Unstructured Materials Research Articles

A case of autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis during the course of treatment of rapidly progressive interstitial pneumonia associated with anti-MDA5 antibody-positive dermatomyositis.

Autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (APAP) is a diffuse lung disease that causes abnormal accumulation of lipoproteins in the alveoli; however, its pathogenesis remains unclear. Recently, APAP cases have been reported during the course of dermatomyositis. The combination of these two diseases may be coincidental; however, it may have been overlooked because differentiating APAP from a flare-up of interstitial pneumonia associated with dermatomyositis is challenging. This didactic case demonstrates the need for early APAP scrutiny. A 50-year-old woman was diagnosed with anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (anti-MDA5) antibody-positive dermatitis and interstitial pneumonia in April 2021. The patient was treated with corticosteroids, tacrolimus, and cyclophosphamide pulse therapy for interstitial pneumonia complicated by MDA5 antibody-positive dermatitis, which improved the symptoms and interstitial pneumonia. Eight months after the start of treatment, a new interstitial shadow appeared that worsened. Therefore, three additional courses of cyclophosphamide pulse therapy were administered; however, the respiratory symptoms and interstitial shadows did not improve. Respiratory failure progressed, and 14months after treatment initiation, bronchoscopy revealed turbid alveolar lavage fluid, numerous foamy macrophages, and numerous periodic acid-Schiff-positive unstructured materials. Blood test results revealed high anti-granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) antibody levels, leading to a diagnosis of APAP. The patient underwent whole-lung lavage, and the respiratory disturbance promptly improved. Anti-GM-CSF antibodies were measured from the cryopreserved serum samples collected at the time of diagnosis of anti-MDA5 antibody-positive dermatitis, and 10months later, both values were significantly higher than normal. This is the first report of anti-MDA5 antibody-positive dermatomyositis complicated by interstitial pneumonia with APAP, which may develop during immunosuppressive therapy and be misdiagnosed as a re-exacerbation of interstitial pneumonia. In anti-MDA5 antibody-positive dermatomyositis, APAP comorbidity may have been overlooked, and early evaluation with bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and anti-GM-CSF antibody measurements should be considered, keeping the development of APAP in mind.

I Am My Own Master: Dewey’s theory of pragmatism on Early Childhood Autonomy-Supporting Development

Based on Dewey’s pragmatic educational thought, this paper analyses the cultivation content and practical needs of autonomy support for early childhood development. Furthermore, it suggests ways to support children’s autonomy from three key perspectives: the viewpoints of children, interactions with children, and the utilisation of unstructured play materials.

Semantic Search System for Common Cultural Traditions of the Greater Mekong Subregion

This article presents the development of a semantic search system for the common cultural traditions of the Greater Mekong Subregion, which has been studied using common cultural tradition data from Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Our system presents the implementation of semantic search to solve the problem of semantic gaps in common cultural characteristic concepts for information access and retrieval. The field of cultural heritage management represents a growing area of research that contains valuable information for users, researchers, and domain experts. Finding information on traditions or cultures of interest among unstructured materials requires a laborious search process. In this paper, we demonstrate how to extract semantic entities and relationships represented in the information using the theory of information science, specifically the Knowledge Organization (KO) approach, which involves determining the concepts and semantic relations of a particular issue and establishing their relations with relevant concepts. It serves as a foundation for knowledge structure development and ontology development, which contribute to effective information searching and knowledge access. The system was developed based on systematic ontology using the Hozo Ontology Editor and Database and ontology mapping using the Ontology Application Management (OAM) framework, which helps distinguish between relevant and irrelevant data, thereby leading to search effectiveness. To cut down on the time wasted in browsing and searching, reduce associated user frustration, and support the research of domain experts, more selective user access is needed.

Evaluating Facebook as aids for learning Japanese: learners' perspectives

PurposeThis study analyses the advantages and weaknesses of using Facebook to aid the learning of Japanese as a foreign language.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from 100 Hong Kong Japanese language learners (who are generally fluent in Chinese and English), ranging from total amateur to advanced learners (Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) qualified at different levels).FindingsThe authors' results suggest that the advantages of using Facebook to help learn Japanese include: (1) serving as a free-of-charge, casual, and convenient learning platform; (2) enriching learners' knowledge beyond the language learning and (3) encouraging interactive and collaborative learning with other users for practicing the language. However, the low credibility and unstructured educational materials posted on Facebook and being easily distracted by other Facebook feeds are the major weaknesses of learning a language through Facebook. Furthermore, the authors' result shows that Facebook is especially effective for Japanese learning when learners fall into either one of the following groups: young, female, or intermediate (N2/3) learners.Originality/valueScant studies focus on the aid of learning Japanese via Facebook, especially Hong Kong learners' perceptions, or generally in the East. Therefore, this study aims to fill this research gap. The authors' findings will facilitate the students, teachers, and language institutions from Hong Kong and other countries to improve the students' effectiveness in learning and teaching Japanese.

Quantifying the advantage of domain-specific pre-training on named entity recognition tasks in materials science

SummaryA bottleneck in efficiently connecting new materials discoveries to established literature has arisen due to an increase in publications. This problem may be addressed by using named entity recognition (NER) to extract structured summary-level data from unstructured materials science text. We compare the performance of four NER models on three materials science datasets. The four models include a bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) and three transformer models (BERT, SciBERT, and MatBERT) with increasing degrees of domain-specific materials science pre-training. MatBERT improves over the other two BERTBASE-based models by 1%∼12%, implying that domain-specific pre-training provides measurable advantages. Despite relative architectural simplicity, the BiLSTM model consistently outperforms BERT, perhaps due to its domain-specific pre-trained word embeddings. Furthermore, MatBERT and SciBERT models outperform the original BERT model to a greater extent in the small data limit. MatBERT’s higher-quality predictions should accelerate the extraction of structured data from materials science literature.

Is there bias in alternatives to standardized tests? An investigation into letters of recommendation

Individuals concerned with subgroup differences on standardized tests suggest replacing these tests with holistic evaluations of unstructured application materials, such as letters of recommendation (LORs), which they posit show less bias. We empirically investigate this proposition that LORs are bias-free, and argue that LORs might actually invite systematic, race and gender subgroup differences in the content and evaluation of LORs. We text analyzed over 37,000 LORs submitted on behalf of over 10,000 graduate school applicants. Results showed that LOR content does differ across applicants. Furthermore, we see some systematic gender, race, and gender-race intersection differences in LOR content. Content of LORs also systematically differed between degree programs (S.T.E.M. vs. non-S.T.E.M.) and degree sought (doctoral vs. masters). Finally, LOR content alone did not predict an appreciable amount of variance in offers of admission (the first barrier to increasing diversity and inclusion in graduate programs). Our results, combined with past research on LOR content bias, highlight concerns that LORs can be biased against marginalized groups. We conclude with suggestions for reducing potential bias in LOR and for increasing diversity in graduate programs.

Significance of kidney biopsy in autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease-UMOD: is kidney biopsy truly nonspecific?

BackgroundAutosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease (ADTKD) is a rare hereditary disease caused by a variety of genetic mutations. Carriers of a mutation in the responsible genes are at risk of reaching end-stage kidney disease typically in middle age. The frequency of this disease is assumed to be underestimated because of a lack of disease-specific signs. Pathological findings obtained from kidney of uromodulin related ADTKD (ADTKD-UMOD) patients are regarded as non-specific and less-informative for its diagnosis. This research was undertaken to evaluate the significance of kidney biopsy in ADTKD-UMOD patients.MethodsThirteen patients from 10 families with nine identified uromodulin (UMOD) gene mutations who underwent kidney biopsy in the past were studied. Their kidney tissues were stained with anti-UMOD antibody in addition to conventional methods such as PAS staining. When positive, the numbers of tubules with visible UMOD protein accumulations were calculated based on the total numbers of UMOD expressing tubules. Pathological findings such as tubulointerstitial fibrosis, atrophy, inflammation and glomerulosclerosis were also evaluated and analyzed.ResultsInterstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy were present in all 13 patients. Most atrophic tubules with thickening and lamellation of tubular basement membranes showed negative UMOD staining. In all but two patients with C94F mutations, massive accumulation of UMOD proteins was observed in the renal endoplasmic reticulum. UMOD accumulations were also detectable by PAS staining as polymorphic unstructured materials in the 11 patients at frequencies of 2.6–53.4%. 80.4% of the UMOD accumulations were surrounded by halos. The detection rate of UMOD accumulations positively correlated with eGFR. Glomerulosclerosis was detected in 11/13 patients, with a frequency of 20.0 to 61.1%, while no cystic dilatations of glomeruli were detected.ConclusionsMassively accumulated UMOD proteins in ADTKD-UMOD kidneys are detectable not only by immunostaining using anti-UMOD antibody but also by conventional methods such as PAS staining, although their detection is not easy. These findings can provide important clues to the diagnosis of ADTKD-UMOD. Kidney biopsy in ADTKD-UMOD may be more informative than assumed previously.

Early childhood educator perceptions of risky play in an outdoor loose parts intervention.

Free play is important in early childhood and offers physical and mental health benefits. Outdoor play offers opportunity for children to use natural elements and promotes physical activity, among other health benefits, including exploring their environment and taking risks. Risky outdoor play may involve challenges, heights, speed, and the potential for injury, but has been associated with increased physical activity levels, decreased sedentary behaviour, improved mental health, and social benefits. The integration of loose parts, or open-ended, unstructured materials, into play environments, has been associated with positive social behaviours, creativity, and improved problem-solving, confidence, and resilience. As opportunities for risky play in early childhood are determined by adults, including early childhood educators, it is important to understand their perspectives on these types of play. The purpose of this study was to explore early childhood educators' perspectives of risky play, in the context of the Physical Literacy in the Early Years (PLEY) intervention. PLEY was a mixed methods study that aimed to evaluate a loose parts intervention in early childcare settings. This paper used Qualitative Description to explore educators' perspectives. Data were collected from 15 focus groups with early childhood educators. Four themes were identified through thematic analysis. The first explains how risky play with loose parts contributes to evolution in educator perceptions; the second describes how educators' perceptions of risk are connected to institutions and systems; the third illustrates how educators developed strategies to facilitate risky play with loose parts; and the fourth demonstrates how educators perceive risky play as beneficial for children's healthy development. This project highlights societal shifts in play and how loose parts and risky play fit into the ongoing evolution in play, from the perspectives of early childhood educators.

Programming Impulsive Deformation with Mechanical Metamaterials.

Impulsive deformation is widely observed in biological systems to generate movement with high acceleration and velocity. By storing elastic energy in a quasistatic loading and releasing it through an impulsive elastic recoil, organisms circumvent the intrinsic trade-off between force and velocity and achieve power amplified motion. However, such asymmetry in strain rate in loading and unloading often results in reduced efficiency in converting elastic energy to kinetic energy for homogeneous materials. Here, we demonstrate that specific internal structural designs can offer the ability to tune quasistatic and high-speed recoil independently to control energy storage and conversion processes. Experimental demonstrations with mechanical metamaterials reveal that certain internal structures optimize energy conversion far beyond unstructured materials under the same conditions. Our results provide the first quantitative model and experimental demonstration for tuning energy conversion processes through internal structures of metamaterials.

Continuous-Flow Synthesis of Carbon-Coated Silicon/Iron Silicide Secondary Particles for Li-Ion Batteries.

The development of better Li-ion battery (LIB) electrodes requires an orchestrated effort to improve the active materials as well as the electron and ion transport in the electrode. In this paper, iron silicide is studied as an anode material for LIBs because of its higher conductivity and lower volume expansion compared to pure Si particles. In addition, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be synthesized from the surface of iron-silicides using a continuous flow coating process where precursors are first spray dried into micrometer-scale secondary particles and are then flown through a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor. Some CNTs are formed inside the secondary particles, which are important for short-range electrical transport and good utilization of the active material. Surface-bound CNTs on the secondary particles may help establish a long-range conductivity. We also observed that these spherical secondary particles allow for better electrode coating quality, cyclability, and rate performance than unstructured materials with the same composition. The developed electrodes retain a gravimetric capacity of 1150 mAh/g over 300 cycles at 1A/g as well as a 43% capacity retention at a rate of 5 C. Further, blended electrodes with graphite delivered a 539 mAh/g with high electrode density (∼1.6 g/cm3) and areal capacity (∼3.5 mAh/cm2) with stable cycling performance.

Multi-Dimension of Openness in the Free Play of Children using Unstructured Materials

Multi-Dimension of Openness in the Free Play of Children using Unstructured Materials

Surprise Box Stories Told by Preschool Children

This research has been conducted to investigate the content of stories that preschool children have told with unstructured materials. A case study has been used to exam-ine the contents of the stories the children told. A group of 18 children aged between 36-66 months has participated in the research. "Surprise Box" is used as a data collection tool in which various unstructured materials are stored. The data has been collected by interviewing technique. It has been observed that 11 of the 18 children who participated in the research could not finish the story and construct a story arc. It has been determined that there is a relationship between age and story complexity in the narrated stories. Despite using the same surprise box contents, the children have told the stories associated with their own genders, creating a story around a different theme. 

Surface Structuring Combined with Chemical Surface Functionalization: An Effective Tool to Manipulate Cell Adhesion.

In this study, we investigate how a surface structure underneath a surface-attached polymer coating affects the bioactivity of the resulting material. To that end, structured surfaces were fabricated using colloidal lithography (lateral dimensions: 200 nm to 1 µm, height ~15 to 50 nm). The surface structures were further functionalized either with antimicrobial, cell-adhesive polycations or with protein-repellent polyzwitterions. The materials thus obtained were compared to non-functionalized structured surfaces and unstructured polymer monolayers. Their physical properties were studied by contact-angle measurements and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Protein adhesion was studied by surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, and the antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli bacteria was tested. The growth of human mucosal gingiva keratinocytes on the materials was analyzed using the Alamar blue assay, optical microscopy, and live-dead staining. The data shows that the underlying surface structure itself reduced protein adhesion and also bacterial adhesion, as evidenced by increased antimicrobial activity. It also enhanced cell adhesion to the surfaces. Particularly in combination with the adhesive polycations, the surfaces increased the cell growth compared to the unstructured reference materials. Thus, functionalizing structured surfaces with adhesive polymer could be a valuable tool for improved tissue integration.

Linguistic structure across time: ERP responses to coordinated and uncoordinated noun phrases

ABSTRACTRelatively little is known about how linguistic structure is neurally encoded. The current study examines a relatively subtle manipulation of syntactic and semantic structure: the difference between reading a list of two noun phrases (“sunlit ponds ### green umbrellas”) and their syntactic coordination (“sunlit ponds and green umbrellas”). In two ERP experiments, the presence of the coordinator resulted in an increased anterior negativity across the entire second noun phrase, even though coordination had no direct relevance for the memory recognition task. These findings demonstrate that structural connectedness exerts strong, ongoing differences in neural activity even when structured and unstructured materials are very tightly matched in sequence and content. These differences may reflect ongoing maintenance of structure in memory, or computation of the more complex semantic or discourse representation associated with syntactic coordination.

Assessment of soil fauna footprints at a rehabilitated coal mine using micromorphology and near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)

Soil micromorphology in thin section and near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) are useful techniques for assessing the participation of soil macrofauna in the formation of aggregates and soil structure. The purpose of this study was to use micromorphological analysis and NIRS techniques to assess the role of soil fauna in the recovery of soil aggregates and in the modification of soil microstructure in a chronosequence of rehabilitated areas at Cerrejon coal mine (La Guajira, Colombia). 64 soil samples were taken from rehabilitated areas (from 1 to 20years ago) and from natural dry tropical forests Soil macroaggregates were subdivided into three categories: biogenic (BA), physical (PA), and non-aggregated soil (NAS). 32 samples were used for NIRS analysis, while ten thin sections of resin-impregnated soil blocks were micromorphologically analyzed. Principal component analysis of NIRS spectra showed a clear separation between BA, PA, and NAS. Likewise, an increase in BA was observed in the intermediate and advanced stages of rehabilitation. Respect to the micromorphological features, there was a clear change from a matrix of silt-sized quartz, unaccomodated peds, and unstructured materials with non-existent biogenic activity at the 2-year site to the formation of consolidated aggregates, more homogenized soil and increased biological activity at the 20-year site. Soil biological activity, principally the footprint of macrofauna, was recognized using the two techniques as well as at both the micro- and macro-morphology scales. These results reveal how the rehabilitation program being undertaken at Cerrejón mine is promoting the soil macrofauna population and associated bioturbation.

Young female adults’ experiences of their relationships with older people: The Mmogo-method®

Most of the intergenerational research in South Africa has been undertaken on African cultures. This study aims to cast light on the experiences of Afrikaans-speaking young female adults in relation to older people, using the Mmogo-method®, a visual projective data collection method. Eighteen young female adults (aged 21–30), all students, were purposefully selected and willingly participated. The four phases of the Mmogo-method were applied, for which participants used unstructured materials, and based on an open-ended prompt constructed visual representations of their interactional experiences in relation to significant older people. Visual representations were discussed individually as well as in a group setting, thereby obtaining personal and group experiences simultaneously. Visual data were analyzed using Roos and Redelinghuys’s proposed six steps, and textual data (verbatim transcriptions of personal and group discussions) were thematically analyzed. All participants were related to significant older people as grandparents. The relational interactions between young female adults and their grandparents emerged on a continuum of emotional closeness and distance: extremely and uncomfortably close, comfortably close, reasonably distant and inaccessible, and extremely distant and totally inaccessible. From the young adults’ perspective, relational interactions at the extremes of the continuum (too close or too distant) are experienced as ineffective, while comfortably close, as effective. Empathy as a relational characteristic created reciprocal feelings of closeness. Awarenessmaking of an empathic stance in intergenerational relationships might increase the support and care rendered through intergenerational relationships.

DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL ENGLISH FOR SCIENCE THROUGH LESSON STUDY

English Language Teaching in Integrated Science Department is often challenging to train students to understand science content in English and present it fluently. In the implementation of daily lecturing activities Basic English theories such as grammatical structure and IPA content are taught separately. This causes no integration between the two materials. Based on the problems an instructional material that integrates the basic theory of English and science content is needed to support the learning activities. This product is designed to improve previously unstructured instructional materials. The product developed through lesson study stages. In the Plan stage, the need analysis and product development were conducted. While at the Do stage, the instructional material was implemented in the learning process. Finally is the See stage, this stage is a reflection on the whole process of lecturing both in the process and products used. The instructional material was validated by language, content and media experts and it can be said to be feasible to use in the learning process. Then the product was used in learning process and can help students to improve the English proficiency in science with an average of 80.

An exploratory study of children’s pretend play when using a switch-controlled assistive robot to manipulate toys

Introduction Assistive robots could be a means for children with physical disabilities to manipulate toys and for occupational therapists to track children’s play development. This study aimed to (a) establish if free play set-ups without and with a robot would elicit a developmental sequence of play in typically developing children, (b) determine if the robot affected children’s play and (c) observe the play schemes that children performed. Method An experimental crossover design was conducted. Thirty typically developing children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old performed free play activities with conventional toys or unstructured materials without and with a switch-controlled Lego Mindstorms robot. Children’s pretend and functional play was analyzed using a coding scheme developed for the present study. Results There was a trend, increasing with age, for pretend play without the robot with unstructured materials ( p = .002), and with the robot, for conventional toys ( p = 0.015) and unstructured materials ( p = 0.027). Younger children exhibited more pretend play without the robot than with it. Conclusion Assistive robots and appropriate play set-ups can provide a method to measure the play development level of children with disabilities, and support pretend play. Suggestions to support pretend play when children with disabilities use assistive robots are discussed.

Improving biomedical information retrieval by linear combinations of different query expansion techniques.

BackgroundBiomedical literature retrieval is becoming increasingly complex, and there is a fundamental need for advanced information retrieval systems. Information Retrieval (IR) programs scour unstructured materials such as text documents in large reserves of data that are usually stored on computers. IR is related to the representation, storage, and organization of information items, as well as to access. In IR one of the main problems is to determine which documents are relevant and which are not to the user’s needs. Under the current regime, users cannot precisely construct queries in an accurate way to retrieve particular pieces of data from large reserves of data. Basic information retrieval systems are producing low-quality search results. In our proposed system for this paper we present a new technique to refine Information Retrieval searches to better represent the user’s information need in order to enhance the performance of information retrieval by using different query expansion techniques and apply a linear combinations between them, where the combinations was linearly between two expansion results at one time. Query expansions expand the search query, for example, by finding synonyms and reweighting original terms. They provide significantly more focused, particularized search results than do basic search queries.ResultsThe retrieval performance is measured by some variants of MAP (Mean Average Precision) and according to our experimental results, the combination of best results of query expansion is enhanced the retrieved documents and outperforms our baseline by 21.06 %, even it outperforms a previous study by 7.12 %.ConclusionsWe propose several query expansion techniques and their combinations (linearly) to make user queries more cognizable to search engines and to produce higher-quality search results.

Let the Children Play: Scoping Review on the Implementation and Use of Loose Parts for Promoting Physical Activity Participation.

Active play has become a critical focus in terms of physical activity participation in young children. Unstructured or child-led play offers children the opportunity to interact with the environment in a range of different ways. Unstructured materials, often called loose parts, encourage child-led play, and therefore may also promote physical activity. The purpose of this scoping review was to determine what is currently known about how loose parts may influence physical activity participation. Following a systematic literature search, a total of 16 articles were retrieved, reviewed and categorized according to: (1) types of loose parts; (2) types of play; and (3) types of thinking. We found that there are currently a range of loose parts being used to support play, but the way in which they are implemented varies and there is a lack of clarity around how they might support the development of active outdoor play and physical literacy skills.