Quantum interference effects in single-molecule devices can significantly enhance the thermoelectric properties of these devices. However, single-molecule systems have limited utility for power ...conversion. In this work, we study the effects of destructive quantum interference in molecular junctions on the thermoelectric properties of hybrid, 2-dimensional molecule-nanoparticle monolayers. We study two isomers of benzenedithiol molecules, with either a
para
or
meta
configuration for the thiol groups, as molecular interlinkers between gold nanoparticles in the structure. The asymmetrical structure in the
meta
configuration significantly improves the Seebeck coefficient and power factor over the
para
configuration. These results suggest that thermoelectric performance of engineered, nanostructured material can be enhanced by harnessing quantum interference effects in the substituent components.
Quantum interference effects in single-molecule devices can significantly enhance the thermoelectric properties of these devices.
Qualitative research offers the potential to inform an ongoing issue concerning why international students struggle with critical thinking. This article approaches the issue by examining how ...international graduate students understand critical thinking as well as the challenges they have faced with critical thinking. The study used a narrative-case study framework to collect data from 4 Chinese international graduate students at a large mid-Western research university in the United States. The results showed that the participants had diverse conceptions of critical thinking and that they tended to focus on dispositions related to critical thinking rather than skills. These results suggest that participants' struggles may be related to diverse conceptualizations of critical thinking as well as an overemphasis on dispositions. Furthermore, educational differences between the U.S. and China were highlighted in the interviews with the participants, which supports other findings in the literature.
Exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy, a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy, is a first-line, evidence-based treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) for adults and children. It ...is effective for the majority of those who engage in it, but treatment adherence can be challenging for some due to the stress involved in the treatment as well as different life circumstances that arise. To help improve treatment adherence, NOCD, a provider of video teletherapy ERP, identifies those at risk of non-adherence using a prediction algorithm trained on a data set of
N
= 13,809 and provides targeted peer support interventions by individuals (“Member Advocates”) who successfully completed ERP treatment for OCD. Member Advocates, using lived OCD experience as well as experience with ERP, engage at-risk patients through digital messaging to engage, educate, and encourage patients in the early stages of treatment. From June 2022 to August 2022,
N
= 815 patients deemed at risk were reached out to and
n
= 251 responded and engaged with the Member Advocates. In the at-risk patients who engaged, the intervention resulted in a significant mean 30.4% more therapy hours completed compared to those who did not engage. Additionally, engaged patients had greater reductions in OCD severity. These results have implications for how data science, digital interventions, and strategic peer-to-peer communication and support can be combined to enhance the effectiveness of treatment.
Abstract
Vaccines against drugs of abuse (VADAs) show promise as a possible therapeutic for the alleviation of addiction due to their ability to modulate intake behavior via the altering of drug ...pharmacokinetics. In the past, however, these vaccines have failed to show clinical efficacy due to extensive variability in the magnitude of antibody response between individual vaccinees. Correspondingly, the future success of VADAs hinges directly on whether or not researchers can find ways to engineer more broadly effective vaccines. Differences in response must, to some extent, be the result of variable capacities for each individual’s immune system to process and/or present antigens. As such, we speculate that future VADAs will need to target the three key stages of vaccine processing, recognition, processing, and presentation, in order to achieve clinical effectiveness. Here, we describe a project aiming to engineer a broadly effective carrier protein based on this concept. Using haplotype frequency data provided by Be the Match, HLA-DQ and -DR haplotypes covering 99% of the population were selected for analysis. Next, the most common carrier proteins used in conjugate vaccine formulations were analyzed for MHC II epitope content using these haplotypes and NetMHCIIPan 3.2 prediction software. Finally, a modified version of the prediction output was used to excise the most likely MHC II epitopes. The highest-ranked epitopes were then stitched together using linkers designed with chemical conjugation sites and cathepsin cleavage sequences and subsequently tethered to cholera toxin subunit B. These results present the successful design of an in silico derived, broadly effective carrier protein to be used in future VADA formulations.
This corpus-based study investigated the association between noun phrase complexity and L2 writing proficiency based on the 11 noun modifiers in Biber, Gray, and Poonpon's (2011) index of complexity ...features. A corpus was built based on 100 argumentative papers written by first-year Chinese students, including 50 papers from high-proficiency students (TOEFL writing score > 23) and 50 papers from low-proficiency students (18 < TOEFL writing score < 23). The noun modifiers in Biber et al.’s (2011) index were then extracted with a computational program to calculate the frequencies of the noun modifiers. Via a Chi-square test on the normalized frequencies, the findings demonstrate an association (p = 0.016) between the 11 noun modifiers and the students' writing proficiency levels (i.e., high and low). Next, a residual analysis was applied, which pinpointed that four noun modifiers used by the students from both proficiency levels contribute to the association the most: attributive adjectives, relative clauses, premodifying nouns, and prepositional phrases (of). The four modifiers were then further explored and interpreted based on a qualitative analysis of the argumentative papers. Pedagogical implications are provided at the end to discuss possible ways of teaching the noun modifiers in an EAP writing course.
Since the 1990s, grammatical complexity has received considerable attention in different fields of L2 studies, for instance, second language acquisition (SLA) and L2 writing. While over the past ...three decades grammatical complexity has frequently been represented by clausal structures in L2 writing, since the beginning of the 2010s scholars have increasingly paid attention to phrasal features. We conducted this study to investigate how the use of noun phrases is associated with L1- and L2-English language backgrounds in academic writing. Noun phrase complexity was operationalized to the 11 noun modifiers (e.g., premodifying nouns, relative clauses, prepositional phrases) proposed in Biber, Gray and Poonpon (2011). A Chi-square test followed by a residual analysis was used to statistically analyze noun phrases in the two corpora. The results demonstrate that there is an association between the use of noun phrases and whether the author is an L1 or L2 user of English. The L1 essays have diverse patterns of noun phrases, whereas the L2 essays have compressed structures of noun phrases. A qualitative analysis of the corpora reveals repeated cases of phrasal modifiers in the L2 essays. Pedagogical implications are provided for academic writing courses for L1 and L2 students.
•NP complexity is associated with L1- and L2-English language backgrounds.•Eight noun modifiers contribute to this association in academic writing.•L1 students produce diverse NP patterns with a wide range of noun modifiers.•L2 students construct compressed NPs based on phrasal modifiers.•L2 students use repeated cases of phrasal modifiers in their writing.
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