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Tutoring involves providing learners with a suitable level of structure and guidance to support their learning. This study reports on an exploration of how to design such structure and guidance (i.e., learning scaffolds) in the Chinese online educational context, and in so doing, answer the following two questions: (a) What scaffolding strategies are needed to design online tutoring, and (b) How should different levels of scaffolding intensity be emphasized in different stages of online tutoring in such educational contexts? A model for online tutoring using the Community of Inquiry framework was developed and implemented in this study. It focused attention on both the critical role of the tutor in online learning and the importance of scaffolding in online tutoring. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data, including questionnaires, interviews, and content analysis. In considering the variation of scaffolding throughout the online course, results showed that: (a) As long as a high degree of social presence is established in the initial phase, scaffolds for social presence can be withdrawn gradually throughout the course; (b) High-intensity teaching presence is much more important in the mid-phase of the course than in other phases; (c) "Discourse facilitation" should be emphasized for teaching presence in the mid-phase, while "direct instruction" scaffolding is needed in the last phase; and (d) The greatest need for scaffolding of cognitive presence occurs in the final phase of the course.

Online education for higher education has been well-researched. However, the same cannot be said for primary and secondary school education. Using data from two large-scale exams of representative Chinese primary and secondary schools pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic, this study analyzed the difference in students' performance pre-pandemic, which used face-to-face teaching, and post-pandemic, which used online teaching. Primary results indicate that the performance of primary and secondary students before the pandemic was significantly better than after the pandemic. Secondary results showed that many previously high-scoring students were now scoring closer to the mean. Further, the scores of girls had changed more significantly than those of boys. Online teaching had a negative effect in rural than in urban areas; the preexisting gap between rural and urban students had widened after online teaching. Based on these results, improvements can be made on the online education system, technical support, and teachers.

Background: The gut virome has been implicated in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), yet a full understanding of the gut virome in IBD patients, especially across diverse geographic populations, is lacking. Results: In this study, we conducted a comprehensive gut virome-wide association study in a Chinese cohort of 71 IBD patients (15 with Crohn's disease and 56 with ulcerative colitis) and 77 healthy controls via viral-like particle (VLP) and bulk virome sequencing of their feces. By utilizing an integrated gut virus catalog tailored to the IBD virome, we revealed fundamental alterations in the gut virome in IBD patients. These characterized 139 differentially abundant viral signatures, including elevated phages predicted to infect Escherichia, Klebsiella, Enterococcus_B, Streptococcus, and Veillonella species, as well as IBD-depleted phages targeting Prevotella, Ruminococcus_E, Bifidobacterium, and Blautia species. Remarkably, these viral signatures demonstrated high consistency across diverse populations such as those in Europe and the USA, emphasizing their significance and broad relevance in the disease context. Furthermore, fecal virome transplantation experiments verified that the colonization of these IBD-characterized viruses can modulate experimental colitis in mouse models. Conclusions: Building upon these insights into the IBD gut virome, we identified potential biomarkers for prognosis and therapy in IBD patients, laying the foundation for further exploration of viromes in related conditions. -rW5fkHC-UvmYPog5oPfKK Video Abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curriculum development for distance education (DE) practitioners is more and more focusing on practical requirements and competence development. Delphi and DACUM methods have been used at some universities. However, in the competency-based development area, these methods have been taken over by professional-task-based development in the last decade, which has not been applied in the open and distance education area so far. Is the professional-task-based curriculum development approach suitable for open and distance education? This study aims to develop a Master Degree curriculum for DE practitioners in China based on professional tasks. Design-based research (DBR) was used and two cycles of DBR were conducted. Interviews and observations were used to collect data. In the first round of DBR, the authors find that professional-task-based development is feasible and could direct more closely to practical requirements of competencies, and that meanwhile, this approach has some disadvantages and limitations. In the second round of DBR, the approach was revised and results showed that the revised approach was much more suitable and reasonable for DE practitioners. Results of this study include: 1) professional-task based curricula for DE practitioners in China; 2) a curriculum development approach for open and distance education revised from professional-task-based development.

The purpose of our study was to assess how an academic health center (AHC) mentor academy program affected mentor competence and optimized the mentor-mentee relationship. Mixed methods were used to assess the effectiveness of an AHC mentor program at a clinical translational science institute (CTSI). Twenty biomedical research faculty mentors took a validated survey and submitted reflective writings to discover if they corroborated or refuted statistically significant survey results. There was a significant improvement in participants' confidence of mentor skills, integral mentoring quality, and the extent to which they fulfill mentees' expectations. Males provided constructive feedback and helped mentees develop goal strategies more often compared to females. Reflective writings supported these findings yet refuted two survey findings. The use of a mixed methods approach offers novel insight into how mentoring programs benefit translational research mentoring capacity building and raises questions about the sole use of surveys as evidence of program effectiveness.

Ceramic fibers are potential lightweight materials for high‐temperature insulation due to their excellent high‐temperature stability and low thermal conductivity. However, the grain growth at high temperatures leads to the loss of flexibility and decreases in the thermal insulation performances of the ceramic fibers. Herein, we prepared flexible (La0.2Nd0.2Sm0.2Gd0.2Yb0.2)2Zr2O7 (LNSGY) high‐entropy ceramic nanofibrous membranes using polyacetylacetone rare‐earth zirconium precursors by electrospinning method. According to the XRD and TEM analyses, the LNSGY nanofibrous membranes exhibited dual phases of defective fluorite and ordered pyrochlore structures. The grain size of the LNSGY fibers increased from 15.4 to 40.8 nm at heat treatments increasing from 800 to 1200°C; the slow grain growth in high‐entropy ceramic nanofibrous membranes contributed to the good flexibility. The fiber morphology was continuous and well distributed with diameters less than 500 nm. The thermal conductivity at room temperature was 0.0339 W/(m K). In addition, the high‐entropy ceramic nanofibrous membranes exhibited tensile strength and thermal stability at high temperatures. These performances provide further applications for high‐entropy ceramic nanofibrous membranes as high‐temperature insulation materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers explored patterns of significance in students' reflective writings before and after interviews with individuals unlike themselves. To determine changes in cultural attitudes or beliefs, the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) program and QUAN [right arrow]qual sequential mixed methods model was used. Seven factors explained 66.49% of the variance. This is a successful replication of a previous study, so the authors describe specific contextual differences. An analysis of participants' reflective writings offer insight about how participants integrate new and existing knowledge. Thematic content of the qualitative data revealed that increased opportunities for contact resulted in students' expressions of change. The findings demonstrate that experiencing instructional activities which challenge dental students' personal biases, while simultaneously exposing them first hand to the lived realities of others is important to catalyzing a shift in attitudes. Based on these findings, experiential learning experiences versus didactic coursework are recommended for students to relate the concepts of cultural competency and health disparities. Mixed methods inquiry can inform faculty about the outcomes that may emerge from these efforts.

This article explores the field of organosulfur chemistry and its applications in various industries. The authors specifically discuss their research on aryne chemistry and its interaction with organosulfur compounds. They detail their efforts in developing synthetic methodologies using sulfonium zwitterions and the unique reactivities of the resulting S(IV) intermediates. The article highlights their recent achievements in sigmatropic rearrangement, ring-opening reactions of cyclic sulfides, and selective arylation of thio-oxindoles. The authors aim to advance zwitterion chemistry and expand its applications through selectivity control and diversity-oriented synthesis. [Extracted from the article]

Piezoelectric constant and Curie temperature are two important parameters of piezoelectric materials, but currently most piezoelectric materials have the problem of obtaining both high piezoelectric coefficient and Curie temperature. In this work, quaternary piezoelectric ceramics of 0.28Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-0.32Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3–(0.4-x)PbTiO3-xPbZrO3 (x = 0~0.25) were designed and prepared by a solid-phase method, and the phase structure, dielectric, piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties of 0.28PIN-0.32PZN-(0.4-x)PT-xPZ piezoelectric ceramics were investigated by regulating the Zr/Ti ratio. The results show that the selected compositions are located in the MPB region, and the ceramic samples of each component display high density, the piezoelectric constant (d33) and the electromechanical coupling coefficient (kp) increase and then decrease with the increase of x. The optimum piezoelectric properties are found in compositions at x = 0.1, which showed a high piezoelectric coefficient d33 of 450 pC/N and high Curie temperature Tc of 272 °C. It is promising for use in high-temperature piezoelectric transducers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plate-like single-crystalline BaBi4Ti4 O 1 5 particles were synthesized by the molten salt synthesis (MSS) method. The effects of sintering temperature, holding time, and NaCl–KCl molten salt content on the phase structure and morphology of plate-like BaBi4-Ti4 O 1 5 particles were investigated. The results show that plate-like BaBi4Ti4 O 1 5 particles can be synthesized when the sintering temperature is above 800 ∘ C. The size of particles increases with increasing sintering temperature and molten salt content. Largely anisotropic plate-like BaBi4Ti4 O 1 5 particles with diameter ≥ 10 μ m and thickness of ∼ 0.3 μ m can be obtained under the optimum process parameters. The crystal structure of BaBi4Ti4 O 1 5 was determined as A21am by TEM, which should be attributed to the Bi 3 + and Ba 2 + diffusing into [TiO6] octahedrons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]