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Coding learning can promote the development of computational thinking (CT) in young children. The effect of coding learning on CT may vary between different cultures. However, it lacks studies to evaluate the effect of coding learning on the various dimensions of CT in young Chinese children. To provide insight into this question, we recruited children aged 5-6 years to participate in the quasi-experimental study involving an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group learned collaboration- and robot-based coding for 12 lessons, whereas children in the control group attended school learning activities. The two groups showed significant changes in CT concepts after coding learning, but the changes were not different between the two groups. In addition, coding learning positively influenced the development of CT practices, including algorithm and debugging skills. Finally, qualitative analyses showed that children could express, connect, and question after learning coding, suggesting that coding learning benefits the development of CT perspectives. To summarize, coding learning positively influences the ability to apply coding concepts to solve problems in practice and the perspectives about themselves and the world around them.

Coding ability has become an important literacy in the twenty-first century. Coding education starts from early childhood in many countries. However, it lacks of tools with good psychometric properties to assess the changes in the coding ability of young children (i.e., preschoolers or kindergarteners) after learning coding. To fill this gap, the current study aimed to develop a tool by using card-based and age-appropriate games to measure the coding ability of young children aged 5-6 years. In the tool, coding ability was evaluated on the dimensions of Variable, Control, Modularity, and Algorithm. The first three dimensions of the tool included the skills of Assignment, Type, Conditional, Loop, Decomposition, and Function. We tested the psychometric properties of the tool by assessing its reliability and validity. The results indicated that the tool not only had good internal consistency, inter-raters reliability, and test-retest reliability, but also showed good content validity, construct validity, and item discrimination. Additionally, the coding ability measured by the tool was significantly related to creative thinking and computational thinking, suggesting good criterion validity. To conclude, this study developed an age-appropriate and game-based tool with good psychometric properties to assess the coding ability of young children. This tool can be also used to evaluate the effectiveness of educational coding programs for young children., Author(s): Lin Wang [sup.1] , Fengji Geng [sup.1] [sup.2] , Xiaoxin Hao [sup.1] , Donglin Shi [sup.1] , Tengfei Wang [sup.3] , Yan Li [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.13402.34, 0000 [...]

Objective： This study aimed to explore the fatigue relieving effect of Lonicera caerulea Berry polyphenol, hawthorn polyphenol microcapsules, lactoferrin and vitamin C as polyphenol compound formula to alleviate fatigue. Methods： The commercial sports nutrition food with the compound formula of creatine, β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate, fructose diphosphate, taurine, vitamin B6 and watermelon powder was used as the positive control. The experiment of exhaustive swimming in mice was carried out. The fatigue related indexes were determined by the kit, and the microscopic pathological tissues of the organs were observed by H&E staining. Results： There was no significant difference in body weight of mice (P＞0.05). Compared with the normal group, no significant difference in organ index in the dietary supplement group (P＞0.05) was found. Polyphenol compound formula significantly prolonged the swimming time of mice at room temperature and low temperature by 106.01% and 140.94%, respectively (P＜0.01). Moreover, oxidative stress, metabolite accumulation and energy metabolism, and down-regulated secretion of inflammatory factors (P＜0.01 or P＜0.05) were also improved. It promoted the cell nucleus increase in muscle, inflammatory cell infiltration in the liver, and redness and shedding of tubular epithelial cells in the kidney. Conclusion： Polyphenol compound formula can relieve exercise fatigue at low temperature and room temperature.

Coding learning involves cognitive control ability that enables children to coordinate behaviors according to internally maintained goals. However, such ability is still developing during early childhood and cannot reach maturity at least until late adolescence. This study aimed to test whether integrating cognitive control strategies into online and offline coding courses could benefit coding learning in early childhood. The results of Study 1 indicated that performance monitoring strategy did not improve coding learning outcome, which might be due to the lack of explicit instruction and social interactions. Then, during the offline coding courses in Study 2, we intentionally taught young children to use planning, monitoring, and reflection strategies based on games and collaboration. The results indicated that these strategies promoted the learning of highly-abstract coding skills. Therefore, the cognitive control strategies that are age-appropriately designed and integrated can exert positive effect on learning coding skills in early childhood.

For a class of nonlinear Markov jump systems (MJSs), an efficient robust model predictive control (MPC) is designed with bounded persistent perturbations and hard constraints. Nonlinearity is considered as a description of polyhedral form. First, affine control inputs are introduced for the polytopic MJSs to provide the expected performance. Quadratic boundedness is then used to deal with bounded persistent perturbations to improve the robustness of the closed loop system. Then the large amount of online MPC computation problem is solved efficiently by matrix partitioning. The efficient MPC strategy not only ensures that the closed-loop system is stochastically stable but also reduces the amount of on-line computation and improves the efficiency of on-line computation. Finally, a numerical example and a nonlinear mechanical mass-spring-damper system are applied to elucidate the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HE is a natural extract with strong antioxidant capacity. Drosophila melanogaster was used to explore HE could delay aging in this study. We detected that 3 mg/ml HE could increase stress tolerance (heat, cold, starvation, oxidative stress), reduce intestinal dysfunction, and prolong the lifespan of D. melanogaster. Network pharmacology analysis showed HE could act through the PI3K‐Akt pathway. Meanwhile, HE intervention inhibited the gene expression of InR, PI3K, and Akt‐1, and further increased the gene expression of Atg1, Atg5, Atg8a, and Atg8b. Furthermore, HE inhibited the unnatural propagation of ISCs and increased the number of lysosomes. Supplement with HE may be an effective intervention for aging D. melanogaster. Practical applications: In recent years, diseases that come with aging have seriously affected people's healthy life. Hawthorn is a kind of nutrient‐rich substance that is rich in flavonoids and thus has many potential biological and pharmacological functions. Our results showed that HE has good antioxidant properties and can maintain intestinal homeostasis, which provides a good theoretical basis for the development and research using HE as an effective natural antioxidant for the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A robust model predictive control algorithm is proposed for a constrained nonlinear system with bounded persistent disturbance in this paper. Based on polytopic descriptions that include the initial system, the proposed algorithm computes a series of multi‐step control sets offline and the convex combination of them online respectively by solving convex optimization problems described by a few linear matrix inequalities. At each sampling time, the control moves satisfying the control constraint are obtained and implemented in the system. The controller design is illustrated with two examples. The proposed MPC controller achieves closed‐loop input‐to‐state (practical) stability (ISS/ISpS) and strong robustness in respect of bounded persistent disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]