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Background and Purpose: Pinyin is required in learning Mandarin. The challenge of Romanised Pinyin is that learners must decipher the meaning of words based on the change of tone. Communication research is often conducted without accounting for the effects of the change of tone in learning a language. With the aim of avoiding miscommunication while strengthening awareness, Campus Buddies Programme was employed to provide tone practice for learners and consequently explores the effectiveness of the intervention.   Methodology: This quantitative classroom-based research gathered information through the administration of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to 32 Mandarin Level 1 learners identified through purposive sampling. The students studied five topics from the syllabus. A total of 10 native speakers who scored A in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) mentored the learners during the programme. The participants were instructed to answer both pre- and post-tests. Part A consists of demographic details, whereas Part B focuses on the effectiveness of questions and Part C consists of 30 questions of content learned by the respondents. The data were then analysed using SPSS 26 software.   Findings: The respondents demonstrated a positive response towards the programme and suggested further improvement ideas such as prolonging the training session and adding more topics and oral activities. The results implicated the programme as a motivator for oral fluency. Many non-native speakers can benefit from conversation with Mandarin native speakers because it is a strong indicator and sound oral mastery strategy.   Contributions: This research provides insights into the effectiveness of the current programme in motivating students’ oral learning. The outcome is essential in determining the Mandarin conversation strategy. More studies adopting different variables are proposed to explore correlations from different perspectives in order to improve students’ oral learning.   Keywords: Tonal pronunciation, native speakers, non-native speakers, foreign language instruction, Mandarin conversation.   Cite as: Chua, N. A., Soon, G. Y., Ibrahim, M. Y., Che Noh, C. H., Mansor, N. R., Embong Eusoff, A. M., Abdul Rashid, R., & Shen, M. (2022). The Mandarin oral mastery programme as perceived by non-native learners.  Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1), 1-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp1-23

Demand-side financing (DSF) scheme is popularly known as the maternal health voucher program, which is launched in many developing countries of the world including Bangladesh as an intervention of developing overall health status. Maternal mortality ratio is a strong indicator of health profile of any country and pregnant women are prone to fall vulnerable situation. This review was aimed to find gap/missing of existing literature in order to make foundation of new research on healthcare seeking of pregnant women along with financing coverage. After repeated critical review of number original articles, some gaps have been found. Almost every article they focused on outcome and mildly highlighted input variables but did not consider all possible variables and missed to show interlink between those variables.

Abstract Globally, there has been an increasing amount of wood harvested from younger, fast-growing trees derived from plantation forests. As a consequence, producers and industrial consumers of wood products are becoming increasingly concerned with not only growth rates, but specific wood attributes that affect processing efficiencies and final product quality. Intra-ring checking is a problem that down-grades an unacceptably high proportion of radiata pine clearwood. Methods of identifying trees prone to this undesirable behaviour have been relatively destructive and time consuming, and from a breeding perspective, to date, there is no reliable method of predicting which selected progeny will later show a propensity to check. Using 120, 7-year-old Pinus radiata clones sampled from a common site, displaying difference in the propensity to form intra-ring checks, a GC/MS-based global metabolic profiling technique was employed to demonstrate that metabolomics can be used to accurately identify the checking phenotype. Metabolic profiling coupled with statistical tests was then used to develop models with greater than 90% efficiency to predict the intra-ring checking phenotype. Moreover, an inspection of unique metabolites contributing to the models indicated that coniferin, which is often found as a storage compound in rays, is a strong indicator of intra-ring checking, and indeed those genotypes that displayed the propensity to check inherently had a greater number of ray cells per unit area.

Abstract Sea surface temperature (SST) data obtained from the Aqua-MODIS satellite from 2002 to 2012 were analyzed to determine the spatial and temporal variability in the key region of small pelagic fisheries between Makassar Strait and the Java Sea. Results of the Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis show that the characteristics of this region are described by 60% based on the greatest contribution value respectively. The largest contribution of 52% shows that the SSTs in this region is warm. A strong indicator of these conditions appears in the east through the southern part of Kalimantan Island while the weak indicator is in the south to western part of Sulawesi Island. The temporal variation shows that the annual oscillation is dominant in this area where maximum SSTs occurs in the first transitional monsoon (April), while the minimum occurs in the southeast monsoon period (August). The influence of southeast monsoon formats the minimum SSTs area in the south of South Sulawesi that is generated by parallel wind-driven induces to the coast and the divergent current close to the coast. Due to inter-annual variability, minimum SSTs occurs before the El Nino episode whereas the maximum occurs before the La Nina event.

This paper studies a sample of airlines reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) about three specific challenges in implementing International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) (2019), IFRS 9 requirements for impairment versus IASB, 2014, IAS 39: 1) expected versus incurred credit losses; 2) impairment scoping and elective simplifications; and 3) definition and use of default. First, there appears to be a strong indicator that the way airline companies have drawn the line between what future conditions should or should not be considered in estimating expected versus incurred credit losses has maintained the fundamental tenet in IFRS of representing the condition existing as of the end of the reporting period. Second, evidence of companies quests for IASB (2019), IFRS 9 impairment simplifications attests to the criticism that the alleged single model of impairment is in effect a complex collection of different techniques. Finally, the degree of specific application that IASB (2019), IFRS 9 requires for the definition and use of default, as well as the customization of what triggers a significant change in the risk of default since initial recognition, does not appear to have been fully received, and sufficiently disclosed in the financial statements.

Abstract Background Due to patient hesitancy surrounding the COVID-19 vaccination initiative, the public needs accurate and timely education that encourages partnership with medical professionals. Methods This study assessed the impact of online patient/caregiver education on knowledge, confidence and intent to act. The educational intervention consisted of 4 activities published on a dedicated COVID-19 learning center on WebMD Education portal from April-May, 2021. The activities were comprised of text and integrated visuals, with 3 of the activities being further customized with a patient or healthcare professional (HCP) video commentary. Demographic questions were asked prior to each activity. Knowledge questions were asked both before and after to assess learning gains. Intent to change and confidence questions were asked at the end of each activity. Absolute improvements were calculated for pre/post questions. An initial data pull was conducted on 6/7/2021 for the purpose of this abstract, and data for the complete analysis will be collected until approximately 8/7/21. Results To date, 14,911 learners (3,579) of which responded to the pre/post questions) have participated in the activities, and have demonstrated improvements in knowledge and high levels of confidence and intent to act (Figure). Activity 1: COVID-19 Vaccines: Covering the Basics. Demographics (n=155): 50% male; 41% White, non-Hispanic, 30% Asian; 52% over the age of 54. Activity 2: Understanding the Why, Who, and When of COVID-19 Vaccines. Demographics (n=2,325): 66% female; 51% White, non-Hispanic, 18% Asian; 54% over the age of 54. Activity 3: What to Expect When You Get the COVID-19 Vaccine. Demographics (n=500): 66% female; 49% White, non-Hispanic, 22% Asian; 56% over the age of 54. Activity 4: What Have You Heard about Herd Immunity and COVID-19. Demographics (n=599): 63% female; 53% White, non-Hispanic, 25% Asian; 53% over the age of 54. Conclusion The metrics and outcomes gathered in this assessment are a strong indicator that online patient/caregiver activities on WebMD Education improved knowledge and confidence and prompted intent to act related to COVID-19 vaccines. These findings highlight the potential for well-designed online education to overcome vaccine related challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

AbstractNecrotic cell death represents a major pathogenic mechanism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection. It is increasingly evident that Mtb induces several types of regulated necrosis but how these are interconnected and linked to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines remains unknown. Exploiting a clinical cohort of tuberculosis patients, we show here that the number and size of necrotic lesions correlates with IL-1β plasma levels as a strong indicator of inflammasome activation. Our mechanistic studies reveal that Mtb triggers mitochondrial permeability transition (mPT) and subsequently extensive macrophage necrosis, which requires activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. NLRP3-driven mitochondrial damage is dependent on proteolytic activation of the pore-forming effector protein gasdermin D (GSDMD), which links two distinct cell death machineries. Intriguingly, GSDMD, but not the membranolytic mycobacterial ESX-1 secretion system, is dispensable for IL-1β secretion from Mtb-infected macrophages. Thus, our study dissects a novel mechanism of pathogen-induced regulated necrosis by identifying mitochondria as central regulatory hubs capable of delineating cytokine secretion and lytic cell death.

The amount of sales in a store is a strong indicator that contributes to managers' decision making. In physical retail, unlike e-commerce, it is more difficult to collect sales and customer behavior metrics because it depends on great sensing and integration between systems. In a shopping mall scenario, we use real WiFi data, People Flow and Sales create a dataset. In this article we propose an evaluation of machine learning models with the objective of estimating the next hour sales in Low, Medium and High, thus providing a tool to assist in decision making. We use the PyCaret library to perform the training of the 13 compared algorithms. The F1-score metric was used to evaluate the models. The Gradient Booster Classifier was the model that got the best result with a score of 84.75%. Among the estimated classes, the High class showed the greatest error in the confusion matrix, reaching 60%, possibly a reflection of the low amount of records in the high class.

Sex strongly impacts genome evolution via recombination and segregation. In the absence of these processes, haplotypes within lineages of diploid organisms are predicted to accumulate mutations independently of each other and diverge over time. This so-called “Meselson effect” is regarded as a strong indicator of the long-term evolution under obligate asexuality. Here, we present genomic and transcriptomic data of three populations of the asexual oribatid mite species Oppiella nova and its sexual relative Oppiella subpectinata. We document strikingly different patterns of haplotype divergence between the two species, strongly supporting Meselson effect–like evolution and long-term asexuality in O. nova: I) variation within individuals exceeds variation between populations in O. nova but vice versa in O. subpectinata; II) two O. nova sublineages feature a high proportion of lineage-specific heterozygous single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), indicating that haplotypes continued to diverge after lineage separation; III) the deepest split in gene trees generally separates the two haplotypes in O. nova, but populations in O. subpectinata; and IV) the topologies of the two haplotype trees match each other. Our findings provide positive evidence for the absence of canonical sex over evolutionary time in O. nova and suggest that asexual oribatid mites can escape the dead-end fate usually associated with asexual lineages.