Renal fibrosis contributes to kidney dysfunction in various chronic kidney diseases (CKDs). Renal fibrosis can be driven by renal tubular cell death and inflammation. Deletion of gasdermin E (
GSDME
...), an executor of pyroptosis, has been reported to suppress renal tubular cell pyroptosis in several models of kidney injury. However, additional evidence confirming the role of GSDME in regulating renal fibrosis and kidney function in different CKDs is required. In our study, N-GSDME expression was significantly elevated in CKD models
in vivo
and
in vitro
.
GSDME
deletion alleviated renal fibrosis and inflammation in both unilateral ureteral ligation (UUO) and 5/6 nephrectomy (5/6Nx) models along with the attenuation of renal dysfunction. N-GSDME overexpression had a detrimental effect on fibrotic responses in UUO kidneys and TGF-β1-treated renal tubular epithelial cells. In addition, administration of caspase-3 inhibitor Z-DEVD-FMK, which inhibits caspase-3-mediated GSDME cleavage, protected against renal fibrosis both
in vivo
and
in vitro
. Collectively, these results provide evidence that the activation of GSDME is critical in regulating both renal fibrosis and kidney dysfunction possibly via promoting inflammatory responses in CKD. These findings may offer new insights into the identification of new therapeutic targets for protecting against CKDs.
We evaluate the effect of rotating inspections carried out by China's central government in 2016 to 2017 in response to the country's air pollution crisis on the environmental performance of targeted ...cities and coal power plants. Using a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) design, we find that during one-month inspections concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO2) at coal power plants in targeted cities are on average lower by 25 to 52% compared to not-yet-inspected cities but revert by 54 to 62% on average once scrutiny ends. Following inspections, SO2 pollution increases more quickly at state-owned plants accountable to the central government, compared to state-owned plants accountable to the local (city or below) government. Our results suggest that for most plants SO2 concentration changes during inspections may have been due primarily to the operation of end-of-pipe SO2 removal devices, while following inspections local state-owned plants may have reduced output.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how voluntary citizenship behaviour towards an individual (VCB-I) is linked with vicious knowledge hiding (VKH), and why members, within a mastery ...climate, tend to participate in less VKH after their engaging in VCB-I. The authors, according to the moral licensing theory, propose that moral licensing mediates the relationship between VCB-I and VKH, and that a mastery climate weakens the hypothesised link via moral licensing.
Design/methodology/approach
This study surveys 455 valid matching samples of subordinates and supervisors from 77 working teams in China at two time points and explores the relationship between VCB and VKH, as well as the underlying mechanism. A confirmatory factor analysis, bootstrapping method and hierarchical linear model were used to validate the research hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that VCB-I has a significant positive effect on VKH; moral credentials play a mediating role in the relationship between VCB-I and VKH; and the mastery climate moderates the positive effect of moral credentials on VKH and the mediating effect of moral credentials. In a high-mastery climate, the direct effect of moral credentials on VKH and the indirect influence of VCB-I on VKH through moral credentials are both weakened, and conversely, both effects are enhanced in a low-mastery climate. However, contrary to the expected hypothesis, moral credits do not mediate the relationship between VCB-I and VKH, which may be due to the differences in the mechanisms between the two moral licensing models.
Originality/value
Prior research has mainly focused on the “victim-centric” perspective to examine the impacts of others’ behaviour on employees’ knowledge hiding. Few works have used the “actor-centric” perspective to analyse the relationship between employees’ prior workplace behaviour and their subsequent knowledge hiding intention. In addition, this study enriches the field research on the voluntary aspects of organisational citizenship behaviour, which differs from its involuntary ones.
In this article, the event-triggered multistep model predictive control for the discrete-time nonlinear system over communication networks under the influence of packet dropouts and cyber attacks is ...studied. First, the interval type-2 Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model is applied to express the discrete-time nonlinear system and an event-triggered mode, which is capable of determining whether the sampled signal ought to be delivered into the unreliable network, is designed to economize communication resources. Second, two Bernoulli processes are introduced to represent the randomly happening packet dropouts in the unreliable network and the randomly occurring deception attacks on the actuator side from the adversaries. Third, under the assumption that the system states are unmeasurable, a multistep parameter-dependent model predictive controller is synthesized via optimizing one series of feedback laws for a given period of time, which leads to improved control performance than that of the one-step approach. Moreover, the results on the recursive feasibility and closed-loop stability related to the networked system are achieved, which explicitly consider the external disturbance and input constraint. Finally, simulation experiments on the mass-spring-damping system are carried out to illustrate the rationality and effectiveness of the provided control strategy.
This paper aims to investigate the guaranteed cost control via dynamic output feedback for nonlinear networked control systems (NCSs) with consideration of hybrid communication mechanism, data ...dropout and bounded disturbance. Interval type-2 (IT2) Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model is utilized to describe the nonlinear system with parameter uncertainties. To enhance bandwidth utilization and improve control performance, a hybrid communication mechanism involving both event-triggered mechanism (ETM) and time-triggered mechanism (TTM) is proposed. Two Bernoulli processes are invoked to describe the switching between two triggering mechanisms, and the data dropout phenomenon in communication network, respectively. The quadratic boundedness (QB) technique is employed to specify the closed-loop stability of a bounded disturbance networked system. The sufficient conditions for the stability of the system and the presence of a dynamic output feedback guaranteed cost controller are presented. In addition, the problem of controller design is converted to a convex optimization problem that can be tackled by linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) technique. At last, simulation experiment is carried out to explicate the availability and usefulness of the designed controller.
With the rapid economy development and social civilization progress, the Chinese Government also is improving ecological environmental conditions. More efforts have been made to solve water problems ...through the implementation of stringent water resources management, as a key government policy on water. Thus, monitoring of water resources has been strengthened, being a main component of the hydrological work in recent years. Compared with routine hydrological monitoring, water resources monitoring pays more attention to the quantity and quality variations of regional waters, to reflect the status of water in river basins and administrative regions. In this paper, the overall layout of the hydrometric network in China is presented, monitoring efforts of the natural water cycle and water consumptions are analyzed, methodologies of water resources monitoring, which are commonly applied in the country, are summed up. Taking the hydrometric network planning on interprovincial boundary waterbodies as example, a summary of the planning at interprovincial boundary river sections is presented. The planning can meet the need of water resources management of administrative divisions. It can also improve the overall water resources monitoring for the country.
We evaluate the effect of rotating inspections carried out by China's central government in 2016 to 2017 in response to the country's air pollution crisis on the environmental performance of targeted ...cities and coal power plants. Using a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) design, we find that during one-month inspections concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO
) at coal power plants in targeted cities are on average lower by 25 to 52% compared to not-yet-inspected cities but revert by 54 to 62% on average once scrutiny ends. Following inspections, SO
pollution increases more quickly at state-owned plants accountable to the central government, compared to state-owned plants accountable to the local (city or below) government. Our results suggest that for most plants SO
concentration changes during inspections may have been due primarily to the operation of end-of-pipe SO
removal devices, while following inspections local state-owned plants may have reduced output.
To investigate the diversity of experiences of sadness emotion and physiological responses among female college students with high neuroticism (HN) and low neuroticism (LN) during the late luteal ...phase (LLP) and early follicular phase (EFP).
Forty-two participants were classified as the HN group and 41 as the LN group based on their neuroticism score (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Short Scale for Chinese). Participants watched sadness-inducing experimental films during the LLP and EFP.
The HN group showed similar sadness intensities in both phases. The LN group showed higher sadness intensity in the LLP than the EFP. The LN group's sadness scale assessments were lower than the HN group in both phases. The blood volume pulse in the HN group fell in both the LLP and EFP (both P < .001). The root mean square standard deviation of NN intervals rose in the EFP in the HN group before and after watching experimental films (P = .027), but fell in the LN group (P > .05). Between-group comparisons showed heart rate was significantly lower in the HN group than the LN group during EFP (P = .009), but there were no statistically significant differences in subjective experience and physiological data during LLP. The HN group had stronger sadness feelings and greater sadness arousal than the LN group during EFP. There were significant associations between menstrual cycle-related changes in sadness ratings and changes in physiological outcomes.
Women with HN have less fluctuation in sadness than those with LN during the menstrual cycle, but experience strong sadness feelings in the LLP. Women with HN show stronger physiological responses in the EFP than those with LN, and have the highest responses in the LLP.
•A novel topology optimization design method for flexible thermoelectric devices with high output voltage.•Innovative design approach for force-thermal-electric coupled structure using no-gradient ...topology optimization.•An advanced method for the integrated design of dual-layer structures through topology optimization.
Flexible thermoelectric devices possess the capability to generate electricity by harnessing temperature differences, rendering them highly promising for applications in wearable devices and powering the Internet of Things. This paper introduces a topology optimization design approach for double-layer thin-film flexible thermoelectric devices with the aim of enhancing the device's output voltage and improving the efficiency of green energy utilization. The design process took into consideration the coupled effects of mechanical, electrical, and thermal aspects. It not only optimized the force transmission paths of the variable structure device but also accounted for heat dissipation and circuit topology configuration. The study employed a field function model to concurrently optimize the structure of both the substrate and thermoelectric materials in an integrated design, with the primary objective being the maximization of output voltage. The efficacy of this methodology was confirmed through a series of numerical simulations and experiments conducted under various load and operational conditions. The optimized flexible thermoelectric devices exhibited an output voltage increase of more than threefold when compared to flat devices.
Osteoporosis is a disease in which low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue lead to enhanced bone fragility and susceptibility to fracture. Due to the complex anatomy of the ...vertebral body, the difficulties associated with obtaining bones for in vitro experiments, and the limitations on the control of the experimental parameters, finite element models have been developed to analyze the biomechanical properties of the vertebral body. We developed finite element models of the L2 vertebra, which consisted of the endplates, the trabecular lattice, and the cortical shell, for three age-related grades (young, middle, and old) of osteoporosis. The compressive strength and stiffness results revealed that we had developed a valid model that was consistent with the results of previous experimental and computational studies. The von-Mises stress, which was assumed to predict the risk of a burst fracture, was also determined for the three age groups. The results showed that the von-Mises stress was substantially higher under relatively high levels of compressive loading, which suggests that patients with osteoporosis should be cautious of fracture risk even during daily activities.
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