This study examined how privacy concerns on short-form video platforms influence creativity among communication students through the mediating roles of TikTok use motives and general information technology identity. Guided by privacy calculus theory, uses and gratifications theory, and identity theory, a three-wave longitudinal design was used with 1217 students from three institutions in Chongqing, China. Privacy concerns were measured at Time 1, TikTok use motives and creativity at Time 2, and general information technology identity and creativity at Time 3. Structural equation modeling with full information maximum likelihood estimation tested mediation and sequential mediation models while controlling for demographic variables and baseline creativity. Results showed that privacy concerns negatively predicted creativity, and both TikTok use motives and general IT identity mediated this association. Sequential mediation analysis indicated that TikTok use motives promoted general IT identity, which in turn enhanced creativity. Findings highlight that motivational and identity-based processes jointly explain how privacy concerns shape creative outcomes. The study enriches theory on digital risk and creativity and offers guidance for educators and policymakers seeking to support innovation while protecting digital well-being.
This study aims to understand the way that AI chatbot interaction affects customers' purchasing decisions. This is achieved through testing the dual mediating effects of customer digital intimacy and psychological ownership on this relationship. The study utilized a quasi-experimental design to test the causal relationship. The data was collected from a sample of 360 customers of small and medium-sized companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study's model showed fully dual mediation effects of digital intimacy and psychological ownership on the relationship between AI chatbot interaction and purchasing decisions. AI chatbots show a significant positive effect on digital intimacy and a significant negative impact on psychological ownership. This study fills a gap in the literature by studying the dual mediating roles of digital intimacy and psychological ownership. It contributes to existing knowledge by looking at purchasing decisions as a psychological behavior that links customers to the product and the interaction media used.
Attachment theory provides a valuable framework for understanding individual vulnerability to problematic social media use (PSMU). Previous research has found consistent evidence that PSMU is associated with increased attachment anxiety, whereas the role of attachment avoidance remains unclear. Most studies have relied on cross-sectional designs and measures that may fail to distinguish intensive from maladaptive engagement with social media. In this study, we adopted a daily diary approach in a community sample of adults (N = 89; 77.5% female; mean age = 23.64 ± 5.92 years, range = 20-50) to test whether attachment styles, defined by positive or negative representations of the self and others, predicted PSMU over a 14-day period. Participants were administered self-report instruments evaluating attachment styles and central symptoms of PSMU (i.e., mood modification, relapse, withdrawal, and conflict). Linear mixed-effects modeling revealed that higher baseline preoccupied attachment significantly predicted greater daily PSMU. Given the modest sample size, these findings should be interpreted cautiously. Nonetheless, the results provide preliminary longitudinal evidence that a negative representation of the self and a positive representation of others, as well as high levels of attachment anxiety, may increase the vulnerability to engaging in social media use as a dysfunctional compensatory strategy.
This Medical News article discusses a study linking digital media—particularly social media—use to consistent risks for children’s mental health and development.
Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne bacterium that can cause listeriosis. Ready-to-eat (RTE) seafood products are among the food categories associated with listeriosis. Because contamination levels of L. monocytogenes in RTE seafood products are often below 10 CFU/g, accurate enumeration of low bacterial concentrations is essential for reliable risk assessment of these products. A most probable number (MPN) method is widely used for enumerating low bacterial concentrations in food samples; however, the choice of selective enrichment medium strongly affects recovery, especially in the presence of competing microflora and injured cells. In this study, five types of RTE seafood products were inoculated with low concentrations of L. monocytogenes, and four selective enrichment media including half Fraser broth, Listeria enrichment broth (UVM and FDA formulation), and buffered Listeria enrichment broth (BLEB) were compared. When samples were incubated in BLEB for 48 h, the MPN values agreed with the inoculation levels in 93-100% across strains and food matrices. Under these conditions, MPN estimates for heat-injured inocula were accurate in 93% of cases. Among the media evaluated, incubation in BLEB for 48 h yielded the most accurate and consistent MPN estimates across strains and food matrices, supporting its suitability for quantitative analysis of low levels of L. monocytogenes.
Developing highly efficient and stable electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is critical for sustainable hydrogen production through water electrolysis. The existing limitations in comprehending the intermediate behavior during the alkaline HER obstruct the systematic design of effective catalysts. Herein, we introduce an interfacial engineering approach that employs gold‑nickel phosphide (Au-Ni2P) heterostructures to tackle this challenge by precisely tailoring metal-support interaction (SMSI). By implementing systematic annealing protocols, three distinct interfacial architectures: Yolk-shell (Au@Ni2P YSNs), alloyed (Au-Ni2P), and Janus-type (Ni2P-Au) structures are achieved and confirmed by in situ transmission electron microscopy. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the alloyed interface enables optimal water dissociation kinetics through Au-induced 3d orbital modulation of Ni sites, supported by spectroscopic evidence of strong Au-P interfacial bonding. In situ Raman spectroscopy demonstrates the accelerated proton generation via enhanced water dissociation can create localized acidic microenvironments and improve HER activity. As a result, the HER activity sequence is Au-Ni2P > Au@Ni2P YSNs> Ni2P-Au. This work establishes a novel methodology for interfacial engineering through thermal-driven SMSI manipulation, providing new insights into microenvironment modulation for advanced electrocatalysis.
The proliferation of hate speech on social media poses a significant challenge to maintaining safe and inclusive online environments, necessitating accurate and scalable automated detection systems. However, the performance of transformer-based models for hate speech detection is highly sensitive to hyperparameter configurations, making manual and conventional tuning strategies inefficient in high-dimensional search spaces.To address this challenge, this study proposes a hybrid optimization framework that integrates the DeBERTaV3 transformer model with the Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) for automated hyperparameter tuning. The proposed approach enables efficient exploration of complex hyperparameter spaces by balancing global search and local refinement. The framework optimizes eight critical hyperparameters, including learning rate, weight decay, and dropout rates, to enhance convergence stability and generalization performance. The proposed method is evaluated on the Davidson et al. (2017) dataset, consisting of 24,783 labeled tweets. Experimental results demonstrate that the GWO-DeBERTaV3 model achieves a peak accuracy of 97.72% and a macro F1-score of 97.71%, with statistically significant improvements over baseline and conventional tuning approaches.These findings highlight the effectiveness of metaheuristic-based optimization for transformer fine-tuning and demonstrate its potential for improving robustness and performance in real-world hate speech detection systems.
Impulsivity is associated with problematic smartphone use (PSU) and social media addiction (SMA). However, it remains unclear which specific impulsivity dimension and which dimension-symptom connections were most important to these associations. In this study, network analysis was applied to examine the connections between impulsivity dimensions and the separate and comorbid symptoms of PSU and SMA. Using cross-sectional data from two independent samples of Chinese adults-a main sample (n = 1047, aged 18-26, collected in 2023) and a replication sample (n = 325, aged 18-36, collected in 2022)-three regularized partial-correlation networks were constructed for each sample: an impulsivity-PSU network, an impulsivity-SMA network, and a combined impulsivity-PSU-SMA network. Bridge centrality was calculated to identify key transdiagnostic nodes, and network comparison tests (NCTs) were performed to evaluate the consistency of findings across samples. Across all the networks, motor impulsivity consistently emerged as the most central bridge node, showing robust connections to individual symptoms of both the PSU and the SMA, whether examined separately or comorbidly. Network comparison tests further confirmed that both the bridge centrality of motor impulsivity and its specific symptom-edge weights were comparable between the main and replication samples. These findings provide novel, symptom-level insight into how impulsivity-particularly motor impulsivity-contributes to the development and comorbidity of PSU and SMA. Motor impulsivity is identified as a key transdiagnostic bridge and a promising target for early intervention. The replication of the core results across independent samples strengthens the reliability of the findings.
Agricultural residues have been proposed as alternative organic carbon sources to woodchips for nitrate removal in denitrifying bioreactors. However, the phosphate removal potentials of agricultural residues have not been carefully evaluated. The objectives of this study were to determine the long-term nitrate and phosphate removal capacities of agricultural residue media in bioreactors and to evaluate the phosphate desorption potentials. Laboratory denitrifying bioreactors using corn cobs, corn stalks, barley straw, and woodchips were operated for 390 days. The reactor average nitrate load reduction rates were 57.1, 21.9, 19.4, and 10.1 g N/m3/day, and the average phosphate load reduction rates were 0.35, 0.16, 0.14, and 0.05 g P/m3/day for corn cobs, corn stalks, barley straw, and woodchips, respectively. Barley straw quickly lost nitrate and phosphate removal capacities over time. Corn cobs consistently removed the highest amounts of nitrate and phosphate and showed the least decline in removal performance throughout the experiment. The phosphate desorption potentials after the bioreactor experiment were in the order of corn stalks > corn cobs > barley straw > woodchips. The results of this study suggest that corn cobs can be used as bioreactor filling materials to effectively remove nitrate and recover phosphate from contaminated waters.
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We report a Ru-Ni4N/C heterostructured catalyst, prepared by selective Ni nitridation during RuNi alloy annealing in NH3. It outperforms Pt/C, RuNi alloy and Ru/C in the alkaline hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR), with a specific activity of 0.4 mA cm-2 at 0.1 V vs. RHE, twice that of Ru/C, due to optimized H binding energy and enhanced water adsorption via Ni alloying and heterostructure formation.
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To overcome the limited sensitivity of the standard mouse embryo assay (MEA) for embryotoxicity screening of assisted reproduction devices and to assess the bovine embryo assay (BEA) as a suitable alternative. In a large comparative laboratory study, sperm selection, fertilization, and embryo culture media from two suppliers (Vitrolife and Genea Biomedx, respectively) were used to generate bovine blastocysts from cumulus-oocyte complexes obtained from slaughterhouse ovaries and inseminated with frozen semen from the same bull (BEA). Bovine culture media were used for the control group. BEA assessed the following in the three groups: cleavage; blastocyst development and kinetics; post-warming re-expansion/hatching; total cell number; inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm (TE) allocation; and ICM/TE ratio. In parallel, the culture media from both suppliers were tested using mouse cumulus-oocyte complexes that had been inseminated with epididymal sperm (IVF-MEA) and in vivo-derived one-cell embryos (standard MEA). BEA detected differences consistent with reduced developmental competence and embryo quality across 4118 bovine oocytes (≥ 4 independent cycles; ≥ 50 oocytes/group). Sperm selection media performed similarly. Regarding fertilization media, the bovine control yielded higher day 8 blastocyst rates than Vitrolife (P < 0.005), while Genea Biomedx exhibited superior blastocyst quality indicators than Vitrolife (P < 0.05). For embryo culture media, the bovine control outperformed Genea Biomedx, with Vitrolife performing intermediately (P < 0.05). Multiple kinetic, hatching, first lineage allocation and survival endpoints were reduced for Genea Biomedx (P < 0.05). Standard MEA found no significant differences, whereas IVF-MEA (1028 oocytes) detected a difference in day 4 blastocyst yield only. BEA revealed functional and quality differences between media not detected by mouse assays, supporting BEA to strengthen safety assessment while reducing animal sacrifice.
Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) requires accurate and timely diagnostic testing to guide treatment. Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) offer high sensitivity and specificity, but most assays, including the Health Canada-approved BD MAX Cdiff assay, are validated only for unpreserved stool. This presents challenges for transport, stability, and specimen sharing between tests. Swab-based collection systems such as COPAN FecalSwab and eSwab may alleviate these limitations but have not been fully evaluated on the BD MAX Cdiff assay. Residual stool specimens submitted for CDI testing were used to prepare FecalSwab and eSwab aliquots and evaluated to determine the optimal volume for BD MAX Cdiff testing. Sensitivity, specificity, and agreement were calculated using unpreserved stool as the reference method. Stability of C. difficile DNA was assessed at 4°C, room temperature, and 37°C over 14 days. Minimal variation in C. difficile PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values was observed across varying volumes of FecalSwab and eSwab media, and 100 µL was selected. C. difficile DNA was detected in all specimen types up to 14 days at different temperatures. However, a gradual increase in Ct values was noted over time for all specimens and storage temperatures, except for FecalSwab specimens stored at 4°C. FecalSwab specimens demonstrated 98.5% sensitivity and 98.4% specificity, while eSwab specimens demonstrated 97.6% sensitivity and 100% specificity against unpreserved stool. Agreement between the two swab types was 98.4%. FecalSwab and eSwab specimens prepared from unpreserved stool demonstrate excellent agreement with unpreserved stool, and provide improved options for specimen transport and stability.IMPORTANCEThis study demonstrates the utility of FecalSwab and eSwab collection media on the BD Max Cdiff assay. This addresses an important gap in the diagnosis of Clostridioides difficile infection by evaluating other specimen types beyond neat stool specimens. We demonstrate that swabs collected from stool into FecalSwab and eSwab media have excellent sensitivity and specificity compared to neat stool. Further, FecalSwab and eSwab media allow for preservation of C. difficile DNA at varying storage conditions. This could alleviate specimen transport challenges in remote or resource-limited settings.
The dissolution behaviour of fast-crystallizing amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) at drug loadings (DLs) far exceeding the amorphous solubility limit remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigate how extreme DLs influence dissolution mechanisms in naproxen-copovidone VA64 ASDs prepared by hot-melt extrusion at 20, 50, and 70 wt% DL. Rapid post-extrusion cooling was applied at 70% DL to kinetically suppress crystal growth, while lower DL formulations remained amorphous as confirmed by DSC and PXRD. Drug-polymer interactions were analysed using ATR-FTIR combined with principal component analysis. Saturation solubility measurements revealed moderate advantages of ASDs over physical mixtures, suggesting that polymer-mediated interfacial effects contribute to solubility enhancement independently of amorphization. Non-sink dissolution testing revealed a non-monotonic, DL-dependent behaviour. At 20% DL, naproxen remained amorphous for at least 2 h, enabling near-congruent drug-polymer release and the highest dissolution performance. At 50% DL, rapid surface crystallization within a dense swollen polymer layer restricted drug release. Unexpectedly, dissolution performance partially recovered at 70% DL despite crystallization, as the reduced polymer fraction generated a more porous hydrated layer that facilitated liquid penetration and drug release compared with 50% DL ASDs and physical mixtures. Spectroscopic analysis showed progressive loss of hydrogen bonding at intermediate and high DLs, while transient non-specific drug-polymer associations persisted and likely contributed to improved wettability. These findings demonstrate that dissolution enhancement in fast-crystallizing ASDs can be sustained above the amorphous solubility limit when the architecture of the hydrated layer - together with persistent non-specific drug-polymer interactions in aqueous media - governs drug transport rather than amorphous stability alone.
The gold standard for bacterial isolation is the selection of individual colonies from agar media. Selective media supplemented with chemical inhibitors are used to promote the growth of target bacteria while suppressing non-target organisms, particularly in environmental samples. Enterococcus, a genus comprising multiple species commonly found in bacteria-rich environments, can be isolated using agar supplemented with sodium azide. However, this approach generally enables identification only at the genus level, with limited discrimination among Enterococcus species. This study provides a detailed characterization of colony morphology in enterococci isolated from surface water using colony diameter as a discriminating parameter. At 0.4 g/L sodium azide, E. casseliflavus formed significantly smaller colonies (0.7 mm) than other Enterococcus species (>1.0 mm). Species forming colonies exceeding 1.0 mm were further characterized based on their extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). FTIR analysis of crude EPS (50-100 kDa) extracted by centrifugal ultrafiltration revealed similar spectral profiles among large-diameter E. hirae, E. lactis, and E. faecium, distinguishing them from E. faecalis. This study demonstrates that colony morphology on selective media can serve as a practical, culture-based approach for preliminary differentiation of selected Enterococcus species.
This study analyzes how digital advertisement can have a strategic impact on the success of e-commerce in Jordan. On the dual-lensed data of 200 consumers and 50 owners of e-commerce business, the study identifies five major strategies such as social media marketing, localized Arabic, mobile optimisation, influencer collaborations and trust creating mechanisms as the main drivers of both the conversion rates and the return on investment. As the regression and correlation analysis results show, mobile-friendly ads and social media promotion have the most beneficial effect on e-commerce results, but consumer confidence in the secure payment systems appears to be a determining factor in making purchases. The research presents a new marketing impact score (MIS) model and a strategic gap index that can be used to measure the fit between the investment in advertising and the operational problems. This study offers a predictive and data-driven future of e-commerce in emerging economies by putting digital advertising in the context of the socio-cultural and technological environment of Jordan. This has implications to the policymakers, marketers and platform developers who aim at optimisation of digital engagement strategy within the culturally delicate settings.
Spoilage microorganisms and pathogenic bacteria can negatively impact food safety and stability, leading to potential health risks and economic losses. Predictive microbiology is a crucial tool for forecasting microbial behavior in food matrices, and supervised machine learning stands out as an effective solution for handling complex datasets (e.g., multiple variables and non-linear relationships). This work aims to develop a growth prediction model for Listeria monocytogenes, Listeria innocua and aerobic spoilage bacteria in food and culture media using artificial neural networks. The model development involved the implementation of the Multilayer Perceptron algorithm applied to datasets obtained from the ComBase platform. We evaluated different models to understand the impact of dataset size, additional input variables, food matrix data, and microorganism data on model performance. Experimental data were also used for model validation. Results demonstrate favorable statistical metrics for all models (R2 = [0.847-0.929], RMSE = [0.55-0.852], Bf = [1.002-1.011] and Af = [1.071-1.108]), indicating the efficacy of the proposed approach for the intended application. Furthermore, validation of the model using experimental data on the growth of total aerobic spoilage bacteria in beef demonstrated its ability to accurately describe the kinetics of microbial growth. These findings underscore the potential of Multilayer Perceptron models to predict microbial growth in various food matrices and culture media, exhibiting robust performance and generalization capability.
Photolabile protecting groups (PPGs) enable spatiotemporal control of chemical and biological processes, yet multistimuli-regulated systems remain rare. Here we report a triple-stimuli platform integrating light, base, and acid to control PPG release. Photoirradiation of diarylethenes (DAEs) under basic conditions generates stable 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene (9,10-DHP) intermediates that activate hemiaminal ethers and undergo acid-promoted aromatization to release the alcohol group. Distinct fluorescence changes allow real-time monitoring in both organic and aqueous media.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of post-polymerization protocols with and without glycerin on surface roughness, microhardness, and color change of permanent restorative resins fabricated using stereolithography (SLA) and digital light processing (DLP) technologies under different storage media. In this in vitro study, a total of 128 permanent restorative resin specimens fabricated using SLA (Permanent Crown, Formlabs) and DLP (Crowntec, Saremco) technologies were evaluated. The specimens were divided into post-polymerization protocols with and without glycerin. Finishing and polishing procedures were performed using a standardized diamond polishing system. Surface roughness (Ra, Sa) was measured using a confocal microscope, microhardness was assessed by the Vickers hardness test (VHN), and color change was evaluated using the CIEDE2000 (ΔE₀₀) method. The specimens were stored in distilled water, tea, coffee, and cola, and measurements were repeated at baseline and after 7 and 30 days. No statistically significant difference in surface roughness was observed between post-polymerization protocols with and without glycerin. In contrast, specimens post-polymerized with glycerin exhibited significantly higher microhardness values for both fabrication techniques. With respect to color change, lower ΔE₀₀ values were observed in the glycerin-treated groups, particularly in the coffee storage medium. Post-polymerization with glycerin increased microhardness without adversely affecting surface roughness and supported color stability under specific staining storage media. In permanent restorative resins fabricated by 3D printing, post-polymerization with glycerin can be considered a complementary protocol that is easily applicable in clinical practice and may positively support the color stability and microhardness of restorations.