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This article reports on an experimental study that set out to investigate and compare the effectiveness of a direct and an indirect approach to data-driven learning (DDL) in facilitating Chinese learners' mastery of a challenging type of lexico-grammatical resource (i.e. hedges) in an undergraduate English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) writing class. The study adopted a pretest/posttest/delayed posttest randomized two treatment design. The two experimental groups received, respectively, direct and indirect DDL instruction in the use of hedges in English academic writing. The direct approach involved students in conducting guided searches and analyses of target hedges in online corpora, whereas the indirect approach featured the use of corpus-informed, paper-and-pen learning tasks. Within- and between-group analyses of the participants' performances on the three tests yielded evidence of both the strengths and limitations of the two approaches. A questionnaire survey revealed the participants' favorable attitudes toward the incorporation of corpora in classroom teaching, as well as their perceptions of the affordances and constraints of DDL. The article concludes with a discussion of the present study's limitations and recommendations for future DDL research in EFL classrooms.

Academic enculturation, or the socialisation into a target academic community, is a crucial event in the trajectory development of aspiring scholars. It is a protracted process subject to the interplay of a constellation of factors. With the aim of uncovering potential contributors to positive enculturative outcomes, this paper reports on the case of Wang, a home-trained, home-based Chinese scientist who earned full professorship at the relatively young age of 36. An in-depth, semi-structured interview is conducted in which Wang gives retrospective accounts of significant experiences in his journey. A range of supplementary information, including representative publications, an up-to-date list of scholarly achievements, and his personal webpage at the official institutional website, is also collected to corroborate and add nuance to Wang's self-told story. Data are analysed using the method of inductive content analysis and discussed within the framework of situated learning theories. Varying extents of mutual engagement with/as the master and mutually facilitative dual engagement in target communities are found to characterise Wang's enculturative success. Implications are drawn on how similarly positioned novice researchers can be supported in their quest for enculturation during and beyond graduate studies.

Iodonium zwitterions are hypervalent iodine compounds in which the iodine center binds to two substituents and carries a positive formal charge which is compensated by a negative charge within the same molecule. Under thermodynamic conditions, iodonium zwitterion sallow concerted nucleophilic aromatic substitutions to be performed, followed by rearrangement reactions. In general, nucleophilic aromatic substitutions proceed stepwise, either via an elimination-addition or via an addition-elimination pathway. It has been suggested that nucleophilic aromatic substitutions occur through a transition state which reduces the activation barrier by charge delocalization. The laboratory experiments reported here aim to give students better insight into the concepts of nucleophilic aromatic substitutions and iodonium zwitterions. These experiments can be used to demonstrate a series of important topics and experimental skills in organic chemistry. In addition, they also teach students analytical techniques such as NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and X-ray diffraction.

Objective: This survey explored the relationships between burnout, moral injury, and suicidal/self-harm ideation among Chinese health professionals in mainland China. Methods: Health professionals were surveyed online using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and the Moral Injury Symptom Scale-Health Professional version. Results: A total of 6,146 health professionals participated in the study. The average age of participants was 34.9 ± 8.5 years, and suicidal/self-harm ideation was present in 2,338 participants (38.0%). The prevalence of suicidal/self-harm ideation was more common among those with severe burnout (vs. mild burnout), particularly in the dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased personal accomplishment. The prevalence of suicidal/self-harm ideation among those with significant moral injury symptoms was higher than in those without moral injury. Unconditional logistic regression analysis demonstrated that those with moderate or severe emotional exhaustion, moderate or severe reduced sense of professional accomplishment, and moderate or severe depersonalization were at increased risk of suicidal/self-harm ideation. Structural equation modelling demonstrated that burnout significantly mediated the relationship between moral injury and suicidal/self-harm ideation. The proportion of mediation (PM) by burnout was 43.0%. Conclusions: This study found that burnout and moral injury were significant predictors of suicidal/self-harm ideation among health professionals in China. Both moral injury and burnout had positive and direct effects on suicidal/self-harm ideation, and burnout mediated the relationship between moral injury and suicidal/self-harm ideation. Interventions to address moral injury and subsequent burnout in Chinese healthcare workers may enhance the mental health of these healthcare professionals and increase the quality of care that they provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long characterized as a primary form of academic misconduct and a major threat to academic integrity, the issue of plagiarism has been extensively researched from multiple perspectives, including students' and academic staff's perceptions and attitudes concerning plagiarism, measures for detecting and deterring plagiarism and their effectiveness, and the higher education sector's response to plagiarism. Yet knowledge remains patchy regarding this last strand of research. With the aim of bridging this research gap, we examine and compare the plagiarism management policies adopted by a selection of universities in mainland China and Hong Kong, two contexts that have been influenced by different academic traditions. Analysis reveals both similarities and divergences in these universities' communication of plagiarism-related information, mechanism for plagiarism detection, provision of academic guidance and support for avoiding plagiarism, and competing discourses on plagiarism underpinning their mixed approaches to the problem. Implications for institutional policymaking and academic integrity education are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoscale zerovalent iron (nZVI) has demonstrated high efficacy for treating nitrate or cadmium (Cd) contamination, but its efficiency for simultaneous removal of nitrate and Cd has not been investigated. This study evaluated the reactivity of nZVI to the co-contaminants and by-product formation, employed different catalysts to reduce nitrite yield from nitrate, and examined the transformation of nZVI after reaction. Nitrate reduction resulted in high solution pH, negatively charged surface of nZVI, formation of Fe3O4 (a stable transformation of nZVI), and no release of ionic iron. Increased pH and negative charge contributed to significant increase in Cd(II) removal capacity (from 40 mg/g to 188 mg/g) with nitrate present. In addition, nitrate reduction by nZVI could be catalyzed by Cd(II): while 30% of nitrate was reduced by nZVI within 2 h in the absence of Cd(II), complete nitrate reduction was observed in the presence of 40 mg-Cd/L due to the formation of Cd islands (Cd(0) and CdO) on the nZVI particles. While nitrate was reduced mostly to ammonium when Cd(II) was not present or at Cd(II) concentrations ≥ 40 mg/L, up to 20% of the initial nitrate was reduced to nitrite at Cd(II) concentrations

Single‐stranded DNA oligonucleotides wrapping on the surface of single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), described as DNA corona, are often used as a dispersing agent for SWCNTs. The uneven distribution of DNA corona along SWCNTs is related to the photoelectric properties and the surface activity of SWCNTs. An ionic strength‐mediated "DNA corona defects" (DCDs) strategy is proposed to acquire an exposed surface of SWCNTs (accessible surface) as large as possible while maintaining good dispersibility via modulating the conformation of DNA corona. By adjusting the solution ionic strength, the DNA corona phase transitioned from an even‐distributed and loose conformation to a locally compact conformation. The resulting enlarged exposed surface of SWCNTs is called DCDs, which provide active sites for molecular adsorption. This strategy is applied for the arrangement of SWCNTs on DNA origami. SWCNTs with ≈11 nm DCD, providing enough space for the adsorption of "capture ssDNA" (≈7 nm width required for 24‐nt) extended from DNA origami structures are fabricated. The DCD strategy has potential applications in SWCNT‐based optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple hypothesis testing has been widely applied to problems dealing with high‐dimensional data, for example, the selection of important variables or features from a large number of candidates while controlling the error rate. The most prevailing measure of error rate used in multiple hypothesis testing is the false discovery rate (FDR). In recent years, the local false discovery rate (fdr) has drawn much attention, due to its advantage of accessing the confidence of individual hypotheses. However, most methods estimate fdr through P$$ P $$‐values or statistics with known null distributions, which are sometimes unavailable or unreliable. Adopting the innovative methodology of competition‐based procedures, for example, the knockoff filter, this paper proposes a new approach, named TDfdr, to fdr estimation, which is free of P$$ P $$‐values or known null distributions. Extensive simulation studies demonstrate that TDfdr can accurately estimate the fdr with two competition‐based procedures. We applied the TDfdr method to two real biomedical tasks. One is to identify significantly differentially expressed proteins related to the COVID‐19 disease, and the other is to detect mutations in the genotypes of HIV‐1 that are associated with drug resistance. Higher discovery power was observed compared to existing popular methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Long-term exposure of humans to air pollution is associated with an increasing risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Astaxanthin (AST), a naturally occurring red carotenoid pigment, was proved to have multiple health benefits. However, whether or not AST also exerts a protective effect on fine particulate matter (PM2.5)-induced cardiomyocyte damage and its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Methods: In vitro experiments, the H9C2 cells were subjected to pretreatment with varying concentrations of AST, and then cardiomyocyte injury model induced by PM2.5 was established. The cell viability and the ferroptosis-related proteins expression were measured in different groups. In vivo experiments, the rats were pretreated with different concentrations of AST for 21 days. Subsequently, a rat model of myocardial PM2.5 injury was established by intratracheal instillation every other day for 1 week. The effects of AST on myocardial tissue injury caused by PM2.5 indicating by histological, serum, and protein analyses were examined. Results: AST significantly ameliorated PM2.5-induced myocardial tissue injury, inflammatory cell infiltration, the release of inflammatory factors, and cardiomyocyte H9C2 cell damage. Mechanistically, AST pretreatment increased the expression of SLC7A11, GPX4 and down-regulated the expression of TfR1, FTL and FTH1 in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions: Our study suggest that ferroptosis plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of cardiomyocyte injury induced by PM2.5. AST may serve as a potential therapeutic agent for mitigating cardiomyocyte injury caused by PM2.5 through the inhibition of ferroptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]