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Although the association of dietary inflammatory potential, evaluated by the dietary inflammatory index (DII), with all-cause and cause-specific mortality has been reported, evidence remains equivocal, with no relevant dose–response meta-analysis having been conducted. To examine the dose–response association of dietary inflammatory potential with risk of all-cause, cancer, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were systematically searched up to August 9, 2021. Cohort studies were included if DII was reported as ≥3 levels or per incremental increase, and if the associations of DII with all-cause, cancer, and CVD mortality were assessed. Generalized least squares regression was used to estimate study-specific dose–response associations, and the random effect model was used to pool the RRs and 95% CIs of all-cause, cancer, and CVD mortality per 1-unit increase in DII. Restricted cubic splines were used to intuitively display the dose–response association between dietary inflammatory potential and mortality. Of the 1415 studies retrieved, 15 articles (17 cohort studies involving 397,641 participants) were included in this meta-analysis. With per 1-unit increase in DII, the risks were significantly increased for all-cause mortality (RR: 1.04; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.05, I(2) = 51.8%; P-heterogeneity = 0.009), cancer mortality (RR: 1.02; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.04, I(2) = 58.6%; P-heterogeneity = 0.013), and CVD mortality (RR: 1.04; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.06, I(2) = 85.7%; P-heterogeneity

Carbon dots (CDs) were prepared by a solvent-involved molecular fusion strategy using o-phenylenediamine (OPD) as the carbon source and formamide as the reaction solvent. The CDs possessed not only the functional groups inherited from the carbon source and the reaction solvent, but also numerous C=N groups in the structure, resulting from the Schiff base reaction between -NH2 of OPD and C=O of formamide. These functional groups endowed the final CDs with a favorable soft-base property, leading to the high tolerance level toward hard-acid type metal ions and prominent detection selectivity toward Ag+. Moreover, the obtained CDs displayed outstanding biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity, and demonstrated potential as an effective photoluminescence probe for intercellular Ag+ and Cys imaging, preventing the interference of autofluorescence from living tissues. This study focused on the solvent-involved molecular fusion strategy could provide new insights into the design of novel carbon-based nanostructures and optimization of the structure-property relationship of CDs.

We examine why many firms disclose internal control weaknesses (ICW) under section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley Act after previously reporting effective internal control (IC). We find that about half of the cross-sectional ICW determinant variables either do not change significantly from Year T-1 to Year T or change in a direction that is not expected to cause IC deterioration. The reported deterioration in IC can be attributed to increases in audit fee, management turnover, restatement, financial distress, firm size, and decrease in financial activities. Consistent with an agency hypothesis that managers try to manipulate the IC process when firm performance declines, the reported deterioration in IC is also associated with poor stock returns in the year before disclosure. ICW disclosure is more likely when poor stock return is combined with higher sensitivity of executive compensation to stock price change.

The Tikhonov regularization is an effective method used for dynamic light scattering (DLS) data inversion. However, its inversion accuracy is low for the strong noise data. Based on filtering and Tikhonov regularization technology, we propose a filter-Tikhonov-L method. To begin with, this method uses the cubical smoothing algorithm with five-point approximation to filter out the noise of autocorrelation function (ACF). A new inversion problem is constructed by the filtered ACF, and then solved by Tikhonov regularization with L-curve criterion. This method combines the advantages of filtering and Tikhonov regularization technology, so that it has the high inversion accuracy. The simulation data of particles with particle size distribution (PSD) from 100 nm to 700 nm was implemented inversion studies. The investigation shows that filter-Tikhonov-L has a great advantage in peak position, relative error, the capability of recognizing double peaks and tolerance of noises. The inversion of experimental data also verifies this conclusion.

We examine the decision to list in the U.S. markets by foreign firms through American Depository Receipts (ADRs). There is a high positive correlation between the valuation of existing ADRs and the number of new ADR listings next year. ADR listing is more likely when existing ADRs are valued higher. The subsequent operating and stock performance of ADR firms listed in hot years is significantly worse than those of ADR firms listed in cold years. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that market timing is an important motivation for foreign firms to list in the U.S. equity markets.

The evidence for association between cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Chinese population is limited. We explored the association between the number of ideal CVH metrics and risk of incident T2DM in a rural Chinese population.A total of 12,150 rural Chinese participants (median age 51 years) were enrolled. A Cox proportional-hazards model was used to assess the association between the number of ideal CVH metrics and risk of incident T2DM by using hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We another conducted multiplicative and additive interaction effect between the number of ideal CVH metrics and sex or age on incident T2DM, and subgroup analyses of the association were also conducted by sex and age.During a median of 6.01 years of follow-up, 840 incident cases of T2DM occurred. The number of ideal CVH metrics was negatively associated with risk of incident T2DM (per unit increase: HR = 0.76, 95% CI 0.70-0.82). We also observed both multiplicative and additive interaction effect between lower number of ideal CVH metrics and sex on incident T2DM, and multiplicative interaction effect between lower number of ideal CVH metrics and age on incident T2DM was observed. The association remained statistically significant for both men and women, or participants with age 65 years.Increasing number of ideal CVH metrics was associated with reduced risk of incident T2DM, which presented age- and sex-related differential associations.

We propose reduced investment as a potential explanation for why firms with internal control weakness (ICW) exhibit lower valuation relative to non-ICW firms. We show that ICW firms significantly reduce investment around ICW disclosure and also have poor stock performance. Additional evidence shows that many of the investment reductions have been announced during the year before ICW disclosure. A possible explanation for investment reductions is the higher costs of financial friction associated with ICW. Consistent with this explanation, we show that ICW firms with credit ratings do not reduce their investment as much and have much better stock performance than ICW firms without credit ratings.

To develop new potential pesticide candidates from low value-added natural bioactive products, a series of new cholesterol–matrine conjugates (I(a–e)–IV(a–e)) were prepared from two lead compounds cholesterol and matrine. Against Mythimna separata Walker, compound IVa exhibited 3.0 and 2.6 folds promising insecticidal activity of cholesterol and matrine, respectively; against Aphis citricola Van der Goot, compound IVd showed 4.3 and 2.2 folds potent aphicidal activity of their precursors; notably, it also showed good control effects in the greenhouse; against Plutella xylostella Linnaeus at a dose of 20 μg/nymph, compound IIIe exhibited 2.8 and 2.0 folds oral toxicity of cholesterol and matrine, respectively. Compounds IIIe, IVd and IVe can be used as the leads for further structural optimization as the insecticidal and aphicidal agents.

Mine gas explosion accident is one of the most harmful coal mine disasters. Usually, it will cause a lot of property losses and casualties, which seriously restricts the healthy development of the coal mining industry. In this paper, Fluent software is used to simulate gas explosions in straight roadways of different sizes and it is concluded that Fluent software can be used to accurately simulate gas explosion conditions after comparing with the experimental data. Besides, the results of the study show that the propagation law of gas explosion in the straight roadway of different sizes is affected by the size effect. The roadway with a larger size will enhance the positive feedback mechanism of the combustion reaction rate and flame propagation speed. The flame propagation speed is faster and the local accumulation of CO is more obvious in the roadway with a larger size. The smaller the size of the roadway, the greater the pressure peak it generates. The research results can provide theoretical support and an experimental basis for the prevention and control of gas explosion accidents.

To explore candidate pesticides from non-food bioactive products, twenty-five new matrine-type alkaloid analogs, 15-chloro-18-(acyl)oximinylmatrines (6a–6y), were semi-synthesized from matrine isolated from the roots of Sophora flavescens Aiton (Fabaceae). The spatial configurations of six derivatives were determined by X-ray crystallography. Analogs 6f (R = (CH2)9CH3) and 6g (R = (CH2)10CH3) all showing the pronounced insecticidal and acaricidal activities against two threatening pests Mythimna separata Walker and Tetranychus cinnabarinus Boisduval, could be used as the lead compounds for further structural optimization. It suggested that R as the aliphatic alkane with long straight chain was necessary for the insecticidal and acaricidal activities of matrine oximino esters.

In rod bundle experiments, coarse flow housing walls are used to provide flow boundaries for the working fluid. In the PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) reactor core, the guide tubes are needed to provide channels for control rods. The non-prototypical flow channel walls and guide tubes have similar cold wall effects on the thermal and hydraulic conditions of the surrounding flow channels. They might influence the local temperature, quality and mass flux distributions, which could have potential impacts on local mass and heat transfer characteristics. For example, when the flow resistance in the boiling hot channel increases due to steam generation, the adjacent cold channels around the guide tube can bypass the coolant and lead to the escalation of flow starvation in the steaming hot channel, which might ultimately lead to the early occurrence of a boiling crisis. In the rod bundle experiment, in order to ensure the representation of the CHF experiments, it is important to minimize the effects of the non-prototypical flow channel walls. In this paper, the wall effects of flow channel walls in a typical 5 × 5 rod bundle CHF test configuration have been minimized by optimizing the rod-to-wall gap (the gap between the outer rod wall and the channel inner wall design) through analytical analysis, CFD modeling and subchannel code calculation. This study concluded that the proper rod-to-wall gaps in the thermal field are often different from that in the hydraulic field. Therefore reasonable weight factors have been proposed to incorporate different impacts from these two fields. In order to determine proper design of rod-to-wall gap, the average temperature criterion, average mass flux criterion and maximum wall temperature criterion have been examined. Similarly, the cold wall effects of guide tube have been investigated using the theoretical model developed for the thermal field.

Assuming that initial public offering (IPO) issuers can value their own firms more accurately, we test the hypothesis that the stock markets tend to overvalue IPOs. Using the lower limit of initial filing price range as issuers’ reservation price, we estimate the premiums of IPO first day closing price and first month closing price over the reservation price using 3,138 initial public offerings (IPOs) from 1983 to 2012. We find that the price premiums are positively related to proxies for market over-optimism and uncertainty. IPOs with higher price premiums have worse stock performance in the long run. The results are robust to various economic specifications. The findings are consistent with the argument that the stock markets get over- optimistic about IPOs from time to time.

In this paper, we show that the alternating group A5 is the only nonsolvable group whose character graph has no triangles.