Gender and Learners' Beliefs in Corrective Feedback in Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language: A Network Questionnaire Survey Report

This network questionnaire survey aims to confirm whether gender differences exist in learners’ beliefs in corrective feedback (CF) in learning Chinese as a foreign language (LCFL). Ninety-seven (53 male and 44 female) university learners of Chinese from 33 countries participated in the survey. The statistical results indicated that there were little significant differences in male and female learners’ beliefs in CF in LCFL except in two psychological effects in which male learners seemed more emotional or grateful to teachers’ correction; that culture did not influence male and female learners’ beliefs in CF; that self-correction and teachers’ correction are more welcomed than peers’; that immediate correction in specific contexts was preferred; that teachers were supposed to tell the learners where the mistake was before correcting it; that it was not confirmed whether direct or indirect correction was better; that learners’ preference of frequency of CF was between sometimes or often; and that negative effects of CF were not found. These findings may contribute to the Chinese teachers’ understanding of learners as individuals and to correction methods teachers adopt while confronting learners’ errors in teaching Chinese as a foreign language (TCFL) classes

An On-line Questionnaire Survey on Students’ Views and Teachers’ Practices in Corrective Feedback in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages

By conducting an on-line questionnaire survey, the article compared 97 international students’ views with 23 Chinese teachers’ practices on 8 issues in corrective feedback (CF) in teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages (TCSOL). Results revealed that students’ views and teachers’ practices conformed to each other in cognition of committing verbal errors, and in whether to correct; that they were mostly incongruent with each other in what to correct; that they were congruent with each other in peer correction, but not in teachers’ correction or self-correction; that they coincided with each other in indirect correction, but not in direct one, nor in immediate correction or the maximum correction frequency in one class; and that CF mainly generated positive psychological effects and better learning on students, but its pedagogical efficacy was not evidently approved by the teachers. This research aimed at gaining a deeper insight into the effectiveness of CF in TCSOL to improve the quality of TCSOL

Rosmarinic Acid Prevents Cisplatin-Induced Liver and Kidney Injury by Inhibiting Inflammatory Responses and Enhancing Total Antioxidant Capacity, Thereby Activating the Nrf2 Signaling Pathway

Drug-induced liver and kidney damage is an emergent clinical issue that should be addressed. Rosmarinic acid (RA) has obvious anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, so we evaluated the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of RA pretreatment on serum and liver and kidney tissues of cisplatin (CP)-treated mice and explored the possible mechanisms. The results showed that RA pretreatment effectively downregulated the serum, liver, and kidney levels of ALT, AST, BUN, and CRE and the inflammatory factors IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α, and simultaneously enhanced the total antioxidant capacity of the liver and kidney. RA pretreatment significantly reduced the levels of MPO, MDA, and NO in liver and kidney tissue, inhibited the mRNA expression of IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α in liver and kidney tissue, activated the Nrf2 signaling pathway, and upregulated the mRNA expression of downstream target genes. Our findings show that RA could effectively prevent and alleviate acute liver and kidney injury caused by CP

Preparation, evaluation, and pharmacokinetics in beagle dogs of a taste-masked flunixin meglumine orally disintegrating tablet prepared using hot-melt extrusion technology and D-optimal mixture design

Flunixin meglumine (FM) is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug limited by irritation of the respiratory tract and mucosa in veterinary tissue. This study aimed to develop a taste-masked FM solid dispersion (SD) by hot-melt extrusion (HME) and formulate an orally disintegrating tablet (ODT) with selected excipients by direct compression. Eudragit® E PO was chosen as the matrix, and HME parameters were optimized: extrusion temperature, 135℃; screw speed, 100 rpm; and drug loading, 20%. Characterization techniques proved that FM was rendered amorphous in the HME extrudate. In vitro dissolution studies showed that FM SD released significantly slower than the corresponding physical mixture in artificial saliva. Excipients were selected based on compression formability, disintegration, and solubility. A D-optimal mixture design was used to optimize the composition: 25% FM SD, 18.75% microcrystalline cellulose, 52.5% mannitol, 3.75% low-substituted hydroxypropyl cellulose, and 1% magnesium stearate. Taste-masked FM ODT had a tensile strength of 0.7 ± 0.01 MPa and a disintegration time of 17.6 ± 0.1 s. E-tongue and E-nose analysis showed that FM ODT had a better taste-masked effect than commercial granules. Finally, a pharmacokinetic study proved that the main pharmacokinetic parameters of FM ODT were not significantly different from those of commercial granules, which indicated that these formulations had similar pharmacokinetic behaviours in beagles

V2V-Assisted V2I MmWave Communication for Cooperative Perception with Information Value-Based Relay

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) vehicular communication is a key technology that enables autonomous vehicles to collaborate in environment perception, thereby improving traffic efficiency and safety to a new level. Many recent works have focused on relay-based solutions to overcome the inherent defects of mmWave, such as the severe path loss and its sensitivity to blockages. However, the selfishness of the vehicles is often ignored. Considering the application-oriented nature of vehicular communication, we propose an information value-based relay strategy for mmWave vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) transmission in this paper. Specifically, the vehicles are allowed to make relay decisions based on the evaluation of the value of messages from their own perspectives. To this end, a simple relay probability model based on the required awareness range is introduced. Through the use of stochastic geometry to model the vehicular network, the outage performance is analyzed and the results are validated by simulations. Impacts of both network and application related parameters on the outage performance are investigated. These preliminary results laid the foundation for the further expansion of the information value-based relay strategies to a wider range of network settings

Teachers\u27 profiles of ICT-related dispositions and relations to secondary school students’ information literacy: a latent profile analysis

Teachers play a significant role in integrating information and communication technology (ICT) in schools as well as in fostering information literacy among students. However, there is a lack of research that focuses on the differential influence of teachers\u27 profiles concerning ICT-related dispositions on students\u27 information literacy. To fill this gap, the present study examined whether teacher profiles differ in terms of their ICT-related dispositions. If so, the relationship between the identified teachers\u27 profiles and their students\u27 information literacy was investigated. Three distinct teacher profiles were identified based on their ICT-related dispositions: negative users, moderate users, and positive users. In addition, teachers\u27 ICT-related dispositions were found to significantly affect students\u27 information literacy. Specifically, students from schools with a higher percentage of positive teachers demonstrated higher levels of information literacy than other students. This finding confirms the importance of teachers\u27 ICT-related dispositions for improving students\u27 information literacy. Based on these findings, this paper discusses several implications and strategies for enhancing teachers\u27 ICT-related dispositions, as well as students\u27 information literacy

Opposing Effects of ApoE2 and ApoE4 on Glycolytic Metabolism in Neuronal Aging Supports a Warburg Neuroprotective Cascade against Alzheimer’s Disease

Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) is the most recognized genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD), whereas ApoE2 reduces the risk for LOAD. The underlying mechanisms are unclear but may include effects on brain energy metabolism. Here, we used neuro-2a (N2a) cells that stably express human ApoE isoforms (N2a-hApoE), differentiated N2a-hApoE neuronal cells, and humanized ApoE knock-in mouse models to investigate relationships among ApoE isoforms, glycolytic metabolism, and neuronal health and aging. ApoE2-expressing cells retained robust hexokinase (HK) expression and glycolytic activity, whereas these endpoints progressively declined with aging in ApoE4-expressing cells. These divergent ApoE2 and ApoE4 effects on glycolysis directly correlated with markers of cellular wellness. Moreover, ApoE4-expressing cells upregulated phosphofructokinase and pyruvate kinase with the apparent intent of compensating for the HK-dependent glycolysis reduction. The introduction of ApoE2 increased HK levels and glycolysis flux in ApoE4 cells. PI3K/Akt signaling was distinctively regulated by ApoE isoforms but was only partially responsible for the ApoE-mediated effects on HK. Collectively, our findings indicate that human ApoE isoforms differentially modulate neuronal glycolysis through HK regulation, with ApoE2 upregulating and ApoE4 downregulating, which markedly impacts neuronal health during aging. These findings lend compelling support to the emerging inverse-Warburg theory of AD and highlight a therapeutic opportunity for bolstering brain glycolytic resilience to prevent and treat AD

Impact of Channel Aging on Massive MIMO Vehicular Networks in Non-isotropic Scattering Scenarios

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relies on accurate channel estimation for precoding and receiving to achieve its claimed performance advantages. When serving vehicular users, the rapid channel aging effect greatly hinders its advantages, and a careful system design is required to ensure an efficient use of wireless resources. In this paper, we investigate this problem for the first time in a non-isotropic scattering scenario. The von Mises distribution is adopted for the angle of arrival (AoA), resulting in a tunable channel temporal correlation coefficient (TCC) model, which can adapt to different AoA spread conditions through the k parameter and incorporates the isotropic Jakes-Clarke model as a special case. The simulated results in a Manhattan grid-type multi-cell network clearly demonstrate the impact of channel aging on the uplink spectral efficiency (SE) performance and moreover, in order to maximize the area average SE, the size of the transmission block should be optimally selected according to some linear equations of k

Validation of Reference Genes for RT-qPCR Studies of Gene Expression in Preharvest and Postharvest Longan Fruits under Different Experimental Conditions

Reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), a sensitive technique for quantifying gene expression, relies on stable reference gene(s) for data normalization. Although a few studies have been conducted on reference gene validation in fruit trees, none have been done on preharvest and postharvest longan fruits. In this study, 12 candidate reference genes, namely, CYP, RPL, GAPDH, TUA, TUB, Fe-SOD, Mn-SOD, Cu/Zn-SOD, 18SrRNA, Actin, Histone H3 and EF-1a, were selected. Expression stability of these genes in 150 longan samples was evaluated and analyzed using geNorm and NormFinder algorithms. Preharvest samples consisted of seven experimental sets, including different developmental stages, organs, hormone stimuli (NAA, 2,4-D and ethephon) and abiotic stresses (bagging and girdling with defoliation). Postharvest samples consisted of different temperature treatments (4 and 22 °C) and varieties. Our findings indicate that appropriate reference gene(s) should be picked for each experimental condition. Our data further showed that the commonly used reference gene Actin does not exhibit stable expression across experimental conditions in longan. Expression levels of the DlACO gene, which is a key gene involved in regulating fruit abscission under girdling with defoliation treatment, was evaluated to validate our findings. In conclusion, our data provide a useful framework for choice of suitable reference genes across different experimental conditions for RT-qPCR analysis of preharvest and postharvest longan fruits