There have been many efforts to improve elementary school students’ critical thinking skills in science through various learning methods. However, only a few research results show efforts to improve critical thinking skills through HOTS-based science questions for elementary school students. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to test the effectiveness of student habituation with HOTS-based science questions in improving elementary school students’ critical thinking skills in science. Quasi-experimental methods were employed in this research with a nonequivalent control group design involving a treatment class and a control class. The treatment class gets treatment in HOTS-based science questions habituation during the learning process, while the control class in conventional approaches. A total of 60 students is from one of the elementary schools in Surakarta, Indonesia. To take data related to students’ critical thinking skills, they were given pretest and posttest where each test used HOTS-based science questions in an essay. The obtained data from the tests were then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. This study showed that the average of critical thinking skills in science of students in the experimental class was higher than the control class, with a positive mean difference of 0.4226. Based on these results, it is recommended that the results of this study can provide an overview to educational practitioners at the elementary school level and researchers in the field of science education related to efforts to improve elementary school students’ critical thinking skills in science through the habituation of HOTS-based science questions.

The genome of Arabidopsis encodes more than 60 mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MAPKK) kinases (MAPKKKs); however, the functions of most MAPKKKs and their downstream MAPKKs are largely unknown. Here, MAPKKK δ-1 (MKD1), a novel Raf-like MAPKKK, was isolated from Arabidopsis as a subunit of a complex including the transcription factor AtNFXL1, which is involved in the trichothecene phytotoxin response and in disease resistance against the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (PstDC3000). A MKD1-dependent cascade positively regulates disease resistance against PstDC3000 and the trichothecene mycotoxin-producing fungal pathogen Fusarium sporotrichioides. MKD1 expression was induced by trichothecenes derived from Fusarium species. MKD1 directly interacted with MKK1 and MKK5 in vivo, and phosphorylated MKK1 and MKK5 in vitro. Correspondingly, mkk1 mutants and MKK5RNAi transgenic plants showed enhanced susceptibility to F. sporotrichioides. MKD1 was required for full activation of two MAPKs (MPK3 and MPK6) by the T-2 toxin and flg22. Finally, quantitative phosphoproteomics suggested that an MKD1-dependent cascade controlled phosphorylation of a disease resistance protein, SUMO, and a mycotoxin-detoxifying enzyme. Our findings suggest that the MKD1–MKK1/MKK5–MPK3/MPK6-dependent signaling cascade is involved in the full immune responses against both bacterial and fungal infection.

Pyridine nucleotides such as a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) are known as plant defense activators. We previously reported that nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) enhanced disease resistance against fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum in barley and Arabidopsis. In this study, we reveal that the pretreatment of nicotinamide (NIM), which does not contain nucleotides, effectively suppresses disease development of Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) in wheat plants. Correspondingly, deoxynivalenol (DON) mycotoxin accumulation was also significantly decreased by NIM pretreatment. A metabolome analysis showed that several antioxidant and antifungal compounds such as trigonelline were significantly accumulated in the NIM-pretreated spikes after inoculation of F. graminearum. In addition, some metabolites involved in the DNA hypomethylation were accumulated in the NIM-pretreated spikes. On the other hand, fungal metabolites DON and ergosterol peroxide were significantly reduced by the NIM pretreatment. Since NIM is relative stable and inexpensive compared with NMN and NAD, it may be more useful for the control of symptoms of FHB and DON accumulation in wheat and other crops.

In Indonesia, several training pieces have been conducted to develop HOTS-based science questions for elementary school teachers. However, few studies examine how elementary school teachers developed HOTS-based science questions. Hence, the current study is a case study that aims to analyze HOTS-based science questions developed by elementary school teachers in Indonesia. This study employed a descriptive-analytical method by analyzing 60 HOTS-based science questions developed by elementary school teachers. This study involved two raters from one of Indonesia's universities, who are experts in assessing learning for elementary school level to assess the questions. The aspects that are assessed are aspects of conformity with HOTS questions criteria, conformity with the criteria of thinking ability of elementary school students, and conformity with the quality of good questions. This study's findings show that many problems do not meet the first aspect, especially at non-algorithmic points, multiple ways, and multiple interpretations. Next, in the second aspect, most of the question does not use illustration to strengthen the developed question's information. The third aspect is a relatively fulfilled aspect by most developed questions. However, only a few developed questions are judged not to meet this aspect. Hopefully, this study's findings can be an evaluation material for policymakers in education to increase the training quality of HOTS-based science questions for elementary school level in Indonesia.

The plant epidermis is the first line of plant defense against pathogen invasion, and likely contains important regulatory proteins related to the plant–pathogen interaction. This study aims to identify the candidates of these regulatory proteins expressed in the plant epidermis. We performed comparative proteomic studies to identify rapidly and locally expressed proteins in the leaf epidermis inoculated with fungal phytopathogen. The conidia solutions were dropped onto the Arabidopsis leaf surface, and then, we collected the epidermal tissues from inoculated and mock-treated leaves at 4 and 24 hpi. The label-free quantification methods showed that expressions of Arabidopsis proteins, which are related to defense signals, such as BAK1, MKK5, receptor-like protein kinases, transcription factors, and stomatal functions, were rapidly induced in the epidermal tissues of inoculated leaves. In contrast, most of them were not differentially regulated by fugal inoculation in the whole leaves. These findings clearly indicate that epidermal proteomics can monitor locally expressed proteins in inoculated areas of plant tissues. We also identified the 61 fungal proteins, including effector-like proteins specifically expressed on the Arabidopsis epidermis. Our new findings suggested that epidermal proteomics is useful for understanding the local expressions of plant and fungal proteins related to their interactions.

Cemetery soils most likely contain degradative bacteria which possibly have beneficial potencies. However, the bacterial exploration in these potencies is still limitedly con-ducted in Indonesia. The raw sequence data of total bacteria in the cemetery soils through metagenomic analysis have been revealed. The data were obtained by collecting soil samples from six spots of two major Cemetery areas, which were Pracimaloyo (P) and Bonoloyo (B), in Surakarta City, Central Java, Indonesia. The six sample spots consisted of two sam-ples from P area with respectively 20 cm and 140 cm depths and four samples of each two samples from B area with 20 and 40 cm depths. The total DNA was subsequently extracted from the collected soils using ZymoBIOMICS DNA Miniprep Kit. The total DNA then was amplified using a couple of 16S rRNA primers through Illumina HiSeq 2500 PE250 (Novogen, Korea) environment system. The raw sequence data has been submitted to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) with project ID PRJNA997385. The archived sequence can be accessed in the NCBI website with the following URLs https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/PRJNA997385 . A brief analysis of the sequence data showed that the most common phyla in 20 cm-depths were Proteobacteria (29.5%), Actinobacteria (21.6%), and Firmicutes (19.2%), while Actinobacteria were the most found in 140 cm-depths with 34.2% followed by Proteobacteria (21.9%) and Firmicutes (16.6%). This data would be the first report of total bacterial sequence from cemetery soils in Indonesia.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )