Lessons from Best Practices for English Language Educational Reform in Thailand

Lessons from other countries where digital technology is integrated into English classroom will shed lights to digital Thailand. This study, therefore, analyzed the best practices to extract and describe key success factors that could help increase national competitiveness. The conclusion of the study was drawn from an interpretive analysis and synthesis of the review of literature. Five purposefully selected best practices included Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and South Korea. This was a documentary study. The results revealed that key success that all these best practice countries share includes these ten issues: free, accessible, equalized education, ICT in English education, starting learning English in early age, professional development for teachers, stress on qualification of teachers, teacher compensations and welfares, small class size, assessment and testing reform and homework reform. Policy implications indicate that if the Thai government want to reach the educational efficiency of the best practice countries, it should take these issues into consideration. Future inquiry should include more countries to get a wider, more practical and more insightful holistic scope of the study

Psoriasis: A Study of the Skin Transcriptome and Microbiome

Psoriasis is a complex autoimmune skin disorder characterized by dry, scaly plaques and painful flares. Even though genetic contribution and environmental factors are suspected, the exact trigger of psoriasis is not well understood. The chronic condition of the disease and the lack of effective and definitive treatments are burdens on the patients. Recent emergence of transcriptome and genomic datasets for the host, as well as the taxonomic datasets for the microbiome has enabled the use of bioinformatics approaches to investigate altered gene circuits in psoriasis. As a first step, open source microarray datasets of psoriasis were analyzed in context of other skin conditions. The analysis showed that upregulated genes in the psoriasis transcriptome included those involved in epidermal differentiation complex and antimicrobial processes, while the top downregulated genes were involved in lipid metabolism. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways that were enriched with significantly altered genes point to the upregulation of both innate and adaptive immune responses. The psoriasis gene signature was distinctive from other inflammatory skin conditions and it resembled the wound healing process in terms of keratinization and immune response signals. On the microbiome side, over-abundance of opportunistic bacteria on the psoriasis microbiome was observed compared to controls. Virulence genes were consistently in high abundance across different body sites. Bacterial invasion of epithelial cells gene pathway was crowded with both significantly altered genes on the host side and high-abundance orthologs on the microbiome side. The findings suggested bacterial involvement in the initiation or maintenance of psoriasis flares. Genetic components also play a role in susceptibility to psoriasis. Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) is one of the regions that has previously been associated with psoriasis through Genome Wide Association studies. The Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) typed in the HapMap dataset (11 ethnic populations) within the HLA region have been analyzed using extended haplotype homozygosity based tests to identify positive selection on polymorphisms that have not yet reached fixation. Results showed regional specificity of positive selection signals on the sub-classes of HLA. The positive selection signals in Class I sub-region showed European ancestry specificity with intronic SNPs on a psoriasis related gene PSORS1C1 as well as on TCF19, MUC22, TRIM10, and TRIM15. The region specific selection signals were also seen in the Class III region for the East Asian populations and in the Class II region for African ancestry populations. Similar to single population tests, the cross population tests showed that the significant SNPs were concentrated in the Class II region for African ancestry populations, whereas for European ancestry populations, they were concentrated in the Class I region. The results show how positive selection of a SNP can encourage genetic hitchhiking of the susceptibility SNPs for a disease along with a SNP that is under positive selection. This research thesis bridges large scale transcriptome datasets of the host and operational taxonomy unit abundance datasets of the microbiome, opening up new avenues for drug repositioning studies by pointing out specific host-microbiome genes as drug targets.Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering -- Drexel University, 201

Optimizing CO Reductions in a Diesel Oxidation Catalyst under Diesel Dual Fuel Exhaust Conditions

A Diesel Dual Fuel (DDF) engine is an adapted diesel engine that uses natural gas and diesel fuel as the energy source at the same time. Natural gas is mixed with air at the intake manifold while diesel fuel is injected into the combustion chamber directly to initiate the combustion process. Based on the past DDF literatures, they are indicated that Carbon Monoxide (CO) emissions were more substantial at low load conditions than those when running in diesel engine modes. The Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) that is installed to this diesel engine is, therefore, not capable to reduce CO emissions abide by to the emission regulation. Literatures also indicate that the exhaust temperature, mass flow rate, Oxygen (O2) concentration, CO concentration, as well as Propane (C3H8) concentration may affect CO conversion efficiency of the catalytic converter. In the present work, Design of Experiments (DOE) is employed to explore the behavior of various factors that affect CO reductions in the catalytic converter. Once the knowledge is founded, the optimization of CO reductions in the catalytic converter at 90% is studied extensively. Using Fractional Factorial Design for screening factors on CO conversions, it is found that the exhaust temperature, mass flow rate, O2 concentration, and CO concentration affect CO conversions of the catalytic converter significantly. Optimization of these factors, by using Box-Behnken Design, for reducing CO concentration of 6200 ppm which is the maximum CO amount emitted from the tested engine shows that 90% of CO conversion can be reached at the exhaust temperature of 2000C, the mass flow rate of 25 kg/h, and the oxygen concentration of 16%.A Diesel Dual Fuel (DDF) engine is an adapted diesel engine that uses natural gas and diesel fuel as the energy source at the same time. Natural gas is mixed with air at the intake manifold while diesel fuel is injected into the combustion chamber directly to initiate the combustion process. Based on the past DDF literatures, they are indicated that Carbon Monoxide (CO) emissions were more substantial at low load conditions than those when running in diesel engine modes. The Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) that is installed to this diesel engine is, therefore, not capable to reduce CO emissions abide by to the emission regulation. Literatures also indicate that the exhaust temperature, mass flow rate, Oxygen (O2) concentration, CO concentration, as well as Propane (C3H8) concentration may affect CO conversion efficiency of the catalytic converter. In the present work, Design of Experiments (DOE) is employed to explore the behavior of various factors that affect CO reductions in the catalytic converter. Once the knowledge is founded, the optimization of CO reductions in the catalytic converter at 90% is studied extensively. Using Fractional Factorial Design for screening factors on CO conversions, it is found that the exhaust temperature, mass flow rate, O2 concentration, and CO concentration affect CO conversions of the catalytic converter significantly. Optimization of these factors, by using Box-Behnken Design, for reducing CO concentration of 6200 ppm which is the maximum CO amount emitted from the tested engine shows that 90% of CO conversion can be reached at the exhaust temperature of 200oC, the mass flow rate of 25 kg/h, and the oxygen concentration of 16%

Stromal cyclin D1 promotes heterotypic immune signaling and breast cancer growth

The cyclin D1 gene encodes the regulatory subunit of a holoenzyme that drives cell autonomous cell cycle progression and proliferation. Herein we show cyclin D1 abundance is increased >30-fold in the stromal fibroblasts of patients with invasive breast cancer, associated with poor outcome. Cyclin D1 transformed hTERT human fibroblast to a cancer-associated fibroblast phenotype. Stromal fibroblast expression of cyclin D1 (cyclin D1Stroma) in vivo, enhanced breast epithelial cancer tumor growth, restrained apoptosis, and increased autophagy. Cyclin D1Stroma had profound effects on the breast tumor microenvironment increasing the recruitment of F4/80+ and CD11b+ macrophages and increasing angiogenesis. Cyclin D1Stroma induced secretion of factors that promoted expansion of stem cells (breast stem-like cells, embryonic stem cells and bone marrow derived stem cells). Cyclin D1Stroma resulted in increased secretion of proinflammatory cytokines (CCL2, CCL7, CCL11, CXCL1, CXCL5, CXCL9, CXCL12), CSF (CSF1, GM-CSF1) and osteopontin (OPN) (30-fold). OPN was induced by cyclin D1 in fibroblasts, breast epithelial cells and in the murine transgenic mammary gland and OPN was sufficient to induce stem cell expansion. These results demonstrate that cyclin D1Stroma drives tumor microenvironment heterocellular signaling, promoting several key hallmarks of cancer

How to increase earthquake and home fire preparedness: the fix-it intervention

Published, evaluated community intervention studies concerning natural hazard preparedness are rare. Most lack a rigorous methodology, thereby hampering the development of evidence-based interventions. This paper describes the rationale and methodology of a cross-cultural, longitudinal intervention study on earthquake and home fire preparedness, termed fix-it. The aim is to evaluate whether and how the intervention brings about behaviour change in the targeted communities in two coastal cities with high seismic risk: Seattle, USA and Izmir, Turkey. Participants are adult residents of these cities. The intervention group attends a 6-h workshop, which focuses on securing items in the household. The control group does not attend the workshop. All participants complete baseline and post-intervention, as well as 3- and 12-month follow-up assessments. The primary outcome measure is an observational measure of nine preparedness items for earthquake and fire in participants’ homes. This is evaluated alongside participants’ self-reports concerning their preparedness levels. Secondary outcomes are changes in levels of self-efficacy, perceived outcome, trust, corruption, empowerment, anxiety and social cohesion. Results from the first of the studies, conducted in Seattle in September 2015, indicate that while the fix-it intervention is effective, in the longer term, multi-hazard preparedness is increased by the mere act of going into people’s homes to observe their preparedness levels along with assessing self-reported preparedness and sociopsychological orientation towards natural hazards. This protocol and study aim to augment the empirical literature on natural hazard preparedness, informing national and international policy on delivery of evidence-based community interventions to promote multi-hazard preparedness in households

Penerapan PSAK No. 46 (Akuntansi Pajak Penghasilan) pada PT Dwi Selo Giri Mas

2014Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui apakah perusahaan telah menerapkan\ud PSAK No. 46 untuk menghitung pajak penghasilan pada laporan keuangan dan\ud melihat bagaimana laporan keuangan perusahaan yang telah dianilisis sesuai\ud PSAK No. 46 serta pengaruh PSAK No. 46 terhadap laporan keuangannya.\ud Dalam penelitian ini, digunakan metode deskriptif-komparatif yang\ud membandingkan dan menganalisis laporan keuangan perusahaan dan PSAK No.\ud 46. Penelitian dilakukan pada PT Dwi Selo Giri Mas yang bergerak di industri\ud bahan kimia Kalsium Karbonat untuk bahan pembuatan cat dinding. Hasil\ud penelitian menunjukkan bahwa PT Dwi Selo Giri Mas belum menerapkan PSAK\ud No. 46 dalam laporan keuangannya. Perusahaan tidak memperhitungkan adanya\ud aset/kewajiban pajak tangguhan dan hanya menggunakan metode hutang pajak\ud dalam menghitung pajak penghasilan badan. Penerapan PSAK No. 46\ud menyebabkan hutang pajak kini perusahaan sebesar Rp140.343.774 dan\ud terdapat aset pajak tangguhan sebesar Rp18.597.195 untuk tahun 2012.\ud Kata kunci: PSAK No. 46, Pajak Tangguhan, Beda Temporer\ud This research aims to determine whether the company has adopted PSAK No.\ud 46 to calculate the income tax on the financial statements and see the company's\ud financial statements that have been analyzed and the impact of PSAK No. 46 on\ud its financial statements. In this study, used a descriptive-comparative method to\ud compares and analyzes the company???s fanancial statement and PSAK No. 46.\ud The study was conducted at PT Dwi Selo Giri Mas engaged in the chemical\ud industrial Calcium Carbonate for the manufacture of wall paint. The results\ud showed that PT Dwi Selo Giri Mas not adopted PSAK No. 46 in its financial\ud statements yet. The company does not take into account any deferred tax\ud assets/liabilities and only using the taxes payable method of calculating corporate\ud income taxes. The application of PSAK No. 46 causing company???s current tax\ud payable by Rp140.343.774 and deferred tax assets amounting to Rp18.597.195\ud for 2012.\ud Keywords: PSAK No. 46, Deffered Tax, Temporary Difference

Genomic loss in environmental and isogenic morphotype isolates of Burkholderia pseudomallei is associated with intracellular survival and plaque-forming efficiency

Background: Burkholderia pseudomallei is an environmental bacterium that causes melioidosis. A facultative intracellular pathogen, B. pseudomallei can induce multinucleated giant cells (MNGCs) leading to plaque formation in vitro. B. pseudomallei can switch colony morphotypes under stress conditions. In addition, different isolates have been reported to have varying virulence in vivo, but genomic evolution and the relationship with plaque formation is poorly understood. // Methodology/Principle findings: To gain insights into genetic underpinnings of virulence of B. pseudomallei, we screened plaque formation of 52 clinical isolates and 11 environmental isolates as well as 4 isogenic morphotype isolates of B. pseudomallei strains K96243 (types II and III) and 153 (types II and III) from Thailand in A549 and HeLa cells. All isolates except one environmental strain (A4) and K96243 morphotype II were able to induce plaque formation in both cell lines. Intracellular growth assay and confocal microscopy analyses demonstrated that the two plaque-forming-defective isolates were also impaired in intracellular replication, actin polymerization and MNGC formation in infected cells. Whole genome sequencing analysis and PCR revealed that both isolates had a large genomic loss on the same region in chromosome 2, which included Bim cluster, T3SS-3 and T6SS-5 genes. // Conclusions/Significance: Our plaque screening and genomic studies revealed evidence of impairment in plaque formation in environmental isolates of B. pseudomallei that is associated with large genomic loss of genes important for intracellular multiplication and MNGC formation. These findings suggest that the genomic and phenotypic differences of environmental isolates may be associated with clinical infection