Temple University, Japan

Foreign language anxiety has long been recognized as a significant factor affecting learners’ performance and motivation in second language acquisition. However, limited research has examined this phenomenon among English majors who are expected to be highly proficient English users in non-native contexts. To address this paucity, this paper explores the causes of English language learning anxiety (ELLA) among English majors at a Vietnamese university. Drawing on mixed data from 103 questionnaire respondents and eight follow-up interviews, four major causes were identified: students’ difficulties with English vocabulary learning, misconceptions about English language learning, test anxiety, and lack of preparation. The findings indicate anxiety as an existence and a challenge that instructors and learners ought to anticipate, acknowledge, and take notice of. The study also brings new insights into how anxiety might tend to derive internally from students themselves and suggests that language educators should incorporate supportive strategies to mitigate these causes in English learning settings.

BackgroundHarvested wood products (HWPs) have a pivotal role in climate change mitigation, a recognition solidified in many Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Integrating HWPs' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals into accounting requirements relies on typical decision-oriented tools known as wood product models (WPMs). The study introduces the TimberTracer (TT) framework, designed to simulate HWP carbon stock, substitution effects, and emissions from wood decay and bioenergy.ResultsCoupled with the 3D-CMCC-FEM forest growth model, TimberTracer was applied to Laricio Pine (Pinus nigra subsp. laricio) in Italy’s Bonis watershed, evaluating three forest management practices (clearcut, selective thinning, and shelterwood) and four wood-use scenarios (business as usual, increased recycling rate, extended average lifespan, and a simultaneous increase in both the recycling rate and the average lifespan) over a 140 year planning horizon, to assess the overall carbon balance of HWPs. Furthermore, this study evaluates the consequences of disregarding landfill methane emissions and relying on static substitution factors, assessing their impact on the mitigation potential of various options. This investigation, covering HWPs stock, carbon (C) emissions, and the substitution effect, revealed that selective thinning emerged as the optimal forest management scenario. In addition, a simultaneous 10% increase in both the recycling rate and half-life, under the so-called “sustainability” scenario, proved to be the optimal wood-use strategy. Finally, the analysis shows that failing to account for landfill methane emissions and the use of dynamic substitution can significantly overestimate the mitigation potential of various forest management and wood-use options, which underscores the critical importance of a comprehensive accounting in climate mitigation strategies involving HWPs.ConclusionsOur study highlights the critical role of harvested wood products (HWPs) in climate change mitigation, as endorsed by multiple Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Utilizing the TimberTracer framework coupled with the 3D-CMCC-FEM forest growth model, we identified selective thinning as the optimal forest management practice. Additionally, enhancing recycling rates and extending product lifespan effectively bolstered the carbon balance. Moreover, this study emphasizes the necessity of accounting for landfill methane emissions and dynamic product substitution, as failing to do so may significantly overestimate the mitigation potential of implemented projects. These findings offer actionable insights to optimize forest management strategies and advance climate change mitigation efforts.

Background: A neuroinflammatory disease such as Alzheimer’s disease, presents a significant challenge in neurotherapeutics, particularly due to the complex etiology and allostatic factors, referred to as CNS stressors, that accelerate the development and progression of the disease. These CNS stressors include cerebral hypo-glucose metabolism, hyperinsulinemia, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, impairment of neuronal autophagy, hypoxic insults and neuroinflammation. This study aims to explore the efficacy and safety of DAG-MAG-ΒHB, a novel ketone diester, in mitigating these risk factors by sustaining therapeutic ketosis, independent of conventional metabolic pathways. Methods: We evaluated the intestinal absorption of DAG-MAG-ΒHB and the metabolic impact in human microglial cells. Utilizing the HMC3 human microglia cell line, we examined the compound’s effect on cellular viability, Acetyl-CoA and ATP levels, and key metabolic enzymes under hypoglycemia. Additionally, we assessed the impact of DAG-AG-ΒHB on inflammasome activation, mitochondrial activity, ROS levels, inflammation and phagocytic rates. Results: DAG-MAG-ΒHB showed a high rate of intestinal absorption and no cytotoxic effect. In vitro, DAG-MAG-ΒHB enhanced cell viability, preserved morphological integrity, and maintained elevated Acetyl-CoA and ATP levels under hypoglycemic conditions. DAG-MAG-ΒHB increased the activity of BDH1 and SCOT, indicating ATP production via a ketolytic pathway. DAG-MAG-ΒHB showed remarkable resilience against low glucose condition by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Conclusions: In summary, DAG-MAG-ΒHB emerges as a promising treatment for neuroinflammatory conditions. It enhances cellular health under varying metabolic states and exhibits neuroprotective properties against low glucose conditions. These attributes indicate its potential as an effective component in managing neuroinflammatory diseases, addressing their complex progression.

ABSTRACT This study argues that corpus analysis has yet to incorporate probabilistic reasoning into the measurement of dispersion. This proposal continues a recent observation that some commonly used dispersion measures were impaired by an extreme sensitivity to the random noise characterizing any real-world data set. This article will show that this could have been avoided if (a) the underlying metaphor for ‘corpus dispersion’ had been more carefully considered and (b) the measures had been derived from an appropriate probability mass distribution. The text then proposes a computationally efficient dispersion measure developed from a Poisson model of an unbiased word dispersion. Unlike several current measures, this measure is shown to give a score that is meaningful at all word frequencies while being more sensitive to real dispersional bias and less sensitive to noise.

This article is based on a case study done at one public secondary school in Yokohama, Japan with supplementing data from surrounding schools. The aim of the research is to bring attention to student and teacher lifestyles concerning information communication technology (ICT) prior to the pandemic (before it became an enforced necessity) in personal and school-related settings and discuss possible implications for ICT policies at secondary schools in Japan. After a yearlong observation period, a questionnaire was conducted to find specific patterns that could impact ICT policies for the school. Additionally, teachers and parents were interviewed for details and information to highlight potential reasons behind the survey results along with additional findings. Interviews from surrounding schools were conducted to further supplement the case study. The analysis focused on finding patterns that highlight positive and negative elements of ICT perceived by the students, teachers, and parents at the school. Discovered patterns were further discussed to find implications for policy development and areas for future research. Critical findings included the deterring factors for teachers to use ICT being nearly identical to the desired factors for parents, thus creating a conflict of interest when it comes to ICT use cases for school-related purposes. Additional findings include the parents’ roles in assisting ICT-related productivity work in conjunction with modern-day smartphone consumerism, which leads to a lack of productivity mindset for the students. It was identified that without measures in place to address teachers, it is difficult to expand the usage of ICT for teachers with just a general policy and device availability. This implies that post-pandemic ICT plans could still produce resistance and issues from users despite their proliferation and that any progress in ICT for education can enter stagnation unless the issues found in this study are addressed.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0102/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

The study of the Least Common Multiple (LCM) and the Greatest Common Divisor (GCD) explores the fundamental field of number theory. In addition to being essential to theoretical number theory, these mathematical ideas have extensive applications in computer science, algebra, and real-world settings like network routing and scheduling. Using techniques like the Euclidean algorithm for GCD calculation and prime factorization for LCM, the study starts by examining the fundamental concepts and notations of GCD and LCM. Then the author goes further into the detail about how these ideas are used to polynomial equations, highlighting how they may be used to solve challenging issues and simplify algebraic expressions. The studys practical applications, which demonstrate how GCD and LCM optimize scheduling tasks and boost network routing efficiency, are presented in the conclusion. The results of this study highlight the broad impact and adaptability of LCM and GCD in theoretical and applied mathematics, providing valuable insights for further research in these domains.

Although the entrepreneurship strategy is demonstrated by evidence as a path to enhance the performance of service firms, the question of how it happens has yet to be adequately studied in the tourism and hospitality (T&H) realm. More specifically, how an entrepreneurial strategy enables a T&H firm to enhance its performance through service innovation exploration-exploitation ambidexterity has created a strategic dilemma in extant T&H literature. Constructed on the dynamic capabilities view and organizational ambidexterity theory, our paper addresses this dilemma using data from a drop-and-collect survey of 303 T&H firms in Japan. The findings reveal that entrepreneurial strategy fosters service innovation exploitation and service innovation exploration within T&H firms. In contrast, service innovation exploitation helps T&H firms design unique service offerings, yielding a sustained competitive advantage and superior corporate performance in the long run. Further, the availability of slack resources within T&H firms fosters service innovation exploration and service innovation exploitation.

Abstract BackgroundHarvested wood products (HWPs) have a pivotal role in climate change mitigation, a recognition solidified in many Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Integrating HWPs’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals into accounting requirements relies on typical decision-oriented tools known as wood product models (WPMs). The study introduces theTimberTracer(TT) framework, designed to simulate HWP carbon stock, substitution effects, and emissions from wood decay and bioenergy.ResultsCoupled with the 3D-CMCC-FEM forest growth model,TimberTracerwas applied to Laricio Pine (Pinus nigrasubsp.laricio) in Italy’s Bonis watershed, evaluating three forest management practices (clearcut, selective thinning, and shelterwood) and four wood-use scenarios (business as usual, increased recycling rate, extended average lifespan, and a simultaneous increase in both the recycling rate and the average lifespan) over a 140-year planning horizon, to assess the overall carbon balance of HWPs. Furthermore, this study evaluates the consequences of disregarding landfill methane emissions and relying on static substitution factors, assessing their impact on the mitigation potential of various options. This investigation, covering HWPs stock, carbon (C) emissions, and the substitution effect, revealed that selective thinning emerged as the optimal forest management scenario. In addition, a simultaneous 10% increase in both the recycling rate and half-life, under the so-called “sustainability” scenario, proved to be the optimal wood-use strategy. Finally, the analysis shows that failing to account for landfill methane emissions and the use of dynamic substitution can significantly overestimate the mitigation potential of various forest management and wood-use options, which underscores the critical importance of a comprehensive accounting in climate mitigation strategies involving HWPs.ConclusionsOur study highlights the critical role of harvested wood products (HWPs) in climate change mitigation, as endorsed by multiple Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Utilizing theTimberTracerframework coupled with the 3D-CMCC-FEM forest growth model, we identified selective thinning as the optimal forest management practice. Additionally, enhancing recycling rates and extending product lifespan effectively bolstered the carbon balance. Moreover, this study emphasizes the necessity of accounting for landfill methane emissions and dynamic product substitution, as failing to do so may significantly overestimate the mitigation potential of implemented projects. These findings offer actionable insights to optimize forest management strategies and advance climate change mitigation efforts.

This chapter begins by discussing the history, organizational structure, staffing and budget characteristics of Japan’s national Ministry of Education, before and after the 2001 reorganization in which it was merged with the Science and Technology Agency. There are also brief descriptions of the roles of the Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Sports Agency. (Since 2001 the full name of the ministry has been the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology or MEXT.) The chapter then analyzes the ministry’s place in the policy-making process through a discussion of three major reforms: the drive to introduce yutori kyōiku, or “pressure-free education” to schools; English language education reform aimed at improving practical communication skills; and the partial privatization of national universities in 2004. The chapter also highlights aspects of education in Japan that have international appeal as well as how MEXT has responded to some international trends in education reform.