Control strategy under pressure situations: performance pressure conditionally enhances proactive control.

Previous research and theories have demonstrated that attentional control plays a crucial role in explaining the choking phenomenon (i.e., the performance decrements) under pressure situations. Attentional control is thought to function through two distinct control strategies: proactive control (i.e., a sustained and anticipatory strategy of control) and reactive control (i.e., a transient strategy of control). However, little is known about how performance pressure affects these control strategies. The present study was designed to address this issue. Participants were instructed to complete a continuous performance task (AX-CPT40) under pressure situations. The results showed that individuals under high-pressure situations tended to use proactive control rather than reactive control. Moreover, performance pressure resulted in a more liberal response bias following an A-cue, consistent with an increased use of proactive control. Importantly, the proactive behavioral index calculated on RTs showed that the increased proactive control mainly occurred in the short interval between the cue and probe, but not in the long interval. This suggests that individuals under high-pressure situations are unlikely to employ a proactive control strategy in a situation that requires more attentional resources. In summary, our results provide initial evidence that performance pressure conditionally enhances proactive control, which contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamic adjustment of control strategies under pressure situations.

Impact of stress hyperglycemia ratio, derived from glycated albumin or hemoglobin A1c, on mortality among ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients.

BACKGROUND: Stress hyperglycemia ratio (SHR), associated with adverse outcomes in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), has several definitions. This study aims to assess the prognostic value of SHR, derived from hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) or glycated albumin (GA), to mortality. METHODS: The study comprised 1,643 STEMI patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in two centers. SHR1 was calculated using fasting blood glucose (FBG)/GA, while SHR2 was calculated using the formula FBG/(1.59*HbA1c-2.59). The primary endpoints were in-hospital death and all-cause mortality, with a median follow-up duration of 1.56 years. RESULTS: Higher SHR1 and SHR2 values are associated with increased risks of in-hospital death and all-cause mortality. Each standard deviation increase in SHR1 corresponded to a 39% and 22% escalation in in-hospital death and all-cause mortality, respectively. The respective increases for SHR2 were 51% and 26%. Further examinations validated these relationships as linear. Additionally, the areas under the curve (AUC) for in-hospital death were not significantly different between SHR1 and SHR2 (p > 0.05). Incorporating SHR1 or SHR2 into the base model significantly improved the discrimination and risk reclassification for in-hospital and all-cause mortality. A subgroup analysis revealed that the effects of SHR1 and SHR2 were more pronounced in patients with hypercholesteremia. CONCLUSION: SHR1 and SHR2 have emerged as robust and independent prognostic markers for STEMI patients undergoing PCI. The SHR calculation based on either HbA1c or GA can provide additional predictive value for mortality beyond traditional risk factors, helping to identify high-risk STEMI patients.

Dispositional mindfulness mediates the relationship between conscientiousness and mental health-related issues in adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic is seriously affecting the mental health of adolescents and triggering a series of mental health-related issues. The present study investigates the relationships between conscientiousness, dispositional mindfulness (DM), and adolescents' mental health-related issues including anxiety, depression, and perceived stress during this time. In this study, after obtaining informed consent from participants' parents, 5994 Chinese adolescents voluntarily and anonymously completed an online survey. Conscientiousness was found to be negatively associated with anxiety, depression, and perceived stress. It was found to be positively associated with DM, which, in turn, negatively predicts anxiety, depression, and perceived stress. Conscientiousness is thus related to mental health-related issues, and this relationship is mediated by DM. This mediation effect is stronger in females than in males. These findings provide new and strong evidence for the protective role of conscientiousness and DM in adolescents' mental health-related issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Systematical NMR analysis of swainsonine, a mycotoxin from endophytic fungus Alternaria oxytropis.

Swainsonine (SW, 1), a unique indolizine with poly-hydroxyl groups, was re-isolated from the plant endophytic fungus Alternaria oxytropis. The structure (including planar structure and relative configuration) was systematically elucidated by NMR spectra (including 1 H, 13 C, 1 H-1 H COSY, HMQC, HMBC, and NOESY spectra in DMSO-d6 and in CD3 OD); 1 H NMR spectra of the modified Mosher's products were first used to determine the absolute configuration of SW. More importantly, the complex coupled features of H-7α, H-7ß, and H-6α in the 1 H NMR spectrum of (1) were analyzed in details, which will provide aids for the planar and relative configuration determination of analogs.

Time-Dependent Seismic Reliability of Coastal Bridge Piers Subjected to Nonuniform Corrosion.

Coastal bridge piers suffer random performance deterioration owing to the presence of complex nonuniform corrosion characteristics and material uncertainties. Some of these piers will also be threatened by random earthquakes during a long-term service period, and therefore, structural safety needs to be probabilistically assessed by the seismic reliability method. To deal with this problem, we present a method to calculate the time-dependent reliability of the coastal bridge pier, comprehensively considering the randomness of a seismic event, nonuniform corrosion, and material uncertainty. First, the time-dependent M-N interaction diagrams are established by using the Monte Carlo simulation method. On the basis of the interaction diagrams, the moment resistance reduction function and time-dependent moment resistance distribution are determined. Subsequently, the moment demand under the seismic load is determined using the Poisson model and the response acceleration spectrum. Then, the formulas to calculate the time-dependent reliability of a nonuniform corroded pier are derived on the basis of the theorem of total probability. The proposed method is illustrated with a case study of a coastal bridge pier. It was found that the increase in corrosion damage would obviously increase time-dependent reliability. Furthermore, the increase in submerged zone height delayed the year when the failure section shifts from the pier bottom to the bottom of the splash and tidal zone, and it reduces the failure probability of the coastal pier. The research results presented herein show that the nonuniform corrosion manifestations influence the failure mode-related time-dependent seismic reliability of the coastal bridge pier.

Spillover effects of competition outcome on future risky cooperation.

There is growing evidence that risky cooperation is regulated by the experience of previous interactions with others. However, it is unclear how the evaluation of outcomes from competitive interactions can affect individuals' subsequent cooperative behavior. To address this issue, we examined how participants cooperated with a partner having just competed with them. While competing, participants (N = 164) were randomly assigned to receive one of four types of outcome feedback regarding their performance (victory vs. defeat vs. uncertain vs. no competition (control)). We found that both the experience of defeats and of uncertainty as competitive outcomes exerted a negative impact on the extent to which participants then engaged in cooperative behavior with their recent opponents. This only occurred when such subsequent cooperative behavior involved a high potential for incurring personal costs but not when there was no risk of incurring personal costs and a positive return. Finally, mediation analysis revealed that the effect of defeat was mediated by participants' level of interpersonal trust and the extent to which participants were willing to cooperate, while the effect of the uncertain competitive outcome was mediated only by the extent to which participants were willing to cooperate. These findings offer novel insights into how risky cooperation is modulated by previous competition.

Color-Tunable Ultralong Organic Phosphorescence: Commercially Available Triphenylmethylamine for UV-Light Response and Anticounterfeiting.

Due to the unclear mechanism and lack of effective design for color-tunable ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP) in a single-component molecule, the development of new types of single-component UOP materials with color-tunable property remains challenging. Herein, commercially available triphenylmethylamine-based single-component phosphors featuring color-tunablity and ultralong lifetime (0.56 s) are reported. The changed afterglow colors from cyan to orange were observed after different wavelengths of UV excitation. Crystal structure and calculation studies show that multiple emission centers in the aggregated states may be responsible for the color-tunablity. In addition, visual probing of UV light (from 260 to 370 nm) and colorful anti-counterfeiting were conducted. More importantly, UV light ranging from 350 to 370 nm could be detected with the minimal interval of 2 nm. The findings provide a new type of single-component color-tunable UOP materials and shed new light on mechanism and design for such materials.

Deep-trap dominated degradation of the endurance characteristics in OFET memory with polymer charge-trapping layer.

Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) with polymer charge-trapping dielectric, which exhibit many advantages over Si-based memory devices such as low cost, light weight, and flexibility, still suffer challenges in practical application due to the unsatisfied endurance characteristics and even the lack of fundamental of behind mechanism. Here, we revealed that the degradation of endurance characteristics of pentacene OFET with poly(2-vinyl naphthalene) (PVN) as charge-storage layer is dominated by the deep hole-traps in PVN by using the photo-stimulated charge de-trapping technique with the fiber-coupled monochromatic-light probes. The depth distribution of hole-traps in PVN film of pentacene OFET is also provided.

Gender differences in the effects of competition and cooperation on risk-taking under ambiguity.

Decision theories have made a distinction between risk (i.e., known probabilities) and ambiguity (i.e., unknown probabilities). Prior work has examined the effect of competition and cooperation on risk-taking under risk. However, little is known about whether and how competition and cooperation affect risk-taking under ambiguity and the role of gender in this effect. The current study addresses this research gap. In the present study, a shortened version of a balloon analogue risk task was used to assess risk-taking under ambiguity. The participants completed this task in competition against a peer, in cooperation with a peer, or alone. The results showed that the participants took more risks in the competition and cooperation conditions than in the individual condition, but no differences were found between the competition and cooperation conditions. More important, gender modulated these effects. First, these effects were driven by males, but not by females. Second, males showed more risk-taking under ambiguity than females in the competitive situation, but not in the cooperative situation. Overall, this work contributes to understanding the effect of social interaction on risky decisions under ambiguity.

How does social competition affect true and false recognition?

Memory is highly susceptible to distortions, which can exert serious consequences in daily life. Despite this, we still know little about the role of factors that comprise social contexts in which memory processes occur. In the present study, we attempted to address this issue by examining how social competition influences true and false recognition. Participants performed a version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm designed to lure them into producing both true and false recognition either in competition against or independently of another person. We found that participants in the competition group showed lower levels of true and false recognition than those in the control group. Signal-detection analyses revealed that participants in both groups showed equivalent memory sensitivity for true recognition, while those in the competition group exhibited a decreased sensitivity for false recognition, which implies enhanced item-specific encoding during social competition. Moreover, participants in the competition group showed a more conservative response bias for both true and false recognition at retrieval than those in the control group, indicating a shift towards conservatism in decision strategy for both true and false recognition during social competition. The results provide compelling evidence for a decision-based reduction of true recognition and both encoding-based and decision-based reductions of false recognition under competitive contexts. Therefore, these novel findings may have implications both for understanding the powerful role of social competition on true and false memories and for understanding the potential role of social competition on other aspects of memory processes.

Enhancement of Memory Properties of Pentacene Field-Effect Transistor by the Reconstruction of an Inner Vertical Electric Field with an n-Type Semiconductor Interlayer.

Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) as nonvolatile memory units are essential for lightweight and flexible electronics, yet the practical application remains a great challenge. The positively charged defects in pentacene film at the interface between pentacene and polymer caused by environmental conditions, as revealed by theoretical and experimental research works, result in unacceptable high programming/erasing (P/E) gate voltages in pentacene OFETs with polymer charge-trapping dielectric. Here, we report a pentacene OFET in which an n-type semiconductor layer was intercalated between a polymer and a blocking insulator. In this structure, the hole barrier caused by the defect layer can be adjusted by the thickness and charge-carrier density of the n-type semiconductor interlayer based on the electrostatic induction theory. This idea was implemented in an OFET structure Cu/pentacene/poly(2-vinyl naphthalene) (PVN)/ZnO/SiO2/Si(p+), which shows low P/E gate voltages, large field-effect mobility (0.73 cm2 V-1 s-1), fast P/E speeds (responding to a pulse width of 5 × 10-4 s), and long retention time in air.

Syntheses of four porous 3-D Cd(ii) metal-organic frameworks from a new multidentate ligand 5-(imidazol-1-yl)-N'-(pyridin-4-ylmethylene) nicotinohydrazide and their characterization and adsorption properties.

Herein, a new multidentate ligand, 5-(imidazol-1-yl)-N'-(pyridin-4-ylmethylene) nicotinohydrazide (L), with an acylhydrazone group was synthesized and characterized. Subsequently, four porous Cd(ii)-MOFs, i.e. [Cd(L)(NO3)] n (1), [Cd(L)Cl] n (2), [Cd(L)Br] n (3), and [Cd(L)I] n (4), were assembled using the ligand L by a solvothermal method and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and powder X-ray diffraction. Structural analysis shows that the coordination environments around Cd(ii) in all the four compounds are different due to the different coordinated anions. Among them, the coordination geometries and the arrangement of five-coordinated groups of the compound 1 containing the coordinated NO3 - anions are significantly different from those of the other three compounds containing halides. However, all the four MOFs have similar one-dimensional rhombic channels. In these channels, both the nitrate ions and the halide ions are attached to the inner walls of the pores. The CO2 adsorption properties of 1-4 were studied at 273 K, and the results showed that these compounds exhibit different adsorption capacities for CO2 due to the presence of different ions in their pores.