Measuring second language vocabulary knowledge using a temporal method

The present study addressed the role of speed as a factor in tests of second language (L2) vocabulary knowledge, presupposing that speed of performance is important in actual language use. Research questions were: (a) Do learners with a larger vocabulary size answer faster on an L2 vocabulary breadth test than smaller vocabulary sized learners?; (b) Are there systematic increases in response time (RT) as word frequency decreases in an L2 vocabulary breadth test?; and (c) Do RTs of correct responses on an L2 vocabulary breadth test predict accurate and quick L2 reading? Participants were 24 Japanese university students. Results indicated that (a) vocabulary size facilitated lexical accessibility, (b) high frequency words were accessed more quickly but this was only observable after reaching a certain threshold of vocabulary size, and (c) vocabulary score (accuracy) alone was not associated with accurate and quick reading but vocabulary RT (accuracy + speed) was

Safety technologies and people/organizations activities for the next generation : Safety management and safety information sharing system for supporting industrial safety

Ensuring a sustainable safety management system is a global issue and a social demand. In recent years, Risk Based Safety Management (RBSM) has become mainstream as a comprehensive management system for handling process safety in Oil & Gas industries. Nowadays, UK Safety Case concept was well established, and this concept is widely applied in various industries. Through this process, logical safety assurance approach was developed and introduced, named CAE (Claims, Arguments, and Evidences) . In Japan, Oil & Gas industry operators keen to apply Risk Based Process Safety Management which is suggested by AIChE CCPS. However, actual implementation of RBPS is not straightforward since detailed approach is not well defined yet. The UK Nuclear Industry\u27s Safety Case approach may be able to assist implementing Risk Based Process Safety Management System in the Japanese O&G industry. Furthermore, it has been developing work support and information sharing technologies in the industrial field by introducing DX (Digital Transformation) technology. This paper introduces topics to improve industrial safety using these two approaches, and discusses safety technologies and people / organizations that will support the next generation of plants

Early Spectroscopy of the 2010 Outburst of U Scorpii

We present early spectroscopy of the recurrent nova U~Sco during the outburst in 2010. We successfully obtained time-series spectra at $t_{\rm d}=$0.37--0.44~d, where $t_{\rm d}$ denotes the time from the discovery of the present outburst. This is the first time-resolved spectroscopy on the first night of U Sco outbursts. At $t_{\rm d}\sim 0.4$~d the H$\alpha$ line consists of a blue-shifted ($-5000$ km s$^{-1}$) narrow absorption component and a wide emission component having triple peaks, a blue ($\sim -3000$ km s$^{-1}$), a central ($\sim 0$ km s$^{-1}$) and a red ($\sim +3000$ km s$^{-1}$) ones. The blue and red peaks developed more rapidly than the central one during the first night. This rapid variation would be caused by the growth of aspherical wind produced during the earliest stage of the outburst. At $t_{\rm d}=1.4$~d the H$\alpha$ line has a nearly flat-topped profile with weak blue and red peaks at $\sim \pm 3000$ km s$^{-1}$. This profile can be attributed to a nearly spherical shell, while the asphericity growing on the first night still remains. The wind asphericity is less significant after $t_{\rm d}=9$ d.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication of PASJ Letter

PERSISTENT ORGANOCHLORINE RESIDUES IN HUMAN BREAST MILK FROM VIETNAM : CONTAMINATION, ACCUMULATION KINETICS AND RISK ASSESSMENT

Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart

Endobronchial Argon Plasma Coagulation for the Palliation of Recurrent Tracheobronchial Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma

This is a non-final version of an article published in final form in Journal of Bronchology, 14(4):278-280, October 2007.The standard treatment of adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) of the airway is surgery, if possible, because survival rate is better than other treatments including radiotherapy. Although ACC shows frequent recurrence during the long-term follow-up unless there has been a complete resection (negative surgical margin), no further treatments are recommended. This report describes how argon plasma coagulation using flexible bronchoscopy has been successfully employed in the treatment of ACC after conventional therapy in 1 case of recurrence after surgery and 2 cases of inoperable patients. All of the patients are alive and healthy more than 6 years after diagnosis.ArticleJournal of Bronchology. 14(4):278-280 (2007)journal articl

Endothelial-mesenchymal transition in human atrial fibrillation

Background: Atrial fibrosis is a hallmark of atrial structural remodeling leading to the persistence of atrial fibrillation. Although fibroblasts play a major role in atrial fibrosis, their source in the adult atrium is unclear. We tested the hypothesis that endothelial cells contribute to fibroblast accumulation through an endothelial-mesenchymal transition in the atrium of patients with atrial fibrillation. Methods and results: The study group consisted of patients with atrial fibrillation and valvular disease or atrial septal defect who underwent left atrial appendectomy during cardiac surgery (n =38). The amount of fibrotic depositions in the left atrium positively correlated with left atrial dimension. Furthermore, snail and S100A4, indicative of endothelial-mesenchymal transition, were quantified in the left atrium using western blot analysis, which showed statistically significant correlations with left atrial dimension. Immunofluorescence assay of the left atrial tissue identified snail and S100A4 being expressed within the endocardium which is composed of CD31+ cells. The snail-positive endocardium also showed the expression of membrane type 1-matrix metalloproteinase. Immunofluorescence multi-labeling experiments identified that heat shock protein 47, prolyl-4-hydroxylase, and procollagen type 1 co-localized with snail and S100A4 within the endothelial cells of the left atrium, indicating the mesenchymal phenotype to produce collagen. Conclusions: In this study, we showed that the endothelial-mesenchymal transition occurs in the atrium of patients with atrial fibrillation. This observation should help in constructing a novel therapeutic approach for preventing atrial structural remodeling. © 2016 Japanese College of Cardiology

Comprehensive electrocardiographic diagnosis based on deep learning

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide, and coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major contributor. Early-stage CAD can progress if undiagnosed and left untreated, leading to myocardial infarction (MI) that may induce irreversible heart muscle damage, resulting in heart chamber remodeling and eventual congestive heart failure (CHF). Electrocardiography (ECG) signals can be useful to detect established MI, and may also be helpful for early diagnosis of CAD. For the latter especially, the ECG perturbations can be subtle and potentially misclassified on manual interpretation and/or when analyzed by traditional algorithms found in ECG instrumentation. For automated diagnostic systems (ADS), deep learning techniques are favored over conventional machine learning techniques, due to the automatic feature extraction and selection processes involved. This paper highlights various deep learning algorithms exploited for the classification of ECG signals into CAD, MI, and CHF conditions. The Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), followed by combined CNN and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models, appear to be the most useful architectures for classification. A 16-layer LSTM model was developed in our study and validated using 10-fold cross validation. A classification accuracy of 98.5% was achieved. Our proposed model has the potential to be a useful diagnostic tool in hospitals for the classification of abnormal ECG signals

日本語歴史コーパスの現代語辞書における未知語義判定システム

Ibaraki UniversityIbaraki UniversityNational Institute for Japanese Language and LinguisticsIbaraki UniversityIbaraki University会議名: 言語資源活用ワークショップ2018, 開催地: 国立国語研究所, 会期: 2018年9月4日-5日, 主催: 国立国語研究所 コーパス開発センター日本語歴史コーパス中の単語には、現代語と同様の意味で扱われている単語と、古語特有の意味を持つ単語がある。本研究では、この現代語にはない古語特有の単語の語義（言葉の意味）を未知語義と定義して、日本語歴史コーパス中から、未知語義を検出するシステムの提案を行う。具体的には、日本語歴史コーパス中の単語を、(1)現代の分類語彙表でその単語の分類番号として登録されている語義をもつ語、(2)現代の分類語彙表にある語義をもつが、現在その語義は、その言葉の語義として分類語彙表は登録されていない語、(3)その語義の定義が現代の分類語彙表にないため、分類番号が振られていない語、の3種類にクラス分けする。実験では、各単語について、出現書字形や見出しなどの8要素を基本素性として用いた。また、別の日本語歴史コーパスからword2vecを用いて、3種類の単語の分散表現のベクトル(50次元、100次元、200次元)を作成し、素性として加えた。それぞれSVMを用いて正解率を比較したところ、日本語歴史コーパス中の未知語義の検出において、単語の分散表現のベクトルが正解率を向上させることが分かった