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ObjectivePrevious epidemiological studies have shown that both long-term and short-term exposure to fine particulate matters (PM2.5) were associated with the morbidity and mortality of circulatory system diseases (CSD). However, the impact of PM2.5 on CSD remains inconclusive. This study aimed to investigate the associations between PM2.5 and circulatory system diseases in Ganzhou.MethodsWe conducted this time series study to explore the association between ambient PM2.5 exposure and daily hospital admissions for CSD from 2016 to 2020 in Ganzhou by using generalized additive models (GAMs). Stratified analyses were also performed by gender, age, and season.ResultsBased on 201,799 hospitalized cases, significant and positive associations were found between short-term PM2.5 exposure and hospital admissions for CSD, including total CSD, hypertension, coronary heart disease (CHD), cerebrovascular disease (CEVD), heart failure (HF), and arrhythmia. Each 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 concentrations was associated with a 2.588% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.161%–4.035%), 2.773% (95% CI, 1.246%–4.324%), 2.865% (95% CI, 0.786%–4.893%), 1.691% (95% CI, 0.239%–3.165%), 4.173% (95% CI, 1.988%–6.404%) and 1.496% (95% CI, 0.030%–2.983%) increment in hospitalizations for total CSD, hypertension, CHD, CEVD, HF, and arrhythmia, respectively. As PM2.5 concentrations rise, the hospitalizations for arrhythmia showed a slow upward trend, while other CSD increased sharply at high PM2.5 levels. In subgroup analyses, the impacts of PM2.5 on hospitalizations for CSD were not materially changed, although the females had higher risks of hypertension, HF, and arrhythmia. The relationships between PM2.5 exposure and hospitalizations for CSD were more significant among individuals aged ≤65 years, except for arrhythmia. PM2.5 had stronger effects on total CSD, hypertension, CEVD, HF, and arrhythmia during cold seasons.ConclusionPM2.5 exposure was positively associated with daily hospital admissions for CSD, which might provide informative insight on adverse effects of PM2.5.

IntroductionIntegrating faultline theory and the attention-based view, this paper explores the impact and process mechanisms of two types of faultlines (i.e., task-related faultlines and relationship-related faultlines) within top management teams (TMTs), specifically on corporate industrial diversification.MethodsBased on the unbalanced panel data of Chinese A-share non-financial listed firms from 2008-2021, this study uses the fixed-effects model for hypothesis testing.ResultsFirst, task-related TMT faultlines promote corporate industrial diversification, while conversely, relationship-related TMT faultlines inhibit corporate industrial diversification. Second, task-related TMT faultlines promote firms’ strategic attentional breadth, while conversely, relationship-related TMT faultlines inhibit firms’ strategic attentional breadth. Third, strategic attentional breadth plays a partially-mediating role in the relationship between both types of TMT faultlines and firms’ industrial diversification.DiscussionThis study extends the research related to corporate industrial diversification based on micro-level explanatory mechanisms, and also provides implications and guidance for the rational allocation of TMT and firms’ industrial diversification management practices.

Group Polarization in Board Decisions About Strategic Change: Evidence from Chinese Publicly Listed Companies (2008–2018)

Purpose In recent years, the phenomena of “accelerating” and “jumping” during the international expansion of Chinese enterprises have attracted a lot of attention from scholars. However, while a CEO’s career horizon can significantly affect his or her enterprise’s strategic decision-making, few studies have explored the role of CEO career horizon in terms of “accelerating” and “jumping” internationalization. Design/methodology/approach Based on a sample of China’s A-share listed manufacturing companies from 2008 to 2017, this study explores the impact of CEO career horizon on the internationalization pace and international rhythm of enterprises. Findings First, the shorter the CEO’s career horizon, the more likely the CEO can avoid risky strategic decisions, which ultimately causes a negative relationship between CEO career horizon and the internationalization pace and rhythm of the enterprise. Second, for larger and older boards of directors, there is a more negative impact of the CEO’s short-term career horizon on the internationalization pace and internationalization rhythm of the company. However, given a larger proportion of female directors and non-executive directors, the CEO’s short-term career horizon has a weaker negative impact on international pace and the rhythm of internationalization. Originality/value First, based on upper echelon theory, this study interprets the influence of CEO career horizon on the time dimension of corporate internationalization (including internationalization pace and international rhythm), deepening the theory’s explanatory power. Second, by clarifying the important predictive effect of CEO career horizon on internationalization pace and international rhythm, this research enriches extant research on both variables’ antecedents, as well as that on the influence of CEO career horizon. Finally, by introducing the regulatory role of the board’s supervisory ability, this study clarifies the boundary conditions for the influence of the CEO’s career horizon on international pace and rhythm, and it expands the literature on how CEOs and boards of directors can influence corporate strategic decisions during the internationalization process.

High-fat diet (HFD)-induced metabolic syndrome followed by chronic kidney disease (CKD) have received extensive attention. However, the pathogenesis that contributes to HFD-induced renal injury still remains unclear. Transmembrane protein 126B (Tmem126b) is a complex I assembly factor, playing critical role in controlling important biological processes. In the study, we showed that Tmem126b levels were increased in kidney of HFD-fed mice. Tmem126b knockout (KO) attenuated metabolic disorders in mice challenged with HFD. Further, Tmem126b-KO mice showed alleviated kidney damage in response to HFD treatment. Mechanistically, we suggested that in kidney of mice, the dyslipidemia, apoptosis, and mitochondria dysfunction generated by HFD were prevented by Tmem126b deletion via regulating the expression of associated signals. Further, we demonstrated that HFD-induced renal inflammation was ameliorated by Tmem126b knockout, as evidenced by the down-regulated expression of inflammatory factors, including tumor necrosis factor a (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β and monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1, which was through repressing nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathways. Additionally, Tmem126b ablation repressed oxidative stress in renal samples of HFD-fed mice partly by promoting nuclear factor-erythroid 2 related factor-2 (Nrf-2) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression. The role of Tmem126b knockout in protecting against HFD-triggered renal injury was verified in palmitate (PA)-incubated cells with Tmem126b knockdown. Importantly, inhibiting Nrf-2 expression abolished Tmem126b knockdown-alleviated lipid deposition, apoptosis, inflammation, ROS generation and mitochondrial dysfunction. Collectively, our study identified Tmem126b as a positive regulator for the progression of CKD induced by HFD through meditating Nrf-2 expression.

In the development of China''s market economy, the problem of business integrity causes wide public concern. The main problems of China''s business integrity are that the high cost of business integrity makes it difficult to form an incentive mechanism for integrity management, the lack of honesty in government affairs has an enormous impact on business integrity and integrity management is made difficult by the social psychology of mutual distrust. To improve the current situation of China''s business integrity, it is necessary to enhance the contract spirits of business operators, intensify the legal punishment of business dishonesty, and establish and improve the social credit system.

Immune infiltration in Prostate Cancer (PCa) was reported to be strongly associated with clinical outcomes. However, previous research could not elucidate the diversity of different immune cell types that contribute to the functioning of the immune response system. In the present study, the CIBERSORT method was employed to evaluate the relative proportions of immune cell profiling in PCa samples, adjacent tumor samples and normal samples. Three types of molecular classification were identified in tumor samples using the ‘CancerSubtypes’ package of the R software. Each subtype had specific molecular and clinical characteristics. In addition, functional enrichment was analyzed in each subtype. The submap and Tumor Immune Dysfunction and Exclusion (TIDE) algorithms were also used to predict clinical response to the immune checkpoint blockade. Moreover, the Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer (GDSC) database was employed to screen for potential chemotherapeutic targets for the treatment of PCa. The results showed that Cluster I was associated with advanced PCa and was more likely to respond to immunotherapy. The findings demonstrated that differences in immune responses may be important drivers of PCa progression and response to treatment. Therefore, this comprehensive assessment of the 22 immune cell types in the PCa Tumor Environment (TEM) provides insights on the mechanisms of tumor response to immunotherapy and may help clinicians explore the development of new drugs.

This study designs a novel nonlinear adaptive controller (NAC) of photovoltaic inverter in order to generate the maximum energy of solar power under different condition. Inverter nonlinearities, uncertain grid/inverter parameters, as well as inverter modelling uncertainties are aggregated into a perturbation. Then, a linear extended state observer (ESO), is applied for estimate the perturbation online. Meanwhile, a state feedback controller is used to calculate the perturbation in the real-time. Particularly, its optimal control parameters are effectively and efficiently tuned by a novel meta-heuristic algorithm, called democratic joint operations algorithm (DJOA), such that a satisfactory control property could be resulted in. Case studies verifies the effectiveness and advantages of NAC compared to conventional linear control, e.g., PID controller, and typical nonlinear control, e.g., feedback linearization controller (FLC), under solar irradiation variation and temperature variation.

Objective: To assess the safety of the super-mini percutaneous nephrolithotomy (SMP) versus the minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy (MPCNL) in the treatment of pediatric renal calculus. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the electronic records of pediatric patients who underwent treatment for renal stones by either SMP or MPCNL from May 2015 to May 2016. We compared the safety of the 2 surgical procedures in the treatment of renal calculus in children by using the generalized estimating equation (GEE) multivariate regression analysis, in which the exposures are the surgical procedures and postoperative adverse events (postoperative complications, fever, and WBC counts) are set as outcome variables. Results: The study included 39 patients (26 boys and 13 girls), of which 22 underwent MPCNL and 17 underwent SMP, with a mean age of 110.05 ± 45.01 and 93.18 ± 41.72 months, respectively. In the univariate logistic regression model, the surgical procedures showed no significant association with postoperative complications (95% CI 0.0–1.5), fever (95% CI 0.1–2.1), postoperative peripheral WBC (95% CI 0.1–2.2). In the multiple logistic regression analysis, there was an insignificant association between surgical methods and postoperative complications (95% CI 0.28–1.1), fever (95% CI 0.1–1.2), and postoperative peripheral WBC (95% CI 0.03–1.8). While using GEE with multiple dependent variables and MPCNL as a reference, the OR of adverse events was 0.15 and the 95% CI were 0.04–0.55. Conclusions: Compared to MPCNL, SMP has a lower incidence of postoperative complications and appears to be a safer treatment for children with kidney stones.

Background: Many studies have investigated the association between glutathione S-transferase T1 (GSTT1) null genotype and the risk of prostate cancer (PCa), but the impact of GSTT1 null genotype on PCa risk in Caucasians is still unclear owing to the inconsistency of such studies. The present study aimed to quantify the strength of association between GSTT1 null genotype and the risk of PCa in Caucasians. Methods: We searched the PubMed, Embase and Web of Science databases for studies assessing the association between GSTT1 null genotype and the risk of PCa in Caucasians. We estimated the summary odds ratio (OR) with the corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI) to assess the association. Results: 16 case-control studies with 11,648 subjects were included in this meta-analysis. Meta-analysis of a total of 16 studies showed GSTT1 null genotype was significantly associated with an increased risk of PCa in Caucasians (random-effects OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.10-1.53, p = 0.002). After adjustment for heterogeneity, GSTT1 null genotype was still associated with an increased risk of PCa in Caucasians (fixed-effects OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.17-1.52, p < 0.001). The cumulative meta-analyses of all 16 studies showed a trend of more obvious association as information accumulated by year. Conclusions: Meta-analysis of available data suggests the GSTT1 null genotype is significantly associated with an increased risk of PCa in Caucasians.

Suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) proteins have been identified as negative feedback regulators of cytokine-mediated signaling in various tissues, and demonstrated to play critical roles in tumorigenesis and tumor development of different cancers. The involvement of SOCSs in human prostate cancer (PCa) has not been fully elucidated. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the expression patterns and the clinical significance of SOCSs in PCa. The expression changes of SOCSs at mRNA and protein levels in human PCa tissues compared with adjacent benign prostate tissues were, respectively, detected by using real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry analyses. The associations of SOCSs expression with clinicopathological features and clinical outcome of PCa patients were further statistically analyzed. Among SOCSs, both QRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry analyses found that SOCS2 expression was upregulated (at mRNA level: change ratio = 1.98, P = 0.031; at protein level: 5.12 ± 0.60 vs. 2.68 ± 0.37, P = 0.016) and SOCS6 expression was downregulated (at mRNA level: change ratio = −1.65, P = 0.008; at protein level: 3.03 ± 0.32 vs. 4.0.72 ± 0.39, P = 0.004) in PCa tissues compared with those in non-cancerous prostate tissues. In addition, the upregulation of SOCS2 in PCa tissues was correlated with the lower Gleason score (P < 0.001), the absence of metastasis (P < 0.001) and the negative PSA failure (P = 0.009); the downregulation of SOCS6 tended to be found in PCa tissues with the higher Gleason score (P = 0.016), the advanced pathological stage (P = 0.007), the positive metastasis (P = 0.020), and the positive PSA failure (P = 0.032). Furthermore, both univariate and multivariate analyses showed that the downregulation of SOCS2 was an independent predictor of shorter biochemical recurrence-free survival. Our data offer the convincing evidence for the first time that the dysregulation of SOCS2 and SOCS6 may be associated with the aggressive progression of PCa. SOCS2 may be potential markers for prognosis in PCa patients.

Liposomal formulations of a potent antitumor drug, etoposide were prepared by ethanol injection method successfully. The characteristics of the etoposide liposomes, for particle size, encapsulation efficiency, leakage ratio, ? potential and physical stability, were evaluated. In vivo pharmacokinetics and tumor inhibition ratio of mice were also examined. The liposomes were characterized by high entrapment efficiency, uniform size distribution and moderate ? potential. In addition, the liposomes modified by PEG2000-DSPE could raise the AUC and prolonged the resident time of etoposide in the blood circulating system as compared to conventional liposomes containing etoposide and free etoposide solutions, and improve the tumor inhibition ratio demonstrated by anti-tumor activity experiments.

The evaluation of MNCs' technological innovation is a hotly debated topic around the world. This paper aims to provide some insight into the evaluation of MNCs' Technological Innovation performance. We analyze MNCs' technological innovation process in detail. Then the definition of technological innovation performance is presented. We divide innovation performance into output performance and process performance, each of which is given a detailed description in this paper. We conclude that MNCs' technological innovation performance is composed of output performance and process performance, and insist that both output performance and process performance be considered when evaluating MNCs' technological innovation performance.

Along with the development of globalization, the process of multinational companies' technological innovation becomes increasingly complex. This paper systematically expounds related theories of multinational corporations' technological innovation and complex networks, and points out that multinational companies' technological innovation is the formation process of a complex network, and describes BA scale-free network model in detail, which is introduced into technological innovation networks of multinational corporations. Finally, the corresponding results are obtained by means of in-depth analysis of technological innovation networks' elements of multinational companies, BA scale-free effect, searching of key nodes and natural language description of building process.

The international competitiveness of multinational corporations is more powerfully, the development space of them is larger. The strength of multinational corporations' international competitiveness is mainly determined by economic strength, which is relying on technological innovation. Therefore, it is necessary to research multinational innovation. Complex network has a great role on technological innovation, but there are few scholars let multinational corporations' technological innovation and complex networks combined. This paper systematically expounds the related theory of complex networks, analyses internal relevancy between multinational corporations' technological innovation and complex network, based on influencing factors of multinational corporations' technological innovation and topological characteristics and search function of complex network, and makes a profound study on the application of complex network to the network of multinational corporations' technological innovation. Finally, a related conclusion is drawn.

Operation status of rural boarding school construction in Guizhou Province in China is introduced and its implementation status is comprehensively evaluated. Problems in the implementation of relevant policies of boarding project are put forward, including incomplete overall planning, impetuous implementation of polices in some regions and unfair allocation of accommodation subsidies. Difficulties in the development of rural boarding school are discussed, such as liability management of school, poor teaching force, lack of professional manager and special funds, prominent difficulties in board and lodging, problems of safety management and health care, heavy financial burden on the family, lack of mental health education, infrastructure failing to meet the development needs of school, and backward education consciousness of parents in poverty areas. Based on this, advantages and disadvantages of rural boarding project are analyzed from three aspects of government, school, and the student and parent. Then, relevant countermeasures are put forward to construct and develop rural boarding school according to the actual situation of Guizhou Province, such as strengthening policy support, improving education consciousness of parents, developing human resources in new school, and paying attention to the effects of local culture on school.

With the implementation of the policy of expanding domestic demand, farmers have become the main body of rural economy and rural industrialization. Development of rural industrialization promotes the development of rural economy in China, effectively transfers the surplus labor force in rural areas, continuously optimizes the rural economic structure, improves the living standard of farmers, and has made important contributions to the stability and development of economy and society in China. This paper introduces the connotation of rural industrialization, classifies it into three modes according to the farmer’s investment and economic development, such as exogenous model of rural industrialization, endogenous model of rural industrialization and integrated model of rural industrialization. Though rural industrialization has obtained great achievements, there are still some problems restricting the development of rural economy in China. For instance, cognitive bias leads to the slow pace of rural industrialization; rural industry develops rapidly but its efficiency is low; intensive degree of economic growth is still very low; ability of independent innovation is weak; there are obvious contradiction between the constraints of resource and environment and the acceleration of industrialization; and development gap between regions has further widened. Therefore, policy suggestions are put forward. Firstly, continue to strengthen policy support. Secondly, take a new road of rural industrialization. Thirdly, strengthen the construction of human resources in rural areas. Fourthly, actively guide the investment behavior of farmers. And finally, support the specialty cooperative of farmers and the leading enterprises, which has certain reference significance to enhance agricultural benefit, farmers’ income, rural development and modern agriculture.

Essen, Univ., Diss., 2001