Search

As there are many studies on the predictors of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, the influences of foreign direct investments (FDIs) knowledge spillovers (KSs) on CSR reporting in developing countries remain unclear. This paper introduces the passive‐learning KSs concept to explain whether, why, and how domestic firms learn CSR knowledge from their foreign counterparts. First, we investigate the relationship between foreign ownership and the quality of CSR reporting (CSRQ). Second, we test the moderating effect of three types of direct institutional pressures: the green development policy, the mandatory CSR reporting requirement, and CSR regulations issued by the State‐owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. Third, we examine the moderating effect of board interlocks to explore the indirect impacts of institutional pressures. We run regressions on a sample of Chinese A‐share listed companies and the hypotheses are generally supported. This paper contributes to the literature on CSR reporting and FDIs KSs by adopting the passive‐learning KSs theory to explain CSR KSs in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst metal borates are well known as optical materials, their potential in solid catalysis has been less investigated. The calcite structured InBO3 was selected as the target borate and was prepared using a solvothermal method. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and powder X-ray diffraction prove that the material has a nanoparticle morphology with an average size ∼50 nm and high crystallinity. Intrinsic surface oxygen vacancies, which are beneficial to catalysis, were detected using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Lewis acidity and basicity were both observed using NH3-/CO2-temperature-programmed desorption experiments, and the total acid and base amounts were found to be 46.6 and 123.8 μmol g−1, respectively. Catalytic dehydration and dehydrogenation reactions for isopropanol at elevated temperatures were conducted in a fixed bed reactor to evaluate the catalytic performance of InBO3. InBO3 exhibits a high conversion rate (>90.5%) and, most importantly, a high dehydrogenation selectivity (acetone selectivity >92.5%), whilst the optimal acetone yield achieved was 121.3 mmol h−1 g−1cat at 350 °C. This study on InBO3 strongly suggests that metal borates have promising applications in heterogeneous catalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semantic segmentation is a critical task in computer vision that aims to assign each pixel in an image a corresponding label on the basis of its semantic content. This task is commonly referred to as dense labeling because it requires pixel-level classification of the image. The research area of semantic segmentation is vast and has achieved critical advances in recent years. Deep learning architectures in particular have shown remarkable performance in generating high-level, hierarchical, and semantic features from images. Among these architectures, convolutional neural networks have been widely used to address semantic segmentation problems. This work aims to review and analyze recent technological developments in image semantic segmentation. It provides an overview of traditional and deep-learning-based approaches and analyzes their structural characteristics, strengths, and limitations. Specifically, it focuses on technical developments in deep-learning-based 2D semantic segmentation methods proposed over the past decade and discusses current challenges in semantic segmentation. The future development direction of semantic segmentation and the potential research areas that need further exploration are also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dual‐site synergistic effect in heterogeneous catalysis is quite interesting, and also complex because at least two substrate molecules are adsorbed or activated on the catalyst surface, which apparently needs two spatially separated and functionally independent active sites. It would become more difficult when the substrate molecules are large ones. The replacement of Al3+ in Al4B6O15 lattice with Co2+ leads to the formation of unsaturated Co2+ (4‐fold coordination) along with oxygen vacancies (Ov). The former one behaves as a medium‐strength Lewis acid site, and can adsorb and activate molecules with a nitro group (e. g., β‐nitrostyrene). The latter one can adsorb and activate oxygen species, which further activates the indole derivatives. Next, the spatially separated dual sites on the catalyst surface can synergistically and efficiently catalyze their Friedel‐Crafts alkylation reactions under mild conditions. The high durability can be proved by the as‐maintained high yields, that is, 98, 93, 96, 92 and 90 % for 5 runs, respectively. The reaction kinetics obey the second‐order characteristic. Annealing under hydrogen condition can further generate more surficial Ov, leading to an improvement to the catalytic activity. A simple and probably routine aliovalent doping endows such a complex synergistic catalysis involving two large substrate molecules, providing an inspired perspective of developing dual‐site catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant oxide-ionic conductivity has been recently reported for a family of cation-deficient hexagonal perovskite derivatives Ba3M2O8.5 (M = Mo/W6+ and Nb5+/V5+). Herein, strong 4-fold coordination geometry preferring Ge4+ ions are doped into Ba3Mo1+xNb1−2xGexO8.5 to manipulate the oxygen distribution within palmierite-like layers for the enhancement of oxide-ionic conductivity. Rietveld refinement of the neutron diffraction data of Ba3Mo1.2Nb0.6Ge0.2O8.5 reveals that Ge4+-ions are selectively incorporated into the palmierite-like layers, owing to their strong 4-fold coordination environment preference. Such a site-selective doping behavior leads to an increase in the occupation proportion of the O3 site and a concomitant decrease in the occupancy factor for O2. Ionic conduction measurements show that the bulk conductivity of Ba3Mo1.2Nb0.6Ge0.2O8.5 is about twice higher than that of the parent compound at intermediate temperatures (300–500 °C). Furthermore, bond-valence site energy (BVSE) landscape analysis reveals that the oxygen ionic conduction of Ba3Mo1+xNb1−2xGexO8.5 is dominated by the two-dimensional pathways along the palmierite-like layers, despite the three-dimensional (3D) oxygen diffusion pathways being present in the hybrid structure, which strongly confirms that the enhancement in ionic conductivity at intermediate temperatures is attributed to the site-selective Ge4+-substitution-induced redistribution of oxygen ions within the palmierite-like layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clustering analysis is one of the most important technologies for single-cell data mining. It is widely used in the division of different gene sequences, the identification of functional genes, and the detection of new cell types. Although the traditional unsupervised clustering method does not require label data, the distribution of the original data, the setting of hyperparameters, and other factors all affect the effectiveness of the clustering algorithm. While in some cases the type of some cells is known, it is hoped to achieve high accuracy if the prior information about those cells is utilized sufficiently. In this study, we propose SCMAG (a semisupervised single-cell clustering method based on a matrix aggregation graph convolutional neural network) that takes into full consideration the prior information for single-cell data. To evaluate the performance of the proposed semisupervised clustering method, we test on different single-cell datasets and compare with the current semisupervised clustering algorithm in recognizing cell types on various real scRNA-seq data; the results show that it is a more accurate and significant model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is a hematologic malignancy caused by the clonal proliferation of immature lymphocytes. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported as critical regulators in several cancers, including ALL. LncRNA SLCO4A1 antisense RNA 1 (SLCO4A1‐AS1) has been revealed to be implicated in tumorigenesis of several cancers. Our study focused on the role of SLCO4A1‐AS1 in ALL. Methods: RT‐qPCR, Western blot analysis, CCK‐8, EdU, and Flow cytometry analysis were used to explore the biological function of SLCO4A1‐AS1 in ALL cellular processes. Luciferase reporter and RNA pull‐down assays were applied to explore the mechanism of SLCO4A1‐AS1 in ALL cells. Results: SLCO4A1‐AS1 was upregulated in ALL tissues and cell lines. We found that suppression of SLCO4A1‐AS1 suppressed ALL cell proliferation and facilitated cell apoptosis. Our result confirmed that SLCO4A1‐AS1 acted as a ceRNA by sponging microRNA 876‐3p (miR‐876‐3p) to upregulate retinoblastoma binding protein 6 (RBBP6) expression in ALL cells. Moreover, SLCO4A1‐AS1 activated the JNK signaling pathway by upregulating RBBP6. Rescue assays revealed that the activation of the JNK signaling or overexpression of RBBP6 revered the suppressive effect of SLCO4A1‐AS1 knockdown on growth of ALL cells. Conclusion: SLCO4A1‐AS1 promoted cell growth of ALL by the miR‐876‐3p/RBBP6 axis to activate the JNK signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different from the common perspective of average structure, we propose that the locally elongated metal-oxygen bonds induced by La 3+ -to-Y 3+ substitution to a Lewis acid α-YB 5 O 9 generate medium-strength basic sites. Experimentally, NH 3 - and CO 2 -TPD experiments prove that the La 3+ doping of α-Y 1- x La x B 5 O 9 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.24) results in the emergence of new medium-strength basic sites and the increasing La 3+ concentration modifies the number, not the strength, of the acidic and basic sites. The catalytic IPA conversion exhibits a reversal of the product selectivity, i.e., from 93% of propylene for α-YB 5 O 9 to ∼90% of acetone for α-Y 0.76 La 0.24 B 5 O 9 , which means the La 3+ doping gradually turns the solid from a Lewis acid to a Lewis base. Besides, α-Y 0.76 RE 0.24 B 5 O 9 ( RE = Ce, Eu, Gd, Tm) compounds were prepared to consolidate the above conjecture, where the acetone selectivity exhibits a linear dependence on the ionic radius (or electronegativity). This work suggests that the substitution-induced local structure change deserves more attention.

Whilst metal borates are well known as optical materials, their potential in solid catalysis has been less investigated. The calcite structured InBO 3 was selected as the target borate and was prepared using a solvothermal method. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and powder X-ray diffraction prove that the material has a nanoparticle morphology with an average size ∼50 nm and high crystallinity. Intrinsic surface oxygen vacancies, which are beneficial to catalysis, were detected using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Lewis acidity and basicity were both observed using NH 3 -/CO 2 -temperature-programmed desorption experiments, and the total acid and base amounts were found to be 46.6 and 123.8 μmol g -1 , respectively. Catalytic dehydration and dehydrogenation reactions for isopropanol at elevated temperatures were conducted in a fixed bed reactor to evaluate the catalytic performance of InBO 3 . InBO 3 exhibits a high conversion rate (>90.5%) and, most importantly, a high dehydrogenation selectivity (acetone selectivity >92.5%), whilst the optimal acetone yield achieved was 121.3 mmol h -1 g -1 cat at 350 °C. This study on InBO 3 strongly suggests that metal borates have promising applications in heterogeneous catalysis.

The dual-site synergistic effect in heterogeneous catalysis is quite interesting, and also complex because at least two substrate molecules are adsorbed or activated on the catalyst surface, which apparently needs two spatially separated and functionally independent active sites. It would become more difficult when the substrate molecules are large ones. The replacement of Al 3+ in Al 4 B 6 O 15 lattice with Co 2+ leads to the formation of unsaturated Co 2+ (4-fold coordination) along with oxygen vacancies (O v ). The former one behaves as a medium-strength Lewis acid site, and can adsorb and activate molecules with a nitro group (e. g., β-nitrostyrene). The latter one can adsorb and activate oxygen species, which further activates the indole derivatives. Next, the spatially separated dual sites on the catalyst surface can synergistically and efficiently catalyze their Friedel-Crafts alkylation reactions under mild conditions. The high durability can be proved by the as-maintained high yields, that is, 98, 93, 96, 92 and 90 % for 5 runs, respectively. The reaction kinetics obey the second-order characteristic. Annealing under hydrogen condition can further generate more surficial O v , leading to an improvement to the catalytic activity. A simple and probably routine aliovalent doping endows such a complex synergistic catalysis involving two large substrate molecules, providing an inspired perspective of developing dual-site catalysts., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Significant oxide-ionic conductivity has been recently reported for a family of cation-deficient hexagonal perovskite derivatives Ba 3 M 2 O 8.5 (M = Mo/W 6+ and Nb 5+ /V 5+ ). Herein, strong 4-fold coordination geometry preferring Ge 4+ ions are doped into Ba 3 Mo 1+ x Nb 1-2 x Ge x O 8.5 to manipulate the oxygen distribution within palmierite-like layers for the enhancement of oxide-ionic conductivity. Rietveld refinement of the neutron diffraction data of Ba 3 Mo 1.2 Nb 0.6 Ge 0.2 O 8.5 reveals that Ge 4+ -ions are selectively incorporated into the palmierite-like layers, owing to their strong 4-fold coordination environment preference. Such a site-selective doping behavior leads to an increase in the occupation proportion of the O3 site and a concomitant decrease in the occupancy factor for O2. Ionic conduction measurements show that the bulk conductivity of Ba 3 Mo 1.2 Nb 0.6 Ge 0.2 O 8.5 is about twice higher than that of the parent compound at intermediate temperatures (300-500 °C). Furthermore, bond-valence site energy (BVSE) landscape analysis reveals that the oxygen ionic conduction of Ba 3 Mo 1+ x Nb 1-2 x Ge x O 8.5 is dominated by the two-dimensional pathways along the palmierite-like layers, despite the three-dimensional (3D) oxygen diffusion pathways being present in the hybrid structure, which strongly confirms that the enhancement in ionic conductivity at intermediate temperatures is attributed to the site-selective Ge 4+ -substitution-induced redistribution of oxygen ions within the palmierite-like layers.

Stuffed tridymites AM 2 O 4 composed of a condensed MO 4 -tetrahedra-based framework have been widely investigated due to their structural diversity and rich physical properties. Herein, the strategy of stuffing mixed Ca 2+ and Sr 2+ cations into the [Ga 2 O 4 ] 2- framework in (Ca 1- x Sr x )Ga 2 O 4 (CSGO, 0 ≤ x ≤ 1) is utilized to manipulate the phase formation behavior with different structure types at particular annealing temperatures. Five derivatives, including α- and β-CaGa 2 O 4 , β- and γ-SrGa 2 O 4 , and new CSGO-type structures, were observed. The distinctive feature of the CSGO-structure is the coexistence of UUDDUD- and UDUDUD-type six-membered rings, where U (up) and D (down) denote the orientations of GaO 4 -tetrahedra with respect to the plane grids, in a ratio of 2:1. Single-phase α-Ca 1- x Sr x Ga 2 O 4 ( x < 0.2) and γ-Ca 1- x Sr x Ga 2 O 4 ( x > 0.67) could be obtained at low temperatures. Biphasic regions, including α-Ca 1- x Sr x Ga 2 O 4 /CSGO (0.2 ≤ x ≤ 0.67), γ-Ca 1- x Sr x Ga 2 O 4 /CSGO (0.67 < x ≤ 0.8), and β-Ca 1- x Sr x Ga 2 O 4 /CSGO (0.8 < x < 1), were observed at the intermediate temperature region and evolve irreversibly into the CSGO single-phase region upon elevating the temperature. Moreover, the structure-property relationship of the new CSGO-phase was further studied by doping coordination-sensitive Bi 3+ activators to advance the development and applications of stuffed tridymites.