Becoming school literate parents: an ESL perspective

Framed by literacy as social practice and social theory of learning, this paper provides a preliminary exploration of how an ESL parent developed a sense of school literate identity as her three children successively entered formal schooling. This case study is the beginning of a larger investigation in which we shall more fully explore the dynamic of literacy relationships between parents of ESL children and the schools their children attend. We take the opportunity in this paper to explore some emerging issues that, while preliminary, are worthy of teachers and schools consideration and point to the need for further research into the question of ESL parents literate identities at their children\u27s school

Characterizations of m-EP elements in rings

Let R be a ring with involution. In this paper, we extend the notions of m-EP matrices and m-EP operators to an arbitrary ring case. A number of new characterizations of m-EP elements in rings are presented. In particular, the existence criteria for 1-EP (i.e. EP) elements are obtained by means of the group inverse, Moore-Penrose inverse, and core inverse. Some properties of 2-EP are also given.This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11371089), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20141327), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and the Foundation of Graduate Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (No. KYZZ15-0049), the FEDER Funds through “Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade-COMPETE”, the Portuguese Funds through FCT-“Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia”, within the project UID-MAT-00013/2013

Reverse Order Law for the Core Inverse in Rings

In this paper, necessary and sufficient conditions of the onesided reverse order law (ab)((sic)) = b((sic))a((sic)) , the two-sided reverse order law (ab)((sic)) = b((sic))a((sic)) and (ba)((sic)) = a((sic))b((sic)) for the core inverse are given in rings with involution. In addition, the mixed-type reverse order laws, such as (ab)((sic)) = b((sic))(abb((sic)))((sic)) , a((sic)) = b(ab)((sic)) and (ab)((sic)) = b((sic)) a((sic)) , are also considered.- This research was supported by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2018M632385), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11771076), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20141327), the Portuguese Funds through FCT-"Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia", within the project UID/MAT/00013/2013

Chinese EFL Teachers’ Cognition about the Effectiveness of Genre Pedagogy: A Case Study

Developing students’ communicative competence became the primary goal of the current College English Curriculum Requirements in 2004 in China. There has been increasing concern, however, that this goal has yet to be realized, particularly in relation to the teaching of writing. This study investigated the potential of a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL-) informed genre approach to enhance Chinese students’ communicative competence in writing. As teachers’ beliefs have a strong impact on the effectiveness of their teaching practice (Borg, 2003), the study examined six Chinese College English teachers’ shifts in their beliefs and practices after attending a training workshop in the genre-based approach to writing development. Using pre- and post- workshop interviews and classroom observations and drawing on the analytical frameworks of teacher cognition (Borg, 2003), teacher knowledge (Shulman, 1986) and interactional scaffolding (Hammond and Gibbon, 2005), the study found that professional training in SFL genre pedagogy had a positive impact on teachers’ cognition about writing instruction, albeit with one notable constraint; the teachers paid only partial attention to the social purpose of the targeted genre, thus limiting the successful implementation of the pedagogy to a certain extent

Targeted Demand Response: Formulation, LMP Implications, and Fast Algorithms

Demand response (DR) is regarded as a solution to the issue of high electricity prices in the wholesale market, as the flexibility of the demand can be harnessed to lower the demand level for price reductions. As an across-the-board DR in a system is impractical due to the enrollment budget for instance, it is necessary to select a small group of nodes for DR implementing. Current studies resort to intuitive yet naive approaches for DR targeting, as price is implicitly associated with demand, though optimality cannot be ensured. In this paper, we derive such a relationship in the security-constrained economic dispatch via the multi-parametric programming theory, based on which the DR targeting problem is rigorously formulated as a mixed-integer quadratic programming problem aiming at reducing the averaged price to a reference level by efficiently reducing targeted nodes' demand. A solution strategy is proposed to accelerate the computation. Numerical studies demonstrate compared with the benchmarking strategy, the proposed approach can reduce the price to the reference point with less efforts in demand reduction. Besides, we empirically show that the proposed approach is immune to inaccurate system parameters, and can be generalized to variants of DR targeting tasks.Comment: submitted to IEEE Transactions on Power System

Discrimination of Colon Cancer Stem Cells Using Noncanonical Amino Acid

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) may be responsible for tumor recurrence. Metabolic labelling of newly synthesized proteins with non-canonical amino acids allows us to discriminate CSCs in mixed populations due to the quiescent nature of these cells

New sources and linked AFLP markers for Eastern filbert blight resistance in hazelnut

Eastern filbert blight (EFB), caused by Anisogramma anomala (Peck) E. Miiller, is a devastating disease to orchards of the European hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. Host resistance is the most desirable means of disease control. Fifty-eight hazelnut accessions, including European cultivars and interspecific hybrids were evaluated for their response to eastern filbert blight following greenhouse inoculation using an enzyme-linked immimosobent assay (ELISA) and visual inspection. Of the fifty-eight accessions, forty-four showed infections, twelve remained free of infection and two gave inconclusive results. The twelve accessions showing complete resistance to the disease are: European hazels 'Culpla' from Spain and 'COR 187' from Finland; C. americana x C. avellana hybrids 'COR 506', 'G081S' and Weschcke selections TP1, TP2 and TP3; C. columa x C. avellana hybrids Chinese Trazel Gellatly #6 and #11, Turkish Trazel Gellatly #3 and a [(C. columa x C. avellana) x C. avellana] backcross hybrid 'Lisa'; and a C. heterophylla var. sutchuensis x C. avellana hybrid 'Estrella #1'. These new sources of complete resistance can be readily crossed to European cultivars and thus useful in the hazelnut breeding program. OSU 408.040 showed complete resistance in a previous study and appears to be a new source of resistance apart from 'Gasaway'. Segregation analysis of three progenies from crosses with susceptible genotypes [97035 (OSU 245.098 x OSU 408.040), 97036 (OSU 474.013 x OSU 408.040) and 99035 (OSU 665.012 x OSU 408.040)] indicated that a single gene controls the resistance. AFLP methodology was employed to identify markers linked to EFB resistance in OSU 408.040. A total of 64 primer combinations were screened using progeny 97035. Five AFLP markers linked in coupling, to resistance were identified, with recombination as shown: A4-265 (9.2 cM), A8-150 (0.0 cM), B2-125 (4.1 cM), C2-175 (5.9 cM) and D8-350 (2.5 cM). B2-125 was located on one side of the resistance locus and A4-265, C2-175 and D8-350 on the other side. Three of these markers (B2-125, C2-175 and D8-350) were also linked in coupling in a similar order in the second population 97036. The markers identified in this study are the first step toward marker-assisted selection for the OSU 408.040 source of resistance. A Spanish cultivar 'Ratoli' showed complete resistance in a previous study and also appears to be a new source of resistance. Segregation analysis of two progenies [99035 (OSU 309.074 x Ratoli) and 99036 (OSU 665.012 x Ratoli)] indicated that 'Ratoli' transmitted resistance to 67% of its progenies. AFLP methodology was employed to identify markers linked to EFB resistance in 'Ratoli'. A total of 64 primer combinations were screened using progeny 99036. Two AFLP markers linked to Ratoli resistance were identified with recombination as shown: dAl-135 (13.7 cM) and C4-255 (4.2 cM). Marker dAl-135 is linked in repulsion to the resistance locus, whereas, C4-255 is linked in coupling. C4-255 and dAl-135 are on the same side of the resistance locus. One of the markers C4- 255 was present in the second population 99035. Further effort is needed to find additional markers closely linked to the resistance locus in 'Ratoli'

Effects of Fiber Alignment and Coculture with Endothelial Cells on Osteogenic Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells

Impact statement This work demonstrates an effective method of enhancing osteogenesis of mesenchymal stromal cells on electrospun scaffolds through coculturing with endothelial cells. Furthermore, we provide the optimized conditions for cocultures on electrospun fibrous scaffolds and engineered bone tissues with oriented topography on aligned fibers. This study demonstrates promising findings for growing oriented tissue-engineered cocultures with significant increase in osteogenesis over monoculture conditions.Vascularization is a critical process during bone regeneration. The lack of vascular networks leads to insufficient oxygen and nutrients supply, which compromises the survival of regenerated bone. One strategy for improving the survival and osteogenesis of tissue-engineered bone grafts involves the coculture of endothelial cells (ECs) with mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). Moreover, bone regeneration is especially challenging due to its unique structural properties with aligned topographical cues, with which stem cells can interact. Inspired by the aligned fibrillar nanostructures in human cancellous bone, we fabricated polycaprolactone (PCL) electrospun fibers with aligned and random morphology, cocultured human MSCs with human umbilical vein ECs (HUVECs), and finally investigated how these two factors modulate osteogenic differentiation of human MSCs (hMSCs). After optimizing cell ratio, a hMSCs/HUVECs ratio (90:10) was considered to be the best combination for osteogenic differentiation. Coculture results showed that hMSCs and HUVECs adhered to and proliferated well on both scaffolds. The aligned structure of PCL fibers strongly influenced the morphology and orientation of hMSCs and HUVECs; however, fiber alignment was observed to not affect alkaline phosphate (ALP) activity or mineralization of hMSCs compared with random scaffolds. More importantly, cocultured cells on both random and aligned scaffolds had significantly higher ALP activities than monoculture groups, which indicated that coculture with HUVECs provided a larger relative contribution to the osteogenesis of hMSCs compared with fiber alignment. Taken together, we conclude that coculture of hMSCs with ECs is an effective strategy to promote osteogenesis on electrospun scaffolds, and aligned fibers could be introduced to regenerate bone tissues with oriented topography without significant deleterious effects on hMSCs differentiation. This study shows the ability to grow oriented tissue-engineered cocultures with significant increases in osteogenesis over monoculture conditions.</p