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Rice, which is the staple food in East Asia, is a source of Selenium (Se) and Cadmium (Cd). The distribution of Se and Cd in soil-rice system is significant to human nutrition and public health. This study is to explore the distribution of Se and Cd in arable land soils and their distribution in polished rice and stalks of Se-rich area. A total of 63 soil samples and 126 rice samples (63 groups of rice grains and stalk samples) were collected from West Hainan Island to determine Se and Cd concentrations. The results suggested the concentration of Se in soil was higher than average level in China, and Cd content was lower than the agricultural land-use threshold of China. The distribution of Se and Cd in arable land soil was primarily determined by diagenesis and mineralization. Se and Cd were more inclined to accumulate in stalks than rice grains, and the contents in polished rice were correlated with that in stalk. Acidification of arable land soil will threaten human nutrition and health for the bioaccumulation factor of Se in polished rice decreased significantly with the decrease of soil pH, while that of Cd in polished rice increased significantly. Therefore, application of lime or alkaline fertilizers in arable land soil of Se-rich area can promote the accumulation of Se in polished rice but reduced the intake of Cd in rice crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrostatic Precipitator draws many researches on flue gas treatment technology and very few researches on its structural design. The conventional structural design of electrostatic precipitator casing uses stiffened flat sheet as wallboard which consumes a great amount of steel. Consequently, a new structural idea was explored to optimize the conventional design which applies profiled steel sheet and locates wall beam and wall column. Optimization codes were programmed to select the optimum design with minimum steel consumption and analyze the wall structure. For the cases with varying geometry and varying load, the optimum sections of profiled steel sheet, the optimum layout of wall beams and wall columns and the overall optimum design of casing wall were found. Besides, the influences of wallboard size and load magnitude on the optimum design were investigated. Compared with the original wall structure of stiffened steel sheet, the optimized wall structure composed of profiled sheet, wall column and wall beam can save steel significantly which can be applied widely in large-scale electrostatic precipitator casing structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity with excessive levels of circulating free fatty acids (FFAs) is tightly linked to the incidence of type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance of peripheral tissues and pancreatic β-cell dysfunction are two major pathological changes in diabetes and both are facilitated by excessive levels of FFAs and/or glucose. To gain insight into the mitochondrial-mediated mechanisms by which long-term exposure of INS-1 cells to excess FFAs causes β-cell dysfunction, the effects of the unsaturated FFA linoleic acid (C 18:2, n-6) on rat insulinoma INS-1 β cells was investigated. INS-1 cells were incubated with 0, 50, 250 or 500 μM linoleic acid/0.5% (w/v) BSA for 48 h under culture conditions of normal (11.1 mM) or high (25 mM) glucose in serum-free RPMI-1640 medium. Cell viability, apoptosis, glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, Bcl-2, and Bax gene expression levels, mitochondrial membrane potential and cytochrome c release were examined. Linoleic acid 500 μM significantly suppressed cell viability and induced apoptosis when administered in 11.1 and 25 mM glucose culture medium. Compared with control, linoleic acid 500 μM significantly increased Bax expression in 25 mM glucose culture medium but not in 11.1 mM glucose culture medium. Linoleic acid also dose-dependently reduced mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) and significantly promoted cytochrome c release from mitochondria in both 11.1 mM glucose and 25 mM glucose culture medium, further reducing glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, which is dependent on normal mitochondrial function. With the increase in glucose levels in culture medium, INS-1 β-cell insulin secretion function was deteriorated further. The results of this study indicate that chronic exposure to linoleic acid-induced β-cell dysfunction and apoptosis, which involved a mitochondrial-mediated signal pathway, and increased glucose levels enhanced linoleic acid-induced β-cell dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estrogen plays several important physiological and pathological functions in not only reproductive system but many other systems as well. Its transcriptional activation has been traditionally described as being mediated by classic nuclear estrogen receptors (ERs). It is however established recently that a novel functional estrogen transmembrane receptor, G protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30), modulates both rapid non-genomic events and genomic transcriptional events of estrogen. It has been demonstrated that GPR30 promotes the progress of estrogen-related tumors through mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways. Effects mediated by GPR30 are maintained when classic ERs are absent or blocked. In addition, GPR30 is involved in drug resistance, which is often occurring during cancer treatments. All these new findings strongly imply that GPR30 may be an important therapeutic target for estrogen-related tumors. Simultaneously blocking both GPR30 and classic ERs may be a better strategy for the treatment of estrogen-related tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the study the ways that economic environment and personality influence investment decision making are investigated with an emphasis on the experience of regret. Eighty-four Chinese college students completed an investment questionnaire and NEO-FFI (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Results indicated that the environment mainly affects willingness to invest. Participants exhibited a strong desire to save their money when the macroeconomic situation was pessimistic; in an optimistic environment more money was invested. It was also found that personality influences investment-related regret more than does environment. Those with a higher level of neuroticism were found to experience more regret than those lower in neuroticism, when faced with a wrong investment decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigators used the lexical approach in which Chinese dictionaries were used to identify 48 adjectives representing antisocial personality traits. These were used to construct ratings scales which were administered to 301 university students in different geographical regions of China. Factor analysis yielded three factors labeled Intolerant, Assaulting, and Fierce and Malicious. The 10 adjectives with highest loadings for each factor were used to develop a short inventory, the Chinese Adjectival Descriptors for Antisocial Personality Trait. The inventory was administered to 448 undergraduate students in the four areas of China. Again a three factor structure was obtained. The internal reliabilities of the three were .85, .81, and .81 for Fierce and Malicious, Assaulting, and Intolerant, respectively. Men scored significantly higher than women on Fierce and Malicious and Assaulting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was aimed at examining how purchase purpose and affluence influence price perception. A total of 84 participants were involved in a 2×2 experiment, the results of which showed that in the case of a primed very affluent condition, participants priced items which they bought for themselves higher than when they bought the same items for their friends. However, in the primed average wealth condition, the price of the goods which participants marked for themselves was similar to prices of items bought for their friends. These findings give an important insight into the relationship between affluence and purchase purpose and the influence of these on price perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between two self-emotions (guilt and shame) and self from a Chinese perspective. In a 2 × 2 experiment conducted with 72 Chinese college students, the outcomes showed that by priming a big-me self-condition, participants would be likely to feel more guilt than shame; whereas by priming a little-me self-condition, participants reported more shame than guilt. The findings are important to distinguish the two self-emotions and also shed a light on the relationship between self-emotion and self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personality traits have repeatedly been found to be reliable predictors of job performance. In this study of Chinese local government organizations, the relationships between job performance and two personality traits, agreeableness and conscientiousness, were examined. Conscientiousness was as measured by Talents, a subscale taken from an indigenous scale, the Chinese Personality Scale (QZPS; Wang, Cui, & Zhou, 2005). As expected, talents were related to both task and contextual performance. However, agreeableness as measured by Kindness, from the same indigenous scale, was related negatively to task performance, and showed no relationship with contextual performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the work values and personality of Chinese college students is examined. Qualitative methods were employed to develop work values scale is examined to assess the work values of Chinese college students. A total of 661 students completed a 25-item work values questionnaire and 238 students also completed the Chinese Personality Scale (QZPS; Wang & Cui, 2003). Factor analysis indicated a coherent model, including 5 factors of challenge, personal worth, equitable opportunity, social status and work conditions. Regression analysis indicated that individual worth was associated with ways of life and kindness, and that social status was associated with ways of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developing countries in which the gap between the rich and the poor is wide, we hypothesized a dissociation between people's implicit and explicit attitudes towards the rich. We tested this hypothesis in China, the world's largest emerging economy. As predicted, Chinese participants exhibited a negative attitude towards the rich in responding to a questionnaire which measured their explicit attitude. In contrast, when an implicit measure was used, they were found to hold a positive attitude towards the rich. In addition, the correlation between the explicit and implicit measures was not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flight dispatchers' role stressors and their consequential work-related strains and job satisfaction were investigated in this study, along with the moderating effect of self-efficacy on flight dispatchers' role stressors and strains, and on role stressors and job satisfaction. Data were collected from 309 flight dispatchers from 2 Chinese airlines. Correlations and hierarchical regressions revealed that the role stressors were all related to flight dispatchers' physical strain, psychological strain, and job satisfaction. The moderating effect of self-efficacy depends on the different role stressors and dependent variables being examined. Specifically, the moderating effect was found to be significant in the role conflict-psychological strain relationship, role conflict-job satisfaction relationship, and role overload-psychological strain relationship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In clinical practice, intestinal autologous diseases, ailments and organ transplants can cause severe congestive damage to the intestinal tract. However, after the etiological factor is gotten rid of and blood flow is free without any hinderance, further damage to the intestinal wall often occurs, causing other related organ dysfunctions. This ultimately results in intestinal congestion reperfusion injury (ICRI). When the structure and function of the intestine are destroyed, bacteria, metabolites and endotoxins in the intestinal tract perfuse and enter the portal vein through the already compromised intestinal mucosa, to the other organs via the liver. Nevertheless, this gives rise to further aggravation of the injury, and reperfusion injury syndrome occurs. ICRI is a very common complication encountered by clinicians, and its harm is more severe and serious as compared with that caused by ischemia–reperfusion. Quite a few number of studies on ICRI have been reported to date. The exact mechanism of the injury is still idiopathic, and effective treatment strategies are still limited. Based on recent studies, this article is aimed at reviewing the destruction, damage mechanisms resulting from ICRI to the intestinal anatomical sites and distant organs. It is geared towards providing new ideas for the prevention and therapeutic approaches of ICRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]