The Japanese History Textbook Controversy Amid Post-War Sino-Japanese Relations

The relations between China and Japan are strained and continue to foster negative emotions partly because of China’s grievances about Japan’s actions during World War II and the allegedly false historiographical accounts found in Japanese history textbooks. This study will utilize historical analysis of the events leading up to the Nanjing Massacre in December of 1937, examine the Japanese Ministry of Education’s (MEXT) critical and contentious role in the selection of textbooks, used for primary and secondary schools, and will also juxtapose the controversial 2001 Atarashii rekishi kyōkasho with current Japanese history textbooks. The study will also include a syntactical analysis of key terms through my own original translations of multiple Japanese history textbooks, which are currently used in the Japanese school curriculum, to reveal that the textbook publishers, MEXT, and regulation councils are involved in adjusting the content causing the information to reveal various degrees of whitewashing.

Improving the Performance of Database-Centric Applications Through Program Analysis

Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2016-09-30 09:55:51.506

Shopper Centric Category Management in Convenience Stores: a Qualitative Study

The literature shows that category management is an important concept and tool for retailers and suppliers, but that there is a trend to move to a more shopper-centric category management approach, linked to the shoppermarketing approach. However, the knowledge on this issue is scarce on some retailing sectors, like convenience stores. The present study is focused on convenience stores, with the main purpose of finding out to what extent non-major food retailers successfully adopt a shopper-centric category management. The study is relevant in order to evaluate if a more shopper-centric approach is adequate to smaller companies/stores. To accomplish that goal, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted among convenience store retailers and suppliers. Six semistructured face-to-face interviews were conducted with Commercial Directors and Trade Marketing Managers. This data was complemented with thirteen interviews with shopper marketing experts. The data was analyzed using thematic content analysis technique, identifying themes, categories, subcategories, units of meaning and relations. The results revealed that convenience store retailers use some of the principles and techniques of the shopper-marketing and shopper-centric category management approaches, which they do in a non-standardized and non-formal approach or process. Their suppliers (the manufacturers) do it in a more formal and structured manner, probably as a result of previous interaction with major supermarkets chains. Both direct and indirect evidences of a shopper-centric approach were found, which, however, were slight, discrete and not formal.

Enabling Human Centric Smart Campuses via Edge Computing and Connected Objects

Early definitions of Smart Building focused almost entirely on the technology aspect and did not suggest user interaction at all. Indeed, today we would attribute it more to the concept of the automated building. In this sense, control of comfort conditions inside buildings is a problem that is being well investigated, since it has a direct effect on users’ productivity and an indirect effect on energy saving. Therefore, from the users’ perspective, a typical environment can be considered comfortable, if it’s capable of providing adequate thermal comfort, visual comfort and indoor air quality conditions and acoustic comfort. In the last years, the scientific community has dealt with many challenges, especially from a technological point of view. For instance, smart sensing devices, the internet, and communication technologies have enabled a new paradigm called Edge computing that brings computation and data storage closer to the location where it is needed, to improve response times and save bandwidth. This has allowed us to improve services, sustainability and decision making. Many solutions have been implemented such as smart classrooms, controlling the thermal condition of the building, monitoring HVAC data for energy-efficient of the campus and so forth. Though these projects provide to the realization of smart campus, a framework for smart campus is yet to be determined. These new technologies have also introduced new research challenges: within this thesis work, some of the principal open challenges will be faced, proposing a new conceptual framework, technologies and tools to move forward the actual implementation of smart campuses. Keeping in mind, several problems known in the literature have been investigated: the occupancy detection, noise monitoring for acoustic comfort, context awareness inside the building, wayfinding indoor, strategic deployment for air quality and books preserving.

Tumor burden as assessed by 18 F FDG PET scan as predictive biomarker for immune checkpoint blockers in advanced NSCLC - a multi centric study

Introduction Only a proportion of patients with advanced NSCLC benefit from Immune checkpoint blockers (ICBs). No biomarker is validated to choose between ICBs monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy (Chemo-ICB) when PD-L1 expression is above 50%. The aim of the present study is to validate the biomarker validity of total Metabolic Tumor Volume (tMTV) as assessed by 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-d-glucose positron emission tomography ([18F]FDG-PET) Material and methods This is a multicentric retrospective study. Patients with advanced NSCLC treated with ICBs, chemotherapy plus ICBs and chemotherapy were enrolled in 12 institutions from 4 countries. Inclusion criteria was a positive PET scan performed within 42 days from treatment start. TMTV was analyzed at each center based on a 42% SUVmax threshold. High tMTV was defined ad tMTV>median Results 493 patients were included, 163 treated with ICBs alone, 236 with chemo-ICBs and 94 with CT. No correlation was found between PD-L1 expression and tMTV. Median PFS for patients with high tMTV (100.1 cm3) was 3.26 months (95% CI 1.94–6.38) vs 14.70 (95% CI 11.51–22.59) for those with low tMTV (p=0.0005). Similarly median OS for pts with high tMTV was 11.4 months (95% CI 8.42 – 19.1) vs 33.1 months for those with low tMTV (95% CI 22.59 – NA), p .00067. In chemo-ICBs treated patients no correlation was found for OS (p = 0.11) and a borderline correlation was found for PFS (p=0.059). Patients with high tMTV and PD-L1 ≥ 50% had a better PFS when treated with combination of chemotherapy and ICBs respect to ICBs alone, with 3.26 months (95% CI 1.94 – 5.79) for ICBs vs 11.94 (95% CI 5.75 – NA) for Chemo ICBs (p = 0.043). Conclusion tMTV is predictive of ICBs benefit, not to CT benefit. tMTV can help to select the best upfront strategy in patients with high tMTV.

Applied deep learning and data science with a human-centric and data-centric approach

The term Artificial intelligence acquired a lot of baggage since its introduction and in its current incarnation is synonymous with Deep Learning. The sudden availability of data and computing resources has opened the gates to myriads of applications. Not all are created equal though, and problems might arise especially for fields not closely related to the tasks that pertain tech companies that spearheaded DL. The perspective of practitioners seems to be changing, however. Human-Centric AI emerged in the last few years as a new way of thinking DL and AI applications from the ground up, with a special attention at their relationship with humans. The goal is designing a system that can gracefully integrate in already established workflows, as in many real-world scenarios AI may not be good enough to completely replace its humans. Often this replacement may even be unneeded or undesirable. Another important perspective comes from, Andrew Ng, a DL pioneer, who recently started shifting the focus of development from “better models” towards better, and smaller, data. He defined his approach Data-Centric AI. Without downplaying the importance of pushing the state of the art in DL, we must recognize that if the goal is creating a tool for humans to use, more raw performance may not align with more utility for the final user. A Human-Centric approach is compatible with a Data-Centric one, and we find that the two overlap nicely when human expertise is used as the driving force behind data quality. This thesis documents a series of case-studies where these approaches were employed, to different extents, to guide the design and implementation of intelligent systems. We found human expertise proved crucial in improving datasets and models. The last chapter includes a slight deviation, with studies on the pandemic, still preserving the human and data centric perspective.

A formação humana na perspectiva histórico-ontológica

The theme of human formation is at the centre of the philosophy of education, whose aim is precisely the process of human promotion brought about by education. Starting from the critical vigilance proper to philosophy, the text sketches a phenomenology of the present time, verifying that the ideas prevailing in education at present are centred on the critique of reason and on the notions of truth and objectivity. This neo-pragmatism, which in the attempt to oppose metaphysics becomes deeply metaphysical, reducing everything to language, is contested by the authors with Marx's thoughts as a historicising philosophy that concerns not abstract subjects, but real individuals, historical subjects that are constituted as a synthesis of social relations. To that end, the authors resort to the historical ontological reflection on human formation contained in Marx's Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. The article concludes by defending the proposition that access to the classics is a necessary condition for human formation.

Movimentos sociais na contemporaneidade

The work aims to present an overview of social movements in actuality, in the Latin America, and presents a mapping of their main forms in Brazil. The search ponders the educational character of their actions, both for its participants, as for society in general and public agencies. The basic premise of assertion that social movements are sources of innovation and knowledge-generating arrays. However, because it is not an isolated process but social-political character, the paper search joints in the network of relationships that establish movements in political, economic and socio-cultural country, to understand the factors that generate learning built and values of political culture that are being built. . The text highlights movements that occurs in the areas of education - formal and non-formal education.

Aspectos da imagem corporal dos presbiterianos de Jatai - GO

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Early treatment of Class III malocclusion: 10-year clinical follow-up

Angle Class III malocclusion has been a challenge for researchers concerning diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. It has a prevalence of 5% in the Brazilian population, and may have a genetic or environmental etiology. This malocclusion can be classified as dentoalveolar, skeletal or functional, which will determine the prognosis. Considering these topics, the aim of this study was to describe and discuss a clinical case with functional Class III malocclusion treated by a two-stage approach (interceptive and corrective), with a long-term follow-up. In this case, the patient was treated with a chincup and an Eschler arch, used simultaneously during 14 months, followed by corrective orthodontics. It should be noticed that, in this case, initial diagnosis at the centric relation allowed visualizing the anterior teeth in an edge-to-edge relationship, thereby favoring the prognosis. After completion of the treatment, the patient was followed for a 10-year period, and stability was observed. The clinical treatment results showed that it is possible to achieve favorable outcomes with early management in functional Class III malocclusion patients.

Comparative study of intermaxillary relationships of manual and swallowing methods

This study compared the mandibular displacement from three methods of centric relation record using an anterior jig associated with (A) chin point guidance, (B) swallowing (control group) and (C) bimanual manipulation. Ten patients aged 25-39 years were selected if they met the following inclusion criteria: complete dentition (up to the second molars), Angle class I and absence of signs and symptoms of temporomandibular disorders and diagnostic casts showing stability in the maximum intercuspation (MI) position. Impressions of maxillary and mandibular arches were made with an irreversible hydrocolloid impression material. Master casts of each patient were obtained, mounted on a microscope table in MI as a reference position and 5 records of each method were made per patient. The mandibular casts were then repositioned with records interposed and new measurements were obtained. The difference between the two readings allowed measuring the displacement of the mandible in the anteroposterior and lateral axes. Data were analyzed statistically by ANOVA and Tukey's test at 5% significance level. There was no statistically significant differences (p>0.05) among the three methods for measuring lateral displacement (A=0.38 ± 0.26, B=0.32 ± 0.25 and C=0.32 ± 0.23). For the anteroposterior displacement (A=2.76 ± 1.43, B=2.46 ± 1.48 and C=2.97 ± 1.51), the swallowing method (B) differed significantly from the others (p<0.05), but no significant difference (p>0.05) was found between chin point guidance (A) and bimanual manipulation (C). In conclusion, the swallowing method produced smaller mandibular posterior displacement than the other methods.

Notas sobre o estatuto da psicanálise na obra merleau-pontyana

Pretendo mostrar, de modo breve, que as problemáticas próprias da clínica são, aos poucos, incorporadas ao trabalho merleau-pontyano. Não se trata de mostrar que há somente uma convergência entre a sua interpretação da psicanálise com a fenomenologia, mas uma verdadeira necessidade de diálogo, na qual o filósofo encontrou um modo de expressar algo que dificilmente conseguiria com outro objeto.

Gross anatomical features of the oropharyngeal cavity of the ostrich (Struthio camelus)

Most descriptions of the ostrich oropharynx and oesophagus are superficial and supply little meaningful morphological data. The aim of this investigation is describe the ostrich oropharingeal cavity, in order to supply the deficiency of macroscopic data about this important animal. Five heads of 12 to 14-month-old ostriches of either sex were anatomically dissected to expose the oropharynx. The ostrich oropharynx was "bell-shaped" composed by the maxillary and mandibular ramphoteca. The roof and floor presented two distinct regions different in colour of the mucosa. The rostral region was pale pink contrasting to creamy-pink coloured caudal region. The median longitudinal ridge extended rostrally from the apex of the choana to the tip of the beak in the roof and it is clearly more prominent and rigid than the homolog in the floor that appeared thin and stretched rostrally, continuing caudally surrounding the tongue and the laryngeal mound eventually merging with the oesophageal mucosa. The floor was formed by the interramal region, tongue and laryngeal mound containing shield-shaped glottis. It can be concluded that the present study, in addition to confirming the basic features of the oropharynx previously described for the ostrich, clarified the contradictory information presented in the literature and also provided new, unreported morphological data, some of which may be important when studying nutrition and health in these birds.

The interaction between technologies and society: Lessons learnt from 160 evolutionary years of online news services

In mapping the evolutionary process of online news and the socio-cultural factors determining this development, this paper has a dual purpose. First, in reworking the definition of “online communication”, it argues that despite its seemingly sudden emergence in the 1990s, the history of online news started right in the early days of the telegraphs and spread throughout the development of the telephone and the fax machine before becoming computer-based in the 1980s and Web-based in the 1990s. Second, merging macro-perspectives on the dynamic of media evolution by DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach (1989) and Winston (1998), the paper consolidates a critical point for thinking about new media development: that something technically feasible does not always mean that it will be socially accepted and/or demanded. From a producer-centric perspective, the birth and development of pre-Web online news forms have been more or less generated by the traditional media’s sometimes excessive hype about the power of new technologies. However, placing such an emphasis on technological potentials at the expense of their social conditions not only can be misleading but also can be detrimental to the development of new media, including the potential of today’s online news.

Chronic absence of baroreceptor inputs prevents training-induced cardiovascular adjustments in normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rats

We investigate whether arterial baroreceptors mediate the training-induced blood pressure fall and resting bradycardia in hypertensive (SHR) and normotensive rats (WKY). Male SHR and WKY rats, submitted to sino-aortic denervation (SAD) or sham surgery (SHAM group), were allocated to training (T; 55% of maximal exercise capacity) or sedentary (S) protocols for 3 months. Rats were instrumented with arterial and venous catheters for haemodynamic measurements at rest (power spectral analysis) and baroreceptor testing. Kidney and skeletal muscles were processed for morphometric analysis of arterioles. Elevated mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) in SHAM SHRS were accompanied by increased sympathetic variability and arteriolar wall/lumen ratio [+3.4-fold on low-frequency (LF) power and +70%, respectively, versus WKYS, P < 0.05]. Training caused significant HR (similar to 9% in WKY and SHR) and MAP reductions (-8% in the SHR), simultaneously with improvement of baroreceptor reflex control of HR (SHR and WKY), LF reduction (with a positive correlation between LF power and MAP levels in the SHR) and normalization of wall/lumen ratio of the skeletal muscle arterioles (SHR only). In contrast, SAD increased pressure variability in both strains of rats, causing reductions in MAP (-13%) and arteriolar wall/lumen ratio (-35%) only in the SHRS. Training effects were completely blocked by SAD in both strains; in addition, after SAD the resting MAP and HR and the wall/lumen ratio of skeletal muscle arterioles were higher in SHRT versus SHRS and similar to those of SHAM SHRS. The lack of training-induced effects in the chronic absence of baroreceptor inputs strongly suggests that baroreceptor signalling plays a decisive role in driving beneficial training-induced cardiovascular adjustments.