Study on “Chinese Cultural Aphasia” of Non-English Majors

Learning language is, as a matter of fact, a process of learning its culture.  However, current college English language teaching focusses on Western culture, while Chinese culture is being neglected. Therefore, many college students cannot accurately express words or sentences about Chinese culture in English. The study found that more than half of the non-English majors have difficulty in expressing some words or sentences which connect with Chinese culture in English. The author presents some of the causes of this phenomenon and puts forward some relevant strategies to solve the “Chinese Cultural Aphasia”

Impacts of Peer Response on the Cultivation of English Writing Ability

There are some common problems existing in the cultivation of university students’ English writing ability, such as college students’ low writing ability, the strong dependence of English writing, the lack of communication between teachers and students, the shortage of English teachers, and the longtime of teachers’ essay scoring. The effective reforms must be adopted in order to change the present cultivation situation of university students’ English writing ability. Peer response has several advantages in improving the cultivation models of English writing ability and can produce important impacts on the cultivation of university students’ English writing ability. The study explores the impacts from the assessment of English writing, improving students’ cognitive development, cultivating students’ critical thinking and stimulating students’ writing activity

Reveal the Mathematical Structures of Honeyword Security Metrics

Honeyword is a representative ``honey" technique to detect intruders by luring them with decoy data. This kind of honey technique blends a primary object (from distribution $P$) with decoy samples (from distribution $Q$). In this research, we focus on two key Honeyword security metrics: the flatness function and the success-number function. Previous researchers are engaged in designing experimental methods to estimate their values. We've derived theoretical formulas on both metrics of the strongest $\mathcal{A}$ using the optimal guessing strategy, marking a first in the field. The mathematical structures of these metrics are intriguing: the flatness function has an expression as $\epsilon(i)=\sum_{j=1}^{i}\int_{0}^{+\infty}\tbinom{k-1}{j-1} f(x)G^{k-j}(x)(1-G(x))^{j-1}dx$. In particular, the most important one, $\epsilon(1)$ is $\frac{1}{k}(M-\int_{0}^{M}G^k(x)dx)+b$, where $M=\max_{x: Q(x)\neq 0}\frac{P(x)}{Q(x)}$, $b=\sum_{x: Q(x)=0}P(x)$, and $G$ is a cumulative distribution function derived from $P$ and $Q$. This formula provides a criterion to compare different honey distributions: the one with smaller $M$ and $b$ is more satisfactory. The mathematical structure of the success-number function is a series of convolutions with beta distribution kernels: $\lambda_U(i)=U\sum_{j=1}^{i}\int_{\frac{1}{k}}^{1} \frac{\phi(x)}{1-\phi(x)} \tbinom{U-1}{j-1} x^{U-j}(1-x)^{j-1}dx$, where $U$ is the number of users in the system and $\phi(x)$ is a monotonically increasing function. For further elaboration, we made some representative calculations. Our findings offer insights into security assessments for Honeyword and similar honey techniques, contributing to enhanced security measures in these systems

Certificateless public auditing with data privacy preserving for cloud-based smart grid data

As the promising next generation power system, smart grid can collect and analyze the grid information in real time, which greatly improves the reliability and efficiency of the grid. However, as smart grid coverage expands, more and more data is being collected. To store and manage the massive amount of smart grid data, the data owners choose to upload the grid data to the cloud for storage and regularly check the integrity of their data. However, traditional public auditing schemes are mostly based on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) or Identity Based Cryptography (IBC) system, which will lead to complicated certificate management and inherent key escrow problems. We propose a certificateless public auditing scheme for cloud-based smart grid data, which can avoid the above two problems. In order to prevent the disclosure of the private data collected by the smart grid during the phase of auditing, we use the random masking technology to protect data privacy. The security analysis and the performance evaluation show that the proposed scheme is secure and efficient

GlycoPep MassList: Software to Generate Massive Inclusion Lists for Glycopeptide Analyses

Protein glycosylation drives many biological processes and serves as markers for disease; therefore, the development of tools to study glycosylation is an essential and growing area of research. Mass spectrometry can be used to identify both the glycans of interest and the glycosylation sites to which those glycans are attached, when proteins are proteolytically digested and their glycopeptides are analyzed by a combination of high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) methods. One major challenge in these experiments is collecting the requisite MS/MS data. The digested glycopeptides are often present in complex mixtures and in low abundance, and the most commonly used approach to collect MS/MS data on these species is data-dependent acquisition (DDA), where only the most intense precursor ions trigger MS/MS. DDA results in limited glycopeptide coverage. Semi-targeted data acquisition is an alternative experimental approach that can alleviate this difficulty. However, due to the massive heterogeneity of glycopeptides, it is not obvious how to expediently generate inclusion lists for these types of analyses. To solve this problem, we developed the software tool GlycoPep MassList, which can be used to generate inclusion lists for liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) experiments. The utility of the software was tested by conducting comparisons between semi-targeted and untargeted data-dependent analysis experiments on a variety of proteins, including IgG, a protein whose glycosylation must be characterized during its production as a biotherapeutic. When the GlycoPep MassList software was used to generate inclusion lists for LC-MS/MS experiments, more unique glycopeptides were selected for fragmentation. Generally, ∼30 % more unique glycopeptides can be analyzed per protein, in the simplest cases, with low background. In cases where background ions from proteins or other interferents are high, usage of an inclusion list is even more advantageous. The software is freely publically accessible

The RNA m6A writer METTL3 in tumor microenvironment: emerging roles and therapeutic implications

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a heterogeneous ecosystem comprising cancer cells, immune cells, stromal cells, and various non-cellular components, all of which play critical roles in controlling tumor progression and response to immunotherapies. Methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3), the core component of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) writer, is frequently associated with abnormalities in the m6A epitranscriptome in different cancer types, impacting both cancer cells and the surrounding TME. While the impact of METTL3 on cancer cells has been extensively reviewed, its roles in TME and anti-cancer immunity have not been comprehensively summarized. This review aims to systematically summarize the functions of METTL3 in TME, particularly its effects on tumor-infiltrating immune cells. We also elaborate on the underlying m6A-dependent mechanism. Additionally, we discuss ongoing endeavors towards developing METTL3 inhibitors, as well as the potential of targeting METTL3 to bolster the efficacy of immunotherapy

Evaluation of Peroxidase in Herbal Medicines Based on an Electrochemical Sensor

Peroxidases are species-specific. Differences in peroxidase can objectively reflect the genetics among species. The use of peroxidase to assist in species identification is relatively simple and effective. In this work, we proposed a graphene-modified electrode. This electrode can amplify the signal of electrocatalytic reduction of hydrogen peroxide. Since peroxidase can catalyze the reduction of hydrogen peroxide, this signal can be used as an indicator to demonstrate the content of peroxidase in different plant tissues. Twelve herbal medicines were selected for our study. The results show that this electrochemical-based detection technique was comparable to colorimetric method in terms of accuracy

UTR introns, antisense RNA and differentially spliced transcripts between Plasmodium yoelii subspecies

Additional file 1. Evaluation of RNA quality from the two NSM parasite samples in agarose gel (a), and a flow chart of data processing and analysis (b)

Using datamining approaches to selectacupoints in acupuncture and Moxibustion for knee osteoarthritis

Background: Acupuncture and moxibustion are traditional Chinese medicine therapies commonly used to treat knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Although acupoint selection affects the effectiveness of acupuncture and moxibustion, the basic rules of acupoint selection are little understood and there is a lack of guidelines regarding prescription. In this study, we used data mining approaches to investigate the principles of acupoint selection and provide a framework for formulation prescription in acupuncture and moxibustion for clinical treatment of KOA.Materials and Methods: PubMed, Cochrane Library, Science Citation Index, Wanfang database, VIP database, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure were searched for randomized controlled clinical trials published in English or Chinese from January 1, 2009 to October 1, 2015 evaluating the effect of acupuncture and moxibustion on KOA. Databases were established. Frequency statistics and association rule were used to extract and analyze the data.Results: A total of 876 acupuncture prescriptions and 122 acupoints were included in the analysis. Acupoints were concentrated in acupoints of fourteen meridians. The most frequently used acupoints were Dubi (ST35), Neixiyan (EX-LE4), Yanglingquan (GB34), Xuehai (SP10), Liangqiu (ST34), Zusanli (ST36), Yinlingquan (SP9), and Ashi point. The most frequently used meridian was Stomach Meridian of Foot-Yangming. Acupoints were concentrated mainly in the lower limbs. 42 acupoint pairs occurred frequently, and the top acupoint pairing was Dubi (ST35) and Neixiyan (EX-LE4).Conclusion: Acupoint selection and formulation prescription should focus on locally affected areas, and follow the theory of meridians, which helps establish guidelines for acupuncture and moxibustion in KOA patients.Key words: acupuncture and moxibustion, knee osteoarthritis, acupoint, data mining technolog