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This paper presents the development and validation of the reading motivation questionnaire in an English as a foreign language context (RMQ-EFL) with Chinese secondary students. Data were collected from a sample of 293 secondary students in grades 10-11. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in determination of five factors (i.e., "reading efficacy," "reading enjoyment," "recognition," "involvement," and "compliance") with a strong psychometric basis. The significant correlations between these five RMQ-EFL factors and students' learning strategies in reading and between the five RMQ-EFL factors and students' English learning achievements further confirmed the concurrent and predictive validity of the RMQ-EFL. In addition, this study found that there were no significant differences in students' EFL reading motivation across gender and grade levels. The RMQ-EFL can be used both as an evaluation tool for teachers to assess students' EFL reading motivation, and as a research tool for researchers to explore the relationships between students' English reading motivation and their English reading behavior and performance or to assess the effectiveness of targeted reading motivation interventions.

Conjugated polymers (CPs) have shown promising potential in the field of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) photosynthesis. However, a deeper understanding of the interactions between building units and specific functional groups within the molecular skeleton is necessary to elucidate the mechanisms driving H2O2 generation. Herein, a series of typical donor‐acceptor (D‐A) conjugated polymers (B‐B, B‐CN, B‐DCN) were synthesized by introducing different amounts of cyano groups (‐CN) into the molecular skeleton. The strong electron withdrawing properties of cyano can greatly promote the effective separation and transfer of photogenerated charges between building units, resulting in an impressive efficiency of H2O2 generation (2128.5 μmol g−1 h−1) for B‐DCN, representing a 96‐fold enhancement compared to B‐B. More importantly, experimental results and theoretical calculations further revealed that the introduction of ‐CN can markedly reduce the adsorption energy (Ead) of O2, while serving as an active site to induce the conversion of crucial intermediate superoxide anions (⋅O2−) into singlet oxygen (1O2), achieving dual‐channel H2O2 generation (O2→⋅O2−→H2O2, O2→⋅O2−→1O2→H2O2). This work provides valuable insights into the design of efficient H2O2 photosynthesis materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governing greenwashing in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure is an important issue, but relevant literature is scant. Based on the data on Chinese A‐share listed firms from 2012 to 2021, we investigate the governance role of corporate digital transformation (DT) in ESG greenwashing and its influencing mechanism. We find that DT significantly inhibits ESG greenwashing. Moreover, DT mitigates ESG greenwashing by enhancing corporate green technology innovation (i.e., innovation channel), reducing information asymmetry (i.e., information channel), and increasing trade credit (i.e., resource channel). From the perspective of investor attention, we find that both retail investors' online opinions and institutional investors' site visits strengthen the inhibitory effect of DT on ESG greenwashing. Furthermore, such an inhibitory effect is more pronounced in large firms, industries with high competition, and regions with strong intellectual property protection. This research provides new insights and policy suggestions for governing corporate ESG greenwashing behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study performed a bioinformatics analysis of the CsNAC30 gene and examined its expression levels in cucumber leaves and roots under drought stress induced by PEG-6000. The bioinformatics analysis showed that the open reading frame (ORF) of CsNAC30 is 1254 bp, encoding a protein consisting of 417 amino acids. This protein is relatively unstable and hydrophilic, lacks transmembrane regions, and contains 49 phosphorylation sites. It also features a conserved NAM domain at the N-terminus. Homology and phylogenetic analyses indicate that CsNAC30 is a member of the NAC transcription factor family and is most closely related to the melon CMeNAC105 and the winter melon BhNAC96. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) revealed that CsNAC30 expression is induced by drought stress, with relative levels increasing in both leaves and roots following PEG treatment. Expression peaked at 6 h in leaves and 9 h in roots before decreasing. These findings suggest that CsNAC30 plays a role in the cucumber's response to drought stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been much research detailing how English as a foreign language (EFL) students attending English for academic purposes (EAP) courses struggle with a wide array of challenges when adjusting to university English-medium instruction, how these students use feedback to self-regulate their academic English learning and what contributes to or hinders this remain unknown. This study investigates Chinese university students' feedback behaviour and preferences in academic English course settings and their associations with English language self-efficacy within the context of recent feedback research in higher education. Apart from a dominant preference for teacher evaluative feedback, the students were found to be more likely to act on teacher feedback than to proactively seek feedback. English language self-efficacy was also shown to have significant influence on both feedback behaviour and preference. In the light of these results, this paper argues for a pressing need to extend the notion of feedback in academic English courses from viewing it as information transmission or 'telling' to recognising it as an iterative process whereby students make sense of information from various sources and use it to enhance their academic English learning.

Digital transformation has become a wave sweeping across the globe, affecting all industries with unprecedented speed and breadth, and it is urgent to introduce digital transformation into the corporate social responsibility (CSR) field. This study aims to investigate the impact of digital transformation on CSR performance and its influencing mechanism. The findings are as follows: (1) digital transformation can improve CSR performance; (2) from the dual perspective of internal drive and external governance, we figure out that digital transformation improves CSR performance by improving green management innovation and analyst coverage; (3) further analysis shows that the impact of digital transformation on CSR performance differs under different resource endowments and institutional environments (i.e., formal and informal institutions). Specifically, this promoting effect is only reflected incorporates more resources (i.e., human resources, cultural resources, employment resources, and economic resources), with strong environmental enforcement or high media attention. In the context of digital transformation, this study enriches the mechanism of improving CSR performance and is of great practical significance for corporates, markets, governments and other stakeholders. Meanwhile, the findings of this study are of practical guidance for promoting corporates to fulfill their social responsibility and achieve sustainable development goals in the digital era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important oilseed crop worldwide, and fatty acid composition is a major determinant of peanut oil quality. In the present study, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for nine fatty acid traits using the whole genome sequences of 160 representative Chinese peanut landraces and identified 6-1195 significant SNPs for different fatty acid contents. Particularly for oleic acid and linoleic acid, two peak SNP clusters on Arahy.09 and Arahy.19 were found to contain the majority of the significant SNPs associated with these two fatty acids. Additionally, a significant proportion of the candidate genes identified on Arahy.09 overlap with those identified in early studies, among which three candidate genes are of special interest. One possesses a significant missense SNP and encodes a known candidate gene FAD2A. The second gene is the gene closest to the most significant SNP for linoleic acid. It codes for an MYB protein that has been demonstrated to impact fatty acid biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. The third gene harbors a missense SNP and encodes a JmjC domain-containing protein. The significant phenotypic difference in the oleic acid/linoleic acid between the genotypes at the first and third candidate genes was further confirmed with PARMS analysis. In addition, we have also identified different candidate genes (i.e., Arahy.ZV39IJ, Arahy.F9E3EA, Arahy.X9ZZC1, and Arahy.Z0ELT9) for the remaining fatty acids. Our findings can help us gain a better understanding of the genetic foundation of peanut fatty acid contents and may hold great potential for enhancing peanut quality in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]