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Snow cover has significantly changed due to global warming in recent decades, causing large changes in the vegetation ecosystem. However, the impact of snow cover changes on the spring phenology of different vegetation types in Northeast China remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the response of the start of the growing season (SOS) to different snow cover indicators using partial correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis in Northeast China from 1982 to 2015 based on multiple remote sensing datasets. Furthermore, we revealed the underlying mechanisms using a structural equation model. The results show that decreased snow cover days (SCD) and an advanced snow cover end date (SCED) led to an advanced SOS in forests. Conversely, an increased SCD and a delayed SCED led to an advanced SOS in grasslands. The trends of SCD and SCED did not exhibit significant changes in rainfed cropland. The maximum snow water equivalent (SWEmax) increased in most areas. However, the proportion of the correlation between SWEmax and SOS was small. The impact of snow cover changes on the SOS varied across different vegetation types. Snow cover indicators mainly exhibited positive correlations with the SOS of forests, including deciduous broadleaf forests and deciduous coniferous forests, with positive and negative correlations of 18.61% and 2.58%, respectively. However, snow cover indicators mainly exhibited negative correlations in the SOS of grasslands and rainfed croplands, exhibiting positive and negative correlations of 4.87% and 13.06%, respectively. Snow cover impacted the SOS through the "temperature effect" in deciduous broadleaf forests, deciduous coniferous forests, and rainfed croplands, while it affected SOS through the "moisture effect" in grasslands. These results provide an enhanced understanding of the differences in snow cover changes affecting SOS in different vegetation types under climate change in Northeast China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The typical state empathy research used perspective-taking instructions and examined the effect of instructions on empathy-related variables. Empathy-arousing processes were generally not measured. The effect of perspective-taking instructions has been questioned recently. Observers could imagine targets' feelings without such instructions. This study evoked empathy in Japanese undergraduates (N = 157) without instructional procedure, and based on participants' responses to questionnaires, measured individual differences between antecedent, process, and intrapersonal outcome variables of state empathy, referring to the organizational model and theories of empathy-arousing processes. The purpose of this study was to measure these variables, examine the causal relationship between them using path analysis, and clarify how empathy occurs. In this way, we could suggest through which processes and antecedent factors intrapersonal empathic outcomes are produced. It is probably the first attempt to clarify how empathy occurs using a social psychological study framework and questionnaire method. This research was originally conducted in 2011 based on two similar studies not published internationally, when only some of the variables were used in our analyses. Afterwards, we constructed another analysis method, reanalyzed the data in 2019 and further reanalyzed in 2023 to obtain the final version of the results. Limitations and scientific and practical implications were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effects of learner variables on Chinese bilingual undergraduates' intercultural sensitivity and effectiveness. A total of 439 students from different universities answered a battery of questionnaires. Major findings were: (a) the participants reported a moderate to high level of intercultural sensitivity and a moderate level of intercultural effectiveness; (b) no significant gender difference occurred in intercultural sensitivity and effectiveness, except for Interaction Engagement and Respect for Cultural Differences; (c) intercultural sensitivity and effectiveness were significantly positively related to and predicted each other; (d) confidence in learning English, self-efficacy in learning English and English classroom anxiety significantly predicted students' intercultural sensitivity; and (e) English classroom anxiety, English learning motivation, and self-efficacy in learning English significantly predicted students' intercultural effectiveness. Based on these findings, a path model was constructed which explains the relations among affect, intercultural communication sensitivity, effectiveness and competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contact tracing apps (CTAs) were deployed worldwide in 2020 to combat COVID-19. Due to their low uptake, a growing amount of empirical research is being conducted to understand the factors that drive their adoption. For CTAs to be adopted, users must, first and foremost, find them persuasive. However, there is little research to understand the role user experience (UX) plays in their perceived persuasiveness. Consequently, we conducted an online study on Amazon Mechanical Turk among Canadian and American residents (n = 446) to investigate the most important UX design attributes associated with the perceived persuasiveness of CTAs. The study was based on two app designs (control and persuasive), each of which comprises three use cases: no exposure, exposure, and diagnosis report interfaces. One interface (screenshot) was randomly presented to a participant to view and provide their responses on the perceived UX design attributes and perceived persuasiveness of the interface. In the overall model, we found that perceived usefulness is the most important and consistent UX design attribute that influences perceived persuasiveness (β = 0.29, p < 0.001), followed by perceived trustworthiness (β = 0.24, p < 0.001) and perceived privacy protection (β = 0.16, p < 0.05). Respectively, the three predictors were consistently significant in two-thirds, half, and one-third of the 12 submodels based on app design, adoption status, and country of residence. The relationships regarding the persuasive designs are more likely to be significant, with the variance of the target construct explained by the predictors ranging from 71% to 89% compared with 54% to 69% for the control designs. The three significant attributes will help designers know which UX design attributes to focus on when designing CTAs for future epidemics. More importantly, in predictive modeling, if their ratings are known, they hold potential in predicting new users' responsiveness to multiple persuasive strategies/messages featured in behavior-change support systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The necessity for intelligent welding robots that meet the demand in real industrial production, according to the objectives of Industry 4.0, has been supported owing to the rapid development of computer vision and the use of new technologies. To improve the efficiency in weld location for industrial robots, this work focuses on trajectory extraction based on color features identification on three-dimensional surfaces acquired with a depth-RGB sensor. The system is planned to be used with a low-cost Intel RealSense D435 sensor for the reconstruction of 3D models based on stereo vision and the built-in color sensor to quickly identify the objective trajectory, since the parts to be welded are previously marked with different colors, indicating the locations of the welding trajectories to be followed. This work focuses on 3D color segmentation with which the points of the target trajectory are segmented by color thresholds in HSV color space and a spline cubic interpolation algorithm is implemented to obtain a smooth trajectory. Experimental results have shown that the RMSE error for V-type butt joint path extraction was under 1.1 mm and below 0.6 mm for a straight butt joint; in addition, the system seems to be suitable for welding beads of various shapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The removal process of activated sludge in sewage treatment plants is very nonlinear, and removal performance has a complex causal relationship depending on environmental factors, influent load, and operating factors. In this study, how causal relationships are expressed in collected data was identified by structural equation modeling. First, path modeling was attempted as a preliminary step in structural equation model (SEM) construction and, as a result, the nutrient-removal mechanism could not be sufficiently represented as a direct causal relationship between measured variables. However, as a result of the deduced SEMs for effluent total nitrogen (T-N) and total phosphorus (T–P) concentrations, accompanied by exploratory factor analysis to extract latent variables, a causal network was formed that describes the direct or indirect effect of the latent factors and measured variables. Hereby, this study suggests that it is possible to construct an SEM explaining the nutrient-removal mechanism of the activated-sludge process with latent variables. Moreover, nonlinear features embedded in the mechanism could be represented by SEM, which is a model based on linearity, by including causal relations and variables that were not derived by path analysis. This attempt to model the direct and indirect causalities of the process could enhance the understanding of the process, and help decision making such as changing the driving conditions that would be required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the willingness to consume a cultured meat burger in Germany. Based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), we assessed attitudes, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norms via an online questionnaire. Attitudes were operationalized in this research as general attitudes towards cultured meat and specific attitudes towards a cultured meat burger. Furthermore, the TPB was extended with nutritional-psychological variables including food (technology) neophobia, food disgust, sensation seeking, and green consumption values. In total, 58.4% of the participants reported being willing to consume a cultured meat burger. Using a path model, the extended TPB accounted for 77.8% of the variance in willingness to consume a cultured meat burger. All components of the TPB were significant predictors except general attitudes. The influence of general attitudes was completely mediated by specific attitudes. All nutritional-psychological variables influenced general attitudes. Food technology neophobia was the strongest negative, and green consumption values were the strongest positive predictor of general attitudes. Marketing strategies should therefore target the attitudes of consumers by encouraging the natural perception of cultured meat, using a less technological product name, enabling transparency about the production, and creating a dialogue about both the fears and the environmental benefits of the new technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promotion of children's healthy eating is a key public health priority. However, children's food consumption is a complex phenomenon with several contributing factors, and there is a call to continue developing comprehensive models with several variables acting simultaneously. The present study aimed to examine the role different motivational-related variables (e.g., self-regulation, self-efficacy) may play in children's consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods. To address this goal, data were collected in a sample of 242 fifth and sixth graders with access to both healthy and unhealthy foods at home. A path model was conducted to analyze networks of relationships between motivational-related variables and children's healthy and unhealthy eating. The gender variable was included as a covariate to control its effect. The data showed that self-regulation for healthy eating mediates the relationship between the predictor variables (i.e., knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy) and the type of food consumption (healthy and unhealthy). Current data contribute to understanding the complexity behind food consumption by providing a comprehensive model with motivational-related factors associated with both healthy and unhealthy eating. The present findings are likely to help inform the development of early preventive interventions focused on the promotion of healthy eating.

The actual effectiveness of the still-to-come vaccination against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 might be challenged by vaccine hesitancy, a rather common and known phenomenon whose psychological predictors are, nevertheless, still largely debated. Our study aims at understanding how adult citizens' health engagement, perceived COVID-19 susceptibility and severity, and general vaccine-related attitudes affect the willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19. To that end, on a sample of Italian citizens, we implemented a path model to test the impact of health engagement on the willingness to vaccinate against SARS-CoV-2, and whether this relationship is direct or mediated by the general attitude towards vaccines and the risk perception. Moreover, we tested the configural and weak invariance of the model across gender and three age groups. Results show that health engagement is positively related to the intention to vaccinate and that this relationship is partially mediated by the general attitude towards vaccines. The model appears invariant across genders and partially invariant across age groups, showing some differences in the role of perceived susceptibility. These findings vouch for the implementation of educational campaigns aimed at sustaining future vaccination programs that also include health engagement promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cumulative exposure to chemical and non-chemical stressors may have an impact on birth outcomes. The aim of this study is to examine the cumulative exposure of a mixture of chemicals (mercury, lead, selenium and tin) and non-chemical stressors (social support, perceived stress, probable depression and BMI) on birth outcomes (birthweight, gestational age at birth, and Apgar score at 5 min). The study population is a subset ( n = 384) of the Caribbean Consortium for Research in Environmental and Occupational Health-MeKiTamara prospective cohort study. Associations between the latent chemical construct, non-chemical stressors and birth outcomes were assessed using path models. The results showed a significant direct relationship between perceived stress and birthweight (β = -0.17), however even though the relationship between perceived stress and depression was significant in all three path models (β = 0.61), the association between depression and birth outcomes was not significant. Perceived stress was significantly associated with community engagement (β = -0.12) and individual resilience (β = -0.12). BMI (β = 0.12) was also significantly directly associated with birthweight. The latent chemical construct did not show an association with the birth outcomes. Our data indicate the need for the development of a support system for pregnant women by involving them in prenatal care programs to reduce maternal stress, which may also influence depression and (in)directly improve the birth outcomes. Interventions regarding weight management for women of childbearing age are necessary to halt obesity and its negative effects on birth outcomes.