More and more research on left ventricle quantification skips segmentation due to its requirement of large amounts of pixel-by-pixel labels. In this study, a framework is developed to directly quantify left ventricle multiple indices without the process of segmentation. At first, DenseNet is utilized to extract spatial features for each cardiac frame. Then, in order to take advantage of the time sequence information, the temporal feature for consecutive frames is encoded using gated recurrent unit. After that, the attention mechanism is (...) integrated into the decoder to effectively establish the mappings between the input sequence and corresponding output sequence. Simultaneously, a regression layer with the same decoder output is used to predict multi-indices of the left ventricle. Different weights are set for different types of indices based on experience, and l2-norm is used to avoid model overfitting. Compared with the state-of-the-art, our method can not only produce more competitive results but also be more flexible. This is because the prediction results in our study can be obtained for each frame online while the SOTA only can output results after all frames are analyzed. (shrink)

Efforts to improve student–teacher education have recently focused on developing adequate Pedagogical Content Knowledge as a critical element for effective preparation. Despite many initiatives implemented in teacher education programs, however, their effectiveness in developing student–teachers’ PCK and factors affecting the PCK development are under-researched and evidenced. Drawing upon theories about and research on PCK, this study examined whether a recently updated 2-year teacher education program could develop student–teachers’ PCK effectively and explored what factors influencing the PCK development of student–teachers with (...) different developmental trajectories. Forty English-as-foreign-language student–teachers on the program were involved as participants. This study employed a longitudinal research design. Data were collected at four different stages along with the program through the content representation matrix, interviews with all the participants, and focus group interviews with four particularly sampled participants. Findings revealed that the current teacher education program successfully enhanced student–teachers’ PCK and the factors influencing different PCK developmental trajectories were varied and personalized. Implications for teacher education are also discussed. (shrink)

Mechanical pain sensing, adipogenesis, and STING‐dependent innate immunity seem three distinct biological processes without substantial relationships. Intriguingly, TMEM120A, a transmembrane protein, has been shown to detect mechanical pain stimuli as a mechanosensitive channel, contribute to adipocyte differentiation/function by regulating genome organization and promote STING trafficking to active cellular innate immune response. However, the role of TMEM120A as a mechanosensitive channel was challenged by recent studies which cannot reproduce data supporting its role in mechanosensing. Furthermore, the molecular mechanism by which TMEM120A (...) contributes to adipocyte differentiation/function and promotes STING trafficking remains elusive. In this review, we discuss these multiple proposed functions of TMEM120A and hypothesize the molecular mechanism underlying TMEM120A's role in fatty acid metabolism and STING signaling. (shrink)