Fit for purpose? A new approach to evaluating the suitability of textbooks for the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language in the UK

A new approach was adopted for this research, combining qualitative research methods and textbook evaluation to develop a definitive list of criteria for the evaluation of teaching Chinese as a foreign language (TCFL) textbooks. The criteria for the textbook evaluation were derived from interviews with and surveys of teachers, administrators, learners, and textbook writers. The list of criteria developed thus includes some that have not been mentioned by previous researchers, showing that some textbook user needs have not been previously identified. It is hoped that the comprehensive and workable list of textbook evaluation criteria developed here will be of use not only for future researchers, but also for those who seek to choose appropriate textbooks with which to teach TCFL, including administrators and teachers. More immediately, the results of individual and group evaluations conducted as part of this research show how the TCFL textbooks currently in the market could be improved. The in-depth analysis of the three pairs of textbooks carried out in this research both highlights the merits of a good textbook and supports the results of the evaluations. Theoretically, this research has developed its own theoretical framework by proposing an approach to textbook evaluation based on the analysis of qualitative research. This framework bridges the fields of L2 learning, L2 teaching, learners’ needs, and the field of resource development and evaluation. This research also reveals much about how textbooks are designed, used and evaluated

UPPRESSO: Untraceable and Unlinkable Privacy-PREserving Single Sign-On Services

Single sign-on (SSO) allows a user to maintain only the credential at the identity provider (IdP), to login to numerous RPs. However, SSO introduces extra privacy threats, compared with traditional authentication mechanisms, as (a) the IdP could track all RPs which a user is visiting, and (b) collusive RPs could learn a user's online profile by linking his identities across these RPs. This paper proposes a privacypreserving SSO system, called UPPRESSO, to protect a user's login activities against both the curious IdP and collusive RPs. We analyze the identity dilemma between the security requirements and these privacy concerns, and convert the SSO privacy problems into an identity transformation challenge. In each login instance, an ephemeral pseudo-identity (denoted as PID_RP ) of the RP, is firstly negotiated between the user and the RP. PID_RP is sent to the IdP and designated in the identity token, so the IdP is not aware of the visited RP. Meanwhile, PID_RP is used by the IdP to transform the permanent user identity ID_U into an ephemeral user pseudo-identity (denoted as PID_U ) in the identity token. On receiving the identity token, the RP transforms PID_U into a permanent account (denoted as Acct) of the user, by an ephemeral trapdoor in the negotiation. Given a user, the account at each RP is unique and different from ID_U, so collusive RPs cannot link his identities across these RPs. We build the UPPRESSO prototype on top of MITREid Connect, an open-source implementation of OIDC. The extensive evaluation shows that UPPRESSO fulfills the requirements of both security and privacy and introduces reasonable overheads

Pharmacological targeting of STK19 inhibits oncogenic NRAS driven melanomagenesis

黑色素瘤是由黑色素细胞恶性转化产生的恶性程度极高的皮肤癌，含有NRAS激活突变的黑色素瘤约占20-30%，但至今还未有靶向NRAS的有效黑色素瘤治疗方案。针对这一难题，波士顿大学医学中心崔儒涛教授、厦门大学生命科学学院邓贤明教授、复旦大学附属肿瘤医院王鹏教授组成的联合研究团队利用激酶组siRNA文库筛选发现新颖的丝/苏氨酸激酶STK19是NRAS的上游激活子，进一步分子机制研究揭示STK19通过磷酸化NRAS的89位丝氨酸（S89）促进了NRAS介导的黑色素细胞恶性转化。该研究揭示了一种经由新颖激酶STK19调控NRAS突变黑色素瘤的分子机制，验证了STK19有望作为NRAS介导的黑色素瘤的有效靶标，为发展新的黑色素瘤靶向药物提供了先导化合物，同时也为发展其它素有“癌基因之王---RAS”驱动的相关肿瘤靶向药物发展提供了新思路。该论文由波士顿大学医学中心、厦门大学生命科学学院、复旦大学附属肿瘤医院等单位合作完成，共同第一作者厦门大学生命科学学院博士生张婷负责了该系列化合物的设计、合成与优化，崔儒涛教授、邓贤明教授和王鹏教授为共同通讯作者。【Abstract】Activating mutations in NRAS account for 20-30% of melanoma, but despite decades of research and in contrast to BRAF, no effective anti-NRAS therapies have been forthcoming. Here we identify a previously uncharacterized serine/threonine kinase STK19 as a novel NRAS activator. STK19 phosphorylates NRAS to enhance its binding to its downstream effectors and promotes oncogenic NRAS-mediated melanocyte malignant transformation. A recurrent D89N substitution in STK19 whose alterations were identified in 25% of human melanomas represents a gain-of-function mutation that interacts better with NRAS to enhance melanocyte transformation. STK19 D89N knockin leads to skin hyperpigmentation and promotes NRAS Q61R -driven melanomagenesis in vivo. Finally, we developed ZT-12-037-01 (1a) as a specific STK19-targeted inhibitor and showed that it effectively blocks oncogenic NRAS-driven melanocyte malignant transformation and melanoma growth in vitro and in vivo. Together, our findings provide a new and viable therapeutic strategy for melanomas harboring NRAS mutations.We thank Drs. Norman Sharpless and David Fisher for kindly providing the loxP/STOP/loxP NRAS Q61R knockin (LSL-NRAS Q61R ) mice. We thank Dr. Anurag Singh for kindly sharing cell lines. We also thank Drs. X. Shirley Liu, Tao Wang, Wantao Chen, Dali Liu, Chunxiao Xu, Jianming Zhang and Junrong Zou for discussion and assistance. This work was supported by grants from Boston University (to R.C.), the National Key R&D Program and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 2017YFA0504504, 2016YFA0502001, 81422045, U1405223 and 81661138005 to X.D.), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (No. 20720160064 to X.D.), and the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (111 Project, B12001).该研究得到了科技部重点研发计划、国家自然科学基金委和中央高校基本科研业务费等的资助

Pseudonymised transcripts of interviews for PhD thesis "Fit for purpose? A new approach to evaluating the suitability of textbooks for the Teaching of Chinese as a Foreign Language in the UK".

These data were collected for a PhD thesis Guo, Chengqian (2017)<em><strong> Fit for purpose? A new approach to evaluating the suitability of textbooks for the Teaching of Chinese as a Foreign Language in the UK</strong></em>. PhD thesis, University of Sheffield. <a href="http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/19279">http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/19279</a> <div><br></div><div>Data collection and analysis methods are detailed in the thesis. <div><br></div><div>Please send the author an email to request the use of the transcriptions. In the email, please provide personal informaion including full name, affiliation, email address and contact address.<div><div><br></div><div>Contact email: [email protected]<br><div> <div> <div> <p><br></p> </div> </div> </div></div></div></div></div

Individual evaluation lists for PhD thesis "Fit for purpose? A new approach to evaluating the suitability of textbooks for the Teaching of Chinese as a Foreign Language in the UK"

These are the criteria lists for individual evaluation. These data were collected for a PhD thesis Guo, Chengqian (2017)<em><strong> Fit for purpose? A new approach to evaluating the suitability of textbooks for the Teaching of Chinese as a Foreign Language in the UK</strong></em>. PhD thesis, University of Sheffield. <div><a href="http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/19279">http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/19279</a><br><div><br></div><div>Data collection and analysis methods are detailed in the thesis.</div></div

High Gravity-Enhanced Direct Air Capture: A Leap Forward in CO₂ Adsorption Technology

Given the global pressure of climate change and ecological equilibrium, there is an urgent need to develop effective carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology. Due to its comprehensiveness and flexibility, Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology has emerged as a vital supplement to traditional emission reduction methods. This study aims to innovate Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology by utilizing the ultrasonic impregnation method to load Tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) onto alumina (Al2O3) as the adsorbent. Furthermore, high gravity adsorption technology is integrated to significantly enhance the efficiency of DAC. Characterization tests, including BET, FTIR, TG, XRD, and SEM-EDS, confirm the structural stability and high capture capacity of the adsorbent. Additionally, this study demonstrates the rapid and efficient capture of CO2 from the air using TEPA-Al2O3 adsorbent under high gravity conditions for the first time. Under optimal conditions with TEPA loading at 15.06%, a high gravity factor of 2.67, and a gas flow rate of 30 L/min, TEPA-Al2O3 achieves a CO2 adsorption capacity of 48.5 mg/g in RAB, which is an improvement of 15.56 mg/g compared to traditional fixed-bed technology. Moreover, it reaches adsorption saturation faster under high gravity conditions, exhibiting a significantly higher adsorption rate compared to traditional fixed-bed systems. Furthermore, the adsorption process better conforms to the Avrami model. Steam stripping regeneration is utilized to regenerate the adsorbent, demonstrating excellent regeneration performance and stable adsorption capacity, thereby proving its feasibility and economic benefits as a DAC technology

Metal-Free Nanoassemblies of Water-Soluble Photosensitizer and Adenosine Triphosphate for Efficient and Precise Photodynamic Cancer Therapy

Engineering photosensitizers into stimuli-responsive supramolecular nanodrugs allows enhanced spatiotemporal delivery and controllable release of photosensitizers, which is promising for dedicated and precise tumor photodynamic therapy. Complicated fabrication for nanodrugs with good tumor accumulation capability and the undesirable side-effects caused by the drug components retards the application of PDT in vivo. The fact that extracellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is overexpressed in tumor tissue has been overlooked in fabricating nanomedicines for tumor-targeting delivery. Hence, herein we present metal-free helical nanofibers formed in aqueous solution from the coassembly of a cationic porphyrin and ATP as a nanodrug for PDT. The easily accessible and compatible materials and simple preparation enable the nanodrugs with potential in PDT for cancer. Compared to the cationic porphyrin alone, the porphyrin-ATP nanofibers exhibited enhanced tumor-site photosensitizer delivery through whole-body blood circulation. Overexpressed extracellular ATP stabilizes the porphyrin-ATP nanodrug within tumor tissue, giving rise to enhanced uptake of the nanodrug by cancer cells. The enzyme-triggered release of photosensitizers from the nanodrugs upon biodegradation of ATP by intracellular phosphatases results in good tumor therapeutic efficacy. This study demonstrates the potential for employing the tumor microenvironment to aid the accumulation of nanodrugs in tumors, inspiring the fabrication of smart nanomedicines

Displacement Back Analysis of Reservoir Landslide Based on Multi-Source Monitoring Data: A Case Study of the Cheyiping Landslide in the Lancang River Basin, China

Landslides that occur in the littoral zone of a reservoir can directly damage the hydraulic structures and threaten the lives and property around the reservoir. Due to the spatial variability and heterogeneities of rock mass, a limited amount of data obtained from laboratory and in situ tests cannot comprehensively characterize the mechanical properties of rock and soil masses. Therefore, displacement back analysis is often performed to determine the mechanical parameters of rock and soil masses. The spaceborne Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has proved to be a powerful tool for geodesy in the measurement of landslide movement. However, InSAR can only measure the surface motion of the landslide without the subsurface information. This study uses multi-source monitoring data in the landslide displacement back analysis, including surface InSAR and an internal borehole inclinometer. The identified material parameters and finite element simulation are used to predict the landslide deformation. The case study of the Cheyiping landslide located in the Lancang River basin demonstrates the necessity and feasibility of using multi-source monitoring data in landslide displacement back analysis. The Cheyiping landslide is currently in the creep deformation stage. The decrease in shear strength of rock masses due to the rheological deformation and the change in reservoir water level are the internal and external factors leading to excessive landslide deformation. The numerical modeling can accurately simulate the landslide movement using the identified material parameters. By combing multi-source monitoring data and numerical modeling, the reservoir landslide deformation analysis can help evaluate the landslide deformation state and stability, which is vital for reservoir risk mitigation and the sustainable development of hydropower resources

Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Wet Dust Removal in High-Gravity Countercurrent Rotating Packed Bed

High-gravity wet dust removal technology has attracted much attention because of its potential to cut liquid into smaller liquid droplets and lower energy consumption. However, the complex structure and the high-speed rotation of the rotating packed bed do not allow us to analyze the flow field using conventional methods, and thus the capture mechanism of fine particles in a high-gravity environment is poorly understood. In this study, a two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model was established to investigate the distribution of the gas–liquid two-phase flow field inside of a rotating packed bed. The characteristics of the flow field, such as the liquid form, gas–liquid contact time, and gas flow path, were investigated, and the droplet size distribution and gas–liquid slip velocity were quantitatively analyzed. The inertial capture efficiency was calculated using the Stokes number, and the dust removal efficiency distribution in the rotating packed bed was compared. The reason for the high collection efficiency of fine particles by the high-gravity wet dust removal technology was explained by numerical simulations. Two new structures were designed to improve the total dust removal efficiency