ABSTRACT
The objectives of this study were to examine the influence of bystanders' perceived reasonableness of online messages on their aggressive tendency toward victims and to examine the mediating role of bystanders' attribution of responsibility to victims on their aggressive tendency toward the victims. Our study involved two parts: In Study 1, 295 Taiwanese undergraduates were recruited, and questionnaires were distributed to them to measure their perceived reasonableness of cyberbullying attacks. In Study 2, a total of 78 university students were recruited. The participants' perceived reasonableness of cyberbullying attacks was reduced through experimental manipulation. Subsequently, they were randomly assigned to a group with relatively low reasonableness or a control group. The results of both studies revealed that the participants' aggressive tendency toward the victim was influenced by their perceived reasonableness of cyberbully messages. The relation between perceived reasonableness and aggressive tendency was mediated by the participants' attribution of responsibility to the victim.
Subject(s)
Bullying , Crime Victims , Humans , Aggression , Social Behavior , Social PerceptionABSTRACT
Scholars refer to individuals who have been immersed in digital environments and who make easy use of digital languages to interact with the world as "digital natives," and Teo proposed four attributes of digital natives to illustrate their behavioral tendencies. We aimed to expand Teo's framework and to develop and validate the Scale of Digital Native Attributes (SDNA) for measuring cognitive and social interactive attributes of digital natives. Based on pre-test results, we retained 10 attributes and 37 SDNA items, with 3-4 items in each sub-dimension. We then recruited 887 Taiwanese undergraduates as respondents and conducted confirmatory factor analysis to establish construct validity. Moreover, the SDNA correlated with several other related measurements to demonstrate satisfactory criterion-related validity. Internal consistency was evaluated by McDonald's Omega (ω) and Cronbach's α coefficient, showing satisfactory reliability. This preliminary tool is now ready for cross validation and temporal reliability testing in further research.
Subject(s)
Language , Students , Humans , Reproducibility of Results , Cognition , Surveys and Questionnaires , PsychometricsABSTRACT
Studies on cyberbullying have revealed an inconsistent relationship between trait empathy and bystanders' aggressive tendencies towards victims. We believe that these studies have overlooked the role of social exclusion. We infer that high-severity social exclusion suppresses the negative relationship between trait empathy and bystanders' aggressive tendencies. In Study 1, 226 participants read a news report concerning a singer's humiliation by netizens due to lack of talent. The results revealed that trait empathy predicted lower aggressive tendencies towards the singer for participants with fewer experiences of social exclusion. However, trait empathy was unrelated to aggressive tendencies for participants with more experiences of social exclusion. In Study 2, 146 participants were randomly assigned to a low-severity or a high-severity social exclusion condition and were required to recall their experiences of low- or high-severity social exclusion, respectively. The results demonstrated that in the low-severity condition, trait empathy was negatively associated with participants' aggressive tendencies towards the singer and this relationship was mediated by state empathy. However, there was no evidence that the process was at work in the high-severity condition. This study further presents implications and directions for future research.
Subject(s)
Bullying , Cyberbullying , Empathy , Humans , Hypesthesia , Social IsolationABSTRACT
Researchers have suggested that receiving attribute affirmation (AA) may increase the motivation of students to confront a challenge. However, we posited that to determine whether AA increases the motivation of students to confront a challenging task, we must consider dispositional achievement goals of the students. The participants were 171 junior-high-school students, randomly assigned to an AA or no affirmation condition. The results showed that AA enhanced the tendency to confront a challenging task for students who endorsed low mastery-approach goals (MAGs) and low performance-approach goals (PAGs) simultaneously (b = 0.5, p = 0.015). The effect was mainly mediated by the increasing state performance-approach goals (SPAGs) in confronting the task (indirect effect = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.04-0.49); however, being attribute-affirmed decreased the tendency to confront the challenging task for students adopting a dominant PAG orientation (b = -0.76, p = 0.049). In addition, for students adopting a dominant MAG orientation or adopting high MAGs and high PAGs simultaneously, no difference was noted in the tendency to confront the task between participants in the control and attribute-affirmed conditions.
ABSTRACT
This study investigated the relationship between creativity and negative emotion, and the effects of integrating creative insight into the reappraisal process on negative emotions. In Study 1, participants' creativity and baseline anxiety levels were measured; then anxiety was induced, and anxiety levels were reassessed. In Study 2, participants wrote about past negative events and then completed the positive and negative affect schedule. They were split into three groups (insight reappraisal, simple reappraisal, or control groups); each of them received a separate intervention, and then they completed positive and negative affect schedule again. In Study 3, participants were randomly assigned to insight reappraisal or control groups; apart from measuring cognitive changes, the procedures were identical to Study 2. All participants were undergraduate students. Results showed that flexibility, originality, risk-taking, and complexity are negatively correlated with anxiety, and that insight reappraisal can induce insight experience and enhance cognitive changes, and reduce negative emotional responses. Therefore, integrating creative insight into the reappraisal process can enhance its effectiveness in reducing negative emotions.
Subject(s)
Cognition/physiology , Creativity , Emotional Regulation/physiology , Personality/physiology , Adult , Anxiety/psychology , Emotions/physiology , Female , Humans , Male , Young AdultABSTRACT
Previous studies have found that the relationship between contingencies of self-worth (CSW) and depression was generally weak. We posited that this is partly because previous studies assumed CSW on positive and negative events as the same construct (one-dimensional CSW), which should be better conceptualized as two distinctive dimensions (two-dimensional CSW) in explaining depression. A total of 393 undergraduates from Taiwan completed the measures regarding one-dimensional CSW, two-dimensional CSW, and depression. After dividing CSW of seven classic domains into two dimensions of positive and negative CSW, the results of confirmatory factor analyses showed that the two-dimensional CSW model had better model fit than the one-dimensional model in all domains. Furthermore, relative to using one-dimensional CSW as a predictor of depression, the variance accounted for largely increased when positive and negative CSW entered simultaneously in the regression equation. The results suggest that CSW on positive and negative events should be seen as two dimensions and this perspective may largely increase the explanatory power of CSW in explaining mental health.
ABSTRACT
When people evaluate the strength of an argument, their motivations are likely to influence the evaluation. However, few studies have specifically investigated the influences of motivational factors on argument evaluation. This study examined the effects of defence and accuracy motivations on argument evaluation. According to the compatibility between the advocated positions of arguments and participants' prior beliefs and the objective strength of arguments, participants evaluated four types of arguments: compatible-strong, compatible-weak, incompatible-strong, and incompatible-weak arguments. Experiment 1 revealed that participants possessing a high defence motivation rated compatible-weak arguments as stronger and incompatible-strong ones as weaker than participants possessing a low defence motivation. However, the strength ratings between the high and low defence groups regarding both compatible-strong and incompatible-weak arguments were similar. Experiment 2 revealed that when participants possessed a high accuracy motivation, they rated compatible-weak arguments as weaker and incompatible-strong ones as stronger than when they possessed a low accuracy motivation. However, participants' ratings on both compatible-strong and incompatible-weak arguments were similar when comparing high and low accuracy conditions. The results suggest that defence and accuracy motivations are two major motives influencing argument evaluation. However, they primarily influence the evaluation results for compatible-weak and incompatible-strong arguments, but not for compatible-strong and incompatible-weak arguments.
Subject(s)
Culture , Dissent and Disputes , Motivation , Adult , Defense Mechanisms , Humans , Persuasive Communication , Young AdultABSTRACT
High-yield multibranched Au nanoechinus possessing lengthy and dense branched nanorods on the surface were synthesized using a seed-mediated surfactant-directed approach in the presence of gemini cationic surfactant N,N,N'N'-tetramethyl-N,N'-ditetradecylethane-1,2-diaminium bromide (C14C2C14Br2), HAuCl4, AgNO3, and ascorbic acid. C14C2C14Br2 surfactant provides a versatile template in designing the unique morphology of Au nanoechinus with the assistance of AgNO3. UV-vis spectroscopic analysis proves that Au nanoechinus possess a unique intense broad localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak, which extends from 400 to 1700 nm in the NIR region making a highly potential platform for biomedical applications. Systematic time-dependent TEM, UV-vis-NIR, and XRD analysis were performed to monitor the morphological evolution of multibranched Au nanoechinus. It was found that the surface of branched nanorods of Au NE preferentially grew along (111) crystal planes. Furthermore, as-synthesized Au nanoechinus shows excellent SERS enhancement ability for dopamine inside HeLa cells.
ABSTRACT
KEY MESSAGE: Transcriptome analysis of barley embryogenic callus from isolated microspore culture under salt stress uncovered a role of translation inhibition and selective activation of stress-specific proteins in cellular defense. Soil salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses which constrains the plant growth and reduces the productivity of field crops. In this study, it was observed that the salt stress in barley isolated microspore culture impacted not only on the quantity of embryogenic callus but also on the quality for later differentiation. The barley microspore-derived embryogenic callus, a transient intermediate form linked cells and plants, was employed for a global transcriptome analysis by RNA sequencing to provide new insights into the cellular adaptation or acclimation to stress. A total of 596 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, in which 123 DEGs were up-regulated and 473 DEGs were down-regulated in the embryogenic callus produced from microspore culture under salt stress as compared to the control conditions. KEGG pathway analysis identified 'translation' (27 DEGs; 12.56 %) as the largest group and followed by 'folding, sorting and degradation' (25 DEGs; 11.63 %) in 215 mapped metabolic pathways. The results of RNA-Seq data and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction validation showed that the genes related to translation regulation (such as eIF1A, RPLP0, RPLP2, VARS) were down-regulated to control general protein synthesis, and the genes related to endoplasmic reticulum stress response (such as small heat shock protein genes) were selectively up-regulated against protein denaturing during microspore embryogenesis under continuous salt stress. These transcriptional remodeling might affect the essential protein synthesis for the cell development to fulfill totipotency under salt stress.
Subject(s)
Gene Expression Profiling , Hordeum/embryology , Hordeum/genetics , Pollen/genetics , Pollen/physiology , Protein Biosynthesis/genetics , Sodium Chloride/pharmacology , Stress, Physiological/genetics , Gene Expression Regulation, Plant , Hordeum/drug effects , Hordeum/physiology , Pollen/drug effects , Protein Biosynthesis/drug effects , Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction , Seeds/drug effects , Seeds/embryology , Seeds/genetics , Seeds/physiology , Sequence Analysis, RNA , Signal Transduction/drug effects , Signal Transduction/genetics , Stress, Physiological/drug effectsABSTRACT
Previous studies have demonstrated that arguments incompatible with prior beliefs are subjected to more extensive refutational processing, scrutinized longer, and judged to be weaker than arguments compatible with prior beliefs. However, this study suggests whether extensive processing is implemented when evaluating arguments is not decided by argument compatibility, but by congruence between two evaluating tendencies elicited by both argument compatibility and argument quality. Consistent with this perspective, the results of two experiments show that relative to congruent arguments, participants judged arguments eliciting incongruent evaluating tendencies as less extreme in strength, spent more time, and felt more hesitant generating strength judgments for them. The results also show that it is mainly incongruent arguments, not congruent arguments, whose strength ratings were more closely associated with the perceived personal importance of the issue, which intensified the tendency to evaluate arguments depending on argument compatibility. These results suggest that it is the incongruity between argument compatibility and argument quality, and not simply the argument compatibility, that plays a more important role in activating an extensive processing in the evaluation of arguments.
Subject(s)
Culture , Judgment/physiology , Models, Psychological , HumansABSTRACT
Gold nanoechinus can sensitize the formation of singlet oxygen in the first and the second near-infra red (NIR) biological windows and exert in vivo dual modal photodynamic and photothermal therapeutic effects (PDT and PTT) to destruct the tumors completely. This is the first literature example of the destruction of tumors in NIR window II induced by dual modal nanomaterial-mediated photodynamic and photothermal therapy (NmPDT & NmPTT).
Subject(s)
Drug Design , Gold/chemistry , Gold/pharmacology , Infrared Rays , Nanostructures , Photochemotherapy/methods , Animals , Melanoma, Experimental/drug therapy , Mice , Photosensitizing Agents/chemistry , Photosensitizing Agents/pharmacologyABSTRACT
In this study, two electrochemical oxidation processes were utilized to mineralize oxalic acid which was a major intermediate compound in the oxidation of phenols and other aromatic compounds. The anode rod and cathode net were made of a titanium coated with RuO(2)/IrO(2) (Ti-DSA) and stainless steel (S.S. net, SUS304), respectively. First, the Fered-Fenton process, which used H(2)O(2) and Fe(2+) as additive reagents, achieved 85% of TOC removal. It proceeded with ligand-to-metal charge-transfer (LMCT), which was evidenced by the accumulation of metallic foil on the selected cathode. However, in the absence of H(2)O(2)/Fe(2+), it showed a higher TOC removal efficiency while using Cl(-) only as an additive reagent due to the formation of hypochlorite on the anode. It was also found that the mineralization of oxalic acid by electrolysis generated hypochlorite better than the dosage of commercial hypochlorite without electricity. Also, pH value was a major factor that affected the mineralization efficiency of the oxalic acid due to the chlorine chemistry. 99% TOC removal could be obtained by Cl(-) electrolysis in an acidic environment.
Subject(s)
Electrolysis/methods , Industrial Waste/prevention & control , Oxalic Acid/chemistry , Environmental Restoration and Remediation/methods , Hydrogen Peroxide , Hydrogen-Ion Concentration , Indicators and Reagents , Iron , Oxidation-Reduction , Phenols/chemistryABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To establish a HPLC method for determination of ursolic acid in dried aerial part of Verbena officinalis. METHOD: The column used was a Kromasil C18 (4.6 mm x 250 mm) packed with a 5 microns stationary phase. The mobile phase consisted of methanol-sodium phosphate buffer [monobasic sodium phosphate (MW = 119.98) 1.7997 g and phosphoric acid (85%) 1.02 mL, combined and brought the total volume of 1,000 mL with water] (89:11); the mobile phase was maintained at a flow-rate of 0.8 mL per minute; the column was maintained at 40 degrees C; the DAD detector was set at 210 nm. RESULTS: The liner range was 0.251-10.04 micrograms (r = 1.0000). An average recovery of 98.1% (n = 6) was obtained with a RSD of 1.0%. CONCLUSION: The method is simple, accurate and suitable for the qualify control.