectively. Of these, rates of the early postzygotic de novo SNVs were estimated to be 0.34×10-8 for twin I and 0.04×10-8 for twin II. Conclusions: Early postzygotic mutations constitute a substantial proportion of de novo mutations in humans. Therefore, genome mosaicism resulting from early mitotic events during embryogenesis is common and could substantially contribute to the development of diseases

Synthesis and bioactivity studies of 1-aryl-3-(2-hydroxyethylthio)-1-propanones

A series of Mannich bases having piperidine moiety were reacted with 2-mercaptoethanol, leading to 1-aryl-3-piperidine-4-yl-1-propanone hydrochlorides. The cytotoxicity and carbonic anhydrase inhibitory activities of these new compounds were evaluated. Among the compounds, only one derivative, nitro substituent bearing EU9, showed an effective cytotoxicity, although weak tumor specificity against human oral malignant versus nonmalignant cells. The compound induced apoptosis in HSC-2 oral squamous cell carcinoma cells, but not in human gingival fibroblast. Chemical modifications of this lead are thus necessary to further investigate it as a drug candidate and to obtain compounds with a better activity profile

Delocalization Transition of a Rough Adsorption-Reaction Interface

We introduce a new kinetic interface model suitable for simulating adsorption-reaction processes which take place preferentially at surface defects such as steps and vacancies. As the average interface velocity is taken to zero, the self- affine interface with Kardar-Parisi-Zhang like scaling behaviour undergoes a delocalization transition with critical exponents that fall into a novel universality class. As the critical point is approached, the interface becomes a multi-valued, multiply connected self-similar fractal set. The scaling behaviour and critical exponents of the relevant correlation functions are determined from Monte Carlo simulations and scaling arguments.Comment: 4 pages with 6 figures, new comment