Learning and Talent Development Alignment——take Network Railway as an example

Learning and talent development(LTD)aims to enhance an organisation’s performance,the need for LTD to link to the organisation’s overall business strategy,which also be described as linkage/alignment,is more imperative than ever in this rapid changing environment.This paper aims to explore how Network Rail utilise LTD strategies to support its overall business strategies.

Embryonic skeleton development and neonatal learning and memory ability of rats anesthetized with pentobarbital sodium: Differences of administration occasion and time

BACKGROUND: Generally speaking, anesthesia is often used in gravid body and it has been already proved that many kind of medicine can result in malformation. OBJECTIVE: To explore embryonic skeleton development and neonatal learning and memory of rats anesthetized with pentobarbital sodium in gravid rats. DESIGN: A randomized control trial. SETTING: Laboratory Animal Center of Xuzhou Medical College. MATERIALS: A total of 80 adult female SD rats, of clean grade and weighing 220-240 g, were selected in this study. The main reagents were detailed as follows: pentobarbital sodium (Shanghai Xingzhi Chemical Plant, batch number: 921019); MG-2 maze test apparatus (Zhangjiagang Biomedical Instrument Factory); somatotype microscope (Beijing Taike Instrument Co., Ltd.). METHODS: ① A total of 160 SD rats of half males and females were selected in this study. All rats were copulated. The day that the plug was checked out in the vagina next day was looked as the first day of pregnancy. Gravid rats were divided randomly into four groups, including early anesthesia group, second anesthesia group, late anesthesia group and control group with 20 in each group. Rats in the early anesthesia group were injected with 25 mg/kg soluble pentobarbitone on the 7th day of pregnancy for once; rats in the second anesthesia group were anesthetized with 25 mg/kg soluble pentobarbitone on the 7th and the 14th days of pregnancy for once; rats in the late anesthesia group were anesthetized with 25 mg/kg soluble pentobarbitone on the 14th day of pregnancy for once; rats in the control group did not treat with anything. The time of anesthetizing was controlled in 3 to 4 hours and ether was absorbed while the time was not enough. ② Half of each group was sacrificed on day 20th of pregnancy and the fetus was taken out to be stained with alizarin red S. After stained, the fetal skeleton was examined. The learning and memorizing of one-month rats that were given birth by the rest gravid rats were tested through electric mare method. Determine their study ability according to their correct rate of 90% or above of arrival at the safe area in 20 s. After they finally learned to arrive at the safe area correctly, test them once more in 24 hours and record the correct rate of 15 times. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The rate of malformation in fetus and ability of learning and memory in one-month rats. RESULTS: A total of 80 female rats were anesthetized in this experiment. Totally 490 immature rats were tested with maze testing machine and 196 fetuses were stained with alizarin red S to observe the development of their skeleton. However, one of the 80 female rats was led to death because of overdose. ① Malformation experiment: Learning ability of second anesthesia group was evidently different from the control group while the other two groups were not in the electric mare method. The fetal skeleton malformation rate of three experimental groups was 87.0%, 60.9% and 17.9%, respectively, while it was 5.6% in the control group. ② Electric mare method: Times of rats which arrived at the safe regions were respectively 49.0±31.0, 68.0±35.0, 47.0±31.0 and 44.0±21.0 in early anesthesia group, second anesthesia group, late anesthesia group and control group; and then, there was significant difference between the second anesthesia group and the control group (P < 0.05). Exact rates of memory of rats were respectively (64.36±14.35)%, (62.15±18.33)%, (54.19±12.28)% and (68.24±15.91)% in early anesthesia group, second anesthesia group, late anesthesia group and control group; and then, there were no significant differences as compared with the control group (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The influence of anesthesia with pentobarbital sodium is obvious in fetal skeleton development and learning and memory ability.

Some Applications of the Learning of the Research on Teacher Development in College English Class

Nowadays much concern has been showed on the research of teacher development and an effective way of teacher development, the action research. From the learning of these researches we get clearer that English teaching and learning is a continuous process in which many interrelated and intrinsic factors work together. Furthermore, we know that teachers＇ beliefs on teaching and learning play an important role in class. During the process of learning and teaching, a teacher＇s own learning from relevant books on education and learning helps a lot in increase teachers＇ awareness about English teaching and learning, and improving the classroom teaching. In this paper three effective applications of the results of the research of teacher development are introduced, which shows that a teacher is a decisive factor in the classroom setting and the research and learning about teacher development is useful for a teacher to improve himself or herself as a teacher.

Can ECE Classes Sustainably Empower Preschool Children’s Development?-A Longitudinal Study of the Role of ECE Classes in Children’s Learning and Development

Does enrolling children aged 0-3 in early childhood education(ECE)classes continuously empower their learning and development after entering kindergarten?Based on the tracking survey data of 664 children aged 3-6 in 2017 and 367 children aged 3-6 in 2018,this study uses Propensity Score Matching to analyze this issue.The findings reveal that children’s family socioeconomic status is a key factor influencing their participation in ECE classes.The baseline data show that participation in ECE classes does not significantly improve children’s learning and development.However,the follow-up data show that participation in ECE classes plays a significant negative role in motor development for children moving to their second year of kindergarten,but subsequently plays a positive role in language development,health,and safety for those entering their third year of kindergarten.Overall,participation in ECE classes plays no continuous positive role in children’s learning and development after they enter kindergarten.Based on these findings,it is suggested that parents should respect the natural laws of child development instead of blindly following the trend of attending ECE classes,and high-quality parental companionship is crucial.The Chinese government is supposed to implement policies such as“double reduction”to regulate ECE institutions that fail to operate in good faith.

Developing Universities into Learning Organizations

A number of companies and organizations consider that it is necessary todevelop into learning organizations in order to meet the challenges of rapidly changing world. Aftera review on the literature on the learning organization, there is no question that the concept isboth attractive and complex. There appears to be more consensus about that becoming a learningorganization is more of a journey than a destination. Senge identifies five key disciplines thatKelp organization to become a learning organization, and the disciplines mean commitment, focus,and practice. In recent years the concept of the learning organization is translated into theeducation sector. Today, more than ever, more and more people see education as the highest form ofleverage to improve society. As the highest form of the education sector, universities must try todevelop into learning organizations. But the process will be neither easy nor swift, and we shouldview the process not as a task to be completed, but as the ongoing work. Effective change andimprovement can only happen by conducting long-term practice involving teachers, administrators,parents, and students who have a common vision and work and live with a learning culture.

Gender Differences in Motivation and Learning Preferences of Pharmacists in Lifelong Learning

Objectives： To analyse motivation and preferences of pharmacists who participate in CE （continuing education） to develop suitable lifelong learning programmes for pharmacists. Methods： An online questionnaire, which explored the motivation and preferences of the pharmacists to lifelong learning, was sent to all members of the Royal Dutch Pharmaceutical Society （4321） in the Netherlands. The data were analysed using a non-hierarchical clustering technique. Key findings： Two clusters of pharmacists were discovered. Cluster A pharmacists （n = 474） were more motivated by credit points （63.5% vs. 47.2%）, personal interest （84.1% vs. 56.3%）, updating knowledge （73.8% vs. 56.8%） and topicality of CE courses （47.7% vs. 26.1%）. Cluster B pharmacists （n = 199） were predominantly motivated by the aspect ＂duty as a care-giver＂ （97.0% vs. 0 % in cluster A）. Pharmacists who belonged to cluster A tended to be women （60.5%）, often worked part-time （29.3%） and mostly preferred lectures （71.1%）. Cluster B pharmacists consisted of statistically significantly more male pharmacists （52.8%, p = 0.001）, worked more full time （77.4%, p = 0.009） and mostly preferred blended learning （62.3%, p = 0.047）. Conclusions： These results suggest the use of different education formats for different kinds of pharmacists to participate in CE activities.

Kid Chemists Learn about Sustainable Development at 8th BASF Kids' Lab

Beijing, China-September 16, 2009-BASF, the leading chemical company, today opened its eighth Kids’ Lab Beijing today at the new tower of China Science and Technology Museum, which coincides with the Museum’s first

Women Entrepreneurship Index Prediction Model with Automated Statistical Analysis

Recently,gender equality and women’s entrepreneurship have gained considerable attention in global economic development.Prior to the design of any policy interventions to increase women’s entrepreneurship,it is significant to comprehend the factors motivating women to become entrepreneurs.The non-understanding of the factors can result in the endurance of low living stan-dards and the design of expensive and ineffectual policies.But female involve-ment in entrepreneurship becomes higher in developing economies compared to developed economies.Women Entrepreneurship Index(WEI)plays a vital role in determining the factors that enable theflourishment of high potential female entrepreneurs which enhances economic welfare and contributes to the economic and social fabric of society.Therefore,it is needed to design an automated and accurate WEI prediction model to improve women’s entrepreneurship.In this view,this article develops an automated statistical analysis enabled WEI predic-tive(ASA-WEIP)model.The proposed ASA-WEIP technique aims to effectually determine the WEI.The proposed ASA-WEIP technique encompasses a series of sub-processes such as pre-processing,WEI prediction,and parameter optimiza-tion.For the prediction of WEI,the ASA-WEIP technique makes use of the Deep Belief Network(DBN)model,and the parameter optimization process takes place using Squirrel Search Algorithm(SSA).The performance validation of the ASA-WEIP technique was executed using the benchmark dataset from the Kaggle repo-sitory.The experimental outcomes stated the better outcomes of the ASA-WEIP technique over the other existing techniques.

Learning Robotic Hand-eye Coordination Through a Developmental Constraint Driven Approach

The skill of robotic hand-eye coordination not only helps robots to deal with real time environment,but also afects the fundamental framework of robotic cognition.A number of approaches have been developed in the literature for construction of the robotic hand-eye coordination.However,several important features within infant developmental procedure have not been introduced into such approaches.This paper proposes a new method for robotic hand-eye coordination by imitating the developmental progress of human infants.The work employs a brain-like neural network system inspired by infant brain structure to learn hand-eye coordination,and adopts a developmental mechanism from psychology to drive the robot.The entire learning procedure is driven by developmental constraint： The robot starts to act under fully constrained conditions,when the robot learning system becomes stable,a new constraint is assigned to the robot.After that,the robot needs to act with this new condition again.When all the contained conditions have been overcome,the robot is able to obtain hand-eye coordination ability.The work is supported by experimental evaluation,which shows that the new approach is able to drive the robot to learn autonomously,and make the robot also exhibit developmental progress similar to human infants.

Which Type of Interpersonal Interaction Better Facilitates College Student Learning and Development in China:Face-to-Face or Online?

Purpose:This study attempts to explore how Chinese college students engage in face-to-facesynchronous and online asynchronous interactions and examine how the two different interacition types are associated with their academic learning(learning achievement and the developmentof research skills),satisfaction,and their perceptions of learning environments.DesignlApproach/Methods:A sample of 3,999 undergraduate students from a research university in Northern China participated in the survey.Aseries of cluster analysis,one-way analysisof variance,and hierarchical multiple regression were conducted.Findings:The cluster analysis results revealed that there were four types of learners amongthese students and thata large percentage of Chinese undergraduates were classified into eitherdigital communicators(36.16%)or passive interactors(32.71%).In general the face-to-facesynchronous interaction generated more desirable academic learning perceptions of the learn-ing environment,and higher satisfaction than the online asynchronous interaction in mostaspects.However,the asynchronous online interaction fostered student autonomy and contributed to students'completion of an in-depth thesis.OriginalitylValue:By distinguishing face-to-face synchronous versus online asynchronousinteractions,this study led toan enhanced knowledge of the interactive patterns of Chinesecollege students and uncovered the specific effects of the two types ofinterpersonal interactionsin Chinese research universities.

Root microbiota shift in rice correlates with resident time in the field and developmental stage

Land plants in natural soil form intimate relationships with the diverse root bacterial microbiota. A growing body of evidence shows that these microbes are important for plant growth and health. Root microbiota composition has been widely studied in several model plants and crops; however, little is known about how root microbiota vary throughout the plant's life cycle under field conditions. We performed longitudinal dense sampling in field trials to track the time-series shift of the root microbiota from two representative rice cultivars in two separate locations in China. We found that the rice root microbiota varied dramatically during the vegetative stages and stabilized from the beginning of the reproductive stage, after which the root microbiota underwent relatively minor changes until rice ripening. Notably, both rice genotype and geographical location influenced the patterns of root microbiota shift that occurred during plant growth. The relative abundance of Deltaproteobacteria in roots significantly increased overtime throughout the entire life cycle of rice, while that of Betaproteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Gammaproteobacteria decreased. By a machine learning approach, we identified biomarker taxa and established a model to correlate root microbiota with rice resident time in the field(e.g., Nitrospira accumulated from 5 weeks/tillering in field-grown rice). Our work provides insights into the process of rice root microbiota establishment.

USING LEARNING STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP LISTENING COMPREHENSION—A CASE STUDY

By adopting the research method of case study, this article studies the learning strategies of an adult learner of English in listening comprehension. It is found that the learner can use some learning strategies but only at very elementary level. After an eight-week training course in learning strategies, the learner made noticeable progress in listening, which proves that learning strategies can be trained and contribute positively to language proficiency.

The Authority of Age： Institutions for Childhood Development in China, 1895-1910

The structure of aged-based education and the science of childhood development were introduced to China in the last decades of the Qing dynasty. Drawing on period textbooks, journal articles, and school documents for women and children, this study argues that the theory of childhood development helped shape socialized play and citizenship training in new schools. These new institutions followed scientific insights about childhood development in terms of both physical and emotional growth. Educators hoped to found schools that would inculcate respect for political authority within the classroom, and administrators took unprecedented steps in documenting and regulating children. Schools not only became places for disseminating learning, but also centers for gathering information about children and their families, as well as about childhood itself. The production of knowledge and the institutionalization of schools for preschool children helped usher in new trends that denaturalized childrearing outside of the family domain.