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The primary objective of this two-wave longitudinal study was to determine whether peer status or negative cognition could account for the well-established relationships between peer victimization and school burnout. In total, 655 students from two junior high schools (Mage = 12.7 years) were assessed at two time points over a 12-month interval. Baseline measures included self-reported and peer-nominated peer victimization, self-reported negative cognition and school burnout, and peer-nominated peer status. After one year, school burnout was again measured. Using a longitudinal mediating model, it was found that adolescents who perceived peer victimization at baseline were more likely to experience school burnout one year later owing to increased elevated negative cognition (mediation effect β = 0.09, 95% bias-corrected bootstrap = [0.06–0.14]). This effect was also moderated by peer status, such that among adolescents with lower peer status, baseline peer victimization was associated with significantly higher rates of school burnout after 12 months (β = 0.22, p <.01), whereas the same was not true for those with high peer status. The current study will help educators better understand the potential mechanism by which they could alleviate adolescent student school burnout by reducing the cognitive bias of bullied adolescents with poor peer status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instant Messaging (IM) has become one of the most ubiquitous communication technologies worldwide. However, why IM has become popular and whether it is different for people with distinct interpersonal interaction characteristics remain unclear. This study attempts to explain the relations between adolescents' attachment styles and IM use by testing the mediating role of online interpersonal needs. Participants were 2245 adolescents from four Chinese junior high schools. Structural equation modeling results indicated that adolescents with higher attachment anxiety used IM more intensively, while those with higher attachment avoidance had lower levels of IM use intensity. Additionally, these links were mediated by online interpersonal needs that higher anxiously attached adolescents' more IM use was due to their more online interpersonal needs, and that higher avoidant adolescents' less IM use was accounted for by their less online interpersonal needs. These findings suggest that psychological needs offer an effective lens for understanding why IM has become popular and how it is different for people with distinct interpersonal interaction characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Off-time pubertal timing has been linked to an increased risk of adolescent depressive symptoms, but the mechanisms underlying these associations are not well understood, particularly in a Chinese context. This three-wave longitudinal study investigated whether the relations between pubertal timing and depressive symptoms were through sadness rumination, and conditional on parental solicitation, for both Chinese girls and boys. Surveys were administered to adolescents and their parents across three measurement occasions, one year apart. Nine-hundred and fifty Chinese adolescents (56.63% boys; Mage = 13.18, SD = 0.66 at baseline) reported their depressive symptoms and sadness rumination, and one of their parents (61.70% mothers) reported their children's pubertal timing and parental solicitation. Results indicated that early pubertal timing at baseline would increase girls' (but not boys') depressive symptoms two years later via elevated sadness rumination. Furthermore, it was found that when parental solicitation was higher, this indirect effect was no longer significant. These findings suggest that early maturation is a potential risk factor for adolescent girls' depressive symptoms, while high parental solicitation appears to buffer this pubertal risk through attenuating sadness rumination. Thus, early maturing girls would benefit from developing healthier cognitive strategies, parental initiative communications with them, or adequate sex education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current two-wave longitudinal study sought to shed light on the well-established link between parental warm support and academic achievement by testing the potential mediating role of self-control and the moderating role of teacher emotional support among Chinese adolescents. 2569 Chinese students (45.22% girls; Mage = 13.27, SD = 0.67 at baseline) completed self-reported measures at two time points, one year apart. The findings indicated that adolescents with higher parental warm support at baseline tended to have higher academic achievement one year later. Moreover, this link was mediated by self-control that parental warm support would heighten adolescents' self-control, and in turn increase their academic achievement one year later. Additionally, it was found that when teacher emotional support was higher, parental warmth support at baseline would heighten more academic achievement one year later through self-control. The findings illustrate the value of integrating parents and teachers' support in adolescent development, which helps them establish better personality traits as high self-control to improve academic achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The healthy context paradox indicates that in "healthy" contexts, with lower bullying or victimization norms, victimization experiences would unexpectedly exacerbate adolescents' adjustment difficulties, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, particularly from the clique perspective. The current 2-year longitudinal multilevel study attempts to examine the conditional effects of both clique structure (i.e., status hierarchy) and clique norms (i.e., aggression norms) on the relationship between individual victimization and aggressive behavior. The sample consisted of 691 Chinese junior high school students (Mage = 12.74, SD = 0.43; 55.6% boys), who were identified to belong to 153 cliques with sizes varying from 3 to 12 students (Msize = 5.08, SD = 1.89), according to the social cognitive map. Participants completed peer-nominated measures at two time points, two years apart. The multilevel models revealed that it was in less hierarchical cliques with lower aggression that victimized adolescents would exhibit more relational forms of aggression (rather than overt forms) two years later. More intriguingly, contrary results were found in all-girls cliques and all-boys cliques. Specifically, victimized girls' overt and relational aggression was higher in cliques with less hierarchy and lower aggression, whereas, in cliques with more hierarchy and higher aggression, victimized boys' relational aggression was higher, which conforms to the healthy context paradox and the peer contagion hypothesis, respectively. These findings highlight that egalitarian cliques with low aggression would promote aggressive behavior of victimized adolescents, especially for girls rather than for boys, which in turn has crucial implications for anti-bullying interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to examine the effect of multiple domains of self-efficacy on the relationship between shyness and subjective well-being among Chinese adolescents. A sample of 763 Chinese adolescents (M = 14.77 years old, SD = 1.63; 55% boys) completed the Shyness Scale, the Social Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, the Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, and the Subjective Well-Being Scale. Structural equation model analysis showed that both regulatory emotional self-efficacy and social self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between shyness and subjective well-being. Moreover, shyness negatively influenced subjective well-being through the chain of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and social self-efficacy. Overall, the findings supported the multiple mediating roles of self-efficacy beliefs between shyness and subjective well-being, which enhanced our understanding of how self-efficacy beliefs impact shy youths' subjective well-being in China. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed. Highlights: Shyness was negatively associated with subjective well-being in Chinese adolescents. Both regulatory emotional self-efficacy and social self-efficacy partially mediated the effect of shyness on subjective well-being. Regulatory emotional self-efficacy and social self-efficacy played a chain-mediating role between shyness and subjective well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vanadium compounds maintain euglycemic effects in diabetic rats long after drug withdrawal and bis(α-furancarboxylato)oxovanadium(IV) (BFOV) possesses potent antidiabetic effects in diabetic rats. Here, we investigated the treatment and posttreatment effects of BFOV in diabetic Kuo Kondo [, ] with Ay gene (KKAy) mice, and whether these effects were associated with changes in matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). KKAy mice received normal saline or BFOV initially at 70 μmol/kg/day for 1 month, which was tapered to 17 μmol/kg/day in the next 2 months and discontinued thereafter. Compared to diabetic controls, fasting plasma glucose (FPG) was reduced by 46 and 19 % in KKAy mice after 70 μmol/kg BFOV for 1 month and 3 months after BFOV withdrawal, respectively. OGTT and ITT showed improved glucose tolerance and a better response of FPG to insulin with a significant decrease in HOMA-IR and a marked rise in the insulin sensitivity index after 70 μmol/kg BFOV for 1 month and 4 months after BFOV withdrawal ( P <0.05 in all vs. diabetic controls). BFOV treatment resulted in a moderate but significant reduction in body weight and systolic blood pressure (SBP) at 1 month of treatment and 4 months following BFOV withdrawal ( P <0.05 in all vs. diabetic controls). Gelatin zymography showed that serum MMP2 activity was significantly reduced and immunoblotting assays further showed that MMP2 expression was markedly downregulated in the liver after 1 month of treatment with 70 μmol/kg and 4 months after BFOV withdrawal ( P <0.05 in all vs. diabetic controls). These results suggested that BFOV possessed potent treatment and posttreatment effects in KKAy mice with improved metabolic profile and reduced body weight and SBP. Furthermore, these effects were associated with decreased MMP2 expression and activity in diabetic KKAy mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of peer clique school burnout norms on adolescents’ emotional adaptation is becoming increasingly prominent, but its underlying mechanisms remain unclear, especially in China where academic achievement is highly valued. The present study examined how clique burnout norms impact the relationship between school burnout, negative cognitive bias, and depressive symptoms. A total of 904 Chinese adolescents (57% boys; Mage = 12.73, SD = 0.43) participated in a two-wave longitudinal study (initiated in 2015, with approximately a 2-year interval). The results of multilevel models indicated that only in low clique burnout norms, adolescents with high school burnout at T1 would exhibit more negative cognitive bias and suffer from more depressive symptoms at T2, whereas the moderating effect was only observed in all-boys cliques. These findings reflect that a decrease in the overall level of burnout within a peer clique does not necessarily benefit every student, and the adaptation issues of students experiencing burnout still require attention even in a relatively healthy context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sn-doped gallium oxide (GaO:Sn) films were deposited on β-GaO (100) substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition method. The Sn concentration was varied from 1 to 12 % (atomic ratio). The influences of Sn-doping concentration on structure, raman, and photoelectric properties of the films were investigated in detail. The obtained films were monoclinic β-GaO homoepitaxial films. A decrease of about eight orders of magnitude in the film resistivity could be achieved through Sn doping. The 10 % Sn-doped film exhibited the best electrical properties and the lowest resistivity of about 1.20 × 10 Ω cm, with the hall mobility value of 12.03 cm V sobtained. The average transmittances of the β-GaO: Sn films in the visible and UV wavelength ranges were all over 85 %. The optical band gap of the films with different Sn-doping concentrations could be modulated from 4.16 to 4.69 eV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gold-rhenium (AuRe) composite nanoparticle was prepared by NaBH reduction procedure, and was modified by the aptamer to obtain an AuRe nanoprobe (AuRessDNA) for thrombin. In pH 7.0 Tris-HCl buffer solution and in the presence of salt, the nanoprobe specifically combined with thrombin to form AuRe-aptamer-thrombin cluster that resulted in the resonance scattering intensity ( I) increasing at 560 nm. The increased intensity Δ I was linear to the thrombin concentration in the range of 0.115-6.93 nmol/L, with a regression equation of Δ I = 53.0 C + 2.5, a correlation coefficient of 0.9989, and a detection limit of 13 pmol/L. This method was applied to detect thrombin in human plasma samples, with satisfactory results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]