With the popularity of positive psychology in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching and learning, learners' positive emotions have attracted great academic attention. Foreign language ...enjoyment (FLE) is regarded as a constructive emotion and key component for learners' academic engagement that is affected by educators' emotions and psychological attributes. Earlier studies have proved the positive role of educators' mindfulness and compassion in reducing learners' negative feelings, boosting their positive emotions and building a harmonious teacher-student rapport. Through mindful and compassionate training, EFL teachers are skilled at creating a joyful learning atmosphere, showing understanding and support toward learners, as well as inspiring learners with enthusiasm and joy. The present review makes efforts to emphasize the significant effect of EFL teachers' mindfulness and compassion on fostering students' FLE. Moreover, a number of practical implications are provided for EFL teachers, teacher educators, school managers, and future directions are offered for enthusiastic researchers to conduct similar and complementary research in the field of foreign language education.
This paper proposes to introduce OBE theory in the curriculum map so as to build a curriculum master map based on the concept of engineering education accreditation-oriented and professional training ...objectives. In order to provide personalized services to students in the curriculum map, this paper applies the user-based collaborative filtering recommendation algorithm to the curriculum map and uses a similarity calculation based on Barclay’s coefficient improved similarity (BCCF) to finally implement the curriculum recommendation algorithm. The results show that the AUC of the recommendation algorithm constructed in this paper reaches 0.867. After the teaching reform, the mean values of students in the course reform class are 0.68, 0.61, and 1.31 higher than those in the non-course reform class at the level, of course, affect perception, teacher teaching, and student learning. Therefore, the OBE-based teaching method in this paper can develop personalized learning paths for students, which helps students learn better and plan the overall learning paths and make the most of educational resources.
Thanks to the advantages of high power density and the capacity of bidirectional power transfer, the CLLC resonant converter is widely used in the hybrid ac-dc microgrid as a dc transformer to ...interlink the ac and dc bus. Since the voltages of ac and dc bus are controlled by the energy management system, the CLLC resonant converter operates under open-loop condition, which means the switching frequency and duty cycle are fixed. As a result, in the hybrid ac-dc microgrid applications, for the CLLC converter, the main concern is not the voltage regulation but the conversion efficiency. This paper focuses on the total power loss optimization and the magnetic design of the CLLC resonant converter based on artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm. In order to optimize the total power loss, an AI algorithm-based two-stage optimal design method is proposed. In the first stage, the total power loss, including the driving loss, turn- off loss, conduction loss of the switches, the power loss of the resonant capacitances, and copper and core loss of the transformer are optimized by the proposed AI algorithm, GA+PSO, and the optimal parameters, including the leakage inductances ( L r 1 and L r 2 ), magnetizing inductance ( L m ), and resonant capacitances ( C r 1 and C r 2 ) are derived. In the second stage, the optimal leakage inductances and magnetizing inductance are realized by setting proper distance between the primary winding and the secondary winding ( d w ), and the thickness of the air gap ( d a ). As for the magnetic design, in this paper, the leakage inductances of a planar transformer are used as the resonant inductances. The equations of d w and d a to achieve the optimal leakage inductances and magnetizing inductance are derived. Both the proposed optimal design method and the equations of d w and d a are validated by simulations and experiments.
Aluminum (Al) toxicity is one of the major constraints to agricultural production in acid soils. Molecular mechanisms of coping with Al toxicity have now been investigated in a range of plant ...species. Two main mechanisms of Al tolerance in plants are Al exclusion from the roots and the ability to tolerate Al in the roots. This review focuses on the recent discovery of novel genes and mechanisms that confer Al tolerance in plants and summarizes our understanding of the physiological, genetic, and molecular basis for plant Al tolerance. We hope this review will provide a theoretical basis for the genetic improvement of Al tolerance in plants.
ABSTRACT
We investigate how R&D contributes to rising foreign profitability in U.S. multinational corporations through wage and tax incentives. Our results suggest that wage savings increase foreign ...profit margins derived from foreign R&D, while tax incentives increase foreign profit margins derived from domestic R&D. By exploring their relative importance, we find that wage savings are more important than tax incentives in explaining foreign profit margins when the wage discount substantially exceeds tax incentives, and vice versa. Cross-sectional tests show that firms respond more to foreign R&D wage savings when they have access to local human talent, but less as the cost of conducting foreign R&D increases. Firms respond less to tax incentives to shift income derived from domestic R&D as transfer pricing risk increases. Our evidence sheds light on the importance of R&D-related income shifting that potentially separates the location of economic activity from the location of income.
JEL Classifications: H25; H26.
In plants, fluctuation of the redox balance by altered levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) can affect many aspects of cellular physiology. ROS homeostasis is governed by a diversified set of ...antioxidant systems. Perturbation of this homeostasis leads to transient or permanent changes in the redox status and is exploited by plants in different stress signalling mechanisms. Understanding how plants sense ROS and transduce these stimuli into downstream biological responses is still a major challenge. ROS can provoke reversible and irreversible modifications to proteins that act in diverse signalling pathways. These oxidative post-translational modifications (Ox-PTMs) lead to oxidative damage and/or trigger structural alterations in these target proteins. Characterization of the effect of individual Ox-PTMs on individual proteins is the key to a better understanding of how cells interpret the oxidative signals that arise from developmental cues and stress conditions. This review focuses on ROS-mediated Ox-PTMs on cysteine (Cys) residues. The Cys side chain, with its high nucleophilic capacity, appears to be the principle target of ROS. Ox-PTMs on Cys residues participate in various signalling cascades initiated by plant stress hormones. We review the mechanistic aspects and functional consequences of Cys Ox-PTMs on specific target proteins in view of stress signalling events.
CLLC-type dc transformer (CLLC-DCT) is very popular in the hybrid ac-dc microgrid thanks to its high-power density advantage and good bidirectional power transfer capacity. In the hybrid ac/dc ...microgrid, the open-loop control is always utilized by the CLLC-DCT to cooperate with the bidirectional interlinking converter to realize the power and voltage conversion between the ac and dc bus. This paper first studies the circuit parameters design of the open-loop controlled CLLC-DCT with consideration of such a realistic problem: The real inductors/capacitors values are actually different with their theoretically designed values due to the operation power and temperature variation. To solve this problem, a robust circuit parameters design scheme is proposed for the CLLC-DCT in this paper. With the proposed scheme, the designed CLLC-DCT exhibits good power transmission and voltage regulation ability in the hybrid ac/dc microgrid even when its actual inductors/capacitors values vary with the practical power and temperature. The robust design method is experimentally verified in a hybrid ac/dc microgrid prototype.
Increasing evidence suggests that taurine upregulated gene 1 (TUG1) is crucial for tumor progression; however, its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the underlying mechanisms are not well ...characterized.
The expression levels of TUG1, miR-524-5p, and sine oculis homeobox homolog 1 (SIX1) were determined using quantitative real-time PCR. The regulatory relationships were confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Cell proliferation and invasion were assessed using Cell Counting Kit 8 and transwell assays. Glucose uptake, cellular levels of lactate, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) were detected using commercially available kits. Silencing of TUG1 or SIX1 was performed by lentivirus transduction. Protein levels were measured by immunoblotting.
Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs)-secreted exosomes promoted migration, invasion, and glycolysis in HepG2 cells by releasing TUG1. The promotive effects of CAFs-secreted exosomes were attenuated by silencing of TUG1. TUG1 and SIX1 are targets of miR-524-5p. SIX1 knockdown inhibited the promotive effects of miR-524-5p inhibitor. Silencing of TUG1 suppressed tumor growth and lung metastasis and therefore increased survival of xenograft model mice. We also found that TUG1 and SIX1 were increased in HCC patients with metastasis while miR-524-5p was decreased in HCC patients with metastasis.
CAFs-derived exosomal TUG1 promoted migration, invasion, and glycolysis in HCC cells via the miR-524-5p/SIX1 axis. These findings may help establish the foundation for the development of therapeutics strategies and clinical management for HCC in future.
Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a key process involved in many energy-related conversion systems. An ideal OER electrocatalyst should possess rich active sites and optimal binding strength with ...oxygen-containing intermediates. Although numerous endeavors have been devoted to the modification and optimization of transition-metal-based OER electrocatalysts, they are still operated with sluggish kinetics. Herein, an ion-exchange approach is proposed to realize the structure engineering of amorphous P–CoS hollow nanomaterials by utilizing the ZIF-67 nanocubes as the precursors. The precise structure control of the amorphous hollow nanostructure contributes to the large exposure of surface active sites. Moreover, the introduction of phosphorus greatly modifies the electronic structure of CoS2, which is thus favorable for optimizing the binding energies of oxygenated species. Furthermore, the incorporation of phosphorus may also induce the formation of surface defects to regulate the local electronic structure and surface environment. As a result of this, such P–CoS hollow nanocatalysts display remarkable electrocatalytic activity and durability towards OER, which require an overpotential of 283 mV to afford a current density of 10 mA cm−2, outperforming commercial RuO2 catalyst.
•P–CoS is obtained via an ion-exchange strategy and phosphorization process.•Amorphous P–CoS hollow nanomaterials possess high specific surface area.•P doping effectively modifies the electronic structure of CoS.•Hollow structure and modified electronic structure enhance the OER performance.
A new zwitterionic surface was obtained by a novel three-step grafting procedure. The zwitterionic monomer was introduced by cerium-induced graft copolymerization in the presence of N,N′-methylene ...bisacrylamide (MBAA) as cross-linking agent. Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis confirmed the MBAA could stimulate zwitterionic monomer grafting onto the membrane surface. Surface properties were also determined by atomic force microscope (AFM) and water contact angle. The hemocompatibility of the modified PU membranes was evaluated by the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT) and prothrombin time (PT). The TT and APTT of PU were significantly prolonged by the zwitterion of sulfobetaine monomer grafting copolymerization. The new polyurethane membrane could have a great potential in biomedical applications.
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