This paper is intended for doctoral students and other researchers considering using phenomenology as a methodology to investigate the experiences of children learning English as a second language in an elementary classroom setting. I identify six dilemmas or puzzling challenges likely to arise if researchers adopt a phenomenological approach to conducting research. The six dilemmas fall under two categories: fundamental and situational. Fundamental dilemmas include descriptive versus interpretive; objective versus subjective; and participant voice versus researcher voice. The former focus is on a fundamental understanding of phenomenology as a research method while the latter include language and cultural challenges and limitations of the researchers. Situational dilemmas arise from the challenges an investigator may encounter in using an in-depth interview as a research tool with children from different cultural and language backgrounds. I present these dilemmas so that researchers can understand more readily the challenges they may face in exploring the lived experience of these children.Keywords: phenomenology; English Language Learners; lived experience
Stem cell injection is good for periodontal regeneration due to the capacity of stem cells to differentiate toward osteogenic direction and to regulate the production of pro‐ and anti‐inflammatory cytokines. However, injected cells are difficult to track in vivo. And there is microbiota in oral cavity, the dysbiosis of which leads to the damage and loss of periodontal tissue. Here, we demonstrated an enhanced periodontal repair was due to an altered oral microbiota. Periodontal defects were surgically prepared in rats, and periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) labeled by superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles (PC‐SPIO) were injected, with PDLSCs and saline treatments as controls. Detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and histological staining, PC‐SPIO was major at limited areas in regenerated periodontal tissues. PC‐SPIO‐treated rats achieved better periodontal regeneration than the other two groups. Concurrently, the oral microbiota of PC‐SPIO‐treated rats was changed, presenting SPIO‐Lac as a biomarker. SPIO‐Lac assisted periodontal repair in vivo, inhibited the inflammation of macrophages induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and antibacterial in vitro. Therefore, our study proved that SPIO‐labeled cells can be tracked in periodontal defect and highlighted a potential positive role of an oral microbiota in periodontal regeneration, suggesting the possibility of periodontal repair promotion by manipulating oral microbiota.
DNA based sequencing technology has revolutionized the field of microbial ecology and environmental studies. However, biases can be introduced at all experimental steps and, thus, affect the interpretation of microbial community. So far, previous studies on the biases introduced from the key steps of DNA extraction and primer sets mainly focused on the bacterial communities in soil or sediment samples, while little is known about the effect on the eukaryotic microbial communities. Here, we studied the effects of three different DNA extraction kits on both prokaryotic and micro-eukaryotic communities by 16S and 18S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, and further disentangled the influence of primer choice on the micro-eukaryotic communities. Our results showed that the FastDNA SPIN Kit for Soil and DNeasy PowerSoil Kit produced much higher DNA yield with good reproducibility, and observed more eukaryotic OTUs compared to the MinkaGene DNA extraction kit, but all three kits exhibited comparable ability in recovering bacterial alpha diversity. Of the two primer sets, both targeting the V4 region of the 18S rRNA gene, the TAR primer set detected higher number of unique OTUs than the EK primer set, while the EK primer set resulted in longer amplicons and better reproducibility between replicates. Based on our findings, we recommend using the DNeasy PowerSoil Kit with the EK primer set to capture the abundant micro-eukaryotic taxa from freshwater sediment samples. If a more complete picture of the eukaryotic microbial community is desired, the TAR primer set in combination with the FastDNA SPIN Kit is more efficient in this study.
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