Fostering Employees' Voluntary Green Behavior:The Role of Environmentally Specific Servant Leadership, Positive Affectivity, and Workplace Anxiety

The recent introduction of servant leadership into the research on pro-environmental behavior in organizations has stimulated interest and concern among scholars on how an environmentally specific servant leader fosters their subordinates' green behavior. Drawing from affective event theory, this study focuses on the underlying affective mechanism linking environmentally specific servant leadership and employee voluntary green behavior. Using two-wave data from 190 employees in two organizations, we found that environmentally specific servant leadership was indirectly related to employee voluntary green behavior via positive affectivity. Moreover, workplace anxiety moderated the indirect effect, such that it was only significant and positive under low levels of workplace anxiety. Overall, our study sheds light on the role the effect plays in unpacking the influence of environmentally specific servant leadership on employee voluntary green behavior

The mRNA expression of SETD2 in human breast cancer: Correlation with clinico-athological parameters

BACKGROUND: SET domain containing protein 2 (SETD2) is a histone methyltransferase that is involved in transcriptional elongation. There is evidence that SETD2 interacts with p53 and selectively regulates its downstream genes. Therefore, it could be implicated in the process of carcinogenesis. Furthermore, this gene is located on the short arm of chromosome 3p and we previously demonstrated that the 3p21.31 region of chromosome 3 was associated with permanent growth arrest of breast cancer cells. This region includes closely related genes namely: MYL3, CCDC12, KIF9, KLHL18 and SETD2. Based on the biological function of these genes, SETD2 is the most likely gene to play a tumour suppressor role and explain our previous findings. Our objective was to determine, using quantitative PCR, whether the mRNA expression levels of SETD2 were consistent with a tumour suppressive function in breast cancer. This is the first study in the literature to examine the direct relationship between SETD2 and breast cancer. METHODS: A total of 153 samples were analysed. The levels of transcription of SETD2 were determined using quantitative PCR and normalized against (CK19). Transcript levels within breast cancer specimens were compared to normal background tissues and analyzed against conventional pathological parameters and clinical outcome over a 10 year follow-up period. RESULTS: The levels of SETD2 mRNA were significantly lower in malignant samples (p = 0.0345) and decreased with increasing tumour stage. SETD2 expression levels were significantly lower in samples from patients who developed metastasis, local recurrence, or died of breast cancer when compared to those who were disease free for > 10 years (p = 0.041). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates a compelling trend for SETD2 transcription levels to be lower in cancerous tissues and in patients who developed progressive disease. These findings are consistent with a possible tumour suppressor function of this gene in breast cancer

Multi-functional fluorescent carbon dots with antibacterial and gene delivery properties

Glucose is abundant in nature and can be found in various sources. In this study, we developed multifunctional carbon dots (CDs) with glucose, and poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) which were further quaternized using a facile approach. The CDs are designed to possess both antibacteria and gene delivery capabilities. The inherent property was characterized with TEM, NMR, FTIR and fluorescent spectroscopy. Antibacterial activity was evaluated with Broth minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assay on both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The CDs showed excellent inhibitation to both bacteria. The expression of CDs condensed plasmid DNA in HEK 293T cells was investigated with Luciferase expression assay. Gene transfection capability of the quaternized CDs was found to be up to 104 times efficient than naked DNA delivery

Temperature-vacuum swing adsorption for direct air capture by using low-grade heat

Direct air capture (DAC) is a promising carbon mitigation technology and will likely be part of extensive carbon removal portfolio. Adsorptive DAC is an appropriate option for carbon capture to utilize low-grade heat because of its desirable regeneration temperature and adaptability to be integrated with renewables. Building indoor environment with CO2 concentrations above 1000 ppm provides another suitable scenario for DAC. Herein, DAC using temperature-vacuum swing adsorption (TVSA) is presented and analyzed by integrating various low-grade heat sources in buildings. An amine-functionalized metal organic framework is selected for process simulation, and the performance is compared with those using other sorbents. It indicates that amine-functionalized material has advantages in CO2 productivity and purity. A techno-economic analysis is carried out to explore the benefit of the proposed DAC in buildings. The results show that regeneration by heat pumps at 373 K is the most competitive solution and has 176.7 $·tCO2−1 of the levelized cost of DAC (LCOD). Compared with conventional energy supply, solutions with low-grade heat utilization in buildings could achieve lower carbon intensity and increase by 5.2–25.0% in net LCOD. These results will provide practical guidelines for DAC application with lower energy penalties and costs

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in China: where we are and where to go

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is an effective and sometimes the only curative therapy for patients with certain hematological diseases. Allo-HSCT has been practiced in China for approximately 30 years, and great improvements have been made within the past decade, particularly in fields such as the haploidentical HSCT system, strategies to overcome relapse and GVHD, and modified HSCT for elderly patients. This review will describe the current situation and provide a prospective of these unique aspects of Allo-HSCT in China

Si solid-state quantum dot-based materials for tandem solar cells

The concept of third-generation photovoltaics is to significantly increase device efficiencies whilst still using thin-film processes and abundant non-toxic materials. A strong potential approach is to fabricate tandem cells using thin-film deposition that can optimise collection of energy in a series of cells with decreasing band gap stacked on top of each other. Quantum dot materials, in which Si quantum dots (QDs) are embedded in a dielectric matrix, offer the potential to tune the effective band gap, through quantum confinement, and allow fabrication of optimised tandem solar cell devices in one growth run in a thin-film process. Such cells can be fabricated by sputtering of thin layers of silicon rich oxide sandwiched between a stoichiometric oxide that on annealing crystallise to form Si QDs of uniform and controllable size. For approximately 2-nm diameter QDs, these result in an effective band gap of 1.8 eV. Introduction of phosphorous or boron during the growth of the multilayers results in doping and a rectifying junction, which demonstrates photovoltaic behaviour with an open circuit voltage (VOC) of almost 500 mV. However, the doping behaviour of P and B in these QD materials is not well understood. A modified modulation doping model for the doping mechanisms in these materials is discussed which relies on doping of a sub-oxide region around the Si QDs

CNV analysis in Chinese children of mental retardation highlights a sex differentiation in parental contribution to de novo and inherited mutational burdens

Rare copy number variations (CNVs) are a known genetic etiology in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). Comprehensive CNV analysis was performed in 287 Chinese children with mental retardation and/or development delay (MR/DD) and their unaffected parents. When compared with 5,866 ancestry-matched controls, 11~12% more MR/DD children carried rare and large CNVs. The increased CNV burden in MR/DD was predominantly due to de novo CNVs, the majority of which (62%) arose in the paternal germline. We observed a 2~3 fold increase of large CNV burden in the mothers of affected children. By implementing an evidence-based review approach, pathogenic structural variants were identified in 14.3% patients and 2.4% parents, respectively. Pathogenic CNVs in parents were all carried by mothers. The maternal transmission bias of deleterious CNVs was further replicated in a published dataset. Our study confirms the pathogenic role of rare CNVs in MR/DD, and provides additional evidence to evaluate the dosage sensitivity of some candidate genes. It also supports a population model of MR/DD that spontaneous mutations in males’ germline are major contributor to the de novo mutational burden in offspring, with higher penetrance in male than female; unaffected carriers of causative mutations, mostly females, then contribute to the inherited mutational burden.published_or_final_versio

NF-κB Induced the Donor Liver Cold Preservation Related Acute Lung Injury in Rat Liver Transplantation Model

We have observed at our clinical work that acute lung injury (ALI) often occurs in patients transplanted with donor livers persevered for long time. So, we conducted this study to investigate the influence of cold preservation time (CPT) of donor liver on ALI induced by liver transplantation (LT), and further study the role of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) in the process.Wistar rats were used as donors and recipients to establish orthotopic rat liver transplantation models. Donor livers were preserved at 4°C for different lengths of time. The effect of NF-κB inhibitor, ammonium pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (PDTC), on ALI was detected. All samples were harvested after 3 h reperfusion. The severity of liver injury was evaluated first. The expressions of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in liver tissue and liver outflow serum were measured respectively. The severity indexes of ALI, the activity of NF-κB and inhibitor-κBα (I-κBα) in lung/liver were measured accordingly.With the prolonged liver CPT, the liver damage associated indexes and ALI-related indexes all increased significantly. TNF-α and IL-1β in liver outflow serum increased accordingly, and the activity of NF-κB in liver/lung increased correspondingly. All these ALI-associated indexes could be partially reversed by the use of PDTC.Extended CPT aggravates the damage of donor liver and induces the expressions of TNF-α and IL-1β in liver. These inflammatory factors migrate to lung via liver outflow blood and activate NF-κB in lung, inducing ALI finally. NF-κB may play a critical role in LT-related ALI. Patients with or at risk of ALI may benefit from acute anti-inflammatory treatment with PDTC

Resolution of the stochastic strategy spatial prisoner's dilemma by means of particle swarm optimization

We study the evolution of cooperation among selfish individuals in the stochastic strategy spatial prisoner's dilemma game. We equip players with the particle swarm optimization technique, and find that it may lead to highly cooperative states even if the temptations to defect are strong. The concept of particle swarm optimization was originally introduced within a simple model of social dynamics that can describe the formation of a swarm, i.e., analogous to a swarm of bees searching for a food source. Essentially, particle swarm optimization foresees changes in the velocity profile of each player, such that the best locations are targeted and eventually occupied. In our case, each player keeps track of the highest payoff attained within a local topological neighborhood and its individual highest payoff. Thus, players make use of their own memory that keeps score of the most profitable strategy in previous actions, as well as use of the knowledge gained by the swarm as a whole, to find the best available strategy for themselves and the society. Following extensive simulations of this setup, we find a significant increase in the level of cooperation for a wide range of parameters, and also a full resolution of the prisoner's dilemma. We also demonstrate extreme efficiency of the optimization algorithm when dealing with environments that strongly favor the proliferation of defection, which in turn suggests that swarming could be an important phenomenon by means of which cooperation can be sustained even under highly unfavorable conditions. We thus present an alternative way of understanding the evolution of cooperative behavior and its ubiquitous presence in nature, and we hope that this study will be inspirational for future efforts aimed in this direction.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in PLoS ON

The Suppressor of AAC2 Lethality SAL1 Modulates Sensitivity of Heterologously Expressed Artemia ADP/ATP Carrier to Bongkrekate in Yeast

The ADP/ATP carrier protein (AAC) expressed in Artemia franciscana is refractory to bongkrekate. We generated two strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae where AAC1 and AAC3 were inactivated and the AAC2 isoform was replaced with Artemia AAC containing a hemagglutinin tag (ArAAC-HA). In one of the strains the suppressor of ΔAAC2 lethality, SAL1, was also inactivated but a plasmid coding for yeast AAC2 was included, because the ArAACΔsal1Δ strain was lethal. In both strains ArAAC-HA was expressed and correctly localized to the mitochondria. Peptide sequencing of ArAAC expressed in Artemia and that expressed in the modified yeasts revealed identical amino acid sequences. The isolated mitochondria from both modified strains developed 85% of the membrane potential attained by mitochondria of control strains, and addition of ADP yielded bongkrekate-sensitive depolarizations implying acquired sensitivity of ArAAC-mediated adenine nucleotide exchange to this poison, independent from SAL1. However, growth of ArAAC-expressing yeasts in glycerol-containing media was arrested by bongkrekate only in the presence of SAL1. We conclude that the mitochondrial environment of yeasts relying on respiratory growth conferred sensitivity of ArAAC to bongkrekate in a SAL1-dependent manner. © 2013 Wysocka-Kapcinska et al