An integrated microfluidic system for screening of phage-displayed peptides specific to colon cancer cells and colon cancer stem cells

Affinity reagents recognizing biomarkers specifically are essential components of clinical diagnostics and target therapeutics. However, conventional methods for screening of these reagents often have drawbacks such as large reagent consumption, the labor-intensive or time-consuming procedures, and the involvement of bulky or expensive equipment. Alternatively, microfluidic platforms could potentially automate the screening process within a shorter period of time and reduce reagent and sample consumption dramatically. It has been demonstrated recently that a subpopulation of tumor cells known as cancer stem cells possess high drug resistance and proliferation potential and are regarded as the main cause of metastasis. Therefore, a peptide that recognizes cancer stem cells and differentiates them from other cancer cells will be extremely useful in early diagnosis and target therapy. This study utilized M13 phage display technology to identify peptides that bind, respectively, to colon cancer cells and colon cancer stem cells using an integrated microfluidic system. In addition to positive selection, a negative selection process was integrated on the chip to achieve the selection of peptides of high affinity and specificity. We successfully screened three peptides specific to colon cancer cells and colon cancer stem cells, namely, HOLC-1, HOLC-2, and COLC-1, respectively, and their specificity was measured by the capture rate between target, control, and other cell lines. The capture rates are 43.40 ± 7.23%, 45.16 ± 7.12%, and 49.79 ± 5.34% for colon cancer cells and colon cancer stem cells, respectively, showing a higher specificity on target cells than on control and other cell lines. The developed technique may be promising for early diagnosis of cancer cells and target therapeutics.     

A Comparative Investigation on the Learning Efficacy of Mechatronic Technology Between Academic and Vocational High School Students

Universities in Taiwan can be divided into two major categories of comprehensive universities and technological universities. Students studying engineering majors in comprehensive universities are often recruited from academic high schools while those in technological universities tend to be recruited from vocational high schools. The purpose of this research was to investigate differences in learning efficacy between college students with academic backgrounds and those with vocational backgrounds. Results indicated no significant differences in cognition between the two groups of students. Additionally, students with vocational school backgrounds performed better in comprehension skills compared with those with academic backgrounds and were more able to apply acquired knowledge to practical tasks according to path analysis studies and the Mann–Whitney U test.     

The Effect on Enhancing Students＇ Inquiry Abilities via Step-by-Step Open-ended Inquiry Teaching Design

The purpose of this study is to promote more open-ended inquiry activities in junior high school science lessons in the current educational system with fixed textbooks. Researchers adapted existing curriculum-based experimental activities for more open-ended inquiry ones. In addition, the whole class was provided with more opportunities to explore complete activities in limited teaching time. This study used Hazel＇s proposals of levels of inquiry. The method was to carry out the current 8th grade experiments through the step-by-step teaching material modification （from levels of inquiry 0 to 2b） and to combine the experimental teaching method with the 5E （engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate） learning cycle. After a quasi-experimental study, we compared the traditional teaching method with the step-by-step open-ended inquiry teaching one on 8th graders＇ basic and integrated science process skills and academic achievements. The study result showed that the academic achievement in the experimental group, based on the same instructional time, was not worse than that in the control group. No significant difference was found on the total scores of the basic science process skills between the two groups, but a significant difference was found on the ＂predicting＂ dimension. There was a significant difference on the total scores of the integrated science process skills between the two groups. Significant differences were found on ＂interpreting data＂ as well as ＂experiment designing＂ dimensions. Hence, the study indicated that it could enhance students＇ inquiry ability through step-by-step openly inquiry levels to change the existing curricula, which served as a reference of educational reform.     

Does evaluating peer assessment accuracy and taking it into account in calculating assessor’s final score enhance online peer assessment quality?

Education and Information Technologies - Peer assessment has an important role in teaching and learning nowadays. However, the existing techniques tend to be limited due to a lack of a suitable...     

User acceptance of intergovernmental services: An example of electronic document management system

The traditional focus of intergovernmental services research has been on technological development, not on user acceptance; yet user acceptance of intergovernmental services in each electronic government (e-Government) implementation affects the ultimate success of the e-Government project. In the e-Government implementation context, many governments have invested huge amounts of money and manpower to make intergovernmental services both available and user-accepted, although some individuals have no intention of using them. The electronic document management system (EDMS) is the most popular intergovernmental service in the e-Government project. Thus, e-Government researchers need to identify the factors that determine user acceptance of EDMS.     

An Experienced Science Teacher’s Metavisualization in the Case of the Complex System of Carbon Cycling

Research in Science Education - Science teachers use a large number of visual representations and models in science classes to guide students to understand complex phenomena and to learn to conduct...     

提高学生英语阅读能力的探索与实践

从理论上对英语教学法进行了比较性的探索，并运用于教学实践，提高了学生的阅读能力。