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Packed with information to help you make the most of your time and money, including comprehensive transportation information, suggested itineraries, full-color maps, and advice on local culture, food, and language. Detailed listings give the low-down on the best hotels, hostels, bars, and restaurants, while \"treat yourself\" suggestions provide inspiration for when to splurge. Whether you want to take a slow boat down the Mekong, feast on dim sum in Hong Kong, kick-back on a white-sand beach in Thailand, or explore the temples of Bagan in Myanmar, this updated edition of The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget is the ultimate companion to travel in Southeast Asia.

Understanding mathematics is an essential part of everyday life and can range from simple tasks such as using basic math skills to more complex tasks. Success in mathematics is a requirement for success in today’s modern world. A gap in developing mathematical skills can create complications and interfere with job opportunities. Another basic essential for success in society is reading. There are important problems associated with students who cannot read successfully, such as higher dropout rates. Studies have shown that learning a foreign language during elementary school increases a child’s ability to develop cognitive skills, and research has shown that proper development of cognitive skills improves a student’s ability to read and perform mathematical skills successfully. Research studies involving dual-language/two-way immersion schools suggest that students at these schools obtain higher scores on achievement tests in both mathematics and reading. This study is a meta-analysis of studies involving dual-language/two-way immersion schools in an effort to confirm the hypotheses that (1) there are differences in student performance when comparing students who learn foreign language in elementary school versus those who don’t, and (2) students score higher in reading, vocabulary, and/or mathematics if they learn foreign language in elementary school when compared to those who don’t. The meta-analysis began with 51 quantitative research studies but was narrowed down to 17 after categorizing the studies. Using weighted effect sizes and Cohen’s d, the results for the d values were .64 (medium) for vocabulary, .22 (small) for reading, and .11 for mathematics. Only homogeneity tests were calculated in each category. The Q values indicated homogeneity for the category of mathematics only. Therefore, additional research is suggested, beginning with heterogeneity testing.

This research prioritized the identification and retention of African American cultural heritage in the face of dramatic landscape alteration associated with comprehensive redevelopment. As an approach aimed at providing the most comprehensive understanding of cultural phenomenon, the holistic tradition applied by anthropology asserts that it is productive to identify and apply as many sources of data toward engaging research as is possible. Consistent with this goal, this study applied several categories of data toward investigating material symbols of African American cultural heritage in Tampa, Florida. The holistic anthropological approach demonstrated the relevance and complementarity of research documenting cultural heritage and its relationship to Tampa’s contemporary urban landscape, urban archaeology, participatory research, anthropological advocacy, and historic designation and preservation research in a community threatened by large-scale redevelopment. Tampa represented a fruitful context for this research because for the second time in less than forty years, the urban landscape historically associated with African Americans in Tampa is slated to be impacted by wide-ranging demolition resulting from the actions of city and county planners. This research is particularly important in Tampa because urban policy carried out in this area of Tampa during the 1970’s eradicated the vast majority of physical reminders of the African American cultural heritage in Tampa. This research proposes that even in the face of dramatic demolition resulting in comprehensive change in urban landscapes, anthropologists have an obligation to prioritize material symbols of cultural heritage which in this context represent enduring evidence of African American cultural heritage in Tampa. Collectively the components of this study represent an anthropological model defined as an Urban Model of Applied Preservation (UMAP) designed to facilitate the anthropological engagement of evolving relationships between urban spaces and their cultural associations with urban populations. This model clarifies a set of complementary methods that might be applied toward investigation prioritizing the effects of urban change on cultural heritage.

This study investigates the treatment of one school age population (young African American females K-12) in selected education and social science research considered to be representative of the decade of the 1980's. Content analysis methodology was chosen because it allows for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication (Berelson, 1952, p. 94), and communication is a prime purpose of the journals reviewed. The methodology allows the researcher to describe social phenomena and changes in the social world, by examining written content and providing precise figures rather than impressions, about both conscious and unconscious cultural patterns (beliefs, attitudes, values and behavior) as reflected through written communication. This study asserts that since educational institutions and the research community mirror ethnic and gender linked values and behaviors similar to those found in the larger society, an analysis of the treatment of one school age group in research may provide a barometer of changes in the social world. It is for this reason that the content of communication in journals will be investigated. Procedure. Two hundred thirty-six articles appearing in seventy-one different education and social science journals were examined. The population has several unique characteristics including: the number of years sampled (10), the number of journals included (71) and the subject matter (African American females K-12). An instrument was developed using a modified version of a similar instrument by McLloyd and Randolph (1984) and Kuh and Bean (1987). Each article was reviewed and appropriate data from the articles was entered into the instrument. Two types of analysis are employed in this study. First, summary or descriptive statistics are used to assess the manifest content and to develop a profile of the research sample. Next, Chi-Square, a nonparametric test, useful for research data in the form of frequency counts, is used for the latent analysis. Findings. The deficit/competence explanatory model of behavior has all but disappeared from education and social science research, according to the findings of this study. It was hypothesized that race-homogeneous studies would appear in greater frequencies in education journals and that these studies would reflect feminist scholarship moreso than other journals. Such is not the case of literature represented in the population of this study. Feminist scholarship is virtually non-existent in journals that included young African American females in published research. Moderate to strong significant differences were found to exist in five (5) of the variables. However, at least two thirds of these might be attributed to chance at the.05 level.

Metabolic processes can influence disease risk and provide therapeutic targets. By conducting genome-wide association studies of 1,091 blood metabolites and 309 metabolite ratios, we identified associations with 690 metabolites at 248 loci and associations with 143 metabolite ratios at 69 loci. Integrating metabolite-gene and gene expression information identified 94 effector genes for 109 metabolites and 48 metabolite ratios. Using Mendelian randomization (MR), we identified 22 metabolites and 20 metabolite ratios having estimated causal effect on 12 traits and diseases, including orotate for estimated bone mineral density, α-hydroxyisovalerate for body mass index and ergothioneine for inflammatory bowel disease and asthma. We further measured the orotate level in a separate cohort and demonstrated that, consistent with MR, orotate levels were positively associated with incident hip fractures. This study provides a valuable resource describing the genetic architecture of metabolites and delivers insights into their roles in common diseases, thereby offering opportunities for therapeutic targets. Genome-wide association studies comprising 1,091 metabolites and 309 metabolite ratios in 8,299 individuals from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging provide insights into the genetic architecture of metabolites and their role in human diseases.

There is growing interest in using deep learning models to automate wildlife detection in aerial imaging surveys to increase efficiency, but human-generated annotations remain necessary for model training. However, even skilled observers may diverge in interpreting aerial imagery of complex environments, which may result in downstream instability of models. In this study, we present a framework for assessing annotation reliability by calculating agreement metrics for individual observers against an aggregated set of annotations generated by clustering multiple observers’ observations and selecting the mode classification. We also examined how image attributes like spatial resolution and texture influence observer agreement. To demonstrate the framework, we analyzed expert and volunteer annotations of twelve drone images of migratory waterfowl in New Mexico. Neither group reliably identified duck species: experts showed low agreement (43–56%) for several common species, and volunteers opted out of the task. When simplified into broad morphological categories, there was high agreement for cranes (99% among experts, 95% among volunteers) and ducks (93% among experts, 92% among volunteers), though agreement among volunteers was notably lower for classifying geese (75%) than among experts (94%). The aggregated annotation sets from the two groups were similar: the volunteer count of birds across all images was 91% of the expert count, with no statistically significant difference per image (t = 1.27, df = 338, p = 0.20). Bird locations matched 81% between groups and classifications matched 99.4%. Tiling images to reduce search area and maintaining a constant scale to keep size differences between classes consistent may increase observer agreement. Although our sample was limited, these findings indicate potential taxonomic limitations to aerial wildlife surveys and show that, in aggregate, volunteers can produce data comparable to experts’. This framework may assist other wildlife practitioners in evaluating the reliability of their input data for deep learning models.

ADP-ribosyltransferases use NAD + to catalyse substrate ADP-ribosylation 1 , and thereby regulate cellular pathways or contribute to toxin-mediated pathogenicity of bacteria 2 – 4 . Reversible ADP-ribosylation has traditionally been considered a protein-specific modification 5 , but recent in vitro studies have suggested nucleic acids as targets 6 – 9 . Here we present evidence that specific, reversible ADP-ribosylation of DNA on thymidine bases occurs in cellulo through the DarT–DarG toxin–antitoxin system, which is found in a variety of bacteria (including global pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis , enteropathogenic Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ) 10 . We report the structure of DarT, which identifies this protein as a diverged member of the PARP family. We provide a set of high-resolution structures of this enzyme in ligand-free and pre- and post-reaction states, which reveals a specialized mechanism of catalysis that includes a key active-site arginine that extends the canonical ADP-ribosyltransferase toolkit. Comparison with PARP–HPF1, a well-established DNA repair protein ADP-ribosylation complex, offers insights into how the DarT class of ADP-ribosyltransferases evolved into specific DNA-modifying enzymes. Together, our structural and mechanistic data provide details of this PARP family member and contribute to a fundamental understanding of the ADP-ribosylation of nucleic acids. We also show that thymine-linked ADP-ribose DNA adducts reversed by DarG antitoxin (functioning as a noncanonical DNA repair factor) are used not only for targeted DNA damage to induce toxicity, but also as a signalling strategy for cellular processes. Using M. tuberculosis as an exemplar, we show that DarT–DarG regulates growth by ADP-ribosylation of DNA at the origin of chromosome replication. Structural and mechanistic data of the ADP-ribosyltransferase DarT demonstrate the role of ADP-ribosylation of DNA by this enzyme in generating toxicity and regulating cellular signalling processes in bacteria.

Objectives To determine if coronary computed tomographic angiography enhances prediction of perioperative risk in patients before non-cardiac surgery and to assess the preoperative coronary anatomy in patients who experience a myocardial infarction after non-cardiac surgery.Design Prospective cohort study.Setting 12 centers in eight countries.Participants 955 patients with, or at risk of, atherosclerotic disease who underwent non-cardiac surgery.Interventions Coronary computed tomographic angiography was performed preoperatively; clinicians were blinded to the results unless left main disease was suspected. Results were classified as normal, non-obstructive (<50% stenosis), obstructive (one or two vessels with ≥50% stenosis), or extensive obstructive (≥50% stenosis in two vessels including the proximal left anterior descending artery, three vessels, or left main).Main outcome measure Composite of cardiovascular death and non-fatal myocardial infarction within 30 days after surgery (primary outcome). This was the dependent variable in Cox regression. The independent variables were scores on the revised cardiac risk index and findings on coronary computed tomographic angiography.Results The primary outcome occurred in 74 patients (8%). The model that included both scores on the revised cardiac risk index and findings on coronary computed tomographic angiography showed that coronary computed tomographic angiography provided independent prognostic information (P=0.014; C index=0.66). The adjusted hazard ratios were 1.51 (95% confidence interval 0.45 to 5.10) for non-obstructive disease; 2.05 (0.62 to 6.74) for obstructive disease; and 3.76 (1.12 to 12.62) for extensive obstructive disease. For the model with coronary computed tomographic angiography compared with the model based on the revised cardiac risk index alone, with 30 day risk categories of <5%, 5-15%, and >15% for the primary outcome, the results of risk reclassification indicate that in a sample of 1000 patients that coronary computed tomographic angiography would have resulted appropriately in 17 net patients receiving a higher risk estimation among the 77 patients who would have experienced the primary outcome (P<0.001). Coronary computed tomographic angiography, however, would have resulted inappropriately in 98 net patients receiving a higher risk estimation, among the 923 patients who would not have experienced the primary outcome (P<0.001). Among patients who had a perioperative myocardial infarction, preoperative coronary anatomy showed extensive obstructive disease in 31% (22/71), obstructive disease in 41% (29/71), non-obstructive disease in 24% (17/71), and normal findings in 4% (3/71).Conclusions Though findings on coronary computed tomographic angiography can improve estimation of risk for patients who will experience perioperative cardiovascular death or myocardial infarction, findings are more than five times as likely to lead to an inappropriate overestimation of risk among patients who will not experience these outcomes. Perioperative myocardial infarction occurs across the spectrum of coronary artery disease, suggesting that there could be several pathophysiologic mechanisms.