Search

In early 2014, a group of senior high school teachers initiated a series of campaigns to fight against the government's imposition of a revised history and citizenship education curriculum, an unprecedented display of opposition in the history of public schools in Taiwan. They rose above the traditional stereotype of the schoolteacher common across many societies in Asia and challenged the pro-reunification and Chinese ethnocentric setting underlying the new educational proposals. Drawing upon Giroux's writings on teachers as transformative intellectuals, this article looks into the social activism of 12 teachers from the campaign and the impact this movement had on their classroom practices. While "the language of critique" and "the language of possibility" are defined by Giroux as the two crucial components a critical educator should possess, these Taiwanese activist teachers appeared to demonstrate a more nuanced view by separating their activism from their professionalism in front of students and preventing themselves from incorporating the personal social movement experience into their classroom teaching. Moreover, our findings also suggest that elements of Confucianism--deeply rooted in Taiwanese society--have shaped these teachers' involvement in activism in important ways.

Aims: Sodium‐glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT‐2is) have been demonstrated to be associated with cancer cell mechanisms. However, whether they increase the risk of cancer remains unclear. Thus, this study aimed to determine the association between SGLT‐2i use and the incidence of cancer in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) in Taiwan. Materials and Methods: This retrospective cohort study was based on the Taiwan National Health Insurance database. The study population comprised patients with DM, and those who first used SGLT‐2is during 2016–2018 were assigned to the study group. Greedy propensity score matching was performed to select patients who first used dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors (DPP‐4is), and these patients were assigned to the control group. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for cancer risk in the study and control groups; this model was adjusted for demographic characteristics, DM severity, comorbidities and concomitant medication use. Results: After controlling for relevant variables, the SGLT‐2i cohort (aHR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.87–0.93) had a significantly lower risk of developing cancer than the DPP‐4i cohort, particularly when the SGLT‐2i was dapagliflozin (aHR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.87–0.95) or empagliflozin (aHR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.86–0.94). Regarding cancer type, the SGLT‐2i cohort's risk of cancer was significantly lower than that of the DPP‐4i cohort for leukaemia, oesophageal, colorectal, liver, pancreatic, lung, skin and bladder cancer. Conclusions: SGLT‐2i use was associated with a significantly lower risk of cancer than DPP‐4i use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new method is developed to derive the hydrometer's bulk density and bulk water fraction from collocated measurements from Micro-Rain Radar (MRR) and Particle Size and Velocity disdrometer (Parsivel). Rigorous particle scattering simulation, namely the T-matrix method, is applied to particle size distribution data of Parsivel to calculate the reflectivity (ZHH). The possible combinations of the particle's ice, air, and water are derived to compare them with the MRR-measured ZHH. The combination of minimum water fraction subsequently determines the bulk density (ρbulk). The proposed method is applied to the data collected from the International Collaborative Experiments for Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (ICE-POP 2018) Projects and its pre-campaign. The estimated was examined by self-evaluation of reflectivity weighted fall velocity (Vz) of MRR and independent comparison of the liquid-equivalent snowfall rate (SR) of collocated Pluvio. The bias values are adequately low (Vz: -0.27~0.14 m s-1, SR: 0.52~0.74 mm hr-1). The correlation coefficient of calculated SR from estimated ρbulk and observed SR from Pluvio can be up to 0.74. The results indicate the capability to derive reliable ρbulk through the proposed method, leveraging the compact and easily deployable designs of MRR and Parsivel. The derived bulk density of the two warm-low cases (28 February and 07 March 2018) shares a similar transition as the systems were decaying. The particles with higher bulk density and bulk water fraction were found in the coastal sites (BKC and GWU: mean ρbulk values are 0.12 to 0.25 g cm-3), typically accompanied by higher liquid-water constituents (mean values of the top 5 % bulk water fraction are 0.33 to 0.50) than the inland sites (YPO and MHS: mean ρbulk values are 0.09 to 0.08 and mean values of the top 5 % bulk water fraction are 0.001 to 0.029) during such synoptic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stereotypic dendrite arborizations are key morphological features of neuronal identity, as the size, shape and location of dendritic trees determine the synaptic input fields and how information is integrated within developed neural circuits. In this review, we focus on the actions of extrinsic intercellular communication factors and their effects on intrinsic developmental processes that lead to dendrite patterning. Surrounding neurons or supporting cells express adhesion receptors and secreted proteins that respectively, act via direct contact or over short distances to shape, size, and localize dendrites during specific developmental stages. The different ligand-receptor interactions and downstream signaling events appear to direct dendrite morphogenesis by converging on two categorical mechanisms: local cytoskeletal and adhesion modulation and global transcriptional regulation of key dendritic growth components, such as lipid synthesis enzymes. Recent work has begun to uncover how the coordinated signaling of multiple extrinsic factors promotes complexity in dendritic trees and ensures robust dendritic patterning.

This study investigated two science teachers' meta-strategic knowledge (MSK) of argumentation teaching by applying the repertory grid technique (RGT). One teacher was a novice, while the other was experienced in teaching argumentation. Using the RGT, we elicited the objectives and strategies of the two teachers regarding their argumentation teaching involving two social scientific issue (SSI) scenarios. The results showed that the experienced teacher had more varied and organised MSK for teaching argumentation than the novice teacher. Meanwhile, the novice teacher indicated a belief that the learning of argumentation should occur in a more student-centred manner, rather than relying on a traditional lecture-based environment. Consequently, she spent a considerable amount of time engaging students with their peers' ideas through discussion and collaboration. On the other hand, the experienced teacher noticed that most of students had the ability to generate arguments, but that few knew how to argue based on evidence. Therefore, she helped students to collect data from various resources and suggested that they construct their own knowledge framework in order to improve students' ability to incorporate their understanding of scientific knowledge into scientific argumentation.

The national curriculum reformers, regarded as members of the social elites and intellectuals, projected their vision of identity onto the curriculum which they constructed and influenced the next generation's national consciousness. In the tangled relationship between politics and education, the selection of the reformers in a sense dictates the direction of the new curriculum. This article interviewed 18 reformers, members of the latest citizenship curriculum of 2010, to investigate their individual views on identities and the monolithically-promoted Chinese configuration in the old curriculum. Although the new citizenship curriculum, renamed "Curriculum Guidelines for Civics and Society," puts nothing in writing in favour of either a Chinese or Taiwanese national identity, according to the discovery in this research, the Curriculum Committee implicitly embedded a transformed inclusive and hyphenated Taiwanese national identity in the new curriculum in the hope of accentuating Taiwan's exclusive sovereignty. The inner thinking of the reformers is uncovered to reveal their reasoning that a broadly constructed national identity can concurrently accommodate diverse personal identities and suits the society better than the previously prescribed Chinese identity. This article also records the evolution of the curriculum from the previous China-centred narratives to Taiwan-centred narratives, something that happened in line with the changes in Taiwanese society.

Immunotherapy benefits selected cases of gastric cancer (GC), but the correlation between biomarkers and prognosis is still unclear. Fifty-two patients with GC who underwent immunotherapy were enrolled from June 2016 to December 2020. Their clinical features and biomarkers—microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H), programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) combined positive score (CPS), and Epstein–Barr encoding region (EBER)—were analyzed. Eight patients had MSI-H, five patients had EBER, 29 patients had CPS ≥ 1, and 20 patients had no biomarker. The overall response rates (ORRs) of the MSI-H, EBER, PD-L1 CPS ≥ 1, and all-negative group were 75%, 60%, 44.8%, and 15%, respectively. Compared with that of the all-negative group, progression-free survival (PFS) was better in the MSI-H (p = 0.018), CPS ≥ 5 (p = 0.012), and CPS ≥ 10 (p = 0.006) groups, but not in the EBER (p = 0.2) and CPS ≥ 1 groups (p = 0.35). Ten patients had combined biomarkers, CPS ≥ 1 with either MSI-H or EBER. The ORRs were 66.7% for CPS ≥ 1 and MSI-H and 75% for CPS ≥ 1 and EBER. PFS was better in patients with combined biomarkers (p = 0.01). MSI-H, EBER, and CPS are useful biomarkers for predicting the efficacy of immunotherapy.

We used whole-exome sequencing (WES) to determine the genetic etiology of a patient with a multi-system disorder characterized by a seizure phenotype. WES identified a heterozygous de novo missense mutation in the GABRA1 gene (c.875C>T). GABRA1 encodes the alpha subunit of the gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor A (GABAAR). The GABAAR is a ligand gated ion channel that mediates the fast inhibitory signals of the nervous system, and mutations in the subunits that compose the GABAAR have been previously associated with human disease. To understand the mechanisms by which GABRA1 regulates brain development, we developed a zebrafish model of gabra1 deficiency. gabra1 expression is restricted to the nervous system and behavioral analysis of morpholino injected larvae suggests that the knockdown of gabra1 results in hypoactivity and defects in the expression of other subunits of the GABAAR. Expression of the human GABRA1 protein in morphants partially restored the hypomotility phenotype. In contrast, the expression of the c.875C>T variant did not restore these behavioral deficits. Collectively, these results represent a functional approach to understand the mechanisms by which loss-of-function alleles cause disease.