ABSTRACT Amidst the accelerating digitalization of design practices, this study investigates collective design thinking and communication dynamics in remote teamwork. Recognizing that effective team processes are anchored in shared understanding and effective communication, the research employs a dual-method approach. First, protocol analysis, utilizing a new R-C-A (representation-communication-allocation) coding system, is used to examine the cognitive processes of remote design collaboration. Second, Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) is used to illuminate the role of language in shaping collective design cognition. Analysis of nine videoconference design meetings across different design stages (early design, design development, final design) highlights both macro and micro relationships between cognition and language in online teamwork. Findings demonstrate significant correlations, particularly between task allocation activities and language related to cognitive processing, as well as a positive relationship between cognitive complexity and authentic linguistic expression. The concept of Language Style Matching (LSM) emerges as a predictor of team cohesiveness, underscoring its unexpected positive correlation with cognitive complexity. These insights provide foundational knowledge for enhancing and optimising remote collaborative design processes, suggesting implications for improving communication strategies and fostering innovation in digital design environments.

ABSTRACT In this study, we examined 1) the prevalence of maltreatment in British junior elite track and field athletes, 2) relationships between maltreatment, psychological safety, and subjective vitality, and 3) whether maltreatment is indirectly related to subjective vitality via psychological safety. Using a cross-sectional design, British junior elite track and field athletes (N = 254) completed measures of maltreatment (physical, psychological, non-contact sexual and neglect), psychological safety and subjective vitality. Results showed that nearly three-quarters experienced maltreatment in sport (74.4%). Psychological maltreatment was most frequently reported (70.5%), followed by neglect (50.8%), physical (31.5%) and non-contact sexual (24.0%). Psychological and physical maltreatment, and neglect were indirectly related to subjective vitality via psychological safety (effect size range = −0.27 to −0.11), whereas no relationship was shown between non-contact sexual maltreatment and psychological safety. In conclusion, maltreatment is prevalent in British junior elite track and field athletes and that those who experience physical and psychological maltreatment, as well as neglect, are more likely to report lower psychological safety, and in turn, lower subjective vitality. International and national organisations aiming to protect athlete well-being should target psychological safety in their safeguarding interventions by supporting and encouraging athletes to speak out about their concerns.

Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant with substantial human health impacts. While most studies focus on atmospheric total Hg (THg) deposition, contributions of methylated Hg (MeHg), including monomethylmercury (MMHg) and dimethylmercury (DMHg), remain poorly understood. To examine this, we use rain and aerosol Hg speciation data and high-resolution surface DMHg measurements, collected on a transect from Alaskan coastal waters to the Bering and Chukchi Seas. We observed a significant fivefold increase in the MeHg:THg fraction in rain and a 10-fold increase for aerosols, closely linked to elevated surface DMHg and the highest DMHg evasion (~9.4 picomoles per square meter per hour) found in upwelling waters near the Aleutian Islands. These data highlight a previously underexplored aspect of MeHg air-sea exchange and its importance to Hg cycling and human health concerns. Our findings emphasize the importance of DMHg evasion by demonstrating that atmospheric MeHg can be transported long distances (~1700 kilometers) in the Arctic, posing risks to human health and ecosystems.

Spin is a fundamental property of any many-electron system. The ability of density functional theory to accurately predict the physical properties of a system, while varying its spin, is crucial for describing magnetic materials and high-spin molecules, spin flips, and magnetization and demagnetization processes. Within density functional theory, when using various exchange-correlation approximations, the exact dependence of the energy on the spin often deviates from the exact constant or piecewise-linear behavior, which is directly related to the problem of strong (static) correlation and challenges the description of molecular dissociation. In this paper, we study the behavior of the energy, the frontier Kohn-Sham (KS) and generalized KS (GKS) orbitals, the KS potentials, and the electron density, with respect to fractional spin, in different atomic systems. We analyze seven standard exchange-correlation functionals and find two main scenarios of deviation from the expected exact results. We clearly recognize a jump in the frontier orbital energies upon spin variation in the exact exchange and in hybrid functionals, as well as the related plateau in the corresponding KS potential, when using the optimized effective potential method within the KS scheme. When calculations are performed using the GKS approach, no jumps are observed, as expected. Moreover, we demonstrate that for high-spin systems, a full three-dimensional treatment is crucial; the spherical approximation commonly used in atoms causes a qualitative deviation. Our results are instrumental for the assessment of the quality of existing approximations from a new perspective and for the development of advanced functionals with sensitivity to magnetic properties.

Two-dimensional optical spectroscopy experiments have examined photoprotective mechanisms in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) photosynthetic complex, showing that exciton transfer pathways change significantly depending on the environmental redox conditions. Higgins et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 118(11), e2018240118 (2021)] have theoretically linked these observations to changes in a quantum vibronic coupling, whereby onsite energies are altered under oxidizing conditions such that exciton energy gaps are detuned from a specific vibrational motion of the bacteriochlorophyll a. These arguments rely on an analysis of exciton transfer rates within Redfield theory, which is known to provide an inaccurate description of the influence of the vibrational environment on the exciton dynamics in the FMO complex. Here, we use a memory kernel formulation of the hierarchical equations of motion to obtain non-perturbative estimations of exciton transfer rates, which yield a modified physical picture. Our findings indicate that onsite energy shifts alone do not reproduce the reported rate changes in the oxidative environment. We systematically examine a model that includes combined changes in both site energies and the frequency of a local vibration in the oxidized complex while maintaining consistency with absorption spectra and achieving qualitative, but not quantitative, agreement with the measured changes in transfer rates. Our analysis points to potential limitations of the FMO electronic Hamiltonian, which was originally derived by fitting spectra to perturbative theories. Overall, our work suggests that further experimental and theoretical analyses may be needed to understand the variations of exciton dynamics under different redox conditions.

This study aimed to identify the 25-hydroxyvitamin D(25OHD) threshold that maximally suppressed parathyroid hormone (PTH) in a group of healthy Chinese Infants in Hong Kong. Healthy infants detected to have low serum 25OHD less than 25 nmol/L in a population study on vitamin D status were referred to Hong Kong Children's Hospital (HKCH) for further management. Their total 25OHD was repeated with serum calcium, phosphate, alkaline phosphatase and PTH. Three-phase segmented regression was used to identify the optimal breakpoint between 25OHD and PTH. Two hundred and twelve infants were included (59 % male). They were reassessed at a median age of 156days (IQR: 111-247days). Using unadjusted three-phase segmented regression, the estimated breakpoint of 25OHD on PTH suppression, after adjusting for factors including age, gender, history of vitamin D supplement and mode of feeding, was 20.0 nmol/L (95 % CI: 13.1 to 26.9). The threshold of 25OHD that triggered the inflection point for PTH in our Hong Kong Chinese infants was lower than that reported in the Western literature. This might imply the cutoff for vitamin D deficiency is lower for Chinese infants. This could be explained by younger age and different ethnicity. Further study with larger sample size is needed to validate the observation.

Solvation free energy is a driving force that plays an important role in the stability of biomolecular conformations. Currently, the implicit solvent model is widely used to calculate solvation energies of biomolecules such as proteins. However, for proteins, the implicit solvent calculation does not provide much detailed information since a protein is highly inhomogeneous on its surface. In this study, we develop an explicit solvent approach to protein solvation, which allows us to investigate detailed site-specific hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity, including the role of counter ions and intra-protein interactions. This approach facilitates the analysis of specific residue interactions with solvent molecules, extending the understanding of protein solubility to the energetic impacts of site-specific residue-solvent interactions. Our study showed that specific residue-solvent interactions are strongly influenced by the electrostatic environment created by its nearby residues, especially charged residues. In particular, charged residues on the protein surface are mainly responsible for the heterogeneity of the electrostatic environment of the protein surface, and they significantly affect the local distribution of water. In addition, counter ions change the local electrostatic environment and alter specific residue-water interactions. Neutral residues also interact with water, with polar residues being more prominent than nonpolar ones but contributing less to solvation energy than charged residues. This study illustrates an explicit solvent approach to protein solvation, which gives residue-specific contributions to protein solvation and provides detailed information on site-specific hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity.