Comparative susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV across mammals.

Exploring wild reservoirs of pathogenic viruses is critical for their long-term control and for predicting future pandemic scenarios. Here, a comparative in vitro infection analysis was first performed on 83 cell cultures derived from 55 mammalian species using pseudotyped viruses bearing S proteins from SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV. Cell cultures from Thomas's horseshoe bats, king horseshoe bats, green monkeys, and ferrets were found to be highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV pseudotyped viruses. Moreover, five variants (del69-70, D80Y, S98F, T572I, and Q675H), that beside spike receptor-binding domain can significantly alter the host tropism of SARS-CoV-2. An examination of phylogenetic signals of transduction rates revealed that closely related taxa generally have similar susceptibility to MERS-CoV but not to SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped viruses. Additionally, we discovered that the expression of 95 genes, e.g., PZDK1 and APOBEC3, were commonly associated with the transduction rates of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped viruses. This study provides basic documentation of the susceptibility, variants, and molecules that underlie the cross-species transmission of these coronaviruses.

Perspectives of Hybrid Performing Arts Education in the Post-Pandemic Era: An Empirical Study in Hong Kong

While the COVID-19 pandemic has been raging across the continents, performing arts educators have unlearned and adjusted their pedagogies in course delivery to surmount the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject to the COVID-19 pandemic situation easing in Hong Kong and around the world, the whole education sector seems to be bouncing back to normal gradually. Meanwhile, there are effective lessons and insights to be learned from the hybrid pedagogy during the pandemic, which could further benefit the new normal period (post-pandemic) of performing arts education. To examine the current practice of digital learning among students and faculty (attitudes towards hybrid, online, and face-to-face learning and preferences about learning mode for professional development/training workshops), this empirical study looks at 408 students and 17 faculty members at a leading performing arts institute in Hong Kong. This study locates the key issues for performing arts educators regarding online/hybrid teaching and learning. It presents lessons and insights for quality insurance and improvement. Findings can inform the future development of digital teaching and learning for the performing arts as well as for other practice-based subjects.

Dance in Zoom: Using video conferencing tools to develop students' 4C skills and self-efficacy during COVID-19.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the education community has actively sought strategies to allow it to maintain operations; one such strategy is to switch from face-to-face to online teaching. Compared with other art disciplines, the use of technology in dance education has been seriously understudied. This study collected multiple forms of data, tapping into students' and instructors' viewpoints, to examine the use of Zoom to develop students' 4C skills (i.e., creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking) and self-efficacy in dance education. A mixed-methods research design was adopted. Teacher observations and student surveys were conducted in a public university in Macau. The results showed significant increases in collaboration and creativity in the activities and assignments on Zoom. Critical thinking and communication skills did not change significantly in the Zoom-based dance class. Students were generally satisfied with the use of Zoom in dance class, but their self-reported self-efficacy significantly decreased after Zoom was introduced. The findings are discussed from both the students' and the instructor's perspectives.

A hybrid learning pedagogy for surmounting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in the performing arts education.

For performing arts education, Sage on the stage and Learn from the Masters were halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and so did everything else. All lectures, tutorials and other face-to-face skill-based training sections were cancelled and were replaced by the online model. Such a model was only seen as one of the supplementary components for performing arts education in the past. From January 2020, this online pedagogy was inevitably placed to surmount the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The social distancing measures demanded the blended pedagogy into a new online approach, in which the traditional face-to-face teaching to be replaced by synchronous online learning (facilitated by technologies such as Zoom, Cisco Webex, Google Class, Panopto etc.). Meanwhile, to offer opportunities for cognitive participation which allows students to process the learning and be reflective, webinar and innovative performance projects were launched from the concept of 'flipped classroom and outcome-based education.' This mixed approach (blended learning, flipped classroom, and outcome-based education) is described as 'hybrid learning' in this study. The 'hybrid learning' pedagogy is implemented at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) for all teaching activities in the 2nd semester 2020/2021 to overcome the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire survey about how it affected the performing arts education, and how the new pedagogy was implemented took place in July 2020. The survey results from both the teachers (76) and students (163) share lessons, insights, and new understandings on teaching and learning online. Hybrid learning has been widely investigated and researched, yet study on hybrid learning in performing arts such as creative art, theatre art and music, remains insufficient. This study fills the research gap.

Drivers and trajectories of China's renewable energy consumption.

Renewable energy is significant for addressing climate change and energy security. This study focused on the drivers of China's renewable energy consumption (REC) by an extended production-theoretical decomposition analysis and emphasized REC technical efficiency and technological change in 28 provinces during 1997-2017. We then projected China's REC to 2030 based on nine scenarios using a Monte Carlo simulation approach and specifically considering the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the national economy. The decomposition results showed that economic growth and population scale generally contributed to an increase in REC at national and provincial levels over the period while the overall technical efficiency and technological change in REC played limited roles in prompting REC nationally. The projection results indicated that the target that generates 50% of its electricity from renewable energy sources for China, could be achieved by 2030 if enough actions are taken to accelerate renewable energy development. Finally, we provided policy proposals that support our findings.