Risk perception of coronavirus disease 2019 and career adaptability among college students: the mediating effect of hope and sense of mastery.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has not only caused widespread economic recession but also had a serious negative impact on the employment of college students. However, little is known about the relationship and mechanisms between the risk perception of COVID-19 and career adaptability. This study aimed to examine whether the risk perception of COVID-19 is associated with career adaptability directly and indirectly through hope and a sense of mastery in college students. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 594 Chinese college students aged 16 to 25, who completed assessments on risk perception of COVID-19, career adaptability, hope, and sense of mastery. The results showed that susceptibility was negatively associated with career confidence, control, and curiosity; moreover, susceptibility indirectly affected career adaptability (including concern, confidence, control, and curiosity) through the sense of mastery; uncontrollable indirectly affected career concern through hope; and uncontrollable indirectly affected career adaptability (including concern, confidence, control, and curiosity) through hope and the sense of mastery. The findings emphasize the role of hope and a sense of mastery in the career adaptability of college students and reveal the necessity of improving hope and a sense of mastery to promote college students' career development. "Implications and limitations are discussed".

Isoquercitrin Attenuates Steatohepatitis by Inhibition of the Activated NLRP3 Inflammasome through HSP90.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a chronic liver disease with a global prevalence of 25%. However, the medicines approved by the FDA or EMA are still not commercially available for the treatment of NAFLD. The NOD-like receptor thermal protein domain-associated protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome plays a crucial role in inflammatory responses, and the mechanisms related to steatohepatitis have been sufficiently clarified. NLRP3 has been widely evaluated as a potential target for multiple active agents in treating NAFLD. As a quercetin glycoside, isoquercitrin (IQ) has a broad inhibitory effect on oxidative stress, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and allergic reactions in vitro and in vivo. This study aimed to investigate the undercover mechanism of IQ in the treatment of NAFLD, particularly in anti-steatohepatitis, by suppressing the NLRP3 inflammasome. In this study, a methionine-choline-deficient induced steatohepatitis mice model was used to explore the effect of IQ on NAFLD treatment. Further mechanism exploration based on transcriptomics and molecular biology revealed that IQ inhibited the activated NLRP3 inflammasome by down-regulating the expression of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) and suppressor of G-two allele of Skp1 (SGT1). In conclusion, IQ could alleviate NAFLD by inhibiting the activated NLRP3 inflammasome by suppressing the expression of HSP90.

Chemometric Discrimination of Cichorium glandulosum Boiss. et Huet and Cichorium intybus L. via Their Metabolic Profiling, Antioxidative, and Hypoglycemic Activities.

Cichorium glandulosum Boiss. et Huet (CG) and Cichorium intybus L. (CI) are widely used as the main raw material of functional food with hepatoprotective and hypoglycemic effects. Due to the lack of comparison on the chemical ingredients and efficacy, they were often used imprecisely and interchangeably. It is necessary to distinguish between them. With the plant metabolomics based on high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-QTOF-MS) and multivariate chemometric techniques, the chemical ingredients were characterized and 59 compounds between CG and CI were classified. As for antioxidative and hypoglycemic activities in vitro, CI extraction exhibited better antioxidant activity than CG, while CG extraction showed stronger hypoglycemic activity. Furthermore, a bivariate correlation between the chemical composition and efficacy of the extract was also analyzed, and three differentially strong correlation components between CI and CG were prepared, and the antioxidative and hypoglycemic efficacies were compared in vivo and different active phenotypes were obtained. Finally, we revealed chemical and biological differences between CG and CI, providing a basis for achieving better quality control and developing more effective functional foods.

Development of a variable-stiffness and shape-detection manipulator based on low-melting-point-alloy for minimally invasive surgery.

There is an increasingly popularity for the continuum robot in minimally invasive surgery(MIS), because of the compliance and dexterity. In the first place, a variable stiffness manipulator can resolve the two contradictions of the demands for predominant flexibility and strong payload capacity. In the second place, to control the continuum robot more precisely and avoid the collision between robot and human body, real-time tracking of the shape of the continuum robot is of great significance. A new type of flexible manipulator with variable stiffness is proposed which can track the bending shape timely. The low-melting-point-alloy (LMPA) is used to realize the variable stiffness and shape detection for the flexible manipulator. The concept design for a single module is put forward. Then the stiffness control method and finite element simulation, the method of shape detection are presented. Moreover, the presented method of shape detection is evaluated by experiments.

Noninvasive Continuous Glucose Monitoring Using a Multisensor-Based Glucometer and Time Series Analysis.

Daily continuous glucose monitoring is very helpful in the control of glucose levels for people with diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance. In this study, a multisensor-based, noninvasive continuous glucometer was developed, which can continuously estimate glucose levels via monitoring of physiological parameter changes such as impedance spectroscopy at low and high frequency, optical properties, temperature and humidity. Thirty-three experiments were conducted for six healthy volunteers and three volunteers with diabetes. Results showed that the average correlation coefficient between the estimated glucose profiles and reference glucose profiles reached 0.8314, with a normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE) of 14.6064. The peak time of postprandial glucose was extracted from the glucose profile, and its estimated value had a correlation coefficient of 0.9449 with the reference value, wherein the root mean square error (RMSE) was 6.8958 min. Using Clarke error grid (CEG) analysis, 100% of the estimated glucose values fell in the clinically acceptable zones A and B, and 92.86% fell in zone A. The application of a multisensor-based, noninvasive continuous glucometer and time series analysis can endure the time delay between human physiological parameters and glucose level changes, so as to potentially accomplish noninvasive daily continuous glucose monitoring.

[Controlling effects of dual mulching on soil moisture in an apple orchard].

To investigate the controlling effects of dual mulching on soil moisture in an apple orchard on the Weibei rainfed highland, soil moisture in the 0-600 cm soil profile of the apple orchard was measured under four mulching treatments (plastic film plus straw, plastic film and straw mulches, as well as a non-mulching control) , and meanwhile the apple yield and branch growth increment were analyzed statistically. Results showed that the dual mulching treatment had the best effect on soil moisture conservation, and the soil water storage in such a soil profile was 6.7% higher than the control treatment. Long-term dual mulching could effectively alleviate soil desiccation occurring in deep soil layer in the region, and the monthly averaged soil water storage in stable layer (240-600 cm) was 64.22 mm higher than that of the control treatment. Both plastic film plus straw and plastic film mulches were able to reduce the temporal fluctuation of soil moisture in shallow soil (0-60 cm) and enhance the temporal stability of soil moisture in the layer. Compared with the single mulching treatments, the dual mulching treatment could effectively decrease the vertical variation of soil moisture in the profile and improve the stability of the vertical soil moisture distribution. The apple yield under the dual mulching treatment was evidently increased by 48.2%, as compared with the control treatment. All the analyses showed that dual mulching had more advantages in controlling soil moisture and improving apple yield than single mulching.