Cognitive diversity and innovative work behaviour:The mediating roles of task reflexivity and relationship conflict and the moderating role of perceived support

Previous research has merely explored the positive relationship between cognitive diversity and creativity, but the potential negative side of cognitive diversity might also prevail and should be examined together with its positive side. To address this gap, our study, drawing on the categorization–elaboration model framework, explored both the positive and negative effects of cognitive diversity on creativity/innovation in a single model. Using data collected from 101 teams (including both team leaders and team members) in 10 Chinese manufacturing companies, we identified a dual pathway – namely, task reflexivity (i.e., positive pathway) and relationship conflict (i.e., negative pathway) – in the linkage of cognitive diversity and innovative work behaviour (i.e., IWB). Cognitive diversity encouraged IWB via the task reflexivity pathway, but impeded IWB via the relationship conflict pathway. We further demonstrated that perceived support for innovation moderated the relationships between cognitive diversity and task reflexivity/relationship conflict, with cognitive diversity more related to task reflexivity and less related to relationship conflict when perceived support for innovation was high. Moderated mediation effects also indicated that the positive indirect effect of cognitive diversity on IWB through task reflexivity existed only when support for innovation was high and that the negative indirect effect of cognitive diversity on IWB through relationship conflict occurred only when support for innovation was low

Resonant band engineering of ferroelectric tunnel junctions

We propose energy band engineering to enhance tunneling electroresistance (TER) in ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs). We predict that an ultrathin dielectric layer with a smaller band gap, embedded into a ferroelectric barrier layer, acts as a switch controlling high- and low-conductance states of an FTJ depending on polarization orientation. Using first-principles modeling based on density functional theory, we investigate this phenomenon for a prototypical SrRuO3/BaTiO3/SrRuO3 FTJ with a BaSnO3 monolayer embedded in the BaTiO3 barrier. We show that in such a composite-barrier FTJ, ferroelectric polarization of BaTiO3 shifts the conduction-band minimum of the BaSnO3 monolayer above or below the Fermi energy depending on polarization orientation. The resulting switching between direct and resonant tunneling leads to a TER effect with a giant ON/OFF conductance ratio. The proposed resonant band engineering of FTJs can serve as a viable tool to enhance their performance, useful for device applications

When do tripdoublet states fluoresce? A theoretical study of copper(II) porphyrin

Open-shell molecules rarely fluoresce, due to their typically faster non-radiative relaxation rates compared to closed-shell ones. Even rarer is the fluorescence from states that have two more unpaired electrons than the open-shell ground state, since they involve excitations from closed-shell orbitals to vacant-shell orbitals, which are typically higher in energy compared to excitations from or out of open-shell orbitals. States that are dominated by the former type of excitations are known as tripdoublet states when they can be described as a triplet excitation antiferromagnetically coupled to a doublet state, and their description by unrestricted single-reference methods (e.g., U-TDDFT) is notoriously inaccurate due to large spin contamination. In this work, we applied our spin-adapted TDDFT method, X-TDDFT, and the efficient and accurate static-dynamic-static second order perturbation theory (SDSPT2), to the study of the excited states as well as their relaxation pathways of copper(II) porphyrin; previous experimental works suggested that the photoluminescence of some substituted copper(II) porphyrins originate from a tripdoublet state, formed by a triplet ligand π → π* excitation antiferromagnetically coupled with the unpaired d electron. Our results demonstrated favorable agreement between the X-TDDFT, SDSPT2 and experimental excitation energies, and revealed noticeable improvements of X-TDDFT compared to U-TDDFT, not only for vertical excitation energies but also for adiabatic energy differences. These suggest that X-TDDFT is a reliable tool for the study of tripdoublet state fluorescence. Intriguingly, we showed that the aforementioned tripdoublet state is only slightly above the lowest doublet excited state and lies only slightly higher than the lowest quartet state, which suggests that the tripdoublet of copper(II) porphyrin is long-lived enough to fluoresce due to a lack of efficient non-radiative relaxation pathways; an explanation for this unusual state ordering is given. Indeed, thermal vibration correlation function (TVCF)-based calculations of internal conversion, intersystem crossing, and radiative transition rates confirm that copper(II) porphyrin emits thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) and a small amount of phosphorescence at low temperature (83 K), in accordance with experiment. The present contribution is concluded by a few possible approaches of designing new molecules that fluoresce from tripdoublet states

Analysis of Compressive Toughness and Deformability of High Ductile Fiber Reinforced Concrete

The compressive toughness evaluation index of HDC (high ductile fiber reinforced concrete) is studied through three groups of uniaxial compressive tests of HDC specimens with different fiber mixing amounts, and an equivalent analysis of their deformability is carried out, coming to the following conclusion: (1) the peak strain of HDC under uniaxial compression can be up to 3.41~3.67 times as large as that of the mortar matrix; (2) the equivalent compressive toughness index reflects the unit volume deformation energy of specimens under uniaxial compression and it can be used as the compressive toughness evaluation index of HDC; (3) the fiber bridging effect of HDC increases the equivalent compressive toughness index and the compressive deformability up to 3 times of the mortar matrix; (4) the relationship between the equivalent compressive toughness index Wcu0.85 and the fiber mixing amount φ is established according to the test results; and (5) the fiber bridging effect of the matrix in HDC can be equaling as a large number of constraint stirrups installed in the specimens, which significantly enhances the compressive toughness and the compressive deformability of specimens

Transcriptome analysis of Deinagkistrodon acutus venomous gland focusing on cellular structure and functional aspects using expressed sequence tags

BACKGROUND: The snake venom gland is a specialized organ, which synthesizes and secretes the complex and abundant toxin proteins. Though gene expression in the snake venom gland has been extensively studied, the focus has been on the components of the venom. As far as the molecular mechanism of toxin secretion and metabolism is concerned, we still knew a little. Therefore, a fundamental question being arisen is what genes are expressed in the snake venom glands besides many toxin components? RESULTS: To examine extensively the transcripts expressed in the venom gland of Deinagkistrodon acutus and unveil the potential of its products on cellular structure and functional aspects, we generated 8696 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from a non-normalized cDNA library. All ESTs were clustered into 3416 clusters, of which 40.16% of total ESTs belong to recognized toxin-coding sequences; 39.85% are similar to cellular transcripts; and 20.00% have no significant similarity to any known sequences. By analyzing cellular functional transcripts, we found high expression of some venom related genes and gland-specific genes, such as calglandulin EF-hand protein gene and protein disulfide isomerase gene. The transcripts of creatine kinase and NADH dehydrogenase were also identified at high level. Moreover, abundant cellular structural proteins similar to mammalian muscle tissues were also identified. The phylogenetic analysis of two snake venom toxin families of group III metalloproteinase and serine protease in suborder Colubroidea showed an early single recruitment event in the viperids evolutionary process. CONCLUSION: Gene cataloguing and profiling of the venom gland of Deinagkistrodon acutus is an essential requisite to provide molecular reagents for functional genomic studies needed for elucidating mechanisms of action of toxins and surveying physiological events taking place in the very specialized secretory tissue. So this study provides a first global view of the genetic programs for the venom gland of Deinagkistrodon acutus described so far and an insight into molecular mechanism of toxin secreting. All sequences data reported in this paper have been submitted into the public database [GenBank: DV556511-DV565206]

Photoperiod-responsive changes in chromatin accessibility in phloem companion and epidermis cells of Arabidopsis leaves

Photoperiod plays a key role in controlling the phase transition from vegetative to reproductive growth in flowering plants. Leaves are the major organs perceiving day-length signals, but how specific leaf cell types respond to photoperiod remains unknown. We integrated photoperiod-responsive chromatin accessibility and transcriptome data in leaf epidermis and vascular companion cells of Arabidopsis thaliana by combining isolation of nuclei tagged in specific cell/tissue types with assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing and RNA-sequencing. Despite a large overlap, vasculature and epidermis cells responded differently. Long-day predominantly induced accessible chromatin regions (ACRs); in the vasculature, more ACRs were induced and these were located at more distal gene regions, compared with the epidermis. Vascular ACRs induced by long days were highly enriched in binding sites for flowering-related transcription factors. Among the highly ranked genes (based on chromatin and expression signatures in the vasculature), we identified TREHALOSE-PHOSPHATASE/SYNTHASE 9 (TPS9) as a flowering activator, as shown by the late flowering phenotypes of T-DNA insertion mutants and transgenic lines with phloem-specific knockdown of TPS9. Our cell-type-specific analysis sheds light on how the long-day photoperiod stimulus impacts chromatin accessibility in a tissue-specific manner to regulate plant development

Phylogenetic analysis of porcine parvoviruses from swine samples in China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Porcine parvovirus (PPV) usually causes reproductive failure in sows. The objective of the present study was to analyze the phylogenetic distribution and perform molecular characterization of PPVs isolated in China, as well as to identify two field strains, LZ and JY. The data used in this study contained the available sequences for NS1 and VP2 from GenBank, as well as the two aforementioned Chinese strains.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Phylogenetic analysis shows that the PPV sequences are divided into four groups. The early Chinese PPV isolates are Group I viruses, and nearly all of the later Chinese PPV isolates are Group II viruses. LZ belongs to group II, whereas the JY strain is a Group III virus. This is the first report on the isolation of a Group III virus in China. The detection of selective pressures on the PPV genome shows that the NS1 and VP2 genes are under purifying selection and positive selection, respectively. Moreover, the amino acids in the VP2 capsid are highly variable because of the positive selection.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study provides new molecular data on PPV strains in China, and emphasizes the importance of etiological studies of PPV in pigs.</p