The relationship between climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behavior in adolescents: the mediating role of future self-continuity and the moderating role of green self-efficacy.

BACKGROUND: Climate change is seriously affecting human survival and development, and the anxiety caused by it is becoming increasingly prominent. How to alleviate people's climate change anxiety, improve the ecological environment, and promote the formation of green lifestyles among people, especially young people, is an important topic that deserves to be explored. This study examined the relationship between climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behaviors and the underlying psychological mechanism in the adolescents. METHODS: This study explored the crucial role of future self-continuity (FSC) between climate change anxiety (CCA) and pro-environmental behaviors (PEB) in adolescents and examined the moderating role of green self-efficacy (GSE). In this study, a total of 1,851 middle and high school students from five schools were selected for questionnaire survey. RESULTS: The results showed that (1) in both middle and high school grades, there was a significant negative correlation between climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behaviors; future self-continuity was significantly positively correlated with pro-environmental behaviors; green self-efficacy was negatively correlated with climate change anxiety and positively correlated with pro-environmental behaviors; (2) climate change anxiety negatively predicted pro-environmental behaviors, and compared with middle school grades, high school grade adolescents' climate change anxiety was significantly predicted pro-environmental behaviors. Future self-continuity mediated the relationship between climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behaviors in both grades. (3) green self-efficacy moderated the second half of the pathway of the mediation model only in middle grades. Specifically in middle school, future self-continuity did not significantly predict pro-environmental behaviors at low green self-efficacy level, but positively predicted pro-environmental behaviors at high green self-efficacy level. In high school, future self-continuity did not significantly predict pro-environmental behaviors in either high or low green self-efficacy level. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that there is a moderated mediation model between adolescents' climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behaviors, with different mediating and moderating effects among adolescents in various grades. This is of great significance in alleviating climate anxiety among adolescents and cultivating their pro-environmental behaviors.

ε-Polylysine and soybean protein isolate form nanoscale to microscale electrostatic complexes in solution: properties, interactions and as antimicrobial edible coatings on citrus.

A feasible approach to enhance the antimicrobial efficacy of ε-polylysine (PL) in applications is to form delivery complexes with delicate structures and good dispersion properties. This work aims to study the multiscale structures, properties and interactions, and edible coating applications of the electrostatic complex formed by PL and soy protein isolate (SPI). When the mass ratio of SPI to PL (SE) was between 5 and 15, especially 11, microscale solid-liquid phase separation occurred in the system due to the small absolute zeta potential. When the SE was in the range of 15-20, the system formed a stable nanoscale suspension, the average particle size and zeta potential were 191 nm and -20 mV, respectively. The physicochemical properties of the complexes were investigated including the colloidal properties, spectroscopy and interactions analysis, viscosity, contact angle, and antimicrobial activities against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Penicillium expansum. Finally, the in vivo application on citrus demonstrated that the nanoscale PL/SPI electrostatic complex (SE = 20) as functional coatings has both barrier and antimicrobial activities. The study provides a novel application strategy for PL and nanoscale electrostatic complexes as postharvest coatings.

Fabrication of colloidal stable gliadin-casein nanoparticles for the encapsulation of natamycin: Molecular interactions and antifungal application on cherry tomato.

Natamycin was encapsulated in gliadin-casein nanoparticles (G-C NPs) to control black rot in cherry tomato against Alternaria alternata. The G-C NPs with a mean particle diameter of 211 ± 4 nm were prepared using an anti-solvent method. The composite NPs showed better stability against neutral pH, ion, and storage than gliadin NPs. The quenching of gliadin by natamycin was static with a constant of 5.99 × 10-12 M-1∙S-1, and was spontaneous with a free energy of -23.5 kJ∙M-1 at 298 K. Both hydrophobic stacking and hydrogen bonds between natamycin and gliadin were found as the major driven force in the formation of the complex. The NPs kept the antifungal activity of natamycin with improved photostability. The NPs coatings exhibited better results than natamycin in controlling black rot on cherry tomato. This study shows the potential of the G-C NPs as all-natural delivery systems for natamycin in post-harvest treatments.