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Player traits are closely related to the personality of a person, which could be also known as the categorization of players based on their interest in certain game elements or game mechanics. Since the debut of gamification and game-based learning, educational institutions had implemented them within the learning context. Such an act had increased the value of the player traits study, as it serves as a guideline for the game designers to suit the players' needs, increasing players' experience, motivation, and engagement. Nowadays, diversity in the classroom is frequent, especially in a school in the era of globalization. However, in the Malaysian context, diversity has existed since the building of this nation. Cross-reference between several studies done by previous researchers will be used in this paper. In this chapter, the authors wish to propose a theoretical conceptual framework by linking diversity to player traits which hopefully can provide a new insight for instructional designers, educators, and lesson planners in the future.

This exploratory study seeks to understand the diffusion of disinformation by examining how social media users respond to fake news and why. Using a mixed-methods approach in an explanatory-sequential design, this study combines results from a national survey involving 2501 respondents with a series of in-depth interviews with 20 participants from the small but economically and technologically advanced nation of Singapore. This study finds that most social media users in Singapore just ignore the fake news posts they come across on social media. They would only offer corrections when the issue is strongly relevant to them and to people with whom they share a strong and close interpersonal relationship.

In the past, medical museums played a significant role in anatomy and pathology training. The attraction of medical museums has declined recently due to the emergence of information technology and innovative medical curricula. An innovative mobile learning platform has been developed using quick response (QR) codes for the museum specimens at the Lee Kong Chain School of Medicine, Singapore. High-quality images of the potted specimens were captured and combined into an album and a video using Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 and Windows Movie Maker, respectively. Subsequently, QR codes were generated linking to PDF documents with annotations, pathology, and clinical history concerning the specimens. Quick response codes were piloted in gastrointestinal teaching module for Year 2 medical students. Survey responses were obtained from students to verify the efficacy of QR as a learning tool. The majority of students either agreed or strongly agreed that it was easy to access the information about the specimen with QR codes (4.47 ± 0.84), while 96% of students agreed that they are able to correlate the specimen with the annotated images (4.56 ± 0.56). The majority of students (78%) agreed that QR codes are useful for their learning (4.22 ± 0.87), while 75% of students felt QR codes motivate them to visit Anatomy Resource Centre. Most of the students agreed that QR codes are useful for revision of materials (4.13 ± 1.07) and independent learning (4.38 ± 0.87). These findings suggest that QR codes are not only effective for students learning but also enhance their exploration experience with the museum specimens. Nanyang Technological University Internal grant from Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore.

In this paper, twenty-nine three-point bending beam specimens made of ultra high strength concrete (cube compressive strength of about 125 MPa and cylinder compressive strength of about 105 MPa) incorporating Ultra Fine Ground Granulated Blast-furnace Slag (UFGGBS) were tested. The depths of the beam specimens range from 75 mm to 300 mm. The fracture energy calculated by Hillerborg’s work-of-fracture method, Bazant’s size effect method, and Karihaloo–Nallathambi’s effective crack method, as well as two empirical formulas of Bazant and Becq-Giraudon and of CEB-FIP Model Code 1990 were investigated and compared on the basis of the tested specimens. It was found that the results from the different methods were different from one another. In addition, the authors introduce a nonlinear regression method based on the effective elastic crack model to calculate the fracture energy. It is shown that the proposed method shows good tolerance on the scattered test data, and thus leads to a more consistent fracture energy value.

Ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) is a green construction material used to produce durable concrete. The secondary pozzolanic reactions can result in reduced pore connectivity; therefore, replacing partial amount of Portland cement (PC) with GGBS can significantly reduce the risk of sulfate attack, alkali–silica reactions and chloride penetration. However, it may also reduce the concrete resistance against carbonation. Due to the time consuming process of concrete carbonation, many researchers have used accelerated carbonation test to shorten the experimental time. However, there are always some uncertainties in the accelerated carbonation test results. Most importantly, the moisture content and moisture profile of the concrete before the carbonation test can significantly affect the test results. In this work, more than 200 samples with various water–cementitious material ratios and various replacement percentages of GGBS were cast. The compressive strength, electrical resistivity, chloride permeability and carbonation tests were conducted. The moisture loss and microstructure of concrete were studied. The partial replacement of PC with GGBS produced considerable improvement on various properties of concrete. Published version

Ground Granulated Blast-furnace Slag (GGBS) is a green mineral admixture that improves the rheology of fresh concrete, and its ultimate mechanical and durability properties. Ultrafine GGBS (UFGGBS) has increased surface area which increases the apparent rate of hydration, pozzolanic reactions and has a better filling effect. Two concrete mixes with 450 and 520 kg/m 3 of ordinary Portland cement and two more mixes of equivalent total cementitious materials with 30% UFGGBS replacement were cast. Compressive strength, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity, chloride migration, electrical resistivity and drying test results are presented. Concrete with UFGGBS has a higher early strength, lower permeability and improved durability even at 3 days of curing.

Purpose: East-Asian (EA) patients with non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are associated with a high proportion of nonsmoking women, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-activating somatic mutations, and clinical responses to tyrosine kinase inhibitors. We sought to identify novel molecular differences between NSCLCs from EA and Western European (WE) patients. Experimental Design: A total of 226 lung adenocarcinoma samples from EA (n = 90) and WE (n = 136) patients were analyzed for copy number aberrations (CNA) by using a common high-resolution SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) microarray platform. Univariate and multivariate analyses were carried out to identify CNAs specifically related to smoking history, EGFR mutation status, and ethnicity. Results: The overall genomic profiles of adenocarcinomas from EA and WE patients were highly similar. Univariate analyses revealed several CNAs significantly associated with ethnicity, EGFR mutation, and smoking, but not to gender, and KRAS or p53 mutations. A multivariate model identified four ethnic-specific recurrent CNAs—significantly higher rates of copy number gain were observed on 16p13.13 and 16p13.11 in EA tumors, whereas higher rates of genomic loss on 19p13.3 and 19p13.11 were observed in tumors from WE patients. We identified several potential driver genes in these regions, showing a positive correlation between cis-localized copy number changes and transcriptomic changes. Conclusion: 16p copy number gains (EA) and 19p losses (WE) are ethnic-specific chromosomal aberrations in lung adenocarcinoma. Patient ethnicity should be considered when evaluating future NSCLC therapies targeting genes located on these areas. Clin Cancer Res; 17(11); 3542–50. ©2011 AACR.

This paper summarizes the findings from a research program to investigate the effects of different amounts of supplementary cementitious materials on improving the concrete mechanical properties and on increasing the resistance to chloride penetration for applications in marine environments. Twelve concrete mixtures with different quantities and compositions of supplementary materials were tested. The durability properties with respect to chloride penetration, such as electrical resistivity and chloride diffusivity, were correlated with each other. A good correlation between them was obtained, as validated by the test results. The inclusion of supplementary cementitious materials in sufficient amounts, such as ground-granulated blast-furnace slag and silica fume, proved to be highly effective in improving the durability properties of the concrete. In addition, an increase in the fineness of ground-granulated blast-furnace slag would benefit early-age strength development of the concrete. The inclusion of supplementary cementitious materials in sufficient amounts is essential to obtaining a concrete mixture with good mechanical properties and high resistance against chloride ingress. NRF (Natl Research Foundation, S’pore) Published version

With the rapid consumption of natural resources, there is a growing concern about sustainable development. More than 6 billion tons of concrete are produced annually for various construction purposes with limited life expectancy. In addition, increasing cost of construction and demolition of concrete structures in densely populated areas is a great concern for the future. One of the best solutions to tackle these challenges is to increase the life expectancy of the structures. Residential structures and important civil structures are typically designed for a life span of 50 and 100 years respectively. However, the life expectancy of structures can be increased to several hundred years with careful planning and proper design. Cost of the concrete materials is not a considerable amount compared to the total cost for construction of reinforced concrete structures. Doubling the concrete materials cost may only increase the total construction cost by few percent but it can increase the life expectancy of structures significantly. In this work, a comparison between ultra durable concrete mixes with normal high strength concrete in terms of cost, mechanical and durability aspects is presented. Ultra durable concrete has superior qualities which makes it a favourable construction material for future structures.

Developing effective exercise programmes for the paediatric population is a strategy for decreasing obesity and is expected to help in eventually limiting obesity-associated long-term health and societal impact. In this study, the effects of a 12-week twice weekly additional exercise training, which comprised a combination of circuit-based resistance training and aerobic exercises, in additional to typical physical education sessions, on aerobic fitness, body composition and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and lipids were analysed in 13- to 14-year-old obese boys contrasted with a control group.Both the exercise group (EG, n = 12) and control group (CG, n = 12) participated in the typical 2 sessions of 40-minute physical education (PE) per week in schools, but only EG participated in additional 2 sessions per week of 45 to 60 minutes per session of exercise training, which comprised a combination of circuit-based resistance training and aerobic exercises maintained at 65% to 85% maximum heart rate (HRmax = 220 - age). Body composition was measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Fasting serum CRP and blood lipids were analysed pre- and postexercise programme. Aerobic fitness was measured by an objective laboratory submaximal exercise test, PWC170 (Predicted Work Capacity at HR 170 bpm).Exercise training significantly improved lean muscle mass, body mass index, fitness, resting HR, systolic blood pressure and triglycerides in EG. Serum CRP concentrations were elevated at baseline in both groups, but training did not result in a change in CRP levels. In the CG, body weight increased significantly at the end of the 12-week period.This study supports the value of an additional exercise training programme, beyond the typical twice weekly physical education classes, to produce physiological benefits in the management of obesity in adolescents, including prevention of weight gain.

To the Editor: Cecchin and colleagues reported their interesting findings on the use of carboxylesterase 2 (CES2) mRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) as a predictive marker of irinotecan to SN38 activation in a cohort of Italian colorectal cancer patients receiving a twice

We present an experimental study of a learning algorithm for the longest common subsequence problem, LCS . Given an arbitrary input domain, the algorithm learns an LCS -procedure tailored to that domain. The learning is done with the help of an oracle, which can be any LCS -algorithm. After solving a limited number of training inputs using an oracle, the learning algorithm outputs a new LCS -procedure.Our experiments demonstrate that, by allowing a slight loss of optimality, learning yields a procedure which is significantly faster than the oracle. The oracle used for the experiments is the np -procedure by Wu et al. , a modification of Myers' classical LCS -algorithm. We show how to scale up the results of learning on small inputs to inputs of arbitrary lengths. For the domain of two random 2-symbol inputs of length n , learning yields a program with 0.999 expected accuracy, which runs in O ( n 1.41 )-time, in contrast with O ( n 2 /log n ) running time of the fastest theoretical algorithm that produces optimal solutions. For the domain of random 2-symbol inputs of length 100,000, the program runs 10.5 times faster than the np -procedure, producing 0.999- accurate outputs. The scaled version of the evolved algorithm applied to random inputs of length 1 million runs approximately 30 times faster than the np -procedure while constructing 0.999- accurate solutions. We apply the evolved algorithm to DNA sequences of various lengths by training on random 4-symbol sequences of up to length 10,000. The evolved algorithm, scaled up to the lengths of up to 1.8 million, produces solutions with the 0.998-accuracy in a fraction of the time used by the np .