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Empathy and altruistic behavior are more crucial abilities for pre-service teachers to possess when compared with other study fields. The relationship between empathy and altruistic behavior in Chinese pre-service teachers and their underlying mechanisms, however, has received relatively little attention in the literature. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to examine the links between study fields (i.e., pre-service teachers whose study field is pedagogy and non-pre-service teachers whose study field is non-pedagogy), self-control, emotional empathy (i.e., empathic concern), and altruistic preferences among undergraduates and graduates in five Chinese universities (the age range of participants is 18–20 years; 58.4% women) with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index-C Questionnaire, the Self-Control Scale, and the Chinese Self-Report Altruism Scale tests. The results showed a significant difference between pre-service and non-pre-service teachers in empathic concern and self-control. Furthermore, empathic concern and altruistic behavior tendency of pre-service teachers were significantly higher than those of non-pre-service teachers. Moreover, mediation analyses indicated that empathic concern partially mediated the relationship between study fields and altruistic tendency. Moderated mediation analysis further revealed that self-control buffered the relation between empathic concern and altruistic behavior tendency. These results demonstrate that altruistic tendency of pre-service teachers is influenced by empathic concern and self-control.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the key receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, the susceptibility of the decidua to infection during the peripartum period has not been explored, even though this may affect vertical transmission. The objective of this study was to investigate the expression of ACE2 and related genes in the decidua during delivery. Here, single-cell RNA sequencing was used to characterize the transcriptomes of decidual cells before and after the onset of labor. During the peripartum period, ACE2 expression was highly heterogeneous. ACE2 was expressed principally in decidual stromal cells, uterine smooth muscle cells, and extravillous trophoblasts. Comparison of the transcriptomes of ACE2-positive and ACE2-negative cells indicated that ACE2-positive cells exhibited integrin clusters on the cell surface interactions. ACE2-positive cells were compared before and after labor onset. After delivery, the number of ACE2-positive cells was slightly higher than before delivery. Before labor onset, ACE2-positive decidual stromal cells were in the regulation of membrane protein ectodomain proteolysis cluster. After labor onset, the upregulated genes changed to include cell junction assembly genes. The susceptibility of decidual cells to SARS-CoV-2 infection is thus heterogeneous during the peripartum period.

Visual attention and visual working memory (VWM) are two major cognitive functions in humans, and they have much in common. A growing body of research has investigated the effect of emotional information on visual attention and VWM. Interestingly, contradictory findings have supported both a negative bias and a positive bias toward emotional faces (e.g., angry faces or happy faces) in the attention and VWM fields. We found that the classical paradigms—that is, the visual search paradigm in attention and the change detection paradigm in VWM—are considerably similar. The settings of these paradigms could therefore be responsible for the contradictory results. In this paper, we compare previous controversial results from behavioral and neuroscience studies using these two paradigms. We suggest three possible contributing factors that have significant impacts on the contradictory conclusions regarding different emotional bias effects; these factors are stimulus choice, experimental setting, and cognitive process. We also propose new research directions and guidelines for future studies.

An efficient adsorbent, activated carbon fiber felt (ACFF), was used to study the mechanism and influence factors of the Cr(VI) adsorption under electrochemical environment. Physicochemical properties of original ACFF were characterized by N 2 adsorption/desorption analysis; scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to analyze the properties of saturated ACFF (ACFF–Cr). Batch adsorption experiments were conducted under different electric field, ionic strength and initial pH values to evaluate the adsorption performance of ACFF towards the removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution. The concentration of total Cr in the aqueous solution was also recorded to study the mechanism of adsorption and regeneration. In-situ regeneration and readsorption experiments were also conducted. The reduction percentage of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) onto the adsorbent was confirmed by the XPS analysis results. The adsorption of Cr(VI) onto ACFF performed best under appropriate pH (pH = 4), ionic strength (1 g/L NaCl) and electrochemical (5 V voltage) environment. Electrochemical regeneration ratio can be up to 100% under suitable condition (1 g/L NaCl, 5 V of voltage). Results showed that the integration technology of electrochemical adsorption and regeneration of ACFF performed well on the treatment of water containing Cr(VI).

Cultural heritages of smaller cultural and minority groups are threatened by modernization and the spread of dominant cultures. As an important part of human intangible cultural heritage, folk performance of song and dance reflects the deep spirit of ethnic groups in a special way because it combines cognition and emotion. However, with the pace of modern culture, more and more folk performance of song and dance is endangered.

Er3+ and Yb3+ ions codoped calcium aluminum germanate glass has been synthesized by solid-state reaction. An intense infrared emission at 1534 nm, which corresponds to the minimum losses of silica based fibers used in optical communications, and visible emissions at 416, 490, 525, 548, and 660 nm, corresponding to the 4I13/2→4I15/2, 2H9/2→4I15/2, 4F7/2→4I15/2, 2H11/2→4I15/2, 4S3/2→4I15/2, and 4F9/2→4I15/2 transitions of Er3+ ions, respectively, were simultaneously observed in this glass under the excitation of a 978 nm diode laser at room temperature. These emissions are mainly attributed to energy transfer from Yb3+ ions to Er3+ ions. The up-conversion processes involve a sequential two-photon absorption for the red (660 nm), the green emissions (525 and 548 nm) and the blue emission (490 nm), and a sequential three-photon absorption for the violet-bluish emission (416 nm). The up-conversion fluorescence of Ca3Al2Ge3O12:Er,Yb glass can be used to detect 980 nm infrared laser light.

In this work, erbium-doped calcium aluminum silicate (CAS) glass has been synthesized by solid-state reaction. Intense emission at 1534 nm, corresponding to the 4 I 13/2 → 4 I 15/2 transition of the Er 3+ ion, was observed upon both 488 nm Ar + laser and 978 nm diode laser excitations at room temperature. The luminescence mechanisms in the glass are discussed. These results indicate this glass is a promising laser material with its high chemical durability and thermal stability.

Ce 3+ - and Tb 3+ -doped rare earth borate glasses were synthesized and their luminescence properties have been studied. The sample containing Ce 3+ ions has a strong purplish-blue emission and that doped with Tb 3+ emits a green light under UV excitation. The Ce 3+ ions in the host form two kinds of emission centers, owing to different lattice sites occupied by Ce 3+ in the host glass. In the Ce 3+ and Tb 3+ co-activated samples the Ce 3+ ions strongly sensitize the luminescence of the Tb 3+ ions.

Background: Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)), a pulmonary carcinogen, can present as both soluble and insoluble forms in environment, which may have different toxicities. It is thus important to separa...

Ce 3+ - and Tb 3+ -doped rare earth borate glasses were synthesized and their luminescence properties have been studied. The sample containing Ce 3+ ions has a strong purplish-blue emission and that doped with Tb 3+ emits a green light under UV excitation. The Ce 3+ ions in the host form two kinds of emission centers, owing to different lattice sites occupied by Ce 3+ in the host glass. In the Ce 3+ and Tb 3+ co-activated samples the Ce 3+ ions strongly sensitize the luminescence of the Tb 3+ ions.

In this work, a promising solid-state laser material, Er-doped cadmium aluminum silicate glass, has been synthesized by solid-state reaction. Very intense emission at 1534 nm, corresponding to the 4I13/2→4I15/2 transition of Er3+ ions, was observed upon both 488 nm Ar+ laser and 632.8 nm He–Ne laser excitations at room temperature. Possible cross-relaxation processes in the glass are discussed.

An efficient purplish–blue phosphor Ca3MgSi2O8:Ce3+ has been synthesized. The emission and excitation spectra of the Ce3+ ions in Ca3MgSi2O8 at 298 and 77 K indicate that there are two kinds of Ce3+ emission centers. According to the analysis of the crystal structure of the host and the spectral properties, we have demonstrated that the two kinds of emission centers correspond to Ce3+ substituting into two different octa-coordinated Ca2+ sites in the host, respectively.

The overall goal of this study was to develop a sensitive and reliable method for the measurement of ambient airborne Cr(VI) by systematically evaluating and optimizing the sampling, sample processing and analytical processes.