A Study of Chinese Second-year English Majors’ Code Switching Phenomenon in Comprehensive English Course from the Perspective of Interlanguage

The paper analyzes functions and influencing factors of second-year English majors’ code switching in Comprehensive English Course on the basis of the interlanguage theory and other SLA (second language acquisition) models, i.e. Krashen’s Comprehensible Input Hypothesis and Affective Filter Hypothesis, Long’s Interaction Hypothesis and Swain’s Comprehensible Output Hypothesis

A Sentiment-Change-Driven Event Discovery System

We present a system that automatically discovers important events that have significantly driven people’s sentiment changes towards a target using Twitter data (i.e. tweets). This system can also provide the time, importance, and description of events that are associated with people’s sentiment changes. In this system, a sentiment classifier is used as the sensor to detect the time points of those changes. It is also used as the filter to effectively eliminate a considerable amount of noisy information and select the most informative tweets to be further analyzed for event descriptions. Discovered events are described from the following aspects, 1) the most important tweets ranked by tweet-based TextRank algorithm, 2) the topics generated by the nonnegative matrix factorization, and 3) the most important keywords generated by word-based TextRank algorithm. Compared with traditional event discovery techniques, the experimental results show that this system can effectively discover important patterns from tweets and unveil 3Ws of an event (i.e. what happens, when it happens, what its effect is), which provides good reference on understanding behavior changes and making strategies. Furthermore, the system was applied to analyze people’s sentiment changes towards the two candidates during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It can also be applied in other scenarios where people’s attitude plays an important role like the brand influence marketing and financial investment markets

A High-Temperature-Resistant Inorganic Matrix for Concrete Structures Enhanced by Fiber-Reinforced Polymer

This paper probed deep into a high-temperature resistant inorganic matrix: alkali-activated slag cement (AASC), which is a kind of cementitious material prepared by alkali-activator and pozzolanic or latent hydraulic material. Firstly, the mix ratio of the AASC was optimized to improve the wettability and mechanical properties. Then, the effects of the adhesive matrix and the type of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) were observed through FRP-to-concrete bond tests on 93 specimens. The test results, coupled with anchorage analysis, indicate that the AASC has comparable reinforcing effects as those of organic epoxy matrix; the anchorage length of FRP sheets has a significant influence on the failure behavior and failure mode of FRP-enhanced concrete structures. In addition, our tests prove that the AASC has favorable high-temperature resistance and bonding effects. The research results provide a good reference for the design and application of inorganic matrix for FRP-enhancement of concrete structures

EZH2 RIP-seq Identifies Tissue-specific Long Non-coding RNAs.

BackgroundPolycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) catalyzes histone methylation at H3 Lys27, and plays crucial roles during development and diseases in numerous systems. Its catalytic subunit EZH2 represents a key nuclear target for long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) that emerging to be a novel class of epigenetic regulator and participate in diverse cellular processes. LncRNAs are characterized by high tissue-specificity; however, little is known about the tissue profile of the EZH2- interacting lncRNAs.ObjectiveHere we performed a global screening for EZH2-binding lncRNAs in tissues including brain, lung, heart, liver, kidney, intestine, spleen, testis, muscle and blood by combining RNA immuno- precipitation and RNA sequencing. We identified 1328 EZH2-binding lncRNAs, among which 470 were shared in at least two tissues while 858 were only detected in single tissue. An RNA motif with specific secondary structure was identified in a number of lncRNAs, albeit not in all EZH2-binding lncRNAs. The EZH2-binding lncRNAs fell into four categories including intergenic lncRNA, antisense lncRNA, intron-related lncRNA and promoter-related lncRNA, suggesting diverse regulations of both cis and trans-mechanisms. A promoter-related lncRNA Hnf1aos1 bound to EZH2 specifically in the liver, a feature same as its paired coding gene Hnf1a, further confirming the validity of our study. In addition to the well known EZH2-binding lncRNAs like Kcnq1ot1, Gas5, Meg3, Hotair and Malat1, majority of the lncRNAs were firstly reported to be associated with EZH2.ConclusionOur findings provide a profiling view of the EZH2-interacting lncRNAs across different tissues, and suggest critical roles of lncRNAs during cell differentiation and maturation

Projector calibration method based on optical coaxial camera

This paper presents a novel method to accurately calibrate a DLP projector by using an optical coaxial camera to capture the needed images. A plate beam splitter is used to make imaging axis of the CCD camera and projecting axis of the DLP projector coaxial, so the DLP projector can be treated as a true inverse camera. A plate having discrete markers on the surface will be designed and manufactured to calibrate the DLP projector. By projecting vertical and horizontal sinusoidal fringe patterns on the plate surface from the projector, the absolute phase of each marker’s center can be obtained. The corresponding projector pixel coordinate of each marker is determined from the obtained absolute phase. The internal and external parameters of the DLP projector are calibrated by the corresponding point pair between the projector coordinate and the world coordinate of discrete markers. Experimental results show that the proposed method accurately obtains the parameters of the DLP projector. One advantage of the method is the calibrated internal and external parameters have high accuracy because of uncalibrating the camera. The other is the optical coaxes geometry gives a true inverse camera, so the calibrated parameters are more accurate than that of crossed-optical-axes, especially the principal points and the radial distortion coefficients of the projector lens

Hormona Paratiróideia Como Factor Predictivo de Hipocalcemia Após Tiroidectomia: Estudo Prospectivo em 100 Doentes

INTRODUCTION: Hypocalcemia is a frequent complication after total thyroidectomy and the main reason for prolonged hospitalization of these patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We studied prospectively 112 patients who underwent total or completation thyroidectomy between June 2012 and November 2013. Twelve patients with preoperative changes in parathyroid function were excluded. Parathyroid hormone and calcium levels were determined pre-operatively, immediately after surgery, on 1st day and on 14th day after surgery. RESULTS: Of the 100 patients enrolled, 60 have developed hypocalcaemia (60%) but only 14 patients had symptomatic hypocalcaemia. It mostly occurs 24 hours after surgery (76.7%). It was permanent in 3 patients and temporary in the others. In the 60 patients with hypocalcaemia, it has been found hypoparathyroidism in 19 patients immediately after surgery, in 14 patients on 1st day but only 3 had hypoparathyroidism (patients with permanent hypocalcaemia). Comparing the group of patients with and without hypocalcaemia we found a decrease of parathyroid hormone in both (immediately after surgery and on 1st day) but was more important in the hypocalcaemia group (p = 0.004 and p 19.4% determined on the 1st day (sensitivity = 82%; specificity = 63%). DISCUSSION: In our study there was a high incidence of hypocalcemia (60%), expressed predominantly 24 hours after surgery and conditioned, in these patients, a longer hospital stay. However, only 3 patients (3%) had permanent hypocalcemia. We still found a match in the oscillation of serum calcium levels and parathyroid hormone which identified the decrease in parathyroid hormone on the first day after surgery as a reliable predictor of hypocalcemia. CONCLUSION: Decrease of parathyroid hormone levels > 19.4% determined on 1st day is a good predictor of hypocalcemia after total / completation thyroidectomy, allowing to identify patients at higher risk of hypocalcemia, medicate them prophylactically and get early and safe discharges.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Comparative genomics of five Valsa species gives insights on their pathogenicity evolution

Valsa is a genus of ascomycetes within the Valsaceae family. This family includes many wood destructive pathogens such as the well known Valsa mali and Valsa pyri which cause canker diseases in fruit trees and threaten the global fruit production. Lack of genomic information of this family is impeding our understandings about their evolution and genetic basis of their pathogenicity divergence. Here, we report genome assemblies of Valsa malicola, Valsa persoonii, and Valsa sordida which represent close relatives of Valsa mali and Valsa pyri with different host preferences. Comparative genomics analysis revealed that segmental rearrangements, inversions, and translocations frequently occurred among Valsa spp. genomes. Gene families that exhibited gene copy expansions tended to be associated with secondary metabolism, transmembrane transport, and pyrophosphatase activities. Orthologous genes in regions lost synteny exhibited significantly higher rate of synonymous substitution (KS) than those in regions retained synteny. Moreover, among these genes, membrane transporter families associated with antidrug (MFS, DHA) activities and nutrient transportation (SP and APCs) activities were significantly over-represented. Lineage specific synonymous substitution (KS) and nonsynonymous substitution (KA) analysis based on the phylogeny constructed from 11 fungal species identified a set of genes with selection signatures in Valsa clade and these genes were significantly enriched in functions associated with fatty acid beta-oxidation, DNA helicase activity, and ATPase activity. Furthermore, unique genes that possessed or retained by each of the five Valsa species are more likely part of the secondary metabolic (SM) gene clusters. SM gene clusters conserved across five Valsa species showed various degrees of diversification in both identity and completeness. All 11 syntenically conserved SM clusters showed differential expression during the infection of apple branch with Valsa mali suggesting involvements of secondary metabolism in the pathogenicity of Valsa species

Critical hazards identification and prevention of cascading escalator accidents at metro rail transit stations

Escalator accidents not only happen frequently but also have cascading effects. The purpose of this study is to block the formation of cascading accident networks by identifying and preventing critical hazards. A modified five-step task-driven method (FTDM) is proposed to break down passenger-related cascading escalator accidents. Three complex network parameters in complex network theory are utilized to identify critical and non-critical Risk Passenger Behavior (RPB) hazards and Other Hazards related with Risk Passenger Behavior (OH-RPB) in accident chains. A total of 327 accidents that occurred in the Beijing metro rail transit (MRT) stations were used for case studies. The results are consistent in critical and non-critical RPB and OH-RPB and prove that through combination of FTDM accident investigation model and complex network analysis method, critical and non-critical RPB and OH-RPB in a complicated cascading hazards network can be identified. Prevention of critical RPB can block the formation of cascading accident networks. The method not only can be used by safety manager to make the corresponding preventive measures according to the results in daily management but also the findings can guide the allocation of limited preventive resources to critical hazards rather than non-critical hazards. Moreover, the defects of management plan and product design can be re-examined according to the research results