Research Findings: Various cross-disciplinary STEM learning activities were implemented in the early childhood context. Young children and their parents had rather positive attitudes towards STEM ...learning. In addition to educational values, the economic value of STEM learning for their family was perceived by a good number of parents, which believed that learning STEM could pave a path for their children toward future economic prosperity. Early childhood teachers perceived the values of STEM education from the learning and social perspectives while they realized various practical constrains of time, support and resources, worried about teachers' capacity and subject knowledge, and considered students, developmental differences and safety. They were not confident to implement STEM lessons with their young students. Practice or Policy: It is urgent to present teachers a holistic picture for STEM curriculum in the EC context, covering strengthening discipline-based content learning, enhancing discipline-based integration, and preparing for the innovation-driven integration. The complete process of transferring professional knowledge (including awareness, acquisition, transformation, association, application, and externalization) should be embodied in the design of STEM professional training programs. Parents also needed more training on how to work with their children in STEM activities and scaffold their children' learning.
Sinter is the main raw material for blast furnace iron making. To provide high quality sinter, the moisture content of the mixture in the sintering need to be in the best range. However, most of the ...sintering is still artificial water adding which leads to a great variation in the moisture content of the mixture. The present work proposes a sintering parameter identification model using a nonlinear autoregressive model with exogenous (NARX). By exploiting the real-time and historical performing data, we set up a mixture adding water model involved the water and the major mixtures among sintering. Then, a combination of offline deep supervisor learning and online self-learning NARX algorithm is proposed. Finally, in the experimental stage, the results suggest the proposed method can effectively predict the moisture with an acceptable degree of accuracy.
Pleckstrin homology-like domain family A member 1 (PHLDA1) is a tumor suppressor gene in gastric cancer, but its role regulated by circular RNAs (circRNAs) is not known. CircRNAs are important ...regulators in cancer growth and progression, however, the molecular roles of circRNAs in gastric cancer are rarely known. The study was aimed to investigate the role of circRNAs in regulating PHLDA1 expression in gastric cancer.
The circRNA expression profile in the gastric cancer tissues by circRNA microarray showed that hsa_circ_0027599 (circ_0027599) was significantly down-regulated in gastric cancer patients and cells when comparing with the controls. Circ_0027599 overexpression suppressed gastric cancer cell proliferation and metastasis. By using bioinformatics tools and luciferase reporter assays, circ_0027599 was verified as a sponge of miR-101-3p.1 (miR-101) and suppressed cancer cell survival and metastasis. It was also verified that PHLDA1 was regulated by circ_0027599 in gastric cancer cells.
The study uncovered that PHLDA1 was regulated by circ_0027599/miR-101, which suppressed gastric cancer survival and metastasis in gastric cancer.
Abstract
Ensuring an optimal irrigation system and planting layout for crops in areas with water resource deficiencies is a complex process. A model of the optimal allocation of water and land ...resources for the irrigation system of the ‘reservoir and pumping station’ under crop rotation was established in this study. For the above complex nonlinear model, two-hybrid algorithms are proposed: (1) the decomposition aggregation dynamic programming (DADP) method and linear programming (LP) successive approximation algorithm (DADP–LP)SA and (2) the DADP algorithm based on the orthogonal design (OD) method (OD–DADP). The (DADP–LP)SA and OD–DADP algorithms were compared with the real-coded genetic algorithm (RGA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) to analyze the performance of the four algorithms. The developed algorithms were applied to the Gao'a irrigation area in the north of Jiangsu Province, China. The solution results showed that the annual output value of water-deficient irrigation areas was improved, and limited water and land resources were optimally allocated, demonstrating the feasibility of the two-hybrid algorithm. Moreover, through a comparative analysis of the optimality and applicability of the four algorithms, it can be observed that (DADP–LP)SA and OD–DADP are more suitable for optimizing the allocation of scarce water and land resources than RGA and PSO.
Teacher behaviors are one of the most significant factors influencing student learning. Students from different cultures may have different interpretations of their teachers' behaviors. This study ...compared the associations between teacher strictness, teacher feedback, and students' motivational beliefs using data from six Western countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand) and six East Asian regions (Japan, Korea, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015. A total of 89,869 15-year-old students were included in data analysis. The findings indicate that (i) teacher strictness was negatively associated with Western students' motivation, but positively related to that of East Asian students; (ii) teacher feedback had significant positive associations with the motivational beliefs of both Western and East Asian students; and (iii) there was a positive relationship between teacher strictness and teacher feedback in East Asian context. These results highlight the need to consider cultural factors when interpreting students' reactions to teacher behaviors.
Objective To explore the diagnostic value of the ovarian-adnexal reporting and data system (O-RADS) in differentiating between benign and malignant ovarian tumors, and to analyze risk factors for ...malignant ovarian tumors. Methods The clinical data of 417 patients with ovarian tumors diagnosed by pathology were retrospectively analyzed. With pathological results as the gold standard, the patients were divided into malignant group and benign group. The clinical data of the two groups were compared. At the same time, the patients were classified according to ultrasound characteristics and O-RADS. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the diagnostic efficacy of O-RADS. Results The univariable and mul-tivariable analyses showed that the risk factors for ovarian malignancy included cyst wall thickness ≥3 cm, solid components, blood flow score of 3-4 points, ascites, and peritoneal nodules (P<0.05). Compared with O-RADS 5, using O-RADS 4-5 to diagnose ovarian malignancy significantly in
The design and optimization of a sinter mixture moisture controlling system usually require complex process mechanisms and time-consuming field experimental simulations. Based on BP neural networks, ...a new KPCA-GA optimization method is proposed to predict the mixture moisture content sequential values with time more accurately so as to derive the optimal water addition to meet industrial requirements. Firstly, the normalized input variables affecting the output were dimensionalized using kernel principal component analysis (KPCA), and the contribution rates of the factors affecting the water content were analyzed. Then, a BP neural network model was established. In order to get rid of the randomness of the initial threshold and weights on the prediction accuracy of the model, a genetic algorithm is proposed to preferentially find the optimal initial threshold and weights for the model. Then, statistical indicators, such as the root mean square error, were used to evaluate the fit and prediction accuracy of the training and test data sets, respectively. The available experimental data show that the KPCA-GA model has high fitting and prediction accuracy, and the method has significant advantages over traditional neural network modeling methods when dealing with data sets with complex nonlinear characteristics, such as those from the sintering process.
Pyricularia oryzae, a blast fungus of gramineous plants, is composed of various host-genus specific pathotypes. The avirulence of an Avena isolate on wheat is conditioned by PWT3 and PWT4. We ...isolated the third avirulence gene from the Avena isolate and designated it as PWT7. PWT7 was effective as an avirulence gene only at the seedling stage or on leaves. PWT7 homologs were widely distributed in a subpopulation of the Eleusine pathotype and the Lolium pathotype but completely absent in the Triticum pathotype (the wheat blast fungus). The PWT7 homolog found in the Eleusine pathotype was one of the five genes involved in its avirulence on wheat. A comparative analysis of distribution of PWT7 and the other two genes previously identified in the Eleusine pathotype suggested that, in the course of parasitic specialization toward the wheat blast fungus, a common ancestor of the Eleusine, Lolium, Avena, and Triticum pathotypes first lost PWT6, secondly PWT7, and finally the function of PWT3. PWT7 or its homologs were located on core chromosomes in Setaria and Eleusine isolates but on supernumerary chromosomes in Lolium and Avena isolates. This is an example of inter-chromosomal translocations of effector genes between core and supernumerary chromosomes.
Emulsions of peanut and soy proteins, including their major components (arachin, conarachin, glycinin and β-conglycinin), were prepared by ultrasonication (300 W, 20 min) at a constant protein ...concentration (4%, w/v) and oil fraction (30%, v/v). These emulsions were then induced by CaCl
, transglutaminase (TGase) and glucono-δ-lactone (GDL) to form emulsion gels. The optimum coagulant concentrations were obtained for peanut and soy protein-stabilized emulsion gels, such as CaCl
(0.15 and 0.25 g/dL, respectively), TGase (25 U/mL) and GDL (0.3% and 0.5%, w/v, respectively). For the CaCl
-induced emulsion gels, the hardness of the β-conglycinin gel was the highest, whereas that of the conarachin gel was the lowest. However, when TGase and GDL were used as coagulants, the strength of the conarachin emulsion gel was the best. For the GDL-induced emulsion gels, microstructural analysis indicated that the conarachin gel showed more homogeneous and compact structures. The gelation kinetics showed that the storage modulus (G') of all the GDL-induced emulsions increased sharply except for the arachin-stabilized emulsion. The interactive force nature varied between conarachin and arachin emulsion gels. This work reveals that peanut conarachin could be used as a good protein source to produce emulsion gels when suitable coagulants are selected.
Multi-agent unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) teaming becomes an essential part in science mission, modern warfare surveillance, and disaster rescuing. This paper proposes a decentralized UAV swarm ...persistent monitoring strategy in realizing continuous sensing coverage and network service. A two-layer (high altitude and low altitude) UAV teaming hierarchical structure is adopted in realizing the accurate object tracking in the area of interest (AOI). By introducing the UAV communication channel model in its path planning, both centralized and decentralized control schemes would be evaluated in the waypoint tracking simulation. The UAV swarm network service and object tracking are measured by metrics of communication link quality and waypoints tracking accuracy. UAV swarm network connectivity are evaluated over different aspects, such as stability and volatility. The comparison of proposed algorithms is presented with simulations. The result shows that the decentralized scheme outperforms the centralized scheme in the mission of persistent surveillance, especially on maintaining the stability of inner UAV swarm network while tracking moving objects.
PDF
