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ABSTRACTUniversity students’ collaborative learning, particularly groupwork, has been more often investigated in Western settings than in countries that have borrowed this Western pedagogy. This qualitative study re-examines Chinese university students’ groupwork responses regarding their expectations, attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. Their responses, the findings revealed, could be conceptualized as strategic navigation resulting from students, as rational and pragmatic learners, negotiating and navigating the interplay among multiple cultures of learning brought by policies, teachers, and the labor market. The study supplements the literature on collaborative learning and borrowed pedagogy and reflects university policymakers’ and teachers’ need to rethink making student groupwork truly collaborative.

AbstractWith reference to the heads of departments of moral education (HDMEs) in Shanghai’s junior secondary schools, this paper explores middle leaders’ logics for leading school-organized extra-curricular activities (SEAs). This qualitative study, guided by Woulfin’s lived logic framework, found that the interviewed HDMEs actively reinterpreted the institutional logics with three logics—expressive, instrumental, and hierarchical—by manipulating policy circulation, responding to the performative accountability and micropolitics in the hierarchy, and using correlative thinking. The lived logics of leading SEAs reveal that, as heads of a marginalized department in schools, the HDMEs struggled to seek visibility by using correlative thinking, promoting the importance of their work, and aligning with more helpful senior leaders. The study responds to theories on school middle leadership and implementation logic. It could deepen our understanding of the paradoxes in China’s development and governance, especially in areas concerning both measurable performance and unmeasurable issues (e.g. ideology and sustainable development).

Introduction:This study was designed to explore the associations between impaired cognition in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients and the dysfunction of the glymphatic system. Method:Data were obtained from 77 CKD patients and 50 age-matched healthy control individuals from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University. CKD patients were stratified into with and without impaired cognitive function. T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging results were used to assess area ratios for the perivascular space and ventricles in participants, while the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the Mini-Mental State Examination were employed to measure cognitive function. Correlations between the perivascular space or ventricle area ratios and cognitive impairment were assessed in CKD patients. Results:Significant increases in the burden of enlarged perivascular spaces in the frontal cortex and basal ganglia were observed in CKD patients with cognitive impairment relative to those without such impairment, with a concomitant increase in analyzed ventricle area ratios. Enlarged perivascular spaces in the frontal cortex, basal ganglia and increased area ratios of lateral ventricles and 4th ventricle exhibited relatively high sensitivity and specificity as means of differing between the CKD patients with and without cognitive impairment. Conclusion:These results indicate that the burden of enlarged perivascular spaces in the frontal cortex and basal ganglia and increases in ventricle area ratio values may offer utility as biomarkers that can aid in detection of even mild cognitive decline in individuals with CKD. The dysfunction of the glymphatic system may play a key role in the pathogenesis of CKD-related cognitive impairment.

Cellular communication network factor 2 (CCN2) is a secreted extracellular matrix-associated protein, and its aberrantly increased expression has been implicated in a diversity of diseases involving pathological processes of fibrosis, chronic inflammation, or tissue injury, which has promoted the evaluation of CCN2 as therapeutic targets for multiple disorders. However, human phenotypes associated with CCN2 deficiency have remained enigmatic; variants in CCN2have not yet been associated with a human phenotype. Here, we collected families diagnosed with spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia (SEMD), and screened candidate pathogenic genes for families without known genetic causes using next-generation sequencing. We identified a monoallelic variant in signal peptide of CCN2(NM_001901.2: c.65 G > C [p.Arg22Pro]) as the cause of SEMD in 14 subjects presenting with different degree of short stature, premature osteoarthritis, and osteoporosis. Affected subjects showed decreased serum CCN2 levels. Cell lines harboring the variant displayed decreased amount of CCN2 proteins in culture medium and an increased intracellular retention, indicating impaired protein secretion. And the variant weakened the stimulation effect of CCN2 on osteogenesis of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Zebrafish ccn2aknockout model and osteoblast lineage-specific Ccn2-deficient mice (Ccn2fl/fl;Prx1Cre) partially recapitulated the phenotypes including low bone mass observed in affected subjects. Pathological mechanism implicated in the skeletal abnormality in Ccn2fl/fl;Prx1Cremice involved decreased bone formation, increased bone resorption, and abnormal growth plate formation. Collectively, our study indicate that monoallelic variants in CCN2lead to a human inherited skeletal dysplasia, and highlight the critical role of CCN2 in osteogenesis in human.

Background: Being one of the core techniques of magnetic surgery, magnetic compression technique (MCT) has been used for digestive tract anastomosis reconstruction in experimental studies. This study verified the feasibility of gastroenteric anastomosis through natural orifice using MCT in rats. Methods: The parent and daughter magnets were designed and manufactured for oral and anal insertion in 20 Sprague‐Dawley rats. After anesthesia, the parent magnet was inserted into the colon spleen area through the anus, and the daughter magnet was inserted into the stomach through the mouth. Then the two magnets were positioned to attract each other and bind together. The position of the two magnets was monitored using X-ray. The time required for the formation of the anastomosis and expulsion of the magnets were recorded. 2 weeks later, the animal was sacrificed and the anastomotic specimen was obtained which was observed under naked eye and microscope. Results: The gastroenteric anastomosis was successfully performed via natural orifices in 18 out of 20 rats. The mean time to construct the anastomosis was 3.78 ± 0.88 min. X-ray examination showed that the magnets were in the appropriate position in 17 rats. The magnets were excreted in 9.47 ± 1.62 days after surgery. The gross and microscopic examination of the specimen showed that the anastomoses were patent and the mucosa at the anastomotic was smooth. The mean bursting pressure of the anastomosis was 136.94 ± 6.79 mmHg. Conclusion: It is feasible to perform gastroenteric anastomosis through natural orifices by MCT.

Primary autosomal recessive microcephaly 5 (MCPH5) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder with a relatively high incidence in regions where consanguineous marriage is widely practiced; So far, only a few MCPH5 cases have been reported from China. Here, we report clinical and molecular characteristics of two Chinese MCPH5 patients, a 24-year-old woman proband and her brother, a 19-year-old man, from a nonconsanguineous family. Main manifestations in the proband were small head circumference, premature closure of fontanelles, impaired concentration and moderate intellectual disability. The proband’s brother had similar symptoms, but he was hyperactive and had a more severe sloping forehead. Brain imaging revealed global reduction in brain size, especially in the frontal lobes bilaterally and anterior horns of lateral ventricles. Sequencing results revealed that both patients carried a novel nonsense variant p.Tyr2004* (c.6012_6013delTA) and a novel frameshift variant p.Arg2005Serfs*48 (c.6015_6016delGG) in the ASPMgene. These variants were interpreted to be pathogenic in the in-silico analysis. Our findings help to expand the mutation spectrum of ASPMand provide new opportunities for assisting the traditional clinical diagnosis on the cases with atypical characteristics.

Heparan sulfate (HS) is a sulfated polysaccharide exhibiting essential physiological functions. HS 6-O-sulfotransferase (6-OST) transfers a sulfo group to the 6-OH position of glucosamine units to confer a variety of HS biological activities. There are three different isoforms of 6-OST in the human genome. Here, we report crystal structures of the ternary complex of 6-OST with the sulfo donor analog 3′-phosphoadenosine 5′-phosphate and three different oligosaccharide substrates at 1.95 to 2.1 Å resolutions. Structural and mutational analyses reveal amino acid residues that contribute to catalysis and substrate recognition of 6-OST. Unexpectedly, the structures reveal 6-OST engages HS in a completely different orientation than other HS sulfotransferases and sheds light on the basic HS requirements for specificity. These findings also contribute structural information to understand mutations in human 6-OST isoform 1 associated with the human genetic disease idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism characterized by incomplete or lack of puberty.

A Trous algorithm of wavelet transform was used to decompose wavelet signal, and the cross-correlation analysis was used to analyze the sequence of each wavelet transform, and then the mathematical model correspond with wavelet transform sequence was established, finally wavelet random coupling model was obtained by wavelet reconstruction algorithm. Then, according to the rainfall data in crop growth period of Farm Chahayang from 1956 to 2008, the wavelet random coupling model was established to fit the model prediction test. The results showed that the prediction and fitting accuracy of the model was high, the model could reflect the rainfall variation regulation in the region, and it was a practical prediction model. It was very important for us to determine reasonably irrigation schedule and to use efficiency coefficient of precipitation resource.