The Effectiveness of English Writing Teaching in Junior Middle School Based on Production-Oriented Approach

Production-oriented Approach (POA) proposed by Chinese scholar Wen Qiufang has been widely used in English teaching in recent years, but there are few studies on its application in junior middle school English teaching. This study analyzed the impact of the application of Production-oriented Approach on junior middle school students’ English learning attitude and English writing performance. In the experimental design, both quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted. Writing tests, questionnaire, interview were used as instruments. A total of 116 Chinese students from Year 8 of Yangzhou Shiyan Junior Middle School, Jiangsu Province in China were invited to participate in an 8-week pre- and post-test experiment. By comparing the writing scores before and after the test, it is found that the English writing scores of the students in the experimental class are higher than those of the students in the control class. Through the analysis of the results of questionnaires and interview, it is found that the students’ attitude towards English writing teaching in the experimental class has improved significantly. The implications and suggestions for dissemination and implementation of POA for junior middle school students are discussed

Culture Condition Effect on Bioflocculant Production and Actual Wastewater Treatment Application by Different Types of Bioflocculants

The effect of culture condition on different types of bioflocculant production and its application on actual wastewater treatment were studied in this chapter. The advantages of mixed strain HXJ-1 were as follows: directly using acidic wine wastewater, adapting to wastewater at high concentrations and the presence of less nitrogen. HXJ-1 achieved good flocculating rate when the chemical oxygen demand (COD) was 12,000 mg/L, C/N 20:1. Three kinds of bioflocculants had some good treatment results on starch wastewater, printing and dyeing wastewater and landfill leachate. The treatment effect of XJBF-1 (produced by mixed strain HXJ-1) on the starch wastewater was better than that of traditional polyacrylamide and other bioflocculants produced by a single bacterial (X15BF-1) and yeast strain (J1BF-1). XJBF-1 had better treatment results on three types of wastewater. It also had good removal rate of chromaticity, especially on the starch wastewater , the printing and dyeing wastewater; the removal rate was up to 88%, and the starch wastewater COD removal rate was up to 86%

Rare Copy Number Variations in a Chinese Cohort of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is heterogeneous in symptom and etiology. Rare copy number variations (CNVs) are important genetic factors contributing to ASD. Currently chromosomal microarray (CMA) detecting CNVs is recommended as a first-tier diagnostic assay, largely based on research in North America and Europe. The feature of rare CNVs has not been well characterized in ASD cohorts from non-European ancestry. In this study, high resolution CMA was utilized to investigate rare CNVs in a Chinese cohort of ASD (n = 401, including 177 mildly/moderately and 224 severely affected individuals), together with an ancestry-matched control cohort (n = 197). Diagnostic yield was about 4.2%, with 17 clinically significant CNVs identified in ASD individuals, of which 12 CNVs overlapped with recurrent autism risk loci or genes. Autosomal rare CNV burden analysis showed an overrepresentation of rare loss events in ASD cohort, whereas the rate of rare gain events correlated with the phenotypic severity. Further analysis showed rare losses disrupting genes highly intolerant of loss-of-function variants were enriched in the ASD cohort. Among these highly constrained genes disrupted by rare losses, RIMS2 is a promising candidate contributing to ASD risk. This pilot study evaluated clinical utility of CMA and the feature of rare CNVs in Chinese ASD, with candidate genes identified as potential risk factors

Rapid determination of 103 common veterinary drug residues in milk and dairy products by ultra performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

A multi-residue method has been developed for the identification and quantification of 103 common veterinary drug residues in milk and dairy Products. This method was based on QuEChERS with dispersive solid-phase where C18 sorbent and anhydrous sodium sulfate were used to sample purification. After evaporation and reconstitution, the samples were analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The mean recovery results were all higher than 60% except ampicillin, pipemidic acid, enoxacin, and estriol, and the relative standard deviation was <20.0%. The limit of quantification ranged between 0.1 and 5 μg/kg for milk and between 0.5 and 25 μg/kg for milk powder. It was successfully used to detect residues of veterinary drug in real samples. This study proposes a simple and fast analytical method for monitoring multi-class veterinary drug residues to ensure food safety

SIRT1 Activation by Resveratrol Alleviates Cardiac Dysfunction via Mitochondrial Regulation in Diabetic Cardiomyopathy Mice

Background. Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a major threat for diabetic patients. Silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1) has a regulatory effect on mitochondrial dynamics, which is associated with DCM pathological changes. Our study aims to investigate whether resveratrol, a SRIT1 activator, could exert a protective effect against DCM. Methods and Results. Cardiac-specific SIRT1 knockout (SIRT1KO) mice were generated using Cre-loxP system. SIRT1KO mice displayed symptoms of DCM, including cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction, insulin resistance, and abnormal glucose metabolism. DCM and SIRT1KO hearts showed impaired mitochondrial biogenesis and function, while SIRT1 activation by resveratrol reversed this in DCM mice. High glucose caused increased apoptosis, impaired mitochondrial biogenesis, and function in cardiomyocytes, which was alleviated by resveratrol. SIRT1 deletion by both SIRT1KO and shRNA abolished the beneficial effects of resveratrol. Furthermore, the function of SIRT1 is mediated via the deacetylation effect on peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1α), thus inducing increased expression of nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF-1), NRF-2, estrogen-related receptor-α (ERR-α), and mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM). Conclusions. Cardiac deletion of SIRT1 caused phenotypes resembling DCM. Activation of SIRT1 by resveratrol ameliorated cardiac injuries in DCM through PGC-1α-mediated mitochondrial regulation. Collectively, SIRT1 may serve as a potential therapeutic target for DCM

RANKL/RANK promotes the migration of gastric cancer cells by interacting with EGFR

BACKGROUND: The incidence and mortality rates of gastric cancer (GC) rank in top five among all malignant tumors. Chemokines and their receptor-signaling pathways reportedly play key roles in the metastasis of malignant tumor cells. Receptor activator of nuclear factor κB ligand (RANKL) is a member of the tumor necrosis factor family, with strong chemokine-like effects. Some studies have pointed out that the RANKL/RANK pathway is vital for the metastasis of cancer cells, but the specific mechanisms in GC remain poorly understood. RESULTS: This study reports original findings in cell culture models and in patients with GC. Flow cytometry and western blotting analyses showed that RANK was expressed in BGC-823 and SGC-7901 cells in particular. Chemotaxis experiments and wound healing assay suggested that RANKL spurred the migration of GC cells. This effect was offset by osteoprotegerin (OPG), a decoy receptor for RANKL. RANKL contributed to the activation of human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER) family pathways. The lipid raft core protein, caveolin 1 (Cav-1), interacted with both RANK and human epidermal growth factor receptor-1(EGFR). Knockdown of Cav-1 blocked the activation of EGFR and cell migration induced by RANKL. Moreover, RANK-positive GC patients who displayed higher levels of EGFR expression had poor overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, we confirmed that with the promotion of RANKL, RANK and EGFR can form complexes with the lipid raft core protein Cav-1, which together promote GC cell migration. The formation of the RANK-Cav-1-EGFR complex provides a novel mechanism for the metastasis of GC. These observations warrant confirmation in independent studies, in vitro and in vivo. They also inform future drug target discovery research and innovation in the treatment of GC progression

Microwave-assisted aqueous two-phase extraction of alkaloids from Radix Sophorae Tonkinensis with ethanol/Na2HPO4 system: process optimization, composition identification and quantification analysis

A rapid method for simultaneous extraction and separation of multiple alkaloids from Radix Sophorae Tonkinensis (RST) was developed by microwave-assisted aqueous two-phase extraction (MAATPE) using the aqueous two-phase extraction system (ATPS) of ethanol/Na2HPO4 as the extraction solvent. The effects of key factors on extraction yield were investigated by utilizing single-factor experiment coupled to response surface methodology (RSM). The regression model by RSM was significant (p < 0.0001) and adequate for prediction of process efficacy, the optimized conditions were successfully validated by the parallel experiments with the yield very close to the predicted value. The optimum conditions were summarized as follows: the phase ratio of 2.60 for the ATPS, the particle size of 100 mesh, the liquid-to-material ratio of 75:1, the extraction temperature of 90 °C and the extraction time of 5 min, respectively. In MAATPE process, alkaloids were extracted preferentially from RST in the top phase with a higher yield and shorter extraction time than those of heating reflux extraction (HRE) and ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE). Nine alkaloids extracted were identified and quantified by high-resolution ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-orbitrap mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-Orbitrap/MS) and HPLC with UV detection. The contents of matrine, sophocarpine, oxymatrin, sophoranol, oxysophocarpine, 5α-hydroxysophocarpine, sophoridine, cytisine and N-methylcytisine in RST were quantified in range of 0.493–10.284 mg/g with recoveries of 90.26–106.3% and RSD’s of 0.8–2.1%, respectively. Moreover, the MAATPE mechanism was explored using the different extraction systems in combination of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) morphological studies. Significant differences in extraction yield and cell rupture exhibited that the addition of the salt in the ethanol-water mixture not only improved the thermal and demixing effects, but also accelerated the mass transfer and biphasic extraction processes. MAATPE integrated the advantages of microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and aqueous two-phase extraction (ATPE) was proved as a green, efficient and promising alternative to extraction of alkaloids from RST

Control and Data Flow Execution of Java Programs

Since decade understanding of programs has become a compulsory task for the students as well as for others who are involved in the process of developing software and providing solutions to open problems. In that aspect showing the problem in a pictorial presentation in a best manner is a key advantage to better understand it. We provide model and structure for Java programs to understand the control and data flow analysis of execution. Especially it helps to understand the static analysis of Java programs, which is an uttermost important phase for software maintenance. We provided information and model for visualization of Java programs that may help better understanding of programs for a learning and analysis purpose. The idea provided for building visualization tool is extracting data and control analysis from execution of Java programs. We presented case studies to prove that our idea is most important for better understanding of Java programs which may help towards static analysis, software debugging and software maintenance

Automatic Recognition of Laryngoscopic Images Using a Deep-Learning Technique

Objectives/Hypothesis: To develop a deep-learning–based computer-aided diagnosis system for distinguishing laryngeal neoplasms (benign, precancerous lesions, and cancer) and improve the clinician-based accuracy of diagnostic assessments of laryngoscopy findings. Study Design: Retrospective study. Methods: A total of 24,667 laryngoscopy images (normal, vocal nodule, polyps, leukoplakia and malignancy) were collected to develop and test a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based classifier. A comparison between the proposed CNN-based classifier and the clinical visual assessments (CVAs) by 12 otolaryngologists was conducted. Results: In the independent testing dataset, an overall accuracy of 96.24% was achieved; for leukoplakia, benign, malignancy, normal, and vocal nodule, the sensitivity and specificity were 92.8% vs. 98.9%, 97% vs. 99.7%, 89% vs. 99.3%, 99.0% vs. 99.4%, and 97.2% vs. 99.1%, respectively. Furthermore, when compared with CVAs on the randomly selected test dataset, the CNN-based classifier outperformed physicians for most laryngeal conditions, with striking improvements in the ability to distinguish nodules (98% vs. 45%, P <.001), polyps (91% vs. 86%, P <.001), leukoplakia (91% vs. 65%, P <.001), and malignancy (90% vs. 54%, P <.001). Conclusions: The CNN-based classifier can provide a valuable reference for the diagnosis of laryngeal neoplasms during laryngoscopy, especially for distinguishing benign, precancerous, and cancer lesions. Level of Evidence: NA Laryngoscope, 130:E686–E693, 2020

Genetic Diagnostic Evaluation of Trio-Based Whole Exome Sequencing Among Children With Diagnosed or Suspected Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of clinically and genetically heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorders. Recent tremendous advances in the whole exome sequencing (WES) enable rapid identification of variants associated with ASD including single nucleotide variations (SNVs) and indels. To further explore genetic etiology of ASD in Chinese children with negative findings of copy number variants (CNVs), we applied WES in 80 simplex families with a single affected offspring with ASD or suspected ASD, and validated variations predicted to be damaging by Sanger sequencing. The results showed that an overall diagnostic yield of 8.8% (9.2% in the group of ASD and 6.7% in the group of suspected ASD) was observed in our cohort. Among patients with diagnosed ASD, developmental delay or intellectual disability (DD/ID) was the most common comorbidity with a diagnostic yield of 13.3%, followed by seizures (50.0%) and craniofacial anomalies (40.0%). All of identified de novo SNVs and indels among patients with ASD were loss of function (LOF) variations and were slightly more frequent among female (male vs. female: 7.3% vs. 8.5%). A total of seven presumed causative genes (CHD8, AFF2, ADNP, POGZ, SHANK3, IL1RAPL1, and PTEN) were identified in this study. In conclusion, WES is an efficient diagnostic tool for diagnosed ASD especially those with negative findings of CNVs and other neurological disorders in clinical practice, enabling early identification of disease related genes and contributing to precision and personalized medicine