Individual and culture-level components of survey response styles: a multi-level analysis using cultural models of selfhood

Variations in acquiescence and extremity pose substantial threats to the validity of cross-cultural research that relies on survey methods. Individual and cultural correlates of response styles when using two contrasting types of response mode were investigated, drawing on data from 55 cultural groups across 33 nations. Using seven dimensions of self-other relatedness that have often been confounded within the broader distinction between independence and interdependence, our analysis yields more specific understandings of both individual- and culture-level variations in response style. When using a Likert scale response format, acquiescence is strongest among individuals seeing themselves as similar to others, and where cultural models of selfhood favour harmony, similarity with others and receptiveness to influence. However, when using Schwartz’s (2007) portrait-comparison response procedure, acquiescence is strongest among individuals seeing themselves as self-reliant but also connected to others, and where cultural models of selfhood favour self-reliance and self-consistency. Extreme responding varies less between the two types of response modes, and is most prevalent among individuals seeing themselves as self-reliant, and in cultures favouring self-reliance. Since both types of response mode elicit distinctive styles of response, it remains important to estimate and control for style effects to ensure valid comparisons

Being oneself through time: bases of self-continuity across 55 cultures

Self-continuity – the sense that one’s past, present, and future are meaningfully connected – is considered a defining feature of personal identity. However, bases of self-continuity may depend on cultural beliefs about personhood. In multilevel analyses of data from 7287 adults from 55 cultural groups in 33 nations, we tested a new tripartite theoretical model of bases of self-continuity. As expected, perceptions of stability, sense of narrative, and associative links to one’s past each contributed to predicting the extent to which people derived a sense of self-continuity from different aspects of their identities. Ways of constructing self-continuity were moderated by cultural and individual differences in mutable (vs. immutable) personhood beliefs – the belief that human attributes are malleable. Individuals with lower mutability beliefs based self-continuity more on stability; members of cultures where mutability beliefs were higher based self-continuity more on narrative. Bases of self-continuity were also moderated by cultural variation in contextualized (vs. decontextualized) personhood beliefs, indicating a link to cultural individualism-collectivism. Our results illustrate the cultural flexibility of the motive for self-continuity

Beyond the ‘East-West’ dichotomy: global variation in cultural models of selfhood

Markus and Kitayama’s (1991) theory of independent and interdependent self-construals had a major influence on social, personality, and developmental psychology by highlighting the role of culture in psychological processes. However, research has relied excessively on contrasts between North American and East Asian samples, and commonly used self-report measures of independence and interdependence frequently fail to show predicted cultural differences. We revisited the conceptualization and measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals in 2 large-scale multinational surveys, using improved methods for cross-cultural research. We developed (Study 1: N = 2924 students in 16 nations) and validated across cultures (Study 2: N = 7279 adults from 55 cultural groups in 33 nations) a new 7-dimensional model of self-reported ways of being independent or interdependent. Patterns of global variation support some of Markus and Kitayama’s predictions, but a simple contrast between independence and interdependence does not adequately capture the diverse models of selfhood that prevail in different world regions. Cultural groups emphasize different ways of being both independent and interdependent, depending on individualism-collectivism, national socioeconomic development, and religious heritage. Our 7-dimensional model will allow future researchers to test more accurately the implications of cultural models of selfhood for psychological processes in diverse ecocultural contexts

The Fixed-Time Observer-Based Adaptive Tracking Control for Aerial Flexible-Joint Robot with Input Saturation and Output Constraint

The aerial flexible-joint robot (AFJR) manipulation system has been widely used in recent years. To handle uncertainty, the input saturation and the output constraint existing in the system, a fixed-time observer-based adaptive control scheme (FTOAC) is proposed. First, to estimate the input saturation and disturbances from the internal force between the robot and the flight platform, a fixed-time observer is designed. Second, a tangent-barrier Lyapunov function is introduced to implement the output constraint. Third, adaptive neural networks are introduced for the online identification of nonlinear unknown dynamics in the system. In addition, a fixed-time compensator is designed in this paper to eliminate the adverse effects caused by filtering errors. The stability analysis shows that all the signals of the closed-loop system are bounded, and the system satisfies the condition of fixed-time convergence. Finally, the simulation results prove the superiority of the proposed control strategy by comparing it with the previous schemes

Enhanced catalytic performance of penicillin G acylase by covalent immobilization onto functionally-modified magnetic Ni0.4Cu0.5Zn0.1Fe2O4 nanoparticles.

With the emergence of penicillin resistance, the development of novel antibiotics has become an urgent necessity. Semi-synthetic penicillin has emerged as a promising alternative to traditional penicillin. The demand for the crucial intermediate, 6-aminopicillanic acid (6-APA), is on the rise. Enzyme catalysis is the primary method employed for its production. However, due to certain limitations, the strategy of enzyme immobilization has also gained prominence. The magnetic Ni0.4Cu0.5Zn0.1Fe2O4 nanoparticles were successfully prepared by a rapid-combustion method. Sodium silicate was used to modify the surface of the Ni0.4Cu0.5Zn0.1Fe2O4 nanoparticles to obtain silica-coated nanoparticles (Ni0.4Cu0.5Zn0.1Fe2O4-SiO2). Subsequently, in order to better crosslink PGA, the nanoparticles were modified again with glutaraldehyde to obtain glutaraldehyde crosslinked Ni0.4Cu0.5Zn0.1Fe2O4-SiO2-GA nanoparticles which could immobilize the PGA. The structure of the PGA protein was analyzed by the PyMol program and the immobilization strategy was determined. The conditions of PGA immobilization were investigated, including immobilization time and PGA concentration. Finally, the enzymological properties of the immobilized and free PGA were compared. The optimum catalytic pH of immobilized and free PGA was 8.0, and the optimum catalytic temperature of immobilized PGA was 50°C, 5°C higher than that of free PGA. Immobilized PGA in a certain pH and temperature range showed better catalytic stability. Vmax and Km of immobilized PGA were 0.3727 μmol·min-1 and 0.0436 mol·L-1, and the corresponding free PGA were 0.7325 μmol·min-1 and 0.0227 mol·L-1. After five cycles, the immobilized enzyme activity was still higher than 25%

An Enhanced Differential Evolution Algorithm with Bernstein Operator and Refracted Oppositional-Mutual Learning Strategy

Numerical optimization has been a popular research topic within various engineering applications, where differential evolution (DE) is one of the most extensively applied methods. However, it is difficult to choose appropriate control parameters and to avoid falling into local optimum and poor convergence when handling complex numerical optimization problems. To handle these problems, an improved DE (BROMLDE) with the Bernstein operator and refracted oppositional-mutual learning (ROML) is proposed, which can reduce parameter selection, converge faster, and avoid trapping in local optimum. Firstly, a new ROML strategy integrates mutual learning (ML) and refractive oppositional learning (ROL), achieving stochastic switching between ROL and ML during the population initialization and generation jumping period to balance exploration and exploitation. Meanwhile, a dynamic adjustment factor is constructed to improve the ability of the algorithm to jump out of the local optimum. Secondly, a Bernstein operator, which has no parameters setting and intrinsic parameters tuning phase, is introduced to improve convergence performance. Finally, the performance of BROMLDE is evaluated by 10 bound-constrained benchmark functions from CEC 2019 and CEC 2020, respectively. Two engineering optimization problems are utilized simultaneously. The comparative experimental results show that BROMLDE has higher global optimization capability and convergence speed on most functions and engineering problems

Effects of the Ratio of Substituting Mineral Fertilizers with Manure Nitrogen on Soil Properties and Vegetable Yields in China: A Meta-Analysis

Substituting mineral fertilizers (MFs) with manure nitrogen (N) can not only reduce environmental pollution, but also improve soil quality. However, the effects of various manure N substitution ratios (SRs, the ratio of manure N over total N applied) on soil properties and vegetable yields in China are poorly studied. Here, through a meta-analysis of 667 observations, we assessed the effects of three manure N SRs (low (SR ≤ 35%), medium (35% 70%)) on vegetable yields and soil properties (soil organic carbon, SOC; soil total nitrogen, STN; microbial biomass carbon (C) and nitrogen (N), MBC/N; and available phosphorus and potassium, (AP/AK)) in the 0–20 cm soil under different climatic conditions, initial soil properties, and management practices. The results show that the SOC and STN contents increased by 28.5% and 21.9%, respectively, under the medium SRs compared to the MF, which were the highest among the three SRs. Both soil MBC and MBN increased with the increase in the SRs, and the increased ratios in the high SRs reached 203.4% and 119.3%, respectively. In addition, the AP also increased with the increase in the SR, but the AK was not significantly changed with the low and medium SRs compared with the MF. Overall, the medium SR produced the highest vegetable yield among the three SRs with an increase of 18.6%. Additionally, a random forest analysis indicated that the N application rate, planting years, and mean annual precipitation were the most important factors influencing vegetable yield. In conclusion, the SR of 35–70% is more conducive to increasing soil nutrient contents significantly and improves vegetable yields in Chinese vegetable fields

Encapsulation of α-tocopherol in whey protein isolate/chitosan particles using oil-in-water emulsion with optimal stability and bioaccessibility

The aim of this study was to develop an oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion using whey protein isolate (WPI)-chitosan (CN) complex to encapsulate α-tocopherol and to characterize their stability and bioaccessibility in vitro. The O/W emulsions prepared under the optimal conditions (mass ratio of WPI:CN = 1: 1, corn oil containing 5 g/100 g of α-tocopherol) exhibited a monomodal distribution (d = 803.3 ± 6.9 nm) with encapsulation rate of 86.3 ± 2.3%. The emulsions were stable under NaCl (0–150 mmol/L), sugar (0–5 g/100 g), 55 °C for 30 min, pH 5–6.5, even storage for 20 d at 4 °C and 25 °C. During gastric digestion, WPI situated at the surface of emulsion particles can be digested into small molecular peptides by pepsin, but the structure of the core-shell particles remained due to the cross-linking with CN. During intestinal digestion, the structure of the particles disintegrated over the digestion time, and the inner-oil phase was released. Release profiles of the α-tocopherol and free fatty acids showed a burst effect followed by slow release. These results suggest that the WPI-CN complex could be used to achieve a controlled and sustainable release of liposoluble bioactive compounds from O/W emulsions

Evaluation of Supramolecular Gel Properties and Its Application in Drilling Fluid Plugging

Supramolecular gels are physically cross-linked hydrogels formed by non-covalent interactions. The synthesis, structure optimization, property regulation, and application expansion of supramolecular gels has gradually become the research hotspot in the field of gel materials. According to the non-covalent interactions such as hydrophobic association and hydrogen bonding, the supramolecular gel prepared in this study has excellent rheological properties and adaptive filling and plugging properties, and can be used in the field of drilling fluid plugging. In this paper, the microstructure, rheological properties, temperature resistance, and plugging properties of supramolecular gels were studied and characterized in detail. The experimental findings demonstrated that when the strain was less than 10%, the supramolecular gel displayed an excellent linear viscoelastic region. The increase in strain weakens the rheological properties of supramolecular gel and reduces the elastic modulus of supramolecular gel to a certain extent. The supramolecular gel still had a neat three-dimensional reticular structure after curing at high temperatures, and the network of each layer was closely connected. Its extensibility and tensile properties were good, and it had excellent temperature resistance and mechanical strength. The supramolecular gel had excellent tensile and compressive properties and good deformation recovery properties. When the elongation of the supramolecular gel reached 300%, the tensile stress was 2.33 MPa. When the compression ratio of supramolecular gel was 91.2%, the compressive stress could reach 4.78 MPa. The supramolecular gel could show an excellent plugging effect on complex loss layers with different fracture pore sizes, the plugging success rate could reach more than 90%, and the plugging layer could withstand 6.3 MPa external pressure. The smart plugging fluid prepared with supramolecular gel material could quickly form a fine barrier layer on the rock surface of the reservoir. It could effectively isolate drilling fluid from entering the reservoir and reduce the adverse effects, such as permeability reduction caused by drilling fluid entering the reservoir, so as to achieve the purpose of reservoir protection

Fig 6 -

Thermal stability of free PGA (A) and immobilized PGA (B).</p