Scholars refer to individuals who have been immersed in digital environments and who make easy use of digital languages to interact with the world as “digital natives,” and Teo proposed four ...attributes of digital natives to illustrate their behavioral tendencies. We aimed to expand Teo’s framework and to develop and validate the Scale of Digital Native Attributes (SDNA) for measuring cognitive and social interactive attributes of digital natives. Based on pre-test results, we retained 10 attributes and 37 SDNA items, with 3–4 items in each sub-dimension. We then recruited 887 Taiwanese undergraduates as respondents and conducted confirmatory factor analysis to establish construct validity. Moreover, the SDNA correlated with several other related measurements to demonstrate satisfactory criterion-related validity. Internal consistency was evaluated by McDonald’s Omega (ω) and Cronbach’s α coefficient, showing satisfactory reliability. This preliminary tool is now ready for cross validation and temporal reliability testing in further research.
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FSPLJ, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The neural EGF-like 1 (NELL-1) protein is a novel antigen in primary membranous nephropathy. The prevalence and clinical characteristics of NELL-1-positive membranous nephropathy in Chinese ...individuals with primary membranous nephropathy are unclear.
A total of 832 consecutive patients with biopsy-proven primary membranous nephropathy were enrolled. The glomerular expression of phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) and thrombospondin type 1 domain-containing 7A (THSD7A) was screened. Glomerular immunohistochemistry staining for NELL-1 was performed in 43 patients with PLA2R- and THSD7A-negative membranous nephropathy, 31 patients with PLA2R-positive membranous nephropathy, and two patients with PLA2R and THSD7A double positivity. The NELL-1 antibody was also detected in the sera of patients with NELL-1-positive membranous nephropathy by western blot. Clinical and pathologic features were comparable between patients with isolated NELL-1-positive, isolated PLA2R/THSD7A-positive, and triple antigen-negative membranous nephropathy.
Among the 832 patients with primary membranous nephropathy, 11 of 54 (20%) patients with PLA2R-negative membranous nephropathy had THSD7A-positive membranous nephropathy. NELL-1-positive membranous nephropathy accounted for 35% (15 of 43) of all patients with PLA2R- and THSD7A-negative membranous nephropathy. One patient was double positive for NELL-1 and PLA2R in glomerular deposits and positive for only the PLA2R antibody in the serum. Most patients with NELL-1-positive membranous nephropathy were women. No tumors were found. There were significant differences in the prevalence of IgG subtypes between patients with different antigen positivity. Among patients with isolated NELL-1-positive membranous nephropathy, although 80% (12 of 15) were IgG4 staining positive, the proportion of IgG4 dominance was only 67% (ten of 15).
About one third of patients who were PLA2R and THSD7A negative were NELL-1 positive in Chinese patients with primary membranous nephropathy. NELL-1-positive membranous nephropathy was more common than THSD7A-positive membranous nephropathy in PLA2R-negative membranous nephropathy.
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is an agonizing complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) and it is challenging to treat ED in DM patients. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a unique therapeutic strategy ...comprising intrinsic growth factors. An attempt was made to explore the potentiality of the PRP treatment in DM-induced ED rats in various groups (control, DM-non-ED, DM-ED, and DM-ED treated with PRP). Streptozotocin (STZ) was used to induce DM in rats. The blood glucose levels of the DM rats were maintained at >300 mg/dl. In the 18-week experiment, survival rate, body weight, intracavernous pressure (ICP) variations, and arterial blood pressure were analyzed. The tissue restoration results were validated by histological, immunofluorescence, and transmission electron microscopic analysis. PRP treatment of DM-ED rats significantly increased all parameters of erectile function compared to pre-treatment of PRP and DM-ED treated with vehicle. The histological results revealed that PRP treatment substantially enhanced the regeneration of myelinated nerves and decreased the atrophy of corporal smooth muscle. Notably, the PRP treatment immensely enhanced the survival rate in post-surgery DM-ED rats. These results indicated certain benefits of PRP treatment in delaying damage and preventing post-surgery complications in DM patients. Hence, PRP treatment is a novel multifactorial strategy for DM-ED patients.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
CpG islands have been demonstrated to influence local chromatin structures and simplify the regulation of gene activity. However, the accurate and rapid determination of CpG islands for whole DNA ...sequences remains experimentally and computationally challenging.
A novel procedure is proposed to detect CpG islands by combining clustering technology with the sliding-window method (PSO-based). Clustering technology is used to detect the locations of all possible CpG islands and process the data, thus effectively obviating the need for the extensive and unnecessary processing of DNA fragments, and thus improving the efficiency of sliding-window based particle swarm optimization (PSO) search. This proposed approach, named ClusterPSO, provides versatile and highly-sensitive detection of CpG islands in the human genome. In addition, the detection efficiency of ClusterPSO is compared with eight CpG island detection methods in the human genome. Comparison of the detection efficiency for the CpG islands in human genome, including sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, performance coefficient (PC), and correlation coefficient (CC), ClusterPSO revealed superior detection ability among all of the test methods. Moreover, the combination of clustering technology and PSO method can successfully overcome their respective drawbacks while maintaining their advantages. Thus, clustering technology could be hybridized with the optimization algorithm method to optimize CpG island detection.
The prediction accuracy of ClusterPSO was quite high, indicating the combination of CpGcluster and PSO has several advantages over CpGcluster and PSO alone. In addition, ClusterPSO significantly reduced implementation time.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The power consumption (PC), window margin (WM), thermal stability (TS), and reliability i.e., endurance (EN) and retention-time (RT) of aluminum nitride (AlN) resistive random access memory (RRAM) ...devices with different film orientations i.e., amorphous, (100)and (002)-oriented are investigated. It is shown that the charge carrier transport mechanism of the three devices is dominated by Ohmic behavior under low electric fields and the trap-controlled space charge limited current (TC-SCLC) model under high electric fields. Among the three devices, the (002)-oriented AlN sample providesthe best overall PC, WM, TS, EN, and RT performance due to its c-axis orientation, which is favorable for the formation and rupture of the vertically arranged conductive filaments (CFs) in the AlN film.
Reactive fillers consisting of reduced sulfur and iron species (SFe-ReFs) have received increasing attention in tertiary wastewater treatment for nitrate and phosphate coremoval. However, the ...existing SFe-ReFs suffer from either low performance (e.g., pyrrhotite and pyrite) or unsatisfactory use in terms of combustible risk and residual nonreactive impurities (e.g., sulfur mixing with natural iron ores). Here, we developed a new type of sulfur-siderite composite ReF (SSCReF) with a structure of natural siderite powders eventually embedded into sulfur. SSCReFs exhibited many excellent properties, including higher mechanical strengths and hardness and especially much poorer ignitability compared to pure sulfur. By using SSCReF to construct packed-bed reactors, the highest denitrification and dephosphorization rates reached 829.70 gN/m3/d (25 wt % siderite) and 36.70 gP/m3/d (75 wt % siderite), respectively. Dephosphorization was demonstrated to be dependent on sulfur-driven denitrification, in which the acid produced from the later process promoted Fe(II) dissolution, which then directly combined with phosphate to form vivianite or further converted into phosphate adsorbents (ferrihydrite, a green rust-like compound). Water flush was an effective way to finally wash out these surface deposited Fe–P compounds, as well as those nonreactive impurities (Si and Al-bearing compounds) detached from SSCReF. Such a highly efficient and safe SSCReF holds considerable application potential in secondary effluent polishing.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is an important technology for 3D printing and can be used for rapidly production of functional parts. This paper presents a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based sensing ...platform fabricated using FDM method. This sensing platform include a number of pressure sensing components fabricated by layering of extruded Polylactic Acid (PLA) materials. FBG sensors were fixed at center of each sensing component for pressure measurement. Performance of the sensing system was calibrated by applying step by step load on FBG pressure sensors. After calibration, this sensing platform was used to monitor plantar pressure distribution arise from weight gaining and losing processes of a female subject. It is found that plantar pressure of heel is almost twice the pressure magnitudes of both the first and second metatarsus (fore-foot), while there is limited pressure at the mid-foot position during weight gaining process. Pressures of the two metatarsus areas are around 50% (pressure ratio) of heel position and decrease continuously as the increase of subject weight, but weight losing process has very limited influence on this pressure ratio. Center of gravity of this female subject was also found to shift backward substantially during weighting gaining process. Therefore, protection of the heel position is highly important during both weight gaining and losing processes due to the presence of significant pressure concentration.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
The potential mechanism underlying the relationship between the risk of cardiovascular diseases and metabolically healthy obese (MHO) individuals remains unclear. The aim of the study was to ...prospectively investigate the potential role of the adipokines in the association between the MHO phenotype and hypertension in children and adolescents.
A total of 1184 participants at baseline were recruited from a cohort of the Beijing Child and Adolescent Metabolic Syndrome (BCAMS) study. The participants were classified according to their body mass index (BMI) and metabolic syndrome (MS) components. The levels of the adipokines, including leptin, adiponectin, and resistin, were measured.
MHO individuals had higher leptin levels (11.58 ug/L vs 1.20 ug/L), leptin/adiponectin ratio (1.18 vs 0.07), and lower adiponectin (11.65 ug/L vs 15.64 ug/L) levels compared to metabolically healthy normal-weight individuals (all P < 0.05). Compared to metabolically healthy normal-weight individuals, the prevalence of high leptin levels (26.5% vs 0.4%), low adiponectin levels (17.9% vs 6.3%) and a high leptin/adiponectin ratio (26.0% vs 2.1%) was higher in MHO individuals (all P < 0.01). The MHO individuals with abnormal adipokines were significantly more likely to developing hypertension (high leptin, relative risk 11.04; 95% confidence interval, 1.18-103.35; and high leptin/adiponectin ratio, relative risk 9.88; 95% confidence interval, 1.11-87.97) compared to metabolically healthy normal-weight individuals with normal adipokine levels.
The abnormal adipokine levels contribute to the increased hypertension risk in MHO children and adolescents. The non-traditional risk factors should be highlighted in MHO children and adolescents in clinical practice and research.
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FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, UL, UM, UPUK
•Politically connected firms in China are more likely to receive innovation subsidies.•Political connection is more important than state ownership in determining which firms get innovation ...subsidies.•Firms with subsidies obtain more patents but the quality of the patents is not higher.•Firms with subsidies do not have higher productivity or profitability.•Overall, our study finds politically induced inefficiency in the allocation of innovation subsidies in China.
We examine how a firm's political connection measured by the membership of its CEO in the People's Congress (PC) or Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) influences its likelihood of receiving the innovation subsidies given by the state. We find that politically connected firms are more likely to receive innovation subsidies. The political connection measured in this way is found much more important than state ownership in explaining the allocation of innovation subsidies. We also investigate if the firms that receive innovation subsidies are more innovative, productive, or profitable. Our results show that the firms that receive innovation subsidies file and receive more patents, but that their patents are not necessarily of high quality. They do not have higher productivity or profitability, either. The results collectively suggest politically induced inefficiency in the allocation of innovation subsidies in China.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The Accepted Article version of the above article, published online on 25 May 2021 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been withdrawn by agreement between the corresponding author, ...the journal′s Executive Committee, and Wiley‐VCH GmbH, Weinheim. The withdrawal has been agreed upon due to significant conceptual similarities with another of the authors' recently published articles, which was not disclosed during the peer review process.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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