Deepening the Curriculum Reform to Cultivate Student's Practical and Creative Ability: A Case Study of School of Arts & Design of Nanjing Vocational Institute of Industry Technology

With the advance of curriculum reform, innovative education has become the calling of Chinese vocational education. Based on the case study of Nanjing Vocational Institute of Industry Technology, the paper is to explore methods and approaches of deepening the curriculum reform to cultivate student's practical and creative ability from following aspects: creating an open teaching environment to cultivate students' innovative consciousness, setting open teaching contents to foster students' creative thinking, and establishing an open assessment system to test students' innovation ability.

Research on the Campus Cultural Landscape of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor:Taking the Middle and Primary Schools in Meigu County of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture as an Example

In view of rural revitalization,the Meigu area,as a key region of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor,faces challenges in educational development and the construction of campus cultural landscapes.Campus landscape culture,as the foundation of campus culture,is one of the important factors affecting the quality of campus education.Integrating traditional cultural elements such as Yi patterns and totems into the design can effectively enhance the aesthetic of the campus,promote the local ethnic characteristic culture,and inject new vitality into rural revitalization.Therefore,this paper applies traditional Yi cultural elements to the design of campus cultural landscapes.This is of great significance for improving the rural school environment and enhancing students’enthusiasm for learning and cultural identity.Besides,it provides an alternative for the preservation and development of local culture.

Novel Investigation of Stochastic Fractional Differential Equations Measles Model via the White Noise and Global Derivative Operator Depending on Mittag-Leffler Kernel

Because of the features involved with their varied kernels,differential operators relying on convolution formulations have been acknowledged as effective mathematical resources for modeling real-world issues.In this paper,we constructed a stochastic fractional framework of measles spreading mechanisms with dual medication immunization considering the exponential decay and Mittag-Leffler kernels.In this approach,the overall population was separated into five cohorts.Furthermore,the descriptive behavior of the system was investigated,including prerequisites for the positivity of solutions,invariant domain of the solution,presence and stability of equilibrium points,and sensitivity analysis.We included a stochastic element in every cohort and employed linear growth and Lipschitz criteria to show the existence and uniqueness of solutions.Several numerical simulations for various fractional orders and randomization intensities are illustrated.

Understanding the oxidation chemistry of Ti_(3)C_(2)T_(x)(MXene)sheets and their catalytic performances

Transition metal carbides and nitrides(MXenes)nanosheets are attractive two-dimensional(2D)materials,but they suffer from oxidation/degradation issues during storage and/or applications due to their sensitivity to water and oxygen.Despite the great research progress,the exact oxidation kinetics of Ti_(3)C_(2)T_(x)(MXene)and their final products after oxidation are not fully understood.Herein,we systematically tracked the oxidation process of few-layer Ti_(3)C_(2)T_(x) nanosheets in an aqueous solution at room temperature over several weeks.We also studied the oxidation effects on the electrocatalytic properties of Ti_(3)C_(2)T_(x) for hydrogen evolution reaction and found that the overpotential to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm^(-2)increases from 0.435 to 0.877 V after three weeks of degradation,followed by improvement to stabilized values of around 0.40 V after eight weeks.These results suggest that severely oxidized MXene could be a promising candidate for designing efficient catalysts.According to our detailed experimental characterization and theoretical calculations,unlike previous studies,black titanium oxide is formed as the final product in addition to white Ti(IV)oxide and disordered carbons after the complete oxidation of Ti_(3)C_(2)T_(x).This work presents significant advancements in better understanding of 2D Ti_(3)C_(2)T_(x)(MXene)oxidation and enhances the prospects of this material for various applications.

Characterizations of semihoops based on derivations

In this paper,we discuss the related properties of some particular derivations in semihoops and give some characterizations of them.Then,we prove that every Heyting algebra is isomorphic to the algebra of all multiplicative derivations and show that every Boolean algebra is isomorphic to the algebra of all implicative derivations.Finally,we show that the sets of multiplicative and implicative derivations on bounded regular idempotent semihoops are in oneto-one correspondence.

Towards Improving the Quality of Requirement and Testing Process in Agile Software Development:An Empirical Study

Software testing is a critical phase due to misconceptions about ambiguities in the requirements during specification,which affect the testing process.Therefore,it is difficult to identify all faults in software.As requirement changes continuously,it increases the irrelevancy and redundancy during testing.Due to these challenges;fault detection capability decreases and there arises a need to improve the testing process,which is based on changes in requirements specification.In this research,we have developed a model to resolve testing challenges through requirement prioritization and prediction in an agile-based environment.The research objective is to identify the most relevant and meaningful requirements through semantic analysis for correct change analysis.Then compute the similarity of requirements through case-based reasoning,which predicted the requirements for reuse and restricted to error-based requirements.Afterward,the apriori algorithm mapped out requirement frequency to select relevant test cases based on frequently reused or not reused test cases to increase the fault detection rate.Furthermore,the proposed model was evaluated by conducting experiments.The results showed that requirement redundancy and irrelevancy improved due to semantic analysis,which correctly predicted the requirements,increasing the fault detection rate and resulting in high user satisfaction.The predicted requirements are mapped into test cases,increasing the fault detection rate after changes to achieve higher user satisfaction.Therefore,the model improves the redundancy and irrelevancy of requirements by more than 90%compared to other clustering methods and the analytical hierarchical process,achieving an 80%fault detection rate at an earlier stage.Hence,it provides guidelines for practitioners and researchers in the modern era.In the future,we will provide the working prototype of this model for proof of concept.

Application of Fuyang Paper Cutting Art in Cultural and Creative Design from the Perspective of Rural Revitalization

The application significance of Fuyang paper cutting art in cultural and creative design from the perspective of rural revitalization was discussed,and the implementation principles and specific practices of applying the elements and techniques of Fuyang traditional paper cutting art in cultural and creative products with local features were analyzed to provide reference for rural revitalization and development of cultural industry.

The Role of Music Therapy in Supporting Intellectually Disabled Youth in Senegal

Introduction: Music therapy is a practice for helping and supporting people with intellectual and relational difficulties. This study illustrated the benefits of music therapy for young people living with intellectual disabilities (YLID) in an African context. Methodology: This study investigated six young individuals with intellectual disabilities who had undergone three years of music therapy. They were participants in the inclusive non-academic training program at the National School of Arts in Dakar from 2017 to 2019. Data collection utilized individual interviews with the youths, evaluation grids from teachers and psychiatrists. Guardians provided informed consent along with the assent of the young participants. Results: The six young were aged between 18 and 30 years old, with an average age of 24.6 years. Four of the YLID were male. Three young people with intellectual disabilities had delayed psychomotor development. Observations revealed the beneficial influence of music therapy on the health and well-being of young individuals. Music played a role in alleviating stress and anxiety among youth with intellectual disabilities (YLID), enhancing their mood and mental health. It assisted in navigating challenging situations and heightened alertness among YLID. Additionally, music therapy contributed to improvements in dyslexia, fine and gross motor skills, and memory development among intellectually disabled youth, ultimately facilitating their integration into society. Conclusion: In light of our results, music therapy makes a major contribution to the empowerment of YLID. Engaging in musical activities helps young people connect with others through instrumental expression and a sense of accomplishment. By facilitating music therapy, it becomes possible to combat discrimination and stigmatization, thus promoting the social inclusion of intellectually disabled youth. Therefore, it is important to promote music therapy in Senegal to meet the needs of YLID.

The Impacts of Flood and Local Communities’ Coping Strategies along the River Gambia

Flood disasters as Climate change hazards are common in developing countries, particularly in communities along the river Gambia. Local communities, for instance, had their local coping strategies that enabled them to stay in their communities even amid these ordeals, and climate change disaster threats. This work strives to understand flood impacts and the local peoples’ adaptation or coping strategies along the River Gambia basin. A community-based cross-sectional research study of 422 research participants of which 294 are males (69.7%) and females 128 (30.3%), and a focus group discussion of 10 groups which comprised 5 female groups and 5 male groups respectively found that 98.6% of the households experienced floods in their community, and 70.6% experienced flood in their houses, 2.1% have impending flood information and 88.4% do not know evacuation centres. The majority of the households had some local coping strategies, but they acknowledged their insufficient effectiveness. The result also shows that the impact of floods on farmlands, roads, buildings, and livestock was greatly felt. Coping strategies such as sandbags, raised elevations, contour bonds, dikes, and buildings on highlands were all found to be common mechanisms the local people used. The study opines that floods affect communities, but the effects vary depending on individual assets.

Farmers’ Knowledge and Perceptions of the Effects of Climate Variability and Pollution on Crop Production and Their Varying Adaptation Strategies in The Gambia

Crop and livestock production is critical to food security in The Gambia. Over the years, the country has experienced a reduced yield due to perceived climate change events with limited studies on how climate change and pollution affect crop production. This study assesses farmers’ knowledge and perceptions of the effects of climate variability and pollution on crop production and their varying adaptation strategies in The Gambia. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this study. The sample size for quantitative data collection was calculated as 432 while the qualitative data involves both the focus group discussions and key informant interviews. The focus group discussions comprised two districts in each of the six agricultural regions and two farming communities engaged in crop production were chosen from each district. Furthermore, eight key informant interviews from relevant institutions were conducted. The study shows that The Gambia is highly vulnerable to extreme climatic events. Although most farmers opined that agricultural land contamination emanates from farm runoff and indiscriminate waste dumping, they had little knowledge of heavy metal pollution and bioremediation. The results showed that farmers experienced constraints such as inadequate access to credit, water, and irrigation facilities, insufficient access to efficient inputs, salt intrusion, etc. which threatened food security. The study concludes that crop farmers acknowledged the existence and impacts of climate change, and therefore recommend the availability and affordability of climate change resilient crops and promote variability awareness campaigns to address climate change impacts in The Gambia.

Determination of Latent Heats of Vaporization and Fusion

Water is the most abundant liquid on the surface of the earth. It is a liquid whose properties are quite surprising, both as a pure liquid and as a solvent. Water is a very cohesive liquid: its melting and vaporization temperatures are very high for a liquid that is neither ionic nor metallic, and whose molar mass is low. Thus, water remains liquid at atmospheric pressure up to 100C while similar molecules such as H2S, H2Se, H2Te for example would give a vaporization temperature close to 80C. This cohesion is in fact ensured by hydrogen bonds between water molecules. This type of bonds between neighboring molecules, hydrogen bonds, is quite often found in chemistry [1] [2]. Any change in the state of aggregation of a substance occurs with the absorption or release of a certain amount of latent heat of transformation. Latent heat of fusion, vaporization or sublimation is the ratio of the energy supplied as heat to the mass of the substance that is melted, vaporized or sublimated. As a result of the reversibility of the processes, the fusion heat is equal to the heat released in the reverse process: crystallization and solidification heat. And likewise the heat of vaporization is equal to the heat of condensation. This equality of heat is often used to determine experimentally either of these quantities. There are two main measurement methods: 1) Direct measurement using the calorimeter, 2) Indirect measure based on the use of the VantHoff relationship. The objective of this work is to measure the latent heat of water vaporization and verify the compatibility of the experimental values with the values given by the tables using the indirect method.

The Transport and Persistence of Escherichia coli in Leachate from Poultry Litter Amended Soils

Fecal coliform bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) are one of the main sources of groundwater pollution. An assessment of the transport and Persistence of E. coli in poultry litter amended Decatur silty Clay soil and Hartsells Sandy soil was conducted using soil columns and simulated groundwater leaching. Enumeration of initial E. coli was determined to range from 2.851 × 103 to 3.044 × 103 CFU per gram of soil. These results have been used in a batch study to determine the persistence rate of E. coli in Decatur silty Clay soil and Hartsells Sandy soil. Results prove that E. coli survival growth rate increases for clay soil later than and at a higher rate than sandy soil. The column study has determined that E. coli was transported at a rate of 3.7 × 106 CFU for Decatur silty loam and 6.3 × 106 CFU for Hartsells sandy per gram of soil. Further, linear regression analysis predictions show higher porosity and soil moisture content affect transport, and Hartsells sandy soil has higher transport of E. coli due to its higher porosity and lower volumetric water content.

Scenario-Based Assessment of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Kuwait: Insights for Effective Resource Management

The interdependency among water, food, and energy (WEF) in the GCC countries is strongly and closely interlinked, and is intensifying as demand for resources increases with population growth and changing consumption patterns, and are expected to be further compounded by the impacts of climate change. Therefore, integrated management of the three sectors is crucial to reduce trade-offs and build synergies among them. This paper presents a comprehensive framework to assess the WEF nexus in Kuwait as a representative case for the GCC countries. The framework consists of three main steps: 1) evaluating the influence of socio-economic development and climate change on water, energy, and food resources;2) generating scenario-based projections;and 3) conducting an extensive quantitative nexus analysis. The WEF interlinkages in Kuwait are modelled quantitatively using the Q-Nexus model, and current critical interdependencies are evaluated. Then, various WEF-Nexus scenarios were conducted for the year 2035 to explore the effects of management interventions in one sector on the other two sectors. The main findings are that per capita municipal water consumption is a major influencer on the WEF-nexus due to the heavy reliance on thermal desalination in municipal water supply in Kuwait, which is attributed to its energy intensity, financial cost, GHGs emissions, and environmental impacts on the marine and air environments. To reduce WEF trade-offs, mitigate risks, and build synergies among the three sectors, it is important to shift the current policy focus on supply-side management approach to the demand-side management and efficiency approaches.

Complete Collection of Traditional Chinese Arts and Crafts(Zhongguo chuantong gongyi quanji中国传统工艺全集):A Work of Ingenuity

In 1996,the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences began work on the Complete Collection of Traditional Ounese Arts and Crafts(Zhongguo chuantong ongyi quanji中国传统工艺全集).In 2016,Elephant Press published this twenty-volume magnum opus under the chief editorship of Lu Yongxiang路甬祥.This rich and informative book series systematically details traditional arts and crafts in over ten main categories that demonstrate Chinese scholars'mastery of fields such as lacquerware,ceramics,metal crafts,machinery,spinning and weaving,dyeing,brewing,processing of traditional Chinese materia medica,papermaking and printing,sculpting,and armor restoration.The authors are well versed in traditional Chinese arts and crafts and have the pertinent academic credentials,elevating research on the subject to a new level and breadth.However,the Complete Collection has not yet covered all significant arts and crafts,and the cultural implications have still to be explored.

Anti-Melanogenesis Activity of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extract from Perilla frutescens Seeds

Perilla frutescens seed (PFS) oil is reported to inhibit skin photoaging;however, its effect on melanogenesis has not yet been investigated. Herein, we tested the anti-melanogenesis activity of an oil-based extract from PFS with supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2). In a cell culture system, B16 mouse melanoma cells were treated with the PFS scCO2 extract and other samples. The PFS scCO2 extract decreased melanin production by approximately 90% in B16 mouse melanoma cells without cytotoxicity at 100 μg/mL. This effect was greater than that of the well-known melanogenesis inhibitor, kojic acid. Although a hexane-extracted PFS oil and a squeezed PFS oil also decreased melanin production in the B16 cells, the inhibitory effect of the PFS scCO2 extract was higher than both of these. Chemical analysis of the PFS scCO2 extract and squeezed PFS oil showed that almost 90% of the components of both oils were α-linolenic acid, linoleic acid, and oleic acid. Furthermore, the ratio of those three fatty acids across both samples was almost the same. When the three fatty acids were mixed in the same ratio as in the PFS scCO2 extract, the IC50 of the mixture for melanin production in B16 melanoma cells was identical to that of the PFS scCO2 extract. However, the IC50 of the squeezed PFS oil was approximately 6.6 times higher than that of the mixture. Although those fatty acids are the main inhibitory ingredients against melanin production in all of the extracts, some factor(s) in the squeezed PFS reduce their affinity with the cells. These results indicated that the PFS scCO2 extract could be a superior melanogenesis inhibitor. Although its main ingredients are probably the same as those of the squeezed PFS oil, it is necessary to extract with scCO2 for stronger anti-melanogenesis activity.

Inheritance and applications of Qu River Arts in Culture Village construction

Many scientific and irrational factors exist in the cultural development of the country, in the current housing reconstruction project in the village, residential style, building materials, and architectural culture are not conducive to the Wa architectural culture, history, culture and home and other cultural heritage＇ s protection and development, there is lack of integrity, long-term, historical, cultural, ethnic, heritage qualities and so on. Increased emphasis is on the development of national culture, implementing the development of a good culture, protection, inheritance. Development of national culture is a broad and urgent and we need to address issues that require more in-depth study of scholars and experts, and play to their strengths to further increase the cultural industry development.

Quantitative Analysis of the Effectiveness of Antigen-and Polymerase Chain Reaction-Based Combination Strategies for Containing COVID-19 Transmission in a Simulated Community

The number of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)cases continues to surge,overwhelming healthcare systems and causing excess mortality in many countries.Testing of infectious populations remains a key strategy to contain the COVID-19 outbreak,delay the exponential spread of the disease,and flatten the epidemic curve.Using the Omicron variant outbreak as a background,this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of testing strategies with different test combinations and frequencies,analyze the factors associated with testing effectiveness,and optimize testing strategies based on these influencing factors.We developed a stochastic,agent-based,discrete-time susceptible–latent–infectious–recovered model simulating a community to estimate the association between three levels of testing strategies and COVID-19 transmission.Antigen testing and its combination strategies were more efficient than polymerase chain reaction(PCR)-related strategies.Antigen testing also showed better performance in reducing the demand for hospital beds and intensive care unit beds.The delay in the turnaround time of test results had a more significant impact on the efficiency of the testing strategy compared to the detection limit of viral load and detection-related contacts.The main advantage of antigen testing strategies is the short turnaround time,which is also a critical factor to be optimized to improve PCR strategies.After modifying the turnaround time,the strategies with less frequent testing were comparable to daily testing.The choice of testing strategy requires consideration of containment goals,test efficacy,community prevalence,and economic factors.This study provides evidence for the selection and optimization of testing strategies in the post-pandemic era and provides guidance for optimizing healthcare resources.

Lower risk of male infanticide in multilevel primate societies

DEAR EDITOR,Male infanticide is considered a severe manifestation of sexual conflict in non-human primates during male takeover or male dominance changes. Males engaging in infanticide may obtain fitness benefits, but at the cost of female reproductive outcomes. Consequently, females have developed various anti-infanticide counterstrategies, such as coalitions, dispersal.

Gravitational wave echoes from strange quark stars in the equation of state with density-dependent quark masses

According to the recent studies,the gravitational wave(GW)echoes are expected to be generated by quark stars composed of ultrastiff quark matter.The ultrastiff equations of state(EOS)for quark matter were usually obtained either by a simple bag model with artificially assigned sound velocity or by employing interacting strange quark matter(SQM)depicted by simple reparameterization and rescaling.In this study,we investigate GW echoes with EOSs for SQM in the framework of the equivparticle model with density-dependent quark masses and pairing effects.We conclude that strange quark stars(SQSs)can be sufficiently compact to possess a photon sphere capable of generating GW echoes with frequencies in the range of approximately 20 kHz.However,SQSs cannot account for the observed 72 Hz signal in GW170817 event.Furthermore,we determined that quark-pairing effects play a crucial role in enabling SQSs to satisfy the necessary conditions for producing these types of echoes.

Specific Heat Capacity of A2FeCoO6-δ (A = Ca or Sr)

A2FeCoO6-δ (A = Ca or Sr) is synthesized by the solid-state synthesis method and their specific heat capacities are evaluated at 40˚C using a heat flow meter. The effect of the A-cation size on the specific heat capacity of these compounds is observed. The specific heat capacity of Sr2FeCoO6-δ is found to be the highest, and that of Ca2FeCoO6-δ is the lowest while CaSrFeCoO6-δ shows the intermediate value. The specific heat capacity decreases with the decrease of the average A-site ionic radius, demonstrating the relationship between heat capacity and A-site ionic radius. The relationship between specific heat capacity and molar mass is also confirmed as the δ value decreases or molar mass increases from Ca2FeCoO6-δ to CaSrFeCoO6-δ to Sr2FeCoO6-δ.