Explore the vast range of titles available.

Over the past two decades, the field of STEM education has produced a wealth of research findings. This study systematically reviewed the published literature from the perspective of subject integration and theme evolution, considering both K-12 and higher education. It was found that STEM education originated from higher education, but the main emphasis is gradually shifting to the K-12 stage. There were mainly sixteen subjects involved in STEM education, showing the gradual in-depth integration of science, engineering, technology, math, humanities, and social sciences, in which humanism is increasingly emphasized. Culture is a new perspective for understanding the diversity of participants, which also gives STEM education a distinctive regional character. In addition, in the K-12 stage, research related to computer science and art stands out alongside the four main subjects, demonstrating relatively even distribution across research themes. Conversely, in higher education, engineering, and chemistry garner considerable attention, with research themes predominantly concentrated on learning outcomes and social relevance. On a holistic scale, researchers exhibit a pronounced interest in learning outcomes, yet relatively less emphasis is placed on pedagogical aspects. Regarding prospective trends, there should be a heightened focus on the cultivation of students’ thinking competencies, students’ career development, and pedagogy.

PurposeThis study aims to provide a comprehensive review and bibliometric analysis of the literature in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education over the past 15 years, with a specific focus on global distribution and research trends.Design/methodology/approachThis study collected 1,718 documents from the Web of Science (WOS) database and analyzed their timeline distribution, geographical distribution, research topics, subject areas, learning stages and citation burst using a bibliometric approach with VOSviewer and Citespace.FindingsResults indicated that: overall, STEM education has increasingly gained scholarly attention and is developing diversely by emphasizing interdisciplinary, cross-domain and regional collaboration. In terms of global collaboration, a collaborative network with the USA in the center is gradually expanding to a global scope. In terms of research themes, four key topics can be outlined including educational equity, pedagogy, empirical effects and career development. Social, cultural and economic factors influence the way STEM education is implemented across different countries. The developed Western countries highlighted educational equity and disciplinary integration, while the developing countries tend to focus more on pedagogical practices. As for research trends, eastern countries are emphasizing humanistic leadership and cultural integration in STEM education; in terms of teachers’ professional development, teachers’ abilities of interdisciplinary integration, technology adoption and pedagogy application are of the greatest importance. With regards to pedagogy, the main focus is for developing students’ higher-order abilities. In terms of education equity, issues of gender and ethnicity were still the hottest topics, while the unbalanced development of STEM education across regions needs further research.Originality/valueThis study provides a global landscape of STEM education along the timeline, which illustrates the yearly progressive development of STEM education and indicates the future trends.

PurposePreservice teacher (PST) professional development programs are crucial for cultivating high-quality STEAM teachers of the future, significantly impacting the quality of regional STEAM education. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, as a region of cross-border cooperation, integrates the resources and advantages of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, possessing rich cultural heritage and innovative capabilities. Transdisciplinary Education for Cultural Inheritance (C-STEAM) is an effective approach to promoting educational collaboration within the Greater Bay Area, facilitating the integration of both technological and humanities education. This study aims to develop a Technology-Enabled University-School-Enterprise (T-USE) collaborative education model and implement it in the Greater Bay Area, to explore its role as a support mechanism in professional development and its impact on C-STEAM PSTs' professional capital.Design/methodology/approachAdopting a qualitative methodology, the study interviewed PSTs who participated in a C-STEAM teacher education course under the T-USE model. Thematic coding is used to analyze their knowledge acquisition, interaction benefits with community members, and autonomous thinking and decision-making in theoretical learning and teaching practice.FindingsThe findings show that the T-USE model significantly enhanced the PSTs' human capital, including teaching beliefs, knowledge, and skills. In terms of social capital, PSTs benefited from collaboration with PST groups, university teaching teams, in-service teachers, and enterprises, though challenges such as varying levels of expertise among in-service teachers and occasional technical instability emerged. For decisional capital, the T-USE model provided opportunities for autonomous thinking and promoted teaching judgment skills through real teaching challenges and scenarios. Reflective practice activities also supported PSTs' professional growth.Originality/valueThis study reveals the effectiveness and internal mechanism of the T-USE model in C-STEAM PST training, offering significant theoretical and practical references for future PST education.

Introduction Insufficient sleep duration has negative consequences for health and performance and is alarmingly common in adolescents and young adults. The primary aim of the meta-analysis and systematic review was to assess whether at-home sleep extension is a feasible means to improve sleep duration and daytime sleepiness without negative consequences for sleep quality or efficiency in adolescents and young adults. An additional aim of the review was to provide a qualitative summary of the health and performance outcomes associated with at-home sleep extension. Methods Peer-reviewed journal articles and doctoral dissertations available in English were searched and screened. Eligible studies had at least five consecutive days of at-home sleep extension, measurement of sleep duration during baseline/habitual sleep and extension of sleep opportunity, and participants 13–30 years of age. Information on primary sleep outcome (i.e., sleep duration), available secondary sleep outcomes (i.e., sleep opportunity, sleep efficiency, sleep quality, daytime sleepiness), and health and performance outcomes were extracted for quantitative synthesis and qualitative review. Results Of the 2254 articles assessed for eligibility, 17 studies (seven in adolescents and ten in young adults) met the eligibility criteria for this review. The average number of days of sleep manipulation was 14.29 (range: 5 to 49 nights). At-home extension of sleep opportunity reliably increased objective (ES = 0.97) and subjective sleep duration (ES = 2.19) and sleep quality (ES = 0.24), and decreased daytime sleepiness (ES = -0.39), when compared to unmanipulated sleep opportunity. Sleep extension was also found to have additional health (e.g., lower psychological stress) and performance benefits (e.g., better athletic performance) across ages and populations. A potential upward publication bias was found based on the distribution of within-subject effect sizes of actigraphic sleep duration. Conclusion The review indicates that at-home sleep extension is feasible in adolescents and young adults to improve sleep duration and daytime sleepiness, and maintain or improve sleep quality. However, the degree of improvement in sleep duration, sleep quality, and daytime sleepiness varied by study population and sleep extension method. Future research should investigate how variations in population and methods of sleep extension impact health and performance outcomes. Support (if any):

With the intensification of global climate change, environmental issues such as soil salinization and drought have exerted an increasingly prominent impact on plants. Tibetan peach (Amygdalus mira), a rare native tree species of the genus Amygdalus in the Rosaceae family, possesses extremely strong tolerance to cold, drought, and disease stress. In the previous study, we found that the protein abundance of a calcium-binding protein, AmCML24, was significantly upregulated in Tibetan peach under drought stress, leading us to hypothesize that it plays an important role in the molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to abiotic stresses. Therefore, this study focuses on AmCML24, aiming to preliminarily characterize the stress-tolerant function of AmCML24 and explore its biological role in plant tolerance to saline–alkali and drought stresses. Results demonstrated that AmCML24 responds to multiple abiotic stresses. Yeast and Arabidopsis thaliana lines overexpressing AmCML24 exhibited enhanced tolerance to NaCl, NaHCO3, and mannitol stresses, with a significant upregulation in the expression of stress-responsive genes. This study lays a solid foundation for deciphering the stress regulatory network of Tibetan peach and elucidating the biological function of AmCML24, while also providing a scientific basis for the genetic improvement, exploitation, and utilization of Tibetan peach germplasm resources.

Chinese pepper, referring to Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. and Zanthoxylum armatum DC. species, is an important spice crop that has long attracted people’s interest due to its extensive application in Asian cuisine to improve taste. Numerous cultivars have been developed during the long history of domestication and cultivation. However, little to no information is available on the genetic diversity and evolutionary relationships of Chinese pepper cultivars and their historical diversification has not been clarified. Herein, we sequenced two nrDNA non-coding region markers, the external transcribed spacer (ETS) and the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2), to assess genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships among 39 cultivated and wild populations of Chinese pepper from eight provinces and to address the question of ancient demographic trends which were probably influenced by changing climate during evolutionary history. In total, 31 haplotypes were identified based on 101 polymorphism sites. Our results revealed relatively high level of genetic variation despite long-term cultivation of this crop. AMOVA revealed that genetic variation existed predominantly within provinces rather than among provinces. The genetic structure result based on haplotype network analysis largely reflected historical records, which suggested a Gansu origin for Chinese pepper and an ancient west-to-east spread of Chinese pepper circulating in China. We also provided evidence that changing Pleistocene climates had shaped the demographic trends of Chinese pepper. Taken together, our findings not only suggest that Chinese pepper is a dynamic genetic system that responds to evolutionary forces, but it also provides a fundamental genetic profile for the conservation and responsible exploitation of the extant germplasm of Chinese pepper and for improving the genetic basis for breeding the cultivars.