TESOT: a teaching modality targeting the learning obstacles in global medical education.

In higher education, it is a great challenge for instructors to teach international medical students (IMSs) efficiently. These students usually have different learning obstacles and learning style preferences from domestic students. Thus it is necessary to use teaching modalities targeting the specific characteristics of IMSs. Accordingly, we have developed a teaching modality composed of classical teacher-centered approach (TCA), enriched with components of student-centered approach (SCA) and online interactions targeting the learning characteristics of IMSs, which we defined as TESOT (an acronym made of the underlined words' initials). Aside from the online interactions that provide both answers to questions raised by students and guidance throughout a course, this modality contains additional in-classroom components (i.e., pre-lecture quiz, student-led summary, and post-lecture quiz). The effectiveness of this modality was tested in the nervous system module of the Physiology course for IMSs. The final exam scores in the nervous system module in the year taught with TESOT were higher than those earned by students taught with a classical TCA modality in preceding 2 yr. The improvement of teaching effectiveness is attributable to increasing communication, bridging course contexts, and meeting diverse learning style preferences. These results indicate that TESOT as an effective teaching modality is useful for enhancing efficiency of teaching IMSs.

MARCKS is a New Prognostic Biomarker in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common type of cancers, but there is still a lack of known biomarkers for the effective diagnosis or prognosis of HCC. Myristoylated alanine-rich C-kinase substrate (MARCKS) is a substrate of protein kinase C, which was located in the cell plasma membrane. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the role of MARCKS in HCC. Methods: The role of MARCKS in HCC was explored by bioinformatics and experiment. Results: We demonstrated that MARCKS expression was significantly elevated in HCC datasets of TCGA. MARCKS was up-regulated in tumor sample in HCC. Functional enrichment indicated that MARCKS-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were mainly enriched in cell junction tissue, response to growth factors and cell population proliferation. Tumor and ECM-receptor interactions related pathways were enriched by the KEGG. MARCKS expression in HCC patients was higher in females, younger individuals, and those at worse clinical stages. Cox regression analysis showed that MARCKS expression was a risk factor for overall survival and disease-specific survival of patients. Conclusion: MARCKS was up-regulated in HCC, may play a crucial role in HCCs, and has prognostic value for clinical outcomes.

Incorporating Ni-Polyoxometalate into the S-Scheme Heterojunction to Accelerate Charge Separation and Resist Photocorrosion for Promoting Photocatalytic Activity and Stability.

The emerging polyoxometalate (POM) nanomaterials are transition metal oxygen anion clusters with d0 electronic configurations, which could be attractive and potential photocatalysts. Hence, a nickel (Ni)-substituted polyoxometalate K6Na4[Ni4(H2O)2(PW9O34)2]·32H2O (Ni4POM)-incorporating step (S)-scheme heterojunction was developed to promote photocatalytic activity and stability in H2 and H2O2 production. The multielectron transfer through variable valence metal centers in Ni4POM would facilitate the recombination of invalid charges through the S-scheme pathway. Moreover, incorporating Ni4POM into the S-scheme heterojunction can broaden the light absorption range and meanwhile lead to resistance to photocorrosion to promote the optical and chemical stability of Cd0.5Zn0.5S (CZS). The optimized CZSNi-70 exhibited a H2 evolution rate of 42.32 mmol g-1 h-1 under visible-light irradiation with an apparent quantum yield of 32.27% at 420 nm and a H2O2 production rate of 295.4 µmol L-1 h-1 under 420 nm light-emitting diode irradiation. This work can provide a new view for the development of transition metal-substituted POM-based stable and efficient S-scheme photocatalysts.