Search

Future self-continuity refers to individuals' perceived degree of continuity and coherence between present and future selves. Recent studies have documented the negative associations between future self-continuity and various aspects of negative emotional states including stress, anxiety, and depression. Although the reduced future self-continuity is typically assumed to cause negative emotional states, the reverse path is also possible. This study aimed to investigate the reciprocal associations between future self-continuity and negative emotional states, exploring the mediating effects of coping style. We collected 3 waves of data at 6-month intervals from Chinese students in higher education (N = 402, M = 21.16 years old, SD = 1.81, 47% females). Cross-lagged panel models showed that future self-continuity at Time 2 negatively predicted negative emotional states at Time 3, while all cross-lagged effects of negative emotional states on future self-continuity were negative and significant. Moreover, coping style mediated the reciprocal relations between future self-continuity and negative emotional states. These results indicated that future self-continuity and negative emotional states appear to be bidirectionally associated, highlighting the mediating role of coping style. Such findings have potential implications for promoting future self-continuity and reducing negative emotional states of students in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An increasing body of evidence suggests that home-based exercise (HBE) therapy has significant therapeutic effects on knee osteoarthritis (KOA) and hip osteoarthritis (HipOA), and it has advantages such as cost savings, strong operability, and good compliance compared with hospitalization and exercise courses. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of HBE in the treatment of KOA and HipOA. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, and Embase to collect randomized controlled trials. The retrieval time was from database establishment until March 6, 2024. Stata 15.1 software was used for data analysis. Results: A total of 16 randomized controlled trials involving 3,015participants were included, with 1,519 participants in the intervention group and 1,496 in the control group. The meta-analysis showed that, compared to the control group, HBE can significantly improve pain [SMD=-0.38, 95% CI (-0.58, -0.18); P = 0.001], joint function [SMD=-0.60, 95% CI (-1.01, -0.19); P = 0.004], balance ability [SMD=-0.67, 95% CI (-1.00, -0.34); P = 0.001], mobility (ADL) [SMD = 0.51, 95% CI (0.19, 0.82); P = 0.002] in patients with KOA and HipOA. There is no statistical difference in the improvement of joint stiffness [WMD = -0.80, 95% CI (-1.61, 0.01); P = 0.052]. In addition, subgroup analysis showed that HBE significantly improved pain, joint function, and balance ability in KOA patients compared with the control group. HipOA patients showed significant improvement in pain and joint function; However, HBE only improved activity ability in patients with comorbidities of KOA and HipOA. Conclusion: HBE can effectively alleviate pain, improve joint function, and enhance physical function in patients with KOA and HipOA. However, more high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with large sample sizes and long-term interventions are needed to validate the efficacy of HBE due to limitations in the methodology and consistency of indicator outcomes in the included RCTs. Registration number: We've registered with PROSPERO, and the number is CRD42023443085. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suppressing non‐radiative recombination via passivating surface defects of perovskite films has demonstrated an excellent strategy for high‐performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, it is still hard to realize both high open‐circuit voltage (Voc) of >1.2 V and high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of >22%, because the optimized bandgap of perovskite films is less than 1.60 eV for efficient light harvesting and Voc deficit is generally unavoidable due to carriers recombination. Here, the surface of the perovskite film is treated with a series of phenylhydroxylammonium halide salts and it is found that all of them can remarkably prolong the carrier lifetime owing to their excellent capability of surface defects passivation. The best PSC with phenylbutylammonium bromide treatment realizes a PCE of 22.67% with a Voc of 1.216 V, corresponding to a small Voc deficit of ≈344 mV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trap-related phenomena in the electrical performance of back-gated mechanical exfoliated MoS2 field-effect transistors are investigated in terms of the super linear increase in the drain current under positive gate bias and the shift of transfer curves with gate voltage stress. The super linear increase in drain current is only observed for the MoS2 field-effect transistors in the electron accumulation regime under positive gate bias, which can be attributed to a trap-assisted tunneling effect with S vacancies at the contact interface between metal Ti and MoS2. After thermal annealing of the devices in vacuum at 300 °C for 2 h, the almost complete metallization of Ti contacting with the MoS2 layer leads to the variation of the drain current relationship with drain voltage from a super linear to a linear increase, thus screening the efficacy of the mechanism of defect level assisted electron tunneling. The shift of transfer curves with gate voltage stress (denoted as hysteresis) is attributed to the defects near the interface between MoS2 and SiO2, which is slightly impacted by thermal annealing. The hump effect caused by parasitic transistors is also observed in back-gated mechanical exfoliated MoS2 field-effect transistors. These results further enrich the knowledge of the complex electrical characteristics of MoS2 field-effect transistors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The point defect effects on phonon thermal conductivity of bulk crystalline β -SiC at 750 K and 1098 K are calculated with reverse non-equilibrium molecular dynamics method. Quantum correction is used to correct the corresponding temperatures. By extrapolation and quantum correction, the results of thermal conductivity of bulk β -SiC with point defects are achieved and corrected. For the eight types of point defects studied in this work, the thermal conductivity of SiC decreases with the increase of the concentration of certain point defects. The thermal conductivity drops rapidly at low concentration condition and gradually reaches certain value at high concentration condition. At high defect concentration condition, the temperature does not affect the thermal conductivity too much. The additional thermal resistivity is proportional to the concentration of all types of the point defects we studied. In these point defects, the interstitial Si TC decreases the thermal conductivity of β -SiC the most. On the other hand, the interstitial C TSi affects the thermal conductivity the least. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dependence of Schottky barrier height (SBH) of metal/ITO/n-Ge contacts on ITO interlayer thickness is experimentally investigated. The SBH of metal/ITO/n-Ge contacts for various metal electrodes of Al, Cu, and Pt is estimated. It is found that the SBH of metal/ITO/n-Ge contacts decreases with increase of ITO thickness from 0 to 4 nm, and the dependence of SBH on the metal work function is weak. When the thickness of ITO is larger than 4 nm, ohmic metal/ITO/n-Ge contacts are obtained for different metal electrode. The formation of ohmic contact can be ascribed to high carrier concentration of ITO itself and the excellent passivation for Ge surface. The interdiffusion between cap metal and ITO should be responsible for the modulation of SBH of metal/ITO/n-Ge contacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of excimer laser annealing on the crystallinity of Ge epilayers on Si substrate grown by low- and high-temperature two-step approach in an ultra-high vacuum chemical vapor deposition system were investigated. The samples were treated by excimer laser annealing (ELA) at various laser power densities with the temperature above the melting point of Ge, while below that of Si, resulting in effective reduction of point defects and dislocations in the Ge layer with smooth surface. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of X-ray diffraction patterns of the low-temperature Ge epilayer decreases with the increase in laser power density, indicating the crystalline improvement and negligible effect of Ge-Si intermixing during ELA processes. The short laser pulse time and large cooling rate cause quick melting and recrystallization of Ge epilayer on Si in the non-thermal equilibrium process, rendering tensile strain in Ge epilayer as calculated quantitatively with thermal mismatch between Si and Ge. The FWHM of X-ray diffraction patterns is significantly reduced for the two-step grown samples after treated by a combination of ELA and conventional furnace thermal annealing, indicating that the crystalline of Ge epilayer is improved more effectively with pre- annealing by excimer laser. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deterioration of the quality of raw liquor caused by the low content of ethyl hexanoate in Nongxiangxing baijiu has become a pervasive problem in the baijiu industry. Therefore, this study attempted to increase the synthesis of ethyl hexanoate by microorganisms with high esterase activity to increase Zaopei fermentation. The results showed that biofortification was a feasible and important way to improve the quality of the raw liquor and increase the ethyl hexanoate content. Adding Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Millerozyma farinosa for biofortified fermentation disturbed the microbial community structure of Zaopei and increased the abundance of Wickerhamomyces, Saccharomyces, and Thermoascus. The contents of ethyl hexanoate, ethyl valerate, ethyl caprylate, and ethyl heptanoate also increased noticeably in baijiu. The results of E‐nose and sensory analysis tested and verified that the baijiu in the fortified group had better flavor characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), a type of microorganism widely used in functional foods, has gained notable research attention in recent years. Certain strains possess the proteolytic ability to release potentially antihypertensive peptides from dairy proteins, which prompted us to explore the LAB strains from an understudied and unique ingredient, Daqu. We screened for 67 strains of LAB strains from traditional Daqu using the calcium dissolution ring method. Sixteen strains exhibiting angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition (ACE-I) activity exceeding 50% were chosen for 16S rDNA sequencing and safety assessment. It is noteworthy that Enterococcus faecium CP640 and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus CP658 exhibited significant ACE-I activity, which was the result of strain fermentation in reconstituted skim milk. These 2 strains did not exhibit hemolytic activity or antibiotic resistance. They also did not produce biogenic amines and showed high survival rates in the gastrointestinal tract. Additionally, Enterococcus faecium CP640 and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus CP658 fermented milk exhibited a notable reduction in blood pressure levels in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) compared with negative controls in SHR. Importantly, no adverse effect was observed in normal Wistar-Kyoto rats. Through the analysis of physiological, serum, and urine-related indicators, it was observed that Enterococcus faecium CP640 and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus CP658 have the potential to promote weight gain in SHR, alleviate excessive heart rate, improve renal function indicators, and effectively regulate blood sugar and uric acid levels in SHR. These 2 strains showed optimal properties in lowering blood pressure and have the potential to be used in functional dairy products in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Interactivity with touchscreens demonstrated the superiority of congruency. • Drag but not tap gestures enhanced performance on a number line estimation task. • Dragging served as an effective scaffold in difficult estimation. • Dragging supported representations, leading to faster responses. • Dragging helped release mental resources for strategic adjustments. When solving mathematical problems, young children will perform better when they can use gestures that match mental representations. However, despite their increasing prevalence in educational settings, few studies have explored this effect in touchscreen-based interactions. Thus, we investigated the impact on young children's performance of dragging (where a continuous gesture is performed that is congruent with the change in number) and tapping (involving a discrete gesture that is incongruent) on a touchscreen device when engaged in a continuous number line estimation task. By examining differences in the set size and position of the number line estimation, we were also able to explore the boundary conditions for the superiority effect of congruent gestures. We used a 2 (Gesture Type: drag or tap) × 2 (Set Size: Set 0–10 or Set 0–20) × 2 (Position: left of midpoint or right of midpoint) mixed design. A total of 70 children aged 5 and 6 years (33 girls) were recruited and randomly assigned to either the Drag or Tap group. We found that the congruent gesture (drag) generally facilitated better performance with the touchscreen but with boundary conditions. When completing difficult estimations (right side in the large set size), the Drag group was more accurate, responded to the stimulus faster, and spent more time manipulating than the Tap group. These findings suggest that when children require explicit scaffolding, congruent touchscreen gestures help to release mental resources for strategic adjustments, decrease the difficulty of numerical estimation, and support constructing mental representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adding a small amount of CsI into mixed cation‐halide perovskite film via a one‐step method has been demonstrated as an excellent strategy for high‐performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the one‐step method generally relies on an antisolvent washing process, which is hard to control and not suitable for fabricating large‐area devices. Here, CsF is employed and Cs is incorporated into perovskite film via a two‐step method. It is revealed that CsF can effectively diffuse into the PbI2 seed film, and drastically enhances perovskite crystallization, leading to high‐quality Cs‐doped perovskite film with a very long photoluminescence carrier lifetime (1413 ns), remarkable light stability, thermal stability, and humidity stability. The fabricated PSCs show power conversion efficiency (PCE) of over 21%, and they are highly thermally stable: in the aging test at 60 °C for 300 h, 96% of the original PCE remains. The CsF incorporation process provides a new avenue for stable high‐performance PSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]