How Do Ideal Friend Preferences and Interaction Context Affect Friendship Formation? Evidence for a Domain- General Relationship Initiation Process

This research examined how people’s ideal friend preferences influence the friendship formation process. In an extension of prior research on romantic relationship initiation, we tested whether the match between participants’ ideals and a partner’s traits affected participants’ interest in forming a new friendship in three contexts: evaluating a potential friend’s profile, meeting in-person, and chatting online. Results revealed that participants were more interested in becoming friends with a partner whose traits matched (vs. mismatched) their ideal friend preferences when evaluating his or her profile. After a live interaction, however, the effect of the ideal-perceived trait match manipulation on participants’ friendship interest was substantially reduced in both in-person and online chatting contexts. People’s ideal friend preferences may influence their friendship interest more strongly in descriptive (i.e., indirect) than interactive (i.e., direct) contexts, a finding that mirrors prior results from the romantic domain and documents a role for domain-general relationship initiation processes

An Empirical Analysis on Purchase Intention on Coffee Beverage in Taiwan

Coffee is the most popular beverage in the world. However, in Taiwan, coffee is a second option for beverage choice after tea, which is the traditional beverage of this nation. Under the impact of Western culture, the habit of Taiwanese on beverage has become gradually change. In the recent years, the rapid growth of the various coffee supply channels such as coffee shop, coffee chains, fast food restaurants and convenience stores has assisted in creating a huge market for consumption coffee. Thus, understanding consumer’s habit on coffee purchasing in non-coffee drinking habit market is crucial. It can offer some important information for coffee suppliers to formulate their market strategies in Taiwan. Therefore, in this study, the determinants of Taiwanese coffee drinker in purchasing coffee are defined. Results from 260 respondents were analysed by exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis. The findings demonstrate that brand & price, product image, promotion & advertising, motivation, atmosphere & environment and taste are critical factors which impact on coffee drinker’s purchase intention. Among that, promotion & advertising plays the principal role to attract customers. Therefore, in order to create competitive advantages in the coffee beverage industry, the actions of promotion and advertising should be strong by coffee supplier. Besides, how to produce high quality of coffee beverages and maintain to meet the requirements of drinker's for good flavor and taste also must be considered. Keywords: coffee beverage, purchase intention, Taiwa

Broadband spin-controlled focusing via logarithmic-spiral nanoslits of varying width

This work presents analytical, numerical and experimental demonstrations of light diffracted through a logarithmic spiral (LS) nanoslit, which forms a type of switchable and focus-tunable structure. Owing to a strong dependence on the incident photon spin, the proposed LS-nanoslit converges incoming light of opposite handedness (to that of the LS-nanoslit) into a confined subwavelength spot, while it shapes light with similar chirality into a donut-like intensity profile. Benefitting from the varying width of the LS-nanoslit, different incident wavelengths interfere constructively at different positions, i.e., the focal length shifts from 7.5 μm (at λ = 632.8 nm) to 10 μm (at λ = 488 nm), which opens up new opportunities for tuning and spatially separating broadband light at the micrometer scale

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Experiences and protocols from the Department of Prosthodontics at the Wuhan University

Statement of problem: The novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic, and many countries and regions are still currently in the midst of the outbreak. This pandemic has caused prosthodontics units to suspend their clinical and educational operations in academia. Purpose: The purpose of this article was to review the experiences from the Department of Prosthodontics, Wuhan University School and Hospital of Stomatology (DP-WHUSHS) during the COVID-19 outbreak and the protocols DP-WHUSHS utilized to resume clinical activities after the outbreak. Material and methods: The descriptive approach was used in this article to provide a chronological narrative of the experiences and protocols from the DP-WHUSHS during the COVID-19 outbreak and after the outbreak. Results: During the COVID-19 outbreak period, clinical care was provided for patients with dental emergencies using enhanced Grade 2 or Garde 3 personal protective equipment (PPE). Teledentistry was used to provide care for patients with non-emergency needs. Online webinars and lectures were provided for the predoctoral students, residents, and dentists to minimize the interruption in their education and engage the dental community amid the pandemic. Various factors were considered before clinical activities resumed after the outbreak subsided. Additional resources were allocated for facility preparation and management and employee training. New infection control and clinical operation protocols were developed to minimize the healthcare-associated infection of airborne transmission diseases. The psychological health and mental wellness of the employees were emphasized. Distance or online education is still under rapid development to provide students and dentists opportunities to advance their knowledge amid the pandemic. Conclusions: Within the limitation of this descriptive review, the following conclusions were drawn. Patient welfare and emergency needs should be considered amid the pandemic. Enhanced Grade 2 or Grade 3 PPE should be used during the outbreak. Multifactorial considerations for work resumption after the outbreak included facility preparation and management, training for employees, and clinical operation management. In-person psychological consultation and online mental wellness programs were available to employees to improve their mental wellness. Distance or online education was under rapid development to minimize the interruption in education for the students and to engage the dental community amid a pandemic

Hepatic fibrogenesis requires sympathetic neurotransmitters

Background and aims: Hepatic stellate cells (HSC) are activated by liver injury to become proliferative fibrogenic myofibroblasts. This process may be regulated by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) but the mechanisms involved are unclear. Methods: We studied cultured HSC and intact mice with liver injury to test the hypothesis that HSC respond to and produce SNS neurotransmitters to promote fibrogenesis. Results: HSC expressed adrenoceptors, catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes, released norepinephrine (NE), and were growth inhibited by α- and β-adrenoceptor antagonists. HSC from dopamine β-hydroxylase deficient (Dbh(−/−)) mice, which cannot make NE, grew poorly in culture and were rescued by NE. Inhibitor studies demonstrated that this effect was mediated via G protein coupled adrenoceptors, mitogen activated kinases, and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. Injury related fibrogenic responses were inhibited in Dbh(−/−) mice, as evidenced by reduced hepatic accumulation of α-smooth muscle actin(+ve) HSC and decreased induction of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and collagen. Treatment with isoprenaline rescued HSC activation. HSC were also reduced in leptin deficient ob/ob mice which have reduced NE levels and are resistant to hepatic fibrosis. Treating ob/ob mice with NE induced HSC proliferation, upregulated hepatic TGF-β1 and collagen, and increased liver fibrosis. Conclusions: HSC are hepatic neuroglia that produce and respond to SNS neurotransmitters to promote hepatic fibrosis

Unusual Formation of Point-Defect Complexes in the Ultrawide-Band-Gap Semiconductor β-Ga2 O3

Understanding the unique properties of ultra-wide band gap semiconductors requires detailed information about the exact nature of point defects and their role in determining the properties. Here, we report the first direct microscopic observation of an unusual formation of point defect complexes within the atomic-scale structure of β-Ga2O3 using high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). Each complex involves one cation interstitial atom paired with two cation vacancies. These divacancy-interstitial complexes correlate directly with structures obtained by density functional theory, which predicts them to be compensating acceptors in β-Ga2O3. This prediction is confirmed by a comparison between STEM data and deep level optical spectroscopy results, which reveals that these complexes correspond to a deep trap within the band gap, and that the development of the complexes is facilitated by Sn doping through increased vacancy concentration. These findings provide new insight on this emerging material's unique response to the incorporation of impurities that can critically influence their properties

Slow cooling and efficient extraction of C-exciton hot carriers in MoS2 monolayer

In emerging optoelectronic applications, such as water photolysis, exciton fission and novel photovoltaics involving low-dimensional nanomaterials, hot-carrier relaxation and extraction mechanisms play an indispensable and intriguing role in their photo-electron conversion processes. Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides have attracted much attention in above fields recently; however, insight into the relaxation mechanism of hot electron-hole pairs in the band nesting region denoted as C-excitons, remains elusive. Using MoS2 monolayers as a model two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide system, here we report a slower hot-carrier cooling for C-excitons, in comparison with band-edge excitons. We deduce that this effect arises from the favourable band alignment and transient excited-state Coulomb environment, rather than solely on quantum confinement in two-dimension systems. We identify the screening-sensitive bandgap renormalization for MoS2 monolayer/graphene heterostructures, and confirm the initial hot-carrier extraction for the C-exciton state with an unprecedented efficiency of 80%, accompanied by a twofold reduction in the exciton binding energy