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Digital remediation increasingly plays a pivotal role in delivering political messages. This study examines postings of corporeally mediated tattoos in a China-based blog, focusing on in what sense blogs can provide a breathing or even emancipating space for Chinese tattoo wearers and enthusiasts to control the viewer’s perceptions of tattooing and negotiate long-standing stigmatized associations of tattoos there. The study analyzes 305 postings collected from the blog covering a period between 24 April 2020 and 3 May 2021, taking a quantitative approach. Methodologically, it first analyses the distribution of the signs across body parts as displayed. By applying multimodal perspectives, this study also investigates photographic techniques such as distance, angle, gaze, and modality harnessed and exploited for visual manipulation during digital remediation of turning body narratives into digital narratives. Findings of the study suggest that digital remediation facilitates personal expression of tattoo wearers and photographic techniques play a critical role in introducing ready alignment of the viewer with the postings. The study thus adds quantitative inquiries to existing, mostly qualitative, studies of tattoos which usually rest on interviews with tattoo wearers, enthusiasts, and artists for an account of tattoo narratives in connection to personal expression and self-definition. Its findings would be inspiring to socially stigmatized and marginalized groups to circumvent social, cultural, and political barriers to communicate and make their stories heard to more people.

The improper disposal of pesticide packaging wastes (PPW) has posed serious harm to the environment, including groundwater and soil pollution and even health concerns to the public. To address the environmental concerns and public health issues, there is a need to recycle the pesticides packaging waste (RPPW). Though small farmers in many developing countries have joined the cooperatives to reduce the production costs and increase the product premium, how these cooperatives improve farmers’ RPPW behaviors is still sparse. The current study used data collected from 725 apple farmers in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces of China to explore the phenomenon empirically. Recycling decisions and degree are used to portray the farmers’ RPPW behaviors. Firstly, the Logit model was used to analyze the effect of joining cooperatives on farmers’ recycling decisions. Further, to address the sample selection bias, the present study employed the propensity score matching (PSM) method for empirical analysis concerning the effect of joining cooperatives on farmers’ recycling degree. Results showed that joining cooperatives positively and significantly influences farmers’ recycling decisions. If farmers join a cooperative, the probability of the recycling decisions and degree will increase by 20.30% and 27.50%, respectively. Moreover, it is also found that some other factors such as education level, environmental and public health risk perception, peer effect, and relationship network also significantly influence farmers’ recycling decisions. Moreover, considering the differences in farmers’ gender, age, and educational attainment, the study unveiled the heterogeneous effects of joining cooperatives on farmers’ RPPW behaviors. The findings revealed that gender and age variables have noticeable masking effects while education level has a typical threshold effect. The overall findings provided insights for policymakers to emphasize the development of agricultural cooperatives, improve the risk and interest linkage mechanism, and build the RPPW system. These implications are also supportive for policymakers in other developing countries. RESUMO: O descarte inadequado de resíduos de embalagens de pesticidas (PPW) tem causado sérios danos ao meio ambiente, incluindo a poluição das águas subterrâneas e do solo e até mesmo problemas de saúde pública. Para abordar as preocupações ambientais e questões de saúde pública, há a necessidade de reciclar os resíduos de embalagens de pesticidas (RPPW). Embora pequenos agricultores, em muitos países em desenvolvimento, tenham se unido às cooperativas para reduzir os custos de produção e aumentar o prêmio do produto, ainda é escassa a forma como essas cooperativas melhoram os comportamentos de RPPW dos agricultores. O estudo atual usou dados coletados de 725 produtores de maçã nas províncias de Shaanxi e Gansu da China para explorar o fenômeno empiricamente. Decisões e grau de reciclagem são usados para retratar os comportamentos de RPPW dos agricultores. Primeiramente, o modelo Logit foi utilizado para analisar o efeito da adesão às cooperativas nas decisões de reciclagem dos agricultores. Além disso, para abordar o viés de seleção da amostra, o presente estudo empregou o método Propensity Score Matching (PSM) para análise empírica sobre o efeito da associação de cooperativas no grau de reciclagem dos agricultores. Os resultados mostraram que a adesão às cooperativas influencia positiva e significativamente as decisões de reciclagem dos agricultores. Se os agricultores aderirem a uma cooperativa, a probabilidade das decisões de reciclagem aumentará em 20,30%, e o grau de reciclagem aumentará em 27,50%. Além disso, também se constata que alguns outros fatores como nível de escolaridade, percepção de risco ambiental e de saúde pública, efeito de pares e rede de relacionamento também influenciam significativamente as decisões de reciclagem dos agricultores. Além disso, considerando as diferenças de gênero, idade e escolaridade dos agricultores, o estudo também revelou os efeitos heterogêneos da adesão às cooperativas sobre os comportamentos de RPPW dos agricultores. Os resultados revelaram que as variáveis de gênero e idade têm efeitos de mascaramento perceptíveis, enquanto o nível de escolaridade tem um efeito limiar típico. As descobertas gerais fornecem insights para os formuladores de políticas enfatizarem o desenvolvimento de cooperativas agrícolas, melhorar o mecanismo de vinculação de risco e interesse e construir o sistema RPPW. Essas implicações também são favoráveisaos formuladores de políticas em outros países em desenvolvimento.

Purpose Climatic changes caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions are an urgent challenge for all regions around the globe while the livestock sector is an important source of GHGs emissions. The adoption of low-carbon manure treatment technology (LMTT) by farmers is emerging as an effective remedy to neutralize the carbon emissions of livestock. This paper aims to incorporate environmental literacy and social norms into the analysis framework, with the aim of exploring the impact of environmental literacy and social norms on farmers' adoption of LMTT and finally reduce GHGs emission and climate effects. Design/methodology/approach This research survey is conducted in Hebei, Henan and Hubei provinces of China. First, this research measures environmental literacy from environmental cognition, skill and responsibility and describes social norms from descriptive and imperative social norms. Second, this paper explores the influence of environmental literacy and social norms on the adoption of LMTT by farmers using the logit model. Third, Logit model's instrumental approach, i.e. IV-Logit, is applied to address the simultaneous biases between environmental skill and farmers’ LMTT adoption. Finally, the research used a moderating model to analyze feasible paths of environmental literacy and social norms that impact the adoption of LMTT by farmers. Findings The results showed that environmental literacy and social norms significantly and positively affect the adoption of LMTT by farmers. In particular, the effects of environmental literacy on the adoption of LMTT by farmers are mainly contributed by environmental skill and responsibility. The enhancement of social norms on the adoption of LMTT by farmers is mainly due to the leading role of imperative social norms. Meanwhile, if the endogeneity caused by the reverse effect between environmental skill and farmers’ LMTT adoption is dealt with, the role of environmental skill will be weakened. Additionally, LMTT technologies consist of energy and resource technologies. Compared to energy technology, social norms have a more substantial moderating effect on environmental literacy, affecting the adoption of farmer resource technology. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, a novel attempt is made to examine the effects of environmental literacy and social norms on the adoption of LMTT by farmers, with the objective of identifying more effective factors to increase the intensity of LMTT adoption by farmers.

The identity of a city matters in a global age. This article explores the discursive construction of the global city’s identity in relation to semiotic landscape, using the construction of Shanghai...

In this study, switchable hydrophilic solvent-based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography was developed for the determination of four sulfonylurea herbicides in soils. For the first time, the sample pretreatment was achieved due to the similar acid-base status of sulfonylurea herbicides and switchable hydrophilic solvent. In the extraction step, sulfonylurea herbicides were extracted as anions and transferred to an alkaline solution with switchable hydrophilic solvent anions. In the concentration step, two types of anions were transformed to their molecular state after the aqueous solution was acidified. In addition, the dispersion and microextraction processes were completed efficiently with the simultaneous formation of analytes and extractants. The factors affecting the extraction performance were optimized. Under the optimized conditions, good linearity was observed for each herbicide with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.9952 to 0.9978. The limits of detection were in the range of 0.1-0.2 μg/g. Moreover, the relative recoveries of the sulfonylurea herbicides at spiking levels of 0.5, 1, and 1.5 μg/g in soil samples were between 75 and 111% (relative standard deviations: 0.4-11.4%). Therefore, the proposed method in this study could be successfully applied to the analysis of four types of sulfonylurea herbicides in soil samples.

Group creation is the process by which group members collaborate to produce novel and useful ideas or products, including ideas generation and evaluation. However, the interpersonal neural mechanism of group creation during natural communication remains unclear. In this study, two groups of same-sex dyads with similar individual creativity collaborated to complete the Product Improvement Task (creative condition) and the Item Purchase Plan Task (control condition), respectively. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to record both members' neural activity in the left prefrontal (lPFC) and right temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ) regions during the task. Considering that the role asymmetry of group members may have an impact on interpersonal neural patterns, we identified leaders and followers in the dyads based on participant performance. The results showed that leaders and followers in the creative condition had significantly lower interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) in the right superior temporal gyrus-left superior frontal gyrus, right supramarginal gyrus-left superior frontal gyrus, and right supramarginal gyrus-left middle frontal gyrus than in the control condition. Partial multivariate Granger causality analyses revealed the influence between dyads was bidirectional but was significantly stronger from the leaders to the followers than the other direction. In addition, in the creative task, the INS was significantly associated with novelty, appropriateness, and conflict of views. All these findings suggest that the ideas generation and ideas evaluation process in group creation have poor interpersonal neural activity coupling due to factors such as the difficulty of understanding novel ideas. However, performances may be improved when groups can better integrate views and reach collective understanding, intentions, and goals. Furthermore, we found that there are differences in the dynamics of INS in different brain regions. The INS related to the novelty of the group creation decreased in the early stages, while the INS related to the appropriateness decreased in the middle stages. Our findings reveal a unique interpersonal neural pattern of group creation processes in the context of natural communication.

Individual creativity support systems (ICSSs) increase idea generation by providing external stimuli, such as relevant words. However, it is not clear how different elements of ICSS design affect h...

In recent years, more and more interest has been focused on the on-site sample preparation. Dispersive liquid–liquid microextractions without centrifugation or toxic organic solvent were developed ...

This paper examines within the theoretical framework of intertextuality the mobilization of glocalization as an international marketing strategy in Nike’s and Adidas’s 2008 advertising campaigns in China. Intertextuality is seen as a form of mediation through which the glocalization strategy conducted within the domain of global marking is taken up in the domain of advertising communication. The paper also assumes the interrelations of intertextual performance to value orientations and group affiliations. By analyzing intertextuality in relation to affinity groups, it aims to resolve to some extent the conundrum of Nike’s more successful than Adidas in the sportswear market of China in a social-semiotic perspective. Two print ads constituting a representative example of the corpus were selected for a qualitative analysis. The comparative analysis of intertextuality reveals the contrasting methods of glocalization applied by Nike and Adidas in their 2008 advertising campaigns, thus offering an explanation for Nike’s triumph in competition with Adidas in China.

Ovarian cancer is regarded as the most lethal gynecologic malignancy with poor prognosis and high mortality rate. Drug-resistance was thought to be the main obstacle to improving overall survival rate of ovarian cancer. New ligands for drug-resistant ovarian cancer cells have potential for the development of diagnosis and therapy of ovarian cancer. In present work, we reported two aptamers, HF3-58 and HA5-68 generated by cell-SELEX, against a paclitaxel-resistant ovarian cancer cell line (A2780T). Both two aptamers exhibited high selectivity and strong affinity to target cells with low nanomolar dissociation constants. The binding of aptamers to target cells was independent of divalent ions, and was tolerant of incubation temperature and nucleases in serum. Molecular targets of the two aptamers were preliminarily demonstrated to be two different glycoproteins on cell surface of A2780T cells. Owing to the structure stability and high resistance to nuclease, these two aptamers had good performance in the detection of drug-resistant ovarian cancer cells in human serum.

Chemical protection is one of the most important methods to control forest pests. Since pesticides used in chemical protection might have significant adverse effects on aquatic organisms, it is essential to monitor and detect trace pesticides in environmental water. In this study, an on-site natural deep eutectic solvent-based multiple air-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-electron capture detection was developed for determining triadimefon, bifenthrin, bromopropylate, and permethrin in water samples in the forest. A series of menthol-based deep eutectic solvents were synthesized for the first time to find green and efficient extractants. Moreover, a deep eutectic solvent with a 1:2 molar ratio of DL-menthol to citric acid was selected as the extractant due to its high stability and extraction performance. A portable modular array device based on air-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction was designed and manufactured to enable the simultaneous pretreatment of several samples. Although no electric equipment is required throughout the process, up to six samples were pretreated on-site within 20 min. Moreover, the average sample pretreatment time was less than 3.5 min, and the process was substantially simplified and enhanced. In addition, the parameters affecting the extraction performance were optimized. The extraction recoveries were in the range of 92-95% by using the optimized conditions, and the relative standard deviations of the intra-device, inter-device, intra-day, and inter-day factors were all less than 4.9%. The detection limits of the method ranged from 0.34 to 3.3 µg L

Internet language is a creative product of the rapid development of computer-mediated communication. The present study was to investigate whether the use of Internet language enhances creative problem solving. In Study 1, sixty-two selected participants were equally divided into two groups according to their use experience of Chinese Internet language, and then both more and less experienced groups were asked to complete Chinese remote associates test and Chinese chengyu riddles. Results showed that the more experienced group performed significantly better in both the creative tasks. In Study 2, forty-six participants were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group was asked to learn Chinese Internet Language, while the control group was asked to learn scientific terminology. Two groups completed the aforementioned creative tasks in pretest and post-test. Results showed that the interaction between the group and test order was significant in Chinese chengyu riddle solving, in which the experimental group had a significantly higher average score in post-test than pretest. And there was no difference for the control group. These findings supported that Internet language use benefited creative problem solving, and it might be a convenient way in the practice of promoting creativity.

A refractory phosphate ore obtained from Guizhou, China, contains high amounts of detrimental metal impurities (e.g., Fe, Al, and Mg) which affect the deep wet processing of phosphorus products before use. In this study, mineralogy parameters of the ore such as mineral composition, disseminated particle size, mineral liberation degree, and intergrowth relationship were investigated using X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF), X-ray powder diffractometer (XRD), and advanced mineral identification and characterization system (AMICS). The mechanism for flotation separation was also discussed. The results showed that the ore was a fine-grained calcareous-siliceous collophanite with high P2O5 grade. The gangue minerals such as quartz, sericite (muscovite), pyrite, and dolomite were finely disseminated and encapsulated by fluoroapatite particles in a rather complex relationship. A double reverse flotation process was carried out based on the separation principle of less flotation and more inhibition. A phosphorous concentrate with a P2O5 grade of 35.53%, SiO2 content of 5.88%, MgO content of 0.91%, sesquioxide (Fe2O3 + Al2O3) content of 1.98%, MER value of 8.13%, and phosphorus recovery of 75.04% was obtained. Based on the flotation test results and the analysis of process mineralogy parameters, we concluded that the main causes of difficulty in separation of collophanite are fine disseminated particle size, poor mineral liberation degree, and serious argillization. The selection of foam-controlled collectors, efficient dispersing inhibitors and classified desliming process will be necessary for improving flotation index. These results provide a technical reference for subsequent development and utilization of collophanite resources.

The integration of text and picture is the core of multimedia information processing. Relevant theories suggest that text and picture are processed through different channels in the early stage, and integrated in the late stage of processing. Based on these theories, the current study adopted measures of event-related potentials to examine the cognitive and neural processes of text-picture integration. The results showed that in the early stage of text-picture integration, picture processing evoked a more negative N1 over the occipital area and a N300 over the prefrontal area, which might reflect the discrimination process of visual stimuli and the imagery representation of the picture, respectively; in the late stage, the text-picture induced a N400 in the central area and an LPC over the central, parietal and temporal areas, which might be associated with the semantic activation and integration of text and picture, respectively. These results not only provide support for existing theories, but also further elucidate the dynamic neural processing of text-picture integration in terms of its temporal and spatial characteristics.

This paper uses DEA-Malmquist index to study the total factor productivity (TFP) of nine listed agricultural leading enterprises in Hunan Province. The results show that: from the static productivity evaluation results between 2012 and 2017, the overall productivity of listed agricultural leading enterprises still needs to be improved, including Jiajia Group Co., Ltd., Hunan Hunan Zhenghong Science and Technology Develop Co., Ltd., JinJian Cereals Industry Co., Ltd., Kemen Noodle Manufacturing Co., Ltd., The average production efficiency of Hunan New Wellful Co., Ltd. and Dahu Aquaculture Co., Ltd. is less than 1, so the input and output should be optimized. From the dynamic analysis of DEA-Malmquist index model, the scale efficiency of JinJian Cereals Industry Co., Ltd. is less than 1, which needs to be adjusted. The total factor productivity of Hunan Hunan Zhenghong Science and Technology Develop Co., Ltd., Zhu Zhou Qian Jin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Dahu Aquaculture Co., Ltd., Hunan New Wellful Co., Ltd. is greatly affected by technological progress. These enterprises need to increase investment in new technologies. Enterprises such as Jiajia Group Co., Ltd. And Kemen Noodle Manufacturing Co., Ltd. are not enough in technology input and scale optimization. They should not only innovate technology, but also adjust enterprise scale, optimize input-output allocation and enhance total factor productivity.

A novel effervescent tablet-assisted switchable hydrophilicity solvent-based on-site dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with gas chromatography detection has been developed to determine five pyrethroid insecticides in environmental water samples. In this method, effervescent tablets contain effervescent precursors and extractants, which play a dual role of dispersion and extraction. After effervescence reaction, the formation of extractant and the extraction of analytes were accomplished simultaneously. Phase separation were carried by filtration using homemade filter column, which of filter is oil-absorbing cotton polypropylene. After phase separation, the extractant phase were obtained by elution. No electric instrument was required in sample pre-treatment step in the developed method. Experimental conditions affecting the extraction efficiencies have been optimized, such as type and amount of extractant, type of effervescent tablets, etc. Under the optimized conditions, the linearity was 5-500μg L-1, with coefficients greater than 0.9990. The limit of detection and the limit of quantitation were in the range of 0.22-1.88μg L-1 and 0.75-6.25μg L-1. The relative standard deviations ranged from 0.8% to 6.1%. The enrichment factors were in the range of 65-108. This method was successfully applied to the on-site processing of tap, reservoir and river water.

Adult-onset inherited myopathies with similar pathological features, including hereditary inclusion body myopathy (hIBM) and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD), are a genetically heterogeneous group of muscle diseases. It is unclear whether these inherited myopathies initiated by mutations in distinct classes of genes are etiologically related. Here, we exploit a genetic model system to establish a mechanistic link between diseases caused by mutations in two distinct genes, hnRNPA2B1 and DNAJB6. Hrb98DE and mrj are the Drosophila melanogaster homologs of human hnRNPA2B1 and DNAJB6, respectively. We introduced disease-homologous mutations to Hrb98DE, thus capturing mutation-dependent phenotypes in a genetically tractable model system. Ectopic expression of the disease-associated mutant form of hnRNPA2B1 or Hrb98DE in fly muscle resulted in progressive, age-dependent cytoplasmic inclusion pathology, as observed in humans with hnRNPA2B1-related myopathy. Cytoplasmic inclusions consisted of hnRNPA2B1 or Hrb98DE protein in association with the stress granule marker ROX8 and additional endogenous RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), suggesting that these pathological inclusions are related to stress granules. Notably, TDP-43 was also recruited to these cytoplasmic inclusions. Remarkably, overexpression of MRJ rescued this phenotype and suppressed the formation of cytoplasmic inclusions, whereas reduction of endogenous MRJ by a classical loss of function allele enhanced it. Moreover, wild-type, but not disease-associated, mutant forms of MRJ interacted with RBPs after heat shock and prevented their accumulation in aggregates. These results indicate both genetic and physical interactions between disease-linked RBPs and DNAJB6/mrj, suggesting etiologic overlap between the pathogenesis of hIBM and LGMD initiated by mutations in hnRNPA2B1 and DNAJB6.

A novel and simple method for effervescence-assisted dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction based on the solidification of a floating ionic liquid using a special collection method combined with high-performance liquid chromatography is developed for the determination of four benzoylureas in water samples. In this method, the ionic liquid (IL), trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium tetrafluoroborate, is used rather than organic drops, which have limitations, as the extraction solvent for the first time in dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction based on the solidification of floating organic drops (DLLME-SFO). Due to the high viscosity of the IL, it can be quickly collected in the lid of the centrifuge tube after solidification, which combines the advantages of both dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction and liquid phase microextraction based on the solidification of a floating IL. Furthermore, effervescence is used to disperse the IL, thereby avoiding the use of an organic dispersant. The influence of various experimental factors, such as the form of the effervescent material, IL quantity, base to acid ratio in the effervescent tablet, weight ratio of IL to effervescent tablet, ultrasonication time, centrifugation time, extraction temperature, sample pH, extraction time and salt addition, are optimized using a central composite design and the one-factor-at-a-time approach. Under the optimal conditions, good linearity was obtained for the four BUs from 2 to 500 μg L−1, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.9994 to 0.9995. The recoveries were 90.2–100.2% with relative standard deviations ranging from 1.3–4.4%. The limits of detection for the analytes were between 0.77 to 1.58 μg L−1, and the enrichment factors ranged from 206 to 228. Additionally, this method was successfully applied for the determination of four BUs in real water samples.

A novel liquid phase microextraction method based on the solidification of floated ionic liquids (SFIL-LPME) was developed to determine four phthalate esters (diethyl phthalate, diallyl phthalate, benzyl butyl phthalate, and dicyclohexyl phthalate) in environmental waters and bottle beverages and subsequently separate them using high-performance liquid chromatography. In this work, we customized a tributyldodecylphosphonium tetrafluoroborate ([P4 4 4 12][BF4]) ionic liquid (IL) to obtain a low density such that it can be solidified at a low temperature, and then used as an extraction solvent in liquid-phase microextraction based on the solidification of floated organic drops (SFO-LPME). This means that more potential ILs can be customized to broaden extraction solvents in SFO-LPME. To identify the significant factors that affect extraction efficiency, parameters such as the volume of [P4 4 4 12][BF4], the extraction time, the rotation speed, the extraction temperature and the ionic strength were optimized using a Plackett–Burman design. A central composite design was then used to optimize the identified significant factors to study the effect of interactions on the experiment. Under these optimized conditions, the extraction recoveries of the four phthalate esters in water samples ranged from 73.0 to 94.6% and in bottled beverage were from 70.2 to 101.3%, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) ranging from 0.6 to 8.2% and 0.6 to 7.8%. Good linearity for both water samples and bottled beverages were obtained in the range of 5–500 μg L−1, with correlation coefficients greater than 0.9993. The limits of detection for the four phthalate esters varied from 0.27 to 1.1 μg L−1 for water samples and 1.22 to 2.36 μg L−1 for bottled beverages. The two developed methods were then successfully applied to the determination of phthalate esters in environmental waters and bottled beverages.