How Important Are Parental Career Expectations? A Subtle and Long-Term Influence on Adolescents' Career Aspirations.

Perceived parental expectations of adolescents have been linked to many high school consequences, yet few studies have examined the relationship between perceived parental expectations and adolescents' career aspirations, and potential mechanisms that underlie these associations. To address this research gap, this study investigated the reciprocal relationship between perceived parental expectations and career aspirations, as well as the mediating role of adolescents' career exploration among Chinese adolescents. Using a longitudinal design, a total of 2540 senior high school students (51.38% girls, Mage = 17.09 ± 0.69) participated in the study. The results showed that perceived parental expectations of adolescents have no direct impact on their subsequent career aspirations. A longitudinal mediating role of career exploration was found between perceived parental expectations and career aspirations. No gender differences were found in any of the pathways. These findings provided support for helping adolescents better set their career aspirations by acknowledging the critical role of parental expectations and the mediating role of career exploration.

Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of novel protopanoxadiol derivatives based PROTACs technology for the treatment of lung cancer.

Protopanoxadiol is a key active ingredient derived from Panax ginseng that is well-known to exhibit anti-tumor activity. Previous research focused on the natural protopanaxadiol derivative AD-1 has demonstrated that it possesses broad spectrum anti-tumor activities in vitro and in vivo. However, its limited activity, selectivity, and cell permeability have impeded its therapeutic application. Herein, a series of novel AD-1 derivatives were designed and synthesized based on proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC) technology by linking AD-1 at the C-3 and C-12 positions with pomalidomide through linkers of alkyl chain of differing lengths to achieve the goal of improving the efficacy of the parent compound. Among these synthesized PROTACs, the representative compound A05 exhibited the most potent anti-proliferative activity against A549 cells. Furthermore, mechanistic studies revealed that compound A05 was able to suppress MDM2 expression, disrupt interactions between p53 and MDM2 and readily induce apoptotic death via the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. Moreover, the in vivo assays revealed that compound A05 exhibited both anti-proliferative and anti-metastatic activities in the zebrafish tumor xenograft model with A549 cells. Together, our findings suggest that AD-1 based PROTACs associated with the degradation of MDM2 may have promising effects for the treatment of lung cancer and this work provide a foundation for future efforts to develop novel anti-tumor agents from natural products.

Discovery of Norbornene as a Novel Hydrophobic Tag Applied in Protein Degradation.

Hydrophobic tagging (HyT) is a potential therapeutic strategy for targeted protein degradation (TPD). Norbornene was discovered as an unprecedented hydrophobic tag in this study and was used to degrade the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) fusion protein by linking it to ALK inhibitors. The most promising degrader, Hyt-9, potently reduced ALK levels through Hsp70 and the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) in vitro without compensatory upregulation of ALK. Furthermore, Hyt-9 exhibited a significant tumor-inhibiting effect in vivo with moderate oral bioavailability. More importantly, norbornene can also be used to degrade the intractable enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) when tagged with the EZH2 inhibitor tazemetostat. Thus, the discovery of novel hydrophobic norbornene tags shows promise for the future development of TPD technology.

Upconversion Nanoparticles@Carbon Dots@Meso-SiO2 Sandwiched Core-Shell Nanohybrids with Tunable Dual-Mode Luminescence for 3D Anti-Counterfeiting Barcodes.

Development of advanced fluorescent materials for constructing a secure and unclonable encryption is urgently required; however, their application in anti-counterfeiting applications is a great challenge. In this work, we proposed and synthesized a new type of upconversion nanoparticles@carbon dots@meso-SiO2 nanohybrids by integrating two fluorescent materials of lanthanide-doped NaYF4 upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) and carbon dots (CDs) into mesoporous silica (mSiO2) to produce a novel sandwichlike core-shell structure and a dual-mode fluorescence from UCNPs and CDs. By tailoring the UCNP core of different upconversion luminescence, all three kinds of dual-mode luminescent UCNPs@CDs@mSiO2 nanohybrids exhibited typical RGB upconversion luminescence under a 980 nm laser and blue downconversion luminescence under a 365 nm UV light. Due to strong the hydrophilic nature of the nanohybrids, they can be further fabricated into environmentally benign luminescent inks for creating highly secured, fluorescent-based, three-dimensional anti-counterfeiting barcodes via inkjet printing. The resultant UCNPs@CDs@mSiO2 inks with a dual-mode and tunable luminescence nature endow the inkjet-printing barcodes with an extremely high encoding capacity and high security. Such dual-mode fluorescent inks and barcodes are simple to fabricate, easy to view, efficient for coding, and difficult to clone, thus making them promising nanomaterials for anti-counterfeiting applications.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of isochroman-4-one hybrids bearing piperazine moiety as antihypertensive agent candidates.

7,8-Dihydroxy-3-methyl-isochromanone-4 (XJP), is a polyphenolic natural product with moderate antihypertensive activity. To obtain new agents with stronger potency and safer profile, we employed XJP and naftopidil as the lead compounds to design and synthesize a novel class of hybrids as antihypertensive agent candidates. In the present study, a series of hybrids (6a-r) of XJP bearing arylpiperazine moiety, which is identified as the pharmacophore of naftopidil, were designed and synthesized as novel α1-adrenergic receptor antagonists. The biological evaluation showed that target compounds 6c, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6m and 6q possessed potent in vitro vasodilation potency and α1-adrenergic receptor antagonistic activity. Furthermore, the most potent compound 6e significantly reduced the systolic and diastolic blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs), which was comparable to that of naftopidil, and it had no observable effects on the basal heart rate, suggesting that 6e deserves to be further investigated as a potential clinical candidate for the treatment of hypertension.

Assessment of Potential Heavy Metal Contamination in the Peri-urban Agricultural Soils of 31 Provincial Capital Cities in China.

To obtain a general understanding of heavy metal contamination in peri-urban agricultural soils in China, this study investigates the concentrations of eight heavy metals, i.e., Cd, Pb, Zn, As, Cu, Cr, Hg, and Ni, in the peri-urban agricultural soils of 31 provincial capital cities in China. The data were obtained via exhaustive literature searches in both the Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) as well as from statistical yearbooks published in China. To evaluate the pollution status of each city and identify a variety of potential sources, various contamination indexes, e.g., the enrichment factor (EF), geoaccumulation index (Igeo), and integrated pollution index (IPI), were calculated based on the peri-urban agricultural soil dataset. The results of the analysis of the heavy metal concentrations, EF values and Igeo values showed that the peri-urban agricultural soils were enriched in most heavy metals, and Cd and Hg concentrations greatly exceeded the Chinese Environmental Protection Administration (CEPA) guidelines. The IPI results showed that 15 of the 31 cities, i.e., 48%, exhibited varying extents of heavy metal pollution. Although the mean IPI value for peri-urban agricultural soils in all cities (0.83) was slightly lower than that for urban soil (0.9), the IPI values for peri-urban agricultural soils from 65% of the cities were greater than those for urban soils, indicating that peri-urban agricultural soils are more polluted than urban soils in these large cities. These results are important for guiding future research on heavy metal pollution in peri-urban agricultural soils of presently expanding Chinese cities.

Synthesis of Lanthanide-Ion-Doped NaYF4 RGB Up-Conversion Nanoparticles for Anti-Counterfeiting Application.

Well-defined and mono-dispersed lanthanide-ion-doped NaYF4 up-conversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) were synthesized via thermal decomposition using lanthanide oleate as the precursor. By rational selecting the dopant pairs of the doped lanthanide ions (Y3+, Yb3+, Er3+ and Tm3+) with accurate molar ratios, three-primary-color (RGB) UCNPs which exhibited green (UCNPs-G), blue (UCNPs-B) and red (UCNPs-R) fluorescence, respectively, were prepared. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns showed that the three UCNPs were purely hexagonal-phase NaYF4 crystals. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images revealed that the synthesized UCNPs exhibited well-defined nanosphere morphology with uniform size distribution. The average diameters were 23.95±3.35 nm for UCNPs-G, 20.63±2.59 nm for UCNPs-B, and 19.24±2.37 nm for UCNPs-R, respectively. After surface modification employing polyacrylic acid (PAA) as modifier, the obtained UCNPs were converted to be hydrophilic, which can be used as fillers to construct luminescent polymer films and luminescent ink in anti-counterfeiting application.

Hydrothermal Synthesis of PAA-Coated NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+ Nanophosphors with Predicted Morphology, Phase and Enhanced Upconversion Luminescence Properties.

In this study, well-defined PAA-coated NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+ nanophosphors were synthesized via a poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) mediated hydrothermal process. The rational control of initial reaction conditions, such as hydrothermal temperature, pH value of precursor-solution, added amount of PAA, and molecular weight of PAA ligand, resulted in upconversion of NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+ phosphors with varying crystal phases (α and ß) and morphologies (e.g., nanosphere, submicrorod, microrod, microtube, and microprism). By assessing the upconversion luminescent properties of the synthesized NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+ phosphors upon excitation by 980 nm infrared light, it was demonstrated that the ß-phase NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+ phosphors generally presented stronger upconversion luminescent than α-phase NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+ phosphors and orthorhombic phase of YF3:Yb3+, Er3+ sample. Additionally, the ß-phase NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+ phosphors with hollow microtube morphology presented higher upconversion luminescent intensity than phosphors of other morphologies. This may be due to microtubes having larger surface area (inner and outer surfaces), which promoted the absorption efficiency under similar excitation conditions, therefore generating higher luminescent intensity. Findings form this study suggest for precisely controlled growth of other complex rare earth fluoride compounds and provide a reference for exploration of component-, phase- and morphology-dependent upconversion luminescence properties.

Porous Magnetic Pseudo-Carbon Paste Electrode Electrochemical Biosensor for DNA Detection.

A novel and sensitive electrochemical sensor based on magnetic porous pseudo-carbon paste electrode (MPPCPE) for DNA detection was described in this study. The MPPCPE was fabricated by mixing polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) microspheres, as template, graphite powders, as filler, pyrrole, as precursor of polymer and magnetic powder. It was demonstrated that the fabricated MPPCPE had more sensitivity for detecting DNA when compared with magnetic carbon paste electrode (MPCPE). Results from anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV) experiments showed that the Ag peak current versus concentration of complementary DNA at MPPCPE had two linear regions. The first region demonstrated linearity over a concentration range from 0.5 to 20 nM, with correlation coefficient of 0.992, while the second linear region had concentration of complementary DNA at 0.005 to 0.1 nM range, with correlation coefficient of 0.957. The detection limit was as low as 0.005 nM and the electrochemical sensor was easy to preserve for a long time, and had good reusability and stability.

Arsenic Speciation in Organisms from two Large Shallow Freshwater Lakes in China.

This study measured the elemental and species concentrations of arsenic (As) in the water, sediments and food webs of two shallow Chinese freshwater lakes. Organic As species were widely detected in various organisms from the two lakes (60%-100% of the total). Among these organisms, dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) was predominant in most of the samples. The average concentrations and corresponding proportions were 0.59 mg/kg, 81% in fish; 3.24 mg/kg, 70.63% in zoobenthos; and 1.34 mg/kg, 79% in plants. The average concentrations and corresponding proportions of monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) and inorganic As were much lower, ranging from n.d. (not detected) to 1.94 mg/kg and from n.d. to 1.54 mg/kg, with an average proportion of 14 and 7.4%, respectively. In Lake Taihu, the mean As concentrations in different fish tissues were generally low and in the following order: eggs (0.47) < skin (0.62) < muscles (0.91) < gills (1.65) < livers (5.47) mg/kg. DMA occupied 75%-100% of the total As species, while MMA and inorganic As were much less prevalent.

Middle Pleistocene bifaces from Fengshudao (Bose Basin, Guangxi, China).

The Bose (also Baise) Basin in Guangxi, southern China is well known for the presence of Paleolithic bifacially worked implements. The Bose Basin handaxes came to the attention of the international scientific community primarily for two reasons: 1) the age at 803 ka (thousands of years), places it at the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition; and 2) the presence of bifaces tests the validity of the Movius Line and whether it was time to simply discard the model. However, questions were almost immediately raised because the age was based on the supposed association of Australasian tektites that may or may not have been redeposited, and at the time of the initial publications all of the Bose Basin handaxes were surface collected. Thus, whether the Bose bifaces can necessarily be associated with the tektites and whether the tektites themselves were redeposited are important considerations. Here, we report the findings from recent excavations from the Fengshudao site located in the Bose Basin. The primary findings are: 1) the in situ excavation of tektites, which do not appear to have been redeposited, in association with bifaces from one stratigraphic level from one site indicates that the age of these stone tools should be around 803 ka; 2) the Fengshudao hominins were utilizing locally-available quartz, quartzite, and sandstone river cobbles; and 3) in a number of aspects, the Fengshudao handaxe morphology differs from the typical western Acheulean, and are quite large and thick compared with even the bifaces from other regions of eastern Asia (e.g., Luonan Basin, China; Imjin/Hantan River Basins, Korea). Although Fengshudao may be a case of western Acheulean hominins dispersing into the Bose Basin from nearby South Asia, it is quite possible that the Fengshudao bifaces can be considered an example of convergent evolution.

Disorder-Invariant Implicit Neural Representation.

Implicit neural representation (INR) characterizes the attributes of a signal as a function of corresponding coordinates which emerges as a sharp weapon for solving inverse problems. However, the expressive power of INR is limited by the spectral bias in the network training. In this paper, we find that such a frequency-related problem could be greatly solved by re-arranging the coordinates of the input signal, for which we propose the disorder-invariant implicit neural representation (DINER) by augmenting a hash-table to a traditional INR backbone. Given discrete signals sharing the same histogram of attributes and different arrangement orders, the hash-table could project the coordinates into the same distribution for which the mapped signal can be better modeled using the subsequent INR network, leading to significantly alleviated spectral bias. Furthermore, the expressive power of the DINER is determined by the width of the hash-table. Different width corresponds to different geometrical elements in the attribute space, e.g., 1D curve, 2D curved-plane and 3D curved-volume when the width is set as 1, 2 and 3, respectively. More covered areas of the geometrical elements result in stronger expressive power. Experiments not only reveal the generalization of the DINER for different INR backbones (MLP versus SIREN) and various tasks (image/video representation, phase retrieval, refractive index recovery, and neural radiance field optimization) but also show the superiority over the state-of-the-art algorithms both in quality and speed.

Concentrations of heavy metals in water, sediments and aquatic organisms from a closed realgar mine.

Mining activities can result in severe heavy metal contamination in freshwater ecosystems and lead to significant health risks. In this study, eight heavy metal concentrations in the water, sediments and aquatic organisms, including eighteen fish species, two shrimp species, one crab species and one amphibian frog species of the abandoned Shimen Realgar Mine area, were analysed. The results showed that most of the heavy metals detected in water, sediments and fish from the mine area were at relatively high levels, and historical realgar mining activities were a major source of arsenic (As) contamination in this area. We concluded that heavy metal bioaccumulation is species- and tissue-specific and is different for each element and sampling site. The concentration of heavy metals in fish was generally lower than that of the other aquatic organism species; these concentrations varied among different species with different feeding habits and habitats. The study showed that heavy metal concentrations were lower in muscle tissue than in other tissues (e.g. liver, skin, exoskeleton). A significant positive correlation between the As concentrations in sediment and fish was observed, indicating that sediment is an important factor affecting As accumulation in fish; thus, for fish protection, controlling the sources of water and sediment contamination is essential. Furthermore, the estimated daily intake (EDI) of all metals was acceptable, and the corresponding target hazard quotient (THQ) and total target hazard quotient (TTHQ) values were less than 1; hence, there was no serious health risk through fish consumption in this area.

Advances of bioorthogonal coupling reactions in drug development.

Currently, bioorthogonal coupling reactions have garnered considerable interest due to their high substrate selectivity and less restrictive reaction conditions. During recent decades, bioorthogonal coupling reactions have emerged as powerful tools in drug development. This review describes the current applications of bioorthogonal coupling reactions in compound library building mediated by the copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction and in situ click chemistry or conjunction with other techniques; druggability optimization with 1,2,3-triazole groups; and intracellular self-assembly platforms with ring tension reactions, which are presented from the viewpoint of drug development. There is a reasonable prospect that bioorthogonal coupling reactions will accelerate the screening of lead compounds, the designing strategies of small molecules and expand the variety of designed compounds, which will be a new trend in drug development in the future.

Small-Molecule Hydrophobic Tagging: A Promising Strategy of Druglike Technology for Targeted Protein Degradation.

Targeted protein degradation (TPD) technologies have catalyzed a paradigm shift in therapeutic strategies and offer innovative avenues for drug design. Hydrophobic tags (HyTs) are bifunctional TPD molecules consisting of a ″lipophilic small-molecule tags″ group and a small-molecule ligand for the target protein. Despite the vast potential of HyTs, they have received relatively limited attention as a promising frontier. Leveraging their lower molecular weight and reduced numbers of hydrogen bond donors/acceptors (HBDs/HBAs) in comparison with proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs), HyTs present a compelling approach for enhancing druglike properties. In this Perspective, we explore the diverse range of HyT structures and their corresponding degradation mechanisms, thereby illuminating their broad applicability in targeting a diverse array of proteins, including previously elusive targets. Moreover, we scrutinize the challenges and opportunities entailed in developing this technology as a viable and fruitful strategy for drug discovery.

Potential to Reduce Chemical Fertilizer Application in Tea Plantations at Various Spatial Scales.

Tea is the main commercial crop grown in China, and excessive application of chemical fertilizers in tea plantations is common. However, the potential to reduce chemical fertilizer use in tea plantations is unclear. In this study, Zhejiang Province was selected as the research object to systematically analyze the potential for tea plantation chemical-fertilizer reduction at different spatial scales. The geographic information system-based analytic hierarchy process method and Soil and Water Assessment Tool model were used to determine the chemical fertilizer reduction potential at the province scale and watershed scale, respectively. At the field scale, two consecutive years of field experiments were conducted on a tea plantation. Province-level analysis showed that 51.7% of the area had an average total fertilization intensity greater than 350 kg/hm2 and a high reduction potential. Watershed analysis revealed that chemical fertilizer reduction had better potential in reducing total nitrogen and total phosphorus inputs to runoff in the short term, whereas 50% organic fertilizer substitution was the best strategy to achieve long-term effects. The field experiments further proved that organic fertilizer substitution balanced tea growth and environmental protection. This study provides a useful method to investigate strategies to reduce chemical fertilizer use in tea-growing areas.

Tough, Self-Recoverable, Spiropyran (SP3) Bearing Polymer Beads Incorporated PAM Hydrogels with Sole Mechanochromic Behavior.

Spiropyran-containing hydrogels that can respond to external stimuli such as temperature, light, and stress have attracted extensive attention in recent years. However, most of them are generally dual or multiple stimuli-responsive to external stimuli, and the interplay of different stimulus responses is harmful to their sensitivity. Herein, spiropyran bearing polymer beads incorporated PAM (poly(AM-co-MA/DMSP3)) hydrogels with sole mechanochromic properties were synthesized by emulsion polymerization of acrylamide (AM) and methyl acrylate (MA) in the presence of spiropyran dimethacrylate mechanophore (DMSP3) crosslinker. Due to the hydrophobic nature of MA and DMSP3, the resultant hydrogel afforded a rosary structure with DMSP3 bearing polymer beads incorporated in the PAM network. It is found that the chemical component (e.g., AM, MA, and DMSP3 concentrations) significantly affect the mechanical and mechanoresponsive properties of the as-obtained poly(AM-co-MA/DMSP3) hydrogel. Under optimal conditions, poly(AM-co-MA/DMSP3) hydrogel displayed high mechanical properties (tensile stress of 1.91 MPa, a tensile strain of 815%, an elastic modulus of 0.67 MPa, and tearing energy of 3920 J/m2), and a good self-recovery feature. Owing to the mechanoresponsive of SP3, the hydrogels exhibited reversible color changes under force-induced deformation and relaxed recovery states. More impressive, the poly(AM-co-MA/DMSP3) hydrogel showed a linear correlation between tensile strain and chromaticity (x, y) as well as a stain and resting time-dependent color recovery rate. This kind of hydrogel is believed to have great potential in the application of outdoor strain sensors.

Geochemical Fractionation and Source Identification of Pb and Cd in Riparian Soils and River Sediments from Three Lower Reaches Located in the Pearl River Delta.

Pb and Cd accumulation in riparian soils and river sediments in river basins is a challenging pollution issue due to the persistence and bioaccumulation of these two trace metals. Understanding the migration characteristics and input sources of these metals is the key to preventing metal pollution. This study was conducted to explore the contents, geochemical fractionation, and input sources of Pb and Cd in riparian soils and river sediments from three lower reaches of the Pearl River Delta located in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The total concentration of all Pb and Cd values exceeded the background values to varying degrees, and the exchangeable fraction of Cd in riparian soils and river sediments accounted for the largest proportion, while that of Pb was dominated by the residual fraction. Geoaccumulation index calculations showed that in the riparian soils, the average accumulation degree of Pb (0.52) in the Beijiang River (BJR) was the highest, while that of Cd (2.04) in the Xijiang River (XJR) was the highest. Unlike that in riparian soils, the maximum accumulation of Pb (0.76) and Cd (3.01) in river sediments both occurred in the BJR. Furthermore, the enrichment factor results also showed that Pb and Cd in the riparian soils and river sediments along the BJR were higher than those in the XJR and Dongjiang River (DJR). The relationship between enrichment factors and nonresidual fractions further proved that the enrichment factors of Cd were significantly correlated with the nonresidual fractions of Cd, which may imply various anthropogenic sources of Cd in the three reaches. Moreover, source identification based on principal component analysis (PCA) and Pb isotope ratio analysis indicated that riparian soils and river sediments have inconsistent pollution source structures. The PCA results showed that Pb and Cd were homologous inputs in the DJR, and there were significant differences only in the riparian soils and river sediments. Pb isotope tracing results further showed that the bedrock of high geological background from upstream may be the main reason for Cd accumulation in the XJR. However, the ultrahigh accumulation of Cd in the BJR is mainly caused by the input of the upstream mining and metallurgy industry. The control of upstream input sources will be the key to the prevention of trace metal pollution in these regions.

Identification of new potent anticancer derivatives through simplifying the core structure and modification on their 14- hydroxyl group from oridonin.

The natural product oridonin has the potential to be a broad-spectrum antineoplastic agent. To develop oridonin analogues with high potency, a series of novel oridonin analogues were designed and synthesized by removing the multiple hydroxyl groups of parent compound. The representative analogues 14, 19, and 26 exhibited potent anticancer effects against K562, MDA-MB-231, SMMC-7721, and MCF-7 cells. Further structural modification on their 14-OH generated more potent derivatives 16n, 21d, and 28d respectively, in which the IC50 value of compound 16n was 50-fold more potent than parent oridonin in K562 cells. Furthermore, compound 16n significantly induced the cell cycle arrest of K562 cells at the G2 phase and increased the fraction of apoptotic cells. Importantly, compounds 16n, 21d, and 28d exhibited good antitumor activities in H22 allograft mice in vivo. These results suggest that compounds 16n, 21d, and 28d deserve further development as promising candidates for the treatment of cancers.

How Parenting Styles Link Career Decision-Making Difficulties in Chinese College Students? The Mediating Effects of Core Self-Evaluation and Career Calling.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between parenting styles and career decision-making difficulties in college students, and uncovered the mediating roles of core self-evaluation and career calling. A total of 1,127 undergraduates were recruited to complete the questionnaires about parenting styles, core self-evaluation, career calling, and career decision-making difficulties. The results showed that: (1) Positive and negative parenting styles could positively predict career decision-making difficulties in college students. (2) Core self-evaluation and career calling mediated the relationship between parenting styles and career decision-making difficulties. Sequential dual mediators only found in which positive paternal and maternal parenting styles predict career decision-making difficulties through core self-evaluation and career calling. (3) Further analysis revealed gender difference in the relationship between parenting styles and career decision-making difficulties. The relation between paternal positive parenting style and career decision-making difficulties was significant in male students, but absent in female students; the relation between maternal positive parenting and career decision-making difficulties and the relation between paternal negative parenting and career calling were significant in female students, but absent in male students; and the relation between career calling and career decision-making difficulties was greater in male than in female. The current study expanded and deepened those existing understandings about the relationship between parenting styles and adolescents' career decisions, so as to further reveal its internal mechanism and provide more reasonable suggestions and targeted guidance for career counseling.