Cross-lagged Relations between Motivation and Proficiency in English as a Foreign Language among Chinese University Students

The relationship between motivation and EFL proficiency is an issue of great concern in previous research on foreign language learning. However, work in this area offers inconclusive evidence with regard to the directionality of their relations. Using cross-lagged structural equation modeling, this study investigated the directionality of the relations between motivation and EFL proficiency among a sample of 262 Chinese university students (147 female, 115 male). The author adopted a three-wave, longitudinal, cross-lagged panel design and found that changes in instrumental orientation resulted in changes in EFL proficiency throughout the first school year. Changes in integrative orientation were not causally associated with changes in proficiency during the first semester, but the latter predicted the former during the second semester. Changes in motivational intensity predicted changes in proficiency during the first semester, but the relationship became insignificant during the second semester. Theoretical and applied implications were discussed. Keywords: Cross-lagged relation; Motivation; EFL proficiency; Chinese university student

A Study of Syntactic Complexity in Language Production by Chinese-Speaking Older Adults

The syntactic complexity of language production changes as a result of ageing. In this study, we made a comparison between Chinese-speaking older and younger adults in terms of the syntactic complexity in spoken language production. To assess the level of syntactic complexity of language production, we applied the traditional measures of syntactic complexity such as sentence length, verbal fluency and the distribution of subordinate clauses. Results indicated that older adults showed a decline in the mean number of clauses, the proportion of right-branching clauses and verbal fluency. These findings indicate that there was a decline in syntactic complexity in spoken language production among Chinese-speaking older adults

The impact of the collaborative innovation network embeddedness on enterprise green innovation performance

As the market environment becomes increasingly competitive, enterprises that rely solely on internal research and development innovation are no longer sufficient to meet the demands of competition. Consequently, enterprises have broken down organizational boundaries and shifted from closed innovation to open collaborative innovation. The flow of knowledge across organizations facilitates the acquisition of heterogeneous resources from partners, promotes the integration and configuration of internal and external knowledge, thereby enhances the competitiveness of enterprises. However, some scholars argued that collaborative innovation does not always achieve win-win outcomes, and the existence of substitution effects between enterprises and their partners may hinder the innovation level of the focal enterprise. Therefore, based on the resource-based theory and the network embeddedness theory, this study constructs a theoretical model to investigate the effects of network embeddedness, network experience and partner diversity on enterprise green innovation performance in the Chinese green collaborative innovation network. The impact of network embeddedness on innovation performance is examined from two dimensions: structural embeddedness and relational embeddedness. The moderating effects of network experience and partner diversity are analyzed to further explain this phenomenon. Using Chinese green patent data from 2000 to 2015 as the research object, the collaborative innovation network of enterprises is constructed, and the network characteristic variables are calculated using social network analysis methods. Finally, negative binomial regression and robustness tests are conducted using STATA software. The research findings provide managerial implications for Chinese enterprises to achieve competitiveness and sustainable development

Clinical Study of Endocrine Hormone Combined with Trastuzumab in Maintenance Treatment of HR and HER-2 Positive Advanced Breast Cancer

Objective: To analyze the clinical effect of endocrine hormone combined with trastuzumab in maintenance therapy of HR (hormone receptor) and HER-2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor) positive advanced breast cancer. Methods: A total of 80 patients with HR and HER-2 positive advanced breast cancer admitted to our hospital from January 2020 to December 2022 were selected, and the 80 patients were divided into 2 groups by random number table method, the control group (N= 40) The patients in the observation group (N=40) were treated with trastuzumab, and the patients in the observation group (N=40) were treated with endocrine hormones and trastuzumab for maintenance. The therapeutic effects of the two groups were compared. Results: The two groups of patients had similar serum CD8+, CD4+, CD3+ before treatment and CD8+ after treatment (P>0.05). After treatment, the CD4+ and CD3+ in the observation group were higher than those in the control group (P<0.05). The total effective rate of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group. It was higher in the control group (P<0.05); the incidence of adverse reactions in the observation group was lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Endocrine hormone combined with trastuzumab maintenance therapy for HR and HER-2 positive advanced breast cancer has significant clinical effect, can effectively improve the immune indexes of patients, and has less adverse reactions, which is worthy of clinical application

Age differences in the effect of animacy on Mandarin sentence processing

Animate nouns are preferred for grammatical subjects, whereas inanimate nouns are preferred for grammatical objects. Animacy provides important semantic cues for sentence comprehension. However, how individuals’ ability to use this animacy cue changes with advancing age is still not clear. The current study investigated whether older adults and younger adults were differentially sensitive to this semantic constraint in processing Mandarin relative clauses, using a self-paced reading paradigm. The sentences used in the study contained subject relative clauses or object relative clauses and had animate or inanimate subjects. The results indicate that the animacy manipulation affected the younger adults more than the older adults in online processing. Younger adults had longer reading times for all segments in subject relative clauses than in object relative clauses when the subjects were inanimate, whereas there was no significant difference in reading times between subject and object relative clauses when the subjects were animate. In the older group, animacy was not found to influence the processing difficulty of subject relative clauses and object relative clauses. Compared with younger adults, older adults were less sensitive to animacy constraints in relative clause processing. The findings indicate that the use of animacy cues became less efficient in the ageing population. The results can be explained by the capacity constrained comprehension theory, according to which older adults have greater difficulty in integrating semantic information with syntactic processing due to the lack of sufficient cognitive resources

Simultaneous suppression of PKM2 and PHGDH elicits synergistic anti-cancer effect in NSCLC

Metabolic reprogramming is a hallmark of human cancer. Cancer cells exhibit enhanced glycolysis, which allows glycolytic intermediates to be diverted into several other biosynthetic pathways, such as serine synthesis. Here, we explored the anti-cancer effects of the pyruvate kinase (PK) M2 inhibitor PKM2-IN-1 alone or in combination with the phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH) inhibitor NCT-503 in human NSCLC A549 cells in vitro and in vivo. PKM2-IN-1 inhibited proliferation and induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, with increased glycolytic intermediate 3-phosphoglycerate (3-PG) level and PHGDH expression. The combination of PKM2-IN-1 and NCT-503 further suppressed cancer cell proliferation and induced G2/M phase arrest, accompanied by the reduction of ATP, activation of AMPK and inhibition of its downstream mTOR and p70S6K, upregulation of p53 and p21, as well as downregulation of cyclin B1 and cdc2. In addition, combined treatment triggered ROS-dependent apoptosis by affecting the intrinsic Bcl-2/caspase-3/PARP pathway. Moreover, the combination suppressed glucose transporter type 1 (GLUT1) expression. In vivo, co-administration of PKM2-IN-1 and NCT-503 significantly inhibited A549 tumor growth. Taken together, PKM2-IN-1 in combination with NCT-503 exhibited remarkable anti-cancer effects through induction of G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, in which the metabolic stress induced ATP reduction and ROS augmented DNA damage might be involved. These results suggest that the combination of PKM2-IN-1 and NCT-503 might be a potential strategy for the therapy of lung cancer

Language-Specific Representation of Emotion-Concept Knowledge Causally Supports Emotion Inference

Understanding how language supports emotion inference remains a topic of debate in emotion science. The present study investigated whether language-derived emotion-concept knowledge would causally support emotion inference by manipulating the language-specific knowledge representations in large language models. Using the prompt technique, 14 attributes of emotion concepts were found to be represented by distinct artificial neuron populations. By manipulating these attribute-related neurons, the majority of the emotion inference tasks showed performance deterioration compared to random manipulations. The attribute-specific performance deterioration was related to the importance of different attributes in human mental space. Our findings provide causal evidence in support of a language-based mechanism for emotion inference and highlight the contributions of emotion-concept knowledge.Comment: 39 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables, fix formatting error

Lactobacillus brevis 23017 Relieves Mercury Toxicity in the Colon by Modulation of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation Through the Interplay of MAPK and NF-κB Signaling Cascades

Aims:Lactobacillus strains have protective effects against heavy metals while relieving oxidative stress and modulating the immune response. Mechanisms that ameliorate heavy metal toxicity and the relationship between probiotics and gut barrier protection in the process of heavy metal pathogenesis was poorly understood.Methods and Results: In this study, Lactobacillus brevis 23017 (LAB, L. brevis 23017), a selected probiotics strain with strong mercury binding capacities, was applied to evaluate the efficiency against mercury toxicity in a mouse model. Histopathological results along with HE stains show that L. brevis 23017 protects the integrity of the small intestinal villus, which slows weight loss in response to Hg exposure. The qRT-PCR results demonstrate that L. brevis 23017 maintains a normal mucosal barrier via modulation of tight junction proteins. Importantly, the present study demonstrates that L. brevis 23017 effectively ameliorates injury of the small intestine by reducing intestinal inflammation and alleviating oxidative stress in animal models. Moreover, L. brevis 23017 blocks oxidative stress and inflammation through MAPK and NF-κB pathways, as shown by western blot.Conclusions: Together, these results reveal that L. brevis 23017 may have applications in the prevention and treatment of oral Hg exposure with fermented functional foods by protecting gut health in daily life

Study on tinnitus-related electroencephalogram microstates in patients with vestibular schwannomas

Tinnitus is closely associated with cognition functioning. In order to clarify the central reorganization of tinnitus in patients with vestibular schwannoma (VS), this study explored the aberrant dynamics of electroencephalogram (EEG) microstates and their correlations with tinnitus features in VS patients. Clinical and EEG data were collected from 98 VS patients, including 76 with tinnitus and 22 without tinnitus. Microstates were clustered into four categories. Our EEG microstate analysis revealed that VS patients with tinnitus exhibited an increased frequency of microstate C compared to those without tinnitus. Furthermore, correlation analysis demonstrated that the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) score was negatively associated with the duration of microstate A and positively associated with the frequency of microstate C. These findings suggest that the time series and syntax characteristics of EEG microstates differ significantly between VS patients with and without tinnitus, potentially reflecting abnormal allocation of neural resources and transition of functional brain activity. Our results provide a foundation for developing diverse treatments for tinnitus in VS patients