Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly embedded in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), yet little empirical research has unpacked how different configurations of AI participation reshape collaborative processes. This study investigates how GenAI configuration shapes collaborative regulation in authentic classroom settings. Two eighth-grade classes engaged in small-group creative problem-solving under two conditions: a shared-AI configuration, in which each group interacted with a single AI mentor, and an individual-AI configuration, in which each student accessed a personal AI instance. Using multi-layer discourse coding combined with lag sequential analysis (LSA) and ordered network analysis (ONA), we examined interaction distribution, AI-student coupling, shared regulation processes, and teacher orchestration. Results reveal distinct regulatory dynamics across configurations. Shared AI access promoted convergence-oriented collaboration, with stronger alignment of shared regulatory states and more coordinated group-level reasoning. In contrast, individual AI access distributed support across learners, producing more exploratory and evaluative cycles but also more fragmented interaction patterns, accompanied by increased teacher intervention to manage divergence. These findings suggest that AI configuration functions as a structural design variable that reorganizes the regulatory ecology of classroom collaboration.

Block-building activities are crucial for developing children's spatial reasoning and mathematical skills, yet parents often lack the expertise to guide these activities effectively. BrickSmart, a pioneering system, addresses this gap by providing spatial language guidance through a structured three-step process: Discovery Design, Build Learn, and Explore Expand. This system uniquely supports parents in 1) generating personalized block-building instructions, 2) guiding parents to teach spatial language during building and interactive play, and 3) tracking children's learning progress, altogether enhancing children's engagement and cognitive development. In a comparative study involving 12 parent-child pairs children aged 6-8 years) for both experimental and control groups, BrickSmart demonstrated improvements in supportiveness, efficiency, and innovation, with a significant increase in children's use of spatial vocabularies during block play, thereby offering an effective framework for fostering spatial language skills in children.

Creative Problem-Solving (CPS) promotes creative and critical thinking while enhancing real-world problem-solving skills, making it essential for middle school education. However, providing personalized mentorship in CPS projects at scale is challenging due to resource constraints and diverse student needs. To address this, we developed Mentigo, an AI-driven mentor agent designed to guide middle school students through the CPS process. Using a dataset of real classroom interactions, we encoded CPS task stages, adaptive guidance strategies, and personalized feedback mechanisms to inform Mentigo‘s dynamic mentoring framework powered by large language models (LLMs). A comparative experiment with 12 students and evaluations from five expert educators demonstrated improved student engagement, creativity, and task performance. Our findings highlight design implications for using LLM-based AI mentors to enhance CPS learning in educational environments.

Helicenes, featuring unique helical structures, have a long history as three-dimensional polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Incorporation of heteroatoms into helicenes may alter their electronic structures and achieve unexpected physical properties. Here, we disclose fusion of boron-doped π-systems onto helicenes as an efficient strategy to design boron-doped carbohelicenes. Two boron-doped double [6]carbohelicenes were synthesized, which possess the C58B2 and C86B2 polycyclic π-skeletons containing two [6]helicene subunits, respectively. The C86B2 molecule thus represents the largest-size helicene-based boron-doped PAH. A thorough investigation reveals that the helicene moieties and boron atoms endow the polycyclic π-systems with delocalized electronic structures, and well-tunable ground-state and excited-state photophysical properties. It is notable that the C58B2 molecule displays excited-state stimulated emission behavior and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) properties in not only the blend films with various doped concentrations but also the pure film. To our knowledge, it is the first example of ASE-active [n]helicene (n ≥ 6), and moreover, such robust ASE performance has rarely been observed in PAHs, demonstrating the promising utility of boron-doped carbohelicenes for laser materials.

Abstract Objective The study aimed to assess whether thyroid hormone (TH) sensitivity is related to visceral fat area (VFA) and visceral obesity in euthyroid subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods 750 euthyroid patients with T2D were enrolled. A VFA of 80 cm2 or more was considered visceral obesity. Central TH sensitivity was conducted using thyrotrophic thyroxine resistance index (TT4RI), thyrotropin index (TSHI), and thyroid feedback quantile-based index (TFQI). Free triiodothyronine to free thyroxine (FT3/FT4) was utilized for assessing peripheral TH sensitivity. Results The subjects had a mean age of 51.5 ± 11.1 years, and 540 (72.0%) of them were men. In multivariable regression analyses, there was a positive correlation of FT3/FT4 tertile with visceral obesity, after full adjustment for confounding variables (P < 0.05). The middle and highest FT3/FT4 tertiles were correlated with a 134% [95% CI (1.24, 4.44)] and 98% [95% CI (1.04, 3.78)] higher prevalence of visceral obesity than the lowest tertile, respectively. Conversely, elevated TFQI levels were linked to a decreased prevalence of visceral obesity. Stratified analysis revealed that these associations were particularly pronounced in participants who are neither overweight nor obese and those aged less than 60 years (all P < 0.05). Conclusions Higher TH sensitivity is correlated with visceral obesity and elevated VFA in euthyroid patients with T2D, particularly among those younger than 60 years and individuals who are neither overweight nor obese.

Two boron-doped molecular carbons (BMCs), featuring one formal boron-inserted pentalene (BP) embedded into the C20B or C28B polycyclic π-skeleton, were successfully synthesized. Despite their small-size conjugated structures, both of them exhibit unusual broad light absorption, narrow energy gaps, and electron-accepting ability, as well as local antiaromaticity with pseudo 4π electrons. As disclosed, these intriguing physical properties are significantly contributed by the boron atom and pentagonal ring in the BP substructure, thus demonstrating the importance of such BP incorporation into polycyclic π-systems.

Two nonbenzenoid polycyclic hydrocarbons (PHs) bearing one or two dicyclohepta[cd,ij]-s-indacene (DCHI) units were successfully synthesized via palladium-catalyzed intramolecular cyclization. In contrast to the well-known indeno[1,2-b]fluorene skeleton, the as-formed DCHI substructures not only lead to their highly contorted conformations but also significantly contribute to their modulated aromatic structures and optoelectronic properties, such as decreased energy gaps, red-shifted light absorption, and multi-reversible oxidation activity, thus revealing the importance of such nonbenzenoid π extension.

Heteroatom-doping of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons can alter their electronic structure and thereby produce intriguing physical properties. However, it is very challenging to dope the boron atom into [n,m]peri-acenes due to the difficulty of achieving synthesis due to limitations of the synthetic method. Herein, we disclose implementation of alkyne-enabled cyclization of the organoborane pi-system to construct cove-edged boron-doped [n,m]peri-acenes (BPAs). We synthesized two boron-containing pi-systems that possess the C44B2 and C62B2 polycyclic conjugated skeletons, respectively. Both of them feature two boron atoms and two cove regions at the zigzag edges and thus may be regarded as an unprecedented kind of cove-edged BPA. Detailed studies illustrate that these cove-edged BPAs exhibit significantly modulated electronic structures and properties, such as distinctive global aromaticity, multireversible redox activity, and tunable photophysical properties. Notably, they exhibit obviously stabilized molecular orbitals, especially highest occupied molecular orbitals, further leading to enlarged energy gaps and excellent ambient stability. Moreover, both the stimulated emission and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) properties are achieved for the C44B2 molecule, thus not only representing a new example of ASE-active organic materials but also demonstrating their promising utility for organic photonics. As we demonstrate, the boron-doping and cove-edging both play a prominent role in producing these remarkable electronic effects and properties.

Whey protein isolates (WPI) are known to have mineral-binding capacity to promote iron absorption. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of iron ratio on the conformational structure of iron-bound whey protein isolate (WPI-Fe) and its thermodynamic stability. It was shown that the iron to protein ratio affects both the iron binding capacity of WPI and the iron valence state on the surface of WPI-Fe complexes. As the iron content increases, aggregation between protein molecules occurs. In addition, WPI-Fe nanoparticles have thermodynamic stability and Fe2+ has a high affinity with WPI for spontaneous exothermic reactions. This study demonstrates that WPI-Fe complexes can be used to efficiently deliver high-quality iron source (Fe2+) for future iron supplements.

Incorporation of heteroatoms and/or non-hexagonal rings into polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can alter their intrinsic structures and physical properties. However, it is challenging to construct PAHs featuring boron/carbon composition and non-hexagonal combination. Herein, we disclose the selective synthesis of spiro-type and pentagon/heptagon-containing boron-doped polycyclic π-systems by the Scholl reaction. Two spiro-fused organoboranes 1 and 2 and one 575-ringed boron-doped nanographene 3 were synthesized. The key point is that the boron-edged π-system enabled unexpected spiro-formation via dearomatization, whereas the boron-centered π-system enabled desired 575-ringed π-extension via cyclodehydrogenation. The thus-obtained molecules exhibit the intriguing but fully distinct reactivity, electronic structures and properties, for instance, while 2 may react with Brønsted acid to display reversible chemochromism and further convert into 1, 3 possesses very broad absorption, short excited-state lifetime and no fluorescence nature. As disclosed, the boron atom together with the spirocycle region or 575-ringed structural motif significantly contribute to their characteristic properties. Thus, this study sheds light on control over the Scholl reaction using organoborane π-systems and will promote the exploration of more sophisticated polycyclic π-systems as organic reactive and optical scaffolds.

Control over topological edges of molecular carbons (MCs) is of importance for achieving diverse molecular topologies and desirable physical properties. However, it remains very challenging for heteroatom-doped MCs due to the synthetic difficulty. Herein, we report control over the edge structures of boron-doped MCs (BMCs) via the sequential cyclization strategy. Three BMC molecules that feature the C56 B2 or C84 B2 polycyclic π-skeletons with selective cove/fjord or cove/bay edges, respectively, were synthesized through the rational combination of Mallory photoreaction and Scholl reaction. We not only obtain the largest boron-doped π-system reported so far, but also disclose that fine control of their edges and length greatly affects electronic structures and thereby photonic properties of BMCs, such as tunable aromaticity, decreased band gaps, as well as redshifted absorptions and fluorescence. Remarkably, the C56 B2 molecule exhibits stimulated emission behavior and amplified spontaneous emission property, both of which have never been reported for pristine boron-doped π-systems, thus demonstrating the potential of BMCs as optical gain materials for laser cavities.

BackgroundType 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and diabetic complications threaten human health seriously. Healthy lifestyles can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and long-term complications. However, the relationship between alcohol consumption and CVD mortality is still controversial, and there is a lack of evidence from large-scale longitudinal studies in the Chinese population. Based on the REACTION study (Risk Evaluation of Cancers in Chinese Diabetic Individuals: A Longitudinal Study), this paper explores the association between alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality, stroke, and coronary heart disease (CHD) in patients with abnormal glucose metabolism during a 10-year follow-up period to provide evidence for lifestyle counselling for these patients. MethodsFirst, baseline data were collected from the REACTION study cohort in Changchun, Jilin Province, China, in 2011-2012. A questionnaire survey was performed among patients with abnormal glucose metabolism aged over 40 years. The frequency of their alcohol intake, the type of alcohol, and the amount of alcohol consumed daily were surveyed. Physical and biochemical examinations were also performed. Then, through the Primary Public Health Service System of Jilin Province, we collected outcomes during the 10-year follow-up up to October 1, 2021, including all-cause mortality, stroke, and CHD. Next, we conducted logistic regression to analyze the relationship between baseline alcohol consumption and 10-year outcomes, and risk ratio (RR) and 95% CI were calculated by adjusting for different clinical indicators. A p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. ResultsA total of 4855 patients with T2DM and prediabetes (35.2% men and 64.8% women) were included in the baseline analysis. Outcomes of 3521 patients during the 10-year follow-up were obtained, including 227 deaths, 296 new-onset strokes and 445 new-onset CHD. Occasional drinking (less than once a week) was associated with a reduced 10-year all-cause mortality, with an RR of 0.511 (95% CI [0.266, 0.982]) after adjustment for age, gender, medical history, and lifestyles and an RR of 0.50 (95% CI [0.252, 0.993]) in a fully adjusted model including additional biochemical indicators. In addition, heavy alcohol consumption (>= 30 g/day for men and >= 15 g/day for women) was significantly associated with an increased incidence of stroke, with an RR of 2.503 (95% CI [1.138, 5.506]) after the adjustment for age, gender, medical history, lifestyles, and biochemical indicators. No significant association was found between alcohol consumption and new-onset CHD. ConclusionsFor patients with abnormal glucose metabolism, occasional drinking (less than once a week) reduces the risk of all-cause mortality, while heavy alcohol consumption (>= 30 g/day for men and >= 15 g/day for women) significantly increases the risk of new-onset stroke. They should avoid heavy alcohol intake, but light alcohol consumption or occasional drinking is acceptable. Additionally, it is crucial to control blood glucose and blood pressure and keep performing physical activities.

BACKGROUND:Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a rapidly developing and sometimes lethal pulmonary disease. Accurately predicting COVID-19 mortality will facilitate optimal patient treatment and medical resource deployment, but the clinical practice still needs to address it. Both complete blood counts and cytokine levels were observed to be modified by COVID-19 infection. This study aimed to use inexpensive and easily accessible complete blood counts to build an accurate COVID-19 mortality prediction model. The cytokine fluctuations reflect the inflammatory storm induced by COVID-19, but their levels are not as commonly accessible as complete blood counts. Therefore, this study explored the possibility of predicting cytokine levels based on complete blood counts.METHODS:We used complete blood counts to predict cytokine levels. The predictive model includes an autoencoder, principal component analysis, and linear regression models. We used classifiers such as support vector machine and feature selection models such as adaptive boost to predict the mortality of COVID-19 patients.RESULTS:Complete blood counts and original cytokine levels reached the COVID-19 mortality classification area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.9678 and 0.9111, respectively, and the cytokine levels predicted by the feature set alone reached the classification AUC value of 0.9844. The predicted cytokine levels were more significantly associated with COVID-19 mortality than the original values.CONCLUSIONS:Integrating the predicted cytokine levels and complete blood counts improved a COVID-19 mortality prediction model using complete blood counts only. Both the cytokine level prediction models and the COVID-19 mortality prediction models are publicly available at http://www.healthinformaticslab.org/supp/resources.php .

Background: With the rise of user-generated content (UGC) platforms, we are witnessing an unprecedented surge in data. Among various content types, dance videos have emerged as a potent medium for artistic and emotional expression in the Web 2.0 era. Such videos have increasingly become a significant means for users to captivate audiences and amplify their online influence. Given this, predicting the popularity of dance videos on UGC platforms has drawn significant attention. Methods: This study postulates that body movement features play a pivotal role in determining the future popularity of dance videos. To test this hypothesis, we design a robust prediction framework DanceTrend to integrate the body movement features with color space information for dance popularity prediction. We utilize the jazz dance videos from the comprehensive AIST++ street dance dataset and segment each dance routine video into individual movements. AlphaPose was chosen as the human posture detection algorithm to help us obtain human motion features from the videos. Then, the ST-GCN (Spatial Temporal Graph Convolutional Network) is harnessed to train the movement classification models. These pre-trained ST-GCN models are applied to extract body movement features from our curated Bilibili dance video dataset. Alongside these body movement features, we integrate color space attributes and user metadata for the final dance popularity prediction task. Results: The experimental results endorse our initial hypothesis that the body movement features significantly influence the future popularity of dance videos. A comprehensive evaluation of various feature fusion strategies and diverse classifiers discern that a pre–post fusion hybrid strategy coupled with the XGBoost classifier yields the most optimal outcomes for our dataset.

Molecular carbons (MCs) are molecular cutouts of carbon materials. Doping with heteroatoms and constructing open-shell structures are two powerful approaches to achieve unexpected and unique properties of MCs. Herein, we disclose a new strategy to design open-shell boron-doped MCs (BMCs), namely by pentagon-fusion of an organoborane π-system. We synthesized two diradicaloid BMC molecules that feature C 24 B and C 38 B π-skeletons containing a pentagonal ring. A thorough investigation reveals that such pentagon-fusion not only leads to their local antiaromaticity, but also incorporates an internal quinoidal substructure and thereby induces open-shell singlet diradical states. Moreover, their fully fused structures enable efficient π conjugation, which is expanded over the whole frameworks. Consequently, some intriguing physical properties are achieved, such as narrow energy gaps, very broad light absorptions, and superior photothermal capability, along with excellent photostability. Notably, the solid of the C 38 B molecule exhibits absorption that covers the range of 300–1200 nm and an efficiency of 93.5 % for solar-driven water evaporation, thus demonstrating the potential of diradicaloid BMCs as high-performance organic photothermal materials.

Molecular ribbons(MRs),namely graphene nanoribbons with well-defined chemical structures,exhibit unique electronic structures and optoelectronic properties,and thus have attracted great attention in synthetic chemistry and materials science.Incorporation of the boron atom into their π-skeletons may enable modulation of electronic structures and physical properties by utilizing the electronic characteristics of the boron atom.However,it remains very challenging to synthesize boron-doped MRs in solution,due to the instability of the boron atoms toward moister and oxygen and the reduced cyclization activity of aromatic rings caused by the electron-deficient nature of the boron atoms.Thus,the structural construction and functional exploration of boron-doped MRs is severely hampered.Recently,our group have proposed a new strategy to construct boron-doped MRs,namely controlled cyclization of conjugated organoboranes.We synthesized a series of boron-doped MRs using solution-phase photocyclization reaction,and two of them feature isomeric C68B2 π-skeletons with 2.2 nm in length.We found that they have sufficient Lewis acidity,and the formed Lewis acid-based adducts display the photo-induced dual-dissociation behavior in the excited state and thus photochromism property.Moreover,despite of the highly contorted topological conformations,they exhibit hole transporting ability in organic field-effect transistors.On the other hand,we developed two new boron-doped conjugated π-units and then performed precise sequential cyclization reactions,affording three boron-doped MRs with controlled edges.Their band gaps and fluorescence properties were successfully modulated,and notably,the stimulated emission behavior and amplified spontaneous emission property were achieved for one boron-doped MR,demonstrating its potential as an optical-gain lasing material.These studies not only provide a new molecular system for organic optical materials,but also open a new direction for molecular carbons.

We disclose two ladder-type boron-containing π-conjugated molecules with two embedded s-indacene cores and their enhanced open-shell characteristics and attractive photothermal conversion properties.

Abstract Background Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and diabetic complications threaten human health seriously. Healthy lifestyles can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and long‐term complications. However, the relationship between alcohol consumption and CVD mortality is still controversial, and there is a lack of evidence from large‐scale longitudinal studies in the Chinese population. Based on the REACTION study (Risk Evaluation of Cancers in Chinese Diabetic Individuals: A Longitudinal Study), this paper explores the association between alcohol consumption and all‐cause mortality, stroke, and coronary heart disease (CHD) in patients with abnormal glucose metabolism during a 10‐year follow‐up period to provide evidence for lifestyle counselling for these patients. Methods First, baseline data were collected from the REACTION study cohort in Changchun, Jilin Province, China, in 2011–2012. A questionnaire survey was performed among patients with abnormal glucose metabolism aged over 40 years. The frequency of their alcohol intake, the type of alcohol, and the amount of alcohol consumed daily were surveyed. Physical and biochemical examinations were also performed. Then, through the Primary Public Health Service System of Jilin Province, we collected outcomes during the 10‐year follow‐up up to October 1, 2021, including all‐cause mortality, stroke, and CHD. Next, we conducted logistic regression to analyze the relationship between baseline alcohol consumption and 10‐year outcomes, and risk ratio (RR) and 95% CI were calculated by adjusting for different clinical indicators. A p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results A total of 4855 patients with T2DM and prediabetes (35.2% men and 64.8% women) were included in the baseline analysis. Outcomes of 3521 patients during the 10‐year follow‐up were obtained, including 227 deaths, 296 new‐onset strokes and 445 new‐onset CHD. Occasional drinking (less than once a week) was associated with a reduced 10‐year all‐cause mortality, with an RR of 0.511 (95% CI [0.266, 0.982]) after adjustment for age, gender, medical history, and lifestyles and an RR of 0.50 (95% CI [0.252, 0.993]) in a fully adjusted model including additional biochemical indicators. In addition, heavy alcohol consumption (≥30 g/day for men and ≥15 g/day for women) was significantly associated with an increased incidence of stroke, with an RR of 2.503 (95% CI [1.138, 5.506]) after the adjustment for age, gender, medical history, lifestyles, and biochemical indicators. No significant association was found between alcohol consumption and new‐onset CHD. Conclusions For patients with abnormal glucose metabolism, occasional drinking (less than once a week) reduces the risk of all‐cause mortality, while heavy alcohol consumption (≥30 g/day for men and ≥15 g/day for women) significantly increases the risk of new‐onset stroke. They should avoid heavy alcohol intake, but light alcohol consumption or occasional drinking is acceptable. Additionally, it is crucial to control blood glucose and blood pressure and keep performing physical activities.

Incorporation of heteroatoms into polyarenes has been developed as an effective approach to alter their intrinsic structures and properties. Herein, we designed and synthesized two PO-containing dibenzopentaarene isomers (5a and 5b) and studied their structures and properties, along with those of dibenzopentaarenes containing six-membered Si- and B-heterocycles (3 and 4). These heterocyclic polyarenes have similar frameworks to well-known heptazethrene, and thus can be regarded as members of the heteroatom-doped zethrene system. The heterocycles greatly affect not only the molecular and packing structures but also the electronic structures and properties. Notably, while compounds 3 and 4 adopt almost planar geometries, 5a possesses a clearly curved conformation, leading to its brick-type slipped and dense π-π stacking mode. Moreover, the electron-withdrawing PO groups endow 5a and 5b with simultaneously lowered lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO)/highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) levels, whereas the p-π conjugation of the B atoms in 4 leads to its smaller energy gap and thus remarkably red-shifted absorption and fluorescence bands by over 80 nm, though all of these molecules possess similar closed-shell structures. This study thus deepens the understanding of heteroatom-doping effects, which may be expanded to develop other heteroatom-doped zethrene materials.