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TheCollege English Curriculum Requirements, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Education in 2007, recommended the inclusion of formative assessment into the existing summative assessment framework of College English. This policy had the potential to fundamentally change the nature of assessment and its role in the teaching and learning of English in Chinese universities. In order to document and analyse these changes, case studies involving English language (EL) teachers and learners were undertaken in two Chinese universities: one a Key University in the national capital; the other a non-Key University in a western province. The case study design incorporated classroom observations and interviews with EL teachers and their students. The type and focus of feedback and the engagement of students in assessment were analysed in the two contexts. Fundamental to the analysis was the concept of enactment, with the focus of this study on the ways that policy ideas and principles were enacted in the practices of the Chinese university classroom. Understandings of formative assessment as applied in contexts other than the predominantly western, Anglophone contexts from where many of its principles derive are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Formative assessment is increasingly being implemented through policy initiatives in Chinese educational contexts. As an approach to assessment, formative assessment derives many of its key principles from Western contexts, notably through the work of scholars in the UK, the USA and Australia. The question for this paper is the ways that formative assessment has been interpreted in the teaching of College English in Chinese Higher Education. The paper reports on a research study that utilised a sociocultural perspective on learning and assessment to analyse how two Chinese universities – an urban-based Key University and a regional-based Non-Key University – interpreted and enacted a China Ministry of Education policy on formative assessment in College English teaching. Of particular interest for the research were the ways in which the sociocultural conditions of the Chinese context mediated understanding of Western principles and led to their adaptation. The findings from the two universities identified some consistency in localised interpretations of formative assessment which included emphases on process and student participation. The differences related to the specific sociocultural conditions contextualising each university including geographical location, socioeconomic status, and teacher and student roles, expectations and beliefs about English. The findings illustrate the sociocultural tensions in interpreting, adapting and enacting formative assessment in Chinese College English classes and the consequent challenges to and questions about retaining the spirit of formative assessment as it was originally conceptualised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is shown that the aligned electrospun fibers are a convenient platform for studying the mechanical effects on nanomaterials, particularly when using surface‐enhanced Raman scattering as a sensitive tool of monitoring. The ligands on the surface of the embedded Au nanoparticles fall off easily with the shear force from the stretching, in contrast to the counterparts protected by polymer/silica shells. Upon stretching, the chains of Au nanoparticles will reversibly break, as revealed by the dramatic changes in the longitudinal plasmon absorption. It is believed that such a platform will open a window for understanding mechanical effects at the nanoscale, and also a new means for synthetic control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nano-stirbars are the most convenient and effective means for mixing in microscale systems. With electrospinning and ultrasonic breaking, a simple method is developed to continuously synthesize nano-stirbars without an external magnet. To validate the nano-stirbars, Au nanowires were grown on their surface to demonstrate the stirring with simultaneous catalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance prediction based on candidates and screening based on predicted performance value are the core of product development. For example, the performance prediction and screening of equipment components and parts are an important guarantee for the reliability of equipment products. The prediction and screening of drug bioactivity value and performance are the keys to pharmaceutical product development. The main reasons for the failure of pharmaceutical discovery are the low bioactivity of the candidate compounds and the deficiencies in their efficacy and safety, which are related to the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) of the compounds. Therefore, it is very necessary to quickly and effectively perform systematic bioactivity value prediction and ADMET property evaluation for candidate compounds in the early stage of drug discovery. In this paper, a data-driven pharmaceutical products screening prediction model is proposed to screen drug candidates with higher bioactivity value and better ADMET properties. First, a quantitative prediction method for bioactivity value is proposed using the fusion regression of LGBM and neural network based on backpropagation (BP-NN). Then, the ADMET properties prediction method is proposed using XGBoost. According to the predicted bioactivity value and ADMET properties, the BVAP method is defined to screen the drug candidates. And the screening model is validated on the dataset of antagonized Erα active compounds, in which the mean square error (MSE) of fusion regression is 1.1496, the XGBoost prediction accuracy of ADMET properties are 94.0% for Caco-2, 95.7% for CYP3A4, 89.4% for HERG, 88.6% for hob, and 96.2% for Mn. Compared with the commonly used methods for ADMET properties such as SVM, RF, KNN, LDA, and NB, the XGBoost in this paper has the highest prediction accuracy and AUC value, which has better guiding significance and can help screen pharmaceutical product candidates with good bioactivity, pharmacokinetic properties, and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Syngnathid fishes (seahorses and pipefish) are unique in reproduction, with males becoming pregnant and giving birth. The brood pouch provides osmoregulation, gas exchange, waste transport, immunoprotection and nutrition supply. However, the function of hormone trafficking is rarely studied. By injecting the mixture liquor of human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG, 2 IU/g) and luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone A3 (LHRH-A 3, 5 ng/g) into the brood pouch of Hippocampus erectus , we found the reproductive interactions accelerated dramatically, and 4 pairs were successfully mated. After 24 h, the inner epithelium was highly folded and the loose connective tissue layer was highly distended. In the inner tissue layer of the brood pouch, fibroblasts secreted vigorously, blood vessels multiplied and expanded, indicating the physiological structure of the brood pouch modified hastily from the unpregnant stage to the progravid phase. Correspondingly, transcriptome results revealed the gene expression of circadian, epitheliogenesis, angiogenesis, lipid transfer, and spermiogenesis were significantly up-regulated. We innovatively found that macromolecule exogenous hormone (HCG) can be not only efficiently transported from brood pouch to body, but also promote mating and the physiological changes of the brood pouch. • HCG and LHRH-A 3 can promote the reproduction of seahorses and accelerate inner epithelium folding, loose connective tissue layer distending and blood vessels multiplying in the brood pouch. • The brood pouch epithelium of seahorses and the mucosal lining of the uterus may belong to the analogous organ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The contribution of oyster reefs characteristics to the omnivorous fish intestinal microbiota was distinct. • Microbial communities in the oyster reefs and fish intestines showed various predictive functions and unique core indicators. • The microbial diversity in sediments were significantly higher than that in intestines. The habitats of oyster reefs had played various ecological services functions, as an important means of marine ecological restoration and fishery resources conservation, which had been widely used worldwide. And the characteristics of microbial communities would be inevitably affected by habitat of oyster reefs. The aim of this study was to reveal the relationship between oyster reefs and the intestinal microbiota of fish (Takifugu ocellatus , Acanthopagrus latus , Clupanodon thrissa , and Mugil cephalus). Here, based on 16S rRNA sequencing, this research analyzed the microbial communities of fishes gut in the oyster reefs from the most crucial estuary economic zone in Southern China. It was significantly lower that the bacterial alpha-diversity in the fish intestines than in the sediments of oyster reefs. The non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) results showed that intestines microbiota of T. ocellatus and A. latus were more homologous to sediments microbiota, but intestines microbiota of C. thrissa and M. cephalus were more similar to the water microbiota. There were obvious differences in the contribution of oyster reefs habitat to intestinal microorganisms of four fishes. Source tracking analysis as well reached the similar conclusion. For instance, contribution of water to T. ocellatus and A. latus was lesser than sediments, which was related to their benthic habits. Based on the differences in microbial community compositions, the functional prediction analysis had demonstrated that special functional pathways and independent core indicators had been formed separately from oyster reefs and fish intestines. Overall, these findings highlighted the characteristics of microbial diversity and functions from the omnivorous fish living in oyster reefs habitats. This research proposed new insights into the function of oyster reefs habitats, which have enriched the ecological service value of oyster reefs from microbial ecology and provided a reference for the application of oyster reefs habitats in other estuaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mandarin fish, Siniperca chuatsi , is an economically fish with delicious flesh and rich nutrients. Artificially induced polyploid is an effective methods of breeding superior species of fish. The increasing frequency of mosaicism in the research of fish polyploidy has attracted the attention of many scholars. In this study, hydrostatic pressure shock caused an abnormal cleavage of fertilized, larvae treated with pressure shock displayed reduced fertilization, hatch and survival rates. Mosaics that both have diploid and tetraploid cells were induced in mandarin fish. The effective condition was applying 500 kg/cm2 pressure at 45 min after fertilization for 2 min at 25 °C, the occurrence of 44.5% diploid/tetraploid mosaic fish was confirmed by flow cytometry determination of DNA content. Mosaic mandarin fish has the ability to incubate and grow, and the body weight and body length analysis showed no significant difference between mosaic and diploid individuals. However, after the hydrostatic pressure shock, delayed embryonic development and body deformities were observed, and the body spot and stripe have largely changed in experimental mandarin fish. • Survivable mandarin fish Siniperca chuatsi diploid/tetraploid mosaics obtained by hydrostatic pressure shock induction. • Hydrostatic pressure shocked at 500 kg/cm2 for 2 min was optimal for mandarin fish Siniperca chuatsi mosaic induction. • Changes in body spots and stripes appeared in mandarin fish after hydrostatic pressure shock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A multi-dimensional functional space was built to visualize the functional structure. • The functional structure and trait composition of fish in the PRE vary seasonally. • The CWM traits were mainly affected by temperature, DO, chlorophyll-a, and depth. Estuaries are one of the most important ecosystems with high biological productivity. They connect freshwater and marine ecosystems, and the fish community assemblages face intense environmental changes, so estuarine fish communities have unique ecological characteristics. With the increase of human activities and the discharge of pollutants, the pressure on the ecosystem of the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) is intensifying, and its ecosystem functions and services are inevitably affected. To better understand the functional structure of the fish community in the PRE and its response to environmental changes, we analyzed the trait composition of the community and its relationships to environmental factors based on 10 functional traits of 130 fish species collected in the PRE during the summer and winter of 2020–2021. In addition, we built a multi-dimensional functional space to visualize the overall functional structure of the PRE and explore the seasonal variation of the selected traits in the functional space. Our findings suggest that the functional traits of the fish communities in the PRE were mainly affected by temperature, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a, and depth. Among them, the effects of dissolved oxygen, temperature, and chlorophyll-a on CWM traits were reflected in seasonal differences, while the effects of depth were reflected in spatial differences. We also found the main trait categories that occupied the most functional space and contributed the most to the seasonal differences in functional space. The results of this study are significant for understanding the seasonal variation of the functional structure in the PRE and how environmental gradients drive the functional traits of fish communities, and also provide insights for effective ecosystem-based management in the PRE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was conducted to investigate effects of starvation and refeeding on growth, physiology and intestine structure of Hippocampus erectus. This study was divided into 2 periods within one month: a starvation period in which seahorses were subjected to the following 4 starved stage: 0 days (S0), 5 days (S5), 10 days (S10), 15 days (S15) and a refeeding period: S5F25 (25 days of refeeding after 5 days of starvation), S10F20 (20 days of refeeding after 10 days of starvation), S15F15 (15 days of refeeding after 15 days of starvation). Total protein content decreased significantly during starvation while S5F25, F10F20 existed no significant difference with continuedly feeding group. Intestine lipase of S5 increased significantly while intestinal lipase of S15 markedly decreased. Intestine protease activity and hepatic digestive enzyme significantly decreased after starvation, but digestive enzyme of S5F25, S10F20 had no significant difference with continuedly feeding group. Hepatic SOD and CAT activities reached highest at S5 and S10, respectively. MDA level of S5, S10 and S15 was significantly higher than that of continuedly feeding group. SOD, CAT, MDA level of S5F25 and S10F20 had no significant difference with continuedly feeding group. Starved seahorse showed decreased height of mucosal fold and microvilli, enlarged gap between mucosal layer and submucosal layer, reduced number of organelles and swollen mitochondria in intestinal epithelial cells but recovered to some extent after refeeding. This study explored starvation physiology knowledge of seahorse which provided scientific significance for seahorse aquaculture. • Lined seahorse starved within 10 days showed partial compensatory growth in the refed stage. • Protein content, intestine protease and hepatic digestive enzyme activities were significantly decreased after starvation. • Hepatic antioxidant enzyme activities such as SOD, CAT and MAD appeared adaptive changes during starvation. • Declined absorbed surface area of intestine structure and organelle atrophy were observed in starved stage. • Most of physiology and structure changes of seahorse starved within 10 days can recover through refeeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]