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Introduction: Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations have become increasingly important in the financial market and serve as concrete manifestations of sustainable development within a sector. Most corporate leaders have adopted ESG concerns as an important strategy to enhance their financial performance. Therefore, this study investigated whether ESG affects corporate financial performance, and if this relationship is moderated by digital transformation.Method: We used A-share listed companies in China from 2015 to 2021 as samples to test this mechanism.Results: Regression analysis showed that ESG positively and significantly affects corporate financial performance, and digital transformation drives this promoting effect. Furthermore, we found that the positive effect of current ESG on financial performance in the lag period will gradually weaken. Specifically, the heterogeneity test results show that the enhancement effect of ESG on financial performance is significant for non-state-owned companies but insignificant for state-owned companies; the same is true for companies located in the eastern region compared with those in the midwestern region. Finally, the enhancement effect of ESG on the financial performance of polluting firms is stronger than that on non-polluting firms.Conclusion: These findings will be useful for firms and government departments in formulating relevant policies.

In China’s modernization, enterprises have experienced a complex process of change, which has promoted or restricted the process of China’s modernization. From the perspective of government function adjustment; this chapter studies the enterprise transformation process in China’s modernization from a historical perspective. It is found that although micro problems such as corporate governance and principal-agent are very important, they are only the second problem. The first problem should be the adjustment of government functions. The transformation practice of western countries has also proved the importance of flexible adjustment of government functions. In China, during the imperial period, enterprises in modern China did not develop due to the failure of government function adjustment. Thus, to catch up with and surpass the world powers, the new China after 1949 adopted a planned economic system, which is reasonable in the path. The Chinese government carried out the social transformation of market economy orientation after 1979. From then, the enterprises have become modern enterprises in the market economy. The findings of this chapter are of great significance to enhance the institutional innovation of enterprises and promote the process of China’s modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of industrial demand, precise identification of system models is currently required in the field of industrial control, which limits the whale search algorithm. In response to the fact that whale optimization algorithms are prone to falling into local optima and the identification of important Hammerstein models ignores the issue of noise outliers in actual industrial environments, this study improves the whale algorithm and constructs a Hammerstein model identification strategy for nonlinear systems under heavy-tailed noise using the improved whale algorithm. Results showed that it had a lower rank average and an average success rate of 95.65%. It found the global optimum when the number of iterations reached around 150 and had faster convergence speed and accuracy. In identifying Hammerstein model under heavy-tailed noise, the average prediction recognition accuracy of the improved whale algorithm was 92.38%, the determination coefficient was 0.89, the percentage fitting error was 0.03, and the system error was 0.02. This research achievement has certain value in the field of industrial control and can serve as a technical reference.

[Objectives] This study was conducted to explore the best extraction technology of total flavonoids from Morinda citrifolia L. [Methods] An orthogonal test was carried out to select the best extraction process with the yield of total flavonoids in the extract as the investigation index. [Results] Among the four factors of experimental design, the extraction time had a very significant impact on the results, the ethanol concentration had a significant impact on the results, and the extraction temperature and ethanol dosage had no significant impacts on the results. The optimal extraction process conditions for the total flavonoids of M. citrifolia were as follows: extraction time 1.5 h, ethanol concentration 90%, extraction temperature 60-65 °C, and ethanol dosage 1:20 (g/ml) . The total flavonoids in M. citrifolia fruit were extracted according to the optimal extraction process conditions, and the yield was 2.936% . [Conclusions] This study provides a theoretical basis for obtaining the optimal extraction process conditions for total flavonoids of M. citrifolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The refractive index (RI) is the fundamental characteristic that affects the optical properties of aerosols, which could be some of the most important factors influencing direct radiative forcing. The secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) generated by the photooxidation of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and m-xylene (BTEX) under low-NOx and high-NOx conditions are explored in this study. The particles generated in our experiments are considered to be spherical, based on atomic force microscopy (AFM) images, and nonabsorbent at a wavelength of 532 nm, as determined by ultraviolet-visible light (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. The retrieved RIs at 532 nm for the SOAs range from 1.38-1.59, depending on several factors, such as different precursors and NOx levels. The RIs of the SOAs are altered differently as the NOx concentration increases as follows: the RIs of the SOAs derived from benzene and toluene increase, whereas those of the SOAs derived from ethylbenzene and m-xylene decrease. Finally, by comparing the experimental data with the model values, we demonstrate that the models likely overestimate the RI values of the SOA particles to a certain extent, which in turn overestimates the global direct radiative forcing of the organic particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

T cells represent a subset of lymphocytes characterized by immunosurveillance and immunoregulation function. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) are enriched in T cells, which exert critical antimicrobial roles in infectious diseases. High-throughput sequencing of the T cell receptor (TCR) provides deep insight into monitoring the immune microenvironment. Flow cytometry was used to analyse the distribution of αβ/γδ T cells and their CD69, IFN-γ/IL-17 expression from PBMCs. Here, we utilized next-generation sequencing (NGS) to detect the complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3) of TCRβ (TRB) and TCRδ (TRD) chain after methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. Our data demonstrated a significant increase in the activation of αβ and γδ T cells after MRSA infection. Simultaneously, significantly high CDR3 amino acid (AA) diversity and markedly reconstituted TCR immune repertoires were observed after MRSA infection. Finally, we identified several MRSA-specific initial CDR3 AA motifs after MRSA infection. Our work reveals the profiles of TRB and TRD immune repertoires in response to MRSA and demonstrates a reconstitution of the TCR immune repertoire after MRSA infection.

The purpose of this study was to explore the midterm clinical outcomes of unicompartmental knee replacement (UKR) for medial knee arthropathy through a minimally invasive approach (MIA).From January 2006 to June 2010, 442 consecutive patients (485 knees) were included in the study. All patients underwent MIA-UKR with the mobile bearing Oxford phrase III prosthesis. The incision was made starting 1 cm medial to the medial pole of the patella and extending distally to the tibial tubercle. Radiographic evaluations include femorotibial angle (FTA) from coronal x-rays and rectified varus deformity angle, while clinical evaluations included Knee Society Score (KSS, clinical score and function score), the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) osteoarthritis index and visual analog scale (VAS) for pain. Patients followed-up at 1, 3, 6, 12 months after surgery and each year thereafter.Four hundreds and two patients completed the entire follow-up, 40 patients (45 knees) were lost to follow-up. The average follow-up time was 73.0 ± 1.9 months. The mean length of the incisions was 5.0 ± 0.2 cm. The average FTA decreased from 183.6° ± 5.1° preoperatively to 174.3° ± 4.2° postoperatively, and the mean rectified varus deformity angle was 9.3° ± 1.2°. The KSS clinical score improved from 42.4 ± 2.9 to 92.9 ± 3.8, and the function score improved from 53.5 ± 3.8 to 93.5 ± 4.0. The WOMAC score improved from 47.5 ± 3.1 preoperatively to 12.3 ± 1.5 at the last evaluation. The VAS dropped from 7.8 ± 1.9 preoperatively to 1.6 ± 0.2 postoperatively. All clinical evaluations (KSS, WOMAC, VAS) were significantly different (p < 0.05) from pre and post-operative evaluations. The survival rate was 99.1% at 73 months, and the revision rate was 0.9%.The midterm clinical outcomes of MIA-UKR are satisfactory in a Chinese patient population, which is a good surgical option for patients with medial arthropathy of the knee. However, longer-term follow-up studies should be performed in these patients.