Search

As the luxury goods industry secures a prominent position within the global market, the leading conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH)’s pioneering ventures became a matter of communal concern. The following segments seek to provide operational insights into the management framework and strategic planning of LVMH. Based on three distinctive yet intercorrelated perspectives of analysis, the study unpacks the bullish potentials of LVMH, its sufficiency in risk control and profit generation, and the full-scale success of the conglomerate’s strategic planning of mergers and acquisitions. From the perspective of industry analysis, LVMH and other luxury companies focus on local growth and continue to launch new forms of products in line with the times, also maintaining rational and healthy competition is necessary when competing with different companies in the same industry. According to the Financial analysis, LVMH has a relatively low risk and has a good operation ability to generate a steady profit. Through the audacious pursuit of the M&A strategy in consolidating Bulgari in 2011 and Tiffany & Co. in 2021, it managed to triple the size of its Watches & Jewelry business group over the past decade, further boosting its profit margins through the conglomerate's efficacious post-acquisition brand management. The research is dedicated to the growing body of company-based research on luxury brand management, offering reference value for relative companies in the industry.

Purpose: Glioblastoma is the most common adult primary malignant intracranial cancer. It is associated with poor outcomes because of its invasiveness and resistance to multimodal therapies. Human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSC) are a potential treatment because of their tumor tropism, ease of isolation, and ability to be engineered. In addition, bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) has tumor-suppressive effects on glioblastoma and glioblastoma brain tumor–initiating cells (BTIC), but is difficult to deliver to brain tumors. We sought to engineer BMP4-secreting hAMSCs (hAMSCs-BMP4) and evaluate their therapeutic potential on glioblastoma.Experimental Design: The reciprocal effects of hAMSCs on primary human BTIC proliferation, differentiation, and migration were evaluated in vitro. The safety of hAMSC use was evaluated in vivo by intracranial coinjections of hAMSCs and BTICs in nude mice. The therapeutic effects of hAMSCs and hAMSCs-BMP4 on the proliferation and migration of glioblastoma cells as well as the differentiation of BTICs, and survival of glioblastoma-bearing mice were evaluated by intracardiac injection of these cells into an in vivo intracranial glioblastoma murine model.Results: hAMSCs-BMP4 targeted both the glioblastoma tumor bulk and migratory glioblastoma cells, as well as induced differentiation of BTICs, decreased proliferation, and reduced the migratory capacity of glioblastomas in vitro and in vivo. In addition, hAMSCs-BMP4 significantly prolonged survival in a murine model of glioblastoma. We also demonstrate that the use of hAMSCs in vivo is safe.Conclusions: Both unmodified and engineered hAMSCs are nononcogenic and effective against glioblastoma, and hAMSCs-BMP4 are a promising cell-based treatment option for glioblastoma. Clin Cancer Res; 20(9); 2375–87. ©2014 AACR.

Supplementary SFig. 4. hAMSCs retain proliferation capacity when exposed to BTIC-CM in vitro.

Supplemental Materials and Methods from Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Human Fat Engineered to Secrete BMP4 Are Nononcogenic, Suppress Brain Cancer, and Prolong Survival

Supplementary SFig. 3. hAMSCs-BMP4 promote differentiation of BTICs in vitro.

Supplementary Figure Legends

Supplemental SFig. 5. hAMSCs do not form tumors in vivo.

Supplementary SFig. 1. hAMSCs-BMP4 decrease migration of BTICs in vitro.

Supplemental SFig. 6. hAMSCs-BMP4 decrease TNF-α and VEGF in tumor mass in vivo.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Sacubitril/valsartan (Sac/Val) in patients diagnosed with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF) without systolic heart failure (SHF). Methods: Nonvalvular AF patients without SHF admitted to the People’s Hospital of Boltala Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture from December 2020 to December 2021 were enrolled and randomly divided into the Sac/Val treatment group (group T) and valsartan treatment group (group C, control). For subgroup analysis, patients were divided into subgroups with and without diastolic heart failure (DHF). After a 1-month run-in period and subsequent 3-month treatment period, patients were followed up in the cardiology clinic. Plasma levels of biochemical markers and echocardiographic parameters before and after treatment were compared, and DHF scores were calculated for comparison of diastolic function. Results: Of 61 enrolled patients, 46 patients completed the follow-up. Sac/Val treatment did not increase the proportion of sinus rhythm. Although NT-proBNP expression tended to be reduced in both groups after 3 months of treatment, the differences compared with respective baseline levels and between groups were not significant. Subgroup analysis suggested that NT-proBNP expression in the subgroup with DHF was decreased at follow-up versus baseline, but the difference was not significant. Similarly, no marked differences in echocardiographic parameters or tissue Doppler parameters related to DHF were detected between the groups (P>0.05). Subgroup analysis also showed no significant differences in the echocardiographic parameters between subgroups (P>0.05). Conclusion: Sac/Val is not superior to valsartan in the treatment for patients suffering with AF without SHF.

With the increase in municipal solid waste incineration, fly ash, its heavy metal content, and its disposal methods have attracted wide attention. This work investigates if the alkali-activated mineral slag gel solidification of heavy metals in fly ash has positive significance in promoting the harmless treatment of fly ash. This study obtained the optimal solidification conditions of fly ash from a grate incinerator, which are mineral slag content of 40%, activator content of 4%, and water content of 27.5%. Furthermore, the stability of synthesized calcium chloroaluminate is systematically investigated. The solidification effect of calcium chloroaluminate on Pb at pH = 10–13 was conducted at ambient temperatures from 15 °C to 35 °C to simulate the solidification environment of fly ash. The results show that the adsorption capacity of calcium chloroaluminate to Pb in a strongly alkaline environment is 0.1–3.5 mg/g. Pb is mainly solidified as lead-acid calcium chloroaluminate. This work provides a novel treatment strategy for fly ash.

To screen and confirm key immune-related genes (IRGs) with diagnostic and predictive value in systemic sclerosis (SSc) and provide potential therapeutic targets for patients with SSc.In Gene Expression Omnibus database (GEO), four datasets of gene expression profiling related to SSc were downloaded and used for the analysis in this study. After differential analysis of SSc cases and controls in GSE130955, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were overlapped with IRGs to obtain the immune-related differentially expressed genes (IR-DEGs) in SSc. In addition, functional annotation and pathway enrichment of IR-DEGs were conducted. The protein-protein interaction network (PPI) was constructed to identify key IR-DEGs. Using GSE58095, GSE181549 and GSE130953, the diagnostic and predictive abilities for the key IR-DEGs in SSc were validated. Finally, the screened key genes were confirmed in skin derived bleomycin (BLM)-induced SSc mice by Real-time PCR.NGFR, TNFSF13B, FCER1G, GIMAP5, TYROBP and CSF1R may have important or very high diagnostic value for SSc. TYROBP and TNFSF13B had moderate and mild predictive value respectively in SSc patients after treatment. Real-time PCR assay further confirmed that the expressions of Ngfr, Tyrobp, Csf1r, Fcer1g and Gimap5 were significantly higher in skin of BLM-induced SSc mice than that in controls.The key IR-DEGs, including NGFR, TNFSF13B, TYROBP, CSF1R, FCER1G and GIMAP5, may become auxiliary diagnostic indicators and potential biomarkers for SSc. Moreover, TNFSF13B and TYROBP could have good prospects as predictive indicators in SSc patients that accepted cyclophosphamide or transplantation therapy.

The biological treatment efficiency of dye wastewater using activated sludge (AS) is largely limited to the chromaticity and ecotoxicity of dyestuff. To alleviate this limitation, eleven industrial-grade disperse dyes were obtained from a fiber-dyeing factory, and for the first time, we studied the decolorization and detoxification effects of using the

In this work, a macroporous strongly basic anion exchange resin D201 was used as the matrix and loaded with nano hydrated titanium oxide (HTO) to fabricate a novel resin-based nano hydrated titanium oxide adsorbent (HTO-D201), which was characterized by scanning electron microscope-energy dispersion spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. Adsorption isotherm, pH influence competitive adsorption and column adsorption experiments were conducted to investigation the adsorption behavior of HTO-D201 to phosphorus in water. The adsorption effect of adsorbent HTO-D201 on phosphorus in water, and the corresponding adsorption mechanism, are discussed. It was observed that HTO-D201 exhibited spontaneous adsorption behavior with Langmuir fitting maximum adsorption capacity of 34.08 mg∙g−1 under a pH of 6.8 and a temperature of 298 K. Adsorption isotherms confirmed that enhancing temperature could promote the adsorption process. SO42−, NO3− and Cl− were used as competing ions in competitive adsorption, which confirmed better anti-interference ability of HTO-D201 compared with that of unmodified D201. The column adsorption experiment implied that HTO-D201 possessed a stable structure and good dynamic adsorption performance, with effective processing capacity of 420BV, which could be regenerated and recycled. The adsorption mechanism of HTO-D201 to phosphorus in water is discussed, which was ascribed to a quaternary amine group on the resin and a hydroxyl group on the HTO. This work shows that HTO-D201 is a promising adsorbent that a possesses excellent phosphorus-removing capacity from wastewater and the potential for practical application.

Human mesenchymal stem cell-based tumor therapeutic gene delivery is regarded as a promising strategy for the treatment of glioblastoma (GBM). However, the efficiency of these stem cells to home to the target sites limits their potential curative effect and clinical application. In this work, we provide a novel pretreatment approach for enhancing the homing capacity of human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSCs) for stem cell-based tumor gene delivery for GBM therapy. Pre-exposure of these stem cells to TGF-β resulted in enhanced homing ability to GBM through increasing CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) expression, as evidenced by a diminishing homing capacity when inhibition of the TGF-β receptor II and CXCR4 was applied. In addition, by pretreating hAMSCs expression of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand with TGF-β, we achieved significant enhancements in the therapeutic efficacy as demonstrated by an increased number of migrated hAMSCs to target sites, decreased tumor volume, and prolonged survival time in a murine model of GBM. These findings highlight a straightforward method in which cell preconditioning methodology is utilized to promote therapeutic efficacy of a biological treatment for GBM.

We have previously reported that cell-seeded alginate hydrogels (AHs) with anisotropic capillaries can restore the continuity of the spinal cord and support axonal regeneration in a rat model of acute partial spinal cord transection. Whether similar effects can be found after transplantation into sites of complete chronic spinal cord transections without additional growth-promoting stimuli has not been investigated. We therefore implanted AHs into the cavity of a chronic thoracic transection following scar resection (SR) 4 weeks postinjury and examined electrophysiological and functional recovery as well as regeneration of descending and ascending projections within and beyond the AH scaffold up to 3 months after engraftment. Our results indicate that both electrophysiological conductivity and locomotor function are significantly improved after AH engraftment. SR transiently impairs locomotor function immediately after surgery but does not affect long-term outcomes. Histological analysis shows numerous host cells migrating into the scaffold channels and a reduction of fibroglial scaring around the lesion by AH grafts. In contrast to corticospinal axons, raphaespinal and propriospinal descending axons and ascending sensory axons regenerate throughout the scaffolds and extend into the distal host parenchyma. These results further support the pro-regenerative properties of AHs and their therapeutic potential for chronic SCI in combination with other strategies to improve functional outcomes after spinal cord injury.

With the increasing demand on organ transplants, it has become a common practice to include patients with primary central nervous system (CNS) malignancies as donors given the suggested low probability metastatic spread outside of the CNS. However, an extra-CNS spread of the disease cannot be excluded raising potential risks of cancer transmission from those donors. In order to balance between the risk of donor-derived disease transmission and the curative benefit for the recipient, a careful donor and organ selection is important. We performed a literature research and summarized all reported studies of organ transplants from donors suffered from primary CNS malignancies and determined the risk of tumor transmission to recipients. There were 22 cases of transplant-transmitted CNS tumors onto recipients since 1976. The association risks of cancer transmission were attributed to donor tumor histology, disruption of the blood-brain barrier, cerebrospinal fluid extra-CNS, and false diagnosis of primary intracranial tumor as well as the molecular properties of the primary tumor such as the existence of EGFR-amplification. The association risks and features of CNS tumors transmission recipients indicated that we need to reassess our thresholds for the potential fatal consequences of these donors.

Curing kinetics of the waterborne epoxy emulsion (EPWE)/Graphene oxide (GO) system was investigated by non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), which shows an autocatalytic behavior and can be well predicted by model fitting kinetic method. By combining with the kinetics simulation and the conventional extrapolation method, an novel three-stage curing process with a high initial cure temperature and a cooling stage was proposed to inhibit the thermal shock inside materials and the uneven curing reaction during the curing process of the materials. The experimental results indicate that compared to the conventional two-stage curing process, the new curing procedure containing a cooling section significantly increased the bending strength by 14.9%, elastic modulus by 7.3% and Tg by 8 K of the cured GO/EPWE material, and the total curing time clearly decreased.

OBJECTIVEReports on supratentorial extraventricular ependymoma (STE) are relatively rare. The object of this study was to analyze the clinical, radiological, and histological features and treatment outcomes of 14 patients with STE.METHODSOverall, 227 patients with ependymoma underwent surgical treatment in the authors’ department between January 2010 and June 2015; 14 of these patients had STE. Data on clinical presentation, radiological studies, histopathological findings, surgical strategies, and treatment outcomes in these 14 cases were retrospectively analyzed.RESULTSThe patients consisted of 6 women and 8 men (sex ratio 0.75). Mean age at diagnosis was 24.5 ± 13.5 years (range 3–48 years). Tumors were predominantly located in the frontal and temporal lobes (5 and 4 cases, respectively). Typical radiological features were mild to moderate heterogeneous tumor enhancements on contrast-enhanced MRI. Other radiological features included well-circumscribed, “popcorn” enhancement and no distinct adjoining brain edema. Gross-total resection was achieved in 12 patients, while subtotal removal was performed in 2. Radiotherapy was administered in 7 patients after surgery. Seven tumors were classified as WHO Grade II and the other 7 were verified as WHO Grade III. The mean follow-up period was 22.6 months (range 8–39 months). There were 3 patients with recurrence, and 2 of these patients died.CONCLUSIONSSupratentorial extraventricular ependymoma has atypical clinical presentations, various radiological features, and heterogeneous histological forms; therefore, definitive diagnosis can be difficult. Anaplastic STE shows malignant biological behavior, a higher recurrence rate, and a relatively poor prognosis. Gross-total resection with or without postoperative radiotherapy is currently the optimal treatment for STE.

In this study, spinel-type MnFe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles were successfully synthesized employing the purified sol–gel method and used for the advanced treatment of biologically pretreated semi-coking wastewater (BPSCW) by the O3/H2O2 catalytic system. Results showed that the MnFe2O4 magnetic catalysts did not have a regular surface morphology, and their surface contained numerous fine particles that showed a particle accumulation state and formed a good nano-spinel structure. Their surface morphology, ratio, size, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed two active metal elements in the catalyst, namely, Fe3+ and Mn2+, which were consistent with the elemental composition and valence of MnFe2O4. Under optimal reaction conditions, the removal efficiency of O3/H2O2/MnFe2O4 catalytic system for chemical oxygen demand (COD) and volatile phenol (VP) can reach 85.2% and 94.1%, respectively (catalyst dosage = 2.0 g∙L−1, O3 dosage = 1.2 mg∙min−1, H2O2 concentration = 0.15 mol∙L−1, pH = 7.0, and treatment time = 70 min). The free radical quenching experiment and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) experiment verified that hydroxyl radicals (∙OH) played a role in the deep treatment of BPSCW in the O3/H2O2/MnFe2O4 catalytic system. Phosphate experiments proved that lewis acid sites on the surface of the MnFe2O4 magnetic catalysts were the catalytically active sites. The superparamagnetic properties of the MnFe2O4 magnetic catalysts (67.8 emu∙g−1) facilitated magnetic separation from the treated wastewater. After 10 cycles, the activity of the MnFe2O4 magnetic catalysts remained high, and the removal efficiencies of COD and VP only decreased by 13.6% and 11.9%, respectively. Considering excellent degradation performance, easy magnetic separation and high stability, this study provided important insights into the practical application of the O3/H2O2 catalytic system for the advanced treatment of BPSCW.

Background Human mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) gene delivery is regarded as an effective treatment for glioblastoma (GBM). However, adverse-free target site homing of the delivery vehicles to the tumor microsatellite nests is challenging, leading to erroneously sustained released of this suicide protein into the normal brain parenchyma; therefore, limiting off-target cytotoxicity and controlled expression of the suicide inductor is a prerequisite for the safe use of therapeutic stem cells. Methods Utilizing the intrinsic expression profile of GBM and its elevated expression of TGF-β relative to normal brain tissue, we sought to engineer human adipose-derived MSCs (hAMSC-SBE4-TRAIL) which augment the expression of TRAIL under the trigger of TGF-β signaling. We validated our therapeutic technology in a series of functional in vitro and in vivo assays using primary patient-derived GBM models. Results Our current findings show that these biologic delivery vehicles have high tumor tropism efficacy and expression TRAIL gene under the trigger of TGF-β-secreting GBMs, as well as avoid unspecific TRAIL secretion into normal brain tissue. hAMSC-SBE4-TRAIL inhibited the proliferation and induced apoptosis in experimental GBMs both in vitro and in vivo. In addition, our improved platform of engineered MSCs significantly decreased the tumor volume and prolonged survival time in a murine model of GBM. Conclusions Our results on the controlled release of suicide inductor TRAIL by exploiting an endogenous tumor signaling pathway demonstrate a significant improvement for the clinical utility of stem cell-mediated gene delivery to treat brain cancers. Harvesting immune-compatible MSCs from patients’ fat by minimally invasive procedures further highlights the clinical potential of this approach in the vision of applicability in a personalized manner. The hAMSC-SBE4-TRAIL exhibit great curative efficacy and are a promising cell-based treatment option for GBM to be validated in clinical exploration. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13287-019-1194-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

An efficient uranium adsorbent, amidoximated polyacrylonitrile foam (AOPAN) with a hierarchical pore structure, was prepared by freezing-extraction followed by amidoximation. AOPAN was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and showed an excellent uranium adsorption performance in aqueous solutions; the uranium adsorption capacity was 1058 mg/g. Even in the presence of competing ions, AOPAN showed a high selective removal ability for uranium (removal rate > 85%). After three cycles, the adsorption capacity and removal rate for uranium were still higher than 800 mg/g and 90%, respectively, which indicated the good recyclability of AOPAN. Furthermore, the adsorption process fitted the Freundlich model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The calculated ΔH° and ΔG° indicated that the adsorption process was endothermic. The higher adsorption temperature could promote the adsorption on AOPAN. The XPS analysis indicated that the chelation between the amidoxime group and uranium plays a key role in the adsorption of uranium on AOPAN.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common forms of neurodegenerative disease in the elderly population and is typically manifested by motor symptoms and nonmotor symptoms and signs. Nonmotor symptoms, such as sensory symptoms, have been regarded as the significant features of this disease. These symptoms often occur in early stages of PD and influence quality of life. However, researchers suggest that the sensory symptoms of PD are frequently unrecognized by clinicians and remain untreated. The disorders include pain, olfactory disturbance, and visual dysfunction input on the underlying sensory abnormality. This Review focuses on the clinical features, pathophysiological mechanisms, and treatment strategies for sensory symptoms of PD from both clinical studies and basic research, providing a comprehensive overview of the sensory symptoms in PD. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Posttraumatic cerebral infarction (PTCI) is a severe secondary insult of traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics and risk factors of PTCI after severe TBI (sTBI) and explore possible mechanism. This retrospective study included a cohort of 339 patients with sTBI; they were divided into the PTCI and non-PTCI groups. Clinical data and follow-up charts were reviewed for comparison. The logistic regression model was used for multivariate analysis to detect the risk factors of PTCI. The Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) and Barthel index (BI) for activities of daily living (ADL) were applied to evaluate their outcome. PTCI led to an increased mortality (43.5 % vs. 10.7 %, P

Background: Sorafenib remains the only standard first-line drug for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Hand-foot skin reaction (HFSR) is a very common side-effect in patients treated with sorafenib, and also affects the treatment schedule and quality of life. However, the association of HFSR and response of HCC to sorafenib remain unclear.Methods: Databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched up to May 7th, 2017. Review Manager 5.3 software was adopted for performing meta-analyses, Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for assessing the bias of cohort studies, and GRADEprofler software for further assessing outcomes obtained from meta-analyses.Results: 1478 articles were reviewed, and 12 cohort studies with 1017 participants were included in the analyses. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) of overall survival is 0.45 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.36, 0.55; P

The phase-shifting method is all along an important wavefront extraction technique in the interferometer. Moreover, to require almost real-time measurement an algorithm with a small number of grabbed buckets is very helpful to the phase-shifting interferometer. Therefore, those algorithms within five buckets are very practical and are given more attention. In the paper, popular phase shifting algorithms within five buckets are compared and new four and five buckets algorithms are developed to compensate for two dominate error sources which are linear phase shift deviation and detector nonlinearity. Numerical simulations and wavefront extraction experiment verify that the proposed compensation algorithms are insensitive to linear phase shift deviation and detector nonlinearity compared with classical four and five bucket algorithm. (C) 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.