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This study investigates the effectiveness of fusion-based appreciative curriculum moral education through non-experimental research methods involving college students from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and mainland China who took the Ethics and Life course. The findings indicate that: (1) moral education based on integrated appreciation significantly enhances students’ moral cognition and demonstrates a positive but nonsignificant impact on moral behaviour. (2) Both classroom reflection and course papers reveal that integrative appreciation-based moral education promotes moral cognition and fosters value cultivation. (3) Gender can influence the effectiveness of curriculum moral education, warranting attention to the active utilization of this subgroup characteristic in practice. (4) College students’ moral cognition and behaviour are not significantly correlated with their academic performance.

The most pronounced neuropathological feature of Parkinson's disease (PD) is the loss of dopamine (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra compacta (SNc), which depletes striatal DA. Hypothalamic oxytocin is found to be reduced in PD patients and closely interacts with the DA system, but the role of oxytocin in PD remains unclear. Here, the disturbances of endogenous oxytocin level and the substantia nigra (SN) oxytocin receptor expression in the 1‐methyl‐4‐phenyl‐1,2,3,6‐tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)‐induced PD mouse model is observed, correlated with the striatal tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression reduction. Killing/silencing hypothalamic oxytocin neurons aggravates the vulnerability of nigrostriatal DA signal to MPTP, whereas elevating oxytocin level by intranasal delivery or microinjecting into the SN promotes the resistance. In addition, knocking out SN oxytocin receptors induces the time‐dependent reductions of SNc DA neurons, striatal TH expression, and striatal DA level by increasing neuronal excitotoxicity. These results further uncover that oxytocin dampens the excitatory synaptic inputs onto DA neurons via activating oxytocin receptor‐expressed SN GABA neurons, which target GABA(B) receptors expressed in SNc DA neuron‐projecting glutamatergic axons, to reduce excitotoxicity. Thus, besides the well‐known prosocial effect, oxytocin acts as a key endogenous factor in protecting the nigrostriatal DA system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inverter dead time effect is non-negligible for the control performance of sensorless synchronous reluctance motor (SynRM) drives at low speeds. In this paper, a reduced-order observer-based sensorless control method for SynRM drives combined with the adaptive linear neurons (ADALINE)-based dead-time compensation is proposed. The reduced-order observer-based sensorless control method is presented, for which is parameter tuning is easy. On this basis, the dead-time compensation strategy using ADALINE filters is proposed to reduce the voltage harmonics effect on the estimation performance of the reduced-order observer. With ADALINE filters, the sixth current harmonic can be successfully filtered out by compensating the voltage directly or fitting the current to compensate the voltage. In this way, the low-speed estimation performance of the reduced-order observer is improved. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified on a 3 kW SynRM experimental platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High salt is a major environmental factor that threatens plant growth and development. Increasing evidence indicates that histone acetylation is involved in plant responses to various abiotic stress; however, the underlying epigenetic regulatory mechanisms remain poorly understood. In this study, we revealed that the histone deacetylase OsHDA706 epigenetically regulates the expression of salt stress response genes in rice (Oryza sativa L.). OsHDA706 localizes to the nucleus and cytoplasm and OsHDA706 expression is significantly induced under salt stress. Moreover, oshda706 mutants showed a higher sensitivity to salt stress than the wild‐type. In vivo and in vitro enzymatic activity assays demonstrated that OsHDA706 specifically regulates the deacetylation of lysines 5 and 8 on histone H4 (H4K5 and H4K8). By combining chromatin immunoprecipitation and mRNA sequencing, we identified the clade A protein phosphatase 2 C gene, OsPP2C49, which is involved in the salt response as a direct target of H4K5 and H4K8 acetylation. We found that the expression of OsPP2C49 is induced in the oshda706 mutant under salt stress. Furthermore, the knockout of OsPP2C49 enhances plant tolerance to salt stress, while its overexpression has the opposite effect. Taken together, our results indicate that OsHDA706, a histone H4 deacetylase, participates in the salt stress response by regulating the expression of OsPP2C49 via H4K5 and H4K8 deacetylation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractLarge Language Models (LLMs) excel in natural language-relevant tasks like text generation and question answering Q&A. To further expand their application, efforts focus on enabling LLMs to utilize real-world tools. However, their tool-use ability in professional GIS remains under explored due to two main challenges. Firstly, LLMs are usually trained on general-domain corpora, lacking sufficient and comprehensive GIS-specific data to align with professional knowledge, including understanding the functions of GIS tools. Secondly, researchers often need to combine multiple GIS tools to solve geospatial tasks. To address these challenges, we propose a trainable method to enable LLMs to master GIS tools. We curated a comprehensive set of resources: instruction-response data (GeoTool, 1950 instructions) to enhance the understanding of LLMs for GIS tools, instruction-solution data (GeoSolution, 3645 instructions) to improve their ability to generate tool-use solutions for geospatial tasks, and annotated instruction-solution evaluation data (GeoTask, 300 instructions) for evaluating LLMs’ GIS tool-use proficiency. Using the collected training data (GeoTool and GeoSolution), we fine-tuned a professional-domain LLM called GeoTool-GPT based on an open-source general-domain LLM, the LLaMA-2-7b model. The experiment based on evaluation data validates our method’s effectiveness in enhancing the tool-use ability of general-domain LLMs in the professional GIS domain, with the performance of our model closely approaching that of GPT-4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our recent study revealed that photobiomodulation (PBM) inhibits delayed neuronal death by preserving mitochondrial dynamics and function following global cerebral ischemia (GCI). In the current study, we clarified whether PBM exerts effective roles in endogenous neurogenesis and long-lasting neurological recovery after GCI. Adult male rats were treated with 808 nm PBM at 20 mW/cm2 irradiance for 2 min on cerebral cortex surface (irradiance ∼7.0 mW/cm2, fluence ∼0.8 J/cm2 on the hippocampus) beginning 3 days after GCI for five consecutive days. Cognitive function was evaluated using the Morris water maze. Neural stem cell (NSC) proliferation, immature neurons, and mature neurons were examined using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)-, doublecortin (DCX)-, and NeuN-staining, respectively. Protein expression, such as NLRP3, cleaved IL1β, GFAP, and Iba1 was detected using immunofluorescence staining, and ultrastructure of astrocyte and microglia was observed by transmission electron microscopy. The results revealed that PBM exerted a markedly neuroprotective role and improved spatial learning and memory ability at 58 days of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) but not at 7 days of reperfusion. Mechanistic studies revealed that PBM suppressed reactive astrocytes and maintained astrocyte regeneration at 7 days of reperfusion, as well as elevated neurogenesis at 58 days of reperfusion, as evidenced by a significant decrease in the fluorescence intensity of GFAP (astrocyte marker) but unchanged the number of BrdU-GFAP colabeled cells at the early timepoint, and a robust elevation in the number of DCX-NeuN colabeled cells at the later timepoint in the PBM-treated group compared to the GCI group. Notably, PBM treatment protected the ultrastructure of astrocyte and microglia cells at 58 days but not 7 days of reperfusion in the hippocampal CA1 region. Furthermore, PBM treatment significantly attenuated the GCI-induced immunofluorescence intensity of NLRP3 (an inflammasome component), cleaved IL1β (reflecting inflammasome activation) and Iba1, as well as the colocalization of NLRP3/GFAP or cleaved IL-1β/GFAP, especially in animals subjected to I/R at 58 days. Taken together, PBM treatment performed postischemia exerted a long-lasting protective effect on astrocytes and promoted endogenous neurogenesis in the hippocampal CA1 region, which might contribute to neurological recovery after GCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The LiMnO-modified LiNiCoMnO (x = 0.2, 0.45, 0.7) as cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries have been successfully synthesized by a simple electrospinning process. The structure, morphology and electrochemical performances of the resulting products are studied systematically. The as-prepared LiMnO-modified LiNiCoMnO (x = 0.2, 0.45, 0.7) with a diameter of 200-300 nm has an initial discharge capacity of 168.740 mAh·g, coulombic efficiency of 99.6% and a reversible capacity as high as 139.016 mAh·g after 200 cycles at a current rate of 0.2 C. The excellent electrochemical performances of which are attributed to the stabilization of LiMnO structure, the role of LiMnO is contribute extra lithium to the reversible capacity and to facilitate Li transport through the structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium-ion battery cathode material LiFePO4particles were synthesized by sol-gel method. The impact of pH value on morphology and electrochemical performance of LiFePO4particles have been investigated. Results show that as pH value increased, the particle sizes of LiFePO4are reduced, and its particle sizes distribution are narrowed. The LiFePO4particles synthesized with a high pH value contains hierarchically organized pores, yielding a high discharge capacity of 129.02 mAh/g at 0.2 C and a stable capacity retention of 91.71% until 20 electrochemical cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lithium-ion batteries are now considered to be the technology of choice for future hybrid electric and full electric vehicles to address global warming. One of the challenges for improving the performance of lithium ion batteries to meet increasingly demanding requirements for energy storage is the development of suitable cathode materials. The recent advancement of lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxides are investigated as advanced positive cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. This review aims at providing the reader with an understanding of the critical scientific challenges facing the development of LiNixCoyMn1-x-yO2 materials, the latest developments in crystal structure, synthesis methods, and structure designs to unravel the mechanisms of charge and mass transport processes associated with battery performance, and the outlook for future-generation batteries that exploit gradient structures materials for significantly improved performance to meet the ever-increasing demands of emerging technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, large, thick, and complex tissue vascularization is one of the research focuses of tissue engineering. Numerous studies have proven that microvascular systems can be developed by cultivating endothelial cells in a hydrogel/scaffold structure. As the sources of adult endothelial cells are very limited and very easily degraded, it is better to induce stem cells into endothelial cells. In this article, a grid poly(d,l-lactic-co-glycolic acid) structure with defined internal channels was fabricated using a low-temperature deposition manufacturing technique under computer direction. In a fibrinogen mixture, an aqueous adipose-derived stem cell fibrinogen mixture was incorporated into the internal walls of the poly(d,l-lactic-co-glycolic acid) scaffold and stabilized with thrombin solution. After several days of in vitro culture, the adipose-derived stem cells immobilized in the fibrin hydrogel were induced into endothelial-like cells with endothelial growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor. Morphological and biological properties of the composite cell/fibrin–poly(d,l-lactic-co-glycolic acid) construct were characterized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel Li3V2 (PO4)3 nanobelts, which was confirmed by the peaks of X-ray diffraction, were prepared by a facile and environmentally friendly electrospinning method. A distinct nanobelt structure, with an average width of 2.5 µm and a thickness of 200 nm, is observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), while the specific surface area of 140.8 m2/g is estimated by a specific surface area analyzer. Moreover, the unique Li3V2(PO4)3 nanobelts exhibited a specific discharge capacity of 155.6 mAh/g at 0.2 C rate when they were used as cathode material in lithium-ion batteries, on testing from 3.0 to 4.8 V. Remarkably, the batteries containing Li3V2(PO4)3 nanobelts displayed excellent cycling performance, with only a 0.02% fading rate per cycle after 50 cycles in the range 30-4.3 V. These outstanding electrochemical performances could be ascribed to the particular morphology, large surface area, homogeneous particle size distribution, and the one-dimensional microstructure of Li3V2(PO4)3 nanobelts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) is a widely-used MEMS device which can be used as a filter, or as a gravimetric sensor for biochemical or physical sensing. Current device architectures require the use of an acoustic mirror or a freestanding membrane and are fabricated as discrete components. A new architecture is demonstrated which permits fabrication and integration of FBARs on arbitrary substrates. Wave confinement is achieved by fabricating the resonator on a polyimide support layer. Results show when the polymer thickness is greater than a critical value, d, the FBARs have similar performance to devices using alternative architectures. For ZnO FBARs operating at 1.3-2.2 GHz, d is ~9 μm, and the devices have a Q-factor of 470, comparable to 493 for the membrane architecture devices. The polymer support makes the resonators insensitive to the underlying substrate. Yields over 95% have been achieved on roughened silicon, copper and glass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]