In the near future, improvements in semiconductor technology will allow thousands of resources to be implementable on chip. However, a limitation remains for both single large-scale processors and many-core processors. For single processors, this limitation arises from their design complexity, and regarding the many-core processors, an application is partitioned to several tasks and these partitioned tasks are mapped onto the cores. In this article, we propose a dynamic chip multiprocessor (CMP) model that consists of simple modules (realizing a low design complexity) and does not require the application partitioning since the scale of the processor is dynamically variable, looking like up or down scale on demand. This model is based on prior work on adaptive processors that can gather and release resources on chip to dynamically form a processor. The adaptive processor takes a linear topology that realizes a locality based placement and replacement using processing elements themselves through a stack shift of information on the linear topology of the processing element array. Therefore, for the scaling of the processor, a linear topology of the interconnection network has to support the stack shift before and after the up- or down-scaling. Therefore, we propose an interconnection network architecture called a dynamic channel segmentation distribution (dynamic CSD) network. In addition the linear topology must be folded on-chip into two-dimensional plane. We also propose a new conceptual topology and its cluster which is a unit of the new topology and is replicated on the chip. We analyzed the cost in terms of the available number of clusters (adaptive processors with a minimum scale) and delay in Manhattan-distance of the chip, as well as its peak Giga-Operations per Second (GOPS) across the process technology scaling.

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This paper discusses the determinants of the intention to shift to a new high-quality Locally Adapted, Modified, and Advanced Transport (LAMAT) bus service in Ho Chi Minh City using a stated preference (SP) survey. Mixed logit models (MXL) are used to estimate the mode choice between motorcycles (MCs) and LAMAT in the SP choices. The use of a panel-MXL is shown to significantly improve the estimation results compared with the standard multinomial logit model. Accordingly, heterogeneity in the LAMAT choice is largely explained by citizens’ unobserved characteristics, whereas their preference for time and money might be homogenous. Additionally, four mode-specific factors, i.e., provision of information, air conditioning, seat availability (LAMAT), and the risk of traffic accidents (MCs) are found to be significant determinants of the intention to use the LAMAT bus service.

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In this paper, we propose a hybrid model adaptation approach in which pronunciation and acoustic models are adapted by incorporating the pronunciation and acoustic variabilities of non-native speech in order to improve the performance of non-native automatic speech recognition (ASR). Specifically, the proposed hybrid model adaptation can be performed at either the state-tying or triphone-modeling level, depending at which acoustic model adaptation is performed. In both methods, we first analyze the pronunciation variant rules of non-native speakers and then classify each rule as either a pronunciation variant or an acoustic variant. The state-tying level hybrid method then adapts pronunciation models and acoustic models by accommodating the pronunciation variants in the pronunciation dictionary and by clustering the states of triphone acoustic models using the acoustic variants, respectively. On the other hand, the triphone-modeling level hybrid method initially adapts pronunciation models in the same way as in the state-tying level hybrid method; however, for the acoustic model adaptation, the triphone acoustic models are then re-estimated based on the adapted pronunciation models and the states of the re-estimated triphone acoustic models are clustered using the acoustic variants. From the Korean-spoken English speech recognition experiments, it is shown that ASR systems employing the state-tying and triphone-modeling level adaptation methods can relatively reduce the average word error rates (WERs) by 17.1% and 22.1% for non-native speech, respectively, when compared to a baseline ASR system.

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Prediction of blood-brain barrier permeability for chemicals is one of the key issues in brain drug development. In this study, the effect of using training data relatively similar to the test data was investigated in order to improve the performance of machine learning methods in predicting blood-brain barrier permeability. The results showed that selecting training data with high cosine similarity to the test data improved prediction performance with a smaller number of training data. The best model in this study also showed improved scores on two external test sets to examine generalization performance, outperforming excellent existing models. The cosine similarity method is expected to be effective for predicting the properties of compounds with large diversity and a small number of data.

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This paper presents a design method for the parallel torsion bars and dual wishbones suspension. The suspension's topological structure is represented by a graph. Base on the theory of multibody dynamics the suspension mathematical model has been built. The calculation method for the suspension stiffness is formulated and the matching relation between the stiffness of the upper and lower torsion bars is analyzed. The relation between the suspension and whole vehicle performance is discussed in this paper, such as the influence of guide mechanism size parameter on suspension stiffness, and kinematics characteristic. The vehicle maneuverability is also considered in this paper. At last we propose an optimization model of the suspension guide mechanism size and angle parameters. An application suspension model is formed and analysis of the suspension is performed. The analysis results are confirmed by the example.

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Introduction: A disc herniation has traditionally been considered as disc tissue that has slipped out from an intervertebral disc. However, it was recently suggested that the disc herniation mass is a product of bioactive substances from the disc and that the disc hernia would more likely be scar tissue than herniated disc material. In this study, we aimed to analyze the structural components of experimentally induced disc herniations and compare with scar tissue and nucleus pulposus, in the rat.

Methods: Twenty-eight rats had their L4-5 discs punctured. After three weeks, the nodule that had been formed over the puncture site, scar tissue from the spine musculature, and normal nucleus pulposus were harvested and processed for further analysis.

Results: Proteomics analysis demonstrated that the formed nodule was more similar to scar tissue than to nucleus pulposus. Gene expression analysis showed that there was no resemblance between any tissues when looking at inflammatory genes but that, there was a clear resemblance between the nodule and scar tissue when analyzing extracellular matrix-related genes. Analysis of the GAG and polysaccharide size distribution revealed that only the nodule and scar tissue contained the shorter versions, potentially short chain hyaluronic acid that is known to induce inflammatory responses. The hematoxylin and eosin stained sections of the nodule, disc tissue, and scar tissue indicated that the morphology of the nodule and scar tissue was very similar.

Conclusions: The nodule formed after experimental disc puncture, and that resembles a disc hernia, has a more structural resemblance to scar tissue than disc tissue. The nodule is, therefore, more likely to be induced by disc-derived bioactive substances than being formed by herniated disc material.

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    This paper is concerned with a well-known problem concerning the retention of propositional knowledge. Although most of what we currently believe ourselves to know originates in the past, we usually do not know how we originally acquired that knowledge. But then, on what grounds can we still know it? In this paper, I outline two different types of approaches to the problem in light of notable epistemic theories, and then examine difficulties faced by them.

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Human interest in pictures dates back to 14,000 BC. Pictures can be drawn by hand or imaged by optical means. Over time pictures have changed from being rare and unique to ubiquitous and common. They have changed from treasures to transients. This paper summarizes many picture technologies, and discusses their dynamic range, their color and tone scale rendering. This paper discusses the interactions between advances in technology and the interests of its users over time. It is the combination of both technology and society's usage that has shaped imaging since its beginning and continues to do so.

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For the past 10 years in the post-genomic era, emerging technologies in human genomic research have provided us with a plethora of genetic variations implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. Discovering the key target genes in genomic research has contributed to biomedical research on the mechanical pathways of the diseases. In an era with dramatic development of brand new strategies, the conventional evaluation of family aggregation, environmental exposure and clinical phenotype remains of great importance to promote genomic research. Notwithstanding the promising progress in genomic research, we still have an enormous number of issues to overcome before approaching the ultimate goal of human genomics: the successful application of genomic data to personalized medicine.  (Circ J 2013; 77: 876–885)

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Magnetorheological (MR) fluid is a functional, smart or controllable fluid, which responds to magnetic field, changing its rheological properties. The increased resistance to flow of an MR fluid is proportional to the strength of magnetic fi eld. A typical MR fluid consists of iron particles, suspended in a carrier liquid such as synthetic oil or water. Proprietary additives, to discourage gravitational settling and promote particle suspension, are added to enhance lubricity, modify viscosity, and inhibit wear. In recent years devices and systems using MR fluid technology have been commercialized across wide industry applications, including automotive, industrial and civil engineering. In that development two key issues for the commercial success of MR fluid technology-durability and settling-have shown continual improvement as a result of formulation research. As a result, MR fluids today are strong, durable, adaptable and highly developed with fundamental material data and device design and models.

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The English present perfect tense is studied in junior high schools. However, a study shows that it is one of three grammatical items that university students understand least. Over the years, scholars have claimed that grammar studied in isolation does not enable learners to fully understand the functions of those grammatical items and improve their communicative skills. One wonders, however, have these voices been heard? The latest version of the government curriculum guidelines for English education has finally included a clear statement saying: the purpose of grammar learning is to enhance learners' English communicative skills. Sadly, despite these claims, grammar lessons have continued to be done mechanistically, detached from communicative English learning. This paper focuses on locating "the core" of the present perfect tense in order to discover an effective way to teach it as a part of communicative learning.

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A charge-integration read scheme has been developed for a solid-nanopore DNA-sequencer that determines a genome by direct and electrical measurements of transverse tunneling current in single-stranded DNA. The magnitude of the current was simulated with a first-principles molecular dynamics method. It was found that the magnitude is as small as in the sub-pico ampere range, and signals from four bases represent wide distributions with overlaps between each base. The distribution is believed to originate with translational and rotational motion of DNA in a nanopore with a frequency of over 10⁵Hz. A sequence scheme is presented to distinguish the distributed signals. The scheme makes widely distributed signals time-integrated convergent by cumulating charge at the capacitance of a nanopore device and read circuits. We estimated that an integration time of 1.4ms is sufficient to obtain a signal difference of over 10mV for distinguishing between each DNA base. Moreover, the time is shortened if paired bases, such as A-T and C-G in double-stranded DNA, can be measured simultaneously with two nanopores. Circuit simulations, which included the capacitance of a nanopore calculated with a device simulator, successfully distinguished between DNA bases in less than 2.0ms. The speed is roughly six orders faster than that of a conventional DNA sequencer. It is possible to determine the human genome in one day if 100-nanopores are operated in parallel.

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Reflecting the variety of memory's roles, memory explains a vast variety of things. This paper begins with investigation into an interesting type of explanation which involves the relation of memory to other psychological states/events. “Why am I struck by the thought that I have to buy a birthday gift for my wife today? Because I remember that today is her birthday.” This is a causal explanation to the extent that it conveys causal information about its explanandum. However, very frequently, an explanation by appeal to one's memory is not a singular causal explanation, but rather a dispositional explanation. Thus, we often explain things by citing memory as a dispositional state, namely, a dispositional memory.
Traditionally, dispositional concepts are analyzed in terms of a subjunctive conditional statement specifying how the disposition is manifested. However, as I discuss in this paper, if we adopt this naïve picture, and analyze dispositional memory simply in terms of a subjunctive conditional, how explanatory information is conveyed by appeal to dispositional memory will remain inexplicable. When an appeal to my memory successfully explains my being struck by a thought, the explanation suggests that my past plays an important causal role in the explanandum event in a specific way. But, as I argue, an appeal to a subjunctive conditional statement cannot always convey the same information. My solution is simply to adopt an indicative clause in the analysans to capture the causal implication. To exemplify my proposal, in the final part of this paper, I focus on one specific type of memory, propositional memory, and outline its analysis.

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Several recombinant adeno-associated virus-based gene therapy products have been developed recently. The vector genome (VG) titer is a critical quality attribute associated with the clinical dosing of these products and, thus, requires accurate quality control measures. Typically, VG titers are measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Droplet digital PCR is more reliable than qPCR and a powerful analytical tool for quantifying genome copies with high accuracy and precision; however, VG titers cannot be correctly quantified without the appropriate preparation of analytical test samples. In this study, we systematically assessed the role of each component and treatment comprising DNase treatment for free and residual DNA, DNase inactivation, and single-stranded DNA extraction from capsids in VG titration results during pre-analytical sample preparations. Incubation near the single-stranded DNA-release temperature decreased the number of recombinant adeno-associated virus genome copies. Moreover, we developed a simplified three-step pre-analytical procedure with concurrent DNase inactivation and single-stranded DNA extraction at a much higher temperature than the release temperature. Developing an analytical procedure for recombinant adeno-associated virus genome titration by droplet digital PCR based on release temperature is a science- and risk-based approach that would improve quality control testing of recombinant adeno-associated virus-based gene therapy products.

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Defects in DNA polymerase (Pol) η result in a cancer-prone and UV-sensitive inherited syndrome, a variant form of xeroderma pigmentosum, suggesting that Polη plays a vital role in preventing UV-induced skin cancers. In fact, Polη can catalyze translesion synthesis (TLS) past prominent UV-induced lesions efficiently and accurately. However, Polη is intrinsically an error-prone DNA polymerase, like other TLS polymerases. Biochemical, structural and physiological studies revealed that Polη and other TLS polymerases participate in multiple mutagenic mechanisms, including somatic hypermutation of immunoglobulin genes. Protein-protein interactions between Polη and PCNA, TLS polymerases, RAD18 and DNA repair proteins, as well as their posttranslational modifications, have been shown to be important for regulating Polη.

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The state of the city of Harare in terms of its present general outlook and critical analysis of its carrying capacity as a colonial city tends to perpetuate an ingrained myth among urban planners and the common people alike that planning has failed the former so called sunshine-city. Yet such a view treats with amnesia the wealth in the elasticity of planning as an instrument for change as well as a strategic force to command and direct the trajectory of cities. It is in this context that this paper discusses the elasticity of planning of Harare as anchored on a complex but well-knit constellation of the factors of good urban governance and political will. These can allow for urban reform and smart transformation. A close look at the city after 1980 shows that the city of Harare has been subjected to much bickering, contestations and intergovernmental impositions of policy hence it exemplifies policy from above as opposed to policy from below. This is largely explained by the central government’s hard and fast wrenching control in directing the affairs of the city hence negating the role of the residents’ needs and wants. Recently the city has been facing several challenges, more than ever before, and the more critical challenge now is the adopted culture of colonial blaming rather that solving the deep seated problems of poor management approaches. The present study is skewed towards assessing the historical and contemporary socio-economic and political dynamics as far as they have inspired, championed, ignored, and arm-twisted planning. This has largely been to the detriment of the city. Thus, a vortex and maelstrom over the relevance of planning has been created which now requires planning to exonerate itself by proving its worthiness to the citizens and investors whose creeds and needs it has betrayed over the years.

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Photolyases (PHRs) are DNA repair enzymes that revert UV-induced photoproducts, either cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPD) or (6-4) photoproducts (PPs), into normal bases to maintain genetic integrity. (6-4) PHR must catalyze not only covalent bond cleavage, but also hydroxyl or amino group transfer, yielding a more complex mechanism than that postulated for CPD PHR. Previous mutation analysis revealed the importance of two histidines in the active center, H354 and H358 for Xenopus (6-4) PHR, whose mutations significantly lowered the enzymatic activity. Based upon highly sensitive FTIR analysis of the repair function, here we report that both H354A and H358A mutants of Xenopus (6-4) PHR still maintain their repair activity, although the efficiency is much lower than that of the wild type. Similar difference FTIR spectra between the wild type and mutant proteins suggest a common mechanism of repair in which (6-4) PP binds to the active center of each mutant, and is released after repair, as occurs in the wild type. Similar FTIR spectra also suggest that a decrease in volume by the H-to-A mutation is possibly compensated by the addition of water molecule(s). Such a modified environment is sufficient for the repair function that is probably controlled by proton-coupled electron transfer between the enzyme and substrate. On the other hand, two histidines must work in a concerted manner in the active center of the wild-type enzyme, which significantly raises the repair efficiency.

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Channelrhodopsin (ChR)-1 and ChR2 were the first-identified members of ChRs which are a growing subfamily of microbial-type rhodopsins. Light absorption drives the generation of a photocurrent in cell membranes expressing ChR2. However, the photocurrent amplitude attenuates and becomes steady-state during prolonged irradiation. This process, called desensitization or inactivation, has been attributed to the accumulation of intermediates less conductive to cations. Here we provided evidence that the dark-adapted (DA) photocurrent before desensitization is kinetically different from the light-adapted (LA) one after desensitization, that is, the deceleration of both basal-to-conductive and conductive-to-basal transitions. When the kinetics were compared between the DA and LA photocurrents for the ChR1/2 chimeras, the transmembrane helices, TM1 and TM2, were the determinants of both basal-to-conductive and conductive-to-basal transitions, whereas TM4 may contribute to the basal-to-conductive transitions and TM5 may contribute to the conductive-to-basal transitions, respectively. The fact that the desensitization-dependent decrease of the basal-to-conductive and conductive-to-basal transitions was facilitated by the TM1 exchange from ChR2 to ChR1 and reversed by the further TM2 exchange suggests that the conformation change for the channel gating is predominantly regulated by the interaction between TM1 and TM2. Although the exchange of TM1 from ChR2 to ChR1 showed no obvious influence on the spectral sensitivity, this exchange significantly induced the desensitization-dependent blue shift. Therefore, the TM1 and 2 are the main structures involved in two features of the desensitization, the stabilization of protein conformation and the charge distribution around the retinal-Schiff base (RSB⁺).

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English Literature education has been politicized since the beginning of the twentieth century. In this article, we will first show how literature education became politicized from 1930 to 1940. During that period, one of the most influential educational movements was the Scrutiny Movement led by F. R. Leavis who published the journal“Scrutiny”. He attempted to apply his work to grammar schools because he wanted to maintain high standards of knowledge and literature in the face of 20th century popular culture. In addition, Leavis longed to develop the 18th century reader, called the“Common Reader” by Samuel Johnson. Leavis believed that the Common Reader represented the high cultural traditions and standards of taste in literature in the 18th century, and that it should also inform the education of elites in the 20th century. For Leavis, an elite minority was essential for the conservation and transmission of culture. 　His successor Brian Cox and writers in what was called the“Movement Literature” established the journal“Critical Quarterly.” They organized one of the most remarkable educational movements in the politicization of Literature Education, the Black Paper Movement of the 1960s. This movement focussed on current problems in schools and had been developing throughout the 1950s; its publications instigated a major shift in attitude to educational problems. Cox, his colleagues from Cambridge and the Movement writers brought together teachers who had never met but who shared similar anxieties about education. Editing his journal and conducting Literature seminars, Cox became deeply sensitive to the needs of teachers. Although Cox insisted that the purpose of his journal was different from that of the Scrutiny of Leavis of the 1930s, this paper will show some of their common elements viewed from the standpoint of literacy education. One common element is related to the social structure in the UK because Leavis, Cox and most of the Movement writers were originally from the lowermiddle class, or“working class”. Although they became famous intelligentsia, their social position had been“declassed” or“transclass”, representing an ambiguous and marginalized condition in that society. Therefore, they shared a complicated“in between” social space. Despite this, they became well- known among the middle and lower classes for refusing to accept the mass education of the 1950s. Based on the Common Reader of the 20th century, they tried to maintain high educational standards in order to foster a minority elite in the society. 　This paper analyses in three sections how English Literature education as been politicized. Firstly, it shows how traditional literature education was reorganized by Leavis, and discusses how Leavis used his exalted position in the literary hierarchy to promote his own literary ideals through the education of young elites. Secondly, it traces the development of this traditional literary education in the 1950s and shows how the Movement literature writers were influenced by Leavis. Thirdly, it analyses how Cox promoted the Black Paper movement through his journal and seminars based upon the thoughts of Leavis. Thus, we show how the literature movement was politicized in the 1960s.

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This article aimed to investigate whether auditory stimuli disrupt the performance of a text recognition task (Experiment1) and a text recall task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, Spanish speech sounds that disrupted the serial recall task (Miyahara & Goshiki, 2004) were presented during the learning phase of the task. The Spanish speech had a reduced d', which indicates that the text recognition task was also disrupted. In Experiment 2, Japanese speech sounds or office noise were presented during either the learning only phase, recall only phase, or during both the phases. The results were that both types of auditory stimuli could disrupt the text recall task, and this effect was independent of the meaning of the speech sounds and the presenting phase. Our results could be interpreted by Cowan's model (1995, 1999) with the inclusion of two modifications.

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