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To maximize learners' performance promotion in flipped classroom, this research redesigns a flipped classroom with four integrated practices: speed response questions, teacher face-to-face counselling, independent practices and team projects. Using questionnaire (N=66) and interview (N=20) data, the model is tested in two undergraduate introductory computer science courses in China, where students are typically reticent to engage in active learning in class. Data from a bipolar scale revealed that the majority of students regarded the new model as more student-centred. Using a learning capability matrix, this research deeply explored the benefits by learning dimension. The interviews provided details on the students' positive attitudes to the model and one area of concern. This research may be helpful for the scholars who are redesigning their flipped classrooms or developing new in-class activities.

Early studies on financial distress prediction (FDP) seldom consider the problem of industry's relative financial distress concept drift and neglects how to dynamically predict industry's relative financial distress. This paper proposes a novel model for dynamic prediction of relative financial distress based on imbalanced data stream of certain industry, and the whole model is divided into the three submodules: the financial feature selection module based on plus-L-minus-R approach, the financial condition evaluation module based on principal component analysis, and the FDP modeling module based on SMOTEBoost-SVM/DT/KNN/Logistic. After feature selection, the results of industry financial condition evaluation are used as class labels for industry's relative FDP modeling, and the model keeps updating with time window sliding on. The empirical experiment is carried out based on the financial ratio data of Chinese iron and steel companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and the results indicate the effectiveness of the dynamic model for industry's relative FDP.

Fibrotic skin diseases, such as keloids, are pathological results of aberrant tissue healing and are characterized by overgrowth of dermal fibroblasts. Remdesivir (RD), an antiviral drug, has been reported to have pharmacological activities in a wide range of fibrotic diseases. However, whether RD function on skin fibrosis remains unclear. Therefore, in our study, we explored the potential effect and mechanisms of RD on skin fibrosis both in vivo and in vitro . As expected, the results demonstrated that RD alleviated BLM‐induced skin fibrosis and attenuates the gross weight of keloid tissues in vivo . Further studies suggested that RD suppressed fibroblast activation and autophagy both in vivo and in vitro . In addition, mechanistic research showed that RD attenuated fibroblasts activation by the TGF‐β1/Smad signaling pathway and inhibited fibroblasts autophagy by the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. In summary, our results demonstrate therapeutic potential of RD for skin fibrosis in the future.

Fibrotic skin diseases, such as keloids, are pathological results of aberrant tissue healing and are characterized by overgrowth of dermal fibroblasts. Remdesivir (RD), an antiviral drug, has been reported to have pharmacological activities in a wide range of fibrotic diseases. However, whether RD function on skin fibrosis remains unclear. Therefore, in our study, we explored the potential effect and mechanisms of RD on skin fibrosis both in vivo and in vitro. As expected, the results demonstrated that RD alleviated BLM-induced skin fibrosis and attenuates the gross weight of keloid tissues in vivo. Further studies suggested that RD suppressed fibroblast activation and autophagy both in vivo and in vitro. In addition, mechanistic research showed that RD attenuated fibroblasts activation by the TGF-[beta]1/Smad signaling pathway and inhibited fibroblasts autophagy by the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. In summary, our results demonstrate therapeutic potential of RD for skin fibrosis in the future.

PurposeTo evaluate the effectiveness and safety of rescue stenting (RS) after failed mechanical thrombectomy (MT) for patients with large artery occlusion in the anterior circulation.MethodsConsecutive patients who experienced failed reperfusion and subsequently did or did not undergo RS at 16 comprehensive stroke centers were enrolled from January 2015 to June 2018. Propensity score matching was used to achieve baseline balance between the patient groups. Symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) at 48 hours and the modified Rankin Scale scores and mortality at 3 months in the two groups were compared.ResultsA total of 90 patients with RS and 117 patients without RS after failed MT were enrolled. Propensity score matching analysis selected 132 matched patients. The good outcome rate was significantly higher in matched patients with RS than in those without RS (36.4% vs 19.7%, p=0.033), whereas the sICH (13.6% vs 21.2%, p=0.251) and mortality (31.9% vs 43.9%, p=0.151) were not significantly different between the groups.ConclusionsRS seems to be an effective safe choice for patients with large vessel occlusion of the anterior circulation who underwent failed MT.

To solve the problem of synthesized magnetic nanoparticles in cancer therapy, a new drug delivery system synthesized from bacteria was used to load cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C). Genipin (GP) and poly-l-glutamic acid (PLGA) were selected as dual cross-linkers. The preparation and characterization of Ara-C-loaded GP-PLGA-modified bacterial magnetosomes (BMs) (ABMs-P), as well as their in vitro antitumor effects, were all investigated. Transmission electron micrographs (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy suggested that Ara-C could be bound to the membrane of BMs modified by GP-PLGA. The diameters of the BMs and ABMs-P were 42.0±8.6 nm and 74.9±8.2 nm, respectively. The zeta potential revealed that the nanoparticles were stable. Moreover, this system exhibited optimal drug-loading properties and long-term release behavior. The optimal encapsulation efficiency and drug-loading were 64.1%±6.6% and 38.9%±2.4%, respectively, and ABMs-P could effectively release 90% Ara-C within 40 days, without the release of an initial burst. In addition, in vitro antitumor experiments elucidated that ABMs-P is cytotoxic to HL-60 cell lines, with an inhibition rate of 95%. The method of coupling drugs on BMs using dual cross-linkers is effective, and our results reveal that this new system has potential applications for drug delivery in the future.

The in vitro and in vivo anti-tumor efficacy of methotrexate-loaded Fe 3 O 4 -poly- L -lactide-poly(ethylene glycol)-poly- L -lactide magnetic composite microspheres (MTX-Fe 3 O 4 -PLLA-PEG-PLLA MCMs, MMCMs), which were produced by co-precipitation (C) and microencapsulation (M) in a supercritical process, was evaluated at various levels: cellular, molecular, and integrated. The results at the cellular level indicate that MMCMs (M) show a better anti-proliferation activity than raw MTX and could induce morphological changes of cells undergoing apoptosis. At the molecular level, MMCMs (M) lead to a significantly higher relative mRNA expression of bax/bcl-2 and caspase-3 than MMCMs (C) at 10 μg mL−1 ( P <0.01); and the pro-caspase-3 protein expression measured by Western blot analysis also demonstrates that MMCMs (M) can effectively activate pro-caspase-3. At the integrated level, mice bearing a sarcoma-180 tumor are used; in vivo anti-tumor activity tests reveal that MMCMs (M) with magnetic induction display a much higher tumor suppression rate and lower toxicity than raw MTX. Pharmacokinetic studies show that MMCMs (M) with magnetic induction significantly increase the accumulation of MTX in the tumor tissue compared with the other treatments. These results suggest that the MMCMs (M) prepared by the SpEDS process have great potential to play a positive role in the magnetic targeted therapy field.