Integration of Shangshan culture into the STEAM curriculum and teaching: results of an interview-based study

IntroductionInterdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) courses are a popular trend in international education than can help inculcate creativity in students. Although STEAM courses have been widely promoted in China, they are generally unsustainable because they are merely imitations of European and American courses and lack Chinese humanistic factors; a close integration between disciplinary ideas and thinking levels is also lacking. C-STEAM, which is designed to pass down China’s culture, is a form of STEAM education with local Chinese characteristics that are focused on integrating interdisciplinary knowledge with the thought process oriented toward cultural heritage.MethodsIn this study, an innovative higher vocational college course with C-STEAM interdisciplinary principles was constructed, with art and design as the framework, and with the integration of Chinese local culture. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to sample 12 learners from a total of 90 students in the experimental class of the C-STEAM course. The study aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of taking a Packaging Design course combined with C-STEAM from multiple perspectives. After the interviews, based on the BAO model, coding statistics and thematic analysis were conducted to understand the learners’ beliefs, actions, and outcomes after taking the course, and their plans for acquiring C-STEAM interdisciplinary knowledge and learning Chinese local culture.ResultsThe integration of the Shangshan culture (上山文化) into the Packaging Design course proved the importance and significance of adding C-STEAM to the art design course, which helped us understand the specific feelings of students after completing the course and gain a deeper understanding of the changes in their knowledge and skills and their learning effects.DiscussionIntegrating C-STEAM education into courses related to art and design is highly warranted to encourage students to apply their interdisciplinary knowledge to artistic exploration and creation. Moreover, to effectively develop a curriculum system with local characteristics, teachers should provide more opportunities for students to explore and learn C-STEAM in the future, and integrate multiple elements into their teaching. In general, a cultural perspective-based interdisciplinary education helps facilitate the creative transformation of traditional Chinese culture

Mechanical properties of recycled concrete with demolished waste concrete aggregate and clay brick aggregate

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the effect of the replacement of natural coarse aggregate (NCA) with either recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) or recycled clay brick aggregate (RBA) on the compressive strengths of the hardened concrete. Two grades (C25 and C50) of concrete were investigated, which were achieved by using different water-to-cement ratios. In each grade concrete five different replacement rates, 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% were considered. In order to improve the performance of the recycled aggregates in the concrete mixes, the RCA and RBA were carefully sieved by using the optimal degradation. In this way the largest reduction in the 28-day compressive strength was found to be only 7.2% and 9.6% for C25 and C50 recycled concrete when the NCA was replaced 100% by RCA, and 11% and 13% for C25 and C50 recycled concrete when the NCA was replaced 100% by RBA. In general, the concrete with RCA has better performance than the concrete with RBA. The comparison of the present experimental results with those reported in literature for hardened concrete with either RCA or RBA demonstrates the effectiveness in improving the compressive strength by using the optimal gradation of recycled aggregates. Keywords: Recycled aggregate concrete, Waste concrete aggregate, Clay brick aggregate, Mechanical properties, Experiment

Table_1_Integration of Shangshan culture into the STEAM curriculum and teaching: results of an interview-based study.docx

IntroductionInterdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) courses are a popular trend in international education than can help inculcate creativity in students. Although STEAM courses have been widely promoted in China, they are generally unsustainable because they are merely imitations of European and American courses and lack Chinese humanistic factors; a close integration between disciplinary ideas and thinking levels is also lacking. C-STEAM, which is designed to pass down China’s culture, is a form of STEAM education with local Chinese characteristics that are focused on integrating interdisciplinary knowledge with the thought process oriented toward cultural heritage.MethodsIn this study, an innovative higher vocational college course with C-STEAM interdisciplinary principles was constructed, with art and design as the framework, and with the integration of Chinese local culture. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to sample 12 learners from a total of 90 students in the experimental class of the C-STEAM course. The study aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of taking a Packaging Design course combined with C-STEAM from multiple perspectives. After the interviews, based on the BAO model, coding statistics and thematic analysis were conducted to understand the learners’ beliefs, actions, and outcomes after taking the course, and their plans for acquiring C-STEAM interdisciplinary knowledge and learning Chinese local culture.ResultsThe integration of the Shangshan culture (上山文化) into the Packaging Design course proved the importance and significance of adding C-STEAM to the art design course, which helped us understand the specific feelings of students after completing the course and gain a deeper understanding of the changes in their knowledge and skills and their learning effects.DiscussionIntegrating C-STEAM education into courses related to art and design is highly warranted to encourage students to apply their interdisciplinary knowledge to artistic exploration and creation. Moreover, to effectively develop a curriculum system with local characteristics, teachers should provide more opportunities for students to explore and learn C-STEAM in the future, and integrate multiple elements into their teaching. In general, a cultural perspective-based interdisciplinary education helps facilitate the creative transformation of traditional Chinese culture.</p

Developing a Novel Anti-Bcma CAR-T for Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma

CBMG has developed C-CAR088, a novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy targeting BCMA, which is specifically and highly expressed on multiple myeloma cells. C-CAR088 is designed to improve efficacy through increasing the specificity and reducing immunogenicity by fusing a scFv from high-affinity human monoclonal antibody to a CD3ζ/4-1BB signaling domain. In preclinical study, the human T cells transduced with the lentiviral vector encoding C-CAR088 exhibited specific functions in vitro including CAR-T proliferation, cytokine production, cytotoxicity to BCMA positive tumor cells. C-CAR088 cells were not activated by soluble BCMA protein and MM patient serums. However, they can eradicate BCMA positive tumor cells in vivo including BMCA positive multiple myeloma tumor model RPMI-8226. C-CAR088 is manufactured in a serum free, automated and digital, closed system which produce CAR-T cells with stable and high percentage of Tcm phenotype. C-CAR088 showed a very good dose dependent tumor inhibition effect and survival benefit in animal studies. A Phase 1, 3+3 dose escalation trial is being conducted in patients with r/r MM (≥ 3 prior lines, having received treatment and proteasome inhibitors (PI) and IMiD or double refractory) to assess the safety and efficacy of C-CAR088 (NCT03815383). Patients are apheresed to harvest T cells. C-CAR088 is then manufactured and administered to patients as a single intravenous dose after a standard 3-day cyclophosphamide/fludarabine conditioning regimen. As of July 5, 2019 cutoff date, 3 patients have been treated with C-CAR088 at the dose of 1.0 x 106 CAR-T cells/kg. Patients were heavily pre-treated (7 prior lines of therapy), and all failed IMiDs and proteasome inhibitor therapies. After C-CAR088 treatment, all three patients showed clinical improvement as early as two weeks post treatment. Furthermore, C-CAR088 proliferation &amp; expansion in the peripheral blood correlated with the decrease of tumor burden. Two patients reached VGPR at 4 weeks and 8 weeks respectively, and the third patient reached PR as early as 2 weeks post C-CAR088 infusion. C-CAR088 treatment was well tolerated, no dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs), reversible Grade 1~2 CRS observed. In conclusion, early clinical trial results in patients with r/r MM for C-CAR088 support preclinical findings that the drug shows promising efficacy and manageable safety profile.The very early clinical efficacy signal at low, suboptimal dose is encouraging and compares favorably to many other anti-BCMA CAR-T products at similar dose. The promising trend needs to be confirmed by the ongoing clinical trial. Disclosures Yao: Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Zhu:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Huang:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Zhu:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Wei:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Lan:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. LV:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Wu:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Wang:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Yang:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Zheng:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Zhao:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Zhang:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Chen:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Li:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Ren:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Zhang:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Humphries:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. Yao:Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc: Employment, Equity Ownership. </jats:sec