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Abstract Objective To explore the differences in the effectiveness of various teaching methods combining online and offline modes in paediatric medical education. Methods Fourth-year medical paediatric students at our university in 2020 were randomly divided into three groups: a control group, experimental group 1, and experimental group 2, with 30 students in each group. The control group received traditional teaching, experimental group 1 received a combination of online and offline teaching using two methods simultaneously, and experimental group 2, in addition to the methods used in experimental group 1, engaged in real-case teaching in the ward. The teaching outcomes were evaluated through theoretical exams, clinical skills assessments, and questionnaires. Results Experimental groups 1 and 2 were superior to the control group concerning theoretical examination and overall scores (P

With the rapid advancement of technology, integration of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been widely used in recent English as a foreign language teaching and learning. Despite the prevalence of online CMC discussions, previous studies have not drawn conclusive results, and empirical evidence on how online discussions affect student reading comprehension is limited. Thus, the purpose of this study was to conduct a quasi-experimental research to investigate how asynchronous and synchronous discussions influenced the reading comprehension of 50 university students in a Taiwanese collaborative learning context. A quasi-experimental design was conducted with multiple observations before and after the intervention. Research instruments included reading comprehension tests, a questionnaire survey, and a semi-structured interview. Major findings suggested that most of the participants used the synchronous discussion mode more frequently than the asynchronous mode when performing online reading tasks. Nevertheless, with increased asynchronous discussions, students' reading comprehension scores and satisfaction increased as well. Although the learners generally accepted both online discussion modes, the interview results revealed several drawbacks as well as advantages of the online discussion environments. Limitations of the study and implications for instructional pedagogy and future research were presented and discussed.

Abstract Background Recently, attention has focused on the impact of global climate change on infectious diseases. Storm flooding is an extreme weather phenomenon that not only impacts the health of the environment but also worsens the spread of pathogens. This poses a significant challenge to public health security. However, there is still a lack of research on how different levels of storm flooding affect susceptible enteric infectious diseases over time. Methods Data on enteric infectious diseases, storm flooding events, and meteorology were collected for Changsha, Hunan Province, between 2016 and 2020. The Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test was used to identify the enteric infectious diseases that are susceptible to storm flooding. Then, the lagged effects of different levels of storm flooding on susceptible enteric infectious diseases were analyzed using a distributed lag nonlinear model. Results There were eleven storm flooding events in Changsha from 2016 to 2020, concentrated in June and July. 37,882 cases of enteric infectious diseases were reported. During non-flooding days, the daily incidence rates of typhoid/paratyphoid and bacillary dysentery were 0.3/100,000 and 0.1/100,000, respectively. During flooding days, the corresponding rates increased to 2.0/100,000 and 0.8/100,000, respectively. The incidence rates of both diseases showed statistically significant differences between non-flooding and flooding days. Correlation analysis shows that the best lags for typhoid/paratyphoid and bacillary dysentery relative to storm flooding events may be 1 and 3 days. The results of the distributed lag nonlinear model showed that typhoid/paratyphoid had the highest cumulative RR values of 2.86 (95% CI: 1.71–4.76) and 8.16 (95% CI: 2.93–22.67) after 4 days of general flooding and heavy flooding, respectively; and bacillary dysentery had the highest cumulative RR values of 1.82 (95% CI: 1.40–2.35) and 3.31 (95% CI: 1.97–5.55) after 5 days of general flooding and heavy flooding, respectively. Conclusions Typhoid/paratyphoid and bacillary dysentery are sensitive enteric infectious diseases related to storm flooding in Changsha. There is a lagging effect of storm flooding on the onset of typhoid/paratyphoid and bacillary dysentery, with the best lagging periods being days 1 and 3, respectively. The cumulative risk of typhoid/paratyphoid and bacillary dysentery was highest at 4/5 days lag, respectively. The higher of storm flooding, the higher the risk of disease, which suggests that the authorities should take appropriate preventive and control measures before and after storm flooding.

Previous studies have been done to research the effects of different electronic feedback (e-feedback) modes of helping English as a foreign language (EFL) students improve their writing. The purpose of this study was to employ online peer feedback (OPF) and automated corrective feedback (ACF) to assess EFL learners' writing performance in the areas of sentence complexity, grammatical accuracy, and lexical density. Our major findings suggest that OPF is potentially more useful than ACF in improving sentence writing, making fewer grammatical errors, and producing more types of lexical items. Nevertheless, we also found that the majority of students favored the use of ACF for the purpose of producing a richer vocabulary. Less skilled writers tended to make greater improvements than higher-skilled writers in producing more sentences and lexical items after OPF use; however, the difference was not statistically significant. Based on our research results, we discuss and present the implications of these findings for pedagogical instruction and future research.

Psychological research on hope has mainly focused on its cognitive dimension. This qualitative study explores the relational, affective and behavioural features of hope with a sample of Italian university students, analysing their responses to open-ended survey questions that tap into the whole spectrum of the experience of hope, including fulfilled hopes, present hopes, and lost hopes. The findings suggest that the relational, affective, and behavioural features of hope are just as important as cognitive processes when it comes to people's experience of hope. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed., Author(s): Laura De Pretto [sup.1] , Oliver P. Mansilla [sup.2] , Emanuele Russo [sup.3] , Shang-Hui Shin [sup.4] , Darlene Elizabeth Sin Yi Tan [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.417900.b, 0000 [...]

Objective: To explore the differences in the effectiveness of various teaching methods combining online and offline modes in paediatric medical education. Methods: Fourth-year medical paediatric students at our university in 2020 were randomly divided into three groups: a control group, experimental group 1, and experimental group 2, with 30 students in each group. The control group received traditional teaching, experimental group 1 received a combination of online and offline teaching using two methods simultaneously, and experimental group 2, in addition to the methods used in experimental group 1, engaged in real-case teaching in the ward. The teaching outcomes were evaluated through theoretical exams, clinical skills assessments, and questionnaires. Results: Experimental groups 1 and 2 were superior to the control group concerning theoretical examination and overall scores (P < 0.05). Experimental group 2 was superior to experimental group 1 and the control group in clinical skills examination scores (P < 0.05). The satisfaction rate for the questionnaire was highest in experimental group 2 (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The combined use of various teaching methods with online and offline modes is more effective than using traditional teaching methods only in paediatric education. It enhances the overall competence of paediatric students, especially in terms of improving clinical skills, and is well-received by both students and teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transmembrane member 16A (TMEM16A) exhibits a negative correlation with autophagy, though the underlying mechanism remains elusive. This study investigates the mechanism between TMEM16A and autophagy by inducing autophagy in DRG neuronal cells using Rapamycin. Results indicated that TMEM16A interference augmented cell viability and reduced Rapamycin-induced apoptosis. Autophagosome formation increased with TMEM16A interference but decreased upon overexpression. A similar increase in autophagosomes was observed with SB203580 treatment. Furthermore, TMEM16A interference suppressed Rapamycin-induced gene and protein expression of p38 MAPK and mTOR, whereas overexpression had the opposite effect. These findings suggest that TMEM16A activation inhibits autophagy in DRG cells, which is associated with the p38 MAPK/mTOR pathway, offering a potential target for mitigating neuropathic pain (NP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of existing traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) recommendation models is generally poor because of their weak generalization ability, overfitting, and inability to use known biological networks. Therefore, building a TCM recommendation model based on artificial intelligence has currently become an important bioinformatics task. This study aimed to design a multitask meta-learning model with good biological interpretation for TCM formula recommendation (MBI-TCMR) for deep learning regularization. This method was based on the known biological network structure to sparse the deep learning network, solve the overfitting problem of the model, and enhance the biological interpretability of the model. Furthermore, a multi-learning framework based on meta-learning was also proposed. The framework allowed the MBI-TCMR model to mine knowledge of TCM formulas and quickly adapt to different types of TCM formula recommendation tasks. Finally, we used a gradient-based deep learning feature backtracking method to calculate the feature weight for each neuron. This weight could provide valuable explanatory information for researchers to study how the model made its medicine recommendations. We designed three independent experiments. The experimental results showed that the hit ratio (HR), AUC, and recall and precision value of the MBI-TCMR model outperformed the existing TCM formula recommendation models. The MBI-TCMR model's HR of top 1–10 reached 0.15–0.9 (Gynecologic Disease Dataset). HR was 10 for the MBI-TCMR model, which was an improvement of 11.1% compared with the best baseline model. The bio-enrichment analysis showed that the model exhibited good bio-interpretation. In summary, this study proposed a novel TCM formula recommendation model, which expanded the application of the artificial intelligence model and achieved good results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) affects 1–3 out of every 10 000 pregnancies, posing significant risks to both mothers and newborns. The condition often requires careful management to prevent severe hemorrhagic events. PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science searched for relevant literature until June 2024. A meta‐analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of ITP on maternal and fetal outcomes. The results showed that antepartum hemorrhage occurred in 0.17 (95% CI = 0.12–0.25) of patients and postpartum hemorrhage occurred in 0.11 (95% CI = 0.07–0.16) of pregnant women with ITP. About 0.63 (95% CI = 0.50–0.74) of pregnant women needed treatment for ITP. The cesarean section (CS) rate was 0.48 (95% CI = 0.34–0.61), and the occurrence of preterm labor was 0.14 (95% CI = 0.07–0.24). A total of 0.32 of neonates had thrombocytopenia (95% CI = 0.18–0.52). The difference between the platelet count of those diagnosed with ITP before pregnancy and those diagnosed after pregnancy was significant (MD = –31.50, 95% CI = 51.29–11.72, p < 0.01). This meta‐analysis highlights the significant impact of ITP on pregnancy, estimating risks of bleeding, CS, gestational diabetes, preterm labor, and neonatal thrombocytopenia. These findings underscore the need for vigilant monitoring and tailored management of pregnant women with ITP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blended learning is an instructional approach that combines traditional face-to-face learning and online learning. There have been debates on the effectiveness and practicality of blended learning use in higher education, yet studies that specifically examine blended discussions to support EFL learning and teaching are still scarce. Thus, this study aimed to explore how variables such as face-to-face, asynchronous, and synchronous discussions in the blended learning environment influenced students' learning motivation and reading achievement. Fifty-one students at a private university in southern Taiwan participated in this study. The research results showed that students' reading scores significantly improved after participating in the blended discussion activity. The highest-scoring group outperformed the other two proficiency groups after applying face-to-face and asynchronous discussion modes. However, no significant difference was found among different proficiency-level learners in synchronous discussion mode. Moreover, students' asynchronous discussion had a significantly moderate influence on their reading performance. Based on the research results, pedagogical implications, limitations, and future research are discussed and presented.

Therapy to halt or slow down the progression of neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease (PD) is urgently demand. Disease modification therapy can modify the natural history of the disease and show neuroprotective effect in PD. Currently, many potential neuroprotective therapies are emerging. The review aims to summarize the new advances for disease modification therapies in PD including targeting drugs α-synuclein, LRRK2 gene, GBA gene, mitochondrial function, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), neuroinflammation, calcium antagonist and iron chelating agent.