The power of positive deviance behaviours: From panic-gogy to effective pedagogy in online teaching.

This study examines university faculty members' successful behaviours and the factors influencing these behaviours, when dealing with the issues posed by emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was gathered through interviews with 12 carefully chosen instructors who competently prepared and implemented their first online classes despite various challenges encountered during the crisis. Interview transcripts were analysed by applying the theoretical concepts of the positive deviance approach to identify exemplary behaviours in the face of crisis. The results revealed that the participants performed three unique but effective behaviours, called 'positive deviance behaviours', in their online teaching: philosophy-driven decision making informed planning and ongoing performance monitoring. These behaviours were affected by individual factors (e.g., community engagement and emotion management during different phases of emergency remote teaching) and organisational factors (e.g., networks/hardware and training/support). By examining the positive deviance behaviours of instructors who delivered effective classes, this study offers online teaching and faculty development strategies in both crisis and non-crisis situations.

Development of a Solar Cell Back Sheet with Excellent UV Durability and Thermal Conductivity.

The back sheet is one of the most important materials in photovoltaic (PV) modules. It plays an important role in protecting the solar cell from the environment by preventing moisture penetration. In the back sheet, the outermost layer is composed of a polyester (PET) film to protect the PV module from moisture, and the opposite layer is composed of a TiO2 + PE material. Nowadays, PV modules are installed in the desert. Therefore, methods to improve the power generation efficiency of PV modules need to be investigated as the efficiency is affected by temperature resulting from the heat radiation effect. Using a back sheet with a high thermal conductivity, the module output efficiency can be increased as heat is efficiently dissipated. In this study, a thermally conductive film was fabricated by mixing a reference film (TiO2 + PE) and a non-metallic material, MgO, with high thermal conductivity. UV irradiation tests of the film were conducted. The thermally conductive film (TiO2 + PE + MgO) showed higher conductivity than a reference film. No visible cracks and low yellowing degree were found in thermally conductive film, confirming its excellent UV durability characteristics. The sample film was bonded to a PET layer, and a back sheet was fabricated. The yellowing of the back sheet was also analyzed after UV irradiation. In addition, mini modules with four solar cell were fabricated using the developed back sheet, and a comparative outdoor test was conducted. The results showed that power generation improved by 1.38%.

Faculty perceptions, awareness and use of open educational resources for teaching and learning in higher education: a cross-comparative analysis.

This paper explores faculty's perspectives and use of open educational resources (OER) and their repositories across different countries by conducting a multiple case study to find similarities and differences between academics' awareness, perceptions and use of OER, as well as examining related aspects of institutional policy and quality that may influence individual views. Data were collected through nine expert reports on each country studied (Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Spain and Turkey) and were analyzed through qualitative content analysis using thematic coding. Findings show the impact on individual OER adoption with regard to the individual control of diverse factors by faculty members; of institutional policies and quality measures on the externally determined factors (by the institution); and of institutional professional development and provision of incentives in more internally determined factors (by the faculty members themselves). These findings carry implications for higher education institutions around the world in their attempt to boost OER adoption by faculty members.

Instructional changes instigated by university faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic: the effect of individual, course and institutional factors.

The purpose of this study was to investigate instructional changes made by faculty for emergency online teaching necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and hence to explore key factors related to those changes from an ecological systems perspective. Data on various individual, course, and institutional factors and instructional change variables were collected from 201 educators at higher education institutions. Results revealed that the level of instructional changes made by faculty was on average between substituting their existing course for an online one with some functional improvement (augmentation-level 3) and critical course redesign (modification-level 4), but that educators did not reach the level of the creation of new tasks which were previously inconceivable (redefinition-level 5). The biggest instructional change was found to be in teaching behaviors, followed by technology use, with only small changes in beliefs about online teaching. Factors that most highly correlated with instructional change were individual educators' technology acceptance and innovation propensity, media synchronicity of the course, and the fidelity of institutional support. Recommendations are provided to aid strategic coping by universities facing a major crisis, with insights that may ultimately improve the quality of higher education in non-crisis contexts.

Faculty as reflective practitioners in emergency online teaching: an autoethnography.

This study aimed to chronicle and understand the emergency online teaching experience of five faculty members in a liberal arts college located in Tokyo, Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, adopting the autoethnographic method. It explored the nature and dimensions of problems the faculty members faced, resources used to make sense of problems encountered, and actions they took to solve the problems as reflective practitioners in emergency online teaching. It also examined differences between faculty members over time. Analysis of seven weeks of autobiographic reflective journals during a 10-week academic term revealed that the faculty members encountered a range of problems during the classes, especially student-related and technology-related issues. When encountering problems, faculty members utilized references such as their past experience in face-to-face classroom teaching. Faculty members with more online teaching experience were more adaptable and flexible in mobilizing other references to solve problems. Overall, all members worked as reflective learners and practitioners who continued to reflect on the problems they faced and find solutions. These findings suggest that engaging in reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action can be effective ways for faculty members to develop their competencies to solve problems in emergency online teaching situations when responding to unprecedented challenges and issues is continuously needed.

Rapid Growth of TiO2 Nanoflowers via Low-Temperature Solution Process: Photovoltaic and Sensing Applications.

This paper reports the rapid synthesis, characterization, and photovoltaic and sensing applications of TiO2 nanoflowers prepared by a facile low-temperature solution process. The morphological characterizations clearly reveal the high-density growth of a three-dimensional flower-shaped structure composed of small petal-like rods. The detailed properties confirmed that the synthesized nanoflowers exhibited high crystallinity with anatase phase and possessed an energy bandgap of 3.2 eV. The synthesized TiO2 nanoflowers were utilized as photo-anode and electron-mediating materials to fabricate dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) and liquid nitroaniline sensor applications. The fabricated DSSC demonstrated a moderate conversion efficiency of ~3.64% with a maximum incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE) of ~41% at 540 nm. The fabricated liquid nitroaniline sensor demonstrated a good sensitivity of ~268.9 µA mM-1 cm-2 with a low detection limit of 1.05 mM in a short response time of 10 s.

Radioprotective effects of ginsan, an immunomodulator.

We previously reported that ginsan, a purified polysaccharide isolated from Panax ginseng, had a mitogenic activity, induced LAK cells, and increased levels of several cytokines. In an effort to identify other immunostimulatory effects, we evaluated the protective effects of ginsan injected in vivo against radiation by measuring its effects on the CFU-S bone marrow cells and spleen cells. Ginsan was found to significantly increase the number of bone marrow cells, spleen cells, granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming cells (GM-CFC), and circulating neutrophils, lymphocytes and platelets in irradiated mice. In addition, ginsan induced the endogenous production of cytokines such as Il1, Il6, Ifng and Il12, which are required for hematopoietic recovery, and was able to enhance Th1 function while interfering with the Th2 response in irradiated mice. We demonstrated that pretreatment with ginsan protected mice from the lethal effects of ionizing radiation more effectively than when it was given immediately after or at various times after irradiation. A significant increase in the LD(50/30) from 7.54 Gy for PBS injection to 10.93 Gy for mice pretreated with 100 mg/kg ginsan was observed. These findings indicate that ginsan may be a useful agent to reduce the time necessary for reconstituting hematopoietic cells after irradiation.

Radiation protective effect of an extract from Chelidonium majus.

We earlier reported that CM-AIa isolated from Chelidonium majus had mitogenic activity, generated lymphokine-activated killer cells, and increased the number of granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming cells (GM-CFC). In an extended effort to search for other immunostimulatory effects, we evaluated the protective effects of in vivo injected CM-AIa against irradiation. CM-AIa was found to increase the number of bone marrow cells, spleen cells, GM-CFC, and platelets in irradiated mice. In addition, this agent induced endogenous production of cytokines such as interleukin 1 and tumor necrosis factor alpha, which are required for hematopoietic recovery. We also demonstrated that CM-AIa treatment 24 hours before irradiation protected mice with 80% survival at lethal dose 100/15. These findings indicate that CM-AIa may be a useful agent for reducing the time needed for reconstitution of hematopoietic cells after irradiation treatment.

Immunomodulatory activity of protein-bound polysaccharide extracted from Chelidonium majus.

In the course of searching immunomodulators from natural sources, the protein-bound polysaccharide, CM-Ala, has been isolated from the water extract of Chelidonium majus L. (Papaveraceae). The immunostimulatory characteristics have been investigated in several experiments such as generation of activated killer (AK) cells, proliferation of splenocytes, activation of macrophages and granulocyte macrophage-colony forming cell (GM-CFC) assay. Of the fractions obtained using Sephacryl S200 column chromatography, CM-Ala was the most effective fraction that augmented the cytotoxicity against Yac-1 tumor cells from 0.88% to 34.18% by culturing with splenocytes for 5 days. CM-Ala also enhanced nitric oxide production by two fold in peritoneal macrophages and exhibited antitumor activity. It showed mitogenic activity on both spleen cells and bone marrow cells. CM-Ala induced proliferation of splenocytes by 84 fold and increased GM-CFC numbers by 1.48 fold over than the non-treated. On the contrary, CM-Ala had cytotoxic activity to a diverse group of tumor cells. From the above results, we proposed that CM-Ala has a possibility of an effective antitumor immunostimulator.

Effects of polysaccharide ginsan from Panax ginseng on liver function.

Ginsan, a polysaccharide isolated from Panax ginseng, has been shown to be a potent immunomodulator, producing a variety of cytokines such as TNF-alpha, IL-1, IL-2, IL-6, IL-12, IFN-gamma and GM-CSF, and stimulating lymphoid cells to proliferate. In the present study, we analyzed some immune functions 1st-5th days after ginsan i.p. injection, including the level of non-protein thiols (NPSH) as antioxidants, heme oxygenase (HO) activity as a marker of oxidative stress, zoxazolamine-induced paralysis time and level of hepatic cytochrome P-450 (CYP450) as indices of drug metabolism system, and activities of serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bilirubin, and albumin level as indicators of hepatotoxicity. Ginsan in the dose of 100 mg/kg caused marked elevation (1.7 to approximately 2 fold) of HO activity, decrease of total CYP450 level (by 20-34%), and prolongation of zoxazolamine-induced paralysis time (by 65-70%), and showed some differences between male and female mice. Ginsan treatment did not seem to cause hepatic injury, since serum AST, ALT, and ALP activities and levels of total bilirubin and albumin were not changed.