Education, Work, Citizenship of Youth in China: Strategies, Achievements, and Challenges

This article examines China's strategies for and constraints on protecting and implementing children's and young people's rights to education, employment and social and political participation. It shows that the 1978 policy of reform and opening to the world brought forth significant domestic economic and social changes and exposed China and its people to the world. All this, in turn, created new demands and concerns for the development of youth education, work and citizenship. The article further shows that in China, these three domains of youth have been influenced by changing domestic and global contexts, and the state has played a vital role in facilitating these changes in three major spheres of youth. China, however, has also been confronted with equity issues arising from new developments in these domains.published_or_final_versio

Social Change and Teaching and Learning Citizenship Education: An Empirical Study of Three Schools in Guangzhou, China

Since the 1980s, China has increased its openness to the world and made tremendous domestic economic and social changes. This study investigates the relationship between social change and pedagogies in citizenship education (CE) and to what extent indoctrination is prevalent in CE in schools in Guangzhou, China. Data were drawn mainly from documents, student questionnaires, observed CE lessons, and interviews with students and CE teachers. Findings revealed the coexistence of various CE pedagogies (e.g., inculcation; values clarification; inquiry-based); perceived open and free classrooms in which students expressed and respected diverse views; rote learning for examination, not political, purposes; and teachers’ tension between reluctantly teaching politically sensitive topics and promoting multiple perspectives to foster critical thinking. These findings may reflect the complex interplay among different actors in the reselection of CE elements and pedagogies, in response to China’s gradual, post-1980s social transition to a less restrictive, more accommodating society.postprin

Modulation of the peripheral blood transcriptome by the ingestion of probiotic yoghurt and acidified milk in healthy, young men

The metabolic health benefits of fermented milks have already been investigated using clinical biomarkers but the development of transcriptomic analytics in blood offers an alternative approach that may help to sensitively characterise such effects. We aimed to assess the effects of probiotic yoghurt intake, compared to non-fermented, acidified milk intake, on clinical biomarkers and gene expression in peripheral blood. To this end, a randomised, crossover study was conducted in fourteen healthy, young men to test the two dairy products. For a subset of seven subjects, RNA sequencing was used to measure gene expression in blood collected during postprandial tests and after two weeks daily intake. We found that the postprandial response in insulin was different for probiotic yoghurt as compared to that of acidified milk. Moreover changes in several clinical biomarkers were associated with changes in the expression of genes representing six metabolic genesets. Assessment of the postprandial effects of each dairy product on gene expression by geneset enrichment analysis revealed significant, similar modulation of inflammatory and glycolytic genes after both probiotic yoghurt and acidified milk intake, although distinct kinetic characteristics of the modulation differentiated the dairy products. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor was a major contributor to the down-regulation of the inflammatory genesets and was also positively associated with changes in circulating insulin at 2h after yoghurt intake (p = 0.05). Daily intake of the dairy products showed little effect on the fasting blood transcriptome. Probiotic yoghurt and acidified milk appear to affect similar gene pathways during the postprandial phase but differences in the timing and the extent of this modulation may lead to different physiological consequences. The functional relevance of these differences in gene expression is supported by their associations with circulating biomarkers

A Unified Model of the GABA(A) Receptor Comprising Agonist and Benzodiazepine Binding Sites

We present a full-length α(1)β(2)γ(2) GABA receptor model optimized for agonists and benzodiazepine (BZD) allosteric modulators. We propose binding hypotheses for the agonists GABA, muscimol and THIP and for the allosteric modulator diazepam (DZP). The receptor model is primarily based on the glutamate-gated chloride channel (GluCl) from C. elegans and includes additional structural information from the prokaryotic ligand-gated ion channel ELIC in a few regions. Available mutational data of the binding sites are well explained by the model and the proposed ligand binding poses. We suggest a GABA binding mode similar to the binding mode of glutamate in the GluCl X-ray structure. Key interactions are predicted with residues α(1)R66, β(2)T202, α(1)T129, β(2)E155, β(2)Y205 and the backbone of β(2)S156. Muscimol is predicted to bind similarly, however, with minor differences rationalized with quantum mechanical energy calculations. Muscimol key interactions are predicted to be α(1)R66, β(2)T202, α(1)T129, β(2)E155, β(2)Y205 and β(2)F200. Furthermore, we argue that a water molecule could mediate further interactions between muscimol and the backbone of β(2)S156 and β(2)Y157. DZP is predicted to bind with interactions comparable to those of the agonists in the orthosteric site. The carbonyl group of DZP is predicted to interact with two threonines α(1)T206 and γ(2)T142, similar to the acidic moiety of GABA. The chlorine atom of DZP is placed near the important α(1)H101 and the N-methyl group near α(1)Y159, α(1)T206, and α(1)Y209. We present a binding mode of DZP in which the pending phenyl moiety of DZP is buried in the binding pocket and thus shielded from solvent exposure. Our full length GABA(A) receptor is made available as Model S1

Teaching and learning citizenship education in two Chinese cities: Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China

Session 320: Teaching the future: Exploring Teachers' Role in Citizenship EducationThis paper compares teaching and learning in citizenship education in two Chinese cities: Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China. Since the late 20th century, the literature of citizenship education has been dominated by discourses on globalization and nationalism, but little research has been done on what actual teaching and learning taken place in citizenship education lessons. This comparative study is a response to the call of such scholars Evans (2006) and Kennedy, Lee and Grossman (2010) for more research on citizenship education pedagogy. The study was also triggered by anti-national education demonstrations in Hong Kong which had been a British colony for over 150 years and returned to China under the framework of “one country two systems” in 1997. In 2012, tens of thousands of Hong Kong people (including many parents and students) protested against the post-1997 Hong Kong Government’s attempt to introduce mandatory national education in primary and secondary schools. They feared that open and free citizenship education classroom in Hong Kong would be turned to be a place for “brainwashing” school children as in other places of China (Parents' Concern Group on National Education, 2013). The study seeks to explore whether citizenship education classroom in Hong Kong is freer and more open than that in Mainland China. Specifically, this study compares the dynamics and complexity of classroom climate and teaching and learning approaches in citizenship education lessons in Hong Kong with that in its neighbour city, Guangzhou which has been ruled by the Chinese communist leadership since 1949, but shares the same local dialect and many local cultures with Hong Kong. Methodologically, the study used student questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews with students and teachers, and lesson observations to collect data in six secondary schools between 2013/14 and 2014/15: three in Hong Kong and three in Guangzhou. The study reveals that despite different social and educational contexts, the sampled schools in Hong Kong and Guangzhou shared four interrelated patterns of similarities and differences in teaching and learning citizenship education at the classroom level. Firstly, despite different extents, teachers of both cities used mixed pedagogies in teaching citizenship education, ranging from direct instruction to approaches which allowed students to freely discuss, compare pros and cons, and draw their conclusion. Guangzhou teachers used more teacher-question-and-student-answer and individual seatwork than their Hong Kong counterparts, whereas the latter used more group discussion than the former. Secondly, citizenship education teachers of both cities showed concerns about what they taught and whether students accepted their teaching in the domains of citizenship knowledge, skills and attitudes and values. Guangzhou teachers put more emphasis on these three domains than Hong Kong counterparts. Thirdly, classroom climate in citizenship education lessons of Hong Kong and Guangzhou was free and open, rather than coercive and intimidating. Teachers of both cities played an important role in facilitating student learning by respecting students’ different views, encouraging them to learn with different perspectives, and using feedback to stimulate their further thinking. In comparison, Hong Kong teachers provided students with more opportunities to provide explanation and reasoning than their Guangzhou counterparts. Fourthly, students of both cities were active learners with their learning strategies and criteria for listening to, and evaluating and accepting views presented in the group or class level. Guangdong students were found to be more accommodative to different views than their Hong Kong counterparts

Impact of the introduction of laparoscopic wedge resection as a surgical option for suspected small/medium-sized gastrointestinal stromal tumors of the stomach on perioperative and oncologic outcomes

10.1007/s00268-010-0590-5World Journal of Surgery3481847-1852WJSU

Immunodesign of experimental sepsis by cecal ligation and puncture

Sepsis remains a prevalent clinical challenge and the underlying pathophysiology is still poorly understood. To investigate the complex molecular mechanisms of sepsis, various animal models have been developed, the most frequently used being the cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model in rodents. In this model, sepsis originates from a polymicrobial infectious focus within the abdominal cavity, followed by bacterial translocation into the blood compartment, which then triggers a systemic inflammatory response. A requirement of this model is that it is performed with high consistency to obtain reproducible results. Evidence is now emerging that the accompanying inflammatory response varies with the severity grade of sepsis, which is highly dependent on the extent of cecal ligation. In this protocol, we define standardized procedures for inducing sepsis in mice and rats by applying defined severity grades of sepsis through modulation of the position of cecal ligation. The CLP procedure can be performed in as little as 10 min for each animal by an experienced user, with additional time required for subsequent postoperative care and data collection