Defining and Using Collaboration Patterns for Software Process Development

International audienceCollaboration patterns are an efficient way to define, reuse and enact collaborative software development processes. We propose an approach to define and apply collaboration patterns at modelling, instantiation or execution time. Our patterns, inspired from workflow patterns, are described in CMSPEM, a Process Modelling Language developed in our team. In this paper, we briefly describe the CMSPEM metamodel and focus our presentation on two collaboration patterns: Duplicate in Sequence with Multiple Actors, Duplicate in Parallel with Multiple Actors and Merge. The approach is illustrated by a case study concerning the collaborative process “Review a deliverable

Hematological parameters of red tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) fed lemongrass essential oil (Cymbopogon citratus) after challenge with Streptococcus agalactiae

The study involved feeding lemongrass essential oil (LEO) supplements to red tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) at concentrations including Control - 0 mg, T1 – 200 mg, T2 – 300 mg, and T3 – 400 mg per kg of feed. The research investigated changes in hematological (HCT, Hb, RBC, WBC & thrombocytes) and erythrocyte’s morphological (major/minor axis; perimeter, and area of erythrocyte) parameters before infection, 5- and 10-days post-infection (DPI). According to analytical findings, a diet containing LEO enhanced the synthesis of both erythrocytes and leukocytes in the peripheral blood of red tilapia after 20 days of being used. Therefore, the indicators of this group of fish showed better performance than those that did not use LEO supplement five days after bacterial infection. Fish fed 200 mg/kg of LEO after being challenged with S. agalactiae for ten days showed an improved effect on red blood cell production. White blood cells decreased at all concentrations because of citral’s immunomodulatory properties

IELTS Reading: Perceived Challenges and Strategies by Vietnamese University English Majors

This study focused on identifying Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ perception of their challenges in doing the IELTS reading test and corresponding strategies to cope with these challenges. The study involved eighty-nine English majors at Can Tho University, and data were collected via a questionnaire administered to all participants and interviews conducted with 10 random students. The results showed that Vietnamese EFL students encountered a number of challenges in doing IELTS reading tests, among which lack of vocabulary and time constraint for the tests were two most noticeable difficulties. The results also revealed that the students in the study frequently employed text related, question related, and general practical strategies for doing the reading test in IELTS. Based on the findings, more opportunities to expose students to tests as well as an integration of instruction on test-taking  strategies were suggested. Keywords: EFL Vietnamese students, IELTS reading test, reading strategies, test-taking techniques DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-28-03 Publication date:October 31st 202

THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN STUDENTS’ SELF-CONFIDENCE AND THEIR ENGLISH-SPEAKING PERFORMANCE: A CASE STUDY OF ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM

This research aimed to discover the relationships between students' self-confidence and their English-speaking performance. In our research, self-confidence was divided into three components which are affective confidence, behavioral confidence, and cognitive confidence. In addition, speaking performance included eight components which are vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency, coherence, comprehension, task, and content. A sample of 150 English-majored students at a university in Vietnam was surveyed in this study by using a convenience sampling technique, and then conducting semi-structured interviews to seek for qualitative information from 10 participants out of 150. The result from our study showed that there are significant relationships between the two variables. The more confident the students are, the more accomplished they would be in the presenting procedure since they have superior cognition and understand how to modify their learning methods to build a comprehensive individual in learning English language. We expect that these findings can help students adjust their learning methods to improve their self-confidence as well as English speaking performance and by that way, universities can add more speaking-related subjects so that students can have more opportunities to speak and learn more speaking skills.  Article visualizations

Value of follow-up angiography: additional interventions in patients undergoing catheter-directed thrombolysis for massive and submassive pulmonary embolism

PURPOSECatheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) is an emerging, minimally invasive treatment for patients with massive and submassive pulmonary embolism (PE). The value of follow-up pulmonary angiography for evaluating improvement after CDT is limited by a paucity of large studies assessing its utility and role for additional intervention. The purpose of our study was to assess the role of next-day pulmonary angiography for CDT in patients with acute massive and submassive PE undergoing continuous pulmonary arterial pressure monitoring, and secondarily, determine factors that are correlated with a need for further therapy.METHODSPatients who underwent CDT from 2006 to 2016 for massive and submassive PE were reviewed. Patient demographics, comorbidities, preprocedural lab results, noninvasive hemodynamic studies, and technical variables were recorded. Among patients receiving next-day angiography, those requiring further therapy, defined as continued CDT beyond the standard 24 hours (with or without catheter repositioning or exchange) and/or mechanical or suction thrombectomy were contrasted with those not requiring additional therapy to assess for the role of angiography and patient factors that correlate with need for further therapy.RESULTSThirty-two patients underwent CDT for massive (n=14) and submassive (n=18) PE. Eighteen (56.3%) were male, 14 (43.7%) were Caucasian, 18 (56.3%) were African-American, with a mean age of 66.2 years (range, 26–87 years). Of the 27 (84.4%) patients that underwent next-day pulmonary angiography, 16 (59.3%) did not require additional therapy and 11 (40.7%) did require additional therapy. Additional therapy included extended CDT beyond 24 hours (n=4), mechanical/suction thrombectomy (n=5), or both extended CDT and mechanical/suction thrombectomy (n=2). Younger age (50.1 vs. 62.2 years, P = 0.039) was correlated with a need for further therapy. Initial (40.7 vs. 34.8 mmHg, P = 0.248), next-day (31.5 vs. 26.3 mmHg, P = 0.259), and interval change (4.6 vs. 8.0 mmHg, P = 0.669) in pulmonary artery pressures were not statistically significant between patient subsets. Preprocedural right ventricular/left ventricular ratio (RV/LV) also did not differ significantly (1.74 vs. 1.75, P = 0.961). Thirty-day mortality was comparable (2 vs. 1, P = 0.332).CONCLUSIONNext-day pulmonary angiography is a useful method to identify patients needing additional therapy including extended CDT and/or mechanical or suction thrombectomy in acute PE management. Pulmonary arterial pressures and preprocedural RV/LV ratios were not found to be predicative of those requiring further intervention

Defect-engineered metal-organic frameworks (MOF-808) towards the improved adsorptive removal of organic dyes and chromium (vi) species from water

In this work, two defective zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks (Zr-MOFs), MOF-808-OH and MOF-808-NH2, were synthesized by partially replacing the 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate building block with 5-hydroxyisophthalate and 5-aminoisophthalate, respectively. The structural features of the defective materials were analyzed by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nitrogen physisorption at 77 K, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Importantly, the number of defect sites determined via proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) analysis of the digested materials was approximately 7 mol% for MOF-808-OH and 3 mol% for MOF-808-NH2. The presence of the defect sites increased the number of acidic centers on Zr-clusters originating from missing-linker nodes which accounted for a remarkable adsorption capacity towards various anionic organic dyes and chromium (vi) species. Compared to standard MOF-808, the defect-engineered ones showed significant increments by 30-60% in trapping capacity for anionic contaminants including sunset yellow, quinoline yellow, methyl orange, and potassium dichromate, while they exhibited modest improvements by 5-15% in the removal of cationic dyes, namely malachite green and methylene blue

A Special Tribute to Anne Frank of the Southeast Asian Archive at the University of California, Irvine

Special tributes in honor of Anne Frank for her service to the field through the Southeast Asian Archive at UC, Irvine

Cider Production from King Mandarin (Citrus nobilis Lour.) and Its Antioxidant Activity

With the necessity of diversifying alcoholic beverages, cider has become a kind of drink that can fulfill this demand. This is because the cider will be diversified depending on the kinds of fruit that are chosen to be used for the cider fermentation. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effects of dilution ratio, Brix, pH, and yeast concentration on the production of cider from king mandarin (Citrus nobilis Lour.), and to evaluate the analytical characteristics and antioxidant activity of the product. After the investigation, it can be claimed that the dilution of the juice causes the ethanol content to decrease, whereas the increase of Brix, pH, and yeast concentration makes the ethanol content increase. However, the proportional increase in the ethanol content with Brix, pH, and yeast concentration has its limitations. Specifically, when the Brix and the yeast concentrations were, respectively, higher than 16°Brix and 0.04%, the ethanol content tended to maintain the same. This is also the same when the pH was lower than 4.5. In addition, by using the DPPH and ABTS●+ methods, the antioxidant activity of cider is estimated to be lower than the one of the juice before fermentation, which is smaller than 3.78 times for the DPPH method and 3.76 times for the ABTS●+ method

Simple and effective generation of transgene-free induced pluripotent stem cells using an auto-erasable Sendai virus vector responding to microRNA-302

Transgene-free induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are valuable for both basic research and potential clinical applications. We previously reported that a replication-defective and persistent Sendai virus (SeVdp) vector harboring four reprogramming factors (SeVdp-iPS) can efficiently induce generation of transgene-free iPSCs. This vector can express all four factors stably and simultaneously without chromosomal integration and can be eliminated completely from reprogrammed cells by suppressing vector-derived RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Here, we describe an improved SeVdp-iPS vector (SeVdp(KOSM)302L) that is automatically erased in response to microRNA-302 (miR-302), uniquely expressed in pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). Gene expression and genome replication of the SeVdp-302L vector, which contains miRNA-302a target sequences at the 3′ untranslated region of L mRNA, are strongly suppressed in PSCs. Consequently, SeVdp(KOSM)302L induces expression of reprogramming factors in somatic cells, while it is automatically erased from cells successfully reprogrammed to express miR-302. As this vector can reprogram somatic cells into transgene-free iPSCs without the aid of exogenous short interfering RNA (siRNA), the results we present here demonstrate that this vector may become an invaluable tool for the generation of human iPSCs for future clinical applications