Search

It has become an important and challenging issue to foster students' concepts and skills of computer programming. Scholars believe that programming training could promote students' higher order thinking performance; however, many school teachers have reported the difficulty of teaching programming courses. Although several previous studies have attempted to develop friendly user interfaces to ease students' loads, teaching programming courses remains a big challenge for most school teachers. In this study, an online peer assessment-based system was developed to cope with this problem. The students could use the peer-assessment function to provide comments to peers, and review the feedback and scores from peers during the learning activity. A quasi experiment was conducted on four classes of 166 ninth graders of a junior high school located in southern Taiwan to examine the impacts of the developed system. Two classes of students were assigned to the experimental group, learning with an online peer assessment-based teaching strategy, while the other two classes were the control group, learning with the conventional teaching strategy. The experimental results showed that the students in the experimental group had better programming knowledge and skills as well as more positive learning attitudes and critical thinking awareness than those in the control group, revealing the benefits of the proposed approach.

The leaf nitrogen content in different canopy position for different ages of individuals for Phyllostachys pubescens was studied systematically with the season change in the experiment of precipitation exclusion in the bamboo field. The results showed that under different treatments (natural growth and precipitation exclusion treatment), the leaf nitrogen content of bamboo varied with seasons and in the decreasing order of spring, autumn, summer and winter. The change of leaf nitrogen content with bamboo age was also affected by the growing season. Precipitation exclusion treatment changed the seasonal and age difference of leaf nitrogen content in bamboo. In spring, the age differences in leaf nitrogen content of bamboo were significant (p

The current high entropy alloys' studies are most in block, powder, coating, film and other areas. There are few studies of high entropy alloys in other areas and they are lack of unified classification. According to the current high entropy alloys' research situation, The paper has focused on the classification on all kinds of high entropy alloys having been researched, introduced the selecting principle of elements, summarized the preparation methods, reviewed the research institutions, research methods and research contents of high entropy alloys, prospected the application prospect of high entropy alloys, put forward a series of scientific problems of high entropy alloys, including less research on mechanism, incomplete performance research, unsystematic thermal stability study, preparation process parameters to be optimized, lightweight high entropy alloys' design, the expansion on the research field, etc, and the solutions have been given. Those have certain guiding significance for the expansion of the application of high entropy alloys subjects in the future research direction.

Cu-MoS2 self-lubricating coatings were prepared on high speed steel by electro-spark deposition (ESD) by electrode with drilled holes at the end of faces. The holes were filled with MoS2. The composition and micro morphology of the coatings were analysed. The effects of capacitance and deposition time on coating thickness were studied, and also the friction performance and wear mechanism were studied. The results show that there is nothing but MoS2 and Cu exist in the coating fabricated by this way. The micrographs show that the coating surface is uneven and many pores existing on the surface, showing typical characteristics of ESD; the surface quality is the best when it was prepared in the 3rd grade capacitance. Coating thickness firstly increases and then decreases with the increase of capacitance and deposition time. The self-lubricating coating prepared in the 3rd-grade capacitance has the lowest friction coefficient. The friction coefficients of the self-lubricating coatings prepared in the 1st and the 3rd grades stay almost constant with the increase of friction time. The friction coefficient of self-lubricating coatings prepared in the 5th grade show a clear upward trend when friction time increases. Scanning electron microscope images show shear-slip phenomenon on the wear surface.

Aiming at the expansion fracture mechanism of projectile steel shell under implosion loading, the smooth particle flu¬id dynamics method (smoothed particle hydrodynamics, SPH) was used to simulate he expansion fracture process and crack distribution law of 40CrMnSiB steel cylindrical shell with several wall thicknesses under implosion loading. The comparative experimental study was carried out by using he explosive water well recovery technology, and the crack formation mechanism was analyzed by combining he macroscopic morphology and microstructure of the cylindrical shell fracture fragments. The results show that the fracture mode of 40CrMnSiB steel cylindrical shell gradually changes from pure shear to tension-shear mixing with he increase of wall thickness. When the wall thickness of the cylindrical shell increases from 4 mm to 17 mm, the proportion of tension cracks gradually increases from 0 to 4/5, and the circumferential density of the cylindrical shell cracks and the total number of fragments formed decrease by 54. 54% and 67.06%, respectively. With the increase of the wall thickness of the metal cylindrical shell, the mass distribution of the final fragments gradually disperses. By analyzing the microstructure of the re¬covered fragments, it is found that the fracture of the cylindrical shell is actually the result of the interaction and competition between the shear cracks generated on the inner surface of the shell and the tension cracks generated on the outer surface, and here Is a phenomenon of mutual shedding between the cracks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biology involves the understanding of life concepts and the exploration of life processes. Due to the complexity of life, the learning content of biology is often microscopic, abstract, and complex. In traditional teaching, The non-visualization of abstract concepts, rote memorization of knowledge and low classroom participation tend to make students feel dull and eventually lead to inefficient and low confidence in learning. Augmented reality (AR) superimposes 3D dynamic virtual information into the real world and visualizes abstract concepts to deepen students' understanding of concepts. In addition, AR supports virtual-real interaction and instant feedback, which helps to stimulate learning interest and reinforce the learning effect. Therefore, the application of AR can solve the problems of traditional biology teaching. This study used a quasi-experimental approach to explore the potential of AR in teaching biology. A total of 81 third grade students were recruited for the study. The experimental group (40 students) was taught with AR, while the control group (41 students) was taught with traditional instruction. The study found that AR instruction significantly increased students' flow experiences and motivation to learn and reduced their cognitive load. However, there were no significant differences in self-efficacy and academic performance between the two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assays for the detection of chromosomal rearrangements involving TFE3 and TFEB are considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of MiTF family altered renal cell carcinoma (MiTF-RCC). We reviewed 801 clinical TFE3 / TFEB FISH assays performed at our tertiary-level institution between 2014 and 2023 on kidney tumors suspicious at the morphologic or biomarker level for MiTF aberrations. Methods We summarized and analyzed clinical information, TFE3 / TFEB FISH results, and available biomarker staining results in a cohort of 453 consecutive kidney tumor cases suspicious for MiTF-RCC. Results In total, 61 of 434 (14%) kidney tumors were confirmed for TFE3 translocation; 10 of 367 cases (2.7%) were confirmed for TFEB translocation. Since TFEB amplification interpretation was implemented in our service line, 20 of 306 cases (6.5%) were diagnosed with TFEB amplification. Importantly, TFE3 and TFEB rearrangements were never co-detected within the same kidney tumor. Patients with TFEB amplification were significantly older (P <.001) than patients with TFE3 or TFEB translocation. Kidney tumors with TFEB amplification were seen to be at least 3 times as common as those with TFEB translocation. Conclusions Clinical TFE3 / TFEB FISH assays successfully identified and confirmed rare MiTF-RCC with TFE3 and TFEB rearrangements. Although morphologic and biomarker features associated with a kidney tumor may be suggestive of MiTF-RCC, clinical TFE3 / TFEB FISH assays are crucial for a confirmation and definitive subclassification of patients with MiTF-RCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

143Nd/144Nd isotope ratio is the key for Sm-Nd isotope method. The 143Nd/144Nd isotope ratio of geological samples varies within a small range, and thus the 143Nd/144Nd isotope ratio analysis must be precise. In order to obtain high precision and high accuracy of the analytical data, the analysis process involving Nd isotope reference material plays an important role. The previous Nd isotope reference material is neodymium oxide, which have been exhausted in recent three decades. A national reference material of 143Nd/144Nd isotope ratio was introduced in this paper, which shows sufficient homogeneity and stability. The certified value of this reference material was determined by eleven participating laboratories using MC-TIMS and MC-ICP-MS. The 143Nd/144Nd isotope ratio value for the reference material is 0.512438, with a combined expanded uncertainty (k=2) of 5×10-6. The standard solution gets certification in May, 2015 and the Serial number is GSB 04-3258—2015. The standard solution can be used for quality monitoring of the equipment calibration and analysis process during the 143Nd/144Nd ratio determination for geology, resources, ocean, environment, archaeological and other type samples.