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Yanhong Xu,1 Ting Liu,1 Yunxia Jiang,1 Xianzhi Zhao,2 Fei Meng,1 Guangyi Xu,1 Mengjiao Zhao1 1School of Nursing, Qingdao University, Qingdao, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gastroenterology, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Ting Liu, School of Nursing, Qingdao University, 1 Ningde Road, Qingdao, Shandong, 266073, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 15066237573, Email liuting201516@163.comPurpose: Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) suffer from physical symptoms and psychosocial issues. This generates risks of psychosocial maladjustment that is closely linked with self-care ability and health-related quality of life. The study aimed to explore psychosocial adaptation of IBD patients in China and the influencing factors from individual and family levels.Patients and Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, 191 Chinese patients with IBD were recruited from October 2020 to September 2021. General information questionnaire, general family functioning scale, resilience scale for IBD, and psychosocial adaptation questionnaire for IBD were used for investigation. Multivariate linear regression was used to identify predictive factors of psychosocial adaptation.Results: IBD patients reported a moderate level of psychosocial adaptation. Regression analysis showed that personal resilience especially the three dimensions (i.e., positive illness perception, disease management, and support from fellow IBD patients), general family functioning, and disease conditions (i.e., extra-intestinal manifestations and current disease status) were the main contributing factors of psychosocial adaptation, explaining 49.3% of the total variance.Conclusion: The findings suggest that healthcare providers could focus on improving patients’ illness perception about IBD and strengthening their disease management abilities, together with optimizing patients’ family functioning to enhance their psychosocial adaptation level.Keywords: inflammatory bowel disease, psychosocial adaptation, family functioning, resilience

Xinran Gu, Guangyi Xu, Chen Qian, Saichao Chang, Dandan Deng School of Business Administration, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Chen Qian, School of Business Administration, South China University of Technology, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China, Email 201710105492@mail.scut.edu.cnPurpose: Prior work suggests that responsibility is negatively associated with employee procrastination behavior. Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, we suggest this view is oversimplified and propose that procrastination can be induced when employees have congruent job and family responsibilities via the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion.Methods: This is a quantitative study of the configurational approach. Survey data were collected from 323 employees at two stages in southern Chinese internet enterprises in September 2020. A randomized cluster sample was used and an anonymous self-assessment questionnaire was distributed to all selected respondents (employees). Samples involved different departments, and the procrastination phenomenon is more significant among them. SPSS20.2 and MPLUS 8.3 software and Response Surface Analysis Strategy were used to test the hypotheses.Results: The data analysis results indicated that: a) employee procrastination behavior is higher when employees’ job responsibility and family responsibility are congruent than the incongruent configurations. b) Procrastination is lower when job-family dyads are congruent at high levels of responsibility compared the low levels. c) Procrastination decreases as employees’ job and family responsibilities become more discrepant (ie, incongruent); employees with low job-high family responsibilities procrastinate more than those with high job-low family responsibilities. d) Additionally, employee-experienced emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship in four configurations between job-family responsibilities congruence and procrastination behavior.Conclusion: Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, we proposed a model clarifying how varying combinations of job and family responsibilities affect employee procrastination behavior. The results showed that there are significant differences in the impact of different job-family responsibility combinations on employee procrastination behavior. Employee procrastination behavior is higher when employees’ job-family responsibility are congruent than the incongruent configurations. Additionally, employee-experienced emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship in four configurations between job-family responsibilities congruence and procrastination behavior.Keywords: job-family responsibilities congruence, emotional exhaustion, employee procrastination behavior, conservation of resources theory, configurational approach

Health self-management is important for healthcare undergraduates who are at the late adolescent or early adulthood stage, and will play an important part in health promotion for the general population. Previous research has shown that perceived health status affects health self-management. However, few studies have uncovered the mechanism between self-rated health and health self-management among healthcare undergraduates. Based on social ecology theory and Pender’s health promotion model, this study aimed to explore the associations between health self-management ability, self-rated health, eHealth literacy and resistance to peer influence of healthcare undergraduates, with a focus on identifying the mediating effects of eHealth literacy and resistance to peer influence. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 515 healthcare undergraduates in Eastern China between July and September 2021. Serial mediation analysis was performed using Haye’s Model 6 PROCESS macro to examine the mediating effects. The study found that health self-management ability was significantly and positively correlated with eHealth literacy, resistance to peer influence and self-rated health. Self-rated health had a direct and positive predictive effect on health self-management, with a direct effect value of 0.654. eHealth literacy and resistance to peer influence played both an independent mediating and a chain-mediating role in the mechanism of self-rated health affecting health self-management among healthcare undergraduates, with indirect effect values of 0.085, 0.101, and 0.013, respectively. The results suggest that eHealth literacy and resistance to peer influence could be intervention targets in programs for improving these students’ health self-management ability.

In the world of light-emitting diodes, Tm3+-doped glass ceramics are a crucial fluorescent material. In this study, melt-crystallization was used to create glass ceramics that were Tm3+-doped and included crystalline NaLa(MoO4)2. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmittance, and photoluminescence spectroscopy were used to examine the structure, morphology, and luminescence characteristics of glass ceramics (PL). According to the findings, keeping the precursor glass at 660 °C for two hours produced microcrystals with an average size of 280 nm. Also covered is how the concentration of Tm2O3 doping affects the luminous characteristics of glass ceramics. The strongest blue light is produced at 454 nm (1D2→3F4) when Tm2O3 concentration is 0.8 mol%. The findings demonstrate that Tm3+-doped glass ceramics containing NaLa(MoO4)2 crystalline phase have promise for use in the area of color displays.

Effectively carrying out social responsibility is a critical strategy for the sustainable development of enterprises. Under the influence of institutional isomorphism, the relationship between corporate social responsibility and performance will be affected by the level of the peer firm’s social responsibility and government subsidies. Based on institutional theory, this paper discusses the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate performance, using relevant data from Chinese listed companies. The results show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between social responsibility and corporate performance; the peer firm’s CSR and government subsidies weaken the inverted U-shaped relationship between CSR and corporate performance. The results provide useful theoretical insights for the performance of CSR.

Ethical leadership is purported to foster employees' extrarole behaviors; however, there have been few empirical studies conducted to verify this effect. Therefore, we examined the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' voice behavior, and the mediating roles of both supervisor and organizational forms of trust in this relationship. Participants were 205 university teachers from 15 universities in China. The results show that ethical leadership positively predicted university teachers' use of voice. Moreover, the relationship of ethical leadership with university teachers' voice behavior was mediated by both supervisor trust and organizational trust. These findings expand the literature on ethical leadership and voice behavior and provide meaningful guidance for managers to encourage employees to make suggestions about ways to improve existing work processes.

Background: Most of rice agronomic traits as grain length etc. are complex traits controlled by multiple genes. Chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) are ideal materials for dissecting and studying of these complex traits. Results: We developed a novel rice short-wide grain CSSL, Z414, deriving from progeny of the recipient parent Xihui 18 (an indica restorer line) and the donor parent Huhan 3 (a japonica cultivar). Z414 contained 4 substitution segments (average length was 3.04 Mb). Compared with Xihui 18, Z414 displayed seven significantly different traits as grain length, width and weight, chalkiness degree, brown rice rate etc. Then, 8 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were found responding these difference traits by F2 population from Xihui 18/Z414. Among them, 6 QTLs (qPL3, qGW5, qGL11, qRLW5, qRLW11, qGWT5) could be verified by novel developed single segment substitution lines (SSSLs, S1-S6). In addition, 4 QTLs (qGL3, qGL5, qCD3 and qCD5) were novel detected by S1 and S5. Thus, the short–wide grain of Z414 was responded by qGL11, qGL3, qGL5, and qGW5. Then, qGL11 and qGW5 were delimited within intervals of 0.405 and 1.14 Mb on chromosomes 11 and 5, respectively, by substitution mapping. Again by sequencing, qRT-PCR and cell morphology analysis, qGW5 should be a novel allele of GS5 and qGL11 is novel QTL encoding CycT1;3, whose specific function of regulating grain length was still unknown. Finally, pyramid of qGL3 (a=0.22) and qGL11 (a=-0.19) displayed qGL11 epistatic to qGL3. In addition, novel S1 and D2 exhibited different grain sizes and lower chalkiness degree. They are potential to be directly used in breeding hybrid rice varieties.Conclusions: We constructed a novel rice short–wide grain CSSL-Z414 with 4 substitution segments based on the genetic backgrounds of Xihui 18. The broad grain of Z414 was controlled by qGW5, which should be a novel allele of GS5. The short grain of Z414 was controlled by qGL11, qGL3, and qGL5, and qGL11 is a novel QTL encoding CycT1;3, whose specific function of regulating grain length was still unknown, and qGL11 is epistatic to qGL3. Novel S1 and D2 are potential in hybrid rice varieties.

BackgroundMost of rice agronomic traits as grain length etc. are complex traits controlled by multiple genes. Chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) are ideal materials for dissecting and studying of these complex traits. ResultsA rice short-wide grain CSSL Z414 was identified among progeny of the recipient parent Xihui 18 (an indica restorer line) and the donor parent Huhan 3 (a japonica cultivar). Z414 carried 4 substitution segments (average length was 3.04 Mb), and displayed shorter panicle length and less number of primary branches, shorter, wider and larger grain, higher brown rice rate and chalkiness degree when compared with Xihui 18. Then, 9 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for associated traits were identified using the secondary F2 population from Xihui 18 / Z414. Among them, 6 QTLs (qPL3, qGW5, qGL11, qRLW5, qRLW11, qGWT5) could be verified by corresponding single segment substitution lines (SSSLs, S1-S6). In addition, 4 QTLs (qGL3, qGL5, qCD3 and qCD5) were detected by S1 and S5, which was not detected by the F2 population. Thus, the grain length of Z414 was controlled by qGL11, qGL3 and qGL5, and the grain width of Z414 was answered by qGW5. Then by substitution mapping, qGL11 and qGW5 were delimited within the estimated substitution length of 1.42 and 1.14 Mb on chromosomes 11 and 5, and 4 and 2 candidate genes were found respectively for qGL11 and qGW5 by sequencing. However, only two had expression differences by qRT-PCR analysis. Finally, Analysis of QTL epistatic effects revealed that pyramid of qGL3 (a= 0.22) and qGL11 (a=-0.19) caused grain length of double segment substitution line (DSSL, D2) shorter than that of S5 (qGL11).ConclusionsWe developed a rice short –wide grain CSSL with 4 substitution segments from Huhan 3 based on the genetic backgrounds of Xihui 18. The grain width of Z414 was controlled by qGW5, and GS5 should be the candidate gene for qGW5 by sequencing and qRT-PCR analysis. The grain length of Z414 was controlled by qGL11, qGL3, and qGL5, and CycT1;3 should be the best candidate gene of qGL11, whose specific function of regulating grain length was still unknown, and qGL11 is epistatic to qGL3.

AIM: To examine a mediated moderation of the effects of micro-break activity and psychological detachment on the relationship between job stress and work engagement among hospital nurses. BACKGROUND: Nursing burnout, compassion fatigue and job stress have been relatively constant issues in nursing for at least the past decade-and the pervasiveness of the COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying them, which may lead to new challenges to work engagement. METHODS: We tested our model using a time-lagged design to collect data from supervisor-subordinate dyads in seven public hospitals located in southern China, and 263 nurses and 58 head nurses in this survey. Confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson's correlation and hierarchical multiple regression were carried out. RESULTS: The results showed that the adverse impact of job stress on work engagement disappeared when nurses engaged in high levels of micro-break activity. Moreover, the moderating role of micro-break activity was mediated by psychological detachment. CONCLUSIONS: Micro-break activity and psychological detachment play joint roles in helping nurses to cope with job stress. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nurse managers should change their negative attitude toward micro-break activity (if it exists) and help nurses find opportunities for detachment under high-pressure environment.

Drawing on social identity theory, this study examines the effect of servant leadership on university teachers&rsquo, innovative behavior through the self-concept constructs of perceived insider status and organization-based self-esteem, and the moderating effect of leader&ndash, member exchange (LMX). This moderated mediation model was tested with two waves of data from 269 university teachers in China. Results reveal that the self-concept constructs mediate the relationship between servant leadership and university teachers&rsquo, innovative behavior. Moreover, LMX strengthens the relationship between servant leadership and the self-concept constructs, as well as the indirect effect of servant leadership on university teachers&rsquo, innovative behavior through the self-concept constructs. Findings suggest that servant leadership is related to increased innovative behavior due to its positive influence on the self-concept of university teachers and it highlights the importance of developing a favorable supervisor&ndash, subordinate relationship.

Comprehensive mercury (Hg) budgets were constructed in two typical subtropical forests in southern China in 2014 to quantify Hg (gaseous elemental Hg, Hg0, and reactive Hg, HgII) input and output f...

An increasing discrepancy between real-world and type-approval fuel consumption for light-duty passenger vehicles (LDPVs) has been reported by several studies. Normally, real-world fuel consumption is measured primarily by a portable emission measurement system. The on-board diagnostic (OBD) approach, which is flexible and offers high-resolution data collection, is a promising fuel consumption monitoring method. Three LDPVs were tested with a laboratory dynamometer based on a type-approval cycle, the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). Fuel consumption was measured by the OBD and constant-volume sampling system (CVS, a regulatory method) to verify the accuracy of the OBD values. The results of the OBD method and the regulatory carbon balance method exhibited a strong linear correlation (e.g., R2 = 0.906–0.977). Compared with the carbon balance results, the fuel consumption results using the OBD were 7.1%±4.3% lower on average. Furthermore, the real-world fuel consumption of six LDPVs was tested in Beijing using the OBD. The results showed that the normalized NEDC real-world fuel consumption of the tested vehicles was 13%±17% higher than the type-approval-based fuel consumption. Because the OBD values are lower than the actual fuel consumption, using a carbon balance method may result in a larger discrepancy between real-word and type-approval fuel consumption. By means of the operating mode binning and micro trip methods, a strong relationship (R2 = 0.984) was established between the average speed and relative fuel consumption. For congested roads (average vehicle speed less than 5 km/h), the fuel consumption of LDPVs is highly sensitive to changes in average speed.

The authors evaluated and compared the behavior of PM2.5 with respect to NOx and NH3 emission changes in high (the year 2013) and low (the year 2018) SO2 emission cases. Two groups of simulations were conducted based on anthropogenic emissions from China in 2013 and 2018, respectively. In each group of simulations, a respective 25% reduction in NOx and NH3 emissions were assumed. A sensitivity factor (β) was defined as the relative change in PM2.5 concentration due to 1% change in NOx or NH3 emissions. In the high SO2 emissions case, PM2.5 was more sensitive to NH3 (0.31) emissions change than NOx (0.21). Due to the significant decrease in SO2 emissions from the high to low SO2 emissions case, the sensitivity of PM2.5 to NOx increased to 0.33, while its sensitivity to NH3 decreased to 0.22. The result implies that now and in the future, PM2.5 is/will be less sensitive to NH3 emissions change, while NOx emissions control is more effective in reducing the surface PM2.5 concentration. Seasonally, in the low SO2 emissions case, the sensitivities of PM2.5 to NOx and NH3 in winter were higher than those in summer, indicating that to deal with severe winter haze more attention should be paid to the emissions control of inorganic PM2.5 precursors, especially NOx.

This paper aims to examine the mediating role of organizational trust in the relationship between ethical leadership and young teachers&rsquo, work engagement, and the moderating effect of supervisor&ndash, subordinate (S&ndash, S) guanxi. S&ndash, S guanxi is a special interpersonal relationship in Chinese organizations. The sample in this study comprises 205 young teachers from 15 Chinese universities. The results reveal that organizational trust mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and young teachers&rsquo, work engagement. Moreover, S&ndash, S guanxi strengthens the positive relationship between organizational trust and young teachers&rsquo, work engagement, and the indirect effect of ethical leadership on young teachers&rsquo, work engagement through organizational trust. Based upon these findings, several theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Tackling vehicle emissions is one important task for governmental stakeholders to develop cleaner cities. Gasoline-fueled light-duty passenger vehicles (LDPVs) are intensively used in populous urban areas to meet passenger transportation demand. However, gasoline vehicle emissions raise the health risk due to the proximity of exposure to gasoline exhaust. To better understand the genotoxicity of gasoline emissions, this study is focused on their emissions of particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (p-PAHs). We combined dynamometer testing, filter sampling and offline chemical analysis to measure p-PAH emissions from five in-use gasoline LDPVs. The results indicate that the emission factors of tested vehicles under the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Cycle (WLTC) decrease significantly with emission standard, from 11.27 μg km−1 for one China 3 LDPV to below 6 μg km−1 for the other newer LDPVs (China 4 and 5). Different from the mass distribution of p-PAH species for diesel vehicles, medium-and high-molecular-weight PAHs (e.g., 4, 5, and 6-ring species) are considerably identified from the gasoline particle samples. These medium and high-weight PAHs, such as benzo [a]pyrene (BaP) and dibenzo [ah]anthracene (DaA), in general have much greater toxic equivalency factors than low-molecular-weight PAHs. Furthermore, this study also reports that engine type and driving cycle conditions would have discernible impacts on p-PAH emissions. The gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine-equipped LDPVs would increase p-PAH emissions compared with the counterparts using port-fuel injection (PFI) engines. Cold start and transient driving conditions could also result in increased p-PAH emissions, while high-speed driving conditions tend to reduce the p-PAH content in total particles. The significant health impacts caused by p-PAH emissions from gasoline LDPVs should be concerned, and more effective measures should be taken to eliminate gasoline particle emissions.

To investigate the fate of metal-based nanoparticles in water oxidation treatment processes, the decay of Ag-NPs in the presence of three kinds of water treatment preoxidants, sodium hypochlorite (NaClO), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and potassium permanganate (KMnO4), was investigated in this work. Dissolution of Ag-NPs into silver ions (Ag+) was found to occur under exposure to NaClO, H2O2 and KMnO4. The morphology of Ag-NPs changed after reacting with NaClO, H2O2 and KMnO4. Factors affecting the decay of Ag-NPs, i.e., the dosage of oxidants, pH, the presence of humic acid, typical ions in water, and the size of the nanoparticles, were investigated. A higher dosage of oxidants, the presence of calcium ions, and lower size of Ag-NPs promoted the decay of Ag-NPs. The presence of humic acid and sulfide ions inhibited the decay of Ag-NPs. The decay of Ag-NPs under exposure to oxidants was significantly affected by the pH. The mechanism of the Ag-NPs in the presence of oxidants under different environmental conditions is also discussed.

Mixed-criticality system is an emerging design paradigm to improve the resource-efficiency for real-time embedded system. However, the traditional mixed-criticality system is commonly designed under pessimistic constraints on overrun handling and slack utilization. These solutions cannot provide efficient resource utilization when considering the dynamic behaviors of MC system. In this paper, we present an efficient slack management framework to improve the resource efficiency of mixed-criticality system. In this framework, the overrun can be handled in a demand-aware manner, and the dynamic slack is further integrated to improve resource efficiency. The low-criticality dropping is improved in a multiple-step manner to avoid sharp degradation. Random simulation and a case study are conducted to show that our framework outperforms the state-of-the-art resource management approaches.

In the context of the sustainability goals of organizations, there is a dilemma regarding enhancing healthcare workers’ career commitment and wellbeing, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. This study focuses on the underlying mechanism in the relationship between supervisory career support and employee wellbeing. Drawing upon the career motivation perspective, we investigate the mediating role of career commitment and moderating effect of future work self-salience (FWSS) in this relationship. Two-wave data were collected from a sample of 213 full-time healthcare workers from three public hospitals located in Southern China. Results in this study revealed that supervisory career support influences career commitment in health workers, which in turn enhances their wellbeing at the workplace. Moreover, the effect of supervisory career support on career commitment was found to be stronger for individuals with low FWSS compared to those with high FWSS. These findings also enlighten us on how to enhance employees’ career commitment and workplace wellbeing.

Ozone combined with peroxymonosulfate (O3/PMS) for degradation of ibuprofen (IBP) was studied in this work. The oxidation capacity of O3/PMS and four other related oxidation processes for IBP degradation was compared. O3/PMS demonstrated a compelling degradation ability towards IBP compared with O3, PMS, O3/PDS, and O3/H2O2 processes. The generation of ˙OH and SO4˙− in O3/PMS was proved by electron spin resonance detection, and the dominant highly oxidative species was determined based on the different scavenging performances of tert-butanol and ethanol towards ˙OH and SO4˙−. The affecting factors including O3 and PMS dosage, initial pH, and organic and inorganic constituents in water were investigated. An optimum dosage of O3 and PMS was observed for degradation of IBP in O3/PMS. Though a notably synergistic effect was observed in O3/PMS for IBP degradation under pH 3.0, 5.0, 7.6 and 9.0, alkaline conditions were found to be more beneficial for IBP degradation. Humic acid, which was used to simulate the natural organic water matrix, posed different effects on O3 and O3/PMS for IBP degradation. The presence of Cl−, which is a typical reductive inorganic ion and ubiquitous in natural water, inhibited O3/PMS oxidation on the degradation of IBP. The degradation kinetics of IBP in O3/PMS was also studied in this work.

A route to the accelerated nucleation of α-para-aminobenzoic acid in ethanol/water (EtOH/H2O) mixed solvent solutions, using antisolvent crystallization, is presented. An isothermal by design approach is adopted, whereby the exothermic enthalpy of mixing associated with antisolvent addition is offset by the control of the temperature of the antisolvent added. Induction times (τ) are found to be reduced by 4 orders of magnitude using this methodology, consistent with the use of this approach as a nucleation acceleration technique. Calculation of the nucleation kinetic parameters for a range of solution concentrations, compositions, and supersaturations (S) reveal that effective interfacial tensions (γeff) vary from 8.4 to 2.3 mJ m–2 from solutions in H2O solvent and EtOH solvent, respectively, in line with the trend in solubility. The critical nucleus radius (r*) decreases from 1.98 to 0.40 nm associated with a decrease in the number of molecules in the critical nucleus (i*) from 196 to 2 molecules. A change in nucleation mechanism from heterogeneous nucleation to homogeneous nucleation is observed to take place at S ≈ 1.5. Limitations, particularly with focus toward larger-scale operation, are highlighted together with potential solutions to overcome such aspects.

A top-down approach was employed to estimate the influence of lockdown measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on NOx emissions and subsequent influence on surface PM2.5 and ozone in China. The nation-wide NOx emission reduction of 53.4% due to the lockdown in 2020 quarter one in China may represent the current upper limit of China's NOx emission control. During the Chinese New Year Holiday (P2), NOx emission intensity in China declined by 44.7% compared to the preceding 3 weeks (P1). NOx emission intensity increased by 20.3% during the 4 weeks after P2 (P3), despite the unchanged NO2 column. It recovered to 2019 level at the end of March (P4). The East China (22°N - 42°N, 102°E - 122°E) received greater influence from COVID-19. Overall NOx emission from East China for 2020 first quarter is 40.5% lower than 2019, and in P4 it is still 22.9% below the same period in 2019. The 40.5% decrease of NOx emission in 2020 first quarter in East China lead to 36.5% increase of surface O3 and 12.5% decrease of surface PM2.5. The elevated O3 promotes the secondary aerosol formation through heterogeneous pathways. We recommend that the complicated interaction between PM2.5 and O3 should be considered in the emission control strategy making process in the future., Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image, Highlights • NOx emission in the lockdown period is 53.4% lower than the same period in 2019. • East China experienced greater influence from COVID-19 than national mean level. • NOx decline leads to 36.5% O3 increase and 12.5% PM2.5 decrease over East China. • Elevated O3 enhances secondary aerosols formation through heterogeneous pathway.

Foliage/atmosphere exchange is an important pathway of deposition and loss in the biogeochemical mercury (Hg) cycle of terrestrial ecosystems. The foliage/atmosphere fluxes of Hg0 were observed over four seasons in a Masson pine (Pinus massoniana) forest in south China. Hg0 exchange showed a bidirectional process but without clear compensation point. Hg0 emissions peaked midday in all four seasons, probably associated with Hg photoreduction on needle surface. Peaks in Hg0 adsorption/deposition often occurred in the morning, especially in spring and autumn. Although current-year needles accumulated Hg at a rate of 19.4 µg m−2 yr−1, they were a net Hg0 source of 1.7 µg m−2 yr−1 to the atmosphere as their release of Hg exceeded inputs. In addition, previous-year needles emitted Hg0 at an average rate of 9.2 µg m−2 yr−1. Based on the mass balance of Hg in the forest canopy, the dry deposition of Hg was estimated 52.5 µg m−2 yr−1, much higher than the wet deposition (to 14.4 µg m−2 yr−1). Although Hg in the atmosphere is considered the main source of Hg in folia, soil water may contribute to Hg0 emission by plant transpiration. These processes should be further studied in the future.

Debt financing and diversification are two important characteristics of agricultural listed companies in China. This paper uses multiple linear regression model with financial data of 52 agricultural listed companies from 2009 to 2014 in Chinese Stock Exchanges to study the mediating effect of diversification on debt financing and operating performance. Results show that debt financing has a significantly negative impact on operating performance, and diversification plays a partial intermediary role between debt financing and operating performance.

Emissions of major reactive nitrogen compounds, including nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ammonia (NH3), from heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDDVs) place substantial pressure on air quality for many large cities in China. To control nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions from HDDVs, selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems have been widely used since the China IV standards. To investigate the impacts of aftertreatment technologies and driving conditions on real-world emissions of reactive nitrogen compounds, a portable emissions measurement system was employed to test eighteen heavy-duty diesel trucks in China. The results showed that the China IV and China V HDDVs with appropriate SCR functionality could reduce NOX emissions by 36% and 53%, respectively, compared to the China III results, although their real-world emissions were still higher than the corresponding emission limits for regulatory engine tests. For these HDDVs, five samples were tested with NH3 emissions, ranging from 1.67 ppm to 51.49 ppm. The NH3 emission rates tended to significantly increase under high-speed driving conditions. The results indicate that the current SCR technology may have certain risks in exceeding the future China VI NH3 limit. However, five China IV/V HDDVs were found to have SCR temperature sensors that were intentionally tampered with, resulting in comparable or even higher NOX emissions and zero NH3 emissions. Increased NO2 emissions due to the adoption of diesel oxidation catalysts and diesel particulate filters were also found from our experiments. This study highlights the importance of enhancing in-use compliance requirements and eliminating aftertreatment tampering for China IV and China V HDDVs.

As one of the most important natural mercury (Hg) sources, soil release (emission to the atmosphere or leaching to soil water) depends on various factors, some of which can be affected by atmospheric deposition. We studied the effect of flue gas desulfurization gypsum (FGDG) addition on soil Hg release in a Masson pine (Pinus massoniana) forest in southwestern China. FGDG addition simulated atmospheric deposition of Ca2+, SO42- and Hg, which are commonly high in China. Results showed that Hg concentration in soil water decreased with the gypsum treatment, suggesting that the mobility of Hg in mineral soil was reduced. Moreover, the application of gypsum also seems to have decreased Hg emission from the soil, shown by the lower Hg contents in leaf tissues of ground vegetation in the treated plots than in the reference. Both Hg mobility in the soil and Hg emission to the atmosphere were decreased despite the additional Hg input from FGDG. The decreased DOC concentration in soil water and the elevated organic sulfur content in the soil Oe & Oa horizons were speculated to result in an enhanced capacity of surface soil to bind Hg, and thus to reduce Hg release from the soil. However, with the increasingly stringent control of particulate matter (PM) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in China, the deposition of Ca2+ and SO42- is expected to decrease, and their ability to inhibit soil Hg release is likely to decline in the future.

Atmospheric deposition of mercury (Hg) is generally higher in China than in North America and Europe. Transport and methylation of Hg deposited in forest ecosystems may cause health risks to humans. We collected water samples from 117 small streams, and soil samples from 25 sites in forested areas in northeast and south China during 2011–2013 to investigate the spatial distribution of Hg. Results showed that Hg concentration in surface soil (0–5 cm in depth) was generally higher in south China (97.8 ± 36.0 μg/kg) than that in the northeast (44.0 ± 14.1 μg/kg). In contrast, the Hg concentration in stream water was higher in northeast China (17.2 ± 11.0 ng/L) than that in the south (6.2 ± 6.4 ng/L). Hg concentrations in surface soil were positively correlated with Hg concentrations in the overlying litter Oe/Oa horizon ( r 2 = 0.84). Hg concentrations in stream water were positively correlated to DOC (dissolved organic carbon) concentrations ( r 2 = 0.43) and to the Hg concentration in the litter Oe/Oa horizon ( r 2 = 0.69). Because the litter Oe/Oa horizon represents Hg accumulated by foliage, the positive correlations indicate that atmospheric Hg deposition was an important factor affecting Hg concentrations in soils and stream water.

Multilingual probabilistic topic models have been widely used in topic of mining area in multilingual documents, this paper proposes the Khmer-Chinese bilingual latent Dirichlet allocation (KCB-LDA) model based on the bilingual dictionary. With the bilingual attribute of entries in dictionary, this method first maps the words expressing same semantic meaning to the concept abstract layer, then group concepts into the same topic space. Finally, documents in different languages will share the same latent topics. The same topics can be represented in both Chinese and Khmer jointly when given a bilingual corpus by the introduction of the concept layer. The experimental results show that our topic modelling approach has better predictive power.

Poly(acrylate-styrene)/poly(acrylate-styrene) core/shell latex particles were synthesized via seeded semi-continuous emulsion polymerization. Both core polymer (CP) and shell polymer (SP) were copolymerized by using three identical monomers of methyl methacrylate (MMA), butyl acrylate (BA) and styrene (St) with different composition ratios. The synthesized core/shell latex particle presents a phase separated state with the interfacial layer between CP and SP. In this study, the weight fractions and the corresponding thickness of this interfacial layer, CP and SP phase in the core/shell latex particle has be successfully calculated by using multi-frequency temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TOPEM-DSC). The results indicate that the interfacial layer thickness of the core/shell latex particle is determined by the core/shell structure, such as hard core/soft shell (defined as HC/SS) and soft core/hard shell (defined as SC/HS), the glass transition temperature ( T g ) of the “hard” phase (correspondingly core or shell for HC/SS or SC/HS structure, respectively), and the existence of hydrophilic monomer during the copolymerization process such as acrylic acid. Meanwhile, the influence of film-formation-temperature on the microstructure of the latex films was systematically explored in this work.