GPCRs play a key role in transmembrane signaling and are involved in many physiological processes, such as regulation of behavior, heart rate and the immune system. Therefore they are very important targets for pharmaceutical agents. Our project focuses on the b2 Adrenergic Receptor [1,2] (b2AR). The b2AR is mainly involved in vasodilation and bronchodilation in the human body. The recently sol...

One of the theories accounting for pragmatic development of L2 learners is Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural  theory.  This  study  investigated  the  development  of  EFL  learners'  pragmatic competence through the lens of an important concept of Vygotsky’s theory, i.e.  the  zone  of proximal  development.  The  study  was  conducted  to  answer  two  questions.  The  first  question was wheth...

Infants become increasingly helpful during the second year. We investigated experimentally whether adults' explicit scaffolding influences this development. Infants (N = 69, 13-18 months old) participated in a series of simple helping tasks. Half of infants received explicit scaffolding (encouragement and praise), whereas the other half did not. Among younger infants (below 15 months), infants ...

Computer-based scaffolding assists students as they generate solutions to complex problems, goals, or tasks, helping increase and integrate their higher order skills in the process. However, despite decades of research on scaffolding in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, no existing comprehensive meta-analysis has synthesized the results of these studies. This r...

Various peer-scaffoldings in problem-solving have been studied as effective learning strategies in web based instruction and on line ‐ ‐ discussion. The web-based environment provides a medium for sharing knowledge and resources, which help learners engage in problem-solving and interactive learning. Learners, however, easily feel isolated in web-based environments because of the tremendous amo...

Computer programming is a difficult subject for most novice learners. Providing support that complements classroom learning could contribute to tackling the difficulties. Due to the ubiquity of mobile devices, such support can be provided by scaffolding the construction of programs on a mobile device. In order to design such a mobile intervention, learners’ needs and limitations of mobile devic...

The scaffolding of a complete lattice L of finite length was introduced by Rudolf Wille in 1976 as a relative subsemilattice of L that can be constructed using subdirect decomposition. The lattice is uniquely defined by its scaffolding and can be reconstructed from it. Using bonds, we demonstrate how the scaffolding can be constructed from a given formal context and thereby extend the notion of...

Considering the paramount importance of writing logical arguments for college students, this study investigated the effect of dynamic assessment (DA) of Toulmin model through teacher- and collective-scaffolding on argument structure and overall quality of argumentative essays of Iranian EFL university learners. In so doing, 45 male and female Iranian EFL learners taking part in the study were r...

Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A) plays an essential role in many aspects of cellular physiology. The PP2A holoenzyme consists of a heterodimeric core enzyme, which comprises a scaffolding subunit and a catalytic subunit, and a variable regulatory subunit. Here we report the crystal structure of the heterotrimeric PP2A holoenzyme involving the regulatory subunit B'/B56/PR61. Surprisingly, the B'/PR...