Drying My Eyes and Smile

Yuanya Zhang was born in a rural village in Mainland China. As a girl, non-local, and first-gen college student, she has been through lots of moments of "crying" throughout her education, from schools in a small town to universities in Hong Kong and the UK. In this narrative, Yuanya deliberately selects moments in her life that have led to her growth and helped her to develop perseverance and resilience as she managed to overcome challenges by drying her eyes and smiling

Researching Chinese Students in the UK - the Use of Ethnography in Social Media Studies

The growing prevalence of digital media has led to an increasing number of studies investigating its role in people’s lives. Traditionally, ethnographers go to the fieldsite physically to understand people and their culture. Now, with a large amount of social interaction taking place online, ethnographers have also began attempting to use digital methods to understand people’s online practices, interactions, and cultural production. This paper documents both online and offline ethnographic methods employed in a pilot study that set out to understand the ways that Chinese students portray their lives on social media when studying at UK universities. With a focus on in-depth reflections on methodologies and data collection processes, this paper aims to provide a point of reference for researchers who are interested in doing ethnography in the digital field

Can Teaching Enthusiasm Partially Predict the Reading Attainment of Low-income Students in Secondary Schools in England?

The poverty achievement gap in early reading is a persistent issue in England and around the world, potentially disadvantaging poor students and their further study. This new study employs student-perceived teaching enthusiasm and reading attitudes to help explain the poverty attainment gap. The sample was 5,242 15-year-old participants in PISA 2018 from 175 secondary schools in England. Path analysis is used to investigate the potential effect of teaching enthusiasm on the reading attainment of low-income students. The findings indicate that family socioeconomic status remains an important predictor of students' reading achievement. Students from economically privileged families tend to rate teaching enthusiasm more highly and express a positive reading attitude, which can partially explain the poverty attainment gap in reading. Therefore, teachers might be able to enhance low-income students’ reading outcomes and close the poverty attainment gap a little through enhanced teaching enthusiasm to cultivate students’ positive reading attitudes

Synergistically assembled RGO/Si3N4 whiskers hybrid aerogels to endow epoxy composites with excellent thermal and tribological performance

Abstract Epoxy resin (EP) composites with satisfactory thermal and tribological performance are highly required for engineering moving components. However, the simple addition of fillers leaded to the serious filler agglomeration and limited promotion in tribological properties. In this work, we constructed a new kind of three-dimensional (3D) reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/Si3N4 hybrid aerogel for EP composites, which was prepared by a facile hydrothermal self-assembly method followed by freeze-drying technique. As a result, the dispersibility of Si3N4 whiskers was greatly improved through wrapping of polydopamine—polyethyleneimine copolymer (PDA—PEI) copolymer and physical spacing of 3D skeleton. Furthermore, benefiting from the synergistic effect of RGO and Si3N4@PDA—PEI in the thermal network, the thermal conductivity of RGO/Si3N4 hybrid aerogel (GSiA)—EP increased by 45.4% compared to that of the neat EP. In addition, the friction coefficient and wear rate of GSiA—EP decreased by 83.7% and 35.8%, respectively. This work is significant for opening a tribological performance enhancement strategy though constructing 3D hybrid architecture

Clathrin and AP2 are required for phagocytic receptor-mediated apoptotic cell clearance in Caenorhabditis elegans

Clathrin and the multi-subunit adaptor protein complex AP2 are central players in clathrin-mediated endocytosis by which the cell selectively internalizes surface materials. Here, we report the essential role of clathrin and AP2 in phagocytosis of apoptotic cells. In Caenorhabditis elegans, depletion of the clathrin heavy chain CHC-1 and individual components of AP2 led to a significant accumulation of germ cell corpses, which resulted from defects in both cell corpse engulfment and phagosome maturation required for corpse removal. CHC-1 and AP2 components associate with phagosomes in an inter-dependent manner. Importantly, we found that the phagocytic receptor CED-1 interacts with the α subunit of AP2, while the CED-6/Gulp adaptor forms a complex with both CHC-1 and the AP2 complex, which likely mediates the rearrangement of the actin cytoskeleton required for cell corpse engulfment triggered by the CED-1 signaling pathway. In addition, CHC-1 and AP2 promote the phagosomal association of LST-4/Snx9/18/33 and DYN-1/dynamin by forming a complex with them, thereby facilitating the maturation of phagosomes necessary for corpse degradation. These findings reveal a non-classical role of clathrin and AP2 and establish them as indispensable regulators in phagocytic receptor-mediated apoptotic cell clearance

Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Cascade MKK7-MPK6 Plays Important Roles in Plant Development and Regulates Shoot Branching by Phosphorylating PIN1 in <i>Arabidopsis</i>

<div><p>Emerging evidences exhibit that mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK/MPK) signaling pathways are connected with many aspects of plant development. The complexity of MAPK cascades raises challenges not only to identify the MAPK module <i>in planta</i> but also to define the specific role of an individual module. So far, our knowledge of MAPK signaling has been largely restricted to a small subset of MAPK cascades. Our previous study has characterized an <i>Arabidopsis bushy</i> and <i>dwarf1</i> (<i>bud1</i>) mutant, in which the MAP Kinase Kinase 7 (MKK7) was constitutively activated, resulting in multiple phenotypic alterations. In this study, we found that MPK3 and MPK6 are the substrates for phosphorylation by MKK7 <i>in planta</i>. Genetic analysis showed that MKK7-MPK6 cascade is specifically responsible for the regulation of shoot branching, hypocotyl gravitropism, filament elongation, and lateral root formation, while MKK7-MPK3 cascade is mainly involved in leaf morphology. We further demonstrated that the MKK7-MPK6 cascade controls shoot branching by phosphorylating Ser 337 on PIN1, which affects the basal localization of PIN1 in xylem parenchyma cells and polar auxin transport in the primary stem. Our results not only specify the functions of the MKK7-MPK6 cascade but also reveal a novel mechanism for PIN1 phosphorylation, establishing a molecular link between the MAPK cascade and auxin-regulated plant development.</p></div