Development and validation of interpretation bias questionnaire with ambiguous scenarios

Objective To develop a depressive interpretation bias questionnaire with Chinese culture based on the similarity rating task (SRT), and to test its reliability and validity. Methods After being authorized, the ambiguous paragraphs in cognitive behavior modification errors prospective training items (CBM-I) were translated and screened in the first round, the screened paragraphs combined with the remaining of SRT and the self-written ambiguous paragraphs to form the screening questionnaire of the second round.Fourteen ambiguous paragraphs were selected as the items, and then the ambiguous situation interpretation bias questionnaire was compiled using SRT as the template.The reliability and validity analysis and item analysis were launched after 477 were tested by the questionnaire mentioned before. Results A 14-item-formed questionnaire was compiled after 2 rounds of screening, then 5 factors were extracted by exploratory factor analysis, and the cumulative contribution rate was 52.67%.The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the five-factor model fitted well.Cronbach's α was 0.613, and split-half reliability was 0.617;Paired t-test was used to test the content validity, which showed significant difference between the target sentences and the foil sentences (t=-12.90, P < 0.01).The questionnaire had good criterion validity, regarding the center for epidemiologic studies depression scale (CES-D) in Chinese version as criterion, while the total T score was significantly correlated with the total score of the CES-D (r=-0.224, P < 0.01). Conclusion The interpretation bias questionnaire with ambiguous scenarios is a applicable measurement of depression interpretation bias in China

Adaptive laboratory evolution of Rhodococcus rhodochrous DSM6263 for chlorophenol degradation under hypersaline condition

Abstract Background Normally, a salt amount greater than 3.5% (w/v) is defined as hypersaline. Large amounts of hypersaline wastewater containing organic pollutants need to be treated before it can be discharged into the environment. The most critical aspect of the biological treatment of saline wastewater is the inhibitory/toxic effect exerted on bacterial metabolism by high salt concentrations. Although efforts have been dedicated to improving the performance through the use of salt-tolerant or halophilic bacteria, the diversities of the strains and the range of substrate spectrum remain limited, especially in chlorophenol wastewater treatment. Results In this study, a salt-tolerant chlorophenol-degrading strain was generated from Rhodococcus rhodochrous DSM6263, an original aniline degrader, by adaptive laboratory evolution. The evolved strain R. rhodochrous CP-8 could tolerant 8% NaCl with 4-chlorophenol degradation capacity. The synonymous mutation in phosphodiesterase of strain CP-8 may retard the hydrolysis of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), which is a key factor reported in the osmoregulation. The experimentally verified up-regulation of intracellular cAMP level in the evolved strain CP-8 contributes to the improvement of growth phenotype under high osmotic condition. Additionally, a point mutant of the catechol 1,2-dioxygenase, CatAN211S, was revealed to show the 1.9-fold increment on activity, which the mechanism was well explained by molecular docking analysis. Conclusions This study developed one chlorophenol-degrading strain with extraordinary capacity of salt tolerance, which showed great application potential in hypersaline chlorophenol wastewater treatment. The synonymous mutation in phosphodiesterase resulted in the change of intracellular cAMP concentration and then increase the osmotic tolerance in the evolved strain. The catechol 1,2-dioxygenase mutant with improved activity also facilitated chlorophenol removal since it is the key enzyme in the degradation pathway

Attitude and Performance for Online Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Meta-Analytic Evidence

The COVID-19 pandemic prominently hit almost all the aspects of our life, especially in routine education. For public health security, online learning has to be enforced to replace classroom learning. Thus, it is a priority to clarify how these changes impacted students. We built a random-effect model of a meta-analysis to pool individual effect sizes for published articles concerning the attitudes and performance towards online learning. Databases included Google Scholar, PubMed and (Chinese) CNKI repository. Further, a moderated analysis and meta-regression were further used to clarify potential heterogenous factors impacting this pooled effect. Forty published papers (n = 98,558) were screened that were eligible for formal analysis. Meta-analytic results demonstrated that 13.3% (95% CI: 10.0&ndash;17.5) of students possessed negative attitudes towards online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 12.7% (95% CI: 9.6&ndash;16.8) students were found to report poor performance in online learning. Moderated analysis revealed poor performance in online learning in the early pandemic (p = 0.006). Results for the meta-regression analysis showed that negative attitudes could predict poor learning performance significantly (p = 0.026). In conclusion, online learning that is caused by COVID-19 pandemic may have brought about negative learning attitudes and poorer learning performance compared to classroom learning, especially in the early pandemic

Synthesis and optical property of zinc aluminate spinel cryogels

Zinc aluminate spinel cryogels with various molar ratio of Al/Zn are synthesized by sol–gel technology followed by vacuum freeze drying. The structures and optical properties are both found to be affected by the molar ratios of Al/Zn and annealed temperatures. The peaks of zinc oxide (ZnO) and zinc dialuminum oxide (ZnAl2O4) are both obtained for the samples with more Zn content annealed at 750 °C or upward. The composites have a large surface area (137 m2/g) with mesoporous structure after annealing at 750 °C. The SEM images reveal that the ZnAl2O4 crystals formed a multilayer structure with redundant ZnO particles which deposited on it. Furthermore, the maximum infrared reflectance is about 80% with an improvement of 35% in the infrared region after annealing at 950 °C compared with that of 450 °C, which indicates that these porous cryogels have a potential application as thermal insulating materials at a high temperature

Preparation of the Yellow-Colored Aluminum Pigments with Double-Layer Structure Using a Crosslinked Copolymeric Dye

Colorization for fabricating aluminum pigments has broad application prospects in recent years. In this study, yellow-colored aluminum pigments with the double-layer structure Al@SiO2@PFMV were prepared using a sol-gel method. A crosslinked copolymeric dye (PFMV) was firstly synthesized by radical polymerization using vinyl triethoxysilane (VTES) and a small molecular dye (FGMAC) as monomers. Then, colored aluminum pigments were prepared by hydrolysis and condensation of the copolymers on the surface of aluminum pigments. SEM, AFM, FTIR, and XPS were used to characterize the surface morphology and chemical structure of the colored aluminum pigments. It was found that the colored aluminum pigments have a heterogeneous and smooth surface layer. The anticorrosion results showed that the colored aluminum pigments had better chemical stability with significantly improving corrosion resistance compared to raw aluminum pigments and Al@SiO2 with the single-layer coating. Chromatism analysis indicated that the lightness of Al@SiO2@PFMV pigments decreased slightly and the color changed from silver-gray to yellow