Evolution of higly efficient t7 Rna polymerase for Mrna production using aptamer-based fluorescence-activated droplet sorting

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Learning motivation and environmental support: how first-generation college students achieve success?

IntroductionWith the continuous expansion of higher education worldwide, the academic performance of first-generation college students has become an essential topic in the scope of international educational research. This study examines the impact of learning motivation (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) and environmental support (i.e., instructional, relational, and campus support) on the academic outcomes of first-generation college students based on the Cultural Mismatch Theory and Self-Determination Theory from both individual and environmental perspectives.MethodsA two-stage stratified sampling strategy was adopted to guarantee that the samples were representative of the national populations of college students in mainland China. 87418 data were collected from the China College Student Survey (CCSS) 2020, among which 58,864 were first-generation college students. This study primarily employed descriptive statistical analysis and regression analysis methods.ResultsData analysis revealed that intrinsic learning motivation, relational support, campus support, and academic performance of first-generation college students are significantly lower than those of non-first-generation students. However, this study found no significant differences concerning external learning motivation and teaching support. Regression analysis showed that both learning motivation and environmental support positively predicted learning outcomes, with intrinsic learning motivation having the most substantial influence. Moreover, learning motivation and environmental support interact in jointly promoting the student’s academic success.DiscussionThis study highlighted that the academic development of first-generation college students results from the interplay between individual characteristics and the surrounding environment. Postnatal factors, particularly individual learning motivation, and institutional environment support, play a crucial role in their academic achievements

Convenient displacement monitoring technique using smartphone

In this paper, a displacement monitoring APP called D-Viewer is proposed and developed. By means of common laser device and projection plate, structural displacement can be monitored dynamically, using the APP. Firstly, the laser spot centroid recognition method was studied. Second, the displacement monitoring APP was developed. Finally, in order to verify the feasibility of the method, a series of static and dynamic experiments using smartphone were conducted. Results show that this method can be used as a convenient, fast, low-cost structural displacement monitoring method

A Verifiable E-voting Scheme with Secret Sharing

Abstract Traditional e-voting schemes use centralized and nontransparent count centers, which leads to people's distrust of the centers and doubt of the voting on impartiality and correctness. In this paper, we propose a distributed and verifiable e-voting scheme based on Mignotte's threshold secret sharing scheme, which effectively balances the conflict of interest between voters and count centers. Additionally, this scheme can also resist potential attacks from malicious participants, and satisfy special requirements of e-voting, especially for privacy and accountability, which contradict each other. Moreover, voters take on the major computation load in our scheme, which effectively reduces the computation burden of the vote counter

People opinion topic model: opinion based user clustering in social networks

Mining various hot discussed topics and corresponding opinions from different groups of people in social media (e.g., Twitter) is very useful. For example, a decision maker in a company wants to know how different groups of people (customers, staff, competitors, etc.) think about their services, facilities, and things happened around. In this paper, we are focusing on the problem of finding opinion variations based on different groups of people and introducing the concept of opinion based community detection. Further, we also introduce a generative graphic model, namely People Opinion Topic (POT) model, which detects social communities, associated hot discussed topics, and perform sentiment analysis simultaneously by modelling user's social connections, common interests, and opinions in a unified way. This paper is the first attempt to study community and opinion mining together. Compared with traditional social communities detection, the detected communities by POT model are more interpretable and meaningful. In addition, we further analyse how diverse opinions distributed and propagated among various social communities. Experiments on real twitter dataset indicate our model is effective

Case report: Excessive daytime sleepiness as a presenting manifestation of autoimmune glial fibrillary acidic protein astrocytopathy

Autoimmune glial fibrillary acidic protein astrocytopathy (GFAP-A) is a recently discovered autoimmune inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. It presents with a variety of clinical symptoms, including fever, seizures, psychiatric symptoms, limber weakness, and sensory symptoms. However, the symptoms of sleep disorders have not been sufficiently addressed. Here, we report a case of GFAP-A in which the patient complained of excessive daytime sleepiness and an excessive need for sleep. Our patient was a 58-year-old male who experienced excessive daytime sleepiness for 50 days following SARS-CoV-2 infection. He was diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 on June 1st. On the 7th of June, he experienced excessive daytime sleepiness, nausea, reduced food intake, lower limb weakness, and dysuria. Subsequently, his sleepiness significantly deteriorated on July 21st. Five months prior, the patient underwent laparoscopic partial right nephrectomy for clear-cell renal cell carcinoma. Brain MRI revealed abnormal hyperintense lesions in the pontine brain and around the mesencephalic aqueduct on T2 and T2-fluid attenuated inversion recovery (T2-FLAIR) sequences However, these lesions did not exhibit any pathological enhancement. Spinal cord MRI revealed lesions in the C6–C7 and T2–T3 segments on the T2 sequence. His Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) score was 16 (reference range, <10), and 24-hour polysomnography supported the diagnosis of rapid-eye-movement sleep disorder and severe sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome. Glial fibrillary acidic protein IgG antibodies were detected in the cerebrospinal fluid (1:32, cell-based assay) but not in the serum. The level of hypocretin in the cerebrospinal fluid was 29.92 pg/mL (reference range ≥110 pg/mL), suggesting narcolepsy type 1. After treatment with corticosteroids for approximately 1 month, the patient showed considerable clinical and radiological improvement, as well as an increase in hypocretin levels. Although repeated polysomnography and multiple sleep latency tests suggested narcolepsy, his ESS score decreased to 8. Our findings broaden the range of clinical manifestations associated with GFAP-A, thereby enhancing diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for this disease. Additionally, our results indicate a potential common autoimmune mechanism involving GFAP-A and orexin system dysregulation, warranting further investigation

Current situation and factors influencing elderly care in community day care centers: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundThe latest census data show that people over 60 years of age account for about 18.7% of the total population in China, and the aging of the population has become an irreversible trend in the 21st century. This study aimed to investigate the current status and factors influencing the care of the elderly in community day care centers in order to lay the foundation for the development of better services in community day care centers.MethodsThis study was a cross-sectional survey using convenience sampling in Nanjing, China. The survey instrument was the Day care and Elderly Care Service Needs Questionnaire, which included the Ability of Daily Living Assessment (ADL), the Xiao Shuiyuan Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) and the Day care Elderly Care Service Needs Survey Form, and a general information survey.ResultsA total of 450 elderly people in day care centers were surveyed. The elderly had different levels of demand for day care services, especially regarding daily care. Correlation analyses indicated that age (r = 0.619), education level (r = 0.616), source of income (r = 0.582), caregiver (r = 0.557), satisfaction with care service (r = 0.603), and degree of ADL (r = 0.629) were correlated with the need for elderly day care services (all p < 0.05). The factors influencing the demand for day care services encompassed age, education level, income source, caregiver, satisfaction with service, and ADL (all p < 0.05).ConclusionElderly care services in community day care centers are mainly based on daily and spiritual comfort, and the needs of the elderly are influenced by many factors. Timely nursing care policies and measures that target these factors are needed to improve elderly care

Creating two-dimensional solid helium via diamond lattice confinement

The universe abounds with solid helium in polymorphic forms. Therefore, exploring the allotropes of helium remains vital to our understanding of nature. However, it is challenging to produce, observe and utilize solid helium on the earth because high-pressure techniques are required to solidify helium. Here we report the discovery of room-temperature two-dimensional solid helium through the diamond lattice confinement effect. Controllable ion implantation enables the self-assembly of monolayer helium atoms between {100} diamond lattice planes. Using state-of-the-art integrated differential phase contrast microscopy, we decipher the buckled tetragonal arrangement of solid helium monolayers with an anisotropic nature compressed by the robust diamond lattice. These distinctive helium monolayers, in turn, produce substantial compressive strains to the surrounded diamond lattice, resulting in a large-scale bandgap narrowing up to ~2.2 electron volts. This approach opens up new avenues for steerable manipulation of solid helium for achieving intrinsic strain doping with profound applications