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Using the difference-in-differences method, we examine the internationalization effects of the restructuring of Chinese Central State-owned Enterprises (CCSOEs) during the years 2003 and 2016. We find that restructured CCSOEs have not achieved a higher degree of internationalization. Indeed, the higher the degree of internationalization after the CCSOE restructuring, the worse the firm's performance. Overall, the results suggest that the Chinese government's attempt to promote CCSOE internationalization through restructuring has not achieved its goal. Rather than governmental support and intervention, accelerating market-oriented reforms, weakening or eliminating administrative monopolies in the domestic market, and reducing the monopoly profits of CCSOEs in the domestic market could be more effective approaches to promote CCSOE internationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

* OBJECTIVE: To explore the person-level predictors of adherence to a step count intervention following total knee replacement (TKR). * DESIGN: Prospective cohort study, nested within the PATHway trial. * METHODS: Participants who had recently undergone TKR were recruited from 3 rehabilitation hospitals in Sydney, Australia, for the main trial. Only data from participants who were randomized to the TKR intervention group were analyzed. Participants in the intervention group (n = 51) received a wearable tracker to monitor the number of steps taken per day. Step count adherence was objectively measured at 3 months as the number of steps completed divided by the number prescribed and multiplied by 100 to express adherence as a percentage. Participants were classified into 4 groups: withdrawal, low adherence (0%-79%), adherent (80%-100%), and >100% adherent. Ordinal logistic regression was used to identify which factors predicted adherence to the prescribed step count. * RESULTS: Of the 51 participants enrolled, nine (18% of 51) withdrew from the study before 3 months. Half of participants were classified as >100% adherent (n = 24%, 47%). Ten were classified as low adherence (20%), and 8 participants were classified as adherent (16%). In the univariable model, lower age (OR 0.90; 95% CI 0.83-0.97), higher patient activation (OR 1.03; 95% CI 1.00-1.06), and higher technology self-efficacy (OR 1.03; 95% CI 1.00-1.06) were associated with higher adherence. After adjusting for age in the multivariate model, patient activation and technology self-efficacy were not significant. * CONCLUSION: Younger age, higher patient activation, and higher technology self-efficacy were associated with higher adherence to a step count intervention following TKR in the univariable model. Patient activation and technology self-efficacy were not associated with higher adherence following adjustment for age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To examine whether pre-hospital emergency medical service care differs for women and men subsequently admitted to hospital with stroke.Design, Setting, Participants: Population-based cohort study; analysis of linked Admitted Patient Data Collection and NSW Ambulance data for people admitted to New South Wales hospitals with a principal diagnosis of stroke at separation, 1 July 2005 - 31 December 2018.Main Outcome Measures: Emergency medical service assessments, protocols, and management for patients subsequently diagnosed with stroke, by sex.Results: Of 202 231 people hospitalised with stroke (mean age, 73 [SD, 14] years; 98 599 women [51.0%]), 101 357 were conveyed to hospital by ambulance (50.1%). A larger proportion of women than men travelled by ambulance (52.4% v 47.9%; odds ratio [OR], 1.09; 95% CI, 1.07-1.11), but time between the emergency call and emergency department admission was similar for both sexes. The likelihood of being assessed as having a stroke (adjusted OR [aOR], 0.97; 95% CI, 0.93-1.01) or subarachnoid haemorrhage (aOR, 1.22; 95% CI, 0.73-2.03) was similar for women and men, but women under 70 years of age were less likely than men to be assessed as having a stroke (aOR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.82-0.97). Women were more likely than men to be assessed by paramedics as having migraine, other headache, anxiety, unconsciousness, hypertension, or nausea. Women were less likely than men to be managed according to the NSW Ambulance pre-hospital stroke care protocol (aOR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.92-0.97), but the likelihood of basic pre-hospital care was similar for both sexes (aOR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.99-1.04).Conclusion: Our large population-based study identified sex differences in pre-hospital management by emergency medical services of women and men admitted to hospital with stroke. Paramedics should receive training that improves the recognition of stroke symptoms in women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, audio learning resources account for a large proportion of the total online learning resources. Designing and implementing a method for optimizing and selecting audio learning resources based on big data of education will be of great significance to the recommendation of learning resources. Therefore, this paper studies a method for selecting audio learning resources based on the big data of education, with music learning as an example. First, the audio signals were converted into mel spectrograms, and accordingly, the mel-frequency cepstral coefficient features of audio learning resources were obtained. Then, on the basis of the conventional content-based audio recommendation algorithm, the established interest degree vector of target students with respect to music learning was expanded, and a collaborative filtering hybrid algorithm for audio learning resources that incorporates the interest degrees of neighbouring students was proposed, which effectively improved the accuracy and stability in the prediction of students’ interest in music learning. Finally, the experimental results verified the feasibility and prediction accuracy of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speech emotion recognition is one of the important challenges in the field of artificial intelligence. In order to further improve the accuracy of speech emotion recognition, a double bidirectional long short-term memory network with multiple input multiple fusion strategy (DBL-MM) for speech emotion recognition is proposed. Firstly, log Mel spectrum feature and frame-level statistical feature are extracted from speech signals, and then the two types of frame-level features are input into two bidirectional LSTM networks for learning simultaneously. Secondly, attention pooling and average pooling are used to fuse the outputs of the two BiLSTM networks to obtain two high-level fusion features which are concatenated and batch normalized later. Finally, a softmax classifier is used to classify emotions. The proposed DBL-MM model simultaneously processes two different types of features and a multiple fusion strategy is used to better learn the subtle changes in emotion. The experimental results on two public datasets show the superiority of this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal caregivers' abilities to provide care for people living with HIV plays an essential role in improving health outcomes. Little is known about caregivers in the Yi population. A cross-sectional study was conducted, and 216 participants completed the Chinese version of the Caregiver Task Inventory (CTI-C). The total mean CTI-C score was 17.46 (SD 5 7.70), which showed a low level of caring ability. Regression analysis indicated that caregiving willingness and caring time were significantly positively associated with CTI-C scores. Knowledge regarding HIV was negatively associated with CTI-C scores. There is an urgent need to increase the level of HIV-related knowledge in the rural regions of Liangshan Prefecture. Education contributes to improved knowledge. Therefore, educational campaigns should be implemented to improve this situation. The local government should plan policies to improve educational levels and develop targeted knowledge-improving programs based on cultural background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-supported electrodes have become increasingly important for the development of flexible electronic devices. Herein, SnO2 nanorod arrays are firmly glued onto amorphous SnO2 coated Cu foils, to form robust self-supported anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Without the use of binders and conducting additives, the as-prepared anodes exhibit outstanding performance in terms of excellent cycling stability and high rate capability and are successfully assembled into flexible cells. The excellent performance of the as-prepared anodes can be attributed to the interfacial engineering: the amorphous SnO2 interlayer not only glues SnO2 nanorods and the conductive substrate together, but also buffers the stress induced by volume expansion of the SnO2 nanorods and facilitates efficient electron transport during the cycling. The outstanding electrochemical performance suggests that the proposed interfacial engineering with the amorphous SnO2 is a simple and promising strategy for constructing high-performance LIBs especially for the emerging flexible batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

background There is a lack of evidence in support of any prophylactic measure to prevent secondary lower extremity lymphedema after radical hysterectomy among patients with cervical cancer. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of modified complex decongestive physiotherapy in reducing the risk of secondary lower extremity lymphedema after radical surgery. Methods A randomized single-blind clinical trial was conducted in 120 patients with cervical cancer who underwent laparoscopic radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy between January 2016 and April 2017 in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Participants were randomly assigned to a modified complex decongestive physiotherapy intervention group (n=60) or control group (n=60). The intervention group received a modified complex decongestive physiotherapy program, which included manual lymph drainage, compression hosiery, regular exercise, and health education. The control group only received a health education program. The main outcome was the incidence of secondary lower extremity lymphedema. results A total of 117 patients with cervical cancer completed a 1-year follow-up. Twenty-eight (23.9%) patients developed secondary lower extremity lymphedema (20 (34.5%) patients in the control group and 8 (13.6%) in the intervention group). The incidence of secondary lower extremity lymphedema was significantly higher in the control group than in the intervention group (p=0.008; OR 0.30 (95% CI 0.12 to 0.75). The median percentage of excess volume was significantly less in the intervention group (2.1%, IQR 0.5-3.4%) than in the control group (2.96%, IQR 1.1-4.98%); (p=0.042). The mean (SD) onset time of lymphedema was 8 (2.00) months vs 4.6 (2.82) months in the intervention and control groups, respectively (p=0.004). Conclusions This randomized trial showed that modified complex decongestive physiotherapy is effective for preventing lower extremity lymphedema in patients with cervical cancer after laparoscopic radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlling the microstructure and discharge performance of Mg-based alloys is of great importance and aimed at optimizing magnesium anode materials to the level required for power source applications. In this study, the microstructure along with discharge properties of extruded Mg-Sn-Zn-Ag alloys with Sn content ranging from 2 wt.% to 8 wt.% are investigated. The results indicate that the Mg-4Sn-1Zn-1Ag alloy exhibits the most negative discharge potential during the half-cell test than the other alloys investigated in this study. Moreover, a Mg-air battery with a Mg-4Sn-1Zn-1Ag alloy as the anode provides a relatively high cell voltage together with power density compared with the counterpart battery. Furthermore, the microscopic mechanism of an anode material exhibiting an excellent discharge performance is systematically discussed in terms of the second phase, dynamic recrystallization, crystal orientation and discharge product film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract Salinity is a major abiotic stress factor that seriously affects plant growth. Many genes are involved in the response to salt stress with various metabolism pathways. A number of plant transcription factor family genes have been found to be involved in the salt stress response, and NAM, ATAF and CUC (NAC) transcription factors are thought to act as active regulators during abiotic stress, especially salt stress. In this study, we detected a rice NAC transcription factor coding gene, OsNAC041 , and confirmed that it influenced the germination of seeds under salt stress and salt tolerance of plants. OsNAC041 was primarily expressed in the leaves and located in the nucleus. Furthermore, the CRISPR/Cas9 method was used to obtain a targeted osnac041 mutant, of which the plant height was higher than that of the wild-type, showing increased salt sensitivity. Moreover, RNA-seq analysis revealed a number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in several important signaling pathways in the osnac041 mutant. Subsequently, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes annotation also revealed differential expression of DEGs associated with mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling, peroxisome, eukaryotic- type ABC transporters, photosynthesis and plant hormones, which are involved in stress-related signaling pathways. Overall, our study suggested that OsNAC041 was involved in the salt stress response in rice. These findings not only provide empirical evidence of OsNAC041 function, but also provide new insight into its potential application in rice resistance breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Metabolic functional diversity of airborne microbial communities and its relationship with environmental factors at different functional regions [Scenic Area (SA), Main Traffic Line (MTL), Public Service Area (PSA), Culture and Education Area (CEA)] in Lanzhou were analyzed using Biolog- ECO technique and Redundancy Analysis (RDA) method. This Research study shows that, there were seasonal differences in carbon metabolism processes among the airborne microbes located in the four functional regions. SA airborne microbial carbon metabolism process was higher in spring and summer, while that of MTL and PSA was higher in autumn and winter. The CEA airborne microbial carbon metabolism process was higher in winter while its summer and autumn airborne carbon metabolism process had little differences. In each functional area, Shannon and Simpson index values among the Seasonal airborne microbes were relatively insignificant, indicating that microbial community richness and dominance of the same functional area did not experience significant seasonal changes. However, Mcintosh index value showed a significant seasonal difference, which is an indication that the airborne microbial community of the same functional area was affected by environmental and atmospheric seasonal changes. The four functional areas showed seasonal differences in carbon metabolism process. Carbohydrates were the main cause of the seasonal variation noticed in SA and PSA airborne microbial community carbon metabolism process while amino acids were the major ones responsible for seasonal variation among the MTL and PSA airborne microbial community carbon metabolism process. The functional diversity of microbial communities was closely related to environmental factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integration of satellite laser altimetry data and stereo images without ground control points (GCPs) is an attractive method for global mapping. In this paper, we propose a new strategy of integrating Ziyuan3-02 (ZY3-02) satellite stereo images and laser altimetry data using a rigorous sensor model (RSM) with laser ranging constraint under the synchronized and rational function model (RFM) with laser elevation constraint under the non-synchronized capture for high-accuracy mapping without GCPs. Four experimental regions in China are selected to validate the method. The results show that the ZY3-02 satellite laser altimetry data can be used to improve the elevation accuracy of stereo images to better than 3.0 m without GCPs. All of the conclusions are valuable for the development of China's next generation of surveying and mapping satellites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angiotensin II stimulates fibroblast proliferation and substantially alters gene expression patterns leading to cardiac remodeling, but the mechanisms for such differences are unknown. MicroRNAs are a novel mechanism for gene expression regulation. Herein, we tested the miRNA and mRNA expression patterns in mouse heart using microarray assay and investigated their role in angiotensin II-induced cardiac remodeling. We found that let-7i was dynamically downregulated in angiotensin II-infused heart at day 3 and 7 and had the most targets that were mainly associated with cardiac inflammation and fibrosis. Overexpression or knockdown of let-7i in cultured cardiac fibroblasts demonstrated that let-7i played an inhibitory effect on the expression of its targets interleukin-6 and collagens. Furthermore, delivery of let-7i to mouse significantly inhibited angiotensin II-induced cardiac inflammation and fibrosis in a dose-dependent manner. Conversely, knockdown of let-7i aggravated this effect. Together, our results clearly demonstrate that let-7i acts as a novel negative regulator of angiotensin II-induced cardiac inflammation and fibrosis by suppressing the expression of interleukin-6 and multiple collagens in the heart and may represent a new potential therapeutic target for treating hypertensive cardiac fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion from forest to agricultural land in the last three decades represents a significant shift in land use in China. However, few direct measurements have been made to investigate the dynamic processes of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) under land use change. Our results showed that converting forest to grassland and farmland led to the increase in SOC content, decrease of TN concentration and C:N ratio in the top soil. The erosion rate and nutrient loss estimated by 137Cs showed highest under farmland. The highest nutrient losses were found in cultivated farmland, with 4.08 and 0.40 t km-2 year-1 for SOC and TN respectively. We conclude that forest system could be an effective strategy to improve SOC stocks in the subtropical Dianchi watershed. The accumulation of N in cultivated farmland soils poses a potential threat to nearby Dianchi Lake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]