Power law in XML schema metrics

Software metrics are vital for the management of software development, especially when a new technology is being adopted and its best practice has yet to be established. XML Schema is a relatively new technology that has been widely adopted in software development. Despite its widespread usage in almost all different kinds of programming platforms, its usage patterns are not yet fully investigated. From two large sets of real XML Schemas, this thesis studies the distribution of some of the schema metrics and the structure of some large schemas. Elements in a schema are connected by their usage links. The interconnected elements can be viewed as a network of elements or a graph. This thesis also studies the structural properties of the network of the schema elements, including the scale free property, the connection of the graph, and its small world effect

Acquisition of L2 English morphology: a family case study

This study investigates the status of morphology in the L2 English of three members of a family from Indonesia (parents and their 5-year-old daughter) who have lived, studied or worked in Australia for a year. The investigation is contextualized against various learning settings in which the informants have learned English: formal instruction in the foreign language environment, naturalistic learning in the target language setting, and a mixture of formal and naturalistic learning in the target language environment. Following the developmental hierarchy for English morphology (Pienemann, 2005; Bettoni and Di Biase, forthcoming) and analytical procedures in Processability Theory (Pienemann, 1998, 2005), we found the informants were at different stages of L2 English morphology, with the father being the most advanced and the daughter the least. We also found a systematic developmental profile of each informant in line with the developmental hierarchy for English morphology. Both findings are discussed with reference to the developmental sequences and the role of learning settings in SLA

Second language acquisition of Chinese grammatical morphemes : a processability perspective

This study investigates the second language acquisition of eight Chinese grammatical morphemes by three English-speaking learners. Adopting the theoretical framework and analytical methods of Processability Theory, the study focuses on the developmental sequence of the morphemes, their points of emergence and their subsequent refinement. The influence of formal instruction is examined as a variable, and the predictive power of the processing hierarchy of the interlanguage morphology proposed in Processability Theory (Pienemann 1999) is tested. The study employed a longitudinal design. Three Australian university students enrolled in a first year intensive Chinese course participated as informants. They were all native speakers of English and had no prior knowledge of Chinese. Their interlanguage speech data was collected regularly through task-based oral interviews over a period of one academic year. A total of nine interviews were conducted with two subjects, and eight interviews with one subject. Data was then transcribed and grammatical features tagged. Data analysis was performed through distributional analysis which detailed the linguistic environment of each grammatical morpheme so that the precise way in which the form entered the interlanguage could be determined. Emergence criteria stipulated in Processability Theory were then applied to locate the acquisition point of the form. The subsequent unfolding refinement of the form was examined in terms of the expansion of its semantic, functional and linguistic contexts. The results showed that the overall morphological progression in the interlanguage of the subjects was compatible with the processing hierarchy hypothesized in Processability Theory. The morphemes emerged according to the prescribed stages. Developmental gaps occurred within a stage, but never across a stage. The overall grammatical sequencing of the syllabus was also compatible with the processing sequence. However, the learners did not respond to instruction in a neat manner and there were considerable variations both within the acquisition pattern of individual learners and among the learners. Many of these variations would defy explanation on the basis of instruction. The only clear evidence of the role of instruction was that it always preceded each emergence point. The research also showed that the developmental process of the morphemes was associated with the semantic and grammatical analysis of the lexical items in the second language, the categorial analysis by the learners of lexical items which cross-categorize, the form-functional complexities of the morpheme, the production strategies of the learners and their learning orientations

Analysis of potential sources and processes affecting ambient speciated mercury concentrations at Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia

The sources and processes affecting ambient speciated mercury concentrations including gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) and particulate bound mercury (PBM) at Kejimukujik National Park were identified using positive matrix factorization (PMF) model and principal component analysis (PCA). Four factors, Combustion Emission, Industrial Source, Photochemistry and Re-emission of Hg, and Sea Salt, were identified in both 2009 and 2010 by PMF model. The factors Photochemistry and Sea Salt were found to have the largest and smallest impact on ambient speciated mercury concentrations using PMF model, respectively. The components derived from PCA using the same dataset were largely consistent with the factors identified by PMF. A shift of factor impact on mercury concentrations between 2009 and 2010 was observed using both methods. An additional PCA component Gas-particle Partitioning of Hg was identified in 2009 according to the negative relation between GOM and PBM. After including meteorological parameters in the input of PCA, mercury wet deposition, a new factor, was identified in both years. The reproduction of observed GEM concentrations by PMF model was the best among all three mercury forms followed by PBM and GOM. The sensitivity of PMF model to the different treatment to improve the data quality were tested. Imputations and combining or excluding GOM and PBM were found to have no obvious improvement on the model performances. However, increasing the low GOM and PBM concentrations by a scaling factor were effective in improving the model performances. Different treatments of input data had little impacts on factor profiles but factor contributions to Hg were affected to some extent

Eight Months Later: A Family Case Study of L2 Acquisition of English Morphology

This is a follow-up of our 2010 family case study (Zhang & Widyastuti, 2010) in which we examined the acquisition of L2 English morphology by three members of an Indonesian family who had been living, working and studying in Australia for 12 months. In this paper, we will present a fresh set of data collected after a further 8 months in order to build a longitudinal picture of their L2 English morphology development. We will focus on the Mother and her 6- year-old Daughter, whose L2 English morphology, in 2010, was found to be at the beginning and post-beginning stages as measured by the ‘emergence criterion’ (Pienemann, 1998). We are interested in the extent of progress they had made since, and whether the L2 English grammatical morphology had been fully established by the end of their 20 months of residence in Australia. Our analysis of their speech data showed that while there was indeed progress, the progress was not comprehensive and the acquisition was incomplete. We discuss the finding from the perspective of immersion, home environment, and affective factors in L2 grammatical development, in particularly, in child L2 learners. The results of the study may inform language professionals and parents of young child L2 learners of the lengthy period required as well as the type of optimal L2 environment for their L2 grammatical development

Responses of Postharvest Broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica) florets to controlled atmospheres with varying CO2/O2 levels at different temperature

Controlled atmospheres (CA) have been widely used in postharvest storage off ruits and vegetables. The gasc ompositions of common CA are consisted of O2, CO2 and N2, postharvest storage condition with gas combination of O2 and CO2 was rarely studied. In this research, the effects of CA with  different CO2/O2 levels, i.e. 70%O2+30%CO2, 60%O2+40%CO2, 50%O2+50%CO2, 40%O2+60%CO2, 30%O2+70%CO2, and air (control) on the storage life andproperties of broccoli during storage were investigated at different temperatures including 0, 10 and 20°C. Results showed that the storage period of air treatments at 0, 10 and 20°C was 21, 12, and 4d. Treatments with 60%O2+40%CO2 at 0°C, 50%O2+50%CO2 at 10°C, and 40%O2+60%CO2 at 20°Cmaximum inhibited respiration rate and ethylene production, maintain chlorophyll and ascorbic acid content, reduced the accumulation of acetaldehyde and ethanol, and extended thestorage life of broccoli florets to 49,31, and 14d. compared to 21d at 0°C, 12dat 10°C and 4d at 20°C in air-treated broccoli. These results indicated that an appropriate CA with O2/CO2 might be a potential strategy for postharvest storage of broccoli heads, and the appropriate proportion of O2 and CO2 might vary with different temperature

Exosome-Based Molecular Transfer Activity of Macrophage-Like Cells Involves Viability of Oral Carcinoma Cells: Size Exclusion Chromatography and Concentration Filter Method

Extracellular vesicles (EV) heterogeneity is a crucial issue in biology and medicine. In addition, tumor-associated macrophages are key components in cancer microenvironment and immunology. We developed a combination method of size exclusion chromatography and concentration filters (SEC-CF) and aimed to characterize different EV types by their size, cargo types, and functions. A human monocytic leukemia cell line THP-1 was differentiated to CD14-positive macrophage-like cells by stimulation with PMA (phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate) but not M1 or M2 types. Using the SEC-CF method, the following five EV types were fractionated from the culture supernatant of macrophage-like cells: (i) rare large EVs (500-3000 nm) reminiscent of apoptosomes, (ii) EVs (100-500 nm) reminiscent of microvesicles (or microparticles), (iii) EVs (80-300 nm) containing CD9-positive large exosomes (EXO-L), (iv) EVs (20-200 nm) containing unidentified vesicles/particles, and (v) EVs (10-70 nm) containing CD63/HSP90-positive small exosomes (EXO-S) and particles. For a molecular transfer assay, we developed a THP-1-based stable cell line producing a GFP-fused palmitoylation signal (palmGFP) associated with the membrane. The THP1/palmGFP cells were differentiated into macrophages producing palmGFP-contained EVs. The macrophage/palmGFP-secreted EXO-S and EXO-L efficiently transferred the palmGFP to receiver human oral carcinoma cells (HSC-3/palmTomato), as compared to other EV types. In addition, the macrophage-secreted EXO-S and EXO-L significantly reduced the cell viability (ATP content) in oral carcinoma cells. Taken together, the SEC-CF method is useful for the purification of large and small exosomes with higher molecular transfer activities, enabling efficient molecular delivery to target cells

Knockout of MMP3 Weakens Solid Tumor Organoids and Cancer Extracellular Vesicles

The tumor organoid (tumoroid) model in three-dimensional (3D) culture systems has been developed to reflect more closely the in vivo tumors than 2D-cultured tumor cells. Notably, extracellular vesicles (EVs) are efficiently collectible from the culture supernatant of gel-free tumoroids. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 3 is a multi-functional factor playing crucial roles in tumor progression. However, roles of MMP3 within tumor growth and EVs have not unveiled. Here, we investigated the protumorigenic roles of MMP3 on integrities of tumoroids and EVs. We generated MMP3-knockout (KO) cells using the CRISPR/Cas9 system from rapidly metastatic LuM1 tumor cells. Moreover, we established fluorescent cell lines with palmitoylation signal-fused fluorescent proteins (tdTomato and enhanced GFP). Then we confirmed the exchange of EVs between cellular populations and tumoroids. LuM1-tumoroids released large EVs (200-1000 nm) and small EVs (50-200 nm) while the knockout of MMP3 resulted in the additional release of broken EVs from tumoroids. The loss of MMP3 led to a significant reduction in tumoroid size and the development of the necrotic area within tumoroids. MMP3 and CD9 (a category-1 EV marker tetraspanin protein) were significantly down-regulated in MMP3-KO cells and their EV fraction. Moreover, CD63, another member of the tetraspanin family, was significantly reduced only in the EVs fractions of the MMP3-KO cells compared to their counterpart. These weakened phenotypes of MMP3-KO were markedly rescued by the addition of MMP3-rich EVs or conditioned medium (CM) collected from LuM1-tumoroids, which caused a dramatic rise in the expression of MMP3, CD9, and Ki-67 (a marker of proliferating cells) in the MMP3-null/CD9-low tumoroids. Notably, MMP3 enriched in tumoroids-derived EVs and CM deeply penetrated recipient MMP3-KO tumoroids, resulting in a remarkable enlargement of solid tumoroids, while MMP3-null EVs did not. These data demonstrate that EVs can mediate molecular transfer of MMP3, resulting in increasing the proliferation and tumorigenesis, indicating crucial roles of MMP3 in tumor progression

宋代における塩引の研究 : その成果と課題

一. はじめに　二. 宋代の塩政　1. 河北路の塩政　2. 准南路の塩政　三. 塩交引(塩引)の経済的意義　1. 塩交引の意義　2. 塩交引と商業資本　3. 范祥の鈔法　四. おわりに