With the advent of the digital age, traditional didactic teaching and online learning have been modified and gradually replaced by "Blended Learning." The purpose of this study was to explore the influences of blended learning pedagogy on junior high school student learning achievement and the students' attitudes toward mathematics. To investigate the outcomes of the combination of Moodle online teaching platform and traditional instruction, a quasi-experiment was conducted using a pre-test-post-test control group design. ANCOVA and MANCOVA analyses showed that the blended learning experience benefitted students in the experimental group by having a positive effect not only on the learning outcomes, but also on their attitudes toward studying mathematics in a blended environment. Preliminary results indicated that male students and high-ability students were more motivated in the blended learning environment. Students gave positive feedback on the use of the Moodle learning platform for mathematics after experiencing blended learning.

The crystal structure and luminescence properties of flux-grown crystals of a new europium(III) fluoride-silicate, K5Eu2FSi4O13, are reported. The structure consists of octahedral dimers of the composition [Eu2O10F], which are linked by unbranched tetrasilicate chains to form a 3-D framework with 5- and 6-ring channels parallel to the b axis where the K+ cations are located. The sharp peaks in the room-temperature emission spectrum are assigned. The number of lines in the region for the 5D0-->7F0 transition and the relative intensities of the 5D0-->7F1 and 5D0-->7F2 transitions confirm the presence of two local Eu3+ environments and strongly distorted Eu3+-ligand surroundings. The room-temperature fluorescence decay curves are well fit by a single-exponential function yielding a lifetime value of about 2.0 ms. Crystal data: monoclinic, space group P21/m, a=7.1850(2) A, b=5.7981(2) A, c=18.1675(6) A, beta=92.248(2) degrees , and Z=2.

New salt-inclusion lanthanide silicates, [K 9F 2][Ln 3Si 12O 32] (Ln = Sm, Eu, Gd), have been synthesized using a KF-MoO 3 flux, and structurally characterized by single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction. The structures of these three isostructural compounds consist of open-branched funfer silicate single layers with six-, eight-, and twelve-membered rings, which are connected via LnO 6 octahedra to form a 3-D framework. The F (-) and K (+) ions are located in the structural channels and form a F 2K 7 dimer with a structure similar to that of Cl 2O 7. The photoluminescence properties of the Eu compound have also been studied. The sharp peaks in the room-temperature emission spectrum are assigned and the relative intensities of the (5)D 0 --> (7)F 1 and (5)D 0 --> (7)F 2 transitions are consistent with the crystallography results. Crystal data for the Eu compound: triclinic, space group P1 (No. 2), a = 6.8989(2) A, b = 11.3834(4) A, c = 11.4955(4) A, alpha = 87.620(2) degrees , beta = 89.532(2) degrees , gamma = 80.221(2) degrees , and Z = 2. Crystal data for the Sm compound: The same as those for the Eu compound except a = 6.9152(6) A, b = 11.400(1) A, c = 11.531(1) A, alpha = 87.610(1) degrees , beta = 89.445(1) degrees , and gamma = 80.081(1) degrees .

This paper presents two ultra-high-speed SerDes dedicated for PAM4 and NRZ data. The PAM4 TX incorporates an output driver with 3-tap FFE and adjustable weighting to deliver clean outputs at 4 levels, and the PAM4 RX employs a purely linear full-rate CDR and CTLE/1-tap DFE combination to recover and demultiplex the data. NRZ TX includes a tree-structure MUX with built-in PLL and phase aligner. NRZ RX adopts linear PD with special vernier technique to handle the 56 Gb/s input data. All chips have been verified in silicon with reasonable performance, providing prospective design examples for next-generation 400 GbE.Index Terms-Clock and data recovery (CDR), equalizer, highspeed serial link, NRZ, PAM4, phase-locked loop (PLL), SerDes, transceiver (TRX).