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Hyperlipidemia is a risk factor for stroke, and worsens neurological outcome after stroke. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), which become dysfunctional in cerebral ischemia, hold capacity to promote revascularization. We investigated the role of dyslipidemia in impairment of EPC-mediated angiogenesis in cerebral ischemic mice. The high fat diet (HFD)-fed mice following by ischemic stroke exhibited increased infarct volumes and neurological severity scores, and poorer angiogenesis. Bone marrow-EPCs treated with palmitic acid (PA) showed impaired functions and inhibited activity of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Notably, AMPK deficiency aggravated EPC dysfunction, further decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, and increased reactive oxygen species level in EPCs with PA treatment. Furthermore, the expression of fatty acid oxidation (FAO)-related genes was remarkably reduced, and carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A (CPT1A) protein expression was downregulated in AMPK-deficient EPCs. AMPK deficiency aggravated neurological severity scores and angiogenesis in ischemic brain of HFD-fed mice, accompanied by suppressed protein level of CPT1A. EPC transplantation corrected impaired neurological severity scores and angiogenesis in AMPK-deficient mice. Our findings suggest that AMPK deficiency aggravates poor angiogenesis in ischemic brain by mediating FAO and oxidative stress thereby inducing EPC dysfunction in hyperlipidemic mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two previously undescribed iridoid glycosides, 6'-O-trans-feruloyl-(4S,6R)-3,4-dihydro-3β-ethoxypaederoside (1) and 6'-O-trans-caffeoyl-(4S,6R)-3,4-dihydro-2'-O-3α-paederoside (2), were isolated from the 90% EtOH extract of the air dried aerial parts of Paederia Foetida. Structural elucidation of all the compounds was performed by spectral methods such as 1D and 2D (1H-1H COSY, HMQC, and HMBC) NMR spectroscopy. The two isolated iridoid glycosides were tested in vivo for their antinociceptive properties. As a result, 2 showed potent antinociceptive effect and its ID50 value (53.4 μmol/kg) was 2-fold less than those of the positive control drugs aspirin and acetaminophen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the number of operator errors, task completion time, and workload of subjects at different levels by imposing conditions such as focused text boldness, noise disturbance, and time pressure to simulate a realistic cloud change business process in the laboratory. Results of the study showed that the text bolding of important content reduced the number of errors, whereas noise interference increased the number of errors. Text boldness only reduced the number of corrected errors, and noise interference only increased the number of uncorrected errors. Moreover, bolding was found to have different effects on the number of errors under different noise levels and time pressure levels, with text boldness significantly reducing the number of total errors only in quiet or low time pressure states. Time pressure had no effect on cloud change task error counts, but high time pressure resulted in higher subjective workload. Practitioner Summary: Operator error is one of the main causes of service failure, and reducing operator error in cloud change operations is of practical importance. In this study, we found focused text boldness could reduce operator errors, while noise could increase the number of errors. High time pressure would lead to a high workload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This fMRI study explored the relationship between social interactions and neural representations of emotionality in a foreign language (LX). Forty-five late learners of Japanese performed an auditory Japanese lexical decision task involving positive and negative words. The intensity of their social interactions with native Japanese speakers was measured using the Study Abroad Social Interaction Questionnaire. Activity in the left ventral striatum significantly correlated with social interaction intensity for positive words, while the right amygdala showed a significant correlation for negative words. These results indicate neural representations of LX emotional words link with the intensity of social interactions. Furthermore, LX negative words activated the left inferior frontal gyrus more than positive and neutral words, suggesting greater cognitive effort for processing negative words, aligning with a bias in adult social interactions towards more positively-valenced language. Overall, our findings underscore the importance of social interaction experiences in the processing of LX emotional words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate whether high cognitive task load (CTL) for aircraft pilots can be identified by analysing heart-rate variability, electrocardiograms were recorded while cadet pilots (n = 68) performed the plane tracking, anti-gravity pedalling, and reaction tasks during simulated flight missions. Data for standard electrocardiogram parameters were extracted from the R–R-interval series. In the research phase, low frequency power (LF), high frequency power (HF), normalised HF, and LF/HF differed significantly between high and low CTL conditions (p <.05 for all). A principal component analysis identified three components contributing 90.62% of cumulative heart-rate variance. These principal components were incorporated into a composite index. Validation in a separate group of cadet pilots (n = 139) under similar conditions showed that the index value significantly increased with increasing CTL (p <.05). The heart-rate variability index can be used to objectively identify high CTL flight conditions. Practitioner summary: We used principal component analysis of electrocardiogram data to construct a composite index for identifying high cognitive task load in pilots during simulated flight. We validated the index in a separate group of pilots under similar conditions. The index can be used to improve cadet training and flight safety. Abbreviations: ANOVA: a one-way analysis of variance; AP: anti-gravity pedaling task; CTL: cognitive task load; ECG: electrocardiograms; HR: heart rate; HRV: heart-rate variability; HRVI: heart-rate variability index; PT: plane-tracking task; RMSSD: root-mean square of differences between consecutive R–R intervals; RT: reaction task; SDNN: standard deviation of R-R intervals; HF: high frequency power; HFnu: normalized HF; LF: low frequency power; LFnu: normalized LF; PCA: principal component analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Self-Care of Stroke Inventory (SCSI). A cross-sectional, instrument development and the psychometric testing study was conducted. A 23-item self-report Self-Care of Stroke Inventory with 3 separate scales was developed. This study involved three stages: (a) Initial items generation; (b) Content and face validation; (c) Psychometric properties evaluation. The SCSI was validated by content validity, construct validity, convergent validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. From the initial 80-item pool, 24 items of 3 scales in the SCSI were retained by the expert consultation and item analysis. The scale's content validity was 0.976, 0.966, and 0.973. The EFA showed the total variance explained by the 3 scales of the SCSI were 73.417%, 74.281%, and 80.207%, respectively. The models of the 3 scales identified by EFA were all confirmed by the CFA. The SCSI scale shows evidence of good convergent validity. Cronbach's αs were 0.830, 0.930, and 0.831. Test-retest reliability of the SCSI was excellent, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.945, 0.907, and 0.837. The final 23-item SCSI presents good psychometric properties and can be used to explore the self-care of stroke in community settings. This study developed and validated the Self-Care of Stroke Inventory (SCSI). The SCSI contains the following 3 scales: the Self-care Maintenance of Stroke scale, the Self-care Monitoring of Stroke scale, and the Self-care Management of Stroke scale The 23-item SCSI demonstrated strong psychometric properties. The SCSI may be used to develop future programmes to promote self-care for stroke survivors and improve their rehabilitation outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have yielded conflicting results regarding the onset of semantic processing in compound word recognition. This study examined the role of semantics in morphological processing using event-related potentials (ERP) recorded for Chinese compound targets primed by W+M+, W−M+, W−M− (W = whole-word semantics, M = morpheme meaning, + = congruent, and − = incongruent), semantically related and unrelated primes. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1 of a masked priming lexical-decision task (SOA = 50 ms), EEG results demonstrated that the brain was sensitive to semantic information as early as between 100 and 250 ms. In Experiment 2 of an unmasked priming lexical-decision task (SOA = 200 ms), data confirmed early semantic access. The two EEG experiments also showed that the semantics of constituent morphemes may have little bearing on compound recognition. Overall, these results seem to converge with a form-and-meaning account of compound recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encoding and recalling spoken instructions is subject to working memory capacity limits. Previous research suggests action-based encoding facilitates instruction recall, but has not directly compared benefits across different types of action-based techniques. The current study addressed this in two experiments with young adults. In Experiment 1, participants listened to instructional sequences containing four action-object pairs, and encoded these instructions using either a motor imagery or verbal rehearsal technique, followed by recall via oral repetition or enactment. Memory for instructions was better when participants used a motor imagery technique during encoding, and when recalling the instructions by enactment. The advantage of using a motor imagery technique was present in both verbal and enacted recall. In Experiment 2, participants encoded spoken instructions whilst implementing one of four techniques (verbal rehearsal, motor imagery, observation of others' actions or self-enactment), and then recalled the instructions by oral repetition or enactment. For both verbal and enacted recall, memory for instructions was least accurate in the rehearsal condition, while the other encoding conditions did not differ from each other. These novel findings indicate similar benefits of imagining, observation and execution of actions in encoding spoken instructions, and enrich current understanding of action-based benefits in working memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six new iridoid glycosides were isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction of the whole plants of Hedyotis diffusa Willd. They were identified as E-6-O-p-methoxycinnamoyl-10-O-acetyl scandoside acid methyl ester (1), Z-6-O-p-methoxycinnamoyl-10-O-acetyl scandoside acid methyl ester (2), E-6-O-caffeoyl scandoside methyl ester (3), E-6-O-p-coumaroyl-6′-O-acetyl scandoside methyl ester (4), Z-6-O-p-coumaroyl-6′-O-acetyl scandoside methyl ester (5), and E-6-O-p-coumaroyl-4′-O-acetyl scandoside methyl ester (6). The structures of them were elucidated based on unambiguous spectroscopic data (UV, IR, HRESIMS, and NMR). They were screened for anti-inflammatory effect, antioxidant effect, antitumor effect, and neuroprotective effect and did not show potent activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four new phloroglucinol derivatives (1 − 4) were isolated from the leaves of Syzygium fluviatile. Their structures were elucidated by means of extensive spectroscopic data. Among them, compounds 1 and 3 showed significant inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase with IC50 values of 10.60 and 5.07 µM, respectively. The structure-activity relationship was also discussed briefly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better understand why Chinese residents' COVID-19 perceptions of the importance of vaccination change dramatically over time, this research used an online lab-like experiment to test the antecedents of individuals' perception of the importance of COVID-19 vaccines. We find that participants who view themselves as separate from others (i.e. independent self-construal) perceive COVID-19 vaccines as more important than Hepatitis B vaccines (i.e. control group), regardless of how salient mortality is for them. In contrast, among participants who view themselves as a part of their social groups (i.e. interdependent self-construal), awareness of death (i.e. mortality salience) plays a moderating role. Specifically, when mortality is salient, COVID-19 vaccines are considered more important than Hepatitis B vaccines; when morality is not salient, vaccine type does not make a difference on perceptions of vaccine importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to identify the critical factors that influenced the turnover and retention of social workers and to propose strategies for enhancing professional social work teams. A discrete-choice experiment (DCE) method was employed to approach to assess social workers' preferences regarding both income-related and non-income-related factors affecting their willingness to remain or leave their positions. Both income-related and non-income-related measures significantly affected social workers' the willingness to retain in their roles. Specifically, increasing the base salary had a stronger effect compared to performance pay. Among the non-income factors, providing career development opportunities had the strongest effect, followed by improving management, while honors had the weakest effect. Furthermore, it was observed that the effects of these improvements varied depending on the social workers' backgrounds and the types of social work clubs they were associated with. For instance, promoting career development was found to be more effective in well-developed clubs, while income incentives appeared to be more impactful in less developed clubs. The study highlighted the importance of both income-related measures and non-income factors in addressing the issue of turnover and promoting stability within professional social work teams. Additionally, the observed heterogeneity in the effects of these improvements emphasized the need for tailored retention strategies that consider the diverse backgrounds of social workers and the specific organizational contexts they operate in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive rural-to-urban migration in China has a significant impact on informal caregiving arrangements among Chinese older adults. To stimulate research on the intersection of migration and caregiving, we conducted an inventory of longitudinal aging survey datasets from mainland China. Large publicly available datasets that included measures related to migration and caregiving were searched and reviewed for eligibility. Key characteristics of each dataset, including study design, sample size, and measures, were extracted. Seven eligible datasets were identified, and five included nationally representative samples. Measures for migration varied across datasets. Some datasets included information on the migration history of older adults, whereas others focused on the migration of adult children. Similarly, caregiving was measured using different questions in each dataset. Caregiving activities were assessed with regard to their type, source, and amount. High-quality datasets exist to support research on migration and caregiving arrangements among Chinese older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study developed a scale of perceived salient organizational career management practices based on a survey of 420 social workers from social work organizations in Guangdong province, China. A two-factor structure OCM scale was constructed using items reflecting the components of organizational career management (OCM) practices. The scale showed sufficient reliability and validity. The results demonstrated the necessity of designing promotion ladders, relevant training, career counseling and other OCM measures to assist social workers in their career progression. The perceived salient OCM scale helps social work managers to understand how social workers perceive OCMpractices in social work organizations. Social work managers can specifically target OCM practices to social workers, and a systemic career progression ladder will facilitate a proactive and flexible response to social workers' aspirations. Organizations should organize their OCM practices systematically, and the entire OCM system should be monitored and reviewed methodically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vaccination is an effective strategy for controlling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, worrying about side effects (WSE) from the COVID-19 vaccine is the leading concern making people hesitant to get vaccinated. Regrettably, there are few studies on alleviating the negative impacts of WSE on COVID-19 vaccination. This study aimed to assess whether message framing (gain- and loss-framed) can moderate the impacts of WSE on the willingness to vaccinate. We conducted an online self-administered survey experiment with three groups: control group (non-framed group), gain-framed groups, and loss-framed groups. In total, 981 participants were randomly assigned to one of the three groups, and their willingness to vaccinate themselves, their children, and elderly members was recorded. People with a higher level of WSE exhibited a lower willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19. However, the gain- and loss-framed messages increased people's willingness to vaccinate themselves, their children, and the elderly. Compared to the gain-framed messages, the loss-framed messages had a greater impact on enhancing people's willingness to self-vaccinate, but not on vaccinating their children and the elderly. Although the gain- and loss-framed messages weakened the negative impacts of WSE on the willingness to be vaccinated, their buffer effect was non-significantly different. The findings in this study suggest that a loss-framed messaging strategy could be a valuable tool in disseminating information on vaccination against COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory (FCRI-C) in follicular lymphoma (FL) survivors. A nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted online between July and September 2020. The following psychometric properties of the FCRI-C were evaluated: construct, convergent, and discriminant validity, and reliability. Item variance was assessed using differential item functioning (DIF). A short version of the FCRI-C was developed using a two-parameter item response theory (IRT) model. The patterns of response scale, item fit, and item information were assessed. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the clinical cut-off point for the FCRI-C. A total of 326 FL survivors completed the questionnaire. The confirmatory factor analysis supported the bi-factor structure of the FCRI-C. The IRT analysis confirmed a 10-item short version of the FCRI-C. Satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity were underpinned by a priori hypotheses. Cronbach's alpha of 0.95 and intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.82 indicated good internal consistency and test–retest reliability. The ROC curve determined a cut-off point of 83 and 20 for the full and short versions, respectively. The FCRI-C used to measure and screen the levels of FCR in Chinese FL survivors was found to be valid and reliable. The Chinese Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory (FCRI-C) is a reliable and valid measure to evaluate the fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) in follicular lymphoma survivors. The short version of the FCRI-C provides a rapid screening tool for the clinical detection of FCR in patients. The cut-off point of the FCRI-C could differentiate patients between "high" and "low" levels of FCR in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new coumarins (1–2) have been isolated from a methanol extract of Zanthoxylum schinifolium branches. The structures of compounds 1 and 2 have been elucidated as 6-isopentenyl −7-benzoyl-coumarin and 3-isopentenyl-7-benzoyl-coumarin based on extensive spectroscopic analysis, including IR, NMR, and MS. The inhibitory activity of compounds 1 and 2 against HeLa and HepG2 cell lines has been described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents three experiments to examine the role of the phonological store component of working memory in the speechreading performance of students with hearing impairment (HI) in China. In Experiment 1, 86 high school students with HI completed an immediate serial recall task with four lists of monosyllabic words that differed in phonological and visual similarities. In Experiment 2 and Experiment 3, 40 participants divided into high or low phonological store capacity (PS) and 40 participants divided into high or low visual phonological story capacity (VPS) completed a speechreading test at the word, phrase and sentence levels. Results revealed that (1) immediate serial recall showed effects of phonological and visual similarity and their interaction; (2) there was no significant effect of phonological store capacities on speechreading; and (3) there was a significant effect of visual phonological store capacities on accuracy but not speed of speechreading. These findings point to a general phonological store system for visual orthographic coding and phonological coding that students with HI engage in speechreading in Chinese. It provides evidence for the contention that the visual-based coding has a more direct impact on speechreading performance of Chinese students with HI than the speech-based coding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new indolizinium alkaloid, named as cyclizidine J (1), was identified from Gause's liquid fermentation of marine-derived Streptomyces sp. HNA39. Its structure was elucidated by extensive NMR spectroscopic methods, HRESIMS data, and ECD calculations. To our best knowledge, compound 1 was a unique cyclizidine-type alkaloid that contain a chlorine atom substituted at position C-8. Unfortunately, biological evaluation of 1 exhibited no active against PC-3 cancer cell line, BRD4, and ROCK2 protein kinase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the effects of spatial abilities on behaviour have recently been a hot topic, wayfinding has received little attentions. Here, the reasons for route selection differences during wayfinding were studied from the perspective of individual competence. The mental rotation (A-MR), abstract reasoning (A-AR), visual short-term memory (A-VSTM), spatial perception (A-SP) and spatial orientation (A-SO) abilities of 52 college students were assessed, and their route selection behaviours were tested in homogeneous and heterogeneous three-dimensional virtual scenes. Finally, the relationships between five abilities and the lengths (R-L) and angles (R-A) of the selected routes were analysed and the R meants route here. The path complexity (weighted combination of R-L and R-A) was also fitted using a partial least-squares model with the five abilities. The A-MR and A-AR had obvious relationships with R-L and R-A, whereas A-SP showed little correlation. Moreover, the A-VSTM and A-SO had a significantly higher impact on route selection in the homogeneous spatial environment than in the heterogeneous one. Although the models passed the significance test, the fitting effect was not satisfactory. The routes were affected by many factors, and these five abilities could not fully explain the route selection behaviour of the individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Picture My Participation' (PMP) is a validated questionnaire for assessing participation in everyday activities by children with disabilities in low and middle income countries, but it is not yet available in simplified Chinese. To describe the cross-cultural adaptation of the simplified Chinese version of 'Picture My Participation' (PMP-C; Simplified) and explore its validity and reliability. A cross-sectional study using convenience sampling was conducted using PMP-C (Simplified) with structured interviews supported by pictures for children and youth with and without intellectual disabilities (ID) in mainland China. The validity of the PMP-C (Simplified) was demonstrated by face validity and content validity while the reliability was evaluated for internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Five items were slightly modified and eight pictures were revised to improve their fit with the culture of mainland China. All the items in PMP-C (Simplified) had excellent content validity, and face validity. The internal consistency, reliability coefficient and test-retest reliability of the subscale attendance for children and youth with and without ID were excellent. Preliminary evidence of the content validity of PMP-C (Simplified) items and reliability of the subscale attendance for use with children and youth in mainland China has been gathered. However, psychometric properties in terms of construct validity for the whole instrument and reliability for the engagement subscale need further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the General Aggression Model (GAM), we examined the interactive effects of situational factors (e.g., violent video games [VVG]) and personal factors (e.g., age, sex, trait-aggressiveness) on aggressive behavior, and the mediating role of aggressive motivation (e.g., instrumental, revenge). We recruited 480 children (50% girls) from three Chinese kindergartens. Games were rated as VVG or nonviolent via 120 experts, then participants played either VVG or matched nonviolent video games. Their aggressive motivation and aggressive behavior were then measured. Results were that brief exposure of children to VVG increased aggressive behavior. Participants aged 5 displayed more aggressive behavior than those aged 6 in VVG condition. Boys displayed more aggressive behavior than girls in VVG condition. Mediation analyses suggested that the VVG effect on aggression was mediated by aggressive motivation and revenge motivation, but was not mediated by instrumental motivation. Moderation analyses suggested that the VVG effect on aggression was moderated by trait-aggressiveness. These findings indicated that VVG lead to increases in aggression-related variables, as predicted by the General Aggression Model. Aggressive motivation, especially revenge motivation, might be considered in the prevention and intervention of children's aggression in realistic settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the effectiveness of pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) on perimenopausal women with pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD). A two-group longitudinal experimental design with multiple comparisons. The intervention group (n = 37) received a 3-month intervention combining Kegel and yoga exercise. The control group (n = 37) received Kegel exercise. The combined training alleviated PFD symptoms, improved life quality and increased pelvic floor muscle strength of perimenopausal women. Women with PDF symptoms can integrate PFMT and yoga exercise to promote rehabilitation and improved outcomes. Combined exercise should be taught and practiced under supervision by qualified health professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop the Chinese version of Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) and examine its psychometric properties, we investigated a sample of 689 non-clinical and 309 clinical participants and found this measurement had good acceptability, internal reliability, test-retest reliability and convergent validity; it had moderate correlations with the Schwartz Outcome Scale and Symptom Check List-90, which showed an acceptable concurrent validity. Specifically, we explored the cut-off line of clinical criterion and found a g factor plus three-factor solution better than original four-domain model in Chinese context. The CORE-OM is a valid tool with referenced cut-offs to measure clinical outcomes, which can bridge the gap in routine clinical evaluation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese art practices such as brush painting and calligraphy are thought to promote self-development through holistically engaging both physical and mental health. This pilot study investigated the beneficial effects of a community-based self-help group incorporating Chinese art practices as a culturally adapted bereavement intervention. Twenty-six Chinese parents aged over 49 years and who had lost their only child participated in a 20-session Chinese brush painting group over a 6-month period. Ten bereaved parents from the same community who did not participate in the art course but received living support were recruited as a control group. Compared with the control group, the art practice group exhibited a pre-post intervention effect in terms of promoting positive affect and preventing deterioration of prolonged grief symptoms, particularly through the improvement of accessory grief symptoms (e.g., "emotional numbness due to the loss", and "feeling that life is unfulfilling, empty or meaningless after the loss"). No effect was found on negative affect. These findings indicate that a culturally adapted community-based art group may be an effective means of improving grief-related health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Given the pervasiveness of emotional and behavioral deficits of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), there is a pressing need for effective interventions to address their difficulties on Facial Expression Recognition and Emotion Understanding (FER/EU). Qunatiandi, a structured, app-based intervention program that is designed for Chinese children with ASD was utilized in this study. Three young children (two girls and one boy; age M = 4.94 years) completed an 8-week one-on-one intervention in a rehabilitation center setting. It was hypothesized that the three children would show greater progress in their FER/EU. Methods: In this study, a modified multiple probe across the program phases design was used; the dependent variable was the percentage of unprompted correct receptive identification responses for FER/EU tests during instruction and probes. Data were taken during baseline, the endpoint of instruction sessions, and a maintenance stage followed by intervention termination. Results: Findings of the study revealed that all participants demonstrated significant improvements in social acuity, gains were mostly achieved on emotion distinguishing and understanding (above 80% of accuracy). A similar scoring pattern was also found in the maintenance probe phase. Conclusion: The study is one of only a few early intervention projects to improve FER/EU skills for children with ASD using an app-based intervention. The results demonstrated that children with ASD can experience increases in emotion distinguishing and understanding skills. Maintenance probe results showed that the interventional effect can be maintained for a period of time after intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose:To perform a cultural adaptation and validation study (internal and external) of the FAAM questionnaire to create the Chinese version of the questionnaire (FAAM-Ch). Materials and methods:Two independent professional native translators performed a translation from English to Chinese and reverse translation. Psychometric properties analysis: Internal consistency of measure was analysed through the Cronbach’sαcoefficients. After extraction by maximum likelihood (EML), the structure factor and construct validity was analysed; to extract a factor, it was necessary to complete the following three requirements: ≥10% of variance, Eigenvalue >1.0 and scree plot inflection point. Standard error measurement (SEM) and minimal detectable change 90 (MDC90) were calculated. FFI-Taiwan version, SF12v2, and EuroQol5D were used for criterion validity analysis. Results:The internal consistency (Cronbach’sα) for specific FAAM-Ch subscales was 0.879 (ADL) and 0.901 (Sport); test–retest analysis (interclass correlation) item ranging between 0.758 and 0.970 (ADL: 0758–0946; Sport: 0.911–0.970). Measures error: 3.449% (MDC90) and 1.478% (SEM). Chi-squared value =15228.74 and gl 406) (p < 0.001) and the Kaiser–Meyer–Oklin values (0.919). The correlation level with the FFI is strong, with SF12v2 is between poor and strong and with EuroQoL5d is between moderate and strong Conclusions:FAAM-Chinese version has satisfactory “transversal” psychometric properties, facilitating the inclusion of FAAM-Chinese into research and clinical practice.Implications for RehabilitationCross-cultural adaptation of the FAAM-Ch has been performed from the original version.The psychometric properties of the FAAM-Ch indicate satisfactory and consistent results (particularly in the internal consistence, reliability and criterion validity) with the original version.FAAM-Ch can be used by Chinese speaking clinicians and researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether and how real-time feedback of dynamic foot pressure index (DFPI) could be used to correct toe-walking gait in spastic diplegic children with dynamic equinus. Methods: Thirteen spastic diplegic children with dynamic equinus were asked to wear a monitoring device to record their ambulation during daily gait, conventional training gait, and feedback training gait. Parameters based on their DFPI and stride duration were compared among the three test conditions. Results: The results with feedback training were significantly better for all DFPI parameters in comparison to patients' daily gait and showed significant improvements in DFPI for toe-walking gait and percentage of normal gait in comparison to conventional training methods. Moreover, stride duration under two training gaits was longer than patient's daily gait, but there was no significant difference between the two training gaits. Conclusions: Although the stride duration for the two training gaits was similar, gait training with realtime feedback of DFPI did produce noticeably superior results by increasing heel-loading impulse of toewalking gait and percentage of normal gait in comparison to convention training methods. However, its effectiveness was still impacted by the motion limitations of diplegic children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese people tend to use metaphorical expressions and rhetorical figures to convey meanings and emotions, and they usually talk about death implicitly. The assessment of death metaphors and images can provide a better understanding of Chinese personal perceptions of death. This study aimed at modifying the Chinese Death Metaphors Scale (CDMS; Cheung, 2005) and establishing one that is more suitable for Chinese people. Thirty-one death metaphor statements in Chinese were created from items of CDMS and an open questionnaire study. The item pool was tested with 425 participants and exploratory factor analysis revealed four factors (Comfortable/Painful/Sorrowful/Empty), differing with the two-factor structure (Positive/Negative) of the original CDMS. On the basis of this, a 24-item Revised Chinese Death Metaphors Scale was generated. It was carried out to 473 participants together with Templer’s Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) for Confirmatory factor analysis, which revealed an acceptable model fit: χ2/df = 4.05, goodness-of-fit index = .85, adjusted goodness-of-fit index = .82, incremental fit index = .90, nonnormed fit index = .90, comparative fit index = .90, root mean square error of approximation = .08, all met the criteria standards for adequacy of fit. Construct validity, criterion-related validity with DAS, and composite reliability were all acceptable and reasonable. The Chinese Death Metaphors Scale-Revised is satisfactory and reliable and more suitable than previous instruments for use with Chinese people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objectives: To investigate the effect of stress involved in nursing on the physical and mental health of nurses and reduce their efficiency. Design: A cross-sectional descriptive survey. Method: The present study was conducted to investigate job stress among nurses (N = 394) in three hospitals in China. Data were collected via a socio-demographic questionnaire and a nursing stress scale. Results: We found that the dimension "Nursing profession and work issues" was the strongest stress factor affecting the nurses, and that the item "shift work" yielded the highest stress score. Temporary contract nurses were found to have higher stress level than permanent contract nurses (p =.038). Nurses working in the intensive care unit had the highest stress level (1.32 ± 0.948) of all the units examined. Conclusion: Nurses have a high risk of morbidity under the conditions of long working periods and a sustained fast-pace environment without stress management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Study Context: Elderly people do not categorize emotional facial expressions as accurately as younger people, particularly negative emotions. Although age-related impairments in decoding emotions in facial expressions are well documented, the causes of this deficit are poorly understood. This study examined the potential mechanisms that account for this age-related categorization deficit by assessing its dependence on presentation time. Methods: Thirty young (19–27 years old) and 31 older (68–78 years old) Chinese adults were asked to categorize the six basic emotions in facial expressions, each presented for 120, 200, 600, or 1000 ms, before and after exposure to a neutral facial expression. Results: Shortened presentation times caused an age-related deficit in the recognition of happy faces, whereas no deficit was observed at longer exposure times. An age-related deficit was observed for all negative emotions but was not exacerbated by shorter presentation times. Conclusion: Age-related deficits in categorization of positive and negative emotions are caused by different mechanisms. Because negative emotions are perceptually similar, they cause high categorization demands. Elderly people may need more evidence in favor of the target emotion than younger people, and they make mistakes if this surplus of evidence is missing. In contrast, perceptually distinct happy faces were easily identified, and elderly people only failed when the presentation time was too short for their slower perceptual processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The placebo effect in relieving negative emotion arousal is poorly understood. Aims: We examined whether placebo expectation established with noise stimuli could have a transferable anxiolytic effect on negative emotion arousal. Methods: In Experiment 1, noise intensity was surreptitiously lowered during placebo condition in the preconditioning phase to reinforce placebo expectation, and the noise-relieving placebo effect was assessed in the testing phase. In Experiment 2, the same manipulation as in Experiment 1 was administered in the preconditioning phase, but the anxiolytic placebo effect was assessed in the testing phase using negative pictures. Results: Intensity and annoyance by the noise in Experiment 1 were significantly reduced, and unpleasantness in Experiment 2 was also significantly reduced in the placebo condition. Conclusion: Direct noise-relieving placebo effects and transferred anxiolytic placebo effects were found. The present study provides evidence that the placebo effect can be transferred from noise to emotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A concessive construction like Grandma moved from Southern to Northern China although she likes the South, where the winter is warm implies a causal assumption that is based on one's real world knowledge but is inconsistent with the asserted fact. This study investigated to what extent the processing of a concessive construction differs from the processing of a causal construction with an explicit marker because, in which a causal assumption is stated and approved by the fact. The critical word in the subordinate clause was congruent or incongruent with the discourse context. The incongruent word elicited a larger N400 followed by a larger P600 for the causal construction but a larger N400 followed by a larger late negativity for the concessive construction, suggesting that the re-establishment of the conjunctive relations and the underlying brain responses are differentially affected by the conjunction type and by the viability of pragmatic meaning enrichment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aims to explore the relationship between virtues and self-disclosure via a cross-sectional study and an intervention study among Chinese. Methods: In study one, 144 healthy individuals completed the Chinese Virtues Questionnaire (CVQ) and the short version of Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire. In study two, 41 undergraduates voluntarily attended a nine-week intervention. Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) was adopted as the well-being indicator. They were asked to complete the vitality sub-scale of CVQ and SWLS at week one for obtaining the virtue scores and baseline scores of well-being. After an eight-week intervention, SWLS was completed again to examine the intervention efficacy. Results: Among the three virtues, only vitality had the significant and positive relation with self-disclosure. After eight weeks, the high-vitality group obtained the significant growth of satisfaction with life. The change degree of satisfaction among high vitality individuals was significantly higher than the low vitality group. Conclusion: Prescreening of individual vitality may be helpful for identifying the sensitive targets of expressive writing intervention. However, considering that this is a preliminary study, more rigorous randomized controlled trials will be helpful to test this conclusion in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study presents the development process and initial validation of a measure designed for assessing psychological needs satisfaction in a secondary school physical education context (Psychological Needs Satisfaction Scale in Physical Education, PNSSPE). Junior secondary school (grades 7 to 9) students (N = 1,258) were invited to participate in three studies. In Study 1, item generation (34 items) and initial content validity of the PNSSPE were achieved. In Study 2, the factorial structure of the PNSSPE was tested using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Internal consistency reliabilities of the subscales were also examined. In Study 3, the reliability and validity of the scores derived from the PNSSPE were further examined in an independent sample. Overall, the PNSSPE demonstrated good content, factorial, discriminant, and nomological validities. It also demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and test–retest reliability. The measurement model was proven invariant across gender and samples. Psychometric evidence from a series of studies suggests that the PNSSPE could be used as a reliable and valid measure to assess Hong Kong secondary school students’ satisfaction of psychological needs in physical education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new naphthaline glucosides, 2-hydroxy-3-methoxy-8-methyl-1-O-β-d-glucopyranosylnaphthaline (1) and 1-hydroxy-3-methoxy-8-methyl-2-O-β-d-glucopyranosylnaphthaline (2), together with one new isocoumarin glucoside, 3-(3,3-dichloro-2-hydroxylpropyl)-6-methoxy-8-O-β-d-glucopyranosyl-1H-isochromen-1-one (3), were isolated from a cold-adapted fungal strain Mucor sp. (No. XJ07027-5). Their structures were characterized by detailed analyses of IR, MS, 1D- and 2D-NMR spectra. Among them, 2 showed moderate cytotoxic activity against five tumor cells (A-549, HL-60, MCF-7, SMMC-7721, and SW480). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories differ as to how people recover the meaning of verb-phrase (VP) ellipsis. According to the syntactic account, people reproduce the syntactic structure of the antecedent during the processing of VP ellipsis. This account thus predicts that the ellipsis site contains syntactic information. Using the structural priming paradigm, we found that, in Mandarin, an ellipsis prime (a double-object or prepositional-object dative antecedent plus a VP ellipsis) was less effective in priming than a full-form prime sentence (the same antecedent plus the full-form equivalent of the VP ellipsis) but behaved similarly to a baseline prime (the same antecedent plus a neutral sentence). The result thus suggests that syntactic structure is not reproduced at the ellipsis site and supports the semantic account in which VP ellipsis is interpreted via a semantic representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time course of semantic and syntactic processing in reading Chinese was examined by recording event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as native Chinese speakers read individually presented sentences for comprehension and performed semantic plausibility judgments. The transitivity of the verbs in Chineseba/beiconstructions was manipulated to form three types of stimuli: Congruent sentences (CON), sentences with semantic violation (SEM), and sentences with combined semantic and syntactic violation (SEM+SYN). Compared with the critical words in CON, those in SEM and SEM+SYN elicited an N400-P600 biphasic pattern. The N400 effects in both violation conditions were of similar size and distribution, but the P600 in SEM+SYN was bigger than that in SEM. Overall, the lack of a difference between SEM and SEM+SYN in the earlier time window (i.e., N400 window) suggested that syntactic processing in Chinese does not necessarily occur earlier than semantic processing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The objectives of the current study were to develop an inventory that measures meaning-focused coping and to explore its reliability and validity. In total, 668 middle school students who had experienced significant negative events were recruited. The Meaning-Focused Coping Questionnaire included 26 items within eight dimensions: Changes in Situational Beliefs, Changes in Global Beliefs, Changes in Goals, Meaning Making, Long-Term Prevention Strategies, Rational Use of Resources, Acceptance, and Heuristic Thinking. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the questionnaire had good construct validity. The results based on item response theory indicated that all of the item discrimination values were greater than 0.5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The current studies examined if cultural and self-construal differences in self-enhancement extended to defensive responses to health threats. Design: Responses to fictitious medical diagnoses were compared between Asian-Americans and European-North Americans in Experiment 1 and between Canadians primed with an interdependent versus an independent self-construal in Experiment 3. In Experiment 2, the responses of Chinese and Canadians who were either heavy or light soft drink consumers were assessed after reading an article linking soft drink consumption to insulin resistance. Main outcome measure: The primary-dependent measure reflected participants’ defensiveness about threatening versus nonthreatening health information. Results: In Experiment 1, all participants responded more defensively to an unfavourable than a favourable diagnosis; however, Asian-Americans responded less defensively than did European-North Americans. In Experiment 2, all high soft drink consumers were less convinced by the threatening information than were low soft drink consumers; however, among high consumers, Chinese changed their self-reported consumption levels less than did European-Canadians. In Experiment 3, interdependence-primed participants responded less defensively to an unfavourable diagnosis than did independence-primed participants. Conclusion: Defensive reactions to threatening health information were found consistently; however, self-enhancement was more pronounced in individuals with Western cultural backgrounds or independent self-construals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Conclusion: The psychometric characteristics of the Congenital Aural Atresia Questionnaire (CAAQ) are proposed to be reliable and sensitive to determine clinical changes in a patient's quality of life (QOL) and the questionnaire has potential for clinical application. Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a quantifiable, self-assessed, and health-related QOL questionnaire for patients with congenital aural atresia and to explore its reliability and validity. Methods: An initial QOL questionnaire for patients with congenital aural atresia was constructed according to widely used available QOL questionnaires. A total of 140 patients with congenital aural atresia were recruited into this study. After pretest and item sifting, the QOL questionnaire was constructed, and its reliability and validity were evaluated. Results: An 18-item QOL questionnaire for patients with congenital aural atresia was constructed, which included 3 principal domains: symptoms and impact (physical, 8 items), mental status (psychological, 6 items), and social interaction (4 items). The retest reliability was 0.878; split-half reliability coefficient and Cronbach's alpha coefficient were 0.927 and 0.899, respectively. The factor analysis results indicated satisfactory construct validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contradictory results have been found in Chinese as to whether subject relative clauses are easier to process than object relative clauses. One major disagreement concerns the region where the difficulty arises. In this study, a “maze” task was used to localise processing difficulty by requiring participants to make a choice between two alternatives at every single position of the sentence. The results confirmed that object relatives are indeed easier than corresponding subject relatives in the relative clause region, although this difference is reversed in the subsequent relative marker region. No difference was found in the head noun position. It is argued that these results are a function of the fact that the task forces participants to adopt a strict incremental processing mode, whereas self-paced reading allows more freedom. Implications for experimental techniques for studying sentence processing are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research aims to provide insight for web form design for older users. The effects of task complexity and information structure of web forms on older users' performance were examined. Forty-eight older participants with abundant computer and web experience were recruited. The results showed significant differences in task time and error rate among three levels of task complexity. Significant differences were also found in older users' disorientation among four levels of information structures. The results indicated that the decision complexity advantage may not be applicable to older users because of age-related functional impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The classifier grammar system categorises things in the world in a way that is drastically different from the way nouns do. Previous research revealed amplified similarity among objects belonging to the same classifier category in Chinese speakers, but how this amplified classifier similarity effect arises was still an open question. The present research was conducted to address this question. For this purpose, we compared speakers of Chinese, Japanese (classifier languages), and German (nonclassifier language) on a range of cognitive tasks including similarity judgements, property induction, and fast-speed word-picture matching. Although Chinese and Japanese classifier systems are similar in their semantic structures, classifier classes for nouns are marked more systematically in Chinese than in Japanese. The amplified classifier similarity effect was found in Chinese but not in Japanese speakers. We explore the nature of the amplified classifier similarity effect and propose an explanation for how it may arise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]