Preferring fair resource distribution reflects human cooperative nature, but its neural correlates in young children are not well known. We investigated the neural mechanism of egalitarian resource ...sharing in five-to six-year-old children to examine the possibility that early egalitarianism requires behavioral control to inhibit selfish impulses. In Study 1, children participated in a behavioral control task in which they either needed or did not need to inhibit their impulsive behavioral responses in order to quickly press a key. They subsequently allocated their resources to strangers by choosing a 2:2, 3:1, or 4:0 distribution. The activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal (dlpfc) regions was recorded by functional near-infrared spectroscopy measurements. We found that dlpfc regions were activated during cognitive tasks involving behavioral control and also during the equal, but not the more selfish, allocations. There was no difference among these allocations. The results did not show evidence of an ego depletion effect on children's sharing behavior, which predicts that children will share less after their behavioral control is taxed in a cognitive task (i.e., their self-control resource depleted). Study 2 showed no activation of the dlpfc regions during third-party equal allocations in which there was no conflict between fairness and self-interest in the distribution of resources. Overall, we showed that costly equal sharing in young children relates to the activation of dlpfc regions. These results suggest that costly equal allocation has a common neural basis with behavioral control in five-to six-year-old children, implying that early egalitarian sharing requires dealing with conflicts between maximizing self-interest and following moral norms.
•Five-to six-year-olds conducted cognitive tasks and resource allocations.•Activation of dorsolateral prefrontal (dlpfc) regions was examined by fNIRS.•Dlpfc regions activated during cognitive tasks requiring behavioral control.•Dlpfc regions activated during costly, but not non-cost, equal allocations.•Unequally selfish allocations did not significantly activate dlpfc regions.
In this paper, we have developed a simple, fast, convenient and sensitive method for determination of organophosphorus pesticides in real samples based on inhibition mechanism of acetylcholinesterase ...(AChE). The biosensor is composed of enzymes (AChE and ChOx (choline oxidase)), QDs and acetylcholine (ACh), without any complex process of assembly for biosensor. After the experimental conditions are optimized, the limit of detection (LOD) for dichlorvos (DDVP) is found to be 4.49nM. Two linear ranges allow a wide determination of DDVP concentration from 4.49nM to 6780nM. Furthermore, a possible mechanism is put forward to explain the fluorescence quenching of CdTe QDs in the presence of H2O2. More importantly, the obtained biosensor is proven to be suitable for the detection of residues of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) in real examples. The excellent performance of this biosensor will facilitate future development of rapid and high-throughput detection of organophosphorus pesticides.
•A simple and fast biosensor for detection of OPs was proposed.•The biosensor does not need any complex process of assembly and pretreatment.•A possible mechanism is put forward on the fluorescence quenching of CdTe QDs.•The biosensor is suitable for the detection of residues of OPs in real examples.
Recently, plasmonic copper sulfide (Cu2–x S) nanocrystals (NCs) have attracted much attention as materials for photothermal therapy (PTT). Previous reports have correlated photoinduced cell death to ...the photothermal heat mechanism of these NCs, and no evidence of their photodynamic properties has been reported yet. Herein we have prepared physiologically stable near-infrared (NIR) plasmonic copper sulfide NCs and analyzed their photothermal and photodynamic properties, including therapeutic potential in cultured melanoma cells and a murine melanoma model. Interestingly, we observe that, besides a high PTT efficacy, these copper sulfide NCs additionally possess intrinsic NIR induced photodynamic activity, whereupon they generate high levels of reactive oxygen species. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo acute toxic responses of copper sulfide NCs were also elicited. This study highlights a mechanism of NIR light induced cancer therapy, which could pave the way toward more effective nanotherapeutics.
Lead halide perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) have demonstrated extremely excellent optical properties and great application potential in various optoelectronic devices. However, it is still a challenge ...to maintain both stability and multipeak emission performance for PQDs. In this work, we successfully synthesize multipeak emission CsPbCl
1.5
Br
1.5
:Eu
3+
–SiO
2
PQDs employing molecular sieves through high-temperature solid-state reactions, and the energy transfer process is designed to enhance the emission of Eu
3+
. The excellent thermal stability of as-prepared PQDs has also been proved by thermal cycle test from 25 to 100 °C. Furthermore, the as-prepared doped PQDs are utilized for white light emitting diodes, which show excellent white light performance. The material is expected to be applied as a component on high-quality white LED devices, and our finding is believed to offer a new strategy for designing multipeak emission PQDs.
Abstract Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have been proven to be effective drug carriers for oral delivery. However, little attention has been paid to their in vivo biodistribution and toxicity ...after oral administration. The effect of particle shape on their in vivo behavior is also unknown. In this study, we systematically studied the acute toxicity and biodistribution of three types of MSNs with aspect ratios (ARs) of 1, 1.75 and 5 after oral administration. The effect of particle shape as a key physicochemical parameter of MSNs was discussed. With the increase of AR, MSNs showed decreased in vivo biodegradation, systematic absorption and excretion, especially decreased liver distribution and urinal excretion. During the period of urinal excretion, MSNs induced a shape-dependent renal damage including hemorrhage, vascular congestion and renal tubular necrosis. These findings will enrich the knowledge to rationally engineer bionanomaterials, and bring new insights into nanotoxicity. From the Clinical Editor Advances in nanotechnology have resulted in improvement in drug delivery, of which mesoporous silica nanoparticles have been used as carriers for oral drugs. Nonetheless, studies on their absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion (ADME) and toxicity still need to be performed. In this article, authors evaluated the effects of particle size and shape on in vivo behavior. The findings would shine light on future design of future drug delivery systems.
Thermal stability is the main problem affecting the application of inorganic fluorescent materials in high-power LED devices. Here, we have synthesized a green light-emitting phosphor Na
2
Ca
1-x
Ge
...6
O
14
: xTb
3+
with high luminescence thermal stability mainly through high temperature solid-state reaction. By changing the concentration of doping ions, the traps concentration of the material can be increased, so that the thermal stability of the material can be improved, which is attributed to the traps compensating greater than the thermal quenching effect. This method of utilizing traps to improve thermal stability provides a potential synthesis strategy for improving high-power white LED used in automotive.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led children to experience school closures. Although increasing evidence suggests that such intense social quarantine influences children's social relationships with others, ...longitudinal studies are limited. Using longitudinal data collected during (T1) and after (T2) intensive school closure and home confinement, this study investigated the impacts of social quarantine on children's social relationships. Japanese parents of children aged 0-9 years (n = 425) completed an online questionnaire that examined children's socio-emotional behavior and perceived proximity to parents or others. The results demonstrated that social quarantine was not significantly related to children's socio-emotional behavior across all age groups. However, changes in children's perceived proximity varied depending on certain age-related factors: elementary schoolers' perceived closeness to parents significantly decreased after the reopening of schools, whereas that to others, such as peers, increased. Such effects were not observed in infants and preschoolers. The follow-up survey 9-month after the reopening of schools (T3; n = 130) did not detect significant differences in both children's socio-emotional behavior and perceived proximity from that after the intense quarantine. These findings suggest that school closure and home confinement may have influenced children's social development differently across their age, and its effects were larger in perceived closeness rather than social behavior.
Abstract
Claims to supernatural power have been used as a basis for authority in a wide range of societies, but little is known about developmental origins of the link between supernatural power and ...worldly authority. Here, we show that 12- to 16-month-old infants expect agents exhibiting counterintuitive capacities to win out in a two-way standoff over a contested resource. Infants watched two agents gain a reward using either physically intuitive or physically counterintuitive methods, the latter involving simple forms of levitation or teleportation. Infants looked longer, indicating surprise, when the physically intuitive agent subsequently outcompeted a physically counterintuitive agent in securing a reward. Control experiments indicated that infants’ expectations were not simply motived by the efficiency of agents in pursuing their goals, but specifically the deployment of counterintuitive capacities. This suggests that the link between supernatural power and worldly authority has early origins in development.
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