The effectiveness of ER on reading proficiency: A meta-analysis

A meta-analysis was performed to investigate the impact of extensive reading (ER) on reading proficiency. This study gathered 71 unique samples from 49 primary studies published from 1980 to 2014 involving a total of 5,919 participants. Effect sizes were generated separately according to two different study designs: experimental-versus-control contrasts and pre-to-post-test contrasts. Small to medium effect was found in both study designs. Moderator analysis showed growing interest in ER in the field over the last 30 years. Also, a higher effect was found in the adults than in the children and adolescents group. English as a foreign language (EFL) settings showed a higher effect than English as a second language (ESL) settings; and web-based stories had a higher effect than paper books. Finally, ER as a part of curriculum showed the highest mean effect among ER types. Suggestions are made on how to implement ER in ESL and EFL settings effectively

Factors Affecting the Health-related Quality of Life According to Age in Vulnerable Aged Men

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influenced the health-related quality of life of young-old (65-74 yr) men, old-old (75-84 yr) men, and oldest-old (85 yr or above) men in vulnerable aged received home care from public health center. Methods: The participants for this study were 318 aged Korean men living in D city. The data was collected from August to October, 2009 using structured questionnaires. Chi-square, One way ANOVA, Duncan test, Pearson's Correlation Coefficient and multiple regression with the SPSS WIN 14.0 program were used to analyze the data. Results: There were statistically significant differences among young-old, old-old, and oldest-old men regarding the health-related quality of life, health promoting behavior, IADL (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living), rehabilitation, depression, and social support. The model including variables related to physical, psychological, and social aspects of life, explained variance of the health-related quality of life of aged men differently, such as 39.6% of young-old, 35.4% of old-old, and 47.0% of oldest-old. Finally, IADL and social support were predictors in explaining the level of health-related quality of life among vulnerable old men regardless of age. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the study, nursing interventions should be developed to improve health-related quality of life of vulnerable aged men according to age differences

Effects of music therapy and rhythmic exercise on quality of life, blood pressure and upper extremity muscle strength in institution-dwelling elderly women.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of music therapy and rhythmic exercise on health related quality of life, blood pressure and upper extremity muscle strength in the institution-dwelling elderly women. Methods: The study was designed using a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The participants consisted of 35 elders (18 in the experimental group and 17 in the control group). The music therapy and rhythmic exercise were developed by the investigators. The experimental group took part in this program twice a week for 8 weeks. The Short Form 36 health survey questionnaire, blood pressure and grasp power scale were used as instruments. The data were analyzed using SPSS 14.0. Results: Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that music therapy and rhythmic exercise had positive effects on quality of life, especially on vitality, general health and mental health. Also, there were statistically significant differences in diastolic blood pressure and upper extremity muscle strength between the pretest and posttest in the experimental group. Conclusion: The study suggests that this program can be applied for older women in long-term facilities to improve quality of life, blood pressure and upper extremity muscle strength

Differential effect of corn oil-based low trans structured fat on the plasma and hepatic lipid profile in an atherogenic mouse model: comparison to hydrogenated trans fat

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Trans </it>fat are not desirable in many aspects on health maintenance. Low <it>trans </it>structured fats have been reported to be relatively more safe than <it>trans </it>fats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined the effects of low <it>trans </it>structured fat from corn oil (LC), compared with high <it>trans </it>fat shortening, on cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism in apo E deficient mice which is an atherogenic animal model. The animals were fed a high <it>trans </it>fat (10% fat: commercial shortening (CS)) or a low <it>trans </it>fat (LC) diet for 12 weeks.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>LC decreased apo B and hepatic cholesterol and triglyceride concentration compared to the CS group but significantly increased plasma total cholesterol and triglyceride concentration and fecal lipids with a simultaneous increase in HDL-cholesterol level, apo A-I, and the ratio of HDL-cholesterol to total cholesterol (HTR). Reduction of hepatic lipid levels by inclusion of LC intake was observed alongside modulation of hepatic enzyme activities related to cholesterol esterification, fatty acid metabolism and fecal lipids level compared to the CS group. The differential effects of LC intake on the plasma and hepatic lipid profile seemed to be partly due to the fatty acid composition of LC which contains higher MUFA, PUFA and SFA content as well as lower content of <it>trans </it>fatty acids compared to CS.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We suggest that LC may exert a dual effect on plasma and hepatic lipid metabolism in an atherogenic animal model. Accordingly, LC, supplemented at 10% in diet, had an anti-atherogenic effect on these <it>apo E</it>^{<it>-/- </it>}mice, and increased fecal lipids, decreased hepatic steatosis, but elevated plasma lipids. Further studies are needed to verify the exact mode of action regarding the complex physiological changes and alteration in lipid metabolism caused by LC.</p

Diosgenin Induces Apoptosis in HepG2 Cells through Generation of Reactive Oxygen Species and Mitochondrial Pathway

Diosgenin, a naturally occurring steroid saponin found abundantly in legumes and yams, is a precursor of various synthetic steroidal drugs. Diosgenin is studied for the mechanism of its action in apoptotic pathway in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Based on DAPI staining, diosgenin-treated cells manifested nuclear shrinkage, condensation, and fragmentation. Treatment of HepG2 cells with 40 μM diosgenin resulted in activation of the caspase-3, -8, -9 and cleavage of poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) and the release of cytochrome c. In the upstream, diosgenin increased the expression of Bax, decreased the expression of Bid and Bcl-2, and augmented the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. Diosgenin-induced, dose-dependent induction of apoptosis was accompanied by sustained phosphorylation of JNK, p38 MAPK and apoptosis signal-regulating kinase (ASK)-1, as well as generation of the ROS. NAC administration, a scavenger of ROS, reversed diosgene-induced cell death. These results suggest that diosgenin-induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells through Bcl-2 protein family-mediated mitochndria/caspase-3-dependent pathway. Also, diosgenin strongly generated ROS and this oxidative stress might induce apoptosis through activation of ASK1, which are critical upstream signals for JNK/p38 MAPK activation in HepG2 cancer cells

Image-to-Image Retrieval by Learning Similarity between Scene Graphs

As a scene graph compactly summarizes the high-level content of an image in a structured and symbolic manner, the similarity between scene graphs of two images reflects the relevance of their contents. Based on this idea, we propose a novel approach for image-to-image retrieval using scene graph similarity measured by graph neural networks. In our approach, graph neural networks are trained to predict the proxy image relevance measure, computed from human-annotated captions using a pre-trained sentence similarity model. We collect and publish the dataset for image relevance measured by human annotators to evaluate retrieval algorithms. The collected dataset shows that our method agrees well with the human perception of image similarity than other competitive baselines.Comment: Accepted to AAAI 202