Cultivating Intelligent Citizens: The Implication of Dewey’s Intelligence Concept for the Chinese Civic Education

“Intelligence” is the core concept of Dewey’s pragmatic philosophy. On the basis of his empirical philosophy, Dewey introduced the concept of intelligence. He believes that intelligence is the uttermost central moral character of a citizen. Promoting civic intelligence is the central task of the philosophy of education. Due to its unique social background, the lack of intelligence is one of the important factors that undermine the effect of civic education in China. Therefore, fully absorbing the essence and methodology of Dewey’s intelligence concept and introducing them to the Chinese civic education will crucially promote the development of Chinese civic education

The Exploration of the Food Education Program in Primary and Secondary Schools

Nowadays, unhealthy dietary habits, insufficient food knowledge, and lack of manual skills are typical issues among primary and secondary school students in China. To help students build up a strong constitution and life wisdom, Weifang Hansheng School of Shandong developed a food education course. This paper expounds on the course framework, contents of food education textbooks and the measures to implement the course

Lattice Methods for Pricing American Strangles with Two-Dimensional Stochastic Volatility Models

The aim of this paper is to extend the lattice method proposed by Ritchken and Trevor (1999) for pricing American options with one-dimensional stochastic volatility models to the two-dimensional cases with strangle payoff. This proposed method is compared with the least square Monte-Carlo method via numerical examples

Real-time PCR of the mammalian hydroxymethylbilane synthase (HMBS) gene for analysis of flea (Ctenocephalides felis) feeding patterns on dogs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Precise data on quantitative kinetics of blood feeding of fleas, particularly immediately after contact with the host, are essential for understanding dynamics of flea-borne disease transmission and for evaluating flea control strategies. Standard methods used are inadequate for studies that simulate early events after real-life flea access to the host.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Here, we developed a novel quantitative polymerase chain reaction targeting mammalian DNA within fleas to quantify blood consumption with high sensitivity and specificity. We used primers and fluorescent probes that amplify the hydroxymethylbilane synthase (HMBS) gene, an evolutionary divergent gene that is unlikely to be detected in insects by mammalian-specific primers and probes. To validate this assay, fleas were placed on dogs, allowed to distribute in the hair, and removed at specific time points with single-use combs. Fleas were then immediately homogenized by vigorous shaking with ceramic beads in guanidinium-based DNA preservation buffer for DNA extraction.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The specificity of this assay was ascertained by amplification of canine, feline and equine blood with differential product melting temperatures (<it>T</it>_m), and lack of amplification of bovine and porcine blood and of adult fleas reared from larvae fed with bovine blood. Sensitivity of the assay was established by limiting dilution and detection of single copies of HMBS DNA equivalent to 0.043 nL blood. Application of the assay indicated that after 15 minutes on a dog, male and female fleas had ingested low, but similar amounts of approximately 1.1. nL blood. Saturation uptake of 118 and 100 nL blood per flea was found at 30 and 60 min on the dog, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The HMBS PCR method developed here offers the advantages of both exquisite sensitivity and specificity that make it superior to other approaches for quantification of blood ingested by fleas. The capability to detect minute quantities of blood in single fleas, particularly immediately after colonization of the host, will provide a superior tool for studying flea-host interactions, flea-borne disease transmission, and flea control strategies.</p

Linearized Bregman iteration based model‐free adaptive sliding mode control for a class of non‐linear systems

There is a growing demand for robust data-driven control methods particularly for industrial process control. This paper presents a new model-free adaptive sliding mode control approach for a class of discrete-time, multiple input and multiple output non-linear systems. The proposed methodology seeks to address issues with the computation of inverse matrices and problems with singularity in existing methods while at the same time seeking to enhance robustness. A Majorization–Minimization technique and the L1 norm are used within the proposed optimization and an online iterative approach is described for update of the control law. The closed-loop system response is proved to be stable. The effectiveness of the proposed control is validated by extensive simulation and also experimental results, with the performance obtained by the proposed approach being compared throughout with a well-known approach from the established literature

The gut microbiome in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease

The gut microbiota may play a role in cardiovascular diseases. Here, the authors perform a metagenome-wide association study on stools from individuals with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and healthy controls, identifying microbial strains and functions associated with the disease