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This study aims to document the implementation of sign bilingualism and co-enrollment education in a kindergarten in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, to identify the major characteristics of the programme, and to report findings of children's language in terms of vocabulary and surveys on the views and attitudes of the stakeholders of the programme, including deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) as well as hearing children and teachers. The results indicate that (a) both deaf and hearing teachers enjoy working in the Sign Bilingualism and Co-enrollment (SLCO) class and believe it is beneficial for their professional development; (b) parents of both DHH children and hearing children are happy to send their children to the SLCO class; (c) the teachers and parents agree that the SLCO programme is helpful for the overall development of not only the DHH children but also the hearing children. They believe that such an environment benefits the children's language and communication skills and the development of self-confidence and social cognition; (d) both the teachers and parents believe that the DHH children and their hearing peers get along well with each other in the SLCO class and also enjoy learning sign language. Furthermore, they all agree that the SLCO programme is promising and should be continued in the current school and implemented in more schools.

Virtual reality (VR) technology makes it possible to create an authentic virtual environment that benefits immersive learning. We designed an intercultural learning activity and applied VR technology to support it. Then, we investigated students' perceptions of the learning activity, VR technology, and intercultural competence (IC) development during learning. Students from China and Uzbekistan participated in the activity, in which a pragmatic mixed-methods approach was used. The data were collected through student reports, three questionnaires, and interviews, and then analyzed. Three main findings were obtained. First, 13 items related to perception of the learning activity were revealed. When compared with earlier studies, new items were found, including presence, immersion, and authentic cultural experience. Second, the results showed that the participants intended to continue using VR technology, were satisfied with intercultural learning supported by VR technology, and felt that the technology confirmed their expectations. Third, the results showed that intercultural learning supported by VR technology helped facilitate IC development. Based on these results, we discuss implications and offer suggestions for educators and researchers.

Sino-foreign cooperative universities in China provide English-Medium instruction (EMI) and enable students to have an international education mode. In contrast, Double First-Class universities provide non-EMI education mode in China. After graduation from their undergraduate studies in China, many students go to the United States or the United Kingdom for their postgraduate studies. However, very few studies have discussed the impact of the EMI context in Sino-foreign cooperative universities and compared students’ learning experiences in the EMI context with the non-EMI context in China. Therefore, this study aimed to explore students’ perceptions of their learning experience from the two contexts and their impact on their postgraduate study in British and American universities. A combination of quantitative and qualitative data collection including questionnaires and interviews was adopted in this study. The findings show that students’ learning experience in the EMI context seems to benefit more than students who are from nonEMI context when they strived for their postgraduate studies in British and American universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The karyotype is highly important for diagnosis and prognosis in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). The objective of the present study was to investigate the cytogenetic characteristics of patients with MDS in China. The karyotypes of 665 Chinese patients with MDS were analyzed, and it was identified that 298 cases (298/665, 44.8%) had abnormal karyotypes. Among the 298 patients with abnormal karyotypes, the 75 patients with trisomy 8 (+8) constituted the most common subset (75/298, 25.2%). The incidence of abnormal karyotypes was significantly higher in patients who were ≥51 years old compared with those <51 years old, (54.8 vs. 34.7%, respectively; P<0.05). Based on World Health Organization (WHO) classification-based Prognostic Scoring System (WPSS) criteria, the incidence of poor-prognosis karyotypes was significantly higher (17.4 vs. 5.4%; P<0.05) in the older patient group, and based on the Revised International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R) criteria, the incidence of poor-/very poor-prognosis karyotypes was also significantly higher (17.4 vs. 6.6%; P<0.05) in patients ≥51 years old compared with younger ones. Based on the WHO classification of MDS subtypes, the incidence of abnormal karyotypes in patients with high percentages of bone marrow (BM) blasts [excess blasts (EB)-I + EB-II, ≥5% blasts] was significantly higher than that in patients with low percentages of BM blasts (those with single lineage dysplasia + multilineage dysplasia, <5% blasts) (62.5 vs. 36.0%; P<0.05). The incidence of poor-prognosis karyotypes based on WPSS criteria was significantly higher in patients with high percentages of BM blasts than those with low percentages (22.0 vs. 6.9%, respectively; P<0.05), and the incidence of poor-/very poor-prognosis karyotypes based on IPSS-R criteria was also significantly higher (23.0 vs. 7.4%, respectively; P<0.05). These results demonstrate that +8 is the most common abnormal karyotype in Chinese patients with MDS. Age and the percentage of BM blasts are associated with the incidence of both abnormal karyotypes and karyotypes with poor prognosis. The results of cytogenetic abnormalities in this study will supplement the data on patients of MDS in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]