First Year ESL Students Developing Critical Thinking: Challenging the Stereotypes

Reporting a case study of two high-achieving Chinese students studying at a university in Hong Kong, this paper presents evidence that poses an anti-thesis to the stereotypes of first year university students as holding naïve beliefs about learning and of ‘Chinese learners’ as lacking in critical thinking. Many studies have examined Chinese students’ learning experiences within local educational contexts, yet we know very little what beliefs individual Chinese ESL students hold about learning and writing in an English-dominant university especially in their early stage of studying at such an institution, and how their beliefs are reflected in what they actually do in their writing. This paper aims to illuminate a connection between two high-achieving Chinese students’ beliefs about learning/writing in the university and what they did in a written assignment in an introductory course of political science, especially in terms of their use of authorship strategies as they wrote from sources. The data were collected through interviews and gathering the students’ notes, process logs, papers, source texts, as well as the relevant materials of the political science course. The study revealed that for both students the essence of university learning and writing consisted in independent and critical thinking, and writing with a clear view and sound logic; and they both imprinted authorship into their papers, by proposing revised theories on their selected topics and fitting sources into their own organizational frameworks

A Study on the Application of Elements of Ethnic Dress in Modern Fashion Design

The paper mainly analyzes the importance of ethnic dress from the perspective of the application of ethnic costume’s form and various features in modern fashion design to fully acknowledge that national costumes are the inexhaustible source of inspiration for designing creation. Only by understanding, inheriting and enhancing the essence of ethnic costume, we can transfer it into the culture of modern fashion design, and gain enlightenment to integrate the culture of traditional ethnic dress with that of modern fashion. Key words: National dress style; Fashion; Creation; Design patterns; Color relations; Structural characteristics; Local modelin

Regularity and analyticity of solutions in a direction for elliptic equations

In this paper, we study the regularity and analyticity of solutions to linear elliptic equations with measurable or continuous coefficients. We prove that if the coefficients and inhomogeneous term are Hölder-continuous in a direction, then the second-order derivative in this direction of the solution is Hölder-continuous, with a different Hölder exponent. We also prove that if the coefficients and the inhomogeneous term are analytic in a direction, then the solution is analytic in that direction

Optimal Power Allocation for Integrated Visible Light Positioning and Communication System with a Single LED-Lamp

In this paper, we investigate an integrated visible light positioning and communication (VLPC) system with a single LED-lamp. First, by leveraging the fact that the VLC channel model is a function of the receiver's location, we propose a system model that estimates the channel state information (CSI) based on the positioning information without transmitting pilot sequences. Second, we derive the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) on the positioning error variance and a lower bound on the achievable rate with on-off keying modulation. Third, based on the derived performance metrics, we optimize the power allocation to minimize the CRLB, while satisfying the rate outage probability constraint. To tackle this non-convex optimization problem, we apply the worst-case distribution of the Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) and the block coordinate descent (BCD) methods to obtain the feasible solutions. Finally, the effects of critical system parameters, such as outage probability, rate threshold, total power threshold, are revealed by numerical results.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, accepted by IEEE Transactions on Communication

Ground state for Choquard equation with doubly critical growth nonlinearity

In this paper we consider nonlinear Choquard equation −∆u + V(x)u = (Iα ∗ F(u))f(u) in R N, where V ∈ C(RN), Iα denotes the Riesz potential, f(t) = |t| p−2 t + |t| q−2 t for all t ∈ R, N > 5 and α ∈ (0, N − 4). Under suitable conditions on V, we obtain that the Choquard equation with doubly critical growth nonlinearity, i.e., p = (N + α)/N, q = (N + α)/(N − 2), has a nonnegative ground state solution by variational methods

Effect of Metformin on Lactate Metabolism in Normal Hepatocytes under High Glucose Stress in Vitro

Objective To study the effect of metformin on lactate metabolism in hepatocytes in vitro under high glucose stress. In vitro LO2 cells, liver cells were randomly divided into blank control group, 25 tendency/L glucose solution, 27 tendency/L glucose solution,29 tendency/L glucose solution, 31 tendency/L glucose solution, 33 tendency/L glucose solution,35 tendency/L glucose solution treatment group, the optimal concentration of 31 tendency after L, use 30 tendency for L metformin solution, and then divided into blank control group, the optimal concentration of glucose solution, normal liver cells + metformin solution normal liver cells. The optimal concentration of glucose solution normal liver cells + metformin solution respectively in the 12 h, 24 h,48 h on cell count plate to calculate the number of liver cells, and using lactic acid determination kit the optimal concentration of glucose solution + normal liver cells and normal liver cells + the optimal concentration of glucose solution + metformin solution respectively in the 12 h, 24 h, 48 h of cell cultures of lactic acid value. There was no significant change in the lactic acid concentration but significant increase in the number of surviving hepatocytes in the highglycemic control group compared with that in the high-glycemic control group without metformin. Metformin has no significant effect on lactic acid metabolism of hepatocytes under high glucose stress in vitro, and has a protective effect on hepatocytes under high glucose stress. Based on this,it is preliminarily believed that metformin is not the direct factor leading to diabetic lactic acidosis

Ground state for Choquard equation with doubly critical growth nonlinearity

In this paper we consider nonlinear Choquard equation \begin{equation*} -\Delta u+V(x)u=(I_\alpha*F(u))f(u)\quad {\rm in}\ \mathbb{R}^{N}, \end{equation*} where $V\in C(\mathbb{R}^N)$, $I_\alpha$ denotes the Riesz potential, $f(t)=|t|^{p-2}t+|t|^{q-2}t$ for all $t\in\mathbb{R}$, $N\geqslant5$ and $\alpha\in(0,N-4)$. Under suitable conditions on $V$, we obtain that the Choquard equation with doubly critical growth nonlinearity, i.e., $p=(N+\alpha)/N,q=(N+\alpha)/(N-2)$, has a nonnegative ground state solution by variational methods

CD4+ T Cells Play a Critical Role in Microbiota-Maintained Anti-HBV Immunity in a Mouse Model

The ability of the host to clear hepatitis B virus (HBV) is closely correlated to the establishment of commensal microbiota. However, how microbiota affects anti-HBV immunity is still unclear. Using a well-known hydrodynamical HBV transfection mouse model and treatment with antibiotics (Atb), we explored the change in adaptive immunity (CD4+ cells, germinal center B cells and anti-HBs Ab). In our setting, normal mice exhibited complete clearance of HBV within 6 weeks post-hydrodynamic injection (HDI) of HBV-containing plasmid, whereas Atb-treated mice lost this capacity, showing high serum level of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) without hepatitis B surface antibodies (anti-HBs), similar as what happened in Rag1−/− mice or CD4−/− mice, suggesting that microbiota may influence the function of CD4+ T cells. Furthermore, the numbers of splenic and hepatic effector CD4+ T cells (CD44hiCD62L−CD4+ T cells) both decreased with impaired function (IFN-γ synthesis), resulting in lower frequency of germinal center B cells and CD4+ follicular helper T cells, and impaired anti-HBs production. We further tried to find the bacterial species responsible for maintaining anti-HBV immunity, and found that each antibiotic alone could not significantly influence HBV clearance compared to antibiotic combination, suggesting that global commensal microbial load is critical for promoting HBV clearance. We also confirmed that TLRs (e.g., TLR2, 4, 9) are not major players in immune clearance of HBV using their agonists and knock-out mice. These results suggest that commensal microbiota play an important role in maintaining CD4+ T cell immunity against HBV infection

Differential Regulation of Morphology and Estrogen Receptor-Alpha Expression in the Vagina of Ovariectomized Adult Virgin Rats by Estrogen Replacement: A Histological Study

Background. To determine the exact role of estrogen in vaginal tissue morphology and estrogen receptor-alpha (ERα) distribution in the vagina, which remains controversial. Methods. Sixty rats were randomly categorized: sham-operated (sham), ovariectomy (OVX), and four estradiol treatments (estradiol valerate at 0.4, 0.8, 1.6, and 3.2 mg/kg/day) for 2 weeks. Thereafter, vaginal samples were biopsied from the distal- and proximal-half portions. The percentage of ERα-immunoreactive cells and the ERα score were quantified using immunohistochemistry to assess changes in ERα expression and distribution. Results. OVX induced significant vaginal atrophy and organic index. Estrogen-replacement therapy (ERT) reversed vaginal atrophy. The vaginal distal-half areas showed lower ERα% than the proximal-half areas. The ERα% increased sharply 4 weeks after OVX, especially in the epithelial layer (P=0.023). ERT elicited different degrees of reductions in tissues after the 2-week treatment, but the ERα% in only the epithelium recovered in parallel with that in the sham group (P=0.001). The OVX group showed higher ERα histological scores than the sham group, and the distal-half area changed more evidently than the proximal-half area. ERα expression was nearly unchanged after ERT (P>0.05). Conclusions. ERT is effective for treating obesity and vulvovaginal atrophy caused by hypoestrogenism and advancing age in menopausal women but cannot recover the distribution and expression of ERα