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Malabar spinach (Basella alba), amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor), and sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) are leafy vegetables found in Southwest China. The variation of chlorophyll, carotenoids, ascorbic acid, total flavonoids, phenolic compounds, and antioxidant capacity was studied in the leaves and stems of the three vegetables. The content of main health-promoting compounds and the antioxidant capacity in the leaves were higher than that in the stems, indicating that the leaves of the three vegetables possess greater nutritional value. The trend of total flavonoids in all three vegetables was similar to the trend of antioxidant capacity, suggesting that the total flavonoids may be the major antioxidants wihin these vegetables. Eight individual phenolic compounds were detected in three different vegetables. The most abundant levels of individual phenolic compounds in the leaves and stems of malabar spinach, amaranth, and sweet potato were 6′-O-feruloyl-d-sucrose (9.04 and 2.03 mg g−1 DW), hydroxyferulic acid (10.14 and 0.73 mg g−1 DW), and isorhamnetin-7-O-glucoside (34.93 and 6.76 mg g−1 DW), respectively. Sweet potato exhibited a higher total and individual phenolic compound content compared to malabar spinach and amaranth. Overall, the results demonstrate that the three leafy vegetables possess high nutritional value, and could be used not only for consumption but also in various other fields, including medicine and chemistry.

Plants adjust root architecture and nitrogen (N) transporter activity to meet the variable N demand, but their integrated regulatory mechanism remains unclear. We have previously reported that a floral factor in rice (Oryza sativa), N-mediated heading date-1 (Nhd1), regulates flowering time. Here, we show that Nhd1 can directly activate the transcription of the high-affinity ammonium ([Formula: see text]) transporter 1;3 (OsAMT1;3) and the dual affinity nitrate ([Formula: see text]) transporter 2.4 (OsNRT2.4). Knockout of Nhd1 inhibited root growth in the presence of [Formula: see text] or a low concentration of [Formula: see text]. Compared to the wild-type (WT), nhd1 and osamt1;3 mutants showed a similar decrease in root growth and N uptake under low [Formula: see text] supply, while nhd1 and osnrt2.4 mutants showed comparable root inhibition and altered [Formula: see text] translocation in shoots. The defects of nhd1 mutants in [Formula: see text] uptake and root growth response to various N supplies were restored by overexpression of OsAMT1;3 or OsNRT2.4. However, when grown in a paddy field with low N availability, nhd1 mutants accumulated more N and achieved a higher N uptake efficiency (NUpE) due to the delayed flowering time and prolonged growth period. Our findings reveal a molecular mechanism underlying the growth duration-dependent NUpE.

Response surfaces methodology was established in order to optimize ultrasound-assisted aqueous alkaline protease extraction parameters of

Fullerene dimers have attracted extensive attention due to their unique structures and fascinating properties. Here, fullerene dimer derivatives with four to six carbon atoms in the esters are designed and synthesized. The property differences that caused by the carbon number in the esters of the fullerene dimers are investigated by performing their electrochemical, optical, and photoelectric measurements. As the carbon atom numbers in the esters increase from four to five and six, the absorption intensities increase to 1.6- and 4.4-folds. The intensities of the fluorescence spectra increase to 1.8- and 5.2-folds. Their photocurrent increases to 2- and 7-folds under the irradiation of a 405-nm laser. The LUMO energy levels move downward slightly from −3.89 to −3.90 and −3.92 eV, respectively. Our results indicate that as the carbon number increases, the carbon chain lengths in the ester structures increase, very slight effects produced on the energy levels of the fullerene dimers, but strongly contribute to their chemical activities and thus the photoelectronic efficiencies.

Purpose We aim to test whether resilience mediates the association of fear of progression (FoP) with quality of life (QoL) among ovarian cancer patients in China. Methods We collected 230 questionnaires from the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University in Liaoning Province, and 209 completed the questionnaire survey. The survey instrument consisted of four questionnaires: a sociodemographic and clinical characteristics questionnaire, the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy general instrument, the Fear of Progression Questionnaire-Short Form and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the relationship among FoP, resilience, and QoL, including physical well-being, social well-being, emotional well-being, and functional well-being. We used asymptotic and resampling strategies to examine the indirect effect of resilience. Results FoP was negatively associated with resilience (r=-0.543, P

Objective The objective of this study was to explore the association between perceived organizational support (POS) and depressive symptoms, and to further explore whether self-efficacy can act as a moderator between POS and depressive symptoms among Chinese petroleum workers. Methods There was a cross-sectional study conducted at a petrochemical enterprise in Liaoning Province, China, from July to August 2018. A series of questionnaires were accomplished by 1836 petroleum workers, including the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Survey of Perceived Organizational Support (SPOS), and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES). Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the relationship of SPOS score, GSES score, and SPOS score×GSES score interaction with CES-D score. A simple slope analysis will be carried out if the interaction has statistical significance. Results Hierarchical regression analysis showed that SPOS score (β=-0.538, P

Purpose: Nurses are undertaking considerable emotional and physical work, which may lead to unrecoverable fatigue. This study aimed to evaluate the level of chronic fatigue and explore its associated factors among Chinese nurses in the hope of providing scientific evidence for fatigue-reduction strategies. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Liaoning Province, China in 2018. The study recruited 700 nurses and collected 566 effective respondents. Chronic fatigue, demographic factors, job conditions, and emotional intelligence were assessed through questionnaires. Chronic fatigue was assessed with the Fatigue Scale 11, occupational stress with the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire, and emotional intelligence with the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to explore factors related to chronic fatigue and to test the moderating effect of emotional intelligence on the association between occupational stress and chronic fatigue. Simple slope analysis was conducted to visualize the interaction. Results: The mean score of chronic fatigue among the Chinese nurses was 17.14±6.16. Being married, having long weekly work time, working night shifts, and discontent with the nurse-patient relationship were positively associated with chronic fatigue. Effort:reward ratio, overcommitment, and emotional intelligence were important factors related to chronic fatigue. Emotional intelligence played a moderating role in the relationship between the effort:reward ratio and chronic fatigue. When emotional intelligence was higher, the effect of the effort:reward ratio on chronic fatigue became weaker. Conclusion: Most nurses surveyed in China might have relatively high levels of chronic fatigue. Our results highlight the importance of interventions on these factors for the reduction of fatigue among nurses in China. Providing more opportunities and support and developing emotional intelligence are crucial strategies to reduce chronic fatigue among nurses in China.

The uncertainty is an inherent feature of Knowledge Graph (KG), which is often modelled as confidence scores of relation facts. Although Knowledge Graph Embedding (KGE) has been a great success recently, it is still a big challenge to predict confidence of unseen facts in KG in the continuous vector space. There are several reasons for this situation. First, the current KGE is often concerned with the deterministic knowledge, in which unseen facts’ confidence are treated as zero, otherwise as one. Second, in the embedding space, uncertainty features are not well preserved. Third, approximate reasoning in embedding spaces is often unexplainable and not intuitive. Furthermore, the time and space cost of obtaining embedding spaces with uncertainty preserved are always very high. To address these issues, considering Uncertain Knowledge Graph (UKG), we propose a fast and effective embedding method, UKGsE, in which approximate reasoning and calculation can be quickly performed after generating an Uncertain Knowledge Graph Embedding (UKGE) space in a high speed and reasonable accuracy. The idea is that treating relation facts as short sentences and pre-handling are benefit to the learning and training confidence scores of them. The experiment shows that the method is suitable for the downstream task, confidence prediction of relation facts, whether they are seen in UKG or not. It achieves the best tradeoff between efficiency and accuracy of predicting uncertain confidence of knowledge. Further, we found that the model outperforms state-of-the-art uncertain link prediction baselines on CN15k dataset.

Background: As experts studying occupational health psychology know, low level of work engagement leads to higher turnover intentions. Some researchers have put a focus on the association between organizational support and work engagement. However, little has been done concerning the mediating effect of psychological capital (PsyCap) on the association between perceived organizational support (POS) and work engagement (vigor, dedication, absorption) among Chinese doctors.Methods: A cross-sectional study has been carried out from November to December in 2017, in Liaoning Province, China. The questionnaire consists of Survey of Perceived Organizational Support, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, Psychological Capital Questionnaire, and demographic and working variables. The self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 1,009 doctors. Effective responses were collected from 836 participants (82.85%). Hierarchical multiple regression and the asymptotic and resampling strategies were used to examine the association between POS and work engagement mediated by PsyCap.Results: After controlling the demographic and working variables, POS was positively related to vigor (β = 0.402, P < 0.01), dedication (β = 0.413, P < 0.01), and absorption (β = 0.373, P < 0.01). Psychological capital was positively associated with vigor (β = 0.442, P < 0.001), dedication (β = 0.413, P < 0.001), and absorption (β = 0.395, P < 0.001). Thus, PsyCap [a × b = 0.1895, bias-corrected and accelerated 95% confidence interval (BCa 95% CI) = 0.1524, 0.2290]; a × b = 0.1517, BCa 95% CI = 0.1180, 0.1875; a × b = 0.1693, BCa 95% CI = 0.1299, 0.2099] significantly mediated the association between POS and vigor, dedication, and absorption, respectively.Conclusion: There was a low level of work engagement among Chinese doctors. Perceived organizational support could indirectly improve vigor, dedication, and absorption, partially through mediator PsyCap. Perceived organizational support intervention, education, and training in PsyCap should be carried out to cope with work engagement.

Purpose Nurses are undertaking tremendous physical and psychological pressure, which may reduce their subjective well-being (SWB). This study is aimed to identify the relationship among perceived organizational support (POS), self-esteem, and SWB, and to further explore whether self-esteem could be a moderator in the association between POS and SWB in Chinese nurses. Materials and methods This study was conducted in Liaoning Province in China, in 2018. 606 valid questionnaires were collected. Demographic factors, job conditions, the Index of Well-Being, Survey of Perceived Organizational Support (SPOS), and Rosenberg's Self Esteem Scale (RSES) were included in each questionnaire. The association among POS, self-esteem, and POS × self-esteem interaction with SWB were examined by hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The interaction was visualized by using simple slope analysis. Results Average score of SWB in Chinese nurses was 8.27 ± 2.64. Being married was positively related to SWB, while having longer work time per week, having night shift and dissatisfied with nurse-patient relationship were correlated with lower SWB. POS and self-esteem were important factors for SWB. Self-esteem could moderate the relationship between POS and SWB. When self-esteem was higher, POS had a greater effect on SWB. Conclusion Subjective well-being of nurses in the study was at a low level. Self-esteem could moderate the association between POS and SWB. More interventions related to POS and self-esteem will be helpful to improve SWB among nurses.

Chunli Liu,1 Siqi Liu,2 Shihan Yang,2 Hui Wu21College of Medical Information, China Medical University, Shenyang 110122, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Social Medicine, School of Public Health, China Medical University, Shenyang 110122, People’s Republic of ChinaPurpose: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is playing a vital role in protecting public health and safety. However, few studies have researched on the occupational burnout of CDC employees in the world. Previous studies have reported that transformational leadership could improve the level of psychological empowerment and ameliorate burnout of the employees. In this study, we aimed to analyze the association between transformational leadership and burnout and to test the mediating role of psychological empowerment in this relationship among CDC employees in China.Methods: Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Service Survey, Transformational Leadership Questionnaire, and Psychological Empowerment Scale were used to measure burnout, transformational leadership, and psychological empowerment. A total of 385 CDC employees (effective response rate: 96.25%) were included in the study. We analyzed the association between transformational leadership and three subscales of burnout with hierarchical linear regression analyses. The mediating role of psychological empowerment was finally examined by asymptotic and resampling strategies.Results: Transformational leadership was negatively associated with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment after controlling sociodemographic and working context characteristics. Transformational leadership and psychological empowerment, respectively, accounted for 9.3% and 12.3% of the variance in emotional exhaustion; 8.5% and 16.7% of the variance in depersonalization; and 6.7% and 10.0% of the variance in reduced personal accomplishment. We found that psychological empowerment played a partially mediating role on the relationship between transformational leadership and burnout. The proportion of psychological empowerment’s mediating effect was 41.56% for emotional exhaustion, 50.62% for depersonalization, and 44.32% for reduced personal accomplishment.Conclusions: It was suggested that transformational leadership could decrease the risk of burnout by the pathway of promoting the employee’s psychological empowerment. Interventions focusing on transformational leadership and psychological empowerment should be of significance to cut burnout.Keywords: burnout, transformational leadership, psychological empowerment, CDC

Tian Qiu, Chunli Liu, Hao Huang, Shihan Yang, Zhihui Gu, Fangqiong Tian, Hui WuDepartment of Social Medicine, School of Public Health, China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, People’s Republic of ChinaBackground: Workplace violence (WPV) and psychological capital (PsyCap) are linked to professional identity, however, little research has examined how WPV is associated with professional identity via PsyCap. This study is aimed to examine the association between WPV and professional identity, and to further explore whether PsyCap can serve as a mediator between WPV and professional identity among Chinese doctors.Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from November to December in Liaoning Province in China, in 2017. The study used a questionnaire consisting of Workplace Violence Scale (WVS), Occupational Identity Scale (OIS), Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ), as well as questions about demographic characteristics. Out of 1200 doctors, 995 (effective response rate of 82.92%) completed the questionnaire survey and became our final subjects. Hierarchical multiple regression and the asymptotic and resampling strategies were conducted to explore the mediating role of PsyCap in the relationship between WPV and professional identity.Results: After adjusting for demographic characteristics, WPV was negatively associated with professional identity (β=−0.37; P

Uncertain Knowledge Graph (UKG) models uncertainty of the knowledge, which usually models the inherent uncertainty of relation facts in a knowledge base with a confidence value. Embedding such uncertain knowledge represents is still an unresolved challenge, although deterministic Knowledge Graph embedding has been extensively studied recently, which aims at representing entities and relations as vectors in a continuous vector space and preserving semantic information as much as possible. For capturing both structural and uncertainty information of relation facts in the continuous vector space, we propose a simple but effective two-steps approach to Uncertain Knowledge Graph Embedding (UKGE) based on the skip-gram/CBOW model and learning confidence score by Long Short-Term Memories (LSTM) neural network. We show that the embedding techniques achieve results comparing with state-of-the-art approaches on uncertain knowledge graph embedding. The approach achieves the best tradeoff between efficiency and accuracy of UKGE. Because of the simplicity, the method can also handle large size graphs in lower time consumption.

The initiation of translation in eukaryotic cells is stimulated by proteins known as initiation factors (eIFs). A structurally complex eIF composed of multiple subunits, eIF3 has been shown to have various functions in translation in a variety of eukaryotes. Until now, little is known about eIF3 in Eimeria tenella. Based on a previously identified expressed sequence tag(EST), we cloned the eIF3 subunit 7 gene (EteIF3s7) from E. tenella by rapid amplification of the cDNA ends(RACE). The 2278-bp full-length complementary DNA of EteIF3s7 contained a 1716-bp open reading frame (ORF) that encoded a 571-amino acid (aa) polypeptide. The EteIF3s7 protein contained the subunit 7 domain that is characteristic of members of the eIF3 zeta superfamily. The levels of EteIF3s7 messenger RNA and protein were higher in second generation merozoites than in sporulated oocysts, unsporulated oocysts, or sporozoites, and the EteIF3s7 protein was barely detectable in unsporulated oocysts. Our immunofluorescence analysis showed that the EteIF3s7 protein was uniformly distributed throughout the cytoplasm of sporozoites. After sporozoites were incubated in complete medium, the EteIF3s7 protein localized to the anterior region of the parasite. Following the first schizogenous division, the protein was uniformly dispersed in trophozoites, immature schizonts, and mature schizonts, and the EteIF3s7 protein was observed to be closely associated with the parasitophorous vacuole membrane. An anti-rEteIF3s7 polyclonal antibody inhibited the ability of E. tenella to invade DF-1 cells, which suggested that EteIF3s7 might be involved in host cell invasion and required for the growth of the parasite in the host.

It is a challenge to transform legacy XML-based data into ontology for applications of the semantic web, such as semantic-based integrations, intelligent web searching, and internet based knowledge reasoning. We propose a new technique to transform XML data into ontology data automatically by modeling XML documents semantically. Firstly, we provide the XML a semantically interpretation by developing a graph-based formal language, w-graph. Then, the result of the interpretation can be automatically mapped into OWL web ontology language with semantics preserved. The proof of semantics preserved also been considered, and automatic mapping tool has been developed.

Hybrid system is a dynamic system. However, it is difficult to formally analyze hybrid systems due to the continuous parts. In this paper, we propose an approximate semantic model of hybrid systems, in order to employ formal analyzing tech- niques; furthermore, the error could be under control. This me- thod is based on incomplete low-up matrix decomposition, which is used to generate approximating transition between states for the continuous components of hybrid systems. The technique reduces the complexity of analyzing computation. Moreover, the model is also used to approximating control the transition condi- tions, which simplifies the conditions.

The extensible markup language (XML), a standard format of web information, has a clear syntax but unfortunately an ambiguous formal semantics, which results in being not used directly in semantic web applications. So it is tough job to reuse XML-based data intelligently in the semantic web. To address this problem, a new formal technique of obtaining ontology data automatically from XML documents is proposed. We provide the XML a semantical interpretation by developing a graph-based formal language, which then can be automatically mapped into web ontology language OWL with semantics preserved. The semantic validity and entailment problem are also concerned. The automatical mapping tool has also been developed.

Emotional agents are useful to variety of computer application. This paper focuses on the emotion surprise. Surprise is the automatic reaction to a mismatch, which plays an important role in the behaviors of intelligent agents. We represent psychology theories of surprise through a fuzzy inference system, as fuzzy logic helps to capture the fuzzy and complex nature of emotions. The system takes four factors related to surprise as inputs and the degree of surprise as output. We put forward fuzzy inference rules and reasoning parameters for the system. The results of the inference can be used in single or multi-agent system simulation.

We proposed the approximate completed trace equivalence of Linear Algebra Transition Systems(LATS); it is inefficient to eliminate states. We use linear polynomial programs to describe system actions, and then the completed trace equivalence of inhomogeneous linear transition systems is established. Subsequently, it proposed the theory and algorithm of approximate completed trace equivalence of linear algebra transition systems.

A stage suspended boom system is an automatic steeve system orchestrated by the PLC (programmable logic controller). Security and fault-recovering are two important properties. In this paper, we analyze and verify the boom system formally. We adopt the hybrid automaton to model the boom system. The forward reachability is used to verify the properties with the reachable states. We also present a case study to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed verification.

A big challenge for automatically analyzing patent claims written in Chinese language is how to obtain semantically information from claims which are usually a non-structured, but free text. In this paper, a set of techniques is been provided to extract some valuable semantically information from claims in Chinese language. The method could automatically discovery some usable semantically information from the patent claim texts by means of regular expression pattern and predefined ontology model. It can extract not only surface semantic information but also deeper semantic information. Furthermore, the extracted semantically information is automatically translated into web ontology language (OWL), a machine readable semantic structure specification. The work proposes a potential semantic solution in Chinese language patent analyzing based on patent claims, such as semantic searching, legal status and invalidation checking, and discovering new technique trends. A case study on electronic engineering domain patent claims is also provided.

Semantic Web applications meet a serious problem in practice: the shortage of semantic data (ontologies). Since the vast majority of data are still stored in relational databases, they are unavailable for the most next generation Web applications, such as Semantic Digital Libraries. Therefore, it becomes one of core challenges of Semantic Web whether applications can automatically retrieve semantic information from existed relational databases. This paper proposes a middle graph-based formal model language, W-graph, to help retrieve an ontology from existed relational database instances. The main idea is to execute SQL procedures to retrieve the semantic information of the database instances, transform semi-automatically the result sets into the medium model, then transform the model into the ontology complete automatically. This method not only maps schemata to the middle model, but also populates the model with data stored in databases.

The analysis of safety properties of a system is an important way to study correctness of design and implementation,and that is an urgent requirement in some systems, such as hybrid embedded systems. But it is always difficult to make good and accurate safety analyze. We proposed a formalism, TCSP for hybrid embedded systems, by introducing a new operator (emitting signal operator) into TCSP and giving details of its structural operational semantics to analyze formally safe specification of hybrid embedded systems. Not only has safety for actions of hybrid embedded systems been analyzed, but also safety for predicates.