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This study aimed to raise awareness of maker education for pre-service teachers and discuss maker education in their major subjects by developing and applying a maker education course for pre-service teachers with various majors based on novel engineering (NE), a teaching and learning method that combines humanities and engineering. Accordingly, the course was developed following the procedure of the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE) model, and the educational effectiveness was investigated using test tools. The educational effect and difficulties were also examined through the analysis of reflective journals written by 20 pre-service teachers with various majors who participated in the course. To investigate the educational effectiveness of the developed course, the science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) literacy of the participants--before and after the course--was measured, with the results demonstrating a statistically significant improvement. Analysis of the reflective journals identified a recognition of sharing effectiveness, the joy of making, and an in-depth understanding of maker education as education effects, and a lack of understanding of techniques, the burden of prototype fabrication, and the limitation of majoring subjects as difficulties experienced during the activities. This study verified that NE could be used as a significant maker education measure for pre-service teachers with various majors. Based on this verification, this study also proposes a strategy to develop more effective NE-based maker education.

Attaining equitable education for all is one of the sustainable development goals. Not only the gap of education between urban and rural students but also the gap of access to information and communications technology also exists. Thus, an effort to resolve this gap is necessary. This study combines novel engineering, which is the fusion of engineering and literacy educational methods with maker education, to create a sustainable model of maker education. Through this process, an instructional model for a novel engineering-based maker education is proposed that would enable the utilization of the model in rural elementary school environment. To achieve this, this study analyzed the literature regarding maker education, novel engineering, and design thinking to develop, draft, and verify internal validity through an expert's review and usability evaluation. In addition, this study includes an example class for rural elementary students with application of the model to verify the model's external validity and confirm that the model significantly improved the maker mindset. Finally, this study proposes final instructional model by modifying and improving the draft based on the recommendations derived from the validity verification process. The proposed instructional model was developed as a suitable form for rural school students, which can use low-cost teaching tools to lower the entry barrier to information and communications technology education. The model process developed in this study has the advantage of raising convergence problem-solving abilities and the maker mindset, in terms of a making project that fuses literature and engineering, among students.

Arterial macrophage cholesterol accumulation and impaired cholesterol efflux lead to foam cell formation and the development of atherosclerosis. Modified lipoproteins interact with toll-like receptors (TLR), causing an increased inflammatory response and altered cholesterol homeostasis. We aimed to determine the effects of TLR antagonists on cholesterol efflux and foam cell formation in human macrophages. Stimulated monocytes were treated with TLR antagonists (MIP2), and the cholesterol efflux transporter expression and foam cell formation were analyzed. The administration of MIP2 attenuated the foam cell formation induced by lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and oxidized low-density lipoproteins (ox-LDL) in stimulated THP-1 cells (p < 0.001). The expression of ATP-binding cassette transporters A (ABCA)-1, ABCG-1, scavenger receptor (SR)-B1, liver X receptor (LXR)-α, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-γ mRNA and proteins were increased (p < 0.001) following MIP2 administration. A concentration-dependent decrease in the phosphorylation of p65, p38, and JNK was also observed following MIP2 administration. Moreover, an inhibition of p65 phosphorylation enhanced the expression of ABCA1, ABCG1, SR-B1, and LXR-α. TLR inhibition promoted the cholesterol efflux pathway by increasing the expression of ABCA-1, ABCG-1, and SR-B1, thereby reducing foam cell formation. Our results suggest a potential role of the p65/NF-kB/LXR-α/ABCA1 axis in TLR-mediated cholesterol homeostasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]