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This study aims to provide a complex account of a PhD candidate's reflexive doctoral engagement process emergent from the changing doctoral environment vis-à-vis the neoliberal higher education context. Drawing on a critical realist theory of reflexivity, it analyzed narrative interview data collected with the participant over an 18-month period. The analytical focus was on how the student's reflexivity mediated her exertion of agency within the structural affordances and constraints of her doctoral education to ultimately give shape to a unique doctoral trajectory. Findings revealed that the participant practiced distinct patterns of reflexive deliberations in three disparate but interweaving areas of her doctoral life: research progression, community belonging, and career construction. Notably, analysis highlighted the contingent and fluid characteristics of the reflexivity phenomenon and its context-dependent effects in the complexity of doctoral study. The study argues that a sociological view of reflexivity offers a novel means to understand the nuanced ways of agency-structure interplay pervading experiences of contemporary candidature.

Monitoring data over the years have shown that seasonal rainfall and reservoir level changes have always accompanied the accelerated deformation of the Xigouwan landslide, which makes it difficult to identify the dominant triggering factors of landslide deformation and poses a challenge to risk analysis. Given this, this paper analyzed the correlation between the daily deformation rate of the active and inactive areas in the Xigouwan landslide and rainfall, reservoir level, and the change rate of reservoir level by applying the attribute reduction algorithm of the neighborhood rough set model. The calculation results showed that the deformation in the active area was mainly affected by the rainfall in the past seven days. It was also related to the short-term change rate of reservoir water level in some ways. The weak deformation in the inactive area was related to the change rate of reservoir water level in the past three days. Then, based on the landslide deformation characteristics, it was further obtained that the average rainfall in the past seven days inducing severe deformation in the active area was about 20 mm. The decline of the reservoir water level influenced its deformation, but the effect was small. The reservoir level change affected the weak deformation in the inactive area with negligible influence, while the weak deformation in the inactive area was mainly influenced by the reservoir level change. Finally, the seepage-mechanics numerical analysis of the Xigouwan landslide reveals the deformation mechanism of the active area under long-duration early rainfall. As the rainfall intensity increased from 1 mm/d to 20 mm/d, the pore water pressure at the bottom of the landslide body gradually increased. The internal reservoir level rose and extended to the active area, which caused the landslide body in the active area to go from a stable state to an under-stable state, leading to large deformation in the active area. In addition, the numerical simulation results further showed that the decline of the reservoir level had little effect on the internal seepage field and the stability in the active area. The reservoir level change greatly influenced the internal seepage field in the inactive area, indicating that the weak deformation in the inactive area was mainly affected by the reservoir level change. The complete analysis results of factors inducing the Xigouwan landslide in this paper can help provide early warning. The average rainfall of 20 mm in the past seven days can be used as one of the early warning thresholds for severe deformation in the active area of the Xigouwan landslide.

The growing complexity of doing a PhD necessarily demands candidates to robustly exercise their agency in navigating the doctoral journey. However, the conceptualisation of how students use their agency across multiple facets of their studies has yet to receive due scholarly attention. Drawing on the subject-centred sociocultural view on agency, this study analysed life story interviews conducted with 16 doctoral students in Hong Kong. Findings show that participants' agency was manifested both in socially and collectively organised enterprises (proactive engagement in a wide array of developmental opportunities, responsiveness to situational research problems, contestation against unsupportive institutional cultures) and as individual-level strategic perspectives and actions (self-management of everyday emotions, imaginative construction of post-graduation prospects). Concurrently, the results shed light on the inextricable and complex linkages between the enactment of agency and the personal, relational, institutional, and broader higher education conditions delimiting students' lived experiences of candidature. Implications for educational practices and future research beneficial to develop doctoral agency are discussed.

Leaning on a holistic supervising doctoral writing framework, this study sets out to conceptualise and unpack the dialogic feedback experiences sustained within a PhD candidate's research article writing process. A juxtaposition of multiple data sources uncovers that effective employment of supervision approaches to feedback essentially varies across time and space, which is interlaced with student response dynamics, voices of academic community, supervisor professional experience, and dialogic mediums. The single interwoven narrative affords a nuanced understanding of the decision-making mechanism, practices, and relationship elements constituting supervisory feedback dialogues. It highlights the historically and socio-relationally shaped nature of personal agency through which individuals enact and interpret situation-specific feedback discourses.

This paper sets out to offer emic insights into doctoral students' identity formation processes emerging at the interface of their personal biographies and situational doctoral conditions. Leaning on a dialogical theorisation of identity, the study analyses life stories told by four PhD students, focusing on how participants narratively position and reposition into being their multivoiced doctoral identity. It particularly discerns two types of doctoral development trajectories according to the different degrees of agency individuals exercise in dialogically interrogating, negotiating, and juxtaposing their multiple I-positions. Meanwhile, findings indicate that internal dialogue as a reflexive vehicle has significantly empowered all the participants' striving for a continuous and coherent self. The article sheds nuanced light on the temporally, spatially, and socially fluid nature of individual agency in mediating students' personal and professional identity sensemaking within the context of research education.

Water deficit is a key limiting factor that affects the growth, development and productivity of crops. It is vital to understand the mechanisms by which plants respond to drought stress. Here an N-acetylglutamate kinase gene, ZmNAGK, was cloned from maize (Zea mays). ZmNAGK was expressed at high levels in maize leaves and at lower levels in root, stem, female flower and male flower. The expression of ZmNAGK was significantly induced by PEG, NaCl, ABA, brassinosteroid and H2O2. The ectopic expression of ZmNAGK in tobacco resulted in higher tolerance to drought compared to plants transformed with empty vector. Further physiological analysis revealed that overexpression of ZmNAGK could enhance the activities of antioxidant defense enzymes, and decrease malondialdehyde content and leakage of electrolyte in tobacco under drought stress. Moreover, the ZmNAGK transgenic tobacco accumulated more arginine and nitric oxide (NO) than control plants under drought stress. In addition, the ZmNAGK transgenic tobaccos activated drought responses faster than vector-transformed plants. These results indicate that ZmNAGK can play a vital role in enhancing drought tolerance by likely affecting the arginine and NO accumulation, and ZmNAGK could be involved in different strategies in response to drought stress.

Set against the booming reverse migration of scientific talents from developed nations to newly-emerged advanced economies, this study particularly examines the return of Chinese early career researchers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Deploying a mixed research design that integrates quantitative and qualitative traditions, it aims to address three prominent knowledge gaps surrounding this emergent pattern of transnational academic migration. According to survey results, caring duties, career prospects, and cultural attachments have consistently emerged as the primary drivers for returnees who received PhD training in various host destinations. In contrast, economic and lifestyle concerns were of much less import to those completing the doctorate in leading Anglophone countries. Stark gender disparities were also observed, with male returnees’ desire to secure cultural familiarity and upward mobility especially evident and their use of transnational academic networks more prevalent. Moreover, participants who made the decision to return toward the end of their overseas sojourn and whose doctoral education was sponsored by the Chinese government demonstrated a significantly higher likelihood of considering onward migratory movement. While largely corroborating the quantitative findings, interview data further highlights the vital role of a justice-oriented university environment in attracting high-skilled talents from across different axes of social disadvantage. Throughout, it points to the prospective stickiness of return migration instigated amidst the radical shifts in global science. We conclude the paper with critical reflections on our empirical and methodological focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of traditional inorganic electrode materials has encountered a limitation due to the scarcity of transition metal elements. Inspired by the enriched resources and adjustable structural properties of organic electrode materials, here in, we designed and synthesized [5,10,15,20-tetrathienylporphinato](M)(II) (MTTP, M = 2H, Ni, Zn) and extended thiophene chain porphyrin derivatives [5,10,15,20-tetra(2,2′-bithiophen-5-yl)porphyrinato]M(II) (MT2TP, M = 2H, Ni, Zn) as organic cathode materials in lithium/sodium batteries. By designing an extended thiophene chain, NiT2TP shows weaker steric hindrance induced by intermolecular polymerization of a porphyrin complex compared with NiTTP. N and S are identified as multiple charge storage sites enabling high reversible capacity. The in situ polymerization occurs during the first charging process through the Cα–H of thiophene. Benefiting from the enhanced conjugated structure, NiT2TP delivers a specific capacity of 100 mA h g−1 at a current density of 1.0 A g−1 and achieves an ultra-long stable cycling performance of up to 3000 cycles with a high voltage of 3.5 V (vs. Li+/Li) in organic lithium batteries. This cathode can also be extended in organic sodium batteries, in which NiT2TP displays a reversible discharge capacity of 100 mA h g−1 up to 1000 cycles with a high voltage of 3.0 V (vs. Na+/Na). This study puts forward a new avenue for the design of universal organic cathode materials with long-cycling stability and high voltage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To unveil the charge storage mechanisms and interface properties of electrode materials is very challenging for Na‐ion storage. In this work, we report that the novel layered perovskite Bi2TiO4F2@reduced graphene oxides (BTOF@rGO) serves as a promising anode for Na‐ion storage in an ether‐based electrolyte, which exhibits much better electrochemical performance than in an ester‐based electrolyte. Interestingly, BTOF@rGO possesses a prominent specific capacity of 458.3–102 mAh g−1/0.02–1 A g−1 and a high initial coulombic efficiency (ICE) of 70.3%. Cross‐sectional morphology and depth profile surface chemistry indicate not only a denser reactive interfacial layer but also a superior solid electrolyte interface film containing a higher proportion of inorganic components, which accelerates Na+ migration and is an essential factor for the improvement of ICE and other electrochemical properties. Electrochemical tests and ex situ measurements demonstrate the triple hybridization Na‐ion storage mechanism of conversion, alloying, and intercalation for BTOF@rGO in the ether‐based electrolyte. Furthermore, the Na‐ion batteries assembled with the BTOF@rGO anode and the commercial Na3V2(PO4)2F3@C cathode exhibit remarkable energy densities and power densities. Overall, the work shows deep insights on developing advanced electrode materials for efficient Na‐ion storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study employs a narrative inquiry approach to probe a Chinese doctoral student's identity construction experiences fraught with interruption and transformation. The longitudinal narratives gathered through participant entries in Evernote, a face-to-face life story interview, and researcher memos, have enabled a dynamic configuration of the intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual dimensions characterizing doctoral identity development. Using identity-trajectory as an analytical lens, the study highlights how individual agency is embodied and exercised in institutional, relational, and personal spaces where doctoral identity is formed and contested. Findings are episodically ordered as: beginning doctoral study with great expectations; conceptualizing the nature of becoming a doctoral student; forces that are disruptive to the development of the doctoral-researcher identity; the ongoing process of being mediated by socialization into an extended research community, socio-professional support, and agentic reflexivity over time. The study argues for using narrative inquiry to speak of and express the subtleties and continuities of doctoral students' experiences. It also provides practical implications for action by supervisors and students in doctoral programs respectively.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are heterogeneous hematopoietic disorders that are incurable with conventional therapy. Their incidence is increasing with global population aging. Although many genetic, epigenetic, splicing, and metabolic aberrations have been identified in patients with MDS, their clinical features are quite similar. Here, we show that hypoxia-independent activation of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1A) signaling is both necessary and sufficient to induce dysplastic and cytopenic MDS phenotypes. The HIF1A transcriptional signature is generally activated in MDS patient bone marrow stem/progenitors. Major MDS-associated mutations (Dnmt3a, Tet2, Asxl1, Runx1, and Mll1) activate the HIF1A signature. Although inducible activation of HIF1A signaling in hematopoietic cells is sufficient to induce MDS phenotypes, both genetic and chemical inhibition of HIF1A signaling rescues MDS phenotypes in a mouse model of MDS. These findings reveal HIF1A as a central pathobiologic mediator of MDS and as an effective therapeutic target for a broad spectrum of patients with MDS.Significance: We showed that dysregulation of HIF1A signaling could generate the clinically relevant diversity of MDS phenotypes by functioning as a signaling funnel for MDS driver mutations. This could resolve the disconnection between genotypes and phenotypes and provide a new clue as to how a variety of driver mutations cause common MDS phenotypes. Cancer Discov; 8(11); 1438-57. ©2018 AACR. See related commentary by Chen and Steidl, p. 1355 This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 1333.

Water deficit is a key limiting factor that affects the growth, development and productivity of crops. It is vital to understand the mechanisms by which plants respond to drought stress. Here an N-acetylglutamate kinase gene, ZmNAGK, was cloned from maize (Zea mays). ZmNAGK was expressed at high levels in maize leaves and at lower levels in root, stem, female flower and male flower. The expression of ZmNAGK was significantly induced by PEG, NaCl, ABA, brassinosteroid and H2O2. The ectopic expression of ZmNAGK in tobacco resulted in higher tolerance to drought compared to plants transformed with empty vector. Further physiological analysis revealed that overexpression of ZmNAGK could enhance the activities of antioxidant defense enzymes, and decrease malondialdehyde content and leakage of electrolyte in tobacco under drought stress. Moreover, the ZmNAGK transgenic tobacco accumulated more arginine and nitric oxide (NO) than control plants under drought stress. In addition, the ZmNAGK transgenic tobaccos activated drought responses faster than vector-transformed plants. These results indicate that ZmNAGK can play a vital role in enhancing drought tolerance by likely affecting the arginine and NO accumulation, and ZmNAGK could be involved in different strategies in response to drought stress.

Highlights: Pt–Ni bonded Pt single-atom (SA) catalyst, rather than classic Pt–O bonded SA catalyst, was successfully constructed. The electronic states of Pt SA catalyst were deeply regulated and negatively charged Ptδ− was realized. Pt–Ni bonded Pt SA catalyst-enhanced absorbability for activated hydrogen atoms and promoted hydrogen absorption. Single-atom (SA) catalysts with nearly 100% atom utilization have been widely employed in electrolysis for decades, due to the outperforming catalytic activity and selectivity. However, most of the reported SA catalysts are fixed through the strong bonding between the dispersed single metallic atoms with nonmetallic atoms of the substrates, which greatly limits the controllable regulation of electrocatalytic activity of SA catalysts. In this work, Pt–Ni bonded Pt SA catalyst with adjustable electronic states was successfully constructed through a controllable electrochemical reduction on the coordination unsaturated amorphous Ni(OH)2 nanosheet arrays. Based on the X-ray absorption fine structure analysis and first-principles calculations, Pt SA was bonded with Ni sites of amorphous Ni(OH)2, rather than conventional O sites, resulting in negatively charged Ptδ−. In situ Raman spectroscopy revealed that the changed configuration and electronic states greatly enhanced absorbability for activated hydrogen atoms, which were the essential intermediate for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction. The hydrogen spillover process was revealed from amorphous Ni(OH)2 that effectively cleave the H–O–H bond of H2O and produce H atom to the Pt SA sites, leading to a low overpotential of 48 mV in alkaline electrolyte at −1000 mA cm−2 mg−1Pt, evidently better than commercial Pt/C catalysts. This work provided new strategy for the controllable modulation of the local structure of SA catalysts and the systematic regulation of the electronic states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]