Non-termination of policy of bonus point for the minority groups in China’s college entrance examination based on advocacy coalition framework

Policy termination is the special form of policy change, including whole termination and partial termination. The policy of bonus point to the disadvantaged groups in China’s college entrance examination has aroused much controversies in implementation process, especially whether the policy of bonus point to minorities maintains or cancels. The suggestion on policy of bonus points in the college entrance examination at the end of 2014 has abolished the rewarding policy and on the contrary maintained the preferential policy, manifesting policy of bonus points just realized partial termination. The study makes clear the key factor of influencing basic attitude is policy goals and value preferences rather than interests or institutional attributes, which form the different coalitions due to differences in beliefs, thus making the policy maintain. Support coalition and opposition coalition are the two basic coalitions. The advocacy coalition framework has strong fit in a few problems that how to explain why the policy of bonus point to minorities keeps stable, whether to terminate in the future and how to terminate it etc.. We hope to contribute to a better understanding of preferential policy in general and of the stability and change and variation, thus prompting the whole termination of bonus-point system, improving the reform of China’s college entrance examination and realization of education fairness and equality. Keywords: Advocacy coalition framework, Policy of bonus point to minorities, Policy change, Non-terminatio

Junior high school students’ perception of physical factors in the classroom based on the Online Q Method

 Students spend a lot of time in the classroom, and the physical environment in the classroom plays an important role in the development of students. It is necessary to scientifically investigate students' views and opinions on the physical factors in the classroom. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this study used the Q method online and allowed 40 junior high school students to rank 32 physical factors in the classrooms according to their own perspectives. The results can provide a reference for the reconstruction and construction of classrooms in middle schools and contribute to the design of learner-oriented humanized classrooms

FedDD: Toward Communication-efficient Federated Learning with Differential Parameter Dropout

Federated Learning (FL) requires frequent exchange of model parameters, which leads to long communication delay, especially when the network environments of clients vary greatly. Moreover, the parameter server needs to wait for the slowest client (i.e., straggler, which may have the largest model size, lowest computing capability or worst network condition) to upload parameters, which may significantly degrade the communication efficiency. Commonly-used client selection methods such as partial client selection would lead to the waste of computing resources and weaken the generalization of the global model. To tackle this problem, along a different line, in this paper, we advocate the approach of model parameter dropout instead of client selection, and accordingly propose a novel framework of Federated learning scheme with Differential parameter Dropout (FedDD). FedDD consists of two key modules: dropout rate allocation and uploaded parameter selection, which will optimize the model parameter uploading ratios tailored to different clients' heterogeneous conditions and also select the proper set of important model parameters for uploading subject to clients' dropout rate constraints. Specifically, the dropout rate allocation is formulated as a convex optimization problem, taking system heterogeneity, data heterogeneity, and model heterogeneity among clients into consideration. The uploaded parameter selection strategy prioritizes on eliciting important parameters for uploading to speedup convergence. Furthermore, we theoretically analyze the convergence of the proposed FedDD scheme. Extensive performance evaluations demonstrate that the proposed FedDD scheme can achieve outstanding performances in both communication efficiency and model convergence, and also possesses a strong generalization capability to data of rare classes

Comprehensive Utilization of the Water Resources in small Watershed

AbstractThe water problem is a vital question which relates to the sustainable development of the national economy. And the water resource is also a kind of comprehensive natural resources which has a variety of use values and can supply with the water needs for many sections, which involves economy, resource, science and technology, ecosystem and environment. Sustainable utilization is a better form for the water resources. This paper gives a brief introduction about the technology of comprehensive utilization of the water resources in small watershed

Synergetic Effect of Plasmonic Gold Nanorods and MgO for Perovskite Solar Cells

We report new structured perovskite solar cells (PSCs) using solution-processed TiO2/Au nanorods/MgO composite electron transport layers (ETLs). The proposed method is facile, convenient, and effective. Briefly, Au nanorods (NRs) were prepared and introduced into mesoporous TiO2 ETLs. Then, thin MgO overlayers were grown on the Au NRs modified ETLs by wet spinning and pyrolysis of the magnesium salt. By simultaneous use of Au NRs and MgO, the power conversion efficiency of the PSC device increases from 14.7% to 17.4%, displaying over 18.3% enhancement, compared with the reference device without modification. Due to longitudinal plasmon resonances (LPRs) of gold nanorods, the embedded Au NRs exhibit the ability to significantly enhance the near-field and far-field (plasmonic scattering), increase the optical path length of incident photons in the device, and as a consequence, notably improve external quantum efficiency (EQE) at wavelengths above 600 nm and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSC solar cells. Meanwhile, the thin MgO overlayer also contributes to enhanced performance by reducing charge recombination in the solar cell. Theoretical calculations were carried out to elucidate the PV performance enhancement mechanisms

Important ecophysiological roles of non-dominant Actinobacteria in plant residue decomposition, especially in less fertile soils

Background Microbial-driven decomposition of plant residues is integral to carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems. Actinobacteria, one of the most widely distributed bacterial phyla in soils, are known for their ability to degrade plant residues in vitro. However, their in situ importance and specific activity across contrasting ecological environments are not known. Here, we conducted three field experiments with buried straw in combination with microcosm experiments with 13C-straw in paddy soils under different soil fertility levels to reveal the ecophysiological roles of Actinobacteria in plant residue decomposition. Results While accounting for only 4.6% of the total bacterial abundance, the Actinobacteria encoded 16% of total abundance of carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes). The taxonomic and functional compositions of the Actinobacteria were, surprisingly, relatively stable during straw decomposition. Slopes of linear regression models between straw chemical composition and Actinobacterial traits were flatter than those for other taxonomic groups at both local and regional scales due to holding genes encoding for full set of CAZymes, nitrogenases, and antibiotic synthetases. Ecological co-occurrence network and 13C-based metagenomic analyses both indicated that their importance for straw degradation increased in less fertile soils, as both links between Actinobacteria and other community members and relative abundances of their functional genes increased with decreasing soil fertility. Conclusions This study provided DNA-based evidence that non-dominant Actinobacteria plays a key ecophysiological role in plant residue decomposition as their members possess high proportions of CAZymes and as a group maintain a relatively stable presence during plant residue decomposition both in terms of taxonomic composition and functional roles. Their importance for decomposition was more pronounced in less fertile soils where their possession functional genes and interspecies interactions stood out more. Our work provides new ecophysiological angles for the understanding of the importance of Actinobacteria in global carbon cycling

Generation of Long Insert Pairs Using a Cre-LoxP Inverse PCR Approach

Large insert mate pair reads have a major impact on the overall success of de novo assembly and the discovery of inherited and acquired structural variants. The positional information of mate pair reads generally improves genome assembly by resolving repeat elements and/or ordering contigs. Currently available methods for building such libraries have one or more of limitations, such as relatively small insert size; unable to distinguish the junction of two ends; and/or low throughput. We developed a new approach, Cre-LoxP Inverse PCR Paired-End (CLIP-PE), which exploits the advantages of (1) Cre-LoxP recombination system to efficiently circularize large DNA fragments, (2) inverse PCR to enrich for the desired products that contain both ends of the large DNA fragments, and (3) the use of restriction enzymes to introduce a recognizable junction site between ligated fragment ends and to improve the self-ligation efficiency. We have successfully created CLIP-PE libraries up to 22 kb that are rich in informative read pairs and low in small fragment background. These libraries have demonstrated the ability to improve genome assemblies. The CLIP-PE methodology can be implemented with existing and future next-generation sequencing platforms