A Narrative Inquiry of Identity Formation of EFL University Teachers

Drawing on narrative inquiry, the present study aims to investigate the trajectory of identity formation of EFL university teachers. Two types of data are collected. One type comes from life histories of Hyland (2014), Nunan (2011) and Widdowson(2009), and the other type comes from semi-structured interviews with three excellent university teachers. With the first group of data, a thematic analysis of narratives is conducted. With the second group of data, a narrative analysis is done. The trajectory of identity formation for the first group is linear, revealing the three renowned applied linguists transforming from inexperienced EFL teachers to PhD researchers, and ultimately to applied linguists specializing in a specific field. Sharing similarities to the first group in the first two stages, the trajectory of identity formation for the second group is more like a loop, which is characterized as both an EFL learner and an EFL teacher through the entire career

Role of Discipline-specific Vocabulary in L2 Reading by Chinese Chemistry Major Undergraduates

This study explored the contribution of second language (L2) discipline-specific vocabulary to Chinese chemistry major undergraduates’ reading of textbooks. Participants included 82 second-year undergraduates majoring in chemistry. Their discipline-specific vocabulary knowledge and chemistry textbook reading ability were measured. Their L2 proficiency and chemistry knowledge data were collected. Correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed that discipline-specific vocabulary was highly correlated with L2 proficiency and disciplinary knowledge, and discipline-specific vocabulary contributed the most to textbook reading, bigger than either L2 proficiency or disciplinary knowledge. Implications for discipline-specific vocabulary and English for academic purposes (EAP) reading instructions are discussed

A Narrative Inquiry of Identity Formation of EFL University Teachers

Drawing on narrative inquiry, the present study aims to investigate the trajectory of identity formation of EFL university teachers. Two types of data are collected. One type comes from life histories of Hyland (2014), Nunan (2011) and Widdowson(2009), and the other type comes from semi-structured interviews with three excellent university teachers. With the first group of data, a thematic analysis of narratives is conducted. With the second group of data, a narrative analysis is done. The trajectory of identity formation for the first group is linear, revealing the three renowned applied linguists transforming from inexperienced EFL teachers to PhD researchers, and ultimately to applied linguists specializing in a specific field. Sharing similarities to the first group in the first two stages, the trajectory of identity formation for the second group is more like a loop, which is characterized as both an EFL learner and an EFL teacher through the entire career

Factors Influencing the Evolution of Rural Settlements Based on MGWR: A Case Study of Haikou City

The factors influencing the spatial evolution of rural settlements have always been the focus of rural geography. China's rural settlement space has undergone dramatic changes driven by rapid urbanization in recent decades. However, the spatial heterogeneity and scale effects of the factors influencing the spatial evolution of rural settlements have not attracted widespread attention and in-depth research from scholars. Taking Haikou City as a case example, this study examined the spatial heterogeneity of the factors influencing the spatial evolution of rural settlements from 2002 to 2020 using the remote sensing image visual interpretation method, spatial analysis technology of Geographic Information System (GIS), and Multi-scale Geographically Weighted Regression model. The study showed that: (1) The area of rural settlements in Haikou City has increased by 53.5% in the past 20 years, and the per capita area has grown from 120.59 square meters per person to 166.79 square meters per person, with the characteristics of expansion in the north and contraction in the south, a scattered settlement landscape, and obvious spatial heterogeneity. Moreover, the distribution and area changes of rural settlements showed a significant positive spatial agglomeration pattern. (2) The influences of various factors have obvious differences on spatial non-stationarity and scale effects with bandwidths ranging from 69 to 10 482. The effects of four factors, location, distance to road, distance to real estate development area, and elevation, on the spatial evolution of rural settlements are at the local scale. The effects of two factors, urbanization rate and slope, are at the mesoscale, and the effects of five factors, distance to the central city, population change rate, distance to river, road network density, and accessibility of tourist resource points, are at the global scale. Among these, the spatial evolution of rural settlements is most sensitive to location. (3) Factors such as the impetus of the central city and the development of real estate have the most important impact on the spatial evolution of rural settlements. In addition, settlements are increasingly expanding to areas closer to the central city, closer to real estate development zones, and closer to areas with lower altitudes, smaller slopes, higher levels of urbanization, and higher densities of road network. However, factors such as distance to river, population change rate, and accessibility of tourist resource points have no significant effects on the evolution of rural settlements. (4) Changing the development concepts led by the real estate industry and strictly implementing the "One household, one house" system are important measures to curb the disorderly expansion of rural settlements in Haikou City effectively

New Insight into the Concanavalin A-Induced Apoptosis in Hepatocyte of an Animal Model: Possible Involvement of Caspase-Independent Pathway

Concanavalin A (Con A) is known to be a T-cell mitogen and has been shown to induce hepatitis in mice through the triggering of conventional T cells and NKT cells. However, it remains unknown whether Con A itself can directly induce rapid hepatocyte death in the absence of a functional immune system. Here, by using an immunodeficient mouse model, we found Con A rapidly induced liver injury in vivo despite a lack of immunocyte involvement. We further observed in vitro that hepatocytes underwent a dose-dependent but caspase-independent apoptosis in response to Con A stimulation in vitro. Moreover, transcriptome RNA-sequencing analysis revealed that apoptosis pathways were activated in both our in vivo and in vitro models. We conclude that Con A can directly induce rapid but non-classical apoptosis in hepatocytes without the participation of immunocytes. These findings provide new insights into the mechanism of Con A-induced hepatitis

Salidroside-Mediated Autophagic Targeting of Active Src and Caveolin-1 Suppresses Low-Density Lipoprotein Transcytosis across Endothelial Cells

Subendothelial retention of apolipoprotein B100-containing lipoprotein, such as low-density lipoprotein (LDL), is the initial step of atherogenesis. Activation of autophagy exhibits beneficial effects for the treatment of atherosclerosis. In our previous study, we demonstrated that hyperglycemia suppressed autophagic degradation of caveolin-1, which in turn resulted in acceleration of caveolae-mediated LDL transcytosis across endothelial cells and lipid retention. Therefore, targeting the crossed pathway in autophagy activation and LDL transcytosis interruption may be a promising antiatherosclerotic strategy. In metabolic diseases, including atherosclerosis, salidroside, a phenylpropanoid glycoside compound (3,5-dimethoxyphenyl) methyl-β-glucopyranoside), is the most important compound responsible for the therapeutic activities of Rhodiola. However, whether salidroside suppresses LDL transcytosis to alleviate atherosclerosis has not yet been elucidated. In the present study, we demonstrated that salidroside significantly decreased LDL transcytosis across endothelial cells. Salidroside-induced effects were dramatically blocked by AMPK (adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase) inhibitor (compound c, AMPKα siRNA) and by overexpression of exogenous tyrosine-phosphorylated caveolin-1 using transfected cells with phosphomimicking caveolin-1 on tyrosine 14 mutant plasmids (Y14D). Furthermore, we observed that salidroside promoted autophagosome formation via activating AMPK. Meanwhile, the interaction between caveolin-1 and LC3B-II, as well as the interaction between active Src (indicated by the phosphorylation of Src on tyrosine 416) and LC3B-II, was significantly increased, upon stimulation with salidroside. In addition, both bafilomycin A1 (a lysosome inhibitor) and an AMPK inhibitor (compound c) markedly prevented salidroside-induced autophagic degradation of p-Src and caveolin-1. Moreover, the phosphorylation of caveolin-1 on tyrosine 14 was disrupted due to the downregulation of p-Src and caveolin-1, thereby directly decreasing LDL transcytosis by attenuating the number of caveolae on the cell membrane and by preventing caveolae-mediated LDL endocytosis released from the cell membrane. In ApoE-/- mice, salidroside significantly delayed the formation of atherosclerotic lesions. Meanwhile, a significant increase in LC3B, accompanied by attenuated accumulation of the autophagy substrate SQSTM1, was observed in aortic endothelium of ApoE-/- mice. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that salidroside protected against atherosclerosis by inhibiting LDL transcytosis through enhancing the autophagic degradation of active Src and caveolin-1

Inventory and Spatial Distribution of Ancient Landslides in Hualong County, China

The establishment of a regional historical landslide inventory plays an indispensable role in landslide assessment and prevention. In this study, based on the Google Earth platform, an inventory of ancient landslides in Hualong County, Qinghai Province was established. The inventory includes 3517 ancient landslides with individual areas ranging from 2354.6 m2 to 12.44 km2. The dominant characteristics include an elevation of 2600–2800 m, slope of 10–20°, aspects SW, W, and NW, mudstone and sandstone of Paleoproterozoic, Neoproterozoic and Quaternary loess, 8–10 km from faults, 0–1 km from rivers, cultivated and grassland types, NDVI of 0.25–0.3, and an average precipitation in the range of 480–500 mm. In addition, the geometric analysis of landslides shows that the average height and length of ancient landslides in the study area are 151.92 m and 429.52 m, respectively. The power law relationship between the two is L = 0.41 × H1.37. The ancient landslide inventory of this study exhibits an integrated pattern of the development characteristics and spatial distribution of landslides in the Tibetan Plateau and the upper Yellow River basin, as well as providing a significant reference for subsequent landslide susceptibility mapping in the area