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Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the clinical benefits of establishing an enteral nutrition (EN) pathway via percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography drainage (PTCD) catheterization in patients with late-stage malignant obstructive jaundice (MOJ).Methods: We selected 30 patients diagnosed as having late-stage MOJ with malnutrition. A dual-lumen biliary-enteral nutrition tube was placed via PTCD along with a biliary stent implantation. Postoperative EN was provided, and we observed the time taken for tube placement, its success rate, complications, and therapeutic efficacy.Results: Tube placement was successful in all 30 patients with an average procedural time of 5.7 ± 1.4 min with no tube placement complications. Compared to preoperative measures, there was a significant improvement in postoperative jaundice reduction and nutritional indicators one month after the procedure (p < 0.05). Post-placement complications included tube perileakage in 5 cases, entero-biliary reflux in 4 cases, tube blockage in 6 cases, tube displacement in 4 cases, accidental tube removal in 3 cases, and tube replacement due to degradation in 8 cases, with tube retention time ranging from 42 to 314 days, averaging 124.7 ± 37.5 days. All patients achieved the parameters for effective home-based enteral nutrition with a noticeable improvement in their quality of life.Conclusion: In this study, we found that the technique of establishing an EN pathway via PTCD catheterization was minimally invasive, safe, and effective; the tube was easy to maintain; and patient compliance was high. It is, thus, suitable for long-term tube retention in patients with late-stage MOJ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eddies in the Marginal Ice Zones (MIZ) contribute to an enhanced melting of sea ice by forcing contact between the sea ice and the warmer water off the ice edge. The horizontal current field can be retrieved by tracking the movement of ice floes between sequential satellite images. However, the traditional method of current retrieval imposes stringent requirements on the time intervals between sequential images, and the performance of the traditional method diminishes rapidly with increasing time intervals. In this paper, an improved method of retrieving currents from multi-sensor remote sensing images is proposed, which can significantly improve the accuracy of current retrieval. The method first extracts feature from remote sensing images based on texture features and a support vector machine model and then extracts prior information about the ice-edge eddy from the first two remote sensing images. Under the guidance of prior information, horizontal currents of the eddy are retrieved by tracking the movement of sea ice from sequential remote sensing images. The proposed method was used to retrieve currents from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 sequential images over the MIZ of the Fram Strait. Comparisons with the traditional method show encouraging results that the proposed method can significantly reduce the number of mismatches and improve the reliability of current vectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One new cyclohexenone derivative, asperfumtone A (1) along with six known compounds were obtained from the coculture of Aspergillus fumigatus and Alternaria alternata associated with Coffea arabica. The configuration of 2 was first reported in the research. The structures were determined by extensive spectroscopic analyses, and ECD calculation. Compounds 3, 4 and 7 showed significant antifungal activities against coffee phytopathogens A. alternata and Fusarium incarnatum with MICs of 1 μg/mL. Compounds 1 and 2 showed weak antifungal activities against A. alternata and F. incarnatum with MICs of 32–64 μg/mL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollution of the environment is becoming more and more serious due to the misuse of antibiotics. To protect the environment, polyoxometalates (POMs) emerged as potential green materials. These POMs contain anionic clusters of metal oxides, which exhibit favorable structural and physicochemical properties. They have demonstrated promising antiviral, antibacterial and antitumor activities in biomedicine. In the present study, fluconazole (FKZ)-modified POMs of Keggin structure were synthesized as an efficient bacteriostatic agent by the hydrothermal method. Furthermore, the bacteriostatic properties of the agent against various bacteria are analyzed. The bacteriostatic effect and bacterial inhibition rate are evaluated using three different methods: the filter paper slice method, determination of MIC value and the colony counting method. In addition, the leakage of morphologically repressive DNA of bacteria after being treated by the samples was investigated by TEM and UV, which resulted in speculation of repressive mechanisms. The experimental results demonstrated that the bacteriostat exhibited superior bacteriostatic properties compared to the classical polyoxometalate. Additionally, bacteriostatic agents are particularly effective in combating gram-negative bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytochemical investigations on the fruits of Cascabela thevetia (L.) Lippold led to obtain three new cardenolides (1–3) and five known analogues (4–7). Their structures were elucidated by means of UV, IR, HR-ESI-MS, 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic data analysis. Compounds 1 and 2 represent the first examples of naturally occurring cardenolides with 19-nor-5(10)-ene group and α-l-3-demethyl-thevetose, respectively. Compound 3 is a rare C-nor-D-homocardenolide in nature. All isolated cardenolides (1–7) were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against four human cancer cell lines (MCF-7, HCT-116, HeLa and HepG2), and the results indicated the compounds with sugar units (1, 2, 4, and 5) exhibited stronger cytotoxic activities with IC50 values ranging between 0.022 and 0.308 μM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few longitudinal studies have examined the prevalence of psychoactive drug use and its related predictors among Chinese men who have sex with men (MSM) in Hong Kong. This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the prevalence of psychoactive drug use in this population and the relationships of background characteristics, health status, MSM-related self-stigma, and perceived stress with psychoactive drug use. Furthermore, the study tested the mediation effect of perceived stress in the relationship between MSM-related self-stigma and psychoactive drug use based on the minority stress model and the general strain model. A total of 600 MSM were recruited through multiple sources and completed a telephone interview at baseline, and 407 completed the 6-month follow-up survey. Prevalence of using any type of psychoactive drugs in the past 12 months at baseline and in the past six months at follow-up was 16.8% and 9.1% respectively. History of sexually transmitted infection (STI), self-stigma and perceived stress significantly predicted psychoactive drug use at 6-month follow-up. Bootstrapping analysis showed that self-stigma could, directly and indirectly, predict psychoactive drug use at 6-month follow-up through perceived stress. The results highlighted the need for interventions to reduce psychoactive drug use among local MSM and its potential modifiable factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractA sensitive surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate based on SiO2@Ag core-shell with a QuEChERs pretreatment method were constructed for the determination of carbendazim residue in tobacco leaves. The SERS substrate was formed by self-assembly of monolayer homogeneous SiO2 nanospheres onto silicon wafer following by vacuum thermal evaporation of silver film. The QuEChERs pretreatment method was used to eliminate the interfering effects of pigments and organic acids in tobacco leaves. The results for carbendazim in tobacco leaves show the limit of detection (LOD) of the SERS substrate was 0.1 mg/kg and the recovery rate was from 82.56% to 95.93%. The proposed low-cost sensitive SERS substrates provide potential application for tobacco safety monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maiwa yak is a special breed of animal living on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which has great economic value, but its fertility rate is low. The corpus luteum (CL) is a temporary tissue that plays a crucial role in maintaining the physiological cycle. However, little is known about the transcriptome profile in Maiwa yak CL. In the present study, the transcriptome of Maiwa yak CL at early (EYCL), middle (MYCL) and late-stages (LYCL) was studied employing high-throughput sequencing. A total of 25,922 transcripts were identified, including 22,277 known as well as 3,645 novel ones. Furthermore, 690 and 212 differentially expressed (DE) mRNAs were detected in the EYCL vs. MYCL and MYCL vs. LYCL groups, respectively. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of DEGs illustrated that the most enriched pathway was PI3K-Akt pathway. Furthermore, twenty-six DEGs were totally found to be associated with different biological processes of CL development. One of these genes, PGRMC1, displayed a dynamical expression trend during the lifespan of yak CL. The knockdown of PGRMC1 in luteinized yak granulosa cells resulted in defective steroidogenesis. In conclusion, this study analyzed the transcriptome profiles in yak CL of different stages, and provided a novel database for analyzing the gene network in yak CL. The manuscript analyzed the transcriptome profiles in yak CL during the estrous cycle. Twenty-six DEGs were found to be associated with the development or function of CL. One of the DEGs, PGRMC1, was found to be responsible for steroidogenesis in luteinized yak granulosa cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service robots have been widely utilised in service encounters to deliver human services. However, it is unclear whether co-creation with service robots increases or decreases employee wellbeing. Based on self-determination theory, this study aims to investigate the direct and indirect effects of co-creation with service robots on employee wellbeing. An online survey was used to collect data from 332 employees working in the hospitality and tourism industry in China who had co-created with service robots at work. The results indicate that co-creation with service robots has an important autonomy-enhancing effect on employees. Furthermore, the relationship between co-creation with service robots and employee wellbeing through the need for competence and the need for relatedness is also mediated by the need for autonomy. This study extends self-determination theory to the domain of service robots by showing that employees’ basic psychological needs play an important role in shaping their wellbeing in the context of co-creation with service robots at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we study a class of reflecting stochastic differential equations whose coefficients depend on image measures of solutions under a given initial measure in Wasserstein space P 2 . By the penalization method, the image process, which is a diffusion process in P 2 , is constrained in a priori given domain O ⊂ P 2 . The large deviation principle for this reflecting image process is also established by weak convergence method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Levodopa combined with traditional Chinese medicine has a synergistic effect on Parkinson's disease (PD). Recently, we demonstrated that Nardostachys jatamansi (D. Don) DC. [syn. Patrinia jatamansi D.Don, N. grandiflora DC.] (Valerianaceae) (NJ) can alleviate PD. To explore the synergistic effect of NJ combined with levodopa against PD. The PD model was established by injecting rotenone. Eighty-four Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into seven groups: sham, model, different doses of NJ (0.31, 0.62, or 1.24 g/kg) combined with levodopa (25 mg/kg), and levodopa alone (25 and 50 mg/kg) groups. The synergistic effect of the combination was investigated by pharmacodynamic investigation and detection of expression of nuclear factor erythro2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and NLR family proteins containing Pyrin-related domain 3 (NLRP3) pathways. Compared with the model group, NJ + levodopa (1.24 g/kg + 25 mg/kg) increased the moving distance of PD rats in the open field (2395.34 ± 668.73 vs. 1501.41 ± 870.23, p < 0.01), enhanced the stay time on the rotating rod (84.86 ± 18.15 vs. 71.36 ± 17.53, p < 0.01) and the combination was superior to other treatments. The synergistic effects were related to NJ + levodopa (1.24 g/kg + 25 mg/kg) increasing the neurotransmitter levels by 38.80%-88.67% in PD rats, and inhibiting oxidative stress and NLRP3 pathway by activating Nrf2 pathway. NJ combined with levodopa is a promising therapeutic candidate for PD, which provides a scientific basis for the subsequent clinical combination therapy of levodopa to enhance the anti-PD effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, FOX-7 has attracted great interest due to its excellent performance. The initial decomposition mechanism of FOX-7 (ε phase) at high temperature and pressure is simulated by ab initio molecular dynamics. We mainly studied the initial reaction of FOX-7 under extreme conditions of 10 GPa and 700-3000 K. When the pressure is constant, FOX-7 shows different decomposition mechanisms as the temperature increases. At lower temperatures, hydrogen is transferred first. As the temperature increases, the transfer of hydrogen and the breakage of the C-NO2 bond leading to the generation of acid are the main initial decomposition pathways. The energy barrier for hydrogen transfer is lower than that of C-NO2 bond breaking, which was confirmed by a single-molecule transition state search. Thus, the correctness of the decomposition mechanism obtained by molecular dynamics is proved. Different from previous studies, this paper considers both temperature and higher pressure, providing a reference for the initial reaction mechanism of FOX-7 under extreme conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parallel computing on distributed heterogeneous architectures (e.g. computing clusters with multiple CPUs and GPUs) can significantly improve the computational efficiency and scalability of complicated algorithms, but it is theoretically and technically complex. Parallel raster processing libraries reduce the development complexity of parallel raster algorithms by hiding parallel computing details; however, no existing library sufficiently utilizes distributed heterogeneous computing resources. A general-purpose raster processing library (mcRPL) combining multi-process parallelism and multi-thread parallelism is proposed to enable parallel raster processing on distributed heterogeneous architectures with multiple CPUs and GPUs. Additionally, an adaptive hardware assignment strategy is proposed to fully utilize available processors in various hardware environments. A series of task-processing strategies are adopted to aim toward maximizing the utilization of the computing capacity of involved processors. Experiments revealed that two raster algorithms parallelized using mcRPL for spatiotemporal data fusion and land-use change simulation were 170.7- and 143.2-fold faster than original serial algorithms using 8 and 16 GPUs, respectively. While hiding the details of mixed parallelism and reducing the development complexity, mcRPL provides user-friendly interfaces for the development of parallel raster algorithms to enhance computational performance and enable large-scale raster computing tasks with extensive data volumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing traffic monitoring approaches cannot completely cover all road segments in real-time, leading to massive amounts of missing traffic data, which limits the implementation of intelligent transportation systems. Most existing methods lack deep mining of the unique spatiotemporal characteristics of traffic flows, resulting in difficulty in application to urban traffic with complex topologies and variable states. In this paper, we propose a novel Spatio-Temporal constrained Low-Rank Tensor Completion (ST-LRTC) method, which adopts a manifold embedding approach to depict the local geometric structure of spatiotemporal domains. Specifically, under the low-rank assumption, the method introduces temporal constraints based on the continuity and periodicity of traffic flow and a spatial constraint matrix reflecting the traffic flow transmission mechanism. We embed low-dimensional spatiotemporal constraint matrices into the low-rank tensor completion solving process to fully utilize the global features and local spatiotemporal characteristics of the traffic tensor. Experiments were performed using traffic data from Xi'an, China, and the results indicated that ST-LRTC outperformed state-of-the-art methods under various missing rates and patterns. Thorough experiments have demonstrated that the incorporation of spatiotemporal analysis can enhance the adaptability of the tensor completion model to complex urban scenarios, which guarantees better monitoring, diagnosis, and optimization of urban traffic states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crohn's disease (CD) is an inflammatory bowel disease marked by a chronic remission-relapse cycle. Biomarkers are critical to reflect the bowel wall inflammation and detect the treatment response. Here, we investigated a new index—the ratio of neutrophil to uric acid (NUR)—as a predictor of CD activity and responses to infliximab (IFX) treatment. Clinical and laboratory data were retrieved for CD patients and healthy control subjects from an electronic medical records database. Disease and endoscopic activity were determined using the Crohn's Disease Activity Index (CDAI) and Simple Endoscopic Score for Crohn's Disease (SES-CD), respectively. We found firstly that NUR was remarkably higher in CD patients (n = 162) than controls (n = 170) (0.27 ± 0.10 vs. 0.19 ± 0.04, p <.0001). NUR was positively correlated with disease activity and prior to treatment, it was lower in CD patients who responded to IFX than in those who did not (0.25 ± 0.07 vs. 0.38 ± 0.12, p =.0019). Pre-treatment NUR was effective in predicting the patients' responses to IFX (AUC = 0.8469, p =.0034). The results of this study support the utility of NUR for detecting CD activity and predicting the response to IFX treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the many inorganic bacterial inhibitors available today, polyoxometalates (POM), green antimicrobial agents with extremely high antimicrobial efficiency, have received attention. Attributed to the advantages of POM with various types, variable structures, good magnetic properties, electrical conductivity and redox activity, the modification of a POM was chosen in this work. Four new polyoxometalates with Keggin structures, K7Mn(H2O)NiMo11O39·8H2O, K7Mn(H2O)ZnMo11O39·14H2O, K7Cu(H2O)NiMo11O39·8H2O and K7Cu(H2O)ZnMo11O39·14H2O, were synthesized by the liquid-phase method using Mo as the coordination atom, Mn and Cu as the heteroatoms and Ni and Zn as the substitution atoms. The structures of the four polyoxometalates were characterized by elemental analysis (AAS), infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible (UV-visible) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We also analyzed the inhibition performance on four bacteria, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus. Herein, we examine the bacterial inhibitory effect and the inhibition rate of the POM against bacteria by four different methods of bacterial inhibition, filter paper sheet method, Oxford cup method, MIC value determination and TTC test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new antifungal butenolide irperide (1) along with five known compounds were isolated from the co-culture of endophyte Irpex lacteus and pathogenic Nigrospora oryzae. The structure of 1, including the absolute configuration, was elucidated by analysis of NMR, HR-ESI-MS data and ECD spectra. Compounds 1, 4 and 6 exhibited significant antifungal activity against Aspergillus fumigatus, with MIC values of 1, 2 and 1 μg/mL, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instead of styrene-butadiene-styrene triblock copolymer (SBS) modified bitumen (SBSMB) being taken as a whole to be investigated in most of previous aging mechanism studies, the respective contributions of SBS and bitumen matrix to SBSMB aging behavior were evaluated in this research. Four bituminous samples including the blend of aged SBS with fresh bitumen matrix (TAS+B), the blend of un-aged SBS with aged bitumen matrix (S+TAB), un-aged and short-term aged SBSMB, were prepared and then compared in terms of physical and rheological properties, molecular size and morphological polymer phase structure. The results indicate the thermal degradation of copolymer and the aging hardening of bitumen matrix jointly determine the SBSMB aging behaviors. The bitumen matrix aging effect outweighs the copolymer aging effect in view of ductility, viscosity and complex modulus results, and the quantitative relationship formulated between these two effects is valid in some cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how startups obtain loan financing through pledged patents as the startup's age increases. By using a panel dataset containing 31,083 Chinese startups and 88,264 patents of invention from 2006 to 2015, we test and verify an inverted U-shaped relationship between the age of startups and their patent pledges, and there is an optimal age for patent collateral financing. Younger startups do not find it easy to obtain patent pledge financing, while older startups do not rely on this financing channel. We further verify that firm innovation capabilities and pledge experience can optimize the inverted U-shaped relationship between firm age and their likelihood of obtaining patent pledge financing by accelerating startups' success in obtaining financing and steepening the curve. However, the optimization mechanism behind them is different. Specifically, the patent scale or innovative competitiveness of startups exhibits enterprise quality information to the lenders, while pledge experience is mainly beneficial to the transmission of soft information between the borrowers and lenders. Thus, we advance the research on startups' using patents as loan collateral by emphasizing the temporal dimension of pledges and their interplay with innovation and experience at the firm level in emerging economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This three-wave longitudinal study tested the prospective relationships between college adjustment, self-esteem, and mental health status (ie, subjective well-being, anxiety, and depression). Participants: The study recruited 265 Chinese undergraduate students. Methods: Demographic, college adjustment, self-esteem, and mental health status data were collected. Results: College adjustment and self-esteem were moderate in magnitude and maintained a reasonable stability over time. College adjustment and self-esteem at Year 1 and Year 2, and mental health status at Year 3, were significantly correlated with each other. College adjustment at Year 1 and Year 2, and self-esteem at Year 1 significantly predicted mental health status at Year 3. Conclusions: Interventions to improve self-esteem and college adjustment may benefit long-term mental health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on many cases of publicity using social media in the market, this paper empirically examines the damage of microblog publicity to market efficiency by using the sample of IPO companies. The results show that the companies posting microblogs during the IPO publicity period have higher IPO underpricing, and the more the number of microblogs, the richer the content, the higher the proportion of microblogs in the operating activities, the higher the IPO underpricing. These relationships are stronger in the enterprises with higher degree of information asymmetry and management valuing social media more. Furthermore, microblogs posted during the IPO period mainly influence investor sentiment, especially small investors. In addition, the short-term stock market performance of the companies posting microblogs is significantly worse. This paper provides a theoretical basis for standardizing the information disclosure behavior of listed companies using social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generation of frictional vibration and noise by water-lubricated bearings is one of the most severe problems putting at risk the safety and concealment of ships. Here, Halbach magnet arrays were integrated as the upper bush of the water-lubricated bearing with the aim of suppressing frictional vibration. Simulations and experiments were conducted and compared between the magnetic bearing and a normal rubber bearing. Effects of magnetic strength, Halbach array length, rotational speed, and external load on bearing characteristics were analyzed. The results show superior static and dynamic performances on the magnetic bearing. More specifically, attractive forces generated by Halbach magnets can reduce static pressure by nearly 37% on the bottom bush. Stiffness of magnetic bearings was calculated as smaller than for normal bearings, indicating a lower natural frequency. Shaft trajectories were observed close to the geometric center of bearing yielding less stress concentration on the bottom bush of the magnetic bearing. Finally, test rig experiments demonstrated suppressed vibrational peaks and reduced frictional vibration (more than 10 dB) on the magnetic bearing. It is also interesting to note that the magnetic bearing even shows exceptional robustness regarding fluctuations of rotating speed or external load. This study presents a new routine for overcoming the frictional vibration and noise of water-lubricated bearings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore whether pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) mediates the association between pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and adverse neonatal outcomes in women undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) for singleton pregnancies. This cohort study collected 79437 maternal data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) between 2020 and 2021. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were applied to estimate the association between pre-pregnancy BMI and PIH in women receiving ART as well as the associations between pre-pregnancy BMI and PIH and adverse neonatal outcomes. The mediation effect of PIH on the association between pre-pregnancy BMI and adverse neonatal outcomes was estimated according to the total effect, natural direct effect, natural indirect effect, and percentage of mediation. There were 25769 participants had adverse neonatal outcomes at the end of the follow-up. After adjusting for confounding factors, an increased risk of PIH in women receiving ART was identified in those with pre-pregnancy BMI ≥25 kg/m2 [odds ratio (OR)=1.92, 95% confidence interval (CI):1.84–2.01]. Pre-pregnancy BMI ≥25 kg/m2 was associated with an increased risk of adverse neonatal outcomes (OR = 1.26, 95%CI:1.22–1.30). Women with PIH had an increased risk of adverse neonatal outcomes (OR = 1.79, 95%CI:1.71–1.87). The percentage mediated by PIH in the association between pre-pregnancy BMI and adverse neonatal outcomes was 21.30%. PIH partially mediated the association between pre-pregnancy BMI and adverse neonatal outcomes in women receiving ART, which recommends that women control weight before receiving ART. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes the turnover of head of local banking supervisory branches accompanied with the merger of China's banking and insurance regulatory authorities as a quasi-experiment and analyses the impact of supervisory independence on banks' non-performing loans. The difference-in-difference estimates indicate that in regions with heads of local supervisory branches from other geographic branches, banks' non-performing loan ratios will decline. The impact of supervisory independence is more pronounced in regions with lower financial marketization. It further shows that supervisory independence can reduce total loan amounts, medium-and-long-term loans, and enterprise loans, and clarifies the impacting mechanisms of supervisory independence on banks' non-performing loans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) disease is a rare but severe autoantibody-mediated immune disorder. The typical clinical presentation includes rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis and often concurrent pulmonary hemorrhage. The present study is aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects of rituximab either used alone or with other immunosuppressants. Eight patients diagnosed with anti-GBM disease and treated with rituximab from 2014 to 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Eight patients included 5 males and 3 females with a median age of 58.5 years. They all presented severe kidney injuries and 1 patient had lung hemorrhage. At diagnosis, the median of serum creatinine was 246 µmol/L (ranging from 91 to 850 µmol/L), with 3 patients requiring dialysis. All of them received corticosteroids and plasmapheresis. Rituximab was given as either standard four weekly doses or one pulse ranging from 100 to 600 mg. After a median follow-up of 34.5 months, kidney function was partially recovered or stabilized in 5/8 (62.5%) patients, free of dialysis. Anti-GBM antibodies remained undetected in all patients during follow-up. No severe adverse effect associated with rituximab was observed. Rituximab may be an alternative therapy in the treatment of patient with severe or refractory anti-GBM disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By employing the Chinese listed firm's data from 2010 to 2017, this study explores the impact of share pledging on firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Empirical results indicate a negative relationship between share pledging and CSR performance. This effect is robust after using alternative measures and different regression methods, and also consistent after tackling the endogenous issues. Furthermore, we find that risk-taking and agency cost are two possible underlying mechanisms through which share pledging reduces CSR. In addition, CSR reduction caused by share pledging leads to poorer economic performance and lower market value of firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Decreased mitochondrial abundance and function were found in white adipose tissue (WAT) of T2DM patients. Therefore, promoting WAT mitochondrial biogenesis and improving adipocyte metabolism may be strategies to prevent and reverse T2DM. Salvianolic acid A (SAA) has been found to exert anti-diabetic and lipid disorder-improving effects. However whether SAA benefits mitochondrial biogenesis and function in adipose tissue is unclear. Here, we evaluated SAA's effect on mitochondrial biogenesis and function in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and investigated its potential regulatory mechanism. Results showed that SAA treatment significantly promoted the transcription and expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator- 1α (PGC-1α), nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF1) and mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM). Meanwhile, SAA treatment significantly promoted mitochondrial biogenesis by increasing mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) quantity, mitochondrial mass, and expression of mitochondrial respiratory chain enzyme complexes III and complex IV. These enhancements were accompanied by enhanced phosphorylation of AMPK and ACC and were suppressed by Compound C, a specific AMPK inhibitor. Furthermore, SAA treatment improved adipocytes mitochondrial respiration and stimulated ATP generation. These findings indicate that SAA exerts a potential therapeutic capacity against adipocytes mitochondrial dysfunction in diabetes by activating the AMPK-PGC-1α pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genetic diversity and population structures of five Chongqing local chicken populations were investigated using by 24 microsatellite markers. Results revealed that the mean number of alleles (NA) ranged from 7.08 (Daninghe chicken, DN) to 8.46 (Nanchuan chicken, NC). The highest observed heterozygosity (HO) and expected heterozygosity (HE) were observed in DN (HO= 0.7252; HE= 0.7409) and the lowest HOand HE were observed in XS (Xiushan native chicken [XS], HO= 0.5910 and HE= 0.6697). The inbreeding coefficient (FIS) within population ranged from 0.022 (DN) to 0.119 (XS). Among the 24 microsatellite markers, four loci (MCW0111, MCW0016, ADL0278, and MCW0104) deviated from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in all the studied populations. The results of population polygenetic analysis based on Nei's genetic distance and STRUCTURE software showed that the clustering of the five populations was incomplete consistent with geographical distribution. Moreover, a large number of gene flows were widespread among different populations, suggesting that genetic material exchanges occurred due to human activities and migration which was also verified by PCoA. In summary, this study preliminarily showed that Chongqing local chicken populations had rich genetic diversity and remarkable genetic divergence, but still high risk in conversion. These findings would be useful to the management of conservation strategies and the utilization of local chicken populations in further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new glycosides of methyl everninate, rhodomollosides A (1) and B (2), were isolated from the aerial parts of a medicinal plant Rhododendron molle. The structures of 1 and 2 were elucidated on the basis of detailed spectroscopic analyses as well as HPLC analyses for thiazolidine derivatives of their sugar moieties. The sugar moiety of rhodomolloside A (1) was elucidated to be a rare monosaccharide, D-allose, while rhodomolloside B (2) was assigned as a D-glucoside of methyl everninate. Furthermore, they were evaluated for their cytotoxicity against RAW264.7 cells, and for their inhibitory effects with a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated murine macrophages RAW 264.7 cells model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an optimised tracking control scheme based on reinforcement learning (RL) for a class of second-order nonlinear systems with unknown dynamics. Different from the first-order dynamic system control, the second-order case is required to synchronously steer two variables of position and velocity, hence it makes this optimised control more challenging to accomplish. To achieve the optimised control, first, neural network (NN) is employed to approximate the solution of Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB), and then an RL is performed by constructing both critic and actor based on the NN approximation. Since the RL training laws are derived from the negative gradient of a simple positive function generated in accordance with the partial derivative of HJB equation, it can make the control algorithm significantly simple to compare with the existing optimal control methods. Meanwhile, it can also release the condition of persistence excitation and compensate for the nonlinear uncertainty. Finally, the proposed adaptive control method can guarantee the desired results that are demonstrated by theorem, proof and simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on resource-based theory, this paper distinguishes the generality and specificity of breakthrough innovation and further analyses the influence of knowledge search balance on its formation. Our empirical tests are based on a database of artificial intelligence (AI) patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The results show the following: compared with one-dimensional domain knowledge search balance, cross-domain knowledge search balance can affect both the specificity and generality of breakthrough innovation. Among the types, two-dimensional and three-dimensional cross-domain knowledge search balance promotes the formation of general breakthrough innovation while inhibiting the generation of specific breakthrough innovation. In addition, three-dimensional cross-domain knowledge search balance has a stronger impact. The results also suggest that slack resources can positively moderate the relationship between three-dimensional cross-domain knowledge search balance and the generality of breakthrough innovation. Therefore, we expand the existing literature related to the formation of breakthrough innovation from the perspective of knowledge search and investigate its application in the field of AI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine the predictive value of preoperative inflammatory markers in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) prognosis after transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with radiofrequency ablation (RFA). A total of 161 patients with HCC who underwent TACE combined with RFA were enrolled in this retrospective study. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to decide the cutoff value of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), the lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and the prognostic nutritional index (PNI). The relationship between preoperative NLR, LMR, PLR, PNI, and survival outcomes was analyzed using Kaplan–Meier curves and multivariate Cox regression analyses. The cutoff value of NLR for the best discrimination of HCC prognosis was 2.95. The median recurrence-free survival (RFS) of the low NLR (≤2.95) group was longer than that of the high NLR (>2.95) group (29 months vs. 20 months, p = 0.013). The median overall survival (OS) of the low NLR group was longer than that of the high NLR group (60 months vs. 38 months, p = 0.006). Multivariate analysis showed that the tumor size (≤3 cm vs. >3cm), tumor number (single vs. multiple), and NLR (≤2.95 vs. >2.95) were independent predictors of the PFS and OS. LMR, PLR, and PNI did not have any prognostic significance. NLR was confirmed as an independent predictive biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma prognosis after TACE combined with RFA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) was used as a research object to explore the feasibility of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to study the dielectric properties of polymers. A comparison of the static dielectric constants for two different calculation schemes, the applied electric field method and the dipole moment fluctuation method, has been conducted. The dielectric properties of PNIPAM aqueous solutions with different concentrations were studied as a function of temperature. The static dielectric constants derived from dipole moment fluctuation method at different temperatures can accurately describe the phase transition process. The concentration does not affect the lower critical solution temperature, but significantly affects the relaxation process of the system. According to the frequency-dependent dielectric constants, two relaxation processes are observed, namely, the dielectric relaxation process in the region of frequency less than 30 terahertz (THz) determined by the synergistic interaction of PNIPAM and water molecules, and that in the region of frequency higher than 30 THz mainly determined by water molecules beyond the solvation shell of the polymer. The calculation results suggest that the dielectric behaviour is concentration and temperature independent, similar to Debye behaviour of bulk water. This method of calculating dielectric properties using MD simulations can be used in detecting the dynamic processes of soft condensed matter and in aiding the design of materials with excellent dielectric properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of corporate debt default has broken out in recent years, which highlights the importance of the macro situation to the stability of business operations. In this paper, the debt default of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2008 to 2018 are used as a sample to conduct a research from the perspective of independent directors with macro vision. The empirical results show that the larger the number and the higher the proportion of macro-background independent directors in bond issuing companies, the less debt default will be found; moreover, the relationships are stronger when enterprises face more economic uncertainty and higher systemic risk. Meanwhile, independent director with macro vision mainly reduces the company's default risk. The above results not only provide new evidence for the advisory role of independent directors, but also supplement the influencing factors of debt default. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of associating pedestrian networks, i.e. the paths and roads used for non-vehicular travel, with information about semantic attribution is a major weakness for many applications, especially those supporting accurate pedestrian routing. Researchers have developed various algorithms to generate pedestrian walkways based on datasets, including high-resolution images, existing map databases, and GPS data; however, the semantic attribution of pedestrian walkways is often ignored. The objective of our study is to automatically extract semantic information including incline values and the different categories of pedestrian paths from multi-source spatial data, such as crowdsourced GPS tracking data, land use data, and motor vehicle road (MVR) networks. Incline values for each pedestrian path were derived from tracking data through elevation filtering using wavelet theory and a similarity-based map-matching method. To automatically categorize pedestrian paths into five classes including sidewalk, crosswalk, entrance walkway, indoor path, and greenway, we developed a hierarchical strategy of spatial analysis using land use data and MVR networks. The effectiveness of our proposed method is demonstrated using real datasets including GPS tracking data collected by volunteers, land use data acquired from OpenStreetMap, and MVR network data downloaded from Gaode Map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semantic segmentation for remote sensing images faces challenges of unbalanced category weight, rich context causing difficulties of recognition, blurred boundaries of multi-scale objects, and so on. To address these problems, we propose a new model by combining HRNet with attention mechanisms and dilated convolution, denoted as: AD-HRNet for the semantic segmentation of remote sensing images. In the framework of AD-HRNet, we obtained the weight value of each category based on an improved weighted cross-entropy function by introducing the median frequency balance method to solve the issue of class weight imbalance. The Shuffle-CBAM module with channel attention and spatial attention in AD-HRNet framework was applied to extract more global context information of images through slightly increasing the amount of computation. To address the problem of blurred boundaries caused by multi-scale object segmentation and edge segmentation, we developed an MDC-DUC module in AD-HRNet framework to capture the context information of multi-scale objects and the edge information of many irregular objects. Taking Postdam, Vaihingen, and SAMA-VTOL datasets as materials, we verified the performance of AD-HRNet by comparing with eight typical semantic segmentation models. Experimental results shown that AD-HRNet increases the mIoUs to 75.59% and 71.58% based on the Postdam and Vaihingen datasets, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-hospitalisation, hospitalisation and post-hospitalisation factors may significantly affect depression, anxiety and post-traumatic growth (PTG) among COVID-19 survivors. Our study investigated depression, anxiety and PTG and their correlates among COVID-19 survivors. A cross-sectional telephone survey recruited 199 COVID-19 patients (Mean age = 42.7; 53.3% females) at six-month follow-up after hospital discharge in five Chinese cities (i.e. Wuhan, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan and Nanning). Their demographic information, clinical records and experiences during (e.g. severity of covid-19 symptoms, treatment and exposure to other patients' suffering) and after hospitalisation (e.g. perceived impact of covid-19, somatic symptoms after hospitalisation), and psychosocial factors (e.g. perceived discrimination, self-stigma, affiliate stigma, resilience and social support) were investigated. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD-7) scale, respectively. PTG was examined by the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) instrument. The proportion of depressive symptoms <5, ≥5 and <10, ≥10 were 76.9%, 12.0% and 11.1%, respectively. The proportion of anxiety symptoms <5, ≥5 and <10, ≥10 were 77.4%, 15.1% and 7.5%, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression showed that receiving mental health care services during hospitalisation, somatic symptoms after discharge, perceived affiliate stigma and perceived impact of being infected with COVID-19 were significantly and positively associated with probable depression. Significant correlates of probable anxiety also included permanent residents of the city, somatic symptoms after discharge, perceived impact of being infected with COVID-19 and self-stigma. Social support, self-stigma and receiving mental health care services during hospitalisation were positively associated with PTG. Conclusions: The results suggest that post-hospitalisation and psychosocial factors had relatively stronger associations with depression, anxiety and PTG than pre-hospitalisation and hospitalisation factors. Promoting social support and social inclusion may be useful strategies to improve the mental health of COVID-19 survivors. • Post-hospitalisation and psychosocial factors had relatively stronger associations with depression, anxiety and PTG than pre-hospitalisation and hospitalisation factors, promoting social support and social inclusion may be useful strategies to improve mental health of COVID-19 survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a highly infectious disease with human-to-human transmission characteristics, COVID-19 has caused panic in the general public. Those who have recovered from COVID-19 may experience discrimination and internalized stigma. They may be more likely to worry about social interaction and develop social anxiety. This study investigated the associations among hospitalization factors, social/interpersonal factors, personal factors, and social anxiety to reveal the mechanism of social anxiety in COVID-19 survivors. A cross-sectional, multicenter telephone survey was conducted from July to September 2020 in five Chinese cities (i.e. Wuhan, Nanning, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Dongguan); adult COVID-19 survivors were recruited 6 months after they were discharged from the hospital. Linear regressions and path analysis based on the minority stress model were conducted to test the relationships among hospitalization, social/interpersonal factors, personal factors, and social anxiety. The response rate was 74.5% (N = 199, 55.3% females). Linear regression analyses showed that various hospitalization, social/interpersonal, and personal factors were statistically significantly associated with social anxiety. Path analysis showed that the proposed model fit the data well (χ2(df) = 3.196(3), p =.362, CFI =.999, NNFI =.996, RMSEA =.018). Internalized stigma fully mediated the association between perceived discrimination/social support and social anxiety, while it partially mediated the association between perceived affiliate stigma and social anxiety. The results suggest that social/interpersonal and personal factors have a stronger association with social anxiety than hospitalization factors and highlight the importance of internalized stigma in understanding the mechanisms of these relationships. Clinical psychologists can refer to these modifiable psychosocial factors to develop efficient interventions for mental health promotion. Internalized stigma fully mediated the effects of perceived discrimination and social support on social anxiety and partially mediated the effect of perceived affiliate stigma on social anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing more effective mitigation strategy to achieve the carbon reduction targets set by the Paris Climate Agreement requires to more comprehension of the driving factors of the decline in carbon emissions. Production-based and consumption-based carbon emission in Germany declined by 2.8% and 8.5% from 2000 to 2015, respectively. In this work, the key drivers behind decline in carbon emission in Germany is explored by combing the multi-regional input-output and structural decomposition analysis. The results show German carbon emissions has been undergoing structural changes. Although its production-based and consumption-based emission declined, German carbon footprint embodied in exports increased, and its share in the production-based carbon footprint also increased. Germany's embodied emission exports to emerging countries increased, although Germany's embodied carbon exports remained mainly concentrate in developed countries, especially in EU (over 40%) and USA (∼10%). The decomposition results revealed that economic scale effect was the leading contributor to increase in carbon footprint in Germany's trade, followed by the industrial structure effect of final demand. The effects of production structure on German's exports was less than its imports. The carbon intensity coefficient was the most significant factor of decreased carbon emission. Generally, the decreasing effect of carbon intensity coefficient exceeded the increasing effect of economic scale, which lead to carbon reduction. The example of Germany shows that improving carbon emission efficiency and optimizing production structure can reduce carbon emission without lowering economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermo-responsive polymers can experience the coil-to-globule transition with the temperature increases through the lower critical solution temperature (LCST). In this work, the coarse-grained molecular dynamics and Metadynamics (MetaD) are employed to investigate the dynamics and thermodynamics of structural change of a pair of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) chains in aqueous solution. The results reveal that the PNIPAM molecules can move freely in aqueous solution below LCST, resulting in many extended conformations moving among several free energy basins on the free energy surface (FES); and these structures are dominated by the interaction force between PNIPAM and the water molecules. However, the PNIPAM molecules aggregate above LCST with collapsed conformations, leading to a deep basin on the FES; and these structures are dominated by the force between neighbouring PNIPAM chains. Each of the dominant mechanisms, namely, PNIPAM–water interaction force and intermolecular interaction force between PNIPAM chains, has an extreme tendency and corresponds to the extended and collapsed structures, respectively. However, the compromise in competition between these two mechanisms inevitably results in different characteristic structures including the extended and collapsed ones. In addition, the evolution of the trajectories at different temperatures are also analysed to examine the pathway of structural change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Studies were conducted to develop and validate the Capacity for Psychotherapy Process Scale (CFPPS), a self-rating measure of capacity for the psychotherapy process from a trans-theoretical perspective. Method: In Study 1, a two-round Delphi methodology consulting 27 and 15 experts, respectively, was used to select items and identify content validity. In Study 2, 279 clients were recruited for exploratory factor analysis (EFA). In Study 3, confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency analysis were conducted among 390 outpatients; the discriminant validity and predictive validity were studied in 270 outpatients and 82 psychotherapy outpatients, respectively. Results: The Delphi method resulted in 52 items. Through EFA, the CFPPS was reduced to 20 items, focusing on five factors: motivation, belief, self-revelation, persistence, and insight; the internal consistencies were good (0.92 for total scale and 0.82–0.91 for the factors). The CFPPS was not or was only weakly associated with symptoms. The Bonferroni-corrected partial correlation analyses revealed that the CFPPS was positively related to working alliance and session impact. Conclusions: The CFPPS is a preliminary step toward the self-report assessment of the capacity for psychotherapy process from a trans-theoretical perspective and may potentially be used to predict the working alliance and session impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Red ginseng (RG) is one of the most popular herbal medicines and used as a dietary supplement in recent years. The bioactive ingredient in RG can induce the production of novel microbial metabolite from fermented RG. Using the one strain-many compounds strategy, the reinvestigation of the metabolites from Daldinia eschscholzii JC-15 cultured in red ginseng medium led to the isolation of an unprecedented benzopyran-naphthalene hybrid, daldinsin (1) and a new lactone (2). In this research, a new lactone, 8-hydroxylhelicascolide A (2) instead of helicascolide A was produced by the D. eschscholzii JC-15 induced by the red ginseng medium. Compound 1 showed anti-acetylcholinesterase activity with the inhibition ratio of 38.8% at 50 μM. Compound 2 indicated antimicrobial activities against Fusarium Solani, F. oxysporum, and Escherichia coli with MICs at 128 μg/mL. RG is therefore a promising activator in production of novel microbial metabolite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thalassemia is the most common monogenic disorder around the world. Based on the principle of genotype–phenotype correlation, identification of thalassemia mutations is the essential prerequisite for clinical diagnosis and management. Because only common mutations are routinely detected, the identification of rare or undetermined mutations is a challenge for clinical laboratories. Herein, a proband presenting with inconsistent phenotype–genotype correlation after routine molecular screening was investigated by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA), targeted-next generation sequencing (targeted-NGS), gap-polymerase chain reaction (gap-PCR) and Sanger sequencing. Eventually, a novel 71.8 kb deletion (– −71.8) was identified and characterized, which included HBZ (ζ), HBA2 (α2), and HBA1 (α1) genes and was causing α0-thalassemia (α0-thal). Furthermore, we summarized a practical procedure based on accumulated experience in studies and clinical practice, which can be a guide for molecular screening and clinical diagnosis of thalassemia, especially for identification of undetermined or novel mutations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of strategic patenting for legitimacy. Using the act of prior patent publication as the proxy variable, it empirically examines the antecedents and consequences of firms' choice of strategic patenting for legitimacy in an integrated framework. Based on Chinese industrial enterprises and a patent database, the results suggest that firms with liabilities of newness, smallness, or privateness are more likely to patent strategically for legitimacy. Meanwhile, the interactions of these characteristics positively impact the ratio of firm to patent strategically for legitimacy. Furthermore, the results also suggest that such strategic patents increase the probability of firms obtaining government sponsorships, high-tech certifications, and venture capital investments rather than enhancing their new product sales. The findings contribute to the literature on patent strategy and firm innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedestrian networks play an important role in various applications, such as pedestrian navigation services and mobility modeling. This paper presents a novel method to extract pedestrian networks from crowdsourced tracking data based on a two-layer framework. This framework includes a walking pattern classification layer and a pedestrian network generation layer. In the first layer, we propose a multi-scale fractal dimension (MFD) algorithm in order to recognize the two different types of walking patterns: walking with a clear destination (WCD) or walking without a clear destination (WOCD). In the second layer, we generate the pedestrian network by combining the pedestrian regions and pedestrian paths. The pedestrian regions are extracted based on a modified connected component analysis (CCA) algorithm from the WOCD traces. We generate the pedestrian paths using a kernel density estimation (KDE)-based point clustering algorithm from the WCD traces. The pedestrian network generation results using two actual crowdsourced datasets show that the proposed method has good performance in both geometrical correctness and topological correctness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early development stages of fish are a highly ordered and tightly regulated, involving many circadian rhythm-related gene and protein processes. Nonetheless, there are few reports on the effects of circadian clock genes on the early development stages of fish. We studied Pelteobagrus fulvidraco Period 2 (Pf-Per 2) gene structures and expression patterns during the early life stages of development, including the fertilized embryo, yolk absorption, preliminary food, rotifer breeding, and mixed food stages. cDNA of Pf-Per 2 is 4593 bp in length, with 357 bp 5ʹ-untranslated region (5ʹUTR), 216 bp 3ʹUTR. The 4020 bp open reading frame consists of 1339 encoded amino acids. By multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis, the sequence was found to demonstrate high similarity to humans, rodents, microorganisms, and other fish species. Expression patterns of mRNA transcripts showed existence of rhythmic oscillations in the yellow catfish during the early development phase. The higher expression level of Per 2 is obviously present in the early embryonic development stage; the continuous downward trend of Per 2 was observed in the embryonic development and yolk nutrition absorption stages; additionally, the expression of Per 2 mRNA was significantly increased during individual development, rotifer breeding, and mixed food stages. Moreover, immunohistochemistry studies revealed strongest immune-labeled positive signals of Per 2 proteins mainly located in the cytoplasm of the olfactory bulb cell. Our findings reveal Pf-Per 2 serves important functions and may be useful as an indicator of P. fulvidraco early life development and initial food intake process stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]