Competing Perspectives on Water Pollution for High School Students: A Q-Method Approach and Extended AI-Based Responses

High school environmental education faces significant challenges from diverse competing perspectives, ranging from sustainability advocates to political conflicts and economic interests.  This study critiques existing research on environmental education based on two key points: First, the conventional approach to high school environmental education predominantly concentrates on nature-related aspects.  Past research tends to overlook political, economic, and community dimensions, essentially providing an incomplete view of environmental education education.  Secondly, little empirical research has compared human perspectives on environmental education with generative AI-based viewpoints.  This comparison can contribute to enhancing the holistic view of environmental education by incorporating diverse human perspectives alongside AI-generated responses.  This study employs the Q-methodology that can uncover latent viewpoints by analyzing diverse opinions.  Moreover, this study attempts to compare the differences and similarities of responses from generative AI chatbots and humans.  While some issues receive recognition from both humans and AI, others are acknowledged only by humans.  Combining the insights from the Q-methodology and the comparison of human  and AI chatbot responses, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of water-related environmental education and perspectives &nbsp

Study of the Top-quark Pair Production in Association with a Bottom-quark Pair from Fast Simulations at the LHC

A large number of top quarks will be produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for Run II period. This will allow us to measure the rare processes from the top sector in great details. We present the study of the top-quark pair production in association with a bottom-quark pair (ttbb) from fast simulations for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment. The differential distributions of ttbb are compared with the top-quark pair production with two additional jets (ttjj) and with the production in association with the Higgs (ttH), where the Higgs decays to a bottom-quark pair. The significances of ttbb process in the dileptonic and semileptonic decay mode are calculated with the data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 10 fb-1, which is foreseen to be collected in the early Run II period. This study will be an important input in searching for new physics beyond the standard model as well as in searching for ttH process where the Yukawa coupling with the top quark can be directly measured.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure

New Approach of Anti-VEGF Agents for Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of visual loss in older population. Angiogenesis is an important factor associated with the development of CNV due to AMD. Treatment of CNV with intravitreal anti-VEGF monotherapy is currently the standard of care. However, not all patients respond to monotherapy, and modified anti-VEGF treatment regimen and combination therapy may target reducing treatment frequency or improving visual outcome. This paper reviews the many clinical trials that have been performed utilizing several treatment regimens. While many trials have shown that this variable therapy is justifiable, further study is required to determine correct regimens and dosage

Electrogenic transport and K(+) ion channel expression by the human endolymphatic sac epithelium.

The endolymphatic sac (ES) is a cystic organ that is a part of the inner ear and is connected to the cochlea and vestibule. The ES is thought to be involved in inner ear ion homeostasis and fluid volume regulation for the maintenance of hearing and balance function. Many ion channels, transporters, and exchangers have been identified in the ES luminal epithelium, mainly in animal studies, but there has been no functional study investigating ion transport using human ES tissue. We designed the first functional experiments on electrogenic transport in human ES and investigated the contribution of K(+) channels in the electrogenic transport, which has been rarely identified, even in animal studies, using electrophysiological/pharmacological and molecular biological methods. As a result, we identified functional and molecular evidence for the essential participation of K(+) channels in the electrogenic transport of human ES epithelium. The identified K(+) channels involved in the electrogenic transport were KCNN2, KCNJ14, KCNK2, and KCNK6, and the K(+) transports via those channels are thought to play an important role in the maintenance of the unique ionic milieu of the inner ear fluid

Decomposing Organizational Productivity Changes in Acute Care Hospitals in Tennessee, 2002-2006: A Malmquist Approach

After the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the survival and the productivity of hospitals are a critical topic in health care management. This study measured the productivity of acute care hospitals in Tennessee, applying the DEA-Malmquist index, which can be decomposed into a technical efficiency and technological change index in relation to factors such as size, ownership, location, and network. This draws on utilization data and financial statements from 144 acute care hospitals in Tennessee from 2002 through 2006. The analysis indicates that community hospitals in Tennessee were generally inefficient. The community hospitals in Tennessee suffered both with respect to technological change and technical efficiency, with the latter playing a relatively more important role. This study finds the bigger-sized, urban, public or nonprofit, strategically allied hospitals to be more productive relatively speaking and suggests that community hospitals in Tennessee need to upsize their facilities or make other adjustments, such as changing their cost structure and the way they operate their facility or bringing in new management to increase productivity. Government and health policy makers also need to develop and enact health policies to ensure that hospitals are both able to make technical progress and improve efficiency and thereby increase productivity.This paper was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2010-330-B00031 and NRF-2012-330-B00194)

Serum Levels of LL-37 and Inflammatory Cytokines in Plaque and Guttate Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. It is assumed that the plaque phenotype of psoriasis is associated with T helper (Th) 1 immune response activation, while the guttate phenotype is associated with the Th17 immune response. Previous investigations of differences in the serum levels of cytokines relative to the clinical psoriatic phenotype have yielded conflicting results. This study compared the levels of circulating inflammatory cytokines and LL-37 relative to the morphological phenotype in patients with psoriasis. Seventy-four age-matched patients with psoriasis (32 with guttate psoriasis and 42 with plaque psoriasis) and 12 healthy controls were included. A multiplex cytokine assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used to measure levels of Th1- and Th17-derived cytokines and LL-37, respectively. Circulating levels of interferon- (IFN)-γ, interleukin- (IL)-1RA, IL-2, and IL-23, and LL-37 were significantly higher in patients with psoriasis than in healthy controls. However, the serum levels of inflammatory cytokines (IL-7, IL-22, and IL-23) and LL-37 did not differ significantly between the guttate and plaque phenotypes of psoriasis. There was a positive correlation between serum inflammatory cytokine levels and the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score. The findings of this study suggest that the serum levels of inflammatory cytokines reflect the disease activity rather than determine the morphological phenotype