Extracurricular Activities and Chinese Children's School Readiness: Who Benefits More?

Organized extracurricular activities (EAs) are prevalent among Chinese preschoolers, yet their role in children's development is poorly understood. This study investigated the relations between EA participation and Chinese preschoolers' school readiness (N = 343; Mage  = 55.14 months) among a predominantly middle-class sample. EA breadth had positive linear relations with children's early math and social skills, while attendance intensity demonstrated nonlinear associations, partially supporting the overscheduling hypothesis. EA breadth had stronger associations with early reading and math skills among lower socioeconomic status children, as well as greater benefits for math skills in children with less exposure to home learning activities, indicating a compensatory role of EAs. The findings highlight the interplay between EA and family contexts in relation to child development.

Multi-index comprehensive evaluation of the efficacy and response mechanism of immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE: This research conducted multi-index comprehensive evaluations of the immunotherapeutic efficacy and response in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: Forty-five patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)/anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) wild-type advanced NSCLC who received immunotherapy were included. Immunohistochemistry was adopted to detect the expression levels of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) with X-ray cross-complementing protein 1 (XRCC1) and excision repair cross-complementing group 1 (ERCC1) proteins in tumor tissues. Flow cytometry was utilized to measure the levels of T-cell subsets in peripheral blood before and after treatment. PCR-RELP method was employed to evaluate XRCC1 and ERCC1 gene polymorphisms in peripheral blood. According to the treatment effect, patients evaluated as complete response (CR), partial response (PR), and stable disease (SD) were categorized into the immune response group, and patients evaluated as progressive disease (PD) were categorized into the immune unresponsive group. The correlation between PD-L1 protein expression, XRCC1 and ERCC1 protein expression, gene polymorphisms, T-cell subpopulation levels, and treatment efficacy was analyzed. RESULTS: The therapeutic efficacy of patients with positive PD-L1 expression was better than that of patients with negative PD-L1 expression (P < 0.05). After treatment, peripheral blood CD3+ and CD4+ cell levels and Thl/Th2 cell levels were higher and CD8+ T cells were lower in the immune response group than in the immune unresponsive group (P < 0.05). Among the patients in the immune response group, peripheral blood CD3+ and CD4+ cell levels were higher and CD8+ T cells were lower in patients with positive PD-L1 expression than in patients with negative PD-L1 expression (P < 0.05). In the XRCC1 gene, the proportion of patients in the immune response group carrying the Arg/Trp + Trp/Trp genotype was higher than that of patients in the immune unresponsive group (P < 0.05). In the ERCC1 gene, the proportion of patients in the immune response group carrying the C/T + T/T genotype was higher than that of patients in the immune unresponsive group (P < 0.05). The positive expression rates of XRCC1 and ERCC1 in patients in the immune unresponsive group were higher than those in the immune response group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: PD-L1 protein expression, XRCC1 and ERCC1 protein expression, and gene polymorphisms are associated with immunotherapy outcome in EGFR/ALK wild-type advanced NSCLC patients, and may be biological indicators for predicting immunotherapy outcome in EGFR/ALK wild-type advanced NSCLC patients.

Revisiting the concept of 'style match'.

BACKGROUND: Intellectual style, an encompassing term for such constructs as learning style, teaching style, teaching approach, and thinking style, refers to one's preferred way of processing information. For the past several decades, whether or not there is a need for a match between teachers' teaching styles and students' learning styles has been the focal point for debate among researchers, educators, and the general public. AIMS: The preliminary objective of this research was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Preferred Teaching Approach Inventory (PTAI). The research's primary objective was to re-examine the concept of 'style match' through testing the predictive power of students' thinking styles for their preferred teaching approaches. SAMPLES: Data were collected from two samples of university students, one each from Shanghai, mainland China (N = 236), and Hong Kong (N = 123). METHODS: Participants provided the required demographic information and responded to two self-report inventories: the Thinking Styles Inventory - Revised II and the PTAI. RESULTS: Acceptable reliability and good validity were found for the PTAI. All of the eight multiple regressions indicated that students' thinking styles significantly contributed to their preferences for teachers' teaching approaches. These contributions varied by gender among the Shanghai students and by academic discipline among the Hong Kong students. CONCLUSIONS: Students, especially Shanghai female students and Hong Kong natural science students, are open to teaching approaches that do not precisely match their thinking styles. The concept of 'style match' requires new understanding. Findings have implications for research and education.

[Cnb1 involved in cytokinesis in Schizosaccharomyces pombe].

Serine/Threonine-specific calcineurin (CN) is highly conserved in eukaryotes, which plays an important role in transcriptional regulation. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, CN exists as a heterodimer composed by catalytic subunit Ppb1 and regulatory subunit Cnb1. Deletion of cnb1+ reduced the growth rate of cells, and caused a chained phenotype, and had delay in cytokinesis. In cytokinesis, Cnb1 could form CN complex with Ppb1 and could colocalize and constrict with the contractile ring at division plane. Tubulin could cross the septum in cnb1Δ strain, suggesting that the septum is not fully matured. These results suggest Cnb1 might be involved in maturation of septum. The signals of septins in cnb1Δ strain were also analyzed. Septins include Spn1, Spn2, Spn3, and Spn4. Septins help to guide hydrolytic enzymes for septum degrada-tion. Eighty percent of cnb1Δ cells lacked the signals of Spn2 or Spn3 at septum, and twenty percent of cnb1Δ cells lacked the signals of Spn1 or Spn4 at septum. The reduction of the septin signals was not due to impaired transcription of septins, since the protein levels of septins in the cnb1Δ cells were not decreased. These results imply that Cnb1 might regulate the stability of septin ring in a transcription-independent manner. In general, our study showed that Cnb1 contributes to the maturation of septum and the stability of septin ring and is important in the cytokinesis.

Behavioral regulation and approaches to learning: Moderators of the association between extracurricular involvement and academic readiness.

Participation in organized extracurricular activities (EAs) has become increasingly common among preschool-aged children. Prior studies have shown inconsistent findings on the association between young children's involvement in EAs and their subsequent developmental outcomes. Moving beyond examining the main effects of EA participation, this study focused on whether children's behavioral regulation and approaches to learning-two important domain-general skills closely linked to learning-would moderate the association between EA participation and academic readiness. Participants included 317 Chinese preschoolers residing in Shanghai. The breadth of EA participation positively predicted children's early math skills, but only for those demonstrating relatively lower behavioral regulation or less positive approaches to learning. The findings provide support for the compensatory hypothesis that participation in EAs is more beneficial for children at greater developmental risk. Unexpectedly, the intensity of EA participation negatively predicted receptive vocabulary beyond certain thresholds among children with relatively poor behavioral regulation or approaches to learning (B = -2.272, p = .032, effect size (ES) = 0.423), but this relationship was not significant for children with better learning behaviors (B = 0.111, p = .712, ES = 0.021). According to the findings, children with worse behavioral regulation and approaches to learning were actually more vulnerable to the negative effects of intensive participation in EAs (B = -15.698, p = .022, ES = 1.797). EA participation did not predict children's Chinese word reading (ps > 0.05). The findings revealed a complex pattern of relationships between preschoolers' EA participation and academic readiness and have highlighted the importance of considering child characteristics when examining the developmental effects of EA involvement.

OsPFA-DSP1, a rice protein tyrosine phosphatase, negatively regulates drought stress responses in transgenic tobacco and rice plants.

Dephosphorylation plays a pivotal role in regulating plant growth, development and abiotic/biotic stress responses. Here, we characterized a plant and fungi atypical dual-specificity phosphatase (PFA-DSP) subfamily member, OsPFA-DSP1, from rice. OsPFA-DSP1 was determined to be a functional protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) in vitro using phosphatase activity assays. Quantitative real-time PCR and GENEVESTIGATOR analysis showed that OsPFA-DSP1 mRNA was induced by drought stress. Transfection of rice protoplasts showed that OsPFA-DSP1 accumulated in both the cytoplasm and nucleus. Ectopic overexpression of OsPFA-DSP1 in tobacco increased sensitivity to drought stress and insensitivity to ABA-induced stomatal closure and inhibition of stomatal opening. Furthermore, overexpression of OsPFA-DSP1 in rice also increased sensitivity to drought stress. These results indicated that OsPFA-DSP1 is a functional PTP and may act as a negative regulator in drought stress responses.

Efficacy of Anlotinib for the Treatment of Angiosarcoma of the Face and Neck: A Case Report.

Angiosarcoma of the face and neck is a rare soft tissue sarcoma with a high degree of malignancy. The current treatment methods mainly rely on a combination of surgery and radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. However, the options for drug treatment are very limited and surgery can be difficult to carry out due to the location of the tumor, so the efficacy of first-line drugs needs to be constantly explored. A case of angiosarcoma of the head and face diagnosed by biopsy is reported here. The patient received an oral anlotinib hydrochloride capsule once a day (12 mg on days 1 - 14/1 week off for a 21-day cycle) due to the difficulty of surgery. Until now (April, 2020), after 10 months of treatment, the patient's scalp and facial lesions have gradually reduced and the partial response and progression-free survival of this patient were good, with moderate or tolerable adverse events. This approach provides a new approach for the clinical treatment of malignant angiosarcoma of the face and neck with anlotinib as first-line therapy.