Cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) are a critical cell population responsible for myocardial extracellular matrix homeostasis. After stimulation by myocardial infarction (MI), CFs transdifferentiate into cardiac myofibroblasts (CMFs) and play a fundamental role in the fibrotic healing response. Transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) channels are cationic ion channels with a high fractional Ca2+ current, and they are known to influence cardiac function after MI injury; however, the molecular mechanisms regulating CMF transdifferentiation remain poorly understood. TRPA1 knockout mice, their wild-type littermates, and mice pretreated with the TRPA1 agonist cinnamaldehyde (CA) were subjected to MI injury and monitored for survival, cardiac function, and fibrotic remodeling. TRPA1 can drive myofibroblast transdifferentiation initiated 1 week after MI injury. In addition, we explored the underlying mechanisms via in vitro experiments through gene transfection alone or in combination with inhibitor treatment. TRPA1 overexpression fully activated CMF transformation, while CFs lacking TRPA1 were refractory to transforming growth factor β- (TGF-β-) induced transdifferentiation. TGF-β enhanced TRPA1 expression, which promoted the Ca2+-responsive activation of calcineurin (CaN). Moreover, dual-specificity tyrosine-regulated kinase-1a (DYRK1A) regulated CaN-mediated NFAT nuclear translocation and TRPA1-dependent transdifferentiation. These findings suggest a potential therapeutic role for TRPA1 in the regulation of CMF transdifferentiation in response to MI injury and indicate a comprehensive pathway driving CMF formation in conjunction with TGF-β, Ca2+ influx, CaN, NFATc3, and DYRK1A.

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To motivate learners to engage in writing courses and help to improve their writing performance, a mobile-game-based collaborative prewriting approach was proposed in this study. A quasi-experiment was implemented by recruiting two classes of non-English major students from a university in northeastern China. Class 1 learned to write under the guidance of the mobile-gamebased collaborative prewriting method, while Class 2 in the conventional teacher-centered approach. Their writing performance was measured to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. By analyzing the scores of students' writings in pre-test and post-test and the content of student discussions in prewriting activities, it was found that, the students in Class 1 who focused on content talk in group discussions improved more in organization of content, originality, fluency, and elaboration than those in Class 2 in post test. In addition, the findings showed that the incidence of different types of idea units in collaborative prewriting discussions had significant correlation with the ratings of different dimensions, respectively, in individual writings. Furthermore, the majority of volunteer students who finished the questionnaire endorsed the mobile-game-based collaborative prewriting approach.

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In the past decade, numerous studies have examined the effects of social media or language learning apps on student vocabulary learning. However, the comparison of the impact of social media and language learning apps was found only in a few studies, with little attention paid to applications widely used in China. Therefore, two social media apps (QQ and WeChat) and one language-learning app (Baicizhan) were selected to examine their effects on vocabulary learning. During an eight-week experiment, a total of 72 participants were assigned to three groups that used different apps as their vocabulary learning assistants, and each group received instructions via QQ, WeChat, and Baicizhan, respectively. The analytical results showed significant differences between the group on pretest and post-test scores, indicating measurable improvements in vocabulary learning in all three groups. The language-learning app, Baicizhan, was found to be the most effective of the three apps for vocabulary learning. Additionally, the questionnaire results indicated that Baicizhan was more effective than the two social media apps, QQ and WeChat, and preferred by the students for vocabulary learning.