Understanding the microstructure change during drying in limestone calcined clay cement (LC 3 ) is crucial for promoting low-clinker cementitious materials and reducing the environmental impact of cement production. Building on microstructural change during hydration, this study investigates the pore structure and phase change in LC 3 and its influence on macroscopic shrinkage. Composition analysis of the hydrates was conducted using X-ray diffraction and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Additionally, proton nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry was used to determine pore structure. Microscopically, the reacted metakaolin residues yield NMR signals that fall within the same T 2 range as those typically assigned to interhydrate pores within calcium alumino-silicate hydrate (C–A–S–H), yet they originate from different structural domains. The low Ca/(Al+Si) ratio in LC 3 results in sparsely packed C–A–S–H with interlayer spaces that remain structurally stable and retain water strongly during drying, showing little change even under low relative humidity. During drying, water is mainly held in and released from gel, interhydrate, and capillary pores. LC 3 exhibits significantly lower shrinkage than OPC, which is attributed, based on the C–A–S–H structural model, to its lower Ca concentration and the resulting interlayer structure that remains stable and water-retentive at low humidity.

Alveolar regeneration requires coordinated alveolar type 1 (AT1)/alveolar type 2 (AT2) responses and an intact epithelial barrier. In vitro systems, however, rarely couple lineage control with high resistance. Here we establish a concise workflow in which human AT2-like progenitors are expanded in a medium containing a small-molecule cocktail (Y-27632/A-83-01/CHIR99021; YAC), followed by air-liquid interface (ALI) culture in medium without the YAC cocktail (hereafter referred to as the YAC(-) condition). Compared with submerged culture, ALI increased AT1(AQP5, AGER, and PDPN) and AT2 (SFTPB, SFTPC, and SFTPD) markers. Within ALI, β-catenin inhibition by XAV939 elevated AT1 features while retaining AT2 protein expression, but was accompanied by reduced AT2 marker expression at the transcriptional level compared with the YAC(-) condition. Transepithelial electrical resistance entered the kΩ range by ALI day 10 and remained high across ALI conditions, with hematoxylin and eosin staining confirming a continuous single-layer epithelium. Passage reduced absolute marker levels and resistance but preserved the rank order across conditions. In scratch assays, ALI monolayers closed wounds over 24-48 h, and spatial immunofluorescence staining showed surfactant protein-C enrichment at the leading edge and podoplanin predominantly behind the front. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that β-catenin modulation within ALI biases the alveolar epithelial profile toward AT1-like features, whereas the YAC(-) condition sustains a balanced AT1/AT2 state with superior epithelial barrier performance and repair capacity. This platform provides a single-monolayer system suitable for dissecting alveolar epithelial differentiation and functional maintenance.

ABSTRACT Thanks to the socio-economic and political benefits stemming from international students, host governments and universities worldwide have implemented various measures to attract and retain them. Similarly, scholars in international education have conducted studies to explore various aspects of international student satisfaction and loyalty (ISSL). This review synthesizes six decades of ISSL research based on 925 Scopus-indexed documents (1961–2024). While the field is often framed as an education-marketing conversation, the data reveal a psychological strand that emerges earlier, endures, and now co-exists with both. Across sub-analyses (keywords, co-citation, co-authorship, and explicit home-host flows), a common trajectory emerges: the field evolves from a psychosocial focus on adjustment and acculturation, through a managerial and consumerist turn emphasizing satisfaction, branding, and loyalty, to a disruption era of digital delivery, wellbeing, and policy factors. Geographically, the maps converge on a shift from Western-focused dominance to a more polycentric landscape: established Anglophone hubs remain central, while bridging systems in Western Europe, East, and Southeast Asia occupy dual sender-host roles. Reference structures show that, despite the spread of marketing vocabulary, “satisfaction” in ISSL is typically grounded in wellbeing and academic experience rather than consumer behavior.

Paneth cell metaplasia (PCM) is a phenomenon in which Paneth cells, typically found in the small intestine, appear in the colonic epithelium of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). Our study demonstrates that the PCM occurrence correlates with disease duration and active inflammation. Furthermore, we identified IL-22, an inflammation-associated cytokine, as a key regulator that promotes PCM formation in the colonic epithelium through suppression of Notch signaling and induces REG3A expression within metaplastic niches. In vitro, we show that Reg3a directly enhances cell proliferation and promotes wound healing using mouse colonic organoids. In vivo, Reg3aΔIEC mice in both acute and chronic DSS-induced colitis models exhibit delayed wound healing. Additionally, studies conducted with patient-derived human colonic organoids revealed that REG3A administration stimulates cell proliferation and accelerates wound healing. Together, these findings support a protective role of PCM-associated REG3A in the colonic epithelium of patients with UC.

Abstract Recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed unexpectedly luminous galaxies, exhibiting stellar masses and luminosities significantly higher than predicted by theoretical models at Cosmic Dawn. In this study, we present a suite of cosmological zoomed-in simulations targeting high-redshift ( z ≥ 10) galaxies with dark matter halo masses in the range 10 10 –10 11 M ⊙ at z = 10, using state-of-the-art galaxy formation simulation codes ( Enzo , Ramses , Changa , Gadget-3 , Gadget-4 , and Gizmo ). This study aims to evaluate the convergence of the participating codes and their reproducibility of high-redshift galaxies with the galaxy formation model calibrated at relatively low redshift, without additional physics for high-redshift environments. The subgrid physics follows the AGORA CosmoRun framework, with adjustments to resolution and initial conditions to emulate similar physical environments in the early Universe. The participating codes show consistent results for key galaxy properties (e.g., stellar mass), but also reveal notable differences (e.g., metallicity), indicating that galaxy properties at high redshifts are highly sensitive to the feedback implementation of the simulation. Massive halos ( M halo ≥5 × 10 10 M ⊙ at z = 10) succeed in reproducing observed stellar masses, metallicities, and UV luminosities at 10 ≤ z ≤ 12 without requiring additional subgrid physics, but tend to underpredict those properties at higher redshift. We also find that varying the dust-to-metal ratio modestly affects UV luminosity of simulated galaxies, whereas the absence of dust significantly enhances it. In future work, higher-resolution simulations will be conducted to better understand the formation and evolution of galaxies at Cosmic Dawn.