Self- and other-focused autobiographical memories of life story events across cultures.

Autobiographical memory and personal life stories are typically conceived as memories about the self. However, personal life stories often contain information about important events from other people's lives. Sometimes those memories become an important part of our own life stories, illuminating the role that other people play in remembering our personal past. In this study, we examined the extent to which memories of important life story events are self-focused (e.g., I moved to Japan) or other-focused (e.g., My child graduated from college). Participants from Mexico, Greenland, China, Denmark and the United States recalled and dated seven autobiographical memories of important personal life story events. Participants also rated the memories for importance and emotional valence. The memories were coded as self- or other-focused. Participants recalled mainly self-focused memories. However, Danish and Chinese participants recalled about 20% other-focused memories. Danish participants recalled negative events about their parents, whereas Chinese participants recalled positive events about their children. Self-focused and other-focused memories differed in their emotional valence and lifespan distribution, but not in importance. The findings show that individuals remember other-focused memories and also incorporate them into their own personal life stories. Conceptual implications for autobiographical memory are discussed.

Mechanism and Model for Optimizing Polytetrafluoroethylene Distribution to Improve the Electrical and Thermal Conductivity of Treated Carbon Fiber Paper in Fuel Cells.

Employing polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-treated carbon fiber paper (CFP) as the substrate of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) is a common practice to improve water management in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), but the resulting increase in electrical and thermal resistance is a critical problem that restricts the performance output of PEMFCs. Hence, studying the mechanism and prediction model for both the electrical and thermal conductivity in CFP is essential. This work established a mathematical graph theory model for CFP electrical and thermal conductivity prediction based on the observation and abstraction of the CFP characteristic structures. For the PTFE-treated CFP, the electrical and thermal conductivity of CFP can be effectively increased by optimizing the PTFE distribution in CFP. A "filter net effect" mechanism was proposed to reasonably explain PTFE distribution's influence on the CFP performance. Finally, the equivalent effect of multiple factors on conductivity was revealed using contour maps, which provides inspiration for further reducing the electrical and thermal resistance in CFP.

Single gold nanoparticle-driven heme cofactor nanozyme as an unprecedented oxidase mimetic.

The catalytic diversity of heme enzymes is a perpetuating pursuit for biomimetic chemistry, but heme nanozymes exhibit catalytic activity only reminiscent of peroxidases. Miraculously, the oxidase-like catalytic function of a heme cofactor is elicited with the help of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) by maintaining heme with a low-valence state (ferrous) in a confined configuration.

Event centrality of positive and negative autobiographical memories to identity and life story across cultures.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether cultural differences exist in event centrality, emotional distress and well-being in a total of 565 adults above age 40 from Mexico, Greenland, China and Denmark. Participants completed questionnaires to determine their level of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms, and of life satisfaction. They also completed event centrality scales for their most positive and most negative life events. Across cultures, participants rated positive events as more central to their identity and life stories, compared with negative events. Furthermore, participants with higher levels of emotional distress rated negative events as more central to their identity and life story, compared with participants with lower scores. However, a converse pattern was not found for positive events. Finally, participants with higher scores of life satisfaction tended to rate positive events as more central and negative events as less central to their identity and life story, compared with participants with lower scores. It is concluded that across cultures, positive events are considered more central to identity and life story than negative events and that event centrality ratings tend to be affected in similar ways by higher versus lower levels of emotional distress or well-being.