Analysis of Factors that Influenced the Participation Rates in Upper-secondary Vocational Schools in China

Vocational education and training has been treated as a good pathway to smoothly promote youth from school to the workplace. However, for many reasons, the vocational education in Asian countries is not as popular as general education, and the participation rate in vocational schools is normally lower than it is in general schools. This paper builds a theoretical model about the factors that influence the participation rate in Chinese upper-secondary vocational schools and explains the possible related indicators through a regression analysis method. The results show that the most positive factor is related to the number of male students in vocational schools, followed by the number of female vocational teachers. Other staff in vocational schools also have a positive effect, while the youth unemployment rate and the number of men vocational teachers both have negative relationships with the participation rate. In China, it is possible to improve the rates of new entrants into vocational schools from the aspects of the gender issues, the training methods for vocational teachers, and the social recognition of vocational education

A snoRNA modulates mRNA 3' end processing and regulates the expression of a subset of mRNAs.

mRNA 3' end processing is an essential step in gene expression. It is well established that canonical eukaryotic pre-mRNA 3' processing is carried out within a macromolecular machinery consisting of dozens of trans-acting proteins. However, it is unknown whether RNAs play any role in this process. Unexpectedly, we found that a subset of small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are associated with the mammalian mRNA 3' processing complex. These snoRNAs primarily interact with Fip1, a component of cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor (CPSF). We have functionally characterized one of these snoRNAs and our results demonstrated that the U/A-rich SNORD50A inhibits mRNA 3' processing by blocking the Fip1-poly(A) site (PAS) interaction. Consistently, SNORD50A depletion altered the Fip1-RNA interaction landscape and changed the alternative polyadenylation (APA) profiles and/or transcript levels of a subset of genes. Taken together, our data revealed a novel function for snoRNAs and provided the first evidence that non-coding RNAs may play an important role in regulating mRNA 3' processing

Paradigm model of online learning experience during COVID-19 crisis in higher education

The study presents qualitative research on university students' online learning experience process at the higher education level. It used a grounded theory through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 25 university students for framing and structuring the paradigm model of university students' online learning experiences. A paradigm model illustrating this developmental process is presented, which includes the casual and contextual conditions that caused and evolved the central phenomenon for their online learning, the strategies used by the students to overcome external/internal disturbances in continuing their learning process, the conditions that helped/hindered those strategies, and the consequences. Finally, the following meaning units were discovered through the preceding paradigm model. The students started learning with a negative impression of unfamiliar learning methods such as online learning, but over time, they improved their self-management abilities and gained a broader understanding of self-discipline. In the midst of this, competence in digital literacy according to generational differences was also discovered as one of the factors affecting learning, forming a virtual community, and increasing personal learning through online interaction. Finally, the implications of the overall learning ecology for the future role of online learning were also considered. Based on this analysis of students' online learning experiences, the direction for online learning was suggested

KINEMATICS ANALYSIS OF CHINESE VAULTING HORSE ATHLETE YANG YAHONG'S ACTION OF "HANDSPRING WITH 90&ORDM-180&ORDM-LAYOUT BACK DOUBLE TWIST"

"Handspring with 90&ordm-180&ordm-layout back double twists" is the new developed kind of action in the women gymnastics championship in recent years. Yang Yahong is the only one that can complete this action. With the method of sports biomechanics, the kinematics characteristic of her action will be analyzed and her advantage and disadvantage will be exposed. The finding shows that her running up is fast, the angle speed of the handspring in the second flight is swift and the pose in space is excellent. However, the amount of time of pushing horse is over long and the height of the 'handspring in the second flight is not enough

Heterologous expression and characterization of a malathion-hydrolyzing carboxylesterase from a thermophilic bacterium, Alicyclobacillus tengchongensis

A carboxylesterase gene from thermophilic bacterium, Alicyclobacillus tengchongensis, was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). The gene coded for a 513 amino acid protein with a calculated molecular mass of 57.82 kDa. The deduced amino acid sequence had structural features highly conserved among serine hydrolases, including Ser204, Glu325, and His415 as a catalytic triad, as well as type-B carboxylesterase serine active site (FGGDPENITIGGQSAG) and type-B carboxylesterase signature 2 (EDCLYLNIWTP). The purified enzyme exhibited optimum activity with β-naphthyl acetate at 60 °C and pH 7 as well as stability at 25 °C and pH 7. One unit of the enzyme hydrolyzed 5 mg malathion l(−1) by 50 % within 25 min and 89 % within 100 min. The enzyme strongly degraded malathion and has a potential use for the detoxification of malathion residues

XTQA: Span-Level Explanations of the Textbook Question Answering

Textbook Question Answering (TQA) is a task that one should answer a diagram/non-diagram question given a large multi-modal context consisting of abundant essays and diagrams. We argue that the explainability of this task should place students as a key aspect to be considered. To address this issue, we devise a novel architecture towards span-level eXplanations of the TQA (XTQA) based on our proposed coarse-to-fine grained algorithm, which can provide not only the answers but also the span-level evidences to choose them for students. This algorithm first coarsely chooses top $M$ paragraphs relevant to questions using the TF-IDF method, and then chooses top $K$ evidence spans finely from all candidate spans within these paragraphs by computing the information gain of each span to questions. Experimental results shows that XTQA significantly improves the state-of-the-art performance compared with baselines. The source code is available at https://github.com/keep-smile-001/opentqaComment: 10 page

A Metabonomic Approach to Analyze the Dexamethasone-Induced Cleft Palate in Mice

Mice models are an important way to understand the relation between the fetus with cleft palate and changes of maternal biofluid. This paper aims to develop a metabonomics approach to analyze dexamethasone-induced cleft palate in pregnant C57BL/6J mice and to study the relationship between the change of endogenous small molecular metabolites in maternal plasma and the incidence of cleft palate. To do so, pregnant mice were randomly divided into two groups. The one group was injected with dexamethasone. On E17.5th day, the incident rates of cleft palate from embryos in two groups were calculated. The 1H-NMR spectra from the metabolites in plasma in two groups was collected at same time. Then the data were analyzed using metabonomics methods (PCA and SIMCA). The results showed that the data from the two groups displayed distinctive characters, and the incidence of cleft palate were significantly different (P < .005). To conclude, this study demonstrates that the metabonomics approach is a powerful and effective method in detecting the abnormal metabolites from mother in the earlier period of embryos, and supports the idea that a change from dexamethasone induced in maternal metabolites plays an important role in the incidence of cleft palate

Comparative Genomic Analysis and Phenotypic Characterization of Bronchoscope-Associated Klebsiella aerogenes

Bronchoscopes have been linked to outbreaks of nosocomial infections. The phenotypic and genomic profiles of bronchoscope-associated Klebsiella aerogenes isolates are largely unknown. In this work, a total of 358 isolates and 13 isolates were recovered from samples after clinical procedures and samples after decontamination procedures, respectively, over the five months. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing found seven K. aerogenes isolates exhibiting a low-level resistance to antimicrobial agents. Among seven K. aerogenes isolates, we found five sequence types (STs) clustered into three main clades. Collectively, this study described for the first time the phenotypic and genomic characteristics of bronchoscope-associated K. aerogenes

Differences in the Gut Microbiota Establishment and Metabolome Characteristics Between Low- and Normal-Birth-Weight Piglets During Early-Life

Low-birth-weight (LBW) piglets are at a high-risk for postnatal growth failure, mortality, and metabolic disorders later in life. Early-life microbial exposure is a potentially effective intervention strategy for modulating the health and metabolism of the host. Yet, it has not been well elucidated whether the gut microbiota development in LBW piglets is different from their normal littermates and its possible association with metabolite profiles. In the current study, 16S rRNA gene sequencing and metabolomics was used to investigate differences in the fecal microbiota and metabolites between LBW and normal piglets during early-life, including day 3 (D3), 7 (D7), 14 (D14), 21 (D21, before weaning), and 35 (D35, after birth). Compared to their normal littermates, LBW piglets harbored low proportions of Faecalibacterium on D3, Flavonifractor on D7, Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, and Prevotella on D21, as well as Howardella on D21 and D35. However, the abundance of Campylobacter on D7 and D21, Prevotella on D14 and D35, Oscillibacter and Moryella on D14 and D21, and Bacteroides on D21 was significantly higher in LBW piglets when compared with normal piglets. The results of the metabolomics analysis suggested that LBW significantly affected fecal metabolites involved in fatty acid metabolism (e.g., linoleic acid, α-linolenic acid, and arachidonic acid), amino acid metabolism (e.g., valine, phenylalanine, and glutamic acid), as well as bile acid biosynthesis (e.g., glycocholic acid, 25-hydroxycholesterol, and chenodeoxycholic acid). Spearman correlation analysis revealed a significant negative association between Campylobacter and N1-acetylspermine on D7, Moryella and linoleic acid on D14, Prevotella and chenodeoxycholic acid on D21, and Howardella and phenylalanine on D35, respectively. Collectively, LBW piglets have a different gut bacterial community structure when compared with normal-birth-weight (NBW) piglets during early-life, especially from 7 to 21 days of age. Also, a distinctive metabolic status in LBW piglets might be partly associated with the altered intestinal microbiota. These findings may further elucidate the factors potentially associated with the impaired growth and development of LBW piglets and facilitate the development of nutritional interventions