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INTRODUCTION Early-onset peritonitis (EOP) is a risk factor for mortality in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. This study investigates the clinical features and outcomes of EOP in elderly patients. METHODS This multicenter retrospective study evaluated 433 elderly PD patients with end-stage renal disease. The cohort was divided into nonperitonitis group (n = 239), EOP group (≤12 months, n = 109) and late-onset peritonitis (LOP) group (>12 months, n = 85). Clinical data, treatment results, and outcomes were compared between the groups. RESULTS Compared with LOP group, there were no significant intergroup differences in the rate of primary recovery, complete cure, relapse, catheter removal, or death from PDAP (p >0.05) in the most recent PDAP episode. However, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients in the EOP group were likely to have multiple episodes of PD-associated peritonitis (PDAP), technique failure, all-cause death, and composite endpoint in the long-term prognostic outcomes (p

UVC (ultrathin vapor chamber) simultaneously has a high heat-conducting property, excellent temperature uniformity and simple structure. These advantages are very suitable for thermal management of the open-cathode PEMFC (proton exchange membrane fuel cell) stack. In this work, two-type UVCs with different appearances are integrated into a conventional PEMFC stack respectively. The effect of UVC on the output performance, thermal management and operating stability is investigated by the experiment combined with simulation. The results show that UVC can significantly increase the output voltage under high current density. In 35 A, the output voltage of the stack integrated the vertical UVC increases by 20.25% relative to the conventional stack. Thermal management is also improved by UVC. The highest temperature inside the stack decrease by 9 °C in 35 A, and the membrane temperature is decreased obviously. But it still exceeds the optimal operating temperature of open-cathode PEMFC stack due to the poor cooling type in the condensation side of UVC. UVC improves the operation stability of the stack and slows the deteriorative speed of output performance. This work hopes to attract more attention to the application of UVC on the thermal management of portable power sources used open-cathode PEMFC stack.

We find that mutual funds whose managers are socially connected with firm auditors hold more shares of these firms and generate superior portfolio returns. Cross-sectional results reveal that the relation between social connections and mutual fund stockholdings is more pronounced: when the social connections are stronger; when the auditor is in a better position or has stronger incentives to acquire private information; when the fund manager exercises more power; for small audit firms; for auditors in areas with poor investor protection; and for public firms with greater business opacity or private information. Other results are consistent with fund managers electing to schedule their corporate site visits to coincide with the fieldwork of their connected auditors, as would be expected if fund managers time their visits to meet with these auditors to facilitate information transfer. Additionally, we observe associations between fund trading prior to earnings surprises and audit opinions, and the presence of social connections between fund managers and firm auditors. Finally, we show that mutual funds and firms in which they invest tend to appoint connected auditors and pay them higher fees. Collectively, we document empirical patterns that would arise if socially connected auditors and mutual fund managers share information.

The present work reports our efforts to enhance the performance and uniformity for the long tapes of metal–organic deposition YBa2Cu3O7−x (MOD-YBCO) layer on ion-beam-assisted deposition MgO (IBAD-MgO) template. Reflection High-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) is employed to realize the in-situ growth monitor of IBAD-MgO, as well as the correlation between the quantitative RHEED peaks and in-plane texture of Epi-MgO identified by XRD, which is an effective guide to improve the uniformity and performance of long YBCO tapes. In addition, the surface of the LMO layer during the magnetron sputtering process is improved via controlling the O2 flux, and then the critical-current density (Jc) of YBCO films has been improved. By optimizing the texture of the MgO layer and precisely controlling the LMO layer growth conditions, the performance and uniformity of YBCO-coated conductors grown by metal–organic deposition (MOD) have been greatly enhanced. The superconducting current-carrying capacities of 12-mm-wide tapes have upgraded steadily from 400–500 A to 500–550 A in past 3 years. The laminated CC tapes with current-carrying capacities of 150–170 A per 4-mm width show good uniformity and high quality along 500-m length, implying being promising for various commercial power applications.

We examine how options trading affects voluntary corporate disclosure, so that we can shed light on whether managers’ potential learning from the options market induces them to withhold disclosure. We find that options trading reduces the likelihood and frequency of management earnings forecasts, suggesting that firms that have active options trading on their stock make fewer voluntary disclosures. This finding is in accordance with the theoretical prediction that managers strategically reduce disclosure to avoid crowding out informed trading, which can give them informative feedback for their decision-making. In support of the managerial learning channel, we document a real effect of reduced disclosure: when managers disclose less, options trading has a stronger positive effect on firm investment efficiency. The more pronounced effect of options trading on management earnings forecasts when the need for managerial learning is higher further supports the learning channel.

We examine the role and economic consequences of emotions in shaping the judgment of corporate executives. Analyzing a large sample of U.S. public firms, we find that sunshine-induced good mood leads managers to make upwardly biased earnings forecasts. Importantly, our evidence implies that managers become less susceptible to the sunshine priming effect in unambiguous settings, when their forecasts are subject to stricter external monitoring, and when they have stronger incentives to issue accurate forecasts. Additional tests show that equity market participants discern less informative signals from forecasts influenced by sunshine and that managers prone to the sunshine priming effect impose costs on their firms in the form of higher information risk and equity financing costs. Reflecting that labor markets also play a disciplinary role, we find that mood-prone managers suffer adverse career outcomes. We provide the first large-scale analysis on the nuanced ways in which emotions affect top executives. JEL Classifications: G02; G30; M40; M41.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common disease in pregnant women with a prevalence from 1.4% to 14% based on the population studied. The number of patients with GDM is increasing annually, and yet, the treatment for GDM remains limited. In this study, we aimed to explore the potential of dendrobine against GDM. For this purpose, a genetic mouse model of GDM was established. GDM mice were orally administered with 20 mg/kg dendrobine daily from the beginning of pregnancy to delivery. It was found that dendrobine significantly ameliorated the symptoms of GDM, as evidenced by reduced maternal body-weight and blood glucose levels, as well as increased insulin levels and insulin sensitivity in GDM mice. Dendrobine also remarkably attenuated the impairments to offspring, such as decreased birth-weight and birth size. Moreover, dendrobine reduced the secretion of inflammatory cytokines by T helper 17 (Th17) cells, including interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-17. Furthermore, we found that dendrobine also reduced the population of Th17 cells in GDM mice. In conclusion, dendrobine could effectively alleviate GDM in mice and might serve as a potential therapeutic drug candidate for GDM patients.

In response to the recent debate on the media, this paper examines the effect of media coverage on firm earnings management. Even if prior studies (Dyck et al., 2010; Miller, 2006) have documented the media's role in detecting and deterring accounting fraud (or extreme earnings management), it is unclear ex ante whether the media amplifies or curbs less egregious earnings management. Our results show that media coverage is negatively associated with both accrual‐based and real earnings management, suggesting that the media serves as an external monitor that curbs managers’ opportunistic earnings management behaviors. Further analyses show that the effect of media coverage on earnings management is more pronounced when monitoring from auditors is weak and when the other information intermediaries are active. Overall, the findings suggest a monitoring role of the media in firm financial reporting practices.

Background Apatinib is a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that is taken orally and has high specificity for vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2). This study explored the efficacy and toxicity of apatinib in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) who failed to respond to multifaceted therapy. Methods A total of 61 patients with MBC who were unresponsive to previous multifaceted chemotherapy were included in this study. The treatment regimens were either a combination of apatinib and chemotherapy or apatinib administered singly with a dose range of 250 mg every second day to 500 mg per day. Progression-free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and toxicity were used as outcome measures. Results Of the 61 patients, partial response (PR) was observed in 14 patients (23.0%), stable disease (SD) was observed in 30 patients (49.2%), and progressive disease (PD) was observed in 17 patients (27.8%). The DCR was 44/61 (72.1%), and the ORR was 14/61 (23.0%). Of the 44 patients who achieved PR or SD, the median PFS was 4 months and 15 days. Patients with intracranial metastases were found to benefit from apatinib. Furthermore, 11 patients underwent next generation sequencing (NGS) and 5 of these had a P53 mutation. Of those 5 cases, the ORR and DCR were 0% and 20.0%, respectively. Of the 6 cases with wild-type P53, the ORR was 50.0%, and the DCR was 100.0%. Multivariate regression analysis found that hypertension was an independent prognostic factor of better DCR. Conclusions Apatinib showed good efficacy and manageable toxicity in patients with MBC that had not responded to multifaceted therapy.

Dyslipidemia is associated with lifestyle behaviors, while several lifestyle behaviors exist collectively among some populaitons. This study aims to identify lifestyle behavior clusters and their relations to dyslipidemia. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Wuhai City, China. Cluster analysis combined with compositional data analysis was conducted, with 24-h time-use on daily activities and dietary patterns as input variables. Multiple logistic regression was conducted to compare dyslipidemia among clusters. A total of 4306 participants were included. A higher prevalence of newly diagnosed dyslipidemia was found among participants in cluster 1 (long sedentary behavior (SB) and the shortest sleep, high-salt and oil diet) /cluster 5 (the longest SB and short sleep), relative to the other clusters in both age groups (&lt, 50 years and ≥50 years). In conclusion, unhealthy lifestyle behaviors may exist together among some of the population, suggesting that these people are potential subjects of health education and behavior interventions. Future research should be conducted to investigate the relative significance of specific lifestyle behaviors in relation to dyslipidemia.

Using a large sample of transaction-level institutional trading data, we investigate the role of institutional investors in stock market around the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 (9/11), a sudden exogenous catastrophic shock to financial markets. We find that institutional investors remain net buyers amid the large market-wide crisis following 9/11. Furthermore, stocks that are highly bought by institutions earn higher abnormal future returns than stocks that are highly sold. We also examine trading patterns across different types of institutional investors and various industry sectors. Our results suggest that institutional investors act as liquidity providers rather than engage in panic selling during market crises caused by catastrophic events. We also find that their liquidity provision trading is rational and profitable. Overall, our findings support the market stabilization role played by institutional investors who lend a “steady hand” during high-stress periods in financial markets.

We study how media coverage impacts pricing of initial public offerings (IPOs) around the world. Higher media coverage in the pre-IPO period leads to lower IPO initial returns. The effect is mitigated in countries with better financial reporting quality, greater shareholder rights protection, and more stringent media censorship, and for IPOs “certified” by reputable intermediaries, while it is amplified in countries with higher levels of media penetration and media trust. Further, IPOs with higher pre-IPO media coverage have lower ex post price revision volatility. Our findings suggest that higher pre-IPO media coverage reduces information asymmetry among investors, leading to less underpriced IPOs.

With the rapid development of medical imaging methodologies, such as magnetic resonance (MR) and positron emission tomography (PET)/MR, various types of MR images, which are acquired using inconsistent MR pulse sequences on the same patient, have been applied in medical-image-based diagnoses. A feature map extracted from an MR image describes the patient’s condition from one perspective. By effectively using all feature maps from various MR images, it is possible to completely describe the intrinsic characteristics of the patient’s condition to facilitate a diagnosis. Facing such a scenario, classic machine learning algorithms typically stack these feature maps for unified processing and do not explore the importance of each feature within a single feature map or the relationships among feature maps. To address these challenges, both multiview and subspace learning scenarios are considered in this study, and the multiview collaboration-based fuzzy soft subspace clustering (MVC-FSSC) algorithm is proposed. The MVC-FSSC algorithm not only strives to exploit the agreement of decisions across all views via collaborative learning but also strives to utilize the soft subspace-based weighting mechanism to automatically evaluate the contribution of each dimensional feature to each estimated cluster within a single view. Our experimental results indicate that the proposed MVC-FSSC algorithm can effectively explore the collaborative relations among all views and the importance of features in their respective views. Additionally, our MVC-FSSC method has substantial advantages over traditional clustering algorithms in MR image segmentation. Applying the MVC-FSSC algorithm to five patients’ MR images, the average mean absolute prediction deviation (MAPD) is 98.62 ± 8.34, which is significantly better than the score of 131.90 ± 16.03 that was obtained using the collaborative fuzzy k-means (CO-FKM) algorithm and the score of 128.87 ± 11.32 that was obtained using the quadratic weights and Gini-Simpson diversity-based fuzzy clustering (QWGSD-FC) algorithm.

The basic premise of iterative and evolutionary project management is that a project is divided into early, frequent, and short duration delivery steps. Each step attempts to deliver some real value to stakeholders. The increment size and iteration length usually depend on profitability, finance, deadline, and so on, rather than the functionality of a developing system. It is difficult to guarantee the correctness in every iteration step. In this article, we propose a method of ensuring the correctness of iterative design in terms of deadlock-freedom of the behavior of software. The method first obtains the correct (deadlock-free) atomic subsystems of a system using a decomposition approach. In the iterative development process, the method then requires that one atomic subsystem or the composition of multiple atomic subsystems should be regarded as one increment. Every increment is naturally correct and can be completely independently developed, independently deployed, and independently maintained. The currently released system in each iteration step is naturally guaranteed to be correct. It is not necessary for developers to consider the composition of the increment and the previously released system may cause flaws and errors. We also discuss the approach for ensuring correctness when design modifications are made in an iteration step. Finally, we explore the automatic decomposition of a system into multiple atomic subsystems and present the corresponding algorithm. A case demonstrates these results.

To better circumvent the issues of oil spills and industrial organic pollutants, it is urgent and necessary to develop advanced material or technology that can efficiently separate oil/water mixture. Herein, no matter light or heavy oil/water mixtures are separated successfully by a straight tee system combining two opposite superwetting meshes. The combined system shows a high flux (above 0.22 × 105 L m−2 h−1), high efficiency (above 99.3%) for continuous light or heavy oil/water separation with good durability. Importantly, the superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic meshes can be easily obtained via facile, viable electroless galvanic replacement reaction followed post surface modification strategy. Additionally, the capillary action was used to clarify mechanism of oil/water separation to gain insight into oil/water separation process. The merits of high flux, high efficiency, viable for light/heavy oil and durability make this separation system a powerful tool for practical application in continuous oil/water separation.

Traditional classification methods, which use low-level features, have failed to gain satisfactory classification results of very high spatial resolution (VHR) remote sensing images. Even though per-pixel classification method based on convolutional neural network (CNN) (Per-pixel CNN) achieved higher accuracy with the help of high-level features, this method still has limitations. Per-superpixel classification method based on CNN (Per-superpixel CNN) overcomes the limitations of per-pixel CNN, however, there are still some scale related issues in per-superpixel CNN needed to be explored and addressed. Firstly, in order to avoid the misclassification of complex land cover objects caused by scale effect, the per-superpixel classification method combining multi-scale CNN (Per-superpixel MCNN) is proposed. Secondly, this paper analyzes how scale parameter of CNN impacts the classification accuracy and involves spatial statistics to pre-estimate scale parameter in per-superpixel CNN. This paper takes two VHR remote sensing images as experimental data, and employs two superpixel segmentation algorithms to classify urban and suburban land covers. The experimental results show that per-superpixel MCNN can effectively avoid misclassification in complex urban area compared with per-superpixel classification method combining single-scale CNN (Per-superpixel SCNN). Series of classification results also show that using the pre-estimated scale parameter can guarantee high classification accuracy, thus arbitrary nature of scale estimation can be avoided to some extent. Additionally, through discussion of the influence of accuracy evaluation method in CNN classification, it is stressed that random selection of ground truth validation points from study area is recommended and more responsibly other than using part of a reference dataset.

We explore the impact of religious norms on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm value. Employing a longitudinal sample of publicly listed U.S. firms, we document that strong local religious norms in the area surrounding firms’ headquarters attenuate the positive effect of CSR on firm value. In cross-sectional analyses, we find that the attenuating effect of strong local religious norms is amplified for firms with heightened litigation risk. We also find that the positive effect of CSR on firm value is amplified for firms headquartered in areas where prevailing religious norms are more tolerant of risk-taking. Further, we find that strong religious norms attenuated the positive association between CSR and abnormal stock returns during the 2008–2009 financial crisis. Taken together, our findings cast local religious norms as an important contextual factor that influences the insurance value of CSR—the protection that CSR affords against stakeholder reactions to negative events.

We show that firms with higher stock liquidity engage less in extreme (i.e., overly aggressive or overly conservative) tax avoidance. The effect of stock liquidity on tax avoidance is economically meaningful and robust across alternative measures of tax avoidance and stock liquidity. The findings also hold after controlling for potential endogenous effects. We further document that the effect of stock liquidity on tax avoidance is amplified for firms with high proportions of activist shareholders and attenuated for firms with high levels of stock price informativeness. Overall, our findings suggest that stock liquidity mitigates extreme tax avoidance by enhancing shareholders’ monitoring over firm management.

We document that global board reforms are associated with a significant reduction in the underpricing of initial public offerings (IPOs). The effect is amplified for IPOs with greater agency problems and mitigated for IPOs certified by reputable intermediaries, IPOs with greater disclosure specificity, and IPOs in countries with better shareholder protection and stringent financial reporting regulations. Furthermore, global board reforms have led to an improvement in the long-term market performance, proceeds, and subscription level of IPOs and have enhanced board independence in the issuing firms. Our findings suggest that global board reforms have strengthened board oversight in the issuing firms, leading to less underpriced IPOs.

A radar absorbing material (RAM) is designed based on the magnetic ceramic and frequency selective surface (FSS). The phase composition and micromorphology were characterized, respectively. The complex permittivity and complex permeability of magnetic ceramic were tested and studied from 25 ℃ to 500 ℃ temperature. Based on the experimental and simulation results, the changes of reflection loss along with the structure parameters of RAM are analyzed at 500 ℃. The relationship of reflection loss varies with temperature are studied. The analytical results show that the absorption property of the RAM increases with the increase of temperature. An optimal absorption of RAM is obtained at 500℃. When the thickness of RAM is 1.5 mm, the reflection loss lower than -10 dB can be obtained in the frequency range from 8.2 ~ 16 GHz. More than 90% microwave energy can be consumed in the RAM which may be applied in the high temperature environment.

We examine the potential effects of the sudden loss of public information search capacity caused by Google’s withdrawal from China on Chinese analysts’ earnings forecasts. We observe a decline in analyst forecast accuracy for firms with foreign trade relative to firms without foreign trade after Google’s withdrawal. This decline in analyst forecast accuracy suggests that Google’s withdrawal hinders analysts’ acquisition of foreign information on firms, which decreases the quality of their earnings forecasts. Consistent with this argument, we find that Google’s withdrawal has a stronger effect on the accuracy of forecasts for firms with greater business complexity and more opaque financial reporting. We also find that corporate site visits serve as an alternative information source that can compensate for the information loss caused by Google’s withdrawal. Our evidence suggests a potential cost of limiting the flow of public information about firms in the capital market.

We study the impact of CEO overconfidence on workplace safety. We provide robust evidence of a positive relation between CEO overconfidence and workplace injury rates, implying that CEO overconfidence impairs workplace safety. In cross-sectional analysis, we find that the documented effect is amplified among firms with greater concentration of decision rights in headquarters and high employee turnover, while is mitigated among firms with stronger labor union presence, high institutional ownership, and CEOs who are close to retirement age. Supplemental analysis points to poor corporate safety culture and increased employee workload as the mechanisms behind the documented relation.

We examine whether firms’ co-opetition (i.e., simultaneously competitive and cooperative) behaviors in standard-setting organizations (SSOs) affect their public R&D disclosure. We find that relative to matched control firms, firms that participate in SSOs increase their narrative R&D disclosure to the public after SSO participation. The effect of SSO participation on narrative R&D disclosure is more pronounced for firms with a greater ex-ante proprietary cost of disclosure and firms with higher investor information demand. Further analyses show that narrative R&D disclosure increases with the percentage of competitors in the SSO and that SSO participation raises not only the quantity but also the information content of such disclosure. Overall, the findings suggest that co-opetition inside SSOs facilitates the sharing of proprietary R&D information with competitors. This reduces firms’ proprietary cost of disclosure, incentivizing them to disclose more R&D information to the public.

Background: There are relatively few studies on the treatment of symptomatic adjacent segment disease(ASD) after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion(ACDF). The purpose of this study to compare the clinical efficacy of zero-profile(zero-p) intervertebral fusion and titanium plate combined with cage fusion for treating ASD after ACDF. Methods: Retrospective analysis was performed on patients who underwent ACDF and readmission due to concurrent symptomatic ASD from October 2014 to June 2019. Among them, 12 cases underwent anterior cervical decompression with zero-p intervertebral fusion (zero-p group), and 14 cases underwent anterior cervical decompression with titanium plate combined with cage fusion (titanium plate group). Operative time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative Japanese 0rthopaedic Association (JOA) score, visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, neck disability index (NDI), dysphagia Bazaz grade, bone graft fusion Eck grade, C2-C7 Cobb Angle, and related complications were compared between the two groups. Results: The intraoperative blood loss difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P>0.05). The operation time of the zero-p group was shorter than that of the titanium plate group, with significant differences(P0.05). At the last follow-up, the JOA score, VAS score, NDI index, C2-C7 Cobb Angle were significantly different between the zero-P group and the titanium plate group (P0.05). During the follow-up period, all the patients did not have a rupture of the settler screw and esophageal injury and other related diseases.Conclusions: Both methods can achieve good clinical efficacy in the treatment of symptomatic ASD, and can restore and maintain the physiological curvature of the cervical spine to a certain extent. However, the advantages of zero-p intervertebral fusion including shorter operation time, reducing soft tissue injury, and less postoperative dysphagia.

Introduction: The impact of early-onset peritonitis (EOP) on patients with diabetes undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD) has not been adequately addressed. We therefore sought to investigate the effects of EOP on the therapeutic response to management and long-term prognostic outcomes in patients with diabetes undergoing PD. Methods: For this retrospective cohort study, we analyzed the data for patients with end-stage renal disease, who were also suffering from diabetes mellitus and had undergone PD between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2018. EOP was defined as the first episode of peritoneal dialysis-related peritonitis (PDAP) occurring within 12 months of PD initiation. All patients were divided into an EOP group and a later-onset peritonitis (LOP) group. Clinical data, treatment results, and outcomes were compared between groups. Results: Ultimately, 202 patients were enrolled for the analysis. Compared to the EOP group, the LOP group had more Streptococcus (p = 0.033) and Pseudomonas (p = 0.048). Patients with diabetes in the EOP group were less likely to have PDAP-related death (OR 0.13, CI: 0.02–0.82, p = 0.030). Patients with diabetes in the EOP group were more likely to have multiple episodes of PDAP and had higher rates of technical failure and poorer patient survival than those in the LOP group, as indicated by Kaplan-Meier analysis (p = 0.019, p = 0.004, and p < 0.001). In the multivariate Cox proportional hazards model, EOP was a significant predictor for multiple PDAP (HR 4.20, CI: 1.48–11.96, p = 0.007), technical failure (HR 6.37, CI: 2.21–18.38, p = 0.001), and poorer patient survival (HR 3.09, CI: 1.45–6.58, p = 0.003). Conclusions: The occurrence of EOP is significantly associated with lower rates of PDAP-related death and poorer clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes undergoing PD.

Aim To analyze the relationship between iron metabolism index and stress hormones, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Methods From January to November 2019, 75 patients with GDM were selected as GDM group, according to age of 1:1; 75 normal pregnant women were selected as Control group. Blood glucose, insulin, stress hormones such as cortisol, norepinephrine (NE), and epinephrine (E), and iron metabolism index such as serum iron, serum ferritin (SF), and transferrin saturation (TS) were measured. Insulin resistance was evaluated by homeostasis model insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR). Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the relationship between iron metabolism index and stress hormones, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress. Results The levels of NE, E, serum iron, SF, and TS saturation in the GDM group were higher than Control group (t = 3.82, 2.75, 3.14, 6.12, and 3.90, P t = 4.92, P t = 5.25, 4.98, both P r = 0.21, 0.17, and 0.21); epinephrine, cortisol, and transferrin were positively correlated (r = 0.12, 0.31). There was a positive correlation between HOMA-IR and SF and TS (r = 0.34, 0.34). MDA was positively correlated with SF and TS (r = 0.24, 0.29); SOD was negatively related to SF and TS (r = −0.12, −0.17). Conclusions Iron metabolism index is related to insulin resistance in GDM women. The change in iron metabolism may be involved in the pathogenesis of gestational diabetes caused by stress- adaptive disorder.

We document that global board reforms are associated with a significant reduction in IPO underpricing. The effect is amplified for IPOs with greater agency problems and mitigated for IPOs certified by reputable intermediaries, IPOs with greater disclosure specificity, and IPOs in countries with better shareholder protection and stringent financial reporting regulations. Furthermore, global board reforms have led to an improvement in the long-term market performance, proceeds, and subscription level of IPOs, and have enhanced board independence in the issuing firms. Our findings suggest that global board reforms have strengthened board oversight in the issuing firms, leading to less underpriced IPOs.

Using the NOx budget trading program (NBP) as a quasi-natural experiment, we examine whether a reduction in air pollution enhances inventor risk-taking, thus making inventors more innovative. We find that inventors located in NBP participating states produce more patents after the introduction of the NBP. These patents also receive more forward citations and have higher economic value. The effect of the NBP is larger for less experienced inventors and inventors living in high-pollution areas. Further, inventors located in NBP participating states engage more in experimental innovation and less in specialization innovation after the NBP, which confirms the risk-taking channel.

As business failure is a high probability event that influences the operation efficiency of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, it is necessary to know how to manage business failure experience to promote serial entrepreneurship and improve circulation in the ecosystem. While most scholars agree that it is different between failure and exit, DeTienne suggests that exit could be a way to avoid failure and protect the passion and financial condition of entrepreneurs. Therefore, this chapter analyzes the difference of failure and exit and conducts a model to help entrepreneurs decide whether to exit and how to choose a better way to exit entrepreneurship. In the meantime, this chapter analyzes why entrepreneurial exit can improve the operation efficiency of entrepreneurial ecosystem, and also it would give some ideas about how to bound from failure and benefit from failure to do better next time. After reading this chapter, entrepreneurs have the idea that failure is controllable and exit may be a restart to do business more successfully.

3D printing technology and its extension 4D printing technology have been extensively developed since it was proposed and applied to many industries, including aerospace, biomedical, and food fields. However, there are material limitations for 3D/4D food printing, as some natural food gels cannot be directly applied to 3D/4D food printing, and most natural food gels tend to have poor printing characteristics, which are difficult or impossible to print. Additives in food have a long history of application, which can change some properties of natural food gels. Suitable rheological property is the primary condition of 3D/4D food printing, most of the research is about improving the rheological property of ink, while the research on improving the thermal property, electrostatic property, nutritional property and sensory quality of ink (especially electrostatic property and nutritional property) is still insufficient. This article discusses the printing characteristics (rheological properties, thermal properties, electrostatic properties, nutritional properties, and sensory qualities) of natural food gels that are improved by additives in 3D/4D food printing, mainly from three types of additives: lipids, hydrocolloids, and carbohydrates.

Pixel-based convolutional neural network (CNN) has demonstrated good performance in the classification of very high resolution images (VHRI) from which abstract deep features are extracted. However...

Background Stress hormones such as corticosterone (CORT) play an essential role in the development of depression. Chronic CORT administration has been shown to induce dysfunction in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis leading to depression, which was in turn associated with accelerated aging. However, the effect of CORT administration on aging remains unclear. Methods Rats were acclimatized for 1 week and then injected daily with CORT (40 mg/kg) or vehicle (n = 10 each) for 21 consecutive days. Age-related indexes were then compared between CORT-treated rats and control rats. Results CORT induced affective behaviors indicative of depressive-like symptoms in rats, including reduced sucrose preference and increased immobility time in the forced swimming test. CORT-treated rats exhibited telomere shortening, possibly contributing to decreased telomerase activity and down-regulated expression of telomere-binding factor 2, correlated with enhanced oxidative damage. This was associated with inhibition of sirtuin 3 leading to reduced activities of superoxide dismutase 2 and glutathione reductase. CORT-treated rats showed degenerated mitochondrial functions represented by decreased adenosine triphosphate production, decreased nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide+ content, and decreased activity of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase. Limitations The group sample sizes were small, and only male rats and a single dose level of CORT were used. Conclusion These findings demonstrate that CORT-induced depression may be involved in mediating the pathophysiology of premature aging in rats.

We examine how executive equity risk-taking incentives affect firms’ choice of debt structure. Using a longitudinal sample of U.S. firms, we document that when executive compensation is more sensitive to stock volatility (i.e., has higher vega), firms reduce their reliance on bank debt financing. We utilize the passage of the Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) 123R option-expensing regulation as an exogenous shock to management option compensation to account for potential endogeneity. In cross-sectional analyses, we find that the documented effect of vega is amplified among firms with higher growth opportunities and more opaque financial information; we also find vega's effect is mitigated in firms with limited abilities to tap into public debt market. Supplemental analyses suggest that firms with higher vega face more stringent bank loan covenants. We conclude that, by encouraging risk-taking, higher vega reduces firms’ reliance on bank debt financing in order to avoid more stringent bank monitoring.

Stem cell therapy is a promising strategy for the treatment of ischemic diseases such as critical limb ischemia (CLI). The major obstacle is the poor survival rate and low efficiency of the implanted stem cells. Biomimetic scaffolds such as injectable hydrogels have shown the ability to promote cell retention and survival. However, the local ischemic microenvironment especially the high level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) usually induces cell loss and dysfunction, thereby leading to unsatisfactory therapeutic outcomes. Herein, we developed a new injectable hybrid hydrogel composed of natural type I collagen and melanin nanoparticles (MeNPs) for the delivery of Gremlin1 (Grem1)-overexpressed mesenchymal stem cells (Grem1-MSCs) and CLI therapy. After local injection of this cell delivery system into the ischemic limbs of mice, the thermal-triggered in situ gelation of collagen could maintain Grem1-MSCs at the injection site and MeNPs entrapped in the hydrogel framework could modulate the ischemic microenvironment via scavenging ROS to promote the survival of implanted stem cells. With this improved cell retention and survival, Grem1-MSCs could constantly secrete high concentration of Grem1, a newly discovered proangiogenic factor that can promote angiogenesis by activating the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-AKT signaling pathway, thereby leading to improved blood perfusion in the ischemic limbs and superior limb salvage. The strategy developed herein offers a promising therapeutic option for the effective cell-based treatment of ischemic diseases.

We examine whether corporate pension plans of client firms (hereafter, clients) influence auditors’ decisions on audit pricing for the clients in the U.S. We find that, on average, auditors charge higher fees for auditing financial statements of client firms sponsoring defined benefits (DB) pension plans than matched firms without DB pension plans. Moreover, we find that the effect of DB pension plans on audit fees is stronger when clients’ earnings are more sensitive to DB pension estimates, or when managers’ compensation induces more risk taking. Finally, we find that the additional audit fees charged for clients with DB pension plans are negatively associated with the extent of manipulations of DB pension accounting estimates. Collectively, our findings suggest that auditors consider managers’ incentive to manipulate earnings and increase audit effort to reduce audit risk associated with DB pension accounting, which results in higher audit fees.

Institutional cross-owners, specifically institutional investors with significant stakes in multiple firms in the same industry, are becoming increasingly common in the United States. In this paper, we investigate and find that the presence of institutional cross-owners facilitates a firm's financing of its investment opportunities, consistent with institutional cross-owners reducing the adverse selection concerns of those who provide capital for the investment opportunities. We then examine the conditions under which the presence of institutional cross-owners is likely to more significantly reduce adverse selection and thereby have even more of a positive effect on the financing of investment opportunities. We document that relative to transient institutional cross-owners, dedicated institutional cross-owners facilitate more financing of investment opportunities. We also find that institutional cross-owners facilitate the financing of investment opportunities even more for firms with greater dependence on external financing, those with an opaque financial reporting environment, and those with more product market competition. Our paper offers novel insight into how a firm can benefit from the presence of institutional cross-owners.

The information industry has become a “new engine” driving the growth of the world economy. However, there are many controversies about whether digital technology can reduce the intensity of carbon emissions. Based on OECD data, KPWW method and multiple panel regression, this paper explores the impact and mechanism of digital technology innovation and technology spillover to the domestic carbon emission intensity. Through impulse response analysis and variance decomposition, the comprehensive impact of digital technology on carbon intensity is clarified. This paper concludes that technology innovation in the information industry will increase the intensity of carbon emissions, while cross-industry technology spillovers are persistent for reducing the intensity of domestic carbon emissions. Since the emission reduction effect of technology spillover is greater than the emission increase effect of technology innovation, the digital technology would empower domestic green development. Increasing the proportion of non-fossil energy use and optimizing the industrial structure are effective mechanisms for digital technology innovation to reduce carbon emission intensity.

This paper presents the development of a novel thermal ink-jet printer head prototype using full carbon-based microbubble generators with carbon nanotubes as heating elements and graphene as electrodes. Meanwhile, each microbubble generator is equipped with a carbon nanotube sensor to real-timely probe the temperature of its surrounding micro-environment. With an array of microbubble generators and sensors fabricated on quartz glass, as well as a microfluidic structure constructed by the micromachined silicon, the printer head prototype is formed by an anodic silicon-glass bonding process with several scattered graphene film flakes as medium. Droplet ejection with volume as tiny as ~0.03 pl corresponding to a very high spatial resolution of >2000 dpi driven by two microbubble valves is demonstrated by the printing unit in the prototype. Increasing the input power cannot only speed up the bubble nucleation and growth, but also improve the utilizing efficiency of electric heating energy. The experimental detected temperature variation in the printing unit reveals its nonlinear heat convection property by comparison with the theoretical calculation by finite-element analysis. [2017-0048]

The success of support vector machine depends on the kernel function, which directly affects the performance of SVM. Therefore, to improve the generalization of SVM, we will study the selection of kernel function. The multi-scale kernel method is one particular type of multiple kernel method which combines multi-scale kernels through a multi-kernel learning framework. It has the capability of generalizing not only the scattered region of a training set very well but also generalizing the dense region of data sets very well. Inspired by the advantages of the multi-scale kernel learning method, we applied kernel centered polarization to construct an optimization problem which was used to learn the multi scale kernel function and select the optimal parameters. A thorough analysis and proofs are provided. Experimental results show that the proposed kernel learning method and algorithm are reasonable and effective and have very good generalization performance.

The finance literature offers two competing possibilities on how investors respond to the quality of public financial statements in their pricing decisions. They could collect either (i) more private information to benefit from lower information collection cost, or (ii) less private information because of lower incremental benefits. In this paper, we use the audit setting to examine which possibility prevails. Using the idiosyncratic return volatility as a proxy for firm-specific information, we show in a sample of 51,559 firm-year observations for 8,261 U.S. firms spanning the period of 2000–2010 that firms audited by higher-quality auditors exhibit lower average idiosyncratic return volatility but a higher concentration of it at the time of earnings announcements. Our findings are consistent with the argument that investors reduce private information collection in response to higher audit quality. Our findings are robust to alternative measures of audit quality and idiosyncratic return volatility.

Achieving vibration and/or wave attenuation with locally resonant metamaterials has attracted a great deal of attention due to their frequency dependent negative effective mass density. Moreover, adaptive phononic crystals with shunted piezoelectric patches have also demonstrated a tunable wave attenuation mechanism by controlling electric circuits to achieve a negative effective stiffness. In this paper, we propose an adaptive hybrid metamaterial that possesses both a negative mass density as well as an extremely tunable stiffness by properly utilizing both the mechanical and electric elements. A multi-physical analytical model is first developed to investigate and reveal the tunable wave manipulation abilities in terms of both the effective negative mass density and/or bending stiffness of the hybrid metamaterial. The programmed flexural wave manipulations, broadband negative refraction and waveguiding are then illustrated through three-dimensional (3D) multi-physical numerical simulations in hybrid metamaterial plates. Our numerical results demonstrate that the flexural wave propagation can essentially be switched between “ON/OFF” states by connecting different shunting circuits.

The kernel parameter and penalty parameter C are the main factors that affect the learning performance of the support vector machine. However, there are many deficiencies in the existing kernel parameters and penalty parameters C. These methods do not have high accuracy when it comes to classifying multi-category samples, and even ignore some of the samples to conduct training, which violates the integrity of the experimental data. In contrast, this paper improves the selection method of support vector machine kernel parameters and penalty parameters in two ways. First, it obtains the kernel parameter value by optimizing the maximum separation interval between the samples. Second, it optimizes the generalization ability estimation via the influence of the non-boundary support vector on the stability of the support vector machine. The method takes full account of all the training sample data, which is applicable to most sample types, and has the characteristics of low initialization requirements and high-test accuracy. The paper finally uses multiple sets of UCI sample data sets and facial image recognition to verify the method. The experimental results show that the method is feasible, effective and stable.

Mechanical hypersensitivity is a debilitating symptom associated with millions of chronic pain patients. It exists in distinct forms, including brush-evoked dynamic and filament-evoked punctate. Here we report that dynamic mechanical hypersensitivity induced by nerve injury or inflammation was compromised in mice with ablation of spinal VT3Lbx1 neurons defined by coexpression of VGLUT3Cre and Lbx1Flpo, as indicated by the loss of brush-evoked nocifensive responses and conditional place aversion. Electrophysiological recordings show that VT3Lbx1 neurons form morphine-resistant polysynaptic pathways relaying inputs from low-threshold Aβ mechanoreceptors to lamina I output neurons. Meanwhile, the subset of somatostatin (SOM) lineage neurons preserved in VT3Lbx1 neuron-ablated mice is largely sufficient to mediate von Frey filament-evoked punctate mechanical hypersensitivity, including both morphine-sensitive and morphine-resistant forms. Furthermore, acute silencing of VT3Lbx1 neurons attenuated pre-established dynamic mechanical hypersensitivity induced by nerve injury, suggesting these neurons as a potential cellular target for treating this form of neuropathic pain.

This paper investigates how religion-induced attitudes toward change and diversity affect corporate acquisition decisions. By studying the variation in religious adherence across U.S. counties, we find that acquirer announcement returns and total synergy are larger in counties in which progressive religious denominations are popular. In contrast, conservative religious denominations affect neither acquirer announcement returns nor total synergies. Our evidence indicates that religion-induced social norms are an important driver of large corporate transactions, while various religious denominations affect corporate outcomes differently.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) affects 7% of pregnant women worldwide, which increases the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease for both the mother and the fetus. Natural compound Astaxanthin has been reported to have benefits in obesity and diabetes. A pregnant C57BL/KsJ db/+ mouse was used as a genetic GDM model to investigate the effect of Astaxanthin on GDM symptoms and reproductive outcomes. Blood glucose, plasma insulin, glucose intolerance, insulin sensitivity, biochemical indexes of plasma, and the liver were measured; Nrf2 and HO-1 protein levels were detected by Western blotting. Astaxanthin significantly alleviated the glucose intolerance and β cell insufficiency, inhibited in vivo oxidative stress, enhanced the activity of antioxidant enzymes, and improved reproductive outcomes. Mechanistically, the effect of Astaxanthin was mediated by restoring the Nrf2/HO-1 antioxidant pathway in the liver of GDM mice. Our findings supported that Astaxanthin was a potential therapeutic reagent for not only diabetes but also GDM symptomology.

We show that credit default swap (CDS) trading on a firm's debt positively influences its technological innovation output measured by patents and patent citations. This positive effect is more pronounced in firms relying more on debt financing or being more subject to continuous monitoring by lenders prior to CDS trade initiation. Moreover, after CDS trade initiation, firms pursue more risky and original innovations and generate patents with higher economic value. Further analysis suggests that CDSs improve borrowing firms’ innovation output by enhancing lenders’ risk tolerance and borrowers’ risk- taking in the innovation process, rather than by increasing Research and Development (R&D) investment. Taken together, our findings reveal the real effects of CDSs on companies’ investments and technological progress. Accepted version

Objective: Changes in the number of various tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and degrees of vascular normalization in breast cancer (BC) patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) were analyzed to screen key factors that can predict the prognosis.Methods: HE-stained sections were used to assess the degree of TILs infiltration; immunohistochemically stained sections were used to assess the infiltration of CD8+, CD4+, FOXP3+ Tregs and the expression of PD-L1; immunofluorescence-stained sections were used to assess the microvessel density (MVD) and microvessel pericyte coverage index (MPI). The expression of them before NAC were compared with those after NAC, and correlations between changes in these parameters and the pathological complete remission (pCR) and DFS of BC patients were analyzed.Results: After NAC, the percentage of patients with enhanced sTILs in the pCR group was significantly higher than that in the Non-pCR group (P < 0.05). Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that the number of FOXP3+ Tregs and MPI before NAC were correlated with pCR (P < 0.05). Survival analysis showed that the DFS of BC patients with reduced FOXP3+ Tregs was significantly better than that of patients with elevated FOXP3+ Tregs (P = 0.029). The sTILs count and MPI were significantly higher in primary tumors than lymph nodes (P < 0.05).Conclusion: After NAC, the reduced infiltration of FOXP3+ Tregs was correlated with an improvement in DFS in BC patients. Changes in the number of FOXP3+ Tregs and the MPI may be used as prognostic markers for BC patients.