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Science education researchers and curriculum documents have advocated scientific inquiry for more than six decades; however, inconsistent findings concerning its effects on students' learning outcomes have been revealed in recent analyses of large-scale international assessment data (e.g., the Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA]). This has evoked considerable concern given the significant role that inquiry plays in science education. To unpack the complex influence of inquiry on science achievement, this study used the PISA 2015 data from eight Western or East Asian regions to explore the effects of inquiry on students' science achievement and the mediation of attitudes toward science. The results indicated that despite the negative effects that the investigation aspect of inquiry had on science achievement, the explanation aspect of inquiry had positive effects on science achievement for the Western, East Asian, and whole samples. When all of the effects of both the investigation and explanation aspects were integrated, the overall influence of inquiry on students' science achievement was found to be positive for the whole and East Asian samples and slightly negative for the Western sample. This study highlights the necessity of considering different facets of inquiry and different types of effects when investigating the effects of inquiry on science achievement and achieving a better balance between the investigation and explanation processes when implementing inquiry in school classrooms.

Virus coat protein (CP)-mediated resistance is considered an effective antiviral defense strategy that has been used to develop robust resistance to viral infection. Rice stripe virus (RSV) causes significant losses in rice production in eastern Asia. We previously showed that the overexpression of RSV CP in Arabidopsis plants results in immunity to RSV infection, using the RSV-Arabidopsis pathosystem, and this CP-mediated viral resistance depends on the function of DCLs and is mostly involved in RNA silencing. However, the special role of DCLs in producing t-siRNAs in CP transgenic Arabidopsis plants is not fully understood. In this study, we show that RSV CP transgenic Arabidopsis plants with the dcl2 mutant background exhibited similar virus susceptibility to non-transgenic plants and were accompanied by the absence of transgene-derived small interfering RNAs (t-siRNAs) from the CP region. The dcl2 mutation eliminated the accumulation of CP-derived t-siRNAs, including those generated by other DCL enzymes. In contrast, we also developed RSV CP transgenic Arabidopsis plants with the dcl4 mutant background, and these CP transgenic plants showed immunity to virus infection and accumulated comparable amounts of CP-derived t-siRNAs to CP transgenic Arabidopsis plants with the wild-type background except for a significant increase in the abundance of 22 nt t-siRNA reads. Overall, our data indicate that DCL2 plays an essential, as opposed to redundant, role in CP-derived t-siRNA production and induces virus resistance in RSV CP transgenic Arabidopsis plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Lynch syndrome (LS) pre-screening methods remain under-investigated in colorectal cancers (CRCs) in Asia. Here, we aimed to systematically investigate LS pre-screening and comprehensively characterize LS CRCs. Methods: Microsatellite instability (MSI) and germline variants of DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes were examined in 406 deficient MMR (dMMR) and 250 proficient MMR CRCs. The genetic differences between LS and sporadic CRCs were studied with whole exome sequencing analysis. Results: The incidence of dMMR in Chinese patients with CRCs was 13.8%. Consistency analysis between MMR immunohistochemistry (IHC) and MSI testing showed the kappa value was 0.758. With next-generation sequencing (NGS), germline variants were detected in 154 CRCs. Finally, 88 patients with CRC were identified as having LS by Sanger sequencing. Among them, we discovered 21 previously unreported pathogenic germline variants of MMR genes. Chinese patients with LS, compared with sporadic CRCs, tended to be early-onset, right-sided, early-stage and mucinous. Overall, the performance of MMR IHC and MSI testing for LS pre-screening was comparable: the area under the ROC curve for dMMR, MSI-H, and MSI-H/L was 0.725, 0.750, and 0.745, respectively. dMMR_MSI-H LS and sporadic CRCs showed substantial differences in somatic genetic characteristics, including different variant frequencies of APC, CREBBP, and KRAS, as well as different enriched pathways of VEGF, Notch, TGFβR, mTOR, ErbB, and Rac protein signal transduction. Conclusions: MMR IHC and MSI testing were effective methods for LS pre-screening. The revealed clinical and somatic genetic characteristics in LS CRCs may have the potential to improve the performance of LS pre-screening in combination with dMMR/MSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Salinity, alkalinity, and drought stress are the main abiotic stress factors affecting plant growth and development. Sophora alopecuroides L., a perennial leguminous herb in the genus Sophora, is a highly salt-tolerant sand-fixing pioneer species distributed mostly in Western Asia and northwestern China. Few studies have assessed responses to abiotic stress in S. alopecuroides. The transcriptome of the genes that confer stress-tolerance in this species has not previously been sequenced. Our objective was to sequence and analyze this transcriptome. Results: Twelve cDNA libraries were constructed in triplicate from mRNA obtained from Sophora alopecuroides for the control and salt, alkali, and drought treatments. Using de novo assembly, 902,812 assembled unigenes were generated, with an average length of 294 bp. Based on similarity searches, 545,615 (60.43%) had at least one significant match in the Nr, Nt, Pfam, KOG/COG, Swiss-Prot, and GO databases. In addition, 1673 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained from the salt treatment, 8142 from the alkali treatment, and 17,479 from the drought treatment. A total of 11,936 transcription factor genes from 82 transcription factor families were functionally annotated under salt, alkali, and drought stress, these include MYB, bZIP, NAC and WRKY family members. DEGs were involved in the hormone signal transduction pathway, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and antioxidant enzymes; this suggests that these pathways or processes may be involved in tolerance towards salt, alkali, and drought stress in S. alopecuroides. Conclusion: Our study first reported transcriptome reference sequence data in Sophora alopecuroides, a non-model plant without a reference genome. We determined digital expression profile and discovered a broad survey of unigenes associated with salt, alkali, and drought stress which provide genomic resources available for Sophora alopecuroides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Studies of the immunogenicity of the killed bivalent whole cell oral cholera vaccine, Shanchol, have been performed in historically cholera-endemic areas of Asia. There is a need to assess the immunogenicity of the vaccine in Haiti and other populations without historical exposure to Vibrio cholerae. Methodology/Principal Findings: We measured immune responses after administration of Shanchol, in 25 adults, 51 older children (6–17 years), and 47 younger children (1–5 years) in Haiti, where cholera was introduced in 2010. A≥4-fold increase in vibriocidal antibody titer against V. cholerae O1 Ogawa was observed in 91% of adults, 74% of older children, and 73% of younger children after two doses of Shanchol; similar responses were observed against the Inaba serotype. A≥2-fold increase in serum O-antigen specific polysaccharide IgA antibody levels against V. cholerae O1 Ogawa was observed in 59% of adults, 45% of older children, and 61% of younger children; similar responses were observed against the Inaba serotype. We compared immune responses in Haitian individuals with age- and blood group-matched individuals from Bangladesh, a historically cholera-endemic area. The geometric mean vibriocidal titers after the first dose of vaccine were lower in Haitian than in Bangladeshi vaccinees. However, the mean vibriocidal titers did not differ between the two groups after the second dose of the vaccine. Conclusions/Significance: A killed bivalent whole cell oral cholera vaccine, Shanchol, is highly immunogenic in Haitian adults and children. A two-dose regimen may be important in Haiti, and other populations lacking previous repeated exposures to V. cholerae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Our global multi-pollutant model quantifies pollution from livestock to rivers. • Over 57% of nutrients and oocysts on land are from grazed animal systems. • Asia, south america and africa contribute by 68% to nutrients and oocysts on land. • Cattle, pigs and chickens are responsible for 74–88% of nutrients and oocysts in rivers. • One-fourth of global sub-basin areas contribute by 71–95% to river pollution. Livestock production is often a source of multiple pollutants in rivers. However, current assessments of water pollution seldomly take a multi-pollutant perspective, while this is essential for improving water quality. This study quantifies inputs of multiple pollutants to rivers from livestock production worldwide, by animal types and spatially explicit. We focus on nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and Cryptosporidium (pathogen). We developed the MARINA-Global-L (M odel to A ssess R iver I nputs of polluta N ts to se A s for L ivetsock) model for 10,226 sub-basins and eleven livestock species. Global inputs to land from livestock are around 94 Tg N, 19 Tg P, and 2.9 × 1021 oocysts from Cryptosporidium in 2010. Over 57% of these amounts are from grazed animals. Asia, South America, and Africa account for over 68% of these amounts on land. The inputs to rivers are around 22 Tg Total Dissolved Nitrogen (TDN), 1.8 Tg Total Dissolved P (TDP), and 1.3 × 1021 oocysts in 2010. Cattle, pigs, and chickens are responsible for 74–88% of these pollutants in rivers. One-fourth of the global sub-basins can be considered pollution hotspots and contribute 71–95% to the TDN, TDP, and oocysts in rivers. Our study could contribute to effective manure management for individual livestock species in sub-basins to reduce multiple pollutants in rivers. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cassia tora Linn. is widely distributed in South-East Asia and South-West Pacific as an important weed. It has many pharmacological activities including anti-allergic, anti-hepatotoxic, and remedy in skin diseases. In this study, we assembled and characterized the complete chloroplast genome sequence of C. tora from high-throughput sequencing data. The chloroplast genome was 162,426 bp in length, consisting of large single-copy (LSC) and small single-copy (SSC) regions of 90,843 bp and 18,001 bp, respectively, which were separated by a pair of 26,791 bp inverted repeat (IR) regions. The genome is predicted to contain 131 genes, including 84 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. The overall GC content of the genome is 36.0%. A phylogenetic tree reconstructed by 32 chloroplast genomes reveals that C. tora is mostly related to Senna occidentalis. The work reported the firstly complete chloroplast genome of C. tora which may provide useful information to the evolution of Cassieae Bronn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intensity variation of the South Asian high (SAH) plays an important role in the formation and extinction of many kinds of mesoscale systems, including tropical cyclones, southwest vortices in the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) region, and the precipitation in the whole Asia Europe region, and the SAH has a vortex symmetrical structure; its dynamic field also has the symmetry form. Not enough previous studies focus on the variation of SAH daily intensity. The purpose of this study is to establish a day-to-day prediction model of the SAH intensity, which can accurately predict not only the interannual variation but also the day-to-day variation of the SAH. Focusing on the summer period when the SAH is the strongest, this paper selects the geopotential height data between 1948 and 2020 from NCEP to construct the SAH intensity datasets. Compared with the classical deep learning methods of various kinds of efficient time series prediction model, we ultimately combine the Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise (CEEMDAN) method, which has the ability to deal with the nonlinear and unstable single system, with the Permutation Entropy (PE) method, which can extract the SAH intensity feature of IMF decomposed by CEEMDAN, and the Convolution-based Gated Recurrent Neural Network (ConvGRU) model is used to train, test, and predict the intensity of the SAH. The prediction results show that the combination of CEEMDAN and ConvGRU can have a higher accuracy and more stable prediction ability than the traditional deep learning model. After removing the redundant features in the time series, the prediction accuracy of the SAH intensity is higher than that of the classical model, which proves that the method has good applicability for the prediction of nonlinear systems in the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hybrid loach of M. anguillicaudatus (female) and M. bipartitus (male) have the desirable trait of growth performance. Recently, farming scale of this hybrid has been gradually increased in Asia, suggesting a promise of a new variety for loach. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of the hybrid loach was obtained by PCR. The genome is 16,647 bp in length, including 2 ribosomal RNA genes. 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, and a non-coding control region, the gene composition and order of which was similar to most reported from other vertebrates. Sequence analysis showed that the overall base composition is 29.75% for A, 28.28% for T, 25.61% for C, and 16.36% for G. The phylogenetic tree showed that Misgurnus family got together for one branch, which includes this hybrid loach, and the other loaches had their own branches. Also, the mitochondrial genome sequence of the hybrid loach was aligned by BLAST, compared with Cobitinae the sequence similarity could reach >95%, and the similarity to Misgurnus was >99%. The hybrid loach follows the matrilineal inheritance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The incidence of Clostridioides difficile infection is increasing in developing regions such as Asia. • Clinical diagnosis and routine monitoring of CDI in underdeveloped regions hampered by high cost of diagnostic reagents. • We found a novel target for the identification of hypervirulent Clostridioides difficile Sequence Type 1. • We developed a highly specific and sensitive primer set for simultaneous identification of hypervirulent ST1 and detection of toxin genes directly on total fecal DNA. The incidence of Clostridioides difficile infection and the prevalence of hypervirulent ST1 (BI/NAP1/027) strain are increasing, especially in developing countries. We aimed to develop a new PCR assay for the identification of hypervirulent ST1 strains and toxigenic C. difficile in stool samples. We established a quadruplex TaqMan real-time PCR (pilW _4-plex PCR) assay targeting the pilW , a ST1-specific type Ⅳ minor pilin gene, and three C. difficile genes including cdtB , tcdB , and hsp. The sensitivity and specificity of the assay was tested using 403 C. difficile isolates and 180 unformed stool sample. The results were compared with anaerobic culture-based conventional PCR method and MLST. The pilW _4-plex PCR identified toxigenic C. difficile in 333 (82.6%, 333/403) isolates with 100% sensitivity and specificity, and in 78 (43.3%, 78/180) stool samples with the sensitivity and specificity of 94.7% and 93.3%, respectively. Hypervirulent ST1 were detected in 21 strains and nine stool samples by the pilW _4-plex PCR. The pilW _4-plex PCR assay has no cross-reaction with non-toxigenic C. difficile or other bacteria. The pilW _4-plex PCR assay is an accurate and rapid method with high sensitivity and specificity for identification of ST1 and detection of toxigenic C. difficile in stool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterocytozoon bieneusi (E. bieneusi), which is one of the most common microsporidia, has been identified as an important obligate intracellular pathogen that commonly colonizes in a variety of animal species and humans worldwide, including humans. In this study, the statistical analyses of E. bieneusi infection and prevalence were performed to clarify the relationship between different genotypes in different countries. The databases Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP Chinese Journal Database, Wanfang Data, PubMed, Web of Science and ScienceDirect were used for data collection. The research data were subjected to subgroup, univariate regression, and correlation, to reveal factors related to the high prevalence of E. bieneusi. A total of, 34 of the 498 articles published before April 2022 met the inclusion criteria. The global prevalence of E. bieneusi in pigs was 37.69% (5175/12672). The prevalence of E. bieneusi in nursery pigs was 58.87% (588/946). In developing countries and Asia, the highest prevalence of E. bieneusi in pigs were 37.62% (4752/11645) and 40.14% (4715/11345), respectively. Moreover, humans and pigs have been found to be infected with the same genotype of E. bieneusi in some cases, as evidenced by the consolidation of genotype information. The results showed that pigs are susceptible to E. bieneusi during the nursery period. The prevalence of E. bieneusi is high in developing countries, and its genotype prevalence varies in each country. Thus, it is essential to strengthen the health inspection of vulnerable groups and customs quarantine inspection. • A total of 34 papers containing 12672 pigs from 12 countries were analyzed, and the prevalence was 37.69%. • The prevalence of E. bieneusi pigs in developing countries is higher than that in developed countries. • Higher positive rates were observed in pigs raised in scale farms. • A total of 265 ITS genotypes of E. bieneusi were found in investigated pigs • Pig is one of the important potential sources of E. bieneusi infection in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]