Combining teacher-Led and technology-assisted instruction to improve phoneme blending to read words for elementary students with disabilities

Technology-assisted instruction has potential for helping students improve their reading skills. In the current studies, PowerPoint software was used to supplement teacher-led reading instruction for elementary-aged students with disabilities who struggled with phoneme blending to read words. The effectiveness of the intervention was assessed using two multiple probe design studies across sets of words based on an onset-rime (word family) strategy. In Study 1, teacher-led instruction was paired with technology-assisted instruction for all intervention sessions for three students in first and second grade. In Study 2, teacher-led instruction occurred between baseline and technology-assisted intervention sessions for three students in third and fourth grade. During the initial instruction sessions, participants recorded their own voices onto PowerPoint slides so that their technology-assisted instruction included self-modelling. Results of both studies indicated that technology-assisted instruction can be effective for helping students learn how to blend phonemes to read words; however, performance varied and there were limitations in each study that should be addressed in future research. Relevant implications for classroom instruction are emphasized.     

hTERT-Driven Immortalization of RDEB Fibroblast and Keratinocyte Cell Lines Followed by Cre-Mediated Transgene Elimination

The recessive form of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) is a crippling disease caused by impairments in the junctions of the dermis and the basement membrane of the epidermis. Using ectopic expression of hTERT/hTERT + BMI-1 in primary cells, we developed expansible cultures of RDEB fibroblasts and keratinocytes. We showed that they display the properties of their founders, including morphology, contraction ability and expression of the respective specific markers including reduced secretion of type VII collagen (C7). The immortalized keratinocytes retained normal stratification in 3D skin equivalents. The comparison of secreted protein patterns from immortalized RDEB and healthy keratinocytes revealed the differences in the contents of the extracellular matrix that were earlier observed specifically for RDEB. We demonstrated the possibility to reverse the genotype of immortalized cells to the state closer to the progenitors by the Cre-dependent hTERT switch off. Increased β-galactosidase activity and reduced proliferation of fibroblasts were shown after splitting out of transgenes. We anticipate our cell lines to be tractable models for studying RDEB from the level of single-cell changes to the evaluation of 3D skin equivalents. Our approach permits the creation of standardized and expandable models of RDEB that can be compared with the models based on primary cell cultures.     

A Novel Volume-Stable Collagen Matrix Induces Changes in the Behavior of Primary Human Oral Fibroblasts,Periodontal Ligament,and Endothelial Cells

The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of a novel volume-stable collagen matrix (vCM) on early wound healing events including cellular migration and adhesion, protein adsorption and release, and the dynamics of the hemostatic system. For this purpose, we utilized transwell migration and crystal violet adhesion assays, ELISAs for quantification of adsorbed and released from the matrix growth factors, and qRT-PCR for quantification of gene expression in cells grown on the matrix. Our results demonstrated that primary human oral fibroblasts, periodontal ligament, and endothelial cells exhibited increased migration toward vCM compared to control cells that migrated in the absence of the matrix. Cellular adhesive properties on vCM were significantly increased compared to controls. Growth factors TGF-β1, PDGF-BB, FGF-2, and GDF-5 were adsorbed on vCM with great efficiency and continuously delivered in the medium after an initial burst release within hours. We observed statistically significant upregulation of genes encoding the antifibrinolytic thrombomodulin, plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1, thrombospondin 1, and thromboplastin, as well as strong downregulation of genes encoding the profibrinolytic tissue plasminogen activator, urokinase-type plasminogen activator, its receptor, and the matrix metalloproteinase 14 in cells grown on vCM. As a general trend, the stimulatory effect of the vCM on the expression of antifibrinolytic genes was synergistically enhanced by TGF-β1, PDGF-BB, or FGF-2, whereas the strong inhibitory effect of the vCM on the expression of profibrinolytic genes was reversed by PDGF-BB, FGF-2, or GDF-5. Taken together, our data strongly support the effect of the novel vCM on fibrin clot stabilization and coagulation/fibrinolysis equilibrium, thus facilitating progression to the next stages of the soft tissue healing process.     

Pre-Senescence Induction in Hepatoma Cells Favors Hepatitis C Virus Replication and Can Be Used in Exploring Antiviral Potential of Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors

Recent evidence suggests that fibrotic liver injury in patients with chronic hepatitis C correlates with cellular senescence in damaged liver tissue. However, it is still unclear how senescence can affect replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). In this work, we report that an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases 4/6, palbociclib, not only induced in hepatoma cells a pre-senescent cellular phenotype, including G1 arrest in the cell cycle, but also accelerated viral replicon multiplication. Importantly, suppression of HCV replication by direct acting antivirals (DAAs) was barely affected by pre-senescence induction, and vice versa, the antiviral activities of host-targeting agents (HTAs), such as inhibitors of human histone deacetylases (HDACi), produced a wide range of reactions—from a dramatic reduction to a noticeable increase. It is very likely that under conditions of the G1 arrest in the cell cycle, HDACi exhibit their actual antiviral potency, since their inherent anticancer activity that complicates the interpretation of test results is minimized.     

Embryonic Trophectoderm Secretomics Reveals Chemotactic Migration and Intercellular Communication of Endometrial and Circulating MSCs in Embryonic Implantation

Embryonic implantation is a key step in the establishment of pregnancy. In the present work, we have carried out an in-depth proteomic analysis of the secretome (extracellular vesicles and soluble proteins) of two bovine blastocysts embryonic trophectoderm primary cultures (BBT), confirming different epithelial–mesenchymal transition stages in these cells. BBT-secretomes contain early pregnancy-related proteins and angiogenic proteins both as cargo in EVs and the soluble fraction. We have demonstrated the functional transfer of protein-containing secretome between embryonic trophectoderm and maternal MSC in vitro using two BBT primary cultures eight endometrial MSC (eMSC) and five peripheral blood MSC (pbMSC) lines. We observed that eMSC and pbMSC chemotax to both the soluble fraction and EVs of the BBT secretome. In addition, in a complementary direction, we found that the pattern of expression of implantation proteins in BBT-EVs changes depending on: (i) their epithelial–mesenchymal phenotype; (ii) as a result of the uptake of eMSC- or pbMSC-EV previously stimulated or not with embryonic signals (IFN-τ); (iii) because of the stimulation with the endometrial cytokines present in the uterine fluid in the peri-implantation period.     

Energetics of Defect Fluorite and Pyrochlore Phases in Lanthanum and Gadolinium Hafnates

Aerodynamic levitation combined with laser heating was used to prepare melts in the HfO₂–La₂O₃ (–Gd₂O₃) systems. All melts crystallized upon quenching in oxygen. Hf₂La₂O₇ pyrochlore and Gd_0.5Hf_0.5O_1.75 fluorite phases were identified. Gd_0.5Hf_0.5O_1.75 fluorite was transformed into the pyrochlore structure by annealing at 1450°C. Pyrochlore that crystallized from HfO₂- La₂O₃ melts contained 31.6–34.2 mol% La₂O₃. The unit cell parameter increased linearly with La content from 10.736 to 10.789 Å. Drop solution calorimetric experiments were performed in 3Na₂O·4MoO₃ melt at 702°C. The enthalpies of formation from the oxides for pyrochlore phases are −107.0±5.0 kJ/mol for Hf₂La₂O₇ and −48.8±4.7 kJ/mol for Hf₂Gd₂O₇. The enthalpy of the pyrochlore–fluorite phase transition in Hf₂Gd₂O₇ is 23.6±3.1 kJ/mol.     

Crystal Chemistry and Phase Transitions in Substituted Pollucites along the CsAlSi2O6-CsTiSi2O6.5 Join: A Powder Synchrotron X-ray Diffractometry Study

The crystal structures for a suite of substituted pollucites with the compositions CsTi _x Al_{1– x} Si₂O_{6+0.5 x} , 0 ≤ x ≤ 1, have been determined from Rietveld analysis of powder synchrotron XRD data. Our results indicate that the pollucite end member (CsAlSi₂O₆) has a tetragonal structure (space group I 4₁/ a ), whereas all other compositions are cubic (space group Ia 3 d ). The increased symmetry for the titanium-substituted structures is presumably due to the incorporation of additional O²⁻ anions (needed for compensating the charge imbalance between Ti⁴⁺ and Al³⁺), which effectively holds open the expanded cubic framework. In situ cooling experiments of the substituted phase CsTi_0.1Al_0.9Si₂O_6.05 reveal a displacive transformation to the tetragonal structure at ∼230 K. This transformation is tricritical in nature and is analogous to the tetragonal-to-cubic transition in pollucite on heating.     

Electrodialytic extraction of Cu,Pb and Cl from municipal solid waste incineration fly ash suspended in water

The possibility of using fly ash from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) in, for example, concrete is considered. MSWI fly ash, however, has too high a concentration of heavy metals, which may cause leaching problems during use or problems with waste handling at the end of the lifetime of the concrete. The Cl content in MSWI fly ash is also too high and will cause corrosion problems in reinforced concrete. The possibility of removing some of the unwanted heavy metals (Cu and Pb) together with Cl from an MSWI fly ash suspended in water using an electrodialytic separation method was investigated. The removal of Pb and Cu was found to be highly pH dependent and the highest contents removed were 41 and 90%, respectively. The Cu concentration of the ash decreased from 2200 to 860 mg kg^?1 but the Pb concentration increased from 8560 to 16 800 mg kg^?1, showing that Pb is mainly found in the ash fraction that is least soluble. Hence electrodialytic treatment of the ash suspended in water is not a solution to improve the ash quality in terms of Pb. The water‐soluble Cl content per unit weight of the original ash was 12.4%. The removal of water‐soluble Cl was efficient and >98% of Cl was removed (calculated on the basis of mean initial and final concentrations). This result indicates that electrodialytic extraction may be a method that can be used for the removal of Cl from ash prior to its utilization in concrete. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Comparing techniques for authorship attribution of source code

Attributing authorship of documents with unknown creators has been studied extensively for natural language text such as essays and literature, but less so for non‐natural languages such as computer source code. Previous attempts at attributing authorship of source code can be categorised by two attributes: the software features used for the classification, either strings of n tokens/bytes (n‐grams) or software metrics; and the classification technique that exploits those features, either information retrieval ranking or machine learning. The results of existing studies, however, are not directly comparable as all use different test beds and evaluation methodologies, making it difficult to assess which approach is superior. This paper summarises all previous techniques to source code authorship attribution, implements feature sets that are motivated by the literature, and applies information retrieval ranking methods or machine classifiers for each approach. Importantly, all approaches are tested on identical collections from varying programming languages and author types. Our conclusions are as follows: (i) ranking and machine classifier approaches are around 90% and 85% accurate, respectively, for a one‐in‐10 classification problem; (ii) the byte‐level n‐gram approach is best used with different parameters to those previously published; (iii) neural networks and support vector machines were found to be the most accurate machine classifiers of the eight evaluated; (iv) use of n‐gram features in combination with machine classifiers shows promise, but there are scalability problems that still must be overcome; and (v) approaches based on information retrieval techniques are currently more accurate than approaches based on machine learning. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An International Collaborative Study on Trypsin Inhibitor Assay for Legumes,Cereals, and Related Products

For determining trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA) in soy products, the American Oil Chemists' Society (AOCS) Method Ba 12-75 has been used. It measures differences in absorbance at 410 nm of bovine trypsin activity toward a synthetic substrate (Nα-benzoyl-DL-arginine-p-nitroanilide) in the absence and presence of an inhibitor. Recently, a significantly improved method was developed (JAOCS, 2019, 96:635–645), featuring 5 mL of total assay volume, enzyme-last sequence, and single inhibitor level in duplicate. It is proposed as the AOCS Method Ba 12a-2020. As a part of the AOCS method approval process, a collaborative study involving 12 international laboratories was conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The study involved measuring TIA in 10 selected test samples plus a blind duplicate. They included soybeans, pulses, cereals, and their processed products (flours, concentrates, and isolates). After rigorous statistical treatment of the data, only three outliers were removed from the data of two samples. Repeatability relative standard deviations (RSDr) for the 11 samples ranged from 0.99% to 5.52%. Reproducibility RSD (RSD_R) ranged from 7.07% to 22.92%, with seven samples having RSD_R around 10% or less. The remaining four samples had very low TIA, and their RSD_R values ranged from 13.34% to 22.92%. The study has demonstrated reliable performance of the proposed AOCS method. Several collaborators carried out additional experiments addressing some aspects of the method, leading to further refinements. The proposed method is undergoing evaluation by the AOCS Uniform Methods Committee for adoption as an Official Method for measuring TIA in various legume and grain products.