Self-regulated learning strategies adopted by successful Chinese nursing students in the process of learning Nursing English.

As the number of foreign patients and the frequency of international academic exchanges increase, English proficiency has become increasingly essential for Chinese nurses in the treatment and nursing processes, clinical academic exchanges, and ongoing education. However, the overall English proficiency of Chinese nurses is generally inadequate, greatly depending on the English that they acquire during their nursing education. This study aims to explore the challenges encountered by Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) nursing students in the process of learning Nursing English, along with the effective self-regulated learning strategies they adopt to overcome these challenges. Data were collected from nine Chinese EFL nursing students through their reflective journals and thematic analysis was applied. Data analysis revealed the variety of challenges EFL nursing students encountered, including language-related challenges, which are linguistic difficulties that relate to Nursing English learning itself, such as Nursing English vocabulary and terminology, English-to-English translation, limited listening comprehension, and the gap between textbook knowledge and its practical application; learner-related challenges, which are difficulties that affect students' emotional, affective, and mental state, primarily caused by uncertainty about the significance of Nursing English, the unexpected difficulty of Nursing English, and failing quizzes; and context-related challenges, which are difficulties relate to social, cultural, and educational context, such as insufficient learning resources, a lack of language environment, and peer pressure. To surmount these challenges, the participants adopted diverse self-regulated learning strategies, including setting goals, previewing in advance and reviewing in time, utilizing word roots, prefixes, and suffixes to facilitate vocabulary learning, repeating, practicing with sounds and writing systems, translating, highlighting and using imagery to overcome language-related challenges; believing in the usefulness and significance of Nursing English, keeping a growth mindset, enjoying Nursing English learning and teacher support and maintaining grit in learning Nursing English to overcome learner-related challenges; and integrating resources, creating supportive language environments and seeking assistance from teachers and cooperating with peers to overcome context-related challenges. Based on these findings, implications are drawn for Nursing English teachers, material designers, curriculum developers, and program designers. We suggest incorporating explicit strategy instruction into regular Nursing English education to enhance nursing students' self-regulated learning.

QTL Mapping of Yield, Agronomic, and Nitrogen-Related Traits in Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) under Low Nitrogen and Normal Nitrogen Treatments.

Improving low nitrogen (LN) tolerance in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) increases global barley yield and quality. In this study, a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population crossed between "Baudin × CN4079" was used to conduct field experiments on twenty traits of barley yield, agronomy, and nitrogen(N)-related traits under LN and normal nitrogen (NN) treatments for two years. This study identified seventeen QTL, comprising eight QTL expressed under both LN and NN treatments, eight LN-specific QTL, and one NN-specific QTL. The localized C2 cluster contained QTL controlling yield, agronomic, and N-related traits. Of the four novel QTL, the expression of the N-related QTL Qstna.sau-5H and Qnhi.sau-5H was unaffected by N treatment. Qtgw.sau-2H for thousand-grain weight, Qph.sau-3H for plant height, Qsl.sau-7H for spike length, and Qal.sau-7H for awn length were identified to be the four stable expression QTL. Correlation studies revealed a significant negative correlation between grain N content and harvest index (p < 0.01). These results are essential for barley marker-assisted selection (MAS) breeding.

Synergizing economic growth and carbon emission reduction in China: A path to coupling the MFLP and PLUS models for optimizing the territorial spatial functional pattern.

Carbon emissions caused by economic growth are the main cause of global warming, but controlling economic growth to reduce carbon emissions does not meet China's conditions. Therefore, how to synergize economic growth and carbon emission reduction is not only a sustainable development issue for China, but also significant for mitigating global warming. The territorial spatial functional pattern (TSFP) is the spatial carrier for coordinating economic development and carbon emissions, but how to establish the TSFP of synergizing economic growth and carbon emission reduction remains unresolved. We propose a decision framework for optimizing TSFP coupled with the multi-objective fuzzy linear programming and the patch-generating land use simulation model, to provide a new path to synergize economic growth and carbon emission reduction in China. To confirm the reliability, we took Qionglai City as the demonstration. The results found a significant spatiotemporal coupling between TSFP and the synergistic states between economic growth and carbon emission reduction (q ≥ 0.8220), which resolves the theoretical uncertainty about synergizing economic growth and carbon emission reduction through the path of TSFP optimization. The urban space of Qionglai City in 2025 and 2030 obtained by the decision framework was 6497.57 hm2 and 6628.72 hm2 respectively, distributed in the central and eastern regions; the rural space was 60,132.92 hm2 and 56,084.97 hm2, concentrated in the east, with a few located in the west; and the ecological space was 71,072.52 hm2 and 74,998.31 hm2, mainly located in the western and southeastern areas. Compared with the TSFP in 2020, the carbon emission intensity of the TSFP obtained by the decision framework was reduced by 0.7 and 4.7 tons/million yuan, respectively, and realized the synergy between economic growth and carbon emission reduction (decoupling index was 0.25 and 0.21). Further confirming that TSFP optimization is an effective way to synergize economic growth and carbon emission reduction, which can provide policy implications for coordinating economic growth and carbon emissions for China and even similar developing countries.

Circular RNA circWNK1 inhibits the progression of gastric cancer via regulating the miR-21-3p/SMAD7 axis.

Gastric cancer (GC) is a highly aggressive malignancy with limited treatment options for advanced-stage patients. Recent studies have highlighted the role of circular RNA (circRNA) as a novel regulator of cancer progression in various malignancies. However, the underlying mechanisms by which circRNA contributes to the development and progression of GC remain poorly understood. In this study, we utilized microarrays and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to identify and validate a downregulated circRNA, hsa_circ_0003251 (referred to as circWNK1), in paired GC and normal tissues. Through a series of in vitro and in vivo gain-of-function and loss-of-function assays, we demonstrated that circWNK1 exerts inhibitory effects on the proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of GC cells. Additionally, we discovered that circWNK1 acts as a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) for SMAD7 by sequestering miR-21-3p. Our findings were supported by comprehensive biological information analysis, as well as RNA pull-down, luciferase reporter gene, and western blot assays. Notably, the downregulation of circWNK1 in GC cells resulted in reduced SMAD7 expression, subsequently activating the TGF-ß signaling pathway. Collectively, our study reveals that circWNK1 functions as a tumor suppressor in GC by regulating the miR-21-3p/SMAD7-mediated TGF-ß signaling pathway. Furthermore, circWNK1 holds promise as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of GC.

Composition of DOM along the depth gradients in the paddy field treated with crop straw for 10 years.

Crop straw return is a widely used agricultural management practice. The addition of crop straw significantly alters the pool of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in agricultural soils and plays a pivotal role in the global carbon (C) cycle, which is sensitive to climate change. The DOM concentration and composition at different soil depths could regulate the turnover and further storage of organic C in terrestrial systems. However, it is still unclear how crop straw return influences the change in DOM composition in rice paddy soils. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted in which paddy soil was amended with crop straw for 10 years. Two crop straw-addition treatments [NPK with 50% crop straw (NPK+1/2S) and NPK with 100% crop straw (NPK + S)], a conventional mineral fertilization control (NPK) and a non-fertilized control were included. Topsoil (0-20 cm) and subsoil (20-40 cm) samples were collected to investigate the soil DOM concentration and compositional structure of the profile. Soil nutrients, iron (Fe) fraction, microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and concentration and optical properties (UV-Vis and fluorescence spectra) of soil DOM were determined. Here, we found that the DOM in the topsoil was more humified than that in the subsoil. The addition of crop straw further decreased the humidification degree of DOM in the subsoil. In crop straw-amended topsoil, microbial decomposition controlled the composition of DOM and induced the formation of aromatic DOM. In the straw-treated subsoil, selective adsorption by poorly crystalline Fe(oxyhydr)oxides and microbial decomposition controlled the composition of DOM. In particular, the formation of protein-like compounds could have played a significant role in the microbial degradation of DOM in the subsoil. Overall, this work conducted a case study within long-term agricultural management to understand the changes in DOM composition along the soil profile, which would be further helpful for evaluating C cycling in agricultural ecosystems.

The Impact of Various Organic Phosphorus Carriers on the Uptake and Use Efficiency in Barley.

Organic phosphorus (OP) is an essential component of the soil P cycle, which contributes to barley nutrition after its mineralization into inorganic phosphorus (Pi). However, the dynamics of OP utilization in the barley rhizosphere remain unclear. In this study, phytin was screened out from six OP carriers, which could reflect the difference in OP utilization between a P-inefficient genotype Baudin and a P-efficient genotype CN4027. The phosphorus utilization efficiency (PUE), root morphological traits, and expression of genes associated with P utilization were assessed under P deficiency or phytin treatments. P deficiency resulted in a greater root surface area and thicker roots. In barley fed with phytin as a P carrier, the APase activities of CN4027 were 2-3-fold lower than those of Baudin, while the phytase activities of CN4027 were 2-3-fold higher than those of Baudin. The PUE in CN4027 was mainly enhanced by activating phytase to improve the root absorption and utilization of Pi resulting from OP mineralization, while the PUE in Baudin was mainly enhanced by activating APase to improve the shoot reuse capacity. A phosphate transporter gene HvPHT1;8 regulated P transport from the roots to the shoots, while a purple acid phosphatase (PAP) family gene HvPAPhy_b contributed to the reuse of P in barley.