Mechanisms of calcium homeostasis orchestrate plant growth and immunity.

Calcium (Ca2+) is an essential nutrient for plants and a cellular signal, but excessive levels can be toxic and inhibit growth1,2. To thrive in dynamic environments, plants must monitor and maintain cytosolic Ca2+ homeostasis by regulating numerous Ca2+ transporters3. Here we report two signalling pathways in Arabidopsis thaliana that converge on the activation of vacuolar Ca2+/H+ exchangers (CAXs) to scavenge excess cytosolic Ca2+ in plants. One mechanism, activated in response to an elevated external Ca2+ level, entails calcineurin B-like (CBL) Ca2+ sensors and CBL-interacting protein kinases (CIPKs), which activate CAXs by phosphorylating a serine (S) cluster in the auto-inhibitory domain. The second pathway, triggered by molecular patterns associated with microorganisms, engages the immune receptor complex FLS2-BAK1 and the associated cytoplasmic kinases BIK1 and PBL1, which phosphorylate the same S-cluster in CAXs to modulate Ca2+ signals in immunity. These Ca2+-dependent (CBL-CIPK) and Ca2+-independent (FLS2-BAK1-BIK1/PBL1) mechanisms combine to balance plant growth and immunity by regulating cytosolic Ca2+ homeostasis.

The influence of environmental factors on the job burnout of physical education teachers in tertiary education.

This study takes environmental factors and individual factors as variables to explore the deep internal mechanism of the impact of a comprehensive environment on higher education physical education (PE) teachers' job burnout. Little research has been done on how environmental factors affect the internal mechanism of college and university PE teachers' job burnout through individual factors (e.g., professional pressure and teaching efficacy). In this study, the participants were 231 PE teachers from seven comprehensive universities, and four questionnaires were administered to measure the participants' job burnout, perceived overall environment, teaching efficacy, and occupational stress. Research has found that environmental factors have a significant negative impact on occupational stress, and occupational stress plays an important mediating role between environment and occupational burnout. Research has shown that differences in external environments lead to varying levels of personal stress among college physical education teachers, which in turn affects their level of occupational burnout. The study concludes that a good social, working, and living environment helps to reduce the work pressure on PE teachers, improves their sense of teaching efficacy, and inhibits the occurrence of teachers' job burnout.

Applying ChatGPT to tackle the side effects of personal learning environments from learner and learning perspective: An interview of experts in higher education.

This paper investigates the capacity of ChatGPT, an advanced language model created by OpenAI, to mitigate the side effects encountered by learners in Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) within higher education. A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with six professors and three Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts. Employing thematic analysis, the interview data were assessed, revealing that the side effects stemming from the learner and learning perspectives could be primarily categorized into cognitive, non-cognitive, and metacognitive challenges. The findings of the thematic analysis indicate that, from a cognitive standpoint, ChatGPT can generate relevant and trustworthy information, furnish personalized learning resources, and facilitate interdisciplinary learning to fully actualize learners' potential. Moreover, ChatGPT can aid learners in cultivating non-cognitive skills, including motivation, perseverance, self-regulation, and self-efficacy, as well as metacognitive abilities such as self-determination, self-efficacy, and self-regulation, by providing tailored feedback, fostering creativity, and stimulating critical thinking activities. This study offers valuable insights for integrating artificial intelligence technologies to unleash the full potential of PLEs in higher education.

Understanding learners' perceptions of ChatGPT: A thematic analysis of peer interviews among undergraduates and postgraduates in China.

ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven language model engineered by OpenAI, has experienced a substantial upsurge in adoption within higher education due to its versatile applications and sophisticated capabilities. Although prevailing research on ChatGPT has predominantly concentrated on its technological aspects and pedagogical ramifications, a comprehensive understanding of students' perceptions and experiences regarding ChatGPT remains elusive. To address this gap, this study employed a peer interview methodology, conducting a thematic analysis of 106 first-year undergraduates and 81 first-year postgraduate students' perceptions from diverse disciplines at a comprehensive university in East China. The data analysis revealed that among the four factors examined-grade, age, gender, and major-grade emerged as the most influential determinant, followed by age and major. Postgraduate students demonstrated heightened awareness of the potential limitations of ChatGPT in addressing academic challenges and exhibited greater concern for security issues associated with its application. This research offers essential insights into students' perceptions and experiences with ChatGPT, emphasizing the importance of recognizing potential limitations and ethical concerns associated with ChatGPT usage. Additionally, the findings highlight ethical concerns, as students noted the importance of responsible data handling and academic integrity in ChatGPT usage, underscoring the need for ethical guidance in AI utilization. Moreover, further research is essential to optimize AI use in education, aiming to improve learning outcomes effectively.