A Target Sequential Effect on the Forced-Choice Prime Visibility Test in Unconscious Priming Studies: A Caveat for Researchers

In unconscious priming studies, most researchers adopt a combination of subjective and objective measures to assess the visibility of the prime. Although some carry out the visibility test at the end of the experiment separately from the unconscious priming task, others suggest that the forced-choice visibility test should be conducted immediately after the response to the target within each trial. In the present study, the influence of prime and target on the forced-choice prime discrimination was assessed within each trial. The results showed that the target affected the response in the forced-choice prime visibility test. Participants tended to make the same response or avoid repeating the same response they made to the target as in Experiments 1 and 3 rather than randomly guessing. However, even when the forcedchoice visibility test was conducted separately from the priming experiment, the problem was not completely solved, because some participants tended to make one same response in the forced-choice visibility test as in Experiments 2. From another point of view, using these strategies in the forced-choice task can be seen as a helpless move by the participants when they are unaware of the stimuli. Furthermore, the results revealed that the forced-choice test performed immediately after the response to the target within each trial could possibly impair the unconscious priming as well as produce misleading visibility test results. Therefore, it is suggested that the forced-choice prime visibility test and the unconscious priming task may better be conducted separately

Morphologic design of nanostructures for enhanced antimicrobial activity

Despite significant progress in synthetic polymer chemistry and in control over tuning the structures and morphologies of nanoparticles, studies on morphologic design of nanomaterials for the purpose of optimizing antimicrobial activity have yielded mixed results. When designing antimicrobial materials, it is important to consider two distinctly different modes and mechanisms of activity-those that involve direct interactions with bacterial cells, and those that promote the entry of nanomaterials into infected host cells to gain access to intracellular pathogens. Antibacterial activity of nanoparticles may involve direct interactions with organisms and/or release of antibacterial cargo, and these activities depend on attractive interactions and contact areas between particles and bacterial or host cell surfaces, local curvature and dynamics of the particles, all of which are functions of nanoparticle shape. Bacteria may exist as spheres, rods, helices, or even in uncommon shapes (e.g., box- and star-shaped) and, furthermore, may transform into other morphologies along their lifespan. For bacteria that invade host cells, multivalent interactions are involved and are dependent upon bacterial size and shape. Therefore, mimicking bacterial shapes has been hypothesized to impact intracellular delivery of antimicrobial nanostructures. Indeed, designing complementarities between the shapes of microorganisms with nanoparticle platforms that are designed for antimicrobial delivery offers interesting new perspectives toward future nanomedicines. Some studies have reported improved antimicrobial activities with spherical shapes compared to non-spherical constructs, whereas other studies have reported higher activity for non-spherical structures (e.g., rod, discoid, cylinder, etc.). The shapes of nano- and microparticles have also been shown to impact their rates and extents of uptake by mammalian cells (macrophages, epithelial cells, and others). However, in most of these studies, nanoparticle morphology was not intentionally designed to mimic specific bacterial shape. Herein, the morphologic designs of nanoparticles that possess antimicrobial activities per se and those designed to deliver antimicrobial agent cargoes are reviewed. Furthermore, hypotheses beyond shape dependence and additional factors that help to explain apparent discrepancies among studies are highlighted

Elevated serum albumin-to-creatinine ratio as a protective factor on outcomes after heart transplantation

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance of serum albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) in patients receiving heart transplantation of end-stage heart failure.MethodsFrom January 2015 to December 2020, a total of 460 patients who underwent heart transplantation were included in this retrospective analysis. According to the maximum Youden index, the optimal cut-off value was identified. Kaplan-Meier methods were used to describe survival rates, and multivariable analyses were conducted with Cox proportional hazard models. Meanwhile, logistic regression analysis was applied to evaluate predictors for postoperative complications. The accuracy of risk prediction was evaluated by using the concordance index (C-index) and calibration plots.ResultsThe optimal cut-off value was 37.54 for ACR. Univariable analysis indicated that recipient age, IABP, RAAS, BB, Hb, urea nitrogen, D-dimer, troponin, TG, and ACR were significant prognostic factors of overall survival (OS). Multivariate analysis showed that preoperative ACR (HR: 0.504, 95% = 0.352–0.722, P < 0.001) was still an independent prognostic factor of OS. The nomogram for predicting 1-year and 5-year OS in patients who underwent heart transplantation without ACR (C-index = 0.631) and with ACR (C-index = 0.671). Besides, preoperative ACR level was a significant independent predictor of postoperative respiratory complications, renal complications, liver injury, infection and in-hospital death. Moreover, the calibration plot showed good consistency between the predictions by the nomogram for OS and the actual outcomes.ConclusionOur research showed that ACR is a favorable prognostic indicator in patients of heart transplantation

Advances of Glucose-Based Polycarbonates: From Fundamentals to Anti-Biofouling Applications

The production of eco-friendly materials, in particular, sugar-based polymers, has gained extensive attention because of the great abundance of natural carbohydrates and polysaccharide resources with low cost, high degrees of structural diversity and functionality, biocompatibility and degradability. In this work, we advanced the development of naturally derived glucose-based polycarbonates through the investigation of polymerization mechanisms, determination of relationships between structures, reactivities, properties, and application toward complex surfaces capable of exerting intriguing anti-biofouling characteristics to address societal challenges. The regioselectivities of organocatalytic ring-opening polymerizations (ROPs) in a series of five-membered cyclic glucose carbonate monomers were investigated. Regioirregular poly(2,3-α-D-glucose carbonates) were afforded via the ROPs of three monomers having different cyclic acetal protecting groups through the 4- and 6- positions. A combination of 1D and 2D NMR studies of the isolated unimers and dimers revealed the backbone connectivities and ring-opening preference. Furthermore, transcarbonylation reactions in the presence of the organobase catalyst, 1,5,7-Triazabicyclo[4.4.0]dec-5-ene (TBD), were confirmed by a model reaction, which was going with the ring-opening process and scrambled the regioselectivity. Computational calculations were also performed to gain the mechanistic molecular understanding of organobase catalyzed ring-opening reactions. Further, side chain engineering is extensively used to modulate the materials with desirable behaviors and performances in practical applications. Therefore, it is essential to understand the fundamental principles of substituents in sugar-based polymers that drive the polymerization processes and material properties. Glucose carbonate monomers with variable acyclic substantial functionalities at 4- and 6- positions were designed and synthesized. The side-chain substitutions significantly affected the regioselectivities and polymerization rates during organocatalytic ROPs and the thermal properties of the derived polycarbonates. Lastly, polymer amphiphilicity is well known to affect the anti-biofouling ability in the coating systems. Herein, block PEGylated poly(4,6-α-D-glucose carbonate) with different lengths of hydrophobic segments were prepared and then fabricated into coatings on glass slides to rigorously probe their surface features through advanced characterizations and evaluate their anti-biofouling performance with various organisms. Together, understandings the physicochemical properties and surface features of PGC coatings are expected to guide toward the optimized design of materials for varying challenging conditions

The Impact of Environmental Information Disclosure Quality on Loan Scale for Enterprises in China’s Heavy Polluting Industries

In view of the importance of environmental accounting to ecological governance, this article attempts to study the economic consequences of environmental information disclosure quality (EID) from the perspective of bank financing. We assume that good environmental information disclosure quality can help companies obtain bank loan, and then test this conjecture through empirical methods. The data of 330 listed companies in China’s heavy polluting industries were collected, and then analysed by SPSS for regression. The result shows that EID is positively related to the scale of corporate bank loan, which means the improvement of EID can bring convenience when companies need bank loans. The research clarifies the financial consequences of EID and provides some enlightenment for the improvement of corporate environmental disclosure quality

Environmental Information Disclosure and Financial Performance – Empirical Evidence from Heavily Polluting Industries in China

Focusing on the quality of corporate environmental accounting information disclosure (EID), this paper attempts to explore the impact of financial performance on environmental information disclosure. We take listed companies in Chinese heavily polluting industries as the research object, and construct a multiple regression model for data analysis via SPSS. According to Chinese practice, we divide the financial indicators into four areas: solvency, operating capacity, profitability and development capacity, and select four indicators to represent them. The empirical results show that net working capital, current asset turnover and equity growth rate are positively correlated with EID, and return on total assets is negatively correlated with EID. This result means that the solvency, operating ability and development ability in financial performance can promote the improvement of EID, but profitability cannot