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Based on the policy incentives for equity financing and firms' awareness of managing supply disruption risk, this paper examines a two-tier supply chain. A large manufacturer can purchase products either from a capital-constrained unreliable supplier who has disruption risk or a reliable backup supplier with a higher cost. We investigate the value and interactive use of the backup supplier and equity financing on firms' performances. The results show both the backup supplier and equity financing alone can always benefit the manufacturer, but the unreliable supplier can become worse off. However, when the backup supplier and equity financing interact, their impact changes dramatically. Under equity financing, the backup supplier can make the unreliable supplier better, and the effect of the backup supplier on disruption risk management differs with different wholesale prices. Moreover, with a backup supplier, equity financing can benefit both the manufacturer and the unreliable supplier. Specifically, with the backup supplier, the unreliable supplier can lose all autonomy on whether or not to raise equity financing. Then, the manufacturer and unreliable supplier can achieve Pareto optimality due to 'bidirectional free riding'. These insights provide strategic guidance for product ordering, enabling firms to manage disruption risk better and achieve high profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steatotic donor livers are becoming more and more common in liver transplantation. However, the current use of steatotic grafts is less acceptable than normal grafts due to their higher susceptibility to ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. To investigate the mechanism underlying the susceptibility of steatotic liver to I/R injury, we detected cell death markers and inflammation in clinical donor livers and animal models. We found that caspase-8-mediated hepatic apoptosis is activated in steatotic liver I/R injury. However, ablation of caspase-8 only slightly mitigated steatotic liver I/R injury without affecting inflammation. We further demonstrated that RIPK1 kinase induces both caspase-8-mediated apoptosis and cell deathindependent inflammation. Inhibition of RIPK1 kinase significantly protects against steatotic liver I/R injury by alleviating both hepatic apoptosis and inflammation. Additionally, we found that RIPK1 activation is induced by Z-DNA binding protein 1 (ZBP1) but not the canonical TNF-a pathway during steatotic liver I/R injury. Deletion of ZBP1 substantially decreases the steatotic liver I/R injury. Mechanistically, ZBP1 is amplified by palmitic acid-activated JNK pathway in steatotic livers. Upon I/R injury, excessive reactive oxygen species trigger ZBP1 activation by inducing its aggregation independent of the Z- nucleic acids sensing action in steatotic livers, leading to the kinase activation of RIPK1 and the subsequent aggravation of liver injury. Thus, ZBP1-mediated RIPK1-driven apoptosis and inflammation exacerbate steatotic liver I/R injury, which could be targeted to protect steatotic donor livers during transplantation., Introduction End-stage liver disease is the leading cause of mortality in digestive diseases, with liver transplantation as the sole curative intervention (1). The scarcity of available donor livers has led [...]

Under the background of “double carbon”, the concept of green consumption has been deeply rooted in the hearts of people. However, consumers do not fully trust the greenness of products. The information transparency and traceability mechanism of blockchain technology can well dispel consumers?? doubts. Introducing blockchain technology into traditional green supply chains, considering consumer green preferences and green trust, a game model is constructed among members of the green supply chain before and after the application of blockchain technology, as well as under different power structures, to quantitatively study their emission reduction and pricing strategies, and to explore how to achieve optimal consumer surplus and total social welfare. On the basis of adopting blockchain technology, smart wholesale price contracts and cost sharing smart contracts are designed, and the reasonable range of smart wholesale prices and the optimal cost sharing ratio are calculated, to improve enterprise operational efficiency and achieve supply chain coordination. The results show that when consumers?? green preference is high, the use of blockchain can bring more benefits to all participants in the supply chain. At the same time, the higher the willingness of consumers to buy green products, the greater the benefits. Through numerical analysis, it is found that the smart contracts can better coordinate the supply chain in the case of retailers leading the supply chain. Finally, the validity of the relevant conclusions is verified through empirical cases.

Circular RNA (circRNA) is involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis (AS). The present work analyzed the RNA expression of circ_0113656, microRNA-188-3p (miR-188-3p), and insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The protein expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), matrix metalloprotein 2 (MMP2), and IGF2 was detected by Western blotting. Cell viability, proliferation, invasion, and migration were analyzed using the cell counting kit-8, 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine, transwell invasion, and wound-healing assays, respectively. The interactions among circ_0113656, miR-188-3p, and IGF2 were identified by dual-luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation assay. The results showed that circ_0113656 and IGF2 expression were significantly upregulated, while miR-188-3p was downregulated in the blood of AS patients and oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL)-treated HVSMCs in comparison with controls. The ox-LDL treatment induced HVSMC proliferation, migration, and invasion accompanied by increases in PCNA and MMP2 expression; however, these effects were attenuated after circ_0113656 knockdown. Circ_0113656 acted as a miR-188-3p sponge and it regulated ox-LDL-induced HVSMC disorders by binding to miR-188-3p. Besides, the regulation of miR-188-3p in ox-LDL-induced HVSMC injury involved IGF2. Further, the depletion of circ_0113656 inhibited IGF2 expression by interacting with miR-188-3p. Thus, the circ_0113656/miR-188-3p/IGF2 axis may mediate ox-LDL-induced HVSMC disorders in AS, providing a new therapeutic strategy for AS.