Teaching physical education abroad : Perspectives from host cooperating teachers, local students and Australian pre-service teachers using the social exchange theory

Research on pre-service teachers (PSTs) in international teaching practicums often focus on their experiences rather than how it ameliorates the host communities. Constructs of Social Exchange Theory were used to explore benefits and challenges experienced by four Australian PSTs, two Chinese cooperating teachers (CTs) and 169 local students. The PSTs experienced personal and professional growth, the CTs gained new pedagogical insights, and local students experienced cultural immersion with improved engagement in physical education. Despite mutual benefits, challenges emerged from teaching differences, language barrier, and personal obstacles. These underscore the necessity of investing time and resources to minimise such challenges

Bioinformatics analysis reveals biophysical and evolutionary insights into the 3-nitrotyrosine post-translational modification in the human proteome

Protein 3-nitrotyrosine is a post-translational modification that commonly arises from the nitration of tyrosine residues. This modification has been detected under a wide range of pathological conditions and has been shown to alter protein function. Whether 3-nitrotyrosine is important in normal cellular processes or is likely to affect specific biological pathways remains unclear. Using GPS-YNO2, a recently described 3-nitrotyrosine prediction algorithm, a set of predictions for nitrated residues in the human proteome was generated. In total, 9.27 per cent of the proteome was predicted to be nitratable (27 922/301 091). By matching the predictions against a set of curated and experimentally validated 3-nitrotyrosine sites in human proteins, it was found that GPS-YNO2 is able to predict 73.1 per cent (404/553) of these sites. Furthermore, of these sites, 42 have been shown to be nitrated endogenously, with 85.7 per cent (36/42) of these predicted to be nitrated. This demonstrates the feasibility of using the predicted dataset for a whole proteome analysis. A comprehensive bioinformatics analysis was subsequently performed on predicted and all experimentally validated nitrated tyrosine. This found mild but specific biophysical constraints that affect the susceptibility of tyrosine to nitration, and these may play a role in increasing the likelihood of 3-nitrotyrosine to affect processes, including phosphorylation and DNA binding. Furthermore, examining the evolutionary conservation of predicted 3-nitrotyrosine showed that, relative to non-nitrated tyrosine residues, 3-nitrotyrosine residues are generally less conserved. This suggests that, at least in the majority of cases, 3-nitrotyrosine is likely to have a deleterious effect on protein function and less likely to be important in normal cellular function. © 2013 The Authors.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

The Relationship between Inflammatory Biomarkers and Telomere Length in an Occupational Prospective Cohort Study

Background: Chronic inflammation from recurring trauma is an underlying pathophysiological basis of numerous diseases. Furthermore, it may result in cell death, scarring, fibrosis, and loss of tissue function. In states of inflammation, subsequent increases in oxidative stress and cellular division may lead to the accelerated erosion of telomeres, crucial genomic structures which protect chromosomes from decay. However, the association between plasma inflammatory marker concentrations and telomere length has been inconsistent in previous studies. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the longitudinal association between telomere length and plasma inflammatory biomarker concentrations including: CRP, SAA, sICAM-1, sVCAM-1, VEGF, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10. Methods: The longitudinal study population consisted of 87 subjects. The follow-up period was approximately 2 years. Plasma inflammatory biomarker concentrations were assessed using highly sensitive electrochemiluminescent assays. Leukocyte relative telomere length was assessed using Real-Time qPCR. Linear mixed effects regression models were used to analyze the association between repeated-measurements of relative telomere length as the outcome and each inflammatory biomarker concentration as continuous exposures separately. The analyses controlled for major potential confounders and white blood cell differentials. Results: At any follow-up time, each incremental ng/mL increase in plasma CRP concentration was associated with a decrease in telomere length of −2.6×10−2 (95%CI: −4.3×10−2, −8.2×10−3, p = 0.004) units. Similarly, the estimate for the negative linear association between SAA and telomere length was −2.6×10−2 (95%CI:−4.5×10−2, −6.1×10−3, p = 0.011). No statistically significant associations were observed between telomere length and plasma concentrations of pro-inflammatory interleukins, TNF-α, and VEGF. Conclusions: Findings from this study suggest that increased systemic inflammation, consistent with vascular injury, is associated with decreased leukocyte telomere length

Biodiversity and thermal ecological function: The influence of freshwater algal diversity on local thermal environments

The influence of temperature on diversity and ecosystem functioning is well studied; the converse however, that is, how biodiversity influences temperature, much less so. We manipulated freshwater algal species diversity in microbial microcosms to uncover how diversity influenced primary production, which is well documented in biodiversity research. We then also explored how visible-spectrum absorbance and the local thermal environment responded to biodiversity change. Variations in the local thermal environment, that is, in the temperature of the immediate surroundings of a community, are known to matter not only for the rate of ecosystem processes, but also for persistence of species assemblages and the very relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In our microcosm experiment, we found a significant positive association between algal species richness and primary production, a negative association between primary production and visible-spectrum absorbance, and a positive association between visible-spectrum absorbance and the response of the local thermal environment (i.e., change in thermal infrared emittance over a unit time). These findings support an indirect effect of algal diversity on the local thermal environment pointing to a hitherto unrecognized biodiversity effect in which diversity has a predictable influence on local thermal environments

The association between distal findings and proximal colorectal neoplasia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives: Whether screening participants with distal hyperplastic polyps (HPs) detected by flexible sigmoidoscopy (FS) should be followed by subsequent colonoscopy is controversial. We evaluated the association between distal HPs and proximal neoplasia (PN)/advanced proximal neoplasia (APN) in asymptomatic, average-risk patients. Methods: We searched Ovid Medline, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library from inception to 30 June 2016 and included all screening studies that examined the relationship between different distal findings and PN/APN. Data were independently extracted by two reviewers with disagreements resolved by a third reviewer. We pooled absolute risks and odds ratios (ORs) with a random effects meta-analysis. Seven subgroup analyses were performed according to study characteristics. Heterogeneity was characterized with theI2 statistics. Results: We analyzed 28 studies (104,961 subjects). When compared with normal distal findings, distal HP was not associated with PN (OR=1.16, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.89–1.51,P=0.14,I2=40%) or APN (OR=1.09, 95% CI=0.87–1.36,P=0.39,I2=5%), while subjects with distal non-advanced or advanced adenoma had higher odds of PN/APN. Higher odds of PN/APN were observed for more severe distal lesions. Weaker association between distal and proximal findings was noticed in studies with higher quality, larger sample size, population-based design, and more stringent endoscopy quality-control measures. The Egger’s regression tests showed allP>0.05. Conclusions: Distal HP is not associated with PN/APN in asymptomatic screening population when compared with normal distal findings. Hence, the presence of distal HP alone detected by FS does not automatically indicate colonoscopy referral for all screening participants, as other risk factors of PN/APN should be considered

What makes efficient circularly polarised luminescence in the condensed phase: aggregation-induced circular dichroism and light emission

In this contribution, we conceptually present a new avenue to construction of molecular functional materials with high performance of circularly polarised luminescence (CPL) in the condensed phase. A molecule (1) containing luminogenic silole and chiral sugar moieties was synthesized and thoroughly characterized. In a solution of 1, no circular dichroism (CD) and fluorescence emission are observed, but upon molecular aggregation, both the CD and fluorescence are simultaneously turned on, showing aggregation-induced CD (AICD) and emission (AIE) effects. The AICD effect is supported by the fact that the molecules readily assemble into right-handed helical nanoribbons and superhelical ropes when aggregated. The AIE effect boosts the fluorescence quantum efficiency (ΦF) by 136 fold (ΦF, ∼0.6% in the solution versus ∼81.3% in the solid state), which surmounts the serious limitations of aggregation-caused quenching effect encountered by conventional luminescent materials. Time-resolved fluorescence study and theoretical calculation from first principles conclude that restriction of the low-frequency intramolecular motions is responsible for the AIE effect. The helical assemblies of 1 prefer to emit right-handed circularly polarised light and display large CPL dissymmetry factors (gem), whose absolute values are in the range of 0.08–0.32 and are two orders of magnitude higher than those of commonly reported organic materials. We demonstrate for the first time the use of a Teflon-based microfluidic technique for fabrication of the fluorescent pattern. This shows the highest gem of −0.32 possibly due to the enhanced assembling order in the confined microchannel environment. The CPL performance was preserved after more than half year storage under ambient conditions, revealing the excellent spectral stability. Computational simulation was performed to interpret how the molecules in the aggregates interact with each other at the molecular level. Our designed molecule represents the desired molecular functional material for generating efficient CPL in the solid state, and the current study shows the best results among the reported organic conjugated molecular systems in terms of emission efficiency, dissymmetry factor, and spectral stability

Associations between Longer Leukocyte Telomere Length and Increased Lung Cancer Risk among Never Smokers in Urban China

BACKGROUND: The complex relationship between measured leukocyte telomere length (LTL), genetically predicted LTL (gTL), and carcinogenesis is exemplified by lung cancer. We previously reported associations between longer pre-diagnostic LTL, gTL, and increased lung cancer risk among European and East Asian populations. However, we had limited statistical power to examine the associations among never smokers by gender and histology. METHODS: To investigate further, we conducted nested case-control analyses on an expanded sample of never smokers from the prospective Shanghai Women\u27s Health Studies (798 cases and 792 controls) and Shanghai Men\u27s Health Studies (161 cases and 162 controls). We broke the case-control matching and used multivariable unconditional logistic regression models to estimate the ORs and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of incident lung cancer and adenocarcinoma (LUAD), in relation to LTL measured using quantitative PCR and gTL determined using a polygenic score. In addition, we conducted Mendelian randomization (MR) using MR-PRESSO. RESULTS: We found striking dose-response relationships between longer LTL and gTL, and increased lung cancer risk among never-smoking women (P trendLTL = 4×10-6; P trendgTL = 3×10-4). Similarly, among never-smoking men, longer measured LTL was associated with over triple the risk compared with those with the shortest (OR, 3.48; 95% CI, 1.85-6.57). The overall results were similar for LUAD among women and men. MR analyses supported causal associations with LUAD among women (OR1 SD gTL, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.03-1.37; P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Longer pre-diagnostic LTL is associated with increased lung cancer risk among never smokers. IMPACT: Our findings firmly support the role of longer telomeres in lung carcinogenesis

A High-Spin Ground-State Donor-Acceptor Conjugated Polymer

Interest in high-spin organic materials is driven by opportunities to enable far-reaching fundamental science and develop technologies that integrate light element spin, magnetic, and quantum functionalities. Although extensively studied, the intrinsic instability of these materials complicates synthesis and precludes an understanding of how fundamental properties associated with the nature of the chemical bond and electron pairing in organic materials systems manifest in practical applications. Here, we demonstrate a conjugated polymer semiconductor, based on alternating cyclopentadithiophene and thiadiazoloquinoxaline units, that is a ground-state triplet in its neutral form. Electron paramagnetic resonance and magnetic susceptibility measurements are consistent with a high-to-low spin energy gap of 9.30 × 10−3 kcal mol−1. The strongly correlated electronic structure, very narrow bandgap, intramolecular ferromagnetic coupling, high electrical conductivity, solution processability, and robust stability open access to a broad variety of technologically relevant applications once thought of as beyond the current scope of organic semiconductors

Deep-Learning-based Fast and Accurate 3D CT Deformable Image Registration in Lung Cancer

Purpose: In some proton therapy facilities, patient alignment relies on two 2D orthogonal kV images, taken at fixed, oblique angles, as no 3D on-the-bed imaging is available. The visibility of the tumor in kV images is limited since the patient's 3D anatomy is projected onto a 2D plane, especially when the tumor is behind high-density structures such as bones. This can lead to large patient setup errors. A solution is to reconstruct the 3D CT image from the kV images obtained at the treatment isocenter in the treatment position. Methods: An asymmetric autoencoder-like network built with vision-transformer blocks was developed. The data was collected from 1 head and neck patient: 2 orthogonal kV images (1024x1024 voxels), 1 3D CT with padding (512x512x512) acquired from the in-room CT-on-rails before kVs were taken and 2 digitally-reconstructed-radiograph (DRR) images (512x512) based on the CT. We resampled kV images every 8 voxels and DRR and CT every 4 voxels, thus formed a dataset consisting of 262,144 samples, in which the images have a dimension of 128 for each direction. In training, both kV and DRR images were utilized, and the encoder was encouraged to learn the jointed feature map from both kV and DRR images. In testing, only independent kV images were used. The full-size synthetic CT (sCT) was achieved by concatenating the sCTs generated by the model according to their spatial information. The image quality of the synthetic CT (sCT) was evaluated using mean absolute error (MAE) and per-voxel-absolute-CT-number-difference volume histogram (CDVH). Results: The model achieved a speed of 2.1s and a MAE of <40HU. The CDVH showed that <5% of the voxels had a per-voxel-absolute-CT-number-difference larger than 185 HU. Conclusion: A patient-specific vision-transformer-based network was developed and shown to be accurate and efficient to reconstruct 3D CT images from kV images.Comment: 9 figure