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Background: To explore the effect of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) in patients with sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (SA-AKI) with the Acute Kidney Injury Network Classification III and its effect on inflammatory mediators and coagulation function. Methods: We evaluated 90 patients who were diagnosed with sepsis and treated at our hospital. Forty patients received CRRT (group A) and the remainder received routine therapy (group B). We compared the renal function indices, represented by blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (Scr), the urinary levels of kidney injury molecule 1, and the curative effect indices between the two groups. The incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events was compared between both groups. Further, the therapeutic effect (total effective rate) was evaluated and compared. Results: After treatment, the levels of BUN and Scr in group A were significantly lower than those in group B (p

Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy is a new pillar in cancer therapeutics, and has been successfully used for the treatment of cancers, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia and solid cancers. Following immune attack, many tumors upregulate inhibitory ligands which bind to inhibitory receptors on T cells. For example, the interaction between programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) on activated T cells and its ligands (widely known as PD-L1) on a target tumor limits the efficacy of CAR T cells therapy against poorly responding tumors. Here, we use mesothelin (MSLN)-expressing human ovarian cancer cells (SKOV3) and human colon cancer cells (HCT116) to investigate whether PD-1-mediated T cell exhaustion affects the anti-tumor activity of MSLN-targeted CAR T cells. We utilized cell-intrinsic PD-1-targeting shRNA overexpression strategy, resulting in a significant PD-1 silencing in CAR T cells. The reduction of PD-1 expression on T cell surface strongly augmented CAR T cell cytokine production and cytotoxicity towards PD-L1-expressing cancer cells in vitro. This study indicates the enhanced anti-tumor efficacy of PD-1-silencing MSLN-targeted CAR T cells against several cancers and suggests the potential of other specific gene silencing on the immune checkpoints to enhance the CAR T cell therapies against human tumors.

Government research and development (R&D) subsidy is one of the main policy instruments to deal with market failure, and its effectiveness has attracted attention increasingly. This study investigates the impact of two types of government R&D subsidies on innovation using the data of Chinese listed enterprises from 2010 to 2016. We find that compared with ex-post rewards, ex-ante grants have a better effect on innovation performance by stimulating private R&D investment. Additionally, the effectiveness of government R&D subsidies is weakened in enterprises engaging in rent-seeking and political connections. This study provides a new perspective for understanding the effect of government R&D subsidies, and the research conclusions are the relevant reference for the government to improve the efficiency of allocating public funds.

Citrus (Citrus spp.) species produce a variety of fruits that are popular worldwide. Citrus fruits, however, are susceptible to postharvest decays caused by various pathogenic fungi, including Penicillium digitatum, Penicillium italicum, Geotrichum citri-aurantii, Aspergillus niger, and Aspergillus flavus. Decays resulting from infections by these pathogens cause a significant reduction in citrus quality and marketable yield. Biological control of postharvest decay utilizing antagonistic bacteria and fungi has been explored as a promising alternative to synthetic fungicides. In the present article, the isolation of antagonists utilized to manage postharvest decays in citrus is reviewed, and the mechanism of action including recent molecular and genomic studies is discussed as well. Several recently-postulated mechanisms of action, such as biofilm formation and an oxidative burst of reactive oxygen species have been highlighted. Improvements in biocontrol efficacy of antagonists through the use of a combination of microbial antagonists and additives are also reviewed. Biological control utilizing bacterial and yeast antagonists is a critical component of an integrated management approach for the sustainable development of the citrus industry. Further research will be needed, however, to explore and utilize beneficial microbial consortia and novel approaches like CRISPR/Cas technology for management of postharvest decays.

Use of growth retardants enables post-planting optimization of vegetative growth, which is particularly important given ongoing climate change. Mepiquat chloride is an economical and safe retardant widely applied in cotton farming, but it is not uniformly effective. Here, identification of its molecular target as the ent-copalyl diphosphate synthase that initiates gibberellin biosynthesis enabled the introduction of selective agrochemical inhibition, leaving intact more specialized metabolism important for resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Mepiquat chloride is a growth retardant used in cotton farming to optimize growth by inhibiting gibberellin metabolism, but it is not effective in other crops. Now, its molecular target is found, enabling selective agrochemical inhibition of growth in cereals.

In real decision-making problems, decision makers (DMs) usually select the most potential project from several ones. However, they unconsciously show different confidence levels in decision-making process because they come from various backgrounds and have different experiences, etc., which affects the decision results. Moreover, the probabilistic linguistic term set, which not only includes the linguistic expressions used by DMs in their daily life but also contains the probability for each linguistic term, can well portray the real perceptions of DMs for the projects. Furthermore, large-scale consensus has gradually been a popular way to effectively solve complex decision-making problems. To sum up, in this paper, we are dedicated to constructing a large-scale consensus model considering the confidence levels of DMs under probabilistic linguistic circumstance. Firstly, the endo-confidence is defined and measured by DM’s probabilistic linguistic information. Then, the DMs are clustered according to the similarities of both evaluation information and the endo-confidence levels. Both evaluation of the non-consensus cluster and evaluation integrated by the clusters with higher endo-confidence level than this non-consensus cluster are used as the reference to adjust its evaluation information. Then, a case study and the comparative analysis are carried out. Finally, some conclusions and future work are given.

To analyze the complex nonlinear phenomenon of PiN diode under short-pulse and short-time dynamic process, this paper proposes a circuit-semiconductor dynamic coupling analysis for PiN diode reverse recovery process. The key parameters in each stage of reverse recovery process are theoretically explained, including duration, turn-off loss, and voltage overshoot. Firstly, the dynamic coupling principle between semiconductor chip and commutation loop is clarified via reverse bias voltage and forward current. Key parameters in reverse recovery process are quantitatively calculated as well. Secondly, an interaction simulation coupled with circuit and semiconductor was established. Finally, the dynamic coupling analysis and key parameter calculation are verified through simulation and experimental results of Infineon 1200V/40A anti-parallel diode of IGBT. This study can be used as an effective technical means to guide the selection of PiN diode type and the optimization of commutation circuit design.

Obesity, obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and hypertension are common clinical risk factors. Their coexistence is termed Obesity and Non-Obesity OSA Hypertension Syndromes (OOHS & NOOHS) due to high linkage. This study reported the clinical characteristics of OOHS and NOOHS. A total of 163 patients, aged 23–74 years, were randomly enrolled at the outpatients department who were either obese or non-obese, suffered OSA and hypertension. Subjects with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of ≥25 (Chinese criteria), of ≥27 (criteria of this study), and of ≥30 (WHO criteria) were defined as obese or non-obese, respectively. Cases with snoring were classified as mild, moderate and severe OSA by using the Apnoea-Hypopnoea Index where mild is 5–15, moderate is 15–30, and severe is > 30. Daytime blood pressure (BP) was measured to assess any correlation. Data from those with isolated obesity, OSA, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome were compared. Long-term follow-up was carried out. 7 typical cases with OOHS and NOOHS were assessed and included general patient information, initial diagnosis, medical history, related risk factors, BMI, and BP. 163 cases with OOHS and NOOHS often have similar or different clinical characteristics. Both potentially suffer from major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) which are associated with increased BMI, OSA, and increased BP. Long-term follow-up showed the outcomes consistently linked to their lifestyle and adherence to treatment. Our new clinical discoveries suggest that both OOHS and NOOHS are high risk conditions in MACEs. There is an urgent need for early lifestyle interventions and related treatments.

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been preoccupied by the issue of selecting a promising start-up firm, whereas, ranking the available start-up firms is an effective way to solve this issue. In this paper, the PROMETHEE is chosen to be the fundamental ranking method. Also, the hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set is a suitable tool to simulate VCs’ evaluation information. Additionally, as the deepening of social division of labor and specialization of individuals, group decision making is famous for improving decision-making quality. Moreover, in the decision-making process, VCs exhibit behavioral characteristics which is depicted well by prospect theory that VCs are risk averse for gains and risk seeking for losses and rely on the transformed probability to make their decisions rather than unidimensional probability. Thus, a group prospect PROMETHEE with hesitant fuzzy linguistic information is constructed for VCs to make a better decision. Then, the proposed method is applied to rank start-up firms and the comparative analyses are made as well. It confirms that the group prospect PROMETHEE is better in describing the common behavioral characteristics of VCs and in enhancing the quality of evaluation. First published online 12 July 2019

Purpose This study aimed to characterize dietary patterns in the Uyghur population and examined the relationship between dietary pattern, TCF7L2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Patients and methods Dietary patterns were defined using factor analysis, and associations between dietary patterns were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression analyses. Genotyping of seven SNPs of TCF7L2 (rs11196205, rs12255372, rs12573128, rs4506565, rs7895340, rs7901695, and rs7903146) was conducted, and the association between these seven SNPs and the risk of T2DM was evaluated. Interactions between SNPs, homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance, and dietary patterns were also analyzed. Results A total of 828 participants were enrolled in this study, including 491 people with T2DM and 337 healthy controls. Five dietary patterns were defined, and the results indicated that the "fruit" and "vegetables" dietary patterns were associated with a significant decrease in the risk of T2DM, whereas the "meats" and "grains" dietary patterns were associated with an increased risk of T2DM. Moreover, the "dairy product" dietary pattern showed no association with the risk of T2DM. Furthermore, our results revealed that the TCF7L2 SNP, rs12573128, is associated with an increased risk of T2DM. SNPs rs4506565 and rs7903146 significantly interacted with dietary pattern. Conclusion Our studies suggest that dietary pattern and genetic polymorphisms of TCF7L2 are associated with the development of T2DM in the Uyghur population of China.

Background Epidemiological and clinical features of patients with corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were well delineated. However, no researches described the patients complicated with pleural effusion (PE). In the present study, we aimed to clinically characterize the COVID-19 patients complicated with PE and to create a predictive model on the basis of PE and other clinical features to identify COVID-19 patients who may progress to critical condition. Methods This retrospective study examined 476 COVID-19 inpatients, involving 153 patients with PE and 323 without PE. The data on patients’ past history, clinical features, physical checkup findings, laboratory results and chest computed tomography (CT) findings were collected and analyzed. LASSO regression analysis was employed to identify risk factors associated with the severity of COVID-19. Results Laboratory findings showed that patients with PE had higher levels of white blood cells, neutrophils, lactic dehydrogenase, C-reactive protein and D-dimer, and lower levels of lymphocytes, platelets, hemoglobin, partial pressure of oxygen and oxygen saturation. Meanwhile, patients with PE had higher incidence of severe or critical illness and mortality rate, and longer hospital stay time compared to their counterparts without pleural effusion. Moreover, LASSO regression analysis exhibited that pleural effusion, lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), D-dimer and total bilirubin (TBIL) might be risk factors for critical COVID-19. Conclusions Pleural effusion could serve as an indicator for severe inflammation and poor clinical outcomes, and might be a complementary risk factor for critical type of COVID-19.

Background In December 2019, an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) began in Wuhan, China, and led to a global epidemic. We aimed to compare the clinical and serological features of COVID-19 patients with positive and negative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study conducted from 9 February to 4 April 2020. COVID-19 patients at Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China (125 total cases; 87 RT-PCR positive and 38 RT-PCR negative) were included. COVID-19 serology was assessed by colloidal gold assay. All cases were analyzed for demographic, clinical, and serological features. Results There were no significant differences in most demographic features, clinical symptoms, complications or treatments of RT-PCR positive and negative COVID-19 patients. Serum IgM/IgG was positive in 82 (94%) and 33 (87%) RT-PCR positive and negative cases, respectively. IgM was detectable as early as 3 days after symptom onset and was undetectable 60 days after symptom onset. By contrast, IgG could be detected only 10 days after symptom onset and reached its peak 60 days after symptom onset. Conclusions Serological tests performed during the appropriate time window of disease progression could be valuable auxiliary methods to RT-PCR in COVID-19 patients.

Aims To explore the clinical characteristics and placental pathological changes of pregnant women with 2019 novel coronavirus (CoV) disease (COVID-19) in the third trimester, and to assess the possibility of vertical transmission. Methods and results The placenta tissues were evaluated by using immunohistochemistry for inflammatory cells and Hofbauer cells, and using severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) CoV-2 RNA Fluorescence In-Situ Hybridization (FISH) and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein immunofluorescence (IF) double staining. All eight placentas from the third trimester pregnancy women were studied. All patients were cured, no clinical or serological evidence pointed to vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Features of maternal vascular malperfusion (MVM) such as increased syncytial knots were present in all 8 cases (8/8), and increased focal perivillous fibrin depositions were presented in 7 cases (7/8). No significate chronic histiocytic intervillositis was noted in the placenta. The number of macrophages and inflammatory cells such as T cells, B cells and plasma cells in the placental villous was not significantly increased in all cases. Moreover, all of eight cases demonstrated negative results by FISH using a SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA probe and by IF using a monoclonal antibody against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Conclusions We found no evidence of vertical transmission and adverse maternal-fetal outcomes in the placentas of third trimester COVID-19 pregnancy women, which provided further information for the clinical management of those women in the third trimester. However, further studies are still needed for patients with infections in different stage of gestation, especially in first and second trimester.

The increasing popularity of online shopping is now a global phenomenon, and China has become the largest internet market in the world. The reasons behind this preference for online shopping are examined in this study through 63 in-depth interviews and five years of virtual ethnography of a major online shopping website— Taobao.com —in China. Chinese customers prefer Taobao not only because of price and convenience, but also because they enjoy the interactional process, during which they obtain more information, feel less pressured to put on a status performance in comparison to physical stores, and pay less affective labor. Chinese customers tend to believe that interaction with sales clerks in physical shops is a burden, and try to avoid this form of contact. This is related to the fact that consensus on status hierarchy is still yet to be established in a society that is undergoing rapid transition. Consequently, online shopping entails social interaction that attributes more power, autonomy and freedom to customers than otherwise possible in brick-and-mortar shopping. This study shows how both the online interactional environments afforded by technology and the broader social contexts (the service quality and related aspects of status competition among different social groups in contemporary China) affect interpersonal interaction.

However, the fuzzy information of the DMs could not be well expressed by the method in Sect. 6.1. Hence, Tian et al. [1] proposed the improved TODIM with the probabilistic hesitant fuzzy information and it is introduced in this chapter.

The fundamental principle of QUALIFLEX is to treat the cardinal and ordinal information in a correct way and to take all the possible rankings of alternatives into account. The focus of QUALIFLEX is the pairwise comparison of alternatives with respect to each attribute under all possible permutations. The optimal permutation is recognized through the comprehensive concordance/discordance index, and the best alternative will be identified according to it.

The PROMETHEE is an outranking method based on the relative preferences. It is a family of methods developed to solve different kinds of ranking problems. For example, the PROMETHEEs I (Bransin L'ingenierie de la decision; Elaboration d'instruments d'aide a la decision. La methode PROMETHEE. In: L’aide a la decision: Nature, Instruments et Perspectives d’Avenir [1]) and II (Brans and Vincke in Manage Sci 31:647–656, 1985 (Brans and Vincke in Manage Sci 31:647–656, 1985 [2])) were introduced for partial and complete rankings of alternatives correspondingly.

Does digital media empower or disempower workers? In existing studies on how information and communication technologies influence work, researchers investigate work-life boundaries and how workers use digital media to obtain more control. This article focuses on how digital media influences daily interpersonal interactions in the workplace: how does social media use influence workplace hierarchies and power dynamics? Based on 56 in-depth interviews with WeChat users in Chinese workplaces, I find that lower-ranked individuals were compelled to constantly express loyalty and appreciation, and publicly submit to their superordinates by clicking “like” or commenting on their WeChat posts. They also had to provide immediate and polite responses to their superordinates in WeChat group chats after work hours or to non-work-related issues. The distinctive features of online interaction—lack of physical interaction spaces, recordability of past conversations, and n-adic nature of online disclosures—created an environment where past encounters were omnipresent and accessible, and placed workers under permanent observability. This social interaction environment leaves little room for forms of resistance and, in response, employees retreat into cynical performances of submission. This study finds that, under certain circumstances, WeChat use actually intensifies workplace hierarchies and power dynamics, thereby sharpening social inequality, rather than eliminating it.

Patient-derived tumor xenograft (PDX)/organoid (PDO), driven by cancer stem cells (CSC), are considered the most predictive models for translational oncology. Large PDX collections reflective of patient populations have been created and used extensively to test various investigational therapies, including in population-trials as surrogate subjects in vivo. PDOs are recognized as in vitro surrogates for patients amenable for high-throughput screening (HTS). We have built a biobank of carcinoma PDX-derived organoids (PDXOs) by converting an existing PDX library and confirmed high degree of similarities between PDXOs and parental PDXs in genomics, histopathology and pharmacology, suggesting “biological equivalence or interchangeability” between the two. Here we demonstrate the applications of PDXO biobank for HTS “matrix” screening for both lead compounds and indications, immune cell co-cultures for immune-therapies and engineering enables in vitro/in vivo imaging. This large biobank of matched pairs of PDXs/PDXOs across different cancers could become powerful tools for the future cancer drug discovery.

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (#JBK2001043, and #JBK190969), the FEDER funds provided in the National Spanish project PID2019-103880RB-I00 and also it has been partially supported by grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (#71910107002)., Green supply chain has developed rapidly due to the advocacy of ecological civilization, and choosing a proper green supplier is a crucial issue. Considering the fuzziness of evaluation information and the psychological states of decision makers (DMs) in selecting process, a novel TODIM based on prospect theory with q-rung orthopair fuzzy set (q-ROFS) is proposed. The novel TODIM concerns both the perceived transformed probability weighting function and the differences in risk attitudes. A new distance, which concerns the herd mentality, is carried out to measure the perceived difference of the q-ROFS. Besides, a new systematic evaluation index system, named as PCEM (Product, Cooperation ability, Environment, Market), has been established. A case related to pork supplier companies is presented and fully demonstrates the effectiveness of the novel TODIM when compared with the extended one, the intuitionistic fuzzy TODIM, the Pythagorean fuzzy TODIM as well as the TOPSIS with q-ROFS. Finally, a series of comparative analyses illustrate the advantages of the proposed TODIM., Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities JBK2001043 JBK190969, FEDER funds provided in the National Spanish project PID2019-103880RB-I00, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 71910107002

This study addresses whether firms provide more voluntary disclosures when they redact otherwise mandatorily disclosed contract information and have higher information uncertainty when they redact, and whether the disclosures mitigate this higher uncertainty. Redactions are significantly positively associated with more total, earnings, and non-earnings voluntary disclosures made within 90 days after redaction, and are significantly positively associated with information uncertainty up to 180 days. The disclosures mitigate the higher uncertainty, but do not offset it fully. Regarding contract types, firms provide significantly more disclosures primarily when redactions relate to R&D and license, manufacturing and purchase and sales, and investment contracts, and provide disclosures in anticipation of redactions in R&D and license contracts. We find that the disclosures relating to contract types mitigate the higher information uncertainty associated with redaction. This evidence can inform the SEC in its consideration of the effects on information available to investors of reducing mandatory disclosure.

Hexagonal Ag nanoplates with long and ultranarrow gaps (about 90 nm in length, 2 nm in width) are synthesized via seed-mediated growth method. By growing around the polymer shell on the seed, the Ag domain cannot merge at the meet-up point, leaving a long narrow gap in the resulting plate. These gapped nanoplates exhibit high sensitivity in SERS detection, with limitation of 10–9 M for 2-naphthalenethiol.

Based on the heterogeneity of innovation quantity and quality, this study investigates the impact of political connections on enterprises' innovation. Using the data of Chinese listed enterprises from 2003 to 2015, we find that political connections have a positive impact on enterprises' innovation quantity, but they are detrimental to innovation quality. We further find that political connections weaken the promotion of government subsidies on innovation quality and even reduce the R&D intensity of enterprises, which serves as an essential determinant of innovation quality. The government can stimulate enterprises' innovation quality by improving marketization, intellectual property protection, and anti-corruption.

Pneumonitis is a common adverse effect found in non-small cell lung cancer patients after radiotherapy or immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment. We investigated the effects of these two therapies, combined, in the lung tissue of an orthotopic tumor-bearing mouse model. The mice received an 8 Gy dose three times with or without 200 µg anti-programmed death-1 (anti-PD-1) antibody intraperitoneal injection every three days. Lung tissues were H&E stained to determine histological changes. The serum levels of cytokines, such as interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-5, were detected by cytometric bead array. The neutrophil infiltration was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining for myeloperoxidase. The lung injury score was higher in the treated groups than the control group, especially in the combined treatment group, in which the proportion of neutrophils in lung tissues was significantly higher compared to any other groups. Similarly, the CD4/CD8 ratio of the lung tissues in the combined treatment group, as well as the serum levels of interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-5, were significantly higher than the other groups. These findings indicate that radiation combined with anti-PD-1 treatment leads to more severe lung injury in the orthotopic tumor-bearing mouse model, accompanied by increased neutrophil infiltration and increased inflammatory response.

The financial crisis has led to renewed interest in the effects of deregulation on bank governance and incentives provided to bank CEOs. We examine the relation between bank CEO turnover and performance, and whether this relation has been affected by banking deregulation. We find that bank CEO turnover is more (less) sensitive to stock (accounting) performance in the post-deregulation period. We also find that such changes in turnover-performance sensitivity primarily exist in large banks, which are best positioned to exploit growth opportunities, and in banks that expand geographically after deregulation. Our results indicate an increased (decreased) emphasis on stock (accounting) performance in turnover decisions when competition and growth opportunities are greater in the deregulated environment. The findings provide evidence that the information used in board decisions varies with features of the competitive environment.

As a critical infrastructure, the development of high-speed rail (HSR) inevitably exerts a marked impact on economic growth and sets the stage for different industrial revolutions. In this study, we set out an estimation framework designed to explore whether the spatial-temporal compression effect of HSR has paved the way for the Fourth Industrial Revolution characterized by urban technological innovation and whether HSR has strengthened the technology spillovers from venture capital (VC). The principal findings are as follows: First, the opening of HSR can strengthen urban technological performance, and compared with non-HSR cities, the number of patent applications is higher in HSR cities. Second, considering the heterogeneity of technological innovation, and the results show that the opening of HSR can significantly promote the breakthrough innovation and incremental innovation of cities, and has a more significant impact on the breakthrough innovation. Finally, VC has a highly significant and positive effect on urban technological performance. More notably, our findings suggest that the opening of HSR has a considerable shock effect on the technology spillovers from VC. This study has great practical significance for analyzing the impact of HSR on the transformation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution characterized by urban technological performance.

This paper examines the case where a patent holder who is not a producer licenses its quality-enhancing innovation to an upstream firm, which sells its product through a downstream monopoly. It is found that the patent holder prefers a two-part tariff contract, which includes both a fixed-fee and per-unit output royalty. However, the royalty included in the licensing contract makes each firm price at a markup over marginal cost and therefore makes both consumers and the society worse off, if the innovation is small and the supplier is weak. From a welfare perspective, licensing by means of an ad valorem tax is more efficient, as it allows the upstream firm to be less aggressive when trading with the downstream firm.

China's overcapacity in the coal industry has become increasingly prominent since 2013, with a severe negative impact on resource allocation and the national economy. The Chinese government has implemented a series of de-capacity policies to resolve overcapacity and improve the total factor productivity (TFP) in the coal industry. In this study, we aim to explore whether the de-capacity policy enhances the TFP growth of China's coal companies. We firstly apply the Super-SBM-Malmquist index method to measure the TFP and its decomposition items (e.g., technical change, efficiency change) of China's coal industry. We then construct the Regression Discontinuity (RD) design to examine the impact of de-capacity policy on the TFP growth of the coal companies. The main results are as follows: (1) After the implementation of the de-capacity policy in 2016, the average TFP growth and technical change of the coal companies have increased significantly. (2) The de-capacity policy can dramatically promote TFP growth and technical change of the coal companies. In contrast, it has a significant and negative effect on efficiency change. (3) The positive impact of de-capacity policy on technical change is more significant than its adverse effects on efficiency change, which is the main reason for the increase in TFP growth. Therefore, the government should give full play to the positive role of administrative means in resolving overcapacity, and promote sustainable technological innovation of the coal industry.

Venture capital (VC) plays an increasingly important role in advancing the technological innovation of enterprises. A growing body of evidence suggests that VC influences the technological performance of enterprises. No known empirical studies have focused on the relationships between geographic distance and the enterprise's technological performance. This study explores whether and how the geographic distance between VC institutions and enterprises influences the enterprise's technological performance from the perspective of the VC's equity backgrounds (governmental, private, and foreign) and investment strategies (independent and joint). The findings and conclusions are as follows: (1) The geographic distance between VC institutions and enterprises has a significantly nonlinear effect on the technological performance of the VC-backed enterprise, and they are negatively correlated when the geographic distance is less than the specified threshold. (2) The influence of geographic distance on the enterprise's technological performance varies with the VC's equity backgrounds. Geographic distance has a more significant impact on the technological performance of governmental VC- and private VC-backed enterprise compared with foreign VC-backed enterprise. (3) For different investment strategies, geographic distance also has a distinct influence on the enterprise's technological performance. When compared with joint VC, the impact of independent VC on the enterprise's technological performance is more influenced by geographic distance.

Objectives To compare the prevalence and associated factors of sarcopenia defined by the revised European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP2) criteria with the initial European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP1) criteria, the Asia Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS), the International Working Group on Sarcopenia (IWGS), and the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) Sarcopenia Project criteria among Chinese community-dwelling older adults. Design A cross-sectional study. Setting Two community health centers in Urumqi, China. Participants A total of 483 participants aged 60 years and older from the community. Measurement Anthropometry, skeletal muscle mass, handgrip strength, 4-m walking speed, and biochemical markers. Questionnaire collected information included demographics, lifestyle, and quality of life. Results The prevalence of EWGSOP2-defined sarcopenia (men: 6.5%; women: 3.3%) was lower than that defined by the EWGSOP1 (men: 22.3%; women 11.7%), AWGS (men: 10.9%; women: 8.0%), and IWGS (men: 24.5%; women: 11.0%) criteria, but higher than FNIH criteria (men: 6.0%; women: 1.7%). The positive percent agreement was lower (men: 15.6%–63.6%; women: 15.2%–40.0%), while negative percent agreement was higher (men: 96.4%–100.0%; women: 97.3%–99.6%). Sex (OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.12–0.81), education level (OR 0.49, 95% CI 0.29–0.83), and body mass index (BMI, OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.62–0.86) were associated with sarcopenia defined by the EWGSOP2 criteria. No consistent pattern of risk factors associated with sarcopenia in EWGSOP2 and four other diagnostic criteria was present. Conclusions and implications The EWGSOP2 criteria did not agree with the EWGSOP1, AWGS, IWGA, and FNIH criteria defining sarcopenia. Risk factors associated with the EWGSOP2-defined sarcopenia have no consistent patterns with the EWGSOP1, AWGS, IWGA, and FNIH criteria. Therefore, the validity of the EWGSOP2 consensus needs to be confirmed in further prospective studies.

Radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) is one of the most common and fatal complications of thoracic radiotherapy. Inflammatory cell infiltration, imbalance of inflammatory cytokines, and oxidative damage were reported to be involved during RILI pathogenesis, especially in the early phase of RILI. Nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a key transcriptional regulator of antioxidative cascades, and regulates life span of mice after administration of thoracic irradiation. We investigated the effects of Nrf2 on RILI and inflammation using Nrf2-knockout, Nrf2-overexpression and wild-type mice with or without 15 Gy ionizing radiation to thorax. Our results showed that Nrf2 deficiency aggravated radiation-induced histopathological changes, macrophage and neutrophil infiltration, serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, MCP-1, IFN-γ, TNF, and IL-12p70), and the levels of peroxidation products in the mouse lung. Moreover, loss of Nrf2 reduced radiation-induced serum levels of anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10, and antioxidative proteins. Nrf2 overexpression significantly alleviated radiation-induced histopathological changes, macrophages and neutrophils infiltration, serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and the levels of peroxidation products in lung tissues. Nrf2 overexpression also increased the serum levels of IL-10 and antioxidative proteins. These results indicated that Nrf2 had a protective role against radiation-induced acute lung injury and inflammation, and that antioxidative therapy might be a promising treatment for RILI.

Considering the risk aversion for gains and the risk seeking for losses of venture capitalists, the TODIM has been chosen as the decision-making method. Moreover, group decision is an available way to avoid the limited ability and knowledge etc. of venture capitalists.Simultaneously, venture capitalists may be hesitant among several assessed values with different probabilities to express their real perceptionbecause of the uncertain decision-making environment. However, the probabilistic hesitant fuzzy information can solve such problems effectively. Therefore, the TODIM has been extended to probabilistic hesitant fuzzy circumstance for the sake of settling the decision-making problem of venture capitalists in this paper. Moreover, due to the uncertain investment environment, the criteria weights are considered as probabilistic hesitant fuzzyinformation as well. Then, a case study has been used to verify the feasibility and validity of the proposed TODIM.Also, the TODIM with hesitant fuzzy information has been carried out to analysis the same case.From the comparative analysis, the superiority of the proposed TODIM in this paper has already appeared., 31 pages

Radiation‑induced lung injury (RILI) is a major complication of thoracic radiotherapy that starts as exudative inflammation and proceeds to lung fibrosis, and additional studies are required to develop methods to ameliorate RILI. The aim of this study was to explore whether the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subtype‑7 (α7‑nAChR) agonist GTS‑21 has a protective effect against RILI. C57BL6 mice were irradiated with 12 Gy to induce a mouse model of RILI. Some of the mice received an i.p. injection of 4 mg/kg GTS‑21 for three days with or without radiation treatment. Mice were sacrificed at 1, 3, 7, 14 and 21 days and at 3 and 6 months after irradiation. The results showed that GTS‑21 treatment significantly relieved RILI by decreasing TNF‑α, IL‑1β and IL‑6 production in serum via inhibition of NF‑κB activation and downregulation of TLR‑4 and HMGB1 expression in the lungs. In addition, we found that GTS‑21 may regulate the MMP/TIMP balance in RILI. Finally, we found that GTS‑21 inhibited NOX‑1 and NOX‑2 expression, which subsequently reduced ROS levels and Hif‑1α expression in RILI. However, GTS‑21 showed little effect on lung tissue without radiation exposure. The results above were also validated in RAW264.7 macrophages. Our results showed that activation of the cholinergic anti‑inflammatory pathway via the α7‑nAChR agonist GTS‑21 reduced RILI. The protective effect of GTS‑21 against RILI is partly attributed to inhibition of the HMGB1/TLR4/NF‑κB pathway and ROS production. Thus, activation of the α7‑nAChR pathway may lead to new possibilities in the therapeutic management of RILI.

Protecting value-relevant information is becoming increasingly important and challenging as we move towards a knowledge-based economy and partners along the supply chain are more closely intertwined. We document three customer-supplier characteristics (i.e., customer R&D intensity, patent cross-citations, customer size) that vary directly with suppliers’ likelihood of redacting mandated disclosures after controlling for supplier’s own proprietary cost concerns. We further use customers’ possession of trade secrets and nondisclosure agreements to capture customers’ known preference for information withholding and find that their suppliers are more likely to redact. The increased likelihood of redaction is concentrated in supply chain and R&D-related information. Overall, our findings highlight that customers’ incentive to protect information, particularly knowledge or value intensive information, can have a significant influence on suppliers’ disclosure strategies.

This study investigates whether incumbents are more likely to withhold mandatory disclosures when rivals modify product portfolio to reposition themselves and whether such redactions preserve product market competitiveness. Using a large sample of hand-collected redactions from new material contracts to capture managers’ decision to withhold information, we find that product market instability and product threat from new rivals vary directly with the likelihood of redactions. We also document that incumbent firms are more likely to redact only when they have higher leverage or less cash holding relative to new rivals. This highlights that new entries will likely post the greatest threat when they are more financially capable than incumbent firms. Furthermore, redacting firms experience higher market share growth, greater market power and larger abnormal returns. Interestingly, these product market outcomes are concentrated in research/development- and license-related information redactions.

This paper examines why the use of social networking sites (SNSs) leads to different results in cultivating bridging and bonding social capital for different groups of people. Based on in-depth interviews of 45 university students in Hong Kong, I find that Mainland Chinese students studying in Hong Kong actively use SNSs for seeking practical information about offline matters, and they obtain substantial enacted support from other Mainland students of the same university through SNS use. As a result, they accumulate both bridging and bonding social capital. Local Hong Kong students, however, use SNSs mainly for social information seeking and are only able to accrue limited bridging social capital through SNS use. Drawing on the theory of network domains, I argue that the different offline network structures in which students are located – namely, homogeneous and closed networks versus heterogeneous and open networks – explain this difference. Students with closed offline networks have defined expectations...

The SEC is moving toward requiring real-time reporting. Proponents have predicted that disclosing a news event immediately after it arises could reduce information aggregation and disclosure bunching. But evidence from the theoretical literature suggests that the effect depends on whether managers can time the underlying required reporting event. Managers, for example, can time regular poison pill adoptions, but have limited ability to time in-play pill adoptions. Thus, I test whether real-time reporting deters disclosure bunching around the disclosures of regular and in-play poison pill adoptions to examine whether managers' ability to time events affects whether real-time reporting deters strategic disclosure. I find that real-time reporting does not deter disclosure bunching for regular poison pills, but does deter it for in-play pills. These results suggest that real-time reporting will reduce disclosure bunching only if managers cannot time the underlying event. JEL Classifications: M40; M41; M48

Background In order to efficiently determine genotypic differences in rooting patterns of crops, novel hardware and software are needed simultaneously to characterize dynamics of root development. Results We describe a prototype robotic monitoring platform—the RhizoChamber-Monitor for analyzing growth patterns of plant roots automatically. The RhizoChamber-Monitor comprises an automatic imaging system for acquiring sequential images of roots which grow on a cloth substrate in custom rhizoboxes, an automatic irrigation system and a flexible shading arrangement. A customized image processing software was developed to analyze the spatio-temporal dynamics of root growth from time-course images of multiple plants. This software can quantify overall growth of roots and extract detailed growth traits (e.g. dynamics of length and diameter) of primary roots and of individual lateral roots automatically. It can also identify local growth traits of lateral roots (pseudo-mean-length and pseudo-maximum-length) semi-automatically. Two cotton genotypes were used to test both the physical platform and the analysis software. Conclusions The combination of hardware and software is expected to facilitate quantification of root geometry and its spatio-temporal growth patterns, and therefore to provide opportunities for high-throughput root phenotyping in support of crop breeding to optimize root architecture.

Sterile lung injury is an important clinical problem that complicates the course of severely ill patients. Interruption of blood flow, namely ischemia–reperfusion (IR), initiates a sterile inflammatory response in the lung that is believed to be maladaptive. The rationale for this study was to elucidate the molecular basis for lung IR inflammation and whether it is maladaptive or beneficial. Using a mouse model of lung IR, we demonstrate that sequential blocking of inflammasomes [specifically, NOD-, LRR-, and pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3)], inflammatory caspases, and interleukin (IL)-1β, all resulted in an attenuated inflammatory response. IL-1β production appeared to predominantly originate in conjunction with alveolar type 2 epithelial cells. Lung IR injury recruited unactivated or dormant neutrophils producing less reactive oxygen species thereby challenging the notion that recruited neutrophils are terminally activated. However, lung IR inflammation was able to limit or reduce the bacterial burden from subsequent experimentally induced pneumonia. Notably, inflammasome-deficient mice were unable to alter this bacterial burden following IR. Thus, we conclude that the NLRP3 inflammasome, through IL-1β production, regulates lung IR inflammation, which includes recruitment of dormant neutrophils. The sterile IR inflammatory response appears to serve an important function in inducing resistance to subsequent bacterial pneumonia and may constitute a critical part of early host responses to infection in trauma.

This study provides evidence on whether investors value tax gross-up provisions for executives, and how the elimination of these provisions changes executive compensation. We examine the market response to tax gross-up eliminations and find investors react favorably to the removal of these provisions, suggesting that on average, investors perceived these agreements as a bad compensation practice that destroyed firm value. Next, we examine whether firms respond to these eliminations by increasing other forms of executive compensation. We find firms eliminating tax gross-up provisions increase bonus but not salary. Broadly, we provide evidence that some features of compensation contracts are not valued by shareholders, and that the elimination of these features can lead to increased firm value.

We examine whether the regulatory changes required by the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) and Financial Accounting Standards Board Interpretation No. (FIN) 48 reduced the propensity for earnings management through the reserve for income taxes. Given prior evidence that firms use this reserve to manage earnings to beat the consensus analyst forecast, the regulatory changes implemented by both SOX and FIN 48 allow us to study the effects of accounting regulation on earnings management. We find that neither SOX nor FIN 48 reduced earnings management through the reserve for income taxes. Thus, in contrast to research that examines whether SOX affected nontax, accrual-based earnings management, our results suggest managers continue to take advantage of their discretion over the accounting for income taxes to beat the consensus analyst forecast in both the post-SOX and post-FIN 48 periods.

The recent economic downturn resulted in firms generating significant tax losses, which they risked losing if they experienced an ownership change. In response, a number of loss firms adopted poison pill plans. We document a significant negative market reaction to the announcement of 62 poison pill adoptions related to net operating losses (NOLs), suggesting that in general investors do not consider management׳s claim that the pills are adopted to preserve a valuable tax asset to be credible. However, we find cross-sectional variation consistent with investors considering whether a pill is legitimately adopted to preserve the NOL or to entrench management.

Aims/Introduction The purpose of the study was to determine the feasibility and effect of a reward-based, task-setting strategy for low-income outpatients with type 2 diabetes. Materials and Methods Indigent diabetes outpatients without glucometers were eligible to participate in this trial. A total of 132 cases were randomly recruited. Participants in group B used glucometers for self-monitoring at no cost. Group A participants could keep the glucometers only if the glycosylated hemoglobin level declined compared with the baseline visit; for those not achieving a reduction in the glycosylated hemoglobin level, the glucometers would have to be returned. Group C served as the control group without self-monitoring setout. Diabetes education was provided to all groups. Metabolic indices and self-management were evaluated after 6 months of follow up. Results Group A had a significant decline in the glycosylated hemoglobin level (−0.97%) and medical costs (−159 yuan) compared with the baseline visit, whereas groups B and C had a decrease in the glycosylated hemoglobin levels alone (−0.62 and −0.57%, respectively). The body mass index did not change significantly in any group. There was a statistical difference in the glycosylated hemoglobin level of group A compared with groups B and C. Self-management in group A improved the outcome relative to groups B and C. Conclusions This preliminary evidence suggests that the program is feasible, acceptable for improving patient self-management, and cost-effective in reducing the glycosylated hemoglobin level and medical costs.

Purpose To understand the phenomena of people revealing regrettable information on the Internet, we examine who people think they’re addressing, and what they say, in the process of interacting with those not physically or temporally co-present. Methodology/approach We conduct qualitative analyses of interviews with student bloggers and observations of five years’ worth of their blog posts, drawing on linguists’ concepts of indexical ground and deictics. Based on analyses of how bloggers reference their shared indexical ground and how they use deictics, we expose bloggers’ evolving awareness of their audiences, and the relationship between this awareness and their disclosures. Findings Over time, writers and their regular audience, or “chorus,” reciprocally reveal personal information. However, since not all audience members reveal themselves in this venue, writers’ disclosures are available to those observers they are not aware of. Thus, their overdisclosure is tied to what we call the “n-adic” organization of online interaction. Specifically, and as can be seen in their linguistic cues, n-adic utterances are directed toward a non-unified audience whose invisibility makes the discloser unable to find out the exact number of participants or the time they enter or exit the interaction. Research implications Attention to linguistic cues, such as deictics, is a compelling way to identify the shifting reference groups of ethnographic subjects interacting with physically or temporally distant others. Originality/value We describe the social organization of interaction with undetectable others. n-adic interactions likely also happen in other on- and offline venues in which participants are obscured but can contribute anonymously.

We examine the impact of FAS 166/177 on the quantity and quality of credit card loans of the affected securitization banks. We focus on credit card securitization because its nature makes it most likely to be consolidated back onto the balance sheet after FAS 166/167. Using credit card loans of non-securitization banks as controls, we document the following findings. First, the balance of total managed credit card loans for securitization banks decreases significantly from pre to post-FAS 166/167 period. Second, we find significant lower asset quality for non-securitized credit card loans relative to securitized loans of the same securitization bank prior to the adoption of FAS 166/167. Furthermore, we find significant improvement of the asset quality for credit card loans of the securitization banks after the adoption of FAS 166/167, especially for banks whose regulatory capital ratios are closer to the legal minimum after the adoption of the accounting rules. Overall, our findings suggest that banks have less opportunity to engage in regulatory capital arbitrage after the adoption of FAS 166/167 and adjust their risk taking behavior accordingly.