Textbook Knowledge Research Articles

(Invited) Atomic Scale Details in Electrochemistry & Electrodeposition: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Since the invention of the STM more than 40 years ago, which enabled the direct observation of surfaces on the atomic scale, it took us around 25 years full of surprises, before we gathered enough knowledge to formulate a decent background including almost all surface science phenomena [1].At this time, it was often believed that fundamental surface science was dead. However,progress in nanotechnology and the semiconducting industry, kept this discipline alive, although the number of researchers steadily decreased. Being at the border between physics and chemistry, electrochemistry and electrodeposition research was executed on the atomic, fundamental level by only a few “Mohicans”.The Good is:- that the required energy transition makes our discipline increasingly relevant.- that this leads to a revival of surface science.- that more and more researchers from different fields step into our business.- that we developed in operando methods, like ECSTM, SXRD, and XPS, that deliver atomic insights.- that inventive new methods become available, like the reaction volume or entropy on the atomic scale.- that our complex machines get easier over time.- that we constantly gain new fundamental, atomic scale insights.The Bad, however, is:- that the combination of electrochemistry with surface science is a real complex matter.- that the parameter space in electrochemistry is orders of magnitudes larger than surface science.- that there are too less groups and researchers, in general, to tackle all emerging problems.- that the time is ticking: global climate change is not waiting to figure out all details.- that we will need at least one generation to educate new students.The Ugly is severe, interesting and challenging, as it becomes clear:- that, instead of directly gaining more insights, often a multitude of additional questions emerge.- that there is a complex interplay of fundamental atomic and molecular processes.- that “known” textbook knowledge should be taken with a grain of salt.- that some fundamentals are even missing completely: our research is still in its infancy.- that there exists an enormous amount of literature describing a magnitude of different effects.- that one needs expertise of several different fields to really understand one detail.In my talk, I will present several recent examples, in which we thought that we had understood it. Often one last, small experiment was required to deliver the final confirmation. Oh boy, and how often have we been wrong. Nature confronts us with what we do not know! It will be a long and arduous journey, but similar to the early days in surface science, full with exciting and surprising puzzles from nature.I hope that I can trigger your enthusiasm to join our important journey![1] H. Ibach, “Physics of Surfaces and Interfaces”, Springer (2006)

Poly(arylene alkylene)s Carrying Quaternary Ammoniums via Flexible Phenylpropyl Spacers as Hydroxide Conducting Membranes

Anion exchange membranes (AEM)s are attracting growing research interests as central components in various alkaline energy conversion and storage devices such as AEM fuel cells and water electrolyzers.1,2 Compared to the devices operated under acidic conditions, the alkaline conditions open up for possibilities to use, e.g., nickel and iron catalysts instead of platinum. However, the insufficient hydroxide conductivity and long-term stability of AEMs at elevated temperatures are still hindering a widespread application of these devices.3 An effective strategy to improve AEM properties by structure design is to functionalize hetero-atom free polymer backbones with quaternary ammonium cations via flexible spacers.4-6 In the present work, we have synthesized a series of AEM materials by tethering three different quaternary ammonium cations to poly(arylene alkylene)s via a phenylpropyl spacer (Figure 1a). The Friedel-Crafts acylation and polyhydroxyalkylation employed in the monomer and polymer syntheses are both free of noble metals and have excellent yields. All the polymers prepared in this way formed robust membranes reaching high hydroxide conductivities – up to 175 mS/cm at 80 °C (Figure 1b). PpT-DMP, carrying dimethyl piperidinium cations, was found to have the highest alkaline stability with less than 7% ionic loss after treatment in 7 M aq. NaOH at 90 oC during 240 h. The hydroxide conductivity of PpT-DMP reached 104 mS/cm at an ion exchange capacity (IEC) of 1.79 mequiv./g., which is still quite high. Atom force microscope (AFM) phase imaging revealed a phase separated morphology of PpT-DMP, most probably involving ion-clustering (Figure 1c). In this presentation we will further discuss the synthesis of these polymers, and influence of the phenylpropyl spacer on AEM properties.[1] Xue, J.; Zhang, J.; Liu, X.; Huang, T.; Jiang, H.; Yin, Y.; Qin, Y.; Guiver, M. D. Toward alkaline-stable anion exchange membranes in fuel cells: cycloaliphatic quaternary ammonium-based anion conductors. Electrochem. Energy Rev. 2022, 5, 348-400.[2] Chatenet, M.; Pollet, B. G.; Dekel, D. R.; Dionigi, F.; Deseure, J.; Millet, P.; Braatz, R. D.; Bazant, M. Z.; Eikerling, M.; Staffell, I.; Balcombe, P.; Horn, Y. S.; Schafer, H. Water electrolysis: from textbook knowledge to the latest scientific strategies and industrial developments. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2022, 51, 4583-4762.[3] Varcoe, J. R.; Atanassov, P.; Dekel, D. R.; Herring, A. M.; Hickner, M. A.; Kohl, P. A.; Kucernak, A. R.; Mustain, W. E.; Nijmeijer, K. N.; Scott, K.; Xu, T.; Zhuang, L. Anion-exchange membranes in electrochemical energy systems. Energy Environ. Sci. 2014, 7, 3135-3197.[4] Dang, H. S.; Jannasch, P. Exploring different cationic alkyl side chain designs for enhanced alkaline stability and hydroxide ion conductivity of anion-exchange membranes. Macromolecules 2015, 48, 5742-5751.[5] Allushi, A.; Pham, T. P.; Olsson, J. S.; Jannasch, P. Ether-free polyfluorenes tethered with quinuclidinium cations as hydroxide exchange membranes. J. Mater. Chem. A 2019, 7, 27164-27174.[6] Lee, W. H.; Kim, Y. S.; Bae, C. Robust Hydroxide Ion Conducting Poly(biphenyl alkylene)s for Alkaline Fuel Cell Membranes. ACS Macro Lett. 2015, 4, 814-818. Figure 1. a) Poly(arylene alkylene)s tethered with different quaternary ammonium cations via phenylpropyl spacers, b) hydroxide conductivity of the AEMs in the fully hydrated state, and c) an AFM phase image of PpT-DMP. Figure 1

Seq2Phase: language model-based accurate prediction of client proteins in liquid-liquid phase separation.

Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) enables compartmentalization in cells without biological membranes. LLPS plays essential roles in membraneless organelles such as nucleoli and p-bodies, helps regulate cellular physiology, and is linked to amyloid formation. Two types of proteins, scaffolds and clients, are involved in LLPS. However, computational methods for predicting LLPS client proteins from amino-acid sequences remain underdeveloped. Here, we present Seq2Phase, an accurate predictor of LLPS client proteins. Information-rich features are extracted from amino-acid sequences by a deep-learning technique, Transformer, and fed into supervised machine learning. Predicted client proteins contained known LLPS regulators and showed localization enrichment into membraneless organelles, confirming the validity of the prediction. Feature analysis revealed that scaffolds and clients have different sequence properties and that textbook knowledge of LLPS-related proteins is biased and incomplete. Seq2Phase achieved high accuracies across human, mouse, yeast, and plant, showing that the method is not overfitted to specific species and has broad applicability. We predict that more than hundreds or thousands of LLPS client proteins remain undiscovered in each species and that Seq2Phase will advance our understanding of still enigmatic molecular and physiological bases of LLPS as well as its roles in disease. The software codes in Python underlying this article are available at https://github.com/IwasakiLab/Seq2Phase.

Enhancing Material Analysis with Statistical and Computer Vision Techniques: A Comprehensive Approach for Evaluating Electrode Quality

The optimization of electrodes for electrocatalysis is critical to the efficient operation of energy conversion applications, i.e., performance and efficiency can be improved by optimizing their fabrication process [1]. In the surface microstructure of anodes has been recognized as a fundamental aspect influencing their functionality [2]. Consequently, it is vital to precisely characterize the microstructure of electrodes. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has demonstrated to be a potent technique for scrutinizing the nanoscale microstructure of anodes. Nevertheless, AFM has limitations in investigating vast areas, thereby posing a challenge when evaluating the surface microstructure of large-scale electrodes.In this study, we developed a multi-stage data quantification method to overcome the limitations of AFM to measure large electrode areas. The efficacy of the developed approach that combines statistical analysis and computer vision techniques was validated by scrutinizing anodes made under various spray coating process conditions. The results demonstrated that the proposed method facilitated the in-depth evaluation of the degree of homogeneity, surface smoothness, and the presence of cracks or defects, thereby enabling a comprehensive assessment of electrode quality. It was possible to establish structure-performance relationships and delineate the interdependence between surface morphology and anode performance, activity, and cycling stability by combining surface analysis measurements with electrochemical analysis.In conclusion, this link between surface and electrochemical analysis will provide critical insights into anode performance and, in turn, drive the development of advanced materials for energy conversion technologies. Therefore, we believe our method has a high potential to expand the material scientist's toolkit and extend its application to analyze the micro/nanostructure of diverse materials in a wide range of applications, providing novel insights for their optimization. References Siegmund, D., et al., Crossing the valley of death: from fundamental to applied research in electrolysis. Jacs Au, 2021. 1(5): p. 527-535.Chatenet, Marian, et al. "Water electrolysis: from textbook knowledge to the latest scientific strategies and industrial developments." Chemical Society Reviews (2022).

Mining and Teaching Design of Civic and Political Elements in Digital Electronics Technology Course Based on Markov Modeling

Abstract This paper proposes a course knowledge resource extraction method based on the improved Hidden Markov Model and combines the method with hierarchical classification ideas. The improved Hidden Markov Model is used in the study of the text classification process of course knowledge resources, the expected cross entropy selects the feature words, and the semantic space composition is obtained by using the implicit semantic indexing method. When setting the observation output probability matrix for the HMM classifier model, the improved TFIDF method is introduced to reflect the semantic relations between feature words. An evaluation criterion such as macro-micro mean is used to analyze the performance of the whole text set classification and gradually improve the HMM model. Finally, the HMM resource information extraction model has been improved to mine the elements of civics in digital electronics technology courses. It is found that in the compulsory textbook knowledge of digital electronics technology, the trigger knowledge has the greatest integration degree with the Civic-Political elements with a percentage of 0.3382, followed by the analog-digital and digital-analog converter knowledge with a percentage of 0.2818. In the textbook column on digital electronics technology, the extended knowledge has the greatest integration degree with the Civic-Political elements with a percentage of 0.5043, followed by the strengthened category column with a percentage of 0.1712. The analysis of the students’ different Civic-Political dimensions after the instruction has been done. In the political identity category, national sentiment, scientific spirit and ecological environment topics improved by 7.23, 2.01, 3.2 and 2.14 points, respectively. It shows that students can improve their cultural knowledge in digital electronics and establish a correct worldview, life view, and values.

Knowledge and power in a girls’ madrasa in India: a critical analysis of textbook and curriculum

ABSTRACTArticles 28 and 30 of the Indian Constitution (1950) guarantee the right of religious minorities to establish their educational institutions and impart religious education. Analysing the curriculum, textbooks, and pedagogical practices of one such minority-run institution for girls makes it possible for us to see how contemporary Muslims in India transmit religious teaching today in ways that showcase some legacies of the colonial past but also fashion new ways of being and becoming in a rapidly changing and westernising 21st-century environment. This argument is more nuanced than stereotypes that pervade the mainstream media and public sphere about the static, moribund and irrelevant nature of Islamic education in the modern world. Analysing three recurring themes in textbooks and pedagogical practices of a girls’ madrasa located in Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India, this article illustrates how Islam is interpreted, debated, and adapted to contemporary reality by Indian Muslims in a specific educational setting, in a larger political context where they are an embattled minority. The article argues that textbook knowledge and choice of curriculum influence the process of socialisation and identity formation in girls. This article explores the self-perception of the Muslim community in India through the medium of textbooks and curriculum in a community-run school.

The new Norwegian curriculum and integration of knowledge in textbooks in social studies: a comparative study

The new Norwegian curriculum subject renewal is part of an international trend with a shift towards more knowledge-based curriculum, with greater emphasis on subjects and subject concepts, with the aim of realizing in-depth learning in schools. This paper, which is grounded on social realism and Ratas' CDC model, examines, and compares the design of the curriculum and the new textbooks in social studies. The comparative study reveals a gap between the curriculum and the textbooks, with quite different interpretations of the Norwegian curriculum reform. The paper explains why coherence design, which connects subject concepts, content knowledge and competencies, is a prerequisite for in-depth learning in social studies.

Primary challenges for employee health and wellbeing

This short review listing the primary challenges for employee health and wellbeing was built utilizing three different sources: Textbook knowledge, expert opinions, and artificial intelligence. The review reveals three main topics, namely: (1) Stress and its effects on mental and physical health; (2) uncertainty coming with constant and partly dramatic organizational and societal change; and (3) work-life balance and detachment. This list of challenges may be useful for researchers designing new theories and research and for practicing managers.

Sympathetic components in left and right human cervical vagus nerve: implications for vagus nerve stimulation.

Cervical vagus nerve stimulation is in a great variety of clinical situations indicated as a form of treatment. It is textbook knowledge that at the cervical level the vagus nerve contains many different fiber classes. Yet, recently, several reports have shown that this nerve also may contain an additional class of potentially noradrenergic fibers, suggested to denote efferent sympathetic fibers. As such, the nature and presence of these fibers should be considered when choosing a stimulation protocol. We have studied human vagus material extracted from dissection room cadavers in order to further confirm the presence of this class of fibers, to study their origin and direction within the nerve and to determine their distribution and variability between subjects and pairs of left and right nerves of the same individual. Sections were studied with immunohistochemical techniques using antibodies against tyrosine hydroxylase (TH: presumed to indicate noradrenergic fibers), myelin basic protein and neurofilament. Our results show that at least part of the TH-positive fibers derive from the superior cervical ganglion or sympathetic trunk, do not follow a cranial but take a peripheral course through the nerve. The portion of TH-positive fibers is highly variable between individuals but also between the left and right pairs of the same individual. TH-positive fibers can distribute and wander throughout the fascicles but maintain a generally clustered appearance. The fraction of TH-positive fibers generally diminishes in the left cervical vagus nerve when moving in a caudal direction but remains more constant in the right nerve. These results may help to determine optimal stimulation parameters for cervical vagus stimulation in clinical settings.

Holding water in a sieve—stable droplets without surface tension

Our understanding of supercritical fluids has seen exciting advances over the last decades, often in direct contradiction to established textbook knowledge. Rather than being structureless, we now know that distinct supercritical liquid and gaseous states can be distinguished and that a higher order phase transition - pseudo boiling - occurs between supercritical liquid and gaseous states across the Widom line. Observed droplets and sharp interfaces at supercritical pressures are interpreted as evidence of surface tension due to phase equilibria in mixtures, given the lack of a supercritical liquid-vapor phase equilibrium in pure fluids. However, here we introduce an alternative physical mechanism that unexpectedly causes a sharpening of interfacial density gradients in absence of surface tension: thermal gradient induced interfaces (TGIIF). We show from first principles and simulations that, unlike in gases or liquids, stable droplets, bubbles, and planar interfaces can exist without surface tension. These results challenge and generalize our understanding of what droplets and phase interfaces are, and uncover yet another unexpected behavior of supercritical fluids. TGIIF provide a new physical mechanism that could be used to tailor and optimize fuel injection or heat transfer processes in high-pressure power systems.

A Study on the Representation of Global Competence in English Textbooks for Higher Vocational Education in China

This study aims to analyze the representation of global competence in English textbooks for higher vocational education in China. A two-dimensional textbook theoretical framework based on global competence was developed, including four indicators of global competence (vertical) and 3 dimensions of textbook content (horizontal). Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative content analysis, we analyzed the representation of global competence in a set of Chinese higher vocational English textbooks (D version textbooks) in terms of content level, rendering location, and representation form. The results showed that the D version textbooks covered all of global competence indicators, among which the indicator of knowledge and understanding of global competence is the most and the attitudes and values is the least. The 16 sub-indicators of global competence presented differently in content levels, implicitly in the rendering location, and with “reading comprehension,”“oral communication” and “integrated application” as the main representation forms. This theoretical framework is an extension of global competence theory in textbook study and is also a useful tool for content analysis on non-linguistic knowledge of English textbooks.

Perceptual grouping strategies and texture segmentation: Strategic connections and selection

In a series of articles, Jacob Beck proposed that a variety of texture segmentation phenomena occurs due to emergent features that arise from “links” between elements with appropriate local properties, such as alignment, orientation, and proximity. His findings and ideas guided theoretical and computational models, and some of his demonstrations became textbook knowledge about visual perception. We build on this work in two ways. First, we provide a modern replication of a classic texture segmentation study using a much larger sample size. Overall, the replication agrees with Beck’s original findings, although there are some quantitative differences. Second, we show how to apply a quantitative model of visual cortex to Beck’s experiment and demonstrate that the model can explain many aspects of Beck’s findings. Key to the model’s success is cognitive control of connections between individual elements (akin to Beck’s “links” between elements) and a selection mechanism that makes it easy to identify how well elements within a region connect and how well different regions are disconnected. Overall, the model supports Beck’s claim that local properties can facilitate patterns of connections between stimulus elements and that some connection patterns allow an observer to easily distinguish textures.

Musculoskeletal Injury in American Football: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Most Cited Articles

Background: Textbook knowledge and clinical dogma are often insufficient for effective evidence-based decision making when treating musculoskeletal injuries in American football players, given the variability in presentation and outcomes across different sports and different levels of competition. Key evidence can be drawn directly from high-quality published articles to make the appropriate decisions and recommendations for each athlete’s unique situation. Purpose: To identify and analyze the 50 most cited articles related to football-related musculoskeletal injury to provide an efficient tool in the arsenal of trainees, researchers, and evidence-based practitioners alike. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: The ISI Web of Science and SCOPUS databases were queried for articles pertaining to musculoskeletal injury in American football. For each of the top 50 most cited articles, bibliometric elements were evaluated: citation count and density, decade of publication, journal, country, multiple publications by the same first author or senior author, article content (topic, injury area), and level of evidence (LOE). Results: The mean ± SD number of citations was 102.76 ± 37.11; the most cited article, with 227 citations, was “Syndesmotic Ankle Sprains” published in 1991 by Boytim et al. Several authors served as a first or senior author on >1 publication, including J.S. Torg (n = 6), J.P. Bradley (n = 4), and J.W. Powell (n = 4). The American Journal of Sports Medicine published the majority of the 50 most cited articles (n = 31). A total of 29 articles discussed lower extremity injuries, while only 4 discussed upper extremity injuries. The majority of the articles (n = 28) had an LOE of 4, with only 1 article having an LOE of 1. The articles with an LOE of 3 had the highest mean citation number (133.67 ± 55.23; F = 4.02; P = .05). Conclusion: The results of this study highlight the need for more prospective research surrounding the management of football-related injury. The low overall number of articles on upper extremity injury (n = 4) also highlights an area for further research.

Life Sciences Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge When Addressing Socioscientific Issues in The Topic Evolution

The South African life sciences curriculum envisages a teacher who negotiates through controversial issues in the topic of evolution and helps learners reconcile the content and their religious or cultural aspects. Previous studies have found that teachers are conflicted to teach evolution concepts due to socioscientific issues (SSIs) emanating from sociocultural and religious beliefs and those of their learners. Consequently, the current paper reports a study that sought to establish life sciences teachers’ topic specific pedagogical content knowledge when teaching some concepts in the topic evolution. This is against the backdrop that teachers are conflicted about teaching the theory of evolution. In a qualitative study, an open-ended questionnaire designed to assess science teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Biological socioscientific issues (PCK-BSSIs) was administered to selected 28 life sciences teachers who had taught the topic evolution for some time. The findings showed that the teaching of SSIs in evolution through debates, argumentation, and discussions, provides a platform for learner critical thinking, problem-solving and the ability to make informed decisions. Some teachers failed to realise the need for inclusion of evolution in the curriculum considering its invasive and challenging nature with regards to sociocultural and religious beliefs. Teachers therefore used textbook knowledge without engaging learners. Based on these findings, the researchers recommend that teachers be equipped with not only the pedagogical skills to address controversial issues but should also be developed in the subject matter knowledge.

A complex network regulating malate contents during fruit ripening in climacteric fruits.

This article is a Commentary on Wang et al. (2023), 239: 1014–1034.

A comprehensive analysis of different types of databases reveals that CDH1 mRNA and E-cadherin protein are not downregulated in most carcinoma tissues and carcinoma cell lines

BackgroundThe CDH1 gene codes for the epithelial-cadherin (E-cad) protein, which is embedded in the plasma membrane of epithelial cells to form adherens junctions. E-cad is known to be essential for maintaining the integrity of epithelial tissues, and the loss of E-cad has been widely considered a hallmark of metastatic cancers enabling carcinoma cells to acquire the ability to migrate and invade nearby tissues. However, this conclusion has come under scrutiny.MethodsTo assess how CDH1 and E-cad expression changes during cancer progression, we analyzed multiple large transcriptomics, proteomics, and immunohistochemistry datasets on clinical cancer samples and cancer cell lines to determine the CDH1 mRNA and E-cad protein expression profiles in tumor and normal cells.ResultsIn contrast to the textbook knowledge of the loss of E-cad during tumor progression and metastasis, the levels of CDH1 mRNA and E-cad protein are either upregulated or remain unchanged in most carcinoma cells compared to normal cells. In addition, the CDH1 mRNA upregulation occurs in the early stages of tumor development and the levels remain elevated as tumors progress to later stages across most carcinoma types. Furthermore, E-cad protein levels are not downregulated in most metastatic tumor cells compared to primary tumor cells. The CDH1 mRNA and E-cad protein levels are positively correlated, and the CDH1 mRNA levels are positively correlated to cancer patient’s survival. We have discussed potential mechanisms underlying the observed expression changes in CDH1 and E-cad during tumor progression.ConclusionsCDH1 mRNA and E-cadherin protein are not downregulated in most tumor tissues and cell lines derived from commonly occurring carcinomas. The role of E-cad in tumor progression and metastasis may have previously been oversimplified. CDH1 mRNA levels may serve as a reliable biomarker for the diagnosis of some tumors (such as colon and endometrial carcinomas) due to the marked upregulation of CDH1 mRNA in the early stages of tumor development of these carcinomas.

Ultrafast Proton Transfer Pathways Mediated by Amphoteric Imidazole

Imidazole, being an amphoteric molecule, can act both as an acid and as a base. This property enables imidazole, as an essential building block, to effectively facilitate proton transport in high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells and in proton channel transmembrane proteins, enabling those systems to exhibit high energy conversion yields and optimal biological function. We explore the amphoteric properties of imidazole by following the proton transfer exchange reaction dynamics with the bifunctional photoacid 7-hydroxyquinoline (7HQ). We show with ultrafast ultraviolet-mid-infrared pump-probe spectroscopy how for imidazole, in contrast to expectations based on textbook knowledge of acid-base reactivity, the preferential reaction pathway is that of an initial proton transfer from 7HQ to imidazole, and only at a later stage a transfer from imidazole to 7HQ, completing the 7HQ tautomerization reaction. An assessment of the molecular distribution functions and first-principles calculations of proton transfer reaction barriers reveal the underlying reasons for our observations.

Effects of AR‐ and VR‐based wearables in teaching English: The application of an ARCS model‐based learning design to improve elementary school students' learning motivation and performance

AbstractBackgroundPrevious research has examined the use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in English language teaching. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of the earlier studies that investigated integrating AR and VR “wearables” into teaching and learning English based on the attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction (ARCS) motivation model compared the differences in learning motivation and performance between traditional teaching methods and those using AR‐ and VR‐based using wearables.ObjectivesTo create a thematic learning environment based on learners' lived experiences and provide them with an immersive English course that extends textbook knowledge using a technology‐assisted real‐life learning context.MethodThis study used a quasi‐experimental research design. A total of 119 participants were spilt into three learning groups based on teaching tools: traditional methods and AR‐ and VR‐based wearable devices. The performance of each group was evaluated through three stages using appropriate educational tools for traditional, AR‐, and VR‐based classrooms, followed by semistructured interviews. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to investigate the inference learning performance (remembering and analysing) of the four ARCS dimensions with the three teaching methods.ResultsThe results showed that confidence and relevance were positively correlated with learning performance in the VR‐based wearable group. In the context of the ARCS model, learners' confidence predicted learning performance and the remembering subdimension when VR‐based learning materials were used.ImplicationsThese results suggest that, compared to traditional teaching methods, VR‐based wearables make it easier to create a highly immersive learning environment and are more likely to help learners find the correct words, improve their accuracy, and increase their confidence and sense of accomplishment in the entire learning process.

Cracking the genetic code with neural networks.

The genetic code is textbook scientific knowledge that was soundly established without resorting to Artificial Intelligence (AI). The goal of our study was to check whether a neural network could re-discover, on its own, the mapping links between codons and amino acids and build the complete deciphering dictionary upon presentation of transcripts proteins data training pairs. We compared different Deep Learning neural network architectures and estimated quantitatively the size of the required human transcriptomic training set to achieve the best possible accuracy in the codon-to-amino-acid mapping. We also investigated the effect of a codon embedding layer assessing the semantic similarity between codons on the rate of increase of the training accuracy. We further investigated the benefit of quantifying and using the unbalanced representations of amino acids within real human proteins for a faster deciphering of rare amino acids codons. Deep neural networks require huge amount of data to train them. Deciphering the genetic code by a neural network is no exception. A test accuracy of 100% and the unequivocal deciphering of rare codons such as the tryptophan codon or the stop codons require a training dataset of the order of 4-22 millions cumulated pairs of codons with their associated amino acids presented to the neural network over around 7-40 training epochs, depending on the architecture and settings. We confirm that the wide generic capacities and modularity of deep neural networks allow them to be customized easily to learn the deciphering task of the genetic code efficiently.

Optimization Strategies for Primary School Students’ Homework Design in the Context of “Double Reduction”

The Ministry of Education’s policy of “double reduction” aims to decrease the burden of homework and off-campus training for students in compulsory education. However, reducing the burden of homework cannot lead to a decline in learning quality. Therefore, optimizing homework design has become the focus of frontline teachers. This study analyzes the problems of primary school students’ homework design based on frontline teaching and management practices. It proposes optimization measures for primary school students’ homework design under the “double reduction” policy. Teachers should study the relevant concepts of homework design under this policy background and fully implement the homework management system. They should also innovate the layered operation design mode, control the number of operation design, establish an effective management feedback mechanism, and facilitate efficient communication between families and schools. The study highlights the increasing importance of cultivating students’ core literacy ability, which necessitates the adoption of new forms of education and homework design. Therefore, teachers should design homework that enhances students’ interest in subject knowledge, makes homework design more effective, and improves the quality of homework design. To achieve this, teachers should combine textbook knowledge with real-life examples, innovate the form of homework design, cultivate students’ comprehensive ability, liberate students from mechanical training, and enable them to consolidate basic knowledge in the practice of subject homework. This approach will improve the comprehensive training ability and core quality of students.