Sustained Secretion of CCL21 via an Implantable Cell Reservoir Hydrogel Enhances the Systemic Antitumor Effect of Radiotherapy.

The combination of radiotherapy (RT) and immunotherapy shows promise in improving the clinical treatment of solid tumors; however, it faces challenges of low response rates and systemic toxicity. Herein, an implantable alginate/collagen hydrogel encapsulating C-C motif ligand 21 (CCL21)-expressing dendritic cells (CCL21-DCs@gel) was developed to potentiate the systemic antitumor effects of RT. The hydrogel functioned as a suitable reservoir for in vivo culture and proliferation of CCL21-DCs, thereby enabling sustained CCL21 release. The local CCL21 gradient induced by CCL21-DCs@gel significantly enhanced the efficacy of RT in suppressing primary tumor growth and inhibiting distant metastasis across several mouse models. Furthermore, the combination of RT with CCL21-DCs@gel provided complete prophylactic protection to mice. Mechanistic investigations revealed that CCL21-DCs@gel potentiated RT by promoting tumor lymphangiogenesis and attracting immune cell infiltration into the tumor. Collectively, these results suggest that CCL21-DCs@gel is a promising adjunct to RT for effectively eradicating tumors and preventing tumor recurrence.

Brain development of a school-aged boy with autism spectrum condition talented in arithmetic: a case report.

Whereas autism spectrum condition is known for its social and communicative challenges, some autistic children demonstrate unusual islets of abilities including those related to mathematics, the neurobiological underpinnings of which are increasingly becoming the focus of research. Here we describe an 8-year-old autistic boy with intellectual and language challenges, yet exceptional arithmetic ability. He can perform verbal-based multiplication of three- and even four-digit numbers within 20 seconds. To gain insights into the neural basis of his talent, we investigated the gray matter in the child's brain in comparison to typical development, applying voxel-based morphometry to magnetic resonance imaging data. The case exhibited reduced gray matter volume in regions associated with arithmetic, which may suggest an accelerated development of brain regions with arithmetic compared to typically developing individuals: potentially a key factor contributing to his exceptional talent. Taken together, this case report describes an example of the neurodiversity of autism. Our research provides valuable insights into the potential neural basis of exceptional arithmetic abilities in individuals with the autism spectrum and its potential contribution to depicting the diversity and complexity of autism.

Phonological awareness and RAN contribute to Chinese reading and arithmetic for different reasons.

The present study investigated how phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (hereafter, RAN), simultaneously contributed to Chinese reading and arithmetic fluency. Specifically, we proposed a new hypothesized mechanism that processing speed would mediate the relations of RAN with Chinese reading and arithmetic fluency. One hundred and forty-five Chinese children at the fifth grade were administered with a battery of measures, including three phonological processing measures, character reading, and whole number computation, as well as nonverbal IQ, and vocabulary knowledge. Path analyses revealed that phonological awareness and RAN were uniquely related to character reading and arithmetic fluency, while phonological memory was not significantly correlated to either character reading or arithmetic fluency, after controlling for age, nonverbal IQ, and vocabulary knowledge. Further analysis indicated that processing speed demonstrated a mediating effect on the importance of RAN in character reading, rather than in arithmetic fluency. Results underscore the potential importance of phonological awareness and RAN in character reading and arithmetic fluency, and the mediating role of processing speed in RAN to promote Chinese character reading fluency.

Noninvasively Deciphering the Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment Using Galectin-1 PET to Inform Immunotherapy Responses.

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has achieved groundbreaking results in clinical cancer therapy; however, only a subset of patients experience durable benefits. The aim of this study was to explore strategies for predicting tumor responses to optimize the intervention approach using ICB therapy. Methods: We used a bilateral mouse model for proteomics analysis to identify new imaging biomarkers for tumor responses to ICB therapy. A PET radiotracer was synthesized by radiolabeling the identified biomarker-targeting antibody with 124I. The radiotracer was then tested for PET prediction of tumor responses to ICB therapy. Results: We identified galectin-1 (Gal-1), a member of the carbohydrate-binding lectin family, as a potential negative biomarker for ICB efficacy. We established that Gal-1 inhibition promotes a sensitive immune phenotype within the tumor microenvironment (TME) for ICB therapy. To assess the pre-ICB treatment status of the TME, a Gal-1-targeted PET radiotracer, 124I-αGal-1, was developed. PET imaging with 124I-αGal-1 showed the pretreatment immunosuppressive status of the TME before the initiation of therapy, thus enabling the prediction of ICB resistance in advance. Moreover, the use of hydrogel scaffolds loaded with a Gal-1 inhibitor, thiodigalactoside, demonstrated that a single dose of thiodigalactoside-hydrogel significantly potentiated ICB and adoptive cell transfer immunotherapies by remodeling the immunosuppressive TME. Conclusion: Our study underscores the potential of Gal-1-targeted PET imaging as a valuable strategy for early-stage monitoring of tumor responses to ICB therapy. Additionally, Gal-1 inhibition effectively counteracts the immunosuppressive TME, resulting in enhanced immunotherapy efficacy.

The longitudinal contribution of mapping to arithmetic: Do numeral knowledge, inhibition or analogical reasoning matter?

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have revealed the association between mapping and arithmetic (Ferres-Forga et al., J. Numer. Cogn., 8, 2022, 123; LeFevre et al., J. Numer. Cogn., 8, 2022, 1). AIM: The underlying mechanism remains unclear. MATERIALS & METHODS: The current study recruited 118 kindergarten children and followed up on them three times at 6-month intervals. They completed measures to assess mapping skills (T1), non-verbal IQ (T1), numeral knowledge (T2), inhibitory control (T2), analogical reasoning (T2) and arithmetic (T3). RESULTS: The results showed that mapping accounted for significant variance in arithmetic ability over and above age, gender and non-verbal IQ. Furthermore, analogical reasoning played an important role in the relationship between mapping and mathematics ability. DISCUSSION: The findings suggest the association between mapping and mathematics ability prior to formal schooling. CONCLUSION: Analogical reasoning, rather than numeral knowledge or inhibitory control, may drive that association in young children.

How active coping influences school-aged children's rapid automatized naming: A chain mediation model involving subjective vitality and aerobic fitness.

Rapid automatized naming (RAN) has been proven to be important for students' academic performance, but it remains unclear whether and how dealing with stressors (e.g., active coping) is associated with children's development of RAN. To examine this question, this research views the growth of RAN as a cross-stressor adaptation process and proposes that school-aged children may build up adapted and modified stress response systems through active coping in dealing with stressors and cognitive tasks. Based on the broaden-and-build theory and the mind-body unity theory, we explored the impact of active coping on RAN and hypothesized that subjective vitality and aerobic fitness chain mediated the relationship between active coping and RAN. We used two Likert-like scales to measure active coping and subjective vitality, used a number-reading task to measure RAN, and used the progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run (PACER) test to measure aerobic fitness. We recruited 303 elementary students in grades 3-5 in China. Results showed that both subjective vitality and aerobic fitness mediated the impact of active coping on time for RAN. Further, the chain indirect effect of active coping→subjective vitality→aerobic fitness→time for RAN was significant, but the reversed chain mediation was not significant. General resources (e.g., subjective vitality) have been shown to be relatively more important than simple physical resources (e.g., aerobic fitness) for RAN. These preliminary findings may contribute to both the cross-stressor-adaptation and active coping literature and have potential implications for improving RAN in school-aged children.

Visual perception and linguistic abilities, not quantitative knowledge, count in geometric knowledge of kindergarten children.

Geometric knowledge is one of the important mathematical skills acquired by children at a young age and is a major area of future mathematical learning; however, there is no direct research on the factors influencing kindergarteners' early geometric knowledge. The pathways model to mathematics was modified to examine the cognitive mechanisms underlying geometric knowledge in Chinese kindergarten children aged 5-7 (n = 99). Quantitative knowledge, visual-spatial processing, and linguistic abilities were stepped into hierarchical multiple regression models. The results revealed that after age, sex, and nonverbal intelligence were statistically controlled, visual perception, phonological awareness, and rapid automatized naming in linguistic abilities significantly predicted the variation in geometric knowledge. For quantitative knowledge, neither dot comparison nor number comparison test could be a significant precursor of geometry skills. The findings indicate that visual perception and linguistic abilities, not quantitative knowledge, account for the geometric knowledge of kindergarten children.

New insight into desorption behavior and mechanism of oil from aged oil-contaminated soil in microemulsion.

The intractable nature of oil-contaminated soil (OS) constitutes the chief limiting factor for its remediation. Herein, the aging effect (i.e., oil-soil interactions and pore-scale effect) was investigated by analyzing the properties of aged OS and further demonstrated by investigating the desorption behavior of the oil from the OS. XPS was performed to detect the chemical environment of N, O, and Al, indicating the coordination adsorption of carbonyl groups (oil) on the soil surface. Alterations in the functional groups of the OS were detected using FT-IR, indicating that the oil-soil interactions were enhanced via wind-thermal aging. SEM and BET were used to analyze the structural morphology and pore-scale of the OS. The analysis revealed that aging promoted the development of the pore-scale effect in the OS. Moreover, the desorption behavior of oil molecules from the aged OS was investigated via desorption thermodynamics and kinetics. The desorption mechanism of the OS was elucidated via intraparticle diffusion kinetics. The desorption process of oil molecules underwent three stages: film diffusion, intraparticle diffusion, and surface desorption. Owing to the aging effect, the latter two stages constituted the major steps for controlling oil desorption. This mechanism provided theoretical guidance to apply microemulsion elution for remedying industrial OS.

Contributions of cognitive flexibility, inhibition and number label knowledge to numerical equivalence in 3- to 5-year-old children.

To investigate the contributions of cognitive flexibility, inhibition and number label knowledge to children's numerical equivalence, one hundred and one 3- to 5-year-olds were administered the dimensional change card sorting task, the day-night task and the give-a-number task. The numerical equivalence was assessed with the numerical matching task in three surface similarity conditions. Results showed that, in the high surface similarity condition, cognitive flexibility and label knowledge, rather than inhibition, were significant predictors of children's performance in numerical equivalence. In the low surface similarity and the cross-mapping conditions, only cognitive flexibility, rather than number label knowledge and inhibition, significantly explained the unique variance in numerical equivalence. Besides, cognitive flexibility explained more variation in numerical equivalence in the cross-mapping condition compared with the low surface similarity condition. These findings highlight different roles of cognitive flexibility, inhibition and number label knowledge in numerical equivalence in the three surface similarity conditions.

COVID-19 and Eating Problems in Daily Life: The Mediating Roles of Stress, Negative Affect and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic poses a challenge to individuals' mental health. People worldwide are experiencing increased stress, negative affect, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, which may lead to eating problems. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the perceived severity of COVID-19 on eating problems and the mediating effects of stress/negative affect/posttraumatic stress symptoms both at the personal level and interpersonal level. Methods: During the COVID-19 outbreak, a total of 108 college students were recruited to report their perceived severity of COVID-19, stress, negative affect, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and eating problems three times a day for seven consecutive days using Ecological Momentary Assessment. Results: State perceived severity of COVID-19 predicted fewer subsequent eating problems in daily life at the personal level. Both state negative affect and posttraumatic stress symptoms were positively associated with eating problems in daily life. At the interpersonal level, trait-like perceived severity of COVID-19, stress, negative affect, and posttraumatic stress symptoms were positively associated with overall eating problems. There were no mediating effects of stress/negative affect/posttraumatic stress symptoms on the relations between perceived severity of COVID-19 and eating problems at the personal/interpersonal level. Conclusions: The perceived severity of COVID-19, stress, negative affect, and posttraumatic stress symptoms might increase the risk of eating problems.

How does parental involvement matter for children's academic achievement during school closure in primary school?

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has infected over twenty million people across 200 countries. UNESCO claimed that more than 190 countries had implemented countrywide school closures, which resulted in preventing 1.6 billion students of their classroom learning opportunities. As children are unable to study in the classroom with teachers' supervision, the importance of parental engagement is amplified in children's learning at home. AIM: The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate how parental involvement contribute to children's academic achievement during school closure. SAMPLE: Two hundred and twenty-nine primary school children and their parents. METHOD: Children's academic achievement before (T1) and after school closure (T3), parental involvement (T2) and children's learning engagement (T2) during school closure were measured. RESULTS: After controlling for gender, age, grade and SES, children's learning engagement (T2) served as a full mediator of the association between parental involvement (T2) and children's academic achievement from T1 to T3. Moreover, parental psychological control (T2) moderated the association between parental involvement (T2) and children's learning engagement (T2). Specifically, the contribution of parental involvement to children's learning engagement became stronger for children whose parents had higher levels of psychological control. Higher Chinese parental psychological control did not always correlate to lower academic outcomes in the context of COVID-19. CONCLUSION: These findings highlight the central roles of parental involvement and children's learning engagement in children's academic achievement during school closure caused by COVID-19.

How does working memory matter in young children's arithmetic skills: The mediating role of basic number processing.

The current study investigated whether and how each component of the working memory model was associated with kindergarten children's arithmetic performance. A total of 103 Chinese kindergarten children were administered tests of the visuospatial sketchpad, the phonological loop, the central executive, and basic number processing (i.e., number line estimation, nonverbal numerosity estimation and numerical magnitude comparison). The results showed that among the three working memory components, the central executive accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in young children's arithmetic performance. In terms of basic number processing, number line estimation and numerical magnitude comparison had significant influences on young children's arithmetic performance. Furthermore, numerical magnitude comparison played a mediating role between the visuospatial sketchpad and early arithmetic skills. These findings highlight the importance of working memory and basic number processing in early arithmetic skills and reveal different pathways through which the three working memory components influence young children's arithmetic performance.

Bidirectional relationship between visual perception and mathematics performance in Chinese kindergartners.

In this longitudinal study, 64 kindergartners (mean age at T1 = 4.69 ± 0.33 years; 34 girls) were tested on visual perception skills (T2 and T3) and mathematics performance (T1 to T3) with 6-month intervals between the three testing waves. Cross-lagged path analysis showed a bidirectional relationship between visual perception and mathematics performance from T2 to T3. Specifically, children's visual perception at T2 significantly predicted their mathematics performance at T3 (B = 0.30, SE = 0.14, p = 0.03, ß = 0.19). Children's mathematics performance at T1 accounted for unique variance in visual perception at T2 (B = 0.79, SE = 0.11, p < 0.001, ß = 0.68) and visual perception at T3 (B = 0.27, SE = 0.12, p = 0.02, ß = 0.32). Their mathematics performance at T2 also significantly predicted visual perception at T3 (B = 0.21, SE = 0.10, p = 0.04, ß = 0.28). Totally, they explained 61% of the variance in mathematics performance and 39% of the variance in visual perception at T3. The results highlight the developmental courses as well as the reciprocal facilitations between visual perception and mathematics performance in the kindergarten period.

The selective contributions of right cerebellar lobules to reading.

The engagement of the cerebellum during reading tasks is not unprecedented. However, it is still unclear which regions in the cerebellum are specifically involved in reading and how the cerebellum processes different languages. With functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared the cerebellar neural activity in Chinese child learners of English between reading and non-reading tasks to identify functionally specialized areas for reading, and between Chinese characters and English words in a passive viewing paradigm to detect regions sensitive to different scripts. Two posterior subregions of right lobule VI, as well as right lobule VIIIA, demonstrated greater activation to viewing Chinese characters and English words compared to the non-reading tasks. However, we did not find any cerebellar regions that were differentially responsive to Chinese versus English print. Instead, we observed that functional connectivity between the two above-mentioned cerebellar regions (lobules VI and VIIIA) and the left inferior parietal lobule was significantly greater in English reading compared to Chinese reading. Overall, these results indicate that the posterior parts of right lobule VI and the right lobule VIIIA could be reading-specific regions, and deepen our understanding of how the cerebellum contributes to reading.

The empathy questionnaire for children and adolescents (EmQue-CA) in Chinese: Psychometric properties and measurement invariance.

The current study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the EmQue-CA, as well as the measurement invariance across gender. A sample of 1107 students (498 boys and 609 girls) enrolled in fourth grade to twelfth grade (Mage = 13.29; SD = 2.22) participated in the current study. Results indicated that the Chinese version had a similar three-factor model with two items deleted from the original form. The reliability, including internal consistency and test-retest reliability, of the Chinese version of the EmQue-CA was acceptable. Concurrent validity was assessed by examining the correlations of the EmQue-CA with the Basic Empathy Scale and the prosocial behavior subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, with significant associations delivered. The results of convergent validity demonstrated strong correlations of the EmQue-CA subscales with callous unemotional traits and bullying. For the measurement invariance across gender, configural invariance and metric invariance were supported by the data, while scalar invariance failed. Overall, the EmQue-CA is a valuable tool for assessing empathy in Chinese children and adolescents.

How do phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and vocabulary contribute to early numeracy and print knowledge of Filipino children?

The current study investigated the contributions of phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and vocabulary to early numeracy and print knowledge developmental trajectories. A total of 128 young Filipino children were tracked three times at mean ages of 4.5, 5.0, and 5.5 years. The initial level (the intercept) and the growth rate (the slope) of early numeracy and print knowledge were estimated. Results showed that phonological awareness, vocabulary, and age significantly predicted the initial level of early numeracy. RAN and vocabulary explained significant variance in the growth rate of early numeracy. Phonological awareness, RAN, and vocabulary accounted for unique variance in the initial level of print knowledge. Results highlight the differential roles of phonological awareness, RAN, and vocabulary knowledge in the development of early numeracy and print knowledge among Filipino children.

Visual-spatial skills contribute to Chinese reading and arithmetic for different reasons: A three-wave longitudinal study.

Previous literature has revealed that visual-spatial processing is associated with both reading and arithmetic. Yet the strength of their relations and the reasons why visual-spatial processing contributes to reading and arithmetic remain ambiguous. The current study focused on two types of visual-spatial skills that recent evidence has suggested are crucial in children's early reading and arithmetic development: visual-perceptual and spatial visualization skills. With an interval of 6 months, we assessed 104 Hong Kong kindergarten children's visual-spatial skills, word reading, arithmetic performance, and vocabulary knowledge at Wave 1; orthographic awareness, basic number knowledge, and number line estimation at Wave 2; and Chinese word reading and arithmetic performance at Wave 3. Correlational analysis showed that both visual-perceptual and spatial visualization skills were associated with later Chinese word reading and arithmetic performance. Further mediation analyses revealed that spatial visualization skills, rather than visual-perceptual skills, contributed to Chinese word reading via orthographic awareness and also predicted arithmetic performance through basic number knowledge. However, number line estimation failed to mediate any relations of visual-spatial skills with children's arithmetic abilities. The results suggest the importance of visual-spatial processing in Chinese word reading and mathematics, with spatial visualization contributing to reading and mathematics for different reasons.

Home Literacy and Numeracy Environments in Asia.

The home learning environment includes what parents do to stimulate children's literacy and numeracy skills at home and their overall beliefs and attitudes about children's learning. The home literacy and numeracy environments are two of the most widely discussed aspects of the home learning environment, and past studies have identified how socioeconomic status and parents' own abilities and interest in these domains also play a part in shaping children's learning experiences. However, these studies are mostly from the West, and there has been little focus on the situation of homes in Asia, which captures a large geographical area and a wide diversity of social, ethnic, and linguistic groups. Therefore, this paper aims to review extant studies on the home literacy and numeracy environments that have been conducted in different parts of Asia, such as China, the Philippines, India, Iran, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Specifically, we explore how parents in these places perceive their roles in children's early literacy and numeracy development, the methods they regard as effective for promoting young children's literacy and numeracy learning, and the frequency with which they engage their young children in different types of home literacy and numeracy activities. We also examine studies on the relationship of the home literacy and numeracy environment with young children's developmental outcomes, and the effectiveness of parent training programs to improve the home literacy and numeracy environments in these contexts. By examining potential trends in findings obtained in different geographical areas, we can initially determine whether there are characteristics that are potentially unique to contexts in Asia. We propose future research directions that acknowledge the role of cultural values and social factors in shaping the home learning environment, and, by extension, in facilitating children's early literacy and numeracy development.

Failure of resting-state frontal-occipital connectivity in linking visual perception with reading fluency in Chinese children with developmental dyslexia.

It is widely accepted that impairment in visual perception impedes children's reading development, and further studies have demonstrated significant enhancement in reading fluency after visual perceptual training. However, the mechanism of the neural linkage between visual perception and reading is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the intrinsic functional relationship between visual perception (indexed by the texture discrimination task,TDT) and reading ability (character reading and reading fluency) in Chinese children with developmental dyslexia (DD) and those with typical development (TD). The resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between the primary visual cortex (V1, BA17) and the entire brain was analyzed. In addition, how RSFC maps are associated with TDT performance and reading ability in the DD and TD groups was examined. The results demonstrated that the strength of the RSFC between V1 and the left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG, BA9/BA46) was significantly correlated with both the threshold (SOA) of the TDT and reading fluency in TD children but not in DD children. Moreover, LMFG-V1 resting-state connectivity played a mediating role in the association of visual texture discrimination and reading fluency, but not in character reading, in TD children. In contrast, this mediation was absent in DD children, albeit their strengths of RSFC between V1 and the left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG) were comparable to those for the TD group. These findings indicate that typically developing children use the linkage of the RSFC between the V1 and LMFG for visual perception skills, which in turn promote fluent reading; in contrast, children with dyslexia, who had higher TDT thresholds than TD children, could not take advantage of their frontal-occipital connectivity to improve reading fluency abilities. These findings suggest that visual perception plays an important role in reading skills and that children with developmental dyslexia lack the ability to use their frontal-occipital connectivity to link visual perception with reading fluency.

The relationship between mental rotation and arithmetic: do number line estimation, working memory, or place-value concept matter?

Mental rotation is positively related to arithmetic ability; however, the mechanism underlying this relationship remains unclear. The possible roles of working memory, place-value concept, and number line estimation in the correlation between mental rotation and whole-number computation were investigated. One hundred and fifty-five first-grade students were tested to determine their mental rotation ability, arithmetic ability, and non-verbal intelligence. One year later, their working memory, place-value concept, number line estimation, and overall arithmetic ability were assessed. After controlling for age, gender, and prior arithmetic ability, we found that mental rotation uniquely predicted arithmetic ability after one year. Further mediation analyses demonstrated that number line estimation significantly mediated the relationship between mental rotation and arithmetic ability. In contrast, neither working memory nor place-value concept significantly mediated the relationship between mental rotation and arithmetic ability. This study highlights that mental number line estimation is the most important element explaining the influence of a dynamic spatial skill, that is, mental rotation, on arithmetic ability among young Chinese children.