Meaning of 'Science' and 'Religion' Related to Indigenous Knowledge of Human Origin and Life Course Among Indonesian and Chinese Students

By means of the open-ended questions inquiry this study try explore how the meaning of 'science' and 'religion' constructed culturally by Indonesian (n=204) and Chinese (n=125) university student in term of to deepen cross-cultural understanding. All of respondents are students in major of psychology and behavioral science. This study also demonstrate how this indigenous knowledge contributes implicitly to their preconception on human following three categories: (a) Origin of human; (b) Events in humans life span (i.e. Birth, mental activity, and death); and (c) The meaning of human existence. In this research science learning viewed as cultural 'crossing-border' (Aikenhead&Jegede, 1999). This research proves that students indigenous knowledge on religion and science has an influence on science learning, since they are systems of meaning that offer different answers to the same problem. Both group of respondents mostly see religion as a belief; but Indonesian students tend to interpret science as 'information and knowledge,' while the Chinese students tend to interpret it as 'the truth'. Related to the explanation of human originsand lifecourse, Indonesian students tendto involve theological explanation than Chinese students that rely more on science or other sources as the answer Beside this, Indonesian students are more prone to 'compartemerztized answer' (or 'parallel collatera llearning' according to Aikenhead & Jegede) rather than Chinese students in the topic of human origi

Early Autism Diagnosis based on Path Signature and Siamese Unsupervised Feature Compressor

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been emerging as a growing public health threat. Early diagnosis of ASD is crucial for timely, effective intervention and treatment. However, conventional diagnosis methods based on communications and behavioral patterns are unreliable for children younger than 2 years of age. Given evidences of neurodevelopmental abnormalities in ASD infants, we resort to a novel deep learning-based method to extract key features from the inherently scarce, class-imbalanced, and heterogeneous structural MR images for early autism diagnosis. Specifically, we propose a Siamese verification framework to extend the scarce data, and an unsupervised compressor to alleviate data imbalance by extracting key features. We also proposed weight constraints to cope with sample heterogeneity by giving different samples different voting weights during validation, and we used Path Signature to unravel meaningful developmental features from the two-time point data longitudinally. Extensive experiments have shown that our method performed well under practical scenarios, transcending existing machine learning methods

Dose-related immunomodulatory effects of recombinant TRAIL in the tumor immune microenvironment

Abstract Background In addition to specifically inducing tumor cell apoptosis, recombinant tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) has also been reported to influence the cancer immune microenvironment; however, its underlying effects and mechanisms remain unclear. Investigating the immunomodulatory effects and mechanisms of recombinant TRAIL in the tumor microenvironment (TME) may provide an important perspective and facilitate the exploration of novel TRAIL strategies for tumor therapy. Methods Immunocompetent mice with different tumors were treated with three doses of recombinant TRAIL, and then the tumors were collected for immunological detection and mechanistic investigation. Methodological approaches include flow cytometry analysis and single-cell sequencing. Results In an immunocompetent mouse model, recombinant soluble mouse TRAIL (smTRAIL) had dose-related immunomodulatory effects. The optimal dose of smTRAIL (2 mg/kg) activated innate immune cells and CD8+ T cells, whereas higher doses of smTRAIL (8 mg/kg) promoted the formation of a tumor-promoting immune microenvironment to counteract the apoptotic effects on tumor cells. The higher doses of smTRAIL treatment promoted M2-like macrophage recruitment and polarization and increased the production of protumor inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-10, which deepened the suppression of natural killer (NK) cells and CD8+ T cells in the tumor microenvironment. By constructing an HU-HSC-NPG.GM3 humanized immune system mouse model, we further verified the immunomodulatory effects induced by recombinant soluble human TRAIL (shTRAIL) and found that combinational administration of shTRAIL and trabectedin, a macrophage-targeting drug, could remodel the tumor immune microenvironment, further enhance antitumor immunity, and strikingly improve antitumor effects. Conclusion Our results highlight the immunomodulatory role of recombinant TRAIL and suggest promising therapeutic strategies for clinical application. Graphical Abstrac

Genetic sources and loci for Fusarium head blight resistance in bread wheat

Fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat is an important disease worldwide, affecting the yield, end-use quality and threatening food safety. Genetic resources or stable loci for FHB resistance are still limited in breeding programs. A panel of 265 bread wheat accessions from China, CIMMYT-Mexico and other countries was screened for FHB resistance under 5 field experiments in Mexico and China, and a genome-wide association analysis was performed to identify QTLs associated with FHB resistance. The major locus Fhb1 was significantly associated with FHB severity and Deoxynivalenol content in grains. FHB screening experiments in multiple environments showed that Fhb1-harbouring accessions Sumai3, Sumai5, Ningmai9, Yangmai18 and Tokai66 had low FHB index, disease severity and DON content in grains in response to different Fusarium species and ecological conditions in Mexico and China. Accessions Klein Don Enrique, Chuko and Yumai34 did not have Fhb1 but still showed good FHB resistance and low mycotoxin accumulation. Sixteen loci associated with FHB resistance or DON content in grains were identified on chromosomes 1A, 1B, 2B, 3A, 3D, 4B, 4D, 5A, 5B, 7A, and 7B in multiple environments, explaining phenotypic variation of 4.43–10.49%. The sources with good FHB resistance reported here could be used in breeding programs for resistance improvement in Mexico and China, and the significant loci could be further studied and introgressed for resistance improvement against FHB and mycotoxin accumulation in grains

Effects of Ultrasound Treatment at Different Powers on the Structure and Emulsifying Properties of PSE-Like Chicken Myofibrillar Protein

The effects of ultrasound treatment at different powers (20 kHz for 6 min; 0, 150, 300, 450 and 600 W) on the structure, physicochemical properties and emulsifying properties of pale, soft and exudative-like (PSE-like) chicken meat myofibrillar protein (MP) were investigated. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed no significant changes in the composition of MP after ultrasound treatments; however, the band intensities of myosin heavy chain and actin were significantly increased at ultrasonic power of 450 and 600 W (P < 0.05). The α-helix content, surface hydrophobicity and solubility of MP increased and the β-fold content decreased as the ultrasonic power increased to 450 W. The α-helix content, surface hydrophobicity and solubility of MP decreased at 600 W ultrasonic power, but they were still significantly higher than those of the control group (P < 0.05). With an increase in ultrasound power, the fluorescence intensity of MP increased, and the particle size and zeta potential of MP and MP emulsion decreased significantly (P < 0.05). At ultrasonic power of 600 W, the highest emulsification activity index (EAI) and emulsion stability index (ESI) of MP, and the lowest oil/water interfacial tension and Turbiscan stability index of MP emulsion were obtained, indicating the highest emulsion stability. The cold field emission scanning electron micrograph confirmed that the oil droplets of the emulsion were smaller and more uniform. In summary, ultrasonic treatment can change the structure and physicochemical properties of PSE-like chicken MP, in turn improving the emulsion stability

Energy-aware Scheduling of Surveillance in Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks involve a large number of sensor nodes with limited energy supply, which impacts the behavior of their application. In wireless multimedia sensor networks, sensor nodes are equipped with audio and visual information collection modules. Multimedia contents are ubiquitously retrieved in surveillance applications. To solve the energy problems during target surveillance with wireless multimedia sensor networks, an energy-aware sensor scheduling method is proposed in this paper. Sensor nodes which acquire acoustic signals are deployed randomly in the sensing fields. Target localization is based on the signal energy feature provided by multiple sensor nodes, employing particle swarm optimization (PSO). During the target surveillance procedure, sensor nodes are adaptively grouped in a totally distributed manner. Specially, the target motion information is extracted by a forecasting algorithm, which is based on the hidden Markov model (HMM). The forecasting results are utilized to awaken sensor node in the vicinity of future target position. According to the two properties, signal energy feature and residual energy, the sensor nodes decide whether to participate in target detection separately with a fuzzy control approach. Meanwhile, the local routing scheme of data transmission towards the observer is discussed. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of energy-aware scheduling of surveillance in wireless multimedia sensor network, where significant energy saving is achieved by the sensor awakening approach and data transmission paths are calculated with low computational complexity

Genetic sources and loci for wheat head blast resistance identified by genome-wide association analysis

The emergence and spread of wheat blast caused by fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum is a threat to global wheat production. The resistance level and genetic loci for blast resistance in Chinese germplasm remain unknown. A panel of 266 bread wheat accessions from China, CIMMYT-Mexico and other countries was screened for head blast resistance under 12 field experiments in Bolivia and Bangladesh. Subsequently, a genome-wide association study was performed to understand the genetic basis of wheat blast resistance. The average blast index of all the accessions was 53.7% ± 12.7%, and 10 accessions including Chinese accessions Yumai 10 and Yu 02321 showed moderate to high levels of blast resistance, accounting for only 3.8% in the panel. Fifty-eight significant SNPs clustered in a 28.9 Mb interval on the 2AS/2NS translocation region, explaining phenotypic variation between 10.0% and 35.0%. The frequency of the 2AS/2NS translocation in the Chinese accessions was as low as 4.5%. These results indicated that the 2NS fragment was the only major locus conferring resistance to wheat blast in this panel, and the resistant and moderately resistant lines identified could be deployed in breeding