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The past three years have seen a steady growth of interest in researching and practicing Philosophy for Children (P4C) in educational settings in China because many educators and administrators consider it as a coherent curriculum for developing student critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinking. Excited and gratified with children's philosophical sensitivity and enthusiasm, three representative Elementary Schools in mainland China, namely South Station Elementary School from Yunnan Province, Shanghai Liuyi Elementary School, and Washi Elementary school from Zhejiang Province, started to practice P4C in the late 1990s and the early twenty-first century. Without succumbing to the aggravated uniformity of the educational system, the three schools demonstrated innovative ways to reform their educational practice, which helped to develop a different form of Chinese educational praxis. This study provides a review on three schools' P4C practice from the perspective of motivation, development of school-based curricula, the mode and effect of P4C. The three schools found Lipman's P4C curriculum inspiring but, for the most part, culturally and contextually inappropriate, thus developed their own P4C textbooks, pedagogy and conceptual framework. The study further offers glimpses of P4C historical development in the past thirty years in the model schools, and discusses the challenges, opportunities, existing methodological approaches, theoretical and practical tensions that Chinese P4Cers experienced when P4C being practiced. Then it proposes methodological advancements and possibilities of future P4C practice and research in mainland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Heading date 1 (Hd1) is an important gene for the regulation of flowering in rice, but its variation in major cultivated rice varieties, and the effect of this variation on yield and quality, remains unknown. In this study, we selected 123 major rice varieties cultivated in China from 1936 to 2009 to analyse the relationship between the Hd1 alleles and yield‐related traits. Among these varieties, 19 haplotypes were detected in Hd1, including two major haplotypes (H8 and H13) in the japonica group and three major haplotypes (H14, H15 and H16) in the indica group. Analysis of allele frequencies showed that the secondary branch number was the major aimed for Chinese indica breeding. In the five major haplotypes, SNP316(C‐T) was the only difference between the two major japonica haplotypes, and SNP495(C‐G) and SNP614(G‐A) are the major SNPs in the three indica haplotypes. Association analysis showed that H16 is the most preponderant allele in modern cultivated Chinese indica varieties. Backcrossing this allele into the japonica variety Chunjiang06 improved yield without decreasing grain quality. Therefore, our analysis offers a new strategy for utilizing these preponderant alleles to improve yield and quality of japonica varieties for cultivation in the southern areas of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea) is a commercially important marine fish indigenous to the southeastern coast of China. Cultured L. crocea is frequently subjected to hypoxia which causes huge economic losses to the aquaculture industry. Therefore, it is crucial to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of hypoxia tolerance in L. crocea. Here, we combined a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and transcriptome analysis to reveal single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the mechanisms by which they regulate hypoxia tolerance in L. crocea. We used liquid chips to genotype 400 L. crocea individuals, obtained 120,815 high-quality SNPs, identified seven SNPs with significant suggestive association levels, and found a significant peak on chromosome 1. We then combined the potential candidate genes obtained from GWAS with the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) obtained by transcriptome sequencing. We found that the genes and processes related to glucose transport and metabolism, erythropoiesis, ion regulation, DNA replication and repair, and cell cycle were critical to hypoxia adaptation in L. crocea. We also identified the gene lias that might regulate hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α. The results of the present study provided insight into the molecular mechanisms of hypoxia tolerance in fish and may facilitate the genetic selection and breeding of hypoxia tolerance in L. crocea. • We identified candidate genes by GWAS and DEGs by transcriptome analyses. • Seven SNPs with significant suggestive association levels were identified. • Molecular mechanisms regulating hypoxia tolerance of L. crocea were elucidated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the lived experience of teachers from one middle school in East China who implemented project-based learning (PBL) in their classes. A sample of 22 grade 6 and 7 teachers participated in this research between September 2008 and June 2010. Data were collected from multiple sources including field notes of classroom observation, transcripts of semi-structural interviews and workshop audiotapes. It reveals that teachers were struggling with the roles they should play and in particular with how to effectively facilitate students' project work. However, they also creatively reconceptualized the new curriculum from their own perspectives and brought their students unique and diverse learning experiences. These struggles and reconceptualizations are believed to be the result of teachers' evaluative, identifying and pedagogical culture-cognitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea) is one of the most economically important marine fishes on the southeast coast of China. However, high-density cultures, inbreeding depression, and environmental pollution have resulted in L. crocea often experiencing hypoxia, which has caused huge economic losses to the L. crocea farming industry. This study aimed to improve the hypoxia tolerance of farmed L. crocea using genomic selection (GS) for breeding. In this study, 399 and 354 samples from the reference and candidate populations, respectively, were genotyped using a 55 K liquid single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. Based on two different representations (survival status and survival time), the estimated values of heritability for the hypoxia tolerance trait in L. crocea using 38,472 clean SNPs were 0.65 and 0.62, respectively. A comparison of the genomic prediction accuracy under different GS models and SNP densities showed that GBLUP was the best GS model, and the 2500 SNPs selected using a genome-wide association study (GWAS)-based strategy were essentially close to all 38,472 SNPs. Based on the established optimal GS strategy (prediction accuracy was 0.4901 ± 0.0246), genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) were calculated for each candidate population. The tolerance capacity tests showed a significant improvement in hypoxia tolerance in the offspring of the candidate population with the top 10% GEBVs, having an 13.40% decrease and a 34.02% increase in the median lethal concentration (LC 50) and median lethal time (LT 50), respectively, compared to the control group. These results confirmed that GS is an effective genetic breeding technique when selecting for hypoxia tolerance in L. crocea. • The heritability for the hypoxia tolerance in L. crocea were 0.65 and 0.62, respectively. • GBLUP models are more suitable for genomic prediction of hypoxia tolerance traits in L. crocea. • The 2500 SNPs selected using a GWAS-based strategy were essentially close to all 38,472 SNPs. • The heritability for the hypoxia tolerance in L. crocea were 0.65 and 0.62, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Early leaf senescence influences yield and yield quality by affecting plant growth and development. A series of leaf senescence-associated molecular mechanisms have been reported in rice. However, the complex genetic regulatory networks that control leaf senescence need to be elucidated., Results: In this study, an early senescence 2 (es2) mutant was obtained from ethyl methanesulfonate mutagenesis (EMS)-induced mutational library for the Japonica rice cultivar Wuyugeng 7 (WYG7). Leaves of es2 showed early senescence at the seedling stage and became severe at the tillering stage. The contents of reactive oxygen species (ROS) significantly increased, while chlorophyll content, photosynthetic rate, catalase (CAT) activity significantly decreased in the es2 mutant. Moreover, genes which related to senescence, ROS and chlorophyll degradation were up-regulated, while those associated with photosynthesis and chlorophyll synthesis were down-regulated in es2 mutant compared to WYG7. The ES2 gene, which encodes an inositol polyphosphate kinase (OsIPK2), was fine mapped to a 116.73-kb region on chromosome 2. DNA sequencing of ES2 in the mutant revealed a missense mutation, ES2 was localized to nucleus and plasma membrane of cells, and expressed in various tissues of rice. Complementation test and overexpression experiment confirmed that ES2 completely restored the normal phenotype, with chlorophyll contents and photosynthetic rate increased comparable with the wild type. These results reveal the new role of OsIPK2 in regulating leaf senescence in rice and therefore will provide additional genetic evidence on the molecular mechanisms controlling early leaf senescence., Conclusions: The ES2 gene, encoding an inositol polyphosphate kinase localized in the nucleus and plasma membrane of cells, is essential for leaf senescence in rice. Further study of ES2 will facilitate the dissection of the genetic mechanisms underlying early leaf senescence and plant growth.