Means, standard deviation (SD) and correlations of continuous variables.

<p>Means, standard deviation (SD) and correlations of continuous variables.</p

Associations between empathy and big five personality traits among Chinese undergraduate medical students

<div><p>Background</p><p>Empathy promotes positive physician-patient communication and is associated with improved patient satisfaction, treatment adherence and clinical outcomes. It has been suggested that personality traits should be taken into consideration in programs designed to enhance empathy in medical education due to the association found between personality and empathy among medical students. However, the associations between empathy and big five personality traits in medical education are still underrepresented in the existing literature and relevant studies have not been conducted among medical students in China, where tensions in the physician-patient relationship have been reported as outstanding problems in the context of China’s current medical reform. Thus, the main objective of this study was to examine the associations between empathy and big five personality traits among Chinese medical students.</p><p>Methods</p><p>A cross-sectional study was conducted in a medical university in Northeast China in June 2016. Self-reported questionnaires including the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and Big Five Inventory (BFI) and demographic characteristics were distributed. A total of 530 clinical medical students became our final subjects. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to explore the effects of big five personality traits on empathy.</p><p>Results</p><p>Results of this study showed that big five personality traits accounted for 19.4%, 18.1%, 30.2% of the variance in three dimensions of empathy, namely, perspective taking, empathic concern and personal distress, respectively. Specifically, agreeableness had a strong positive association with empathic concern (β = 0.477, P<0.01), and a moderate association with perspective taking (β = 0.349, P<0.01). Neuroticism was strongly associated with personal distress (β = 0.526, P<0.01) and modestly associated with perspective taking (β = 0.149, P<0.01). Openness to experience had modest associations with perspective taking (β = 0.150, P<0.01) and personal distress (β = -0.160, P<0.01). Conscientiousness had a modest association with perspective taking (β = 0.173, P<0.01).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>This study revealed that big five personality traits were important predictors of self-reported measures of both cognitive and affective empathy among Chinese medical students. Therefore, individualized intervention strategies based on personality traits could be integrated into programs to enhance empathy in medical education.</p></div

Pressure Selected Reactivity and Kinetics Deduced from Photoinduced Dissociation of Ethylene Glycol

The photon-induced reactivity of liquid ethylene glycol (EG) was investigated in a diamond anvil cell at pressures up to ∼4 GPa and ambient temperature. The near-UV radiation at λ = 350 nm was employed to photodissociate EG via the two-photon absorption processes. The reaction evolution was monitored as a function of time and the reaction products were characterized by using in situ FTIR spectroscopy. At low initial loading pressures, the IR spectra show two distinctive sets of profile evaluations indicating sequential photoinduced chemical reactions, which are designated as primary and secondary photochemical processes, respectively. By careful examination of the characteristic IR bands and possible reaction pathways, over ten species as the primary and secondary reaction products were unambiguously identified. Significantly, we found that one of the photodissociation product CO₂ forms specific clathrate hydrate structures or clusters that are both time- and pressure-dependent, indicating interesting and unique sequestration behavior of CO₂ at high pressures. Quantitative analysis on selective reaction products allows detailed reaction kinetics involving competitive reaction channels to be probed. In particular, the type and quantity of reaction products as well as the kinetics were found highly pressure dependent. Moreover, the pressure variation of the system along the reaction progression allows the interpretation of possible reaction mechanisms of photodissociation of EG under high pressures

Demographic characteristics of participants.

<p>Demographic characteristics of participants.</p

Graphene Quantum-Dot-Supported Platinum Nanoparticles: Defect-Mediated Electrocatalytic Activity in Oxygen Reduction

Graphene quantum dot (GQD)-supported platinum (Pt/G) nanoparticles were prepared by a simple hydrothermal procedure at controlled temperatures. Transmission electron microscopic measurements showed that the platinum nanoparticles exhibited a rather consistent core size within the narrow range of 2.5–3.5 nm in diameter (average core diameters slightly lower than 3.0 nm) when the hydrothermal temperatures were varied between 140 and 180 °C, whereas at higher temperatures (200 °C) the nanoparticle core size was markedly larger, as a result of weakened anchoring and passivation of the metal nanoparticles by the diminishment of the GQD structural defects. Spectroscopic measurements based on Fourier-transformed infrared, Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies confirmed the formation of various oxygenated structural defects on GQDs and the variation of their concentrations with the hydrothermal conditions. Interestingly, electrochemical studies showed that the electrocatalytic activity of the series exhibited a volcano-shaped variation with the GQD structural defects, with the best identified as the samples prepared at 160 °C for 12 h and at 180 °C for 6 h where the mass activity was found to meet the DOE target for 2017. This remarkable performance was accounted for by the deliberate manipulation of the adsorption of oxygen and reaction intermediates on platinum by the GQD structural defects through partial charge transfer. The strategy presented herein may offer a new paradigm in the design and engineering of nanoparticle catalysts for fuel cell electrochemistry

Monodisperse w/w/w Double Emulsion Induced by Phase Separation

We develop an approach to fabricate monodisperse water-in-water-in-water (w/w/w) double emulsion in microfluidic devices. A jet of aqueous solution containing two incompatible solutes, dextran and polyethylene glycol (PEG), is periodically perturbed into water-in-water (w/w) droplets. By extracting water out of the w/w droplet, the solute concentrations in the droplet phase increase; when the concentrations exceed the miscibility limit, the droplet phase separates into two immiscible phases. Consequently, PEG-rich droplets are formed within the single emulsion templates. These PEG-rich droplets subsequently coalesce with each other, resulting in transiently stable w/w/w double emulsions with a high degree of size uniformity. These double emulsions are free of organic solvents and thus are ideal for use as droplet-vessels in protein purification, as microreactors for biochemical reactions, and as templates for fabrication of biomaterials

Monodisperse w/w/w Double Emulsion Induced by Phase Separation

We develop an approach to fabricate monodisperse water-in-water-in-water (w/w/w) double emulsion in microfluidic devices. A jet of aqueous solution containing two incompatible solutes, dextran and polyethylene glycol (PEG), is periodically perturbed into water-in-water (w/w) droplets. By extracting water out of the w/w droplet, the solute concentrations in the droplet phase increase; when the concentrations exceed the miscibility limit, the droplet phase separates into two immiscible phases. Consequently, PEG-rich droplets are formed within the single emulsion templates. These PEG-rich droplets subsequently coalesce with each other, resulting in transiently stable w/w/w double emulsions with a high degree of size uniformity. These double emulsions are free of organic solvents and thus are ideal for use as droplet-vessels in protein purification, as microreactors for biochemical reactions, and as templates for fabrication of biomaterials

An Investigation of the Behavior of Completely Siliceous Zeolite ZSM-5 under High External Pressures

The behavior of completely siliceous zeolite ZSM-5 (Si-ZSM-5) under high pressures up to 16 GPa were investigated by in situ Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction with synchrotron radiation in a diamond anvil cell. Pressure-induced amorphization was observed in both as-made and calcined Si-ZSM-5, which transform to a low-density amorphous silica first and then to a high-density amorphous silica. However, transition pressures and reversibility were different for as-made and calcined Si-ZSM-5. It was found that the existence of the template molecules occluded in the zeolite framework is mainly responsible for these differences

AgAu Bimetallic Janus Nanoparticles and Their Electrocatalytic Activity for Oxygen Reduction in Alkaline Media

Bimetallic AgAu Janus nanoparticles were prepared by galvanic exchange reactions of 1-hexanethiolate-passivated silver (AgC6) nanoparticles with gold­(I)-mercaptopropanediol complex. The AgC6 nanoparticles were deposited onto a solid substrate surface by the Langmuir–Blodgett method such that the galvanic exchange reactions were limited to the top face of the nanoparticles that was in direct contact with the gold­(I) complex solution. The resulting nanoparticles exhibited an asymmetrical distribution not only of the organic capping ligands on the nanoparticle surface but also of the metal elements in the nanoparticle cores, in contrast to the bulk-exchange counterparts where these distributions were homogeneous within the nanoparticles, as manifested in contact angle, UV–vis, XPS, and TEM measurements. More interestingly, despite a minimal loading of Au onto the Ag nanoparticles, the bimetallic AgAu nanoparticles exhibited enhanced electrocatalytic activity in oxygen reduction reactions, as compared to the monometal AgC6 nanoparticles. Additionally, the electrocatalytic performance of the Janus nanoparticles was markedly better than the bulk-exchange ones, suggesting that the segregated distribution of the polar ligands from the apolar ones might further facilitate charge transfer from Ag to Au in the nanoparticle cores, leading to additional improvement of the adsorption and reduction of oxygen

Pressure-Induced Polymorphic Transitions in Crystalline Diborane Deduced by Comparison of Simulated and Experimental Vibrational Spectra

We investigate and assign the pressure-induced structural transformations in crystalline diborane (B₂H₆) observed spectroscopically by Song and co-workers (<i>J. Phys. Chem. B</i> <b>2009</b>, <i>113</i>, 13509; <i>J. Chem. Phys.</i> <b>2009</b>, <i>131</i>, 174506) between 3.5 and 24 GPa at room temperature. The assignment is made by calculating the Raman and infrared vibrational spectra of 10 candidate structures at various pressures and comparing the results to experiment. We find that solid diborane undergoes a polymorphic transition at about 6 GPa from β-diborane (<i>P</i>2₁/<i>n</i>) to a <i>P</i>2₁/<i>c </i>diborane and possibly a second transition near 14 GPa to another <i>P</i>2₁/<i>c</i> diborane structure. We conclude that no cyclic oligomers or chains of the composition (BH₃)_<i>n</i> (<i>n</i> > 2) are formed from diborane up to at least 24 GPa under the experimental conditions employed by the Song group, even when such structures are thermodynamically favored. This suggests that pressure-induced chemical transformations of molecular crystals of diborane are kinetically hindered