Color Rendering Index over 95 Achieved by Using Light Recycling Process Based on Hybrid Remote-Type Red Quantum-Dot Components Applied to Conventional LED Lighting Devices.

Red color conversion materials have often been used in conventional white LEDs (light-emitting diodes) to enhance the insufficient deep-red component and thus improve the color-rendering property. Quantum dots (QDs) are one of the candidates for this due to their flexibility in controlling the emission wavelength, which is attributed to the quantum confinement effect. Two types of remote QD components, i.e., QD films and QD caps, were prepared and applied to conventional white LED illumination to improve the color-rendering properties. Thanks to the red component near 630 nm caused by the QD components, the color rendering indices (CRIs) of both Ra and R9 could be increased to over 95. It was found that both the diffusing nature of the reflector and the light recycling process in the vertical cavity between the bottom reflector and the top optical films play important roles in improving the color conversion efficiency of remote QD components. The present study showed that the proper application of remote QDs combined with a suitable optical cavity can control the correlated color temperature of the illumination over a wide range, thus realizing different color appearances of white LED illumination. In addition, a high CRI of over 95 could be achieved due to the sufficient excitation from fewer QDs, due to the strong optical cavity effect.

The More Interest, the Less Effort Cost Perception and Effort Avoidance.

The present study aims to investigate what factors determine students' engagement in mathematics. We examined the predictive relationships between interest, effort cost (i.e., the cost of making the effort), and three forms of academic engagement: persistence, cognitive engagement, and effort avoidance. In addition, we examined gender differences in these relationships. We recruited 546 8th and 9th graders for this study. Consistent with previous research, interest worked as a strong positive predictor of persistence and cognitive engagement, and it predicted effort avoidance negatively. Moreover, interest negatively predicted the perception of effort cost, which in turn positively predicted effort avoidance. Gender differences were found in the mean values of effort avoidance and in the prediction by interest of the perception of effort cost. Male students reported higher effort avoidance than female students, and the prediction by interest of the perception of effort cost was stronger among female students than among male students. These findings provide new insights into students' engagement in mathematics and the role of interest and effort cost in it.

The Distinct Roles of Proximal and Distal Utility Values in Academic Behaviors: Future Time Perspective as a Moderator.

Utility value for long-term goals, named distal utility value, can be differentiated from utility value for short-term goals, named proximal utility value. The purposes of the present study were (1) to examine the distinct roles of proximal and distal utility value in predicting academic outcomes, (2) to test the mediating role of effort cost in the relationship between these two types of utility value and academic outcomes, and (3) to examine whether future time perspective moderates the role of distal utility value. The results from two independent studies provided compelling evidence for the distinct roles of proximal and distal utility value in predicting academic outcomes, as well as the mediating role of effort cost and the moderating role of future time perspective. Study 1, in which 598 Chinese students participated, demonstrated that proximal utility value negatively predicted effort cost, which in turn negatively predicted academic choice intentions. However, distal utility value did not predict effort cost but did directly predict academic choice intentions. Just as in Study 1, Study 2, in which 891 Korean students participated, found that proximal utility value negatively predicted avoidance intentions and procrastination, directly and indirectly, by lowering effort cost perception. By contrast, distal utility value positively predicted effort cost, which in turn positively predicted avoidance intentions and procrastination. Although distal utility value negatively predicted procrastination directly, the total effects of distal utility value on both academic behaviors were not significant. In Study 2, we also found that future time perspective moderated the relationship between distal utility value and effort cost. The findings of the present study extend the scope of expectancy-value theory, bridge expectancy and value theory with future time perspective theory, and provide guidelines for utility value intervention.

Controllability Attribution as a Mediator in the Effect of Mindset on Achievement Goal Adoption Following Failure.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a growth mindset on achievement goal adoption in the face of failure. We also sought to investigate the mediating role of controllability attribution in order to understand the underlying process behind the effect of mindset on achievement goal adoption following failure. One hundred and seventy-two 4th and 5th grade students participated in an experimental task. In the manipulation phase, in related to the experimental task, 71 participants were provided with growth mindset-based information, and the other 101 were provided with fixed mindset-based information. After completing the experimental task on a computer, all participants were informed that they had failed the task. The participants then responded to controllability attribution and achievement goal scales. We empirically demonstrated that a growth mindset had a positive influence on mastery goal adoption, while it did not predict performance goal adoption. We also found that controllability attribution had a full mediation effect on the relationship between the presence of a growth mindset and mastery goal adoption; this finding implies that a key element in promoting the adoption of mastery goals following failure is attributing the failure to controllable causes, a belief which arises from a stronger growth mindset.

Effects of informative and confirmatory feedback on brain activation during negative feedback processing.

The current study compared the effects of informative and confirmatory feedback on brain activation during negative feedback processing. For confirmatory feedback trials, participants were informed that they had failed the task, whereas informative feedback trials presented task relevant information along with the notification of their failure. Fourteen male undergraduates performed a series of spatial-perceptual tasks and received feedback while their brain activity was recorded. During confirmatory feedback trials, greater activations in the amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and the thalamus (including the habenular) were observed in response to incorrect responses. These results suggest that confirmatory feedback induces negative emotional reactions to failure. In contrast, informative feedback trials elicited greater activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) when participants experienced failure. Further psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis revealed a negative coupling between the DLPFC and the amygdala during informative feedback relative to confirmatory feedback trials. These findings suggest that providing task-relevant information could facilitate implicit down-regulation of negative emotions following failure.

Functional effects of increased copy number of the gene encoding proclavaminate amidino hydrolase on clavulanic acid production in Streptomyces clavuligerus ATCC 27064.

The effect of increasing levels of proclavaminate amidino hydrolase (Pah) on the rate of clavulanic acid production in Streptomyces clavuligerus ATCC 27064 was evaluated by knock-in a gene (pah2) encoding Pah. A strain (SMF5703) harboring a multicopy plasmid containing the pah2 gene showed significantly retarded cell growth and reduced clavulanic acid production, possibly attributable to the deleterious effects of the multicopy plasmid. In contrast, a strain (SMF5704) carrying a single additional copy of pah2 introduced into chromosome via an integrative plasmid showed enhanced production of clavulanic acid and increased levels of pah2 transcripts. Analysis of transcripts of other genes involved in the clavulanic acid biosynthetic pathway revealed a pattern similar to that seen in the parent. From these results, it appears that clavulanic acid production can be enhanced by duplication of pah2 through integration of a second copy of the gene into chromosome. However, increasing the copy number of only one gene, such as pah2, does not affect the expression of other pathway genes, and so only modest improvements in clavulanic acid production can be expected. Flux controlled by Pah did increase when the copy number of pah2 was doubled, suggesting that under these growth conditions, Pah levels may be a limiting factor regulating the rate of clavulanic acid biosynthesis in S. clavuligerus.