Correlation Between University Music Teachers’ Self-efficacy and Autonomous Learning

Music instructors' self-efficacy and autonomous learning impact their professional growth at the university and play an essential part in developing high-level music education. This study aims to look into the current state of university music instructors' self-efficacy and autonomous learning and analyses the link between them. The survey findings include that university music instructors' self-efficacy is greater overall, and the status quo of university music teachers' autonomous learning at the medium level is powerful for autonomous learning motivation

Influence on emergency digit replantation and outcome assessment after COVID-19 virus nucleic acid testing normalization

ObjectiveThe study aims to compare the implementation and prognosis of emergency digit replantation surgery before and after normalized corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) nucleic acid testing for patients taking emergency operation and to explore the influence of normalized COVID-19 nucleic acid testing on replantation surgery.MethodNormalized COVID-19 nucleic acid testing for patients taking emergency operation has been carried out since 1 August 2021 at our hospital, which means each patient who needs emergency surgical treatment has to obtain either positive or negative results of COVID-19 nucleic acid before entering the operating room. This research reviewed and compared the prognosis of the injured extremity that had emergency severed digit replantation between June and September 2021, at the Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, and analyzed the impact of normalized COVID-19 nucleic acid testing on the outcome of the replanted fingers of different severity using disability of arm-shoulder-hand (DASH) and hand injury severity scoring (HISS) scoring systems.ResultsA total of 54 cases with 74 severed replanted phalanges were included replanted by the research group between 1 August and 30 September 2021, without any COVID-19 suspected/confirmed case detected. Compared with previous period (1 June to 31 July, 2021), although the interval between emergency visits and emergency replantation did increase significantly after normalized COVID-19 nucleic acid testing [(3.83 ± 0.94) to (1.77 ± 0.67) h, P < 0.05], we observed no significant difference in the improvement rate of the DASH scoring of the disabled upper extremity 3-month postoperatively (P = 0.538) nor in the complication rate (P = 0.344). Moreover, there was no significant difference in the improvement rate of the DASH scoring of the disabled upper extremity 3-month postoperatively in patients with different traumatic severities before and after normalized COVID-19 nucleic acid testing (moderate P = 0.269, severe P = 0.055, major P = 0.149).ConclusionDespite the preoperative delay, the policy of COVID-19 nucleic acid testing normalization does not have explicit influence on the short-term outcomes of emergency digit replantation surgery. With this evidence, microsurgeons could pay attention to the patients' anxiety and spend more effort in comforting them during the prolonged preoperative wait. These insights may have implications for other emergency department resource management whenever a social crisis occurs

DRUM: Inference of Disease-Associated m6A RNA Methylation Sites From a Multi-Layer Heterogeneous Network

Recent studies have revealed that the RNA N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification plays a critical role in a variety of biological processes and associated with multiple diseases including cancers. Till this day, transcriptome-wide m6A RNA methylation sites have been identified by high-throughput sequencing technique combined with computational methods, and the information is publicly available in a few bioinformatics databases; however, the association between individual m6A sites and various diseases are still largely unknown. There are yet computational approaches developed for investigating potential association between individual m6A sites and diseases, which represents a major challenge in the epitranscriptome analysis. Thus, to infer the disease-related m6A sites, we implemented a novel multi-layer heterogeneous network-based approach, which incorporates the associations among diseases, genes and m6A RNA methylation sites from gene expression, RNA methylation and disease similarities data with the Random Walk with Restart (RWR) algorithm. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, a ten-fold cross validation is performed, in which our approach achieved a reasonable good performance (overall AUC: 0.827, average AUC 0.867), higher than a hypergeometric test-based approach (overall AUC: 0.7333 and average AUC: 0.723) and a random predictor (overall AUC: 0.550 and average AUC: 0.486). Additionally, we show that a number of predicted cancer-associated m6A sites are supported by existing literatures, suggesting that the proposed approach can effectively uncover the underlying epitranscriptome circuits of disease mechanisms. An online database DRUM, which stands for disease-associated ribonucleic acid methylation, was built to support the query of disease-associated RNA m6A methylation sites, and is freely available at: www.xjtlu.edu.cn/biologicalsciences/drum

WHISTLE server: A high-accuracy genomic coordinate-based machine learning platform for RNA modification prediction

The primary sequences of DNA, RNA and protein have been used as the dominant information source of existing machine learning tools, especially for contexts not fully explored by wet-experimental approaches. Since molecular markers are profoundly orchestrated in the living organisms, those markers that cannot be unambiguously recovered from the primary sequence often help to predict other biological events. To the best of our knowledge, there is no current tool to build and deploy machine learning models that consider genomic evidence. We therefore developed the WHISTLE server, the first machine learning platform based on genomic coordinates. It features convenient covariate extraction and model web deployment with 46 distinct genomic features integrated along with the conventional sequence features. We showed that, when predicting m6A sites from SRAMP project, the model integrating genomic features substantially outperformed those based on only sequence features. The WHISTLE server should be a useful tool for studying biological attributes specifically associated with genomic coordinates, and is freely accessible at: www.xjtlu.edu.cn/biologicalsciences/whi2

Involvement of autophagy in mesaconitine-induced neurotoxicity in HT22 cells revealed through integrated transcriptomic, proteomic, and m6A epitranscriptomic profiling

Background: Mesaconitine (MA), a diester-diterpenoid alkaloid extracted from the medicinal herb Aconitum carmichaelii, is commonly used to treat various diseases. Previous studies have indicated the potent toxicity of aconitum despite its pharmacological activities, with limited understanding of its effects on the nervous system and the underlying mechanisms.Methods: HT22 cells and zebrafish were used to investigate the neurotoxic effects of MA both in vitro and in vivo, employing multi-omics techniques to explore the potential mechanisms of toxicity.Results: Our results demonstrated that treatment with MA induces neurotoxicity in zebrafish and HT22 cells. Subsequent analysis revealed that MA induced oxidative stress, as well as structural and functional damage to mitochondria in HT22 cells, accompanied by an upregulation of mRNA and protein expression related to autophagic and lysosomal pathways. Furthermore, methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeRIP-seq) showed a correlation between the expression of autophagy-related genes and N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification following MA treatment. In addition, we identified METTL14 as a potential regulator of m6A methylation in HT22 cells after exposure to MA.Conclusion: Our study has contributed to a thorough mechanistic elucidation of the neurotoxic effects caused by MA, and has provided valuable insights for optimizing the rational utilization of traditional Chinese medicine formulations containing aconitum in clinical practice

Examination of US Transportation Public-Private Partnership Experience: Performance and Market

Worldwide, public-private partnership (P3) project performance and benefits accrued to market participants are understudied. Focusing on the US, this dissertation examines the country’s transportation P3 experience through three empirical studies comparing P3 to design-bid-build (DBB), the traditional delivery method. Throughout, the Information Source for Major Projects database, built by a University of Maryland team in which the author led the data collection effort, served as the data source. In the first study, the researchers examined P3 cost and time performance using piecewise linear growth curve modeling, recognizing that past cross-sectional studies had produced mixed results. With 133 major transportation projects, the longitudinal analysis confirmed P3’s time performance advantage and efficiency diffusion effecting cost savings in DBB, where efficiency diffusion was a new term describing the spillover and internalization of technical and managerial innovations inducing an efficient outcome. The second study used social network analysis to investigate collaboration patterns among different types of players in the P3 market (i.e., public sponsors, special purpose vehicles, investors, lenders, advisors, contractors, and professional service firms). With 135 projects and 1009 organizations, data found that both P3 and DBB networks are small worlds. Exponential random graph modeling revealed that practicing in the DBB market helps firms participate in P3 projects and that large firms (vis-à-vis small/medium-sized firms) are not privileged. The third study, further exploring the P3 market, focused on the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. Administered by the US Department of Transportation, the program promotes the participation of small, disadvantaged firms in federal-aid projects. Linear regressions on 134 contracts showed that P3 associates with higher DBE goals in terms of percentage of dollars to be awarded to DBEs, whereas the delivery method does not affect the actual attainment. Overall, the findings justify continued policy support towards P3 implementation

Predicted Organic Noble-Gas Hydrides Derived from Acrylic Acid

The Ar-, Kr-, and Xe-insertion compounds into acrylic acid, i.e., C₂H₃COONgH (Ng = Ar, Kr, and Xe), have been studied by ab initio calculations. The geometry optimization, frequency calculation, and stability were investigated at the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ (aug-cc-pVTZ-PP) level of theory. Two configuration isomers, i.e., <i>s-cis syn</i> (isomer A) and <i>s-cis anti</i> (isomer B), were optimized for each molecule. Using the <i>s-cis syn</i> structure (isomer A) as an example, we performed natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis, natural energy decomposition analysis (NEDA), and atom-in-molecules (AIM) analysis to investigate the bonding nature of these noble-gas compounds. Our study predicts the existence of Kr- and Xe-derivatives of acrylic acid and the instability of Ar-related compounds