This article uses Ajzen's theory of planned behavior to build an entrepreneurial intention questionnaire (EIQ) and analyzes its psychometric properties. The entrepreneurial intention model is then ...tested on a 519–individual sample from two rather diverse countries: Spain and Taiwan. EIQ and structural equation techniques have been used to try to overcome previous research limitations. The role of culture in explaining motivational perceptions has been specifically considered. Results indicate EIQ properties are satisfactory and strong support for the model is found. Relevant insights are derived about how cultural values modify the way individuals in each society perceive entrepreneurship.
Highly efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) molecules are in urgent demand for solid‐state lighting and full‐color displays. Here, the design and synthesis of three ...triarylamine‐pyridine‐carbonitrile‐based TADF compounds, TPAPPC, TPAmPPC, and tTPAmPPC, are shown. They exhibit excellent photoluminescence quantum yields of 79−100% with small ΔEST values, fast reverse intersystem crossing (RISC), and high horizontal dipole ratios (Θ// = 86−88%) in the thin films leading to the enhancement of device light outcoupling. Consequently, a green organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) based on TPAmPPC shows a high average external quantum efficiency of 38.8 ± 0.6%, a current efficiency of 130.1 ± 2.1 cd A–1, and a power efficiency of 136.3 ± 2.2 lm W–1. The highest device efficiency of 39.8% appears to be record‐breaking among TADF‐based OLEDs to date. In addition, the TPAmPPC‐based device shows superior operation lifetime and high‐temperature resistance. It is worth noting that the TPA‐PPC‐based materials have excellent optical properties and the potential for making them strong candidates for TADF practical application.
Three 2,6‐diphenylpyridine‐3,5‐dicarbonitrile‐based compounds with excellent photoluminescent quantum yields (79–100%) and high horizontal dipole ratios (86−88%) in the thin films are demonstrated. With two methyl groups on the triarylamines, the spin−orbit coupling is enhanced due to the elevated locally excited triplet states (3LE), leading to a fast reverse intersystem crossing. Green thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) organic light‐emitting diodes based on them exhibit a record‐high external quantum efficiency of 39.8% without any optical extraction technique.
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally, but its burden is not uniform. GLOBOCAN 2020 has newly updated the estimates of cancer burden. This study summarizes the most recent changing ...profiles of cancer burden worldwide and in China and compares the cancer data of China with those of other regions.
We conducted a descriptive secondary analysis of the GLOBOCAN 2020 data. To depict the changing global profile of the leading cancer types in 2020 compared with 2018, we extracted the numbers of cases and deaths in 2018 from GLOBOCAN 2018. We also obtained cancer incidence and mortality from the 2015 National Cancer Registry Report in China when sorting the leading cancer types by new cases and deaths. For the leading cancer types according to sex in China, we summarized the estimated numbers of incidence and mortality, and calculated China's percentage of the global new cases and deaths.
Breast cancer displaced lung cancer to become the most leading diagnosed cancer worldwide in 2020. Lung, liver, stomach, breast, and colon cancers were the top five leading causes of cancer-related death, among which liver cancer changed from the third-highest cancer mortality in 2018 to the second-highest in 2020. China accounted for 24% of newly diagnosed cases and 30% of the cancer-related deaths worldwide in 2020. Among the 185 countries included in the database, China's age-standardized incidence rate (204.8 per 100,000) ranked 65th and the age-standardized mortality rate (129.4 per 100,000) ranked 13th. The two rates were above the global average. Lung cancer remained the most common cancer type and the leading cause of cancer death in China. However, breast cancer became the most frequent cancer type among women if the incidence was stratified by sex. Incidences of colorectal cancer and breast cancer increased rapidly. The leading causes of cancer death varied minimally in ranking from 2015 to 2020 in China. Gastrointestinal cancers, including stomach, colorectal, liver, and esophageal cancers, contributed to a massive burden of cancer for both sexes.
The burden of breast cancer is increasing globally. China is undergoing cancer transition with an increasing burden of lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, and breast cancers. The mortality rate of cancer in China is high. Comprehensive strategies are urgently needed to target China's changing profiles of the cancer burden.
Berberine (BBR) has been confirmed to have multiple bioactivities in clinic, such as cholesterol-lowering, anti-diabetes, cardiovascular protection and anti- inflammation. However, BBR's plasma level ...is very low; it cannot explain its pharmacological effects in patients. We consider that the in vivo distribution of BBR as well as of its bioactive metabolites might provide part of the explanation for this question. In this study, liquid chromatography coupled to ion trap time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC/MS(n)-IT-TOF) as well as liquid chromatography that coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used for the study of tissue distribution and pharmacokinetics of BBR in rats after oral administration (200 mg/kg). The results indicated that BBR was quickly distributed in the liver, kidneys, muscle, lungs, brain, heart, pancreas and fat in a descending order of its amount. The pharmacokinetic profile indicated that BBR's level in most of studied tissues was higher (or much higher) than that in plasma 4 h after administration. BBR remained relatively stable in the tissues like liver, heart, brain, muscle, pancreas etc. Organ distribution of BBR's metabolites was also investigated paralleled with that of BBR. Thalifendine (M1), berberrubine (M2) and jatrorrhizine (M4), which the metabolites with moderate bioactivity, were easily detected in organs like the liver and kidney. For instance, M1, M2 and M4 were the major metabolites in the liver, among which the percentage of M2 was up to 65.1%; the level of AUC (0-t) (area under the concentration-time curve) for BBR or the metabolites in the liver was 10-fold or 30-fold higher than that in plasma, respectively. In summary, the organ concentration of BBR (as well as its bioactive metabolites) was higher than its concentration in the blood after oral administration. It might explain BBR's pharmacological effects on human diseases in clinic.
The lack of structural information impeded the access of efficient luminescence for the exciplex type thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). We report here the pump-probe Step-Scan Fourier ...transform infrared spectra of exciplex composed of a carbazole-based electron donor (CN-Cz2) and 1,3,5-triazine-based electron acceptor (PO-T2T) codeposited as the solid film that gives intermolecular charge transfer (CT), TADF, and record-high exciplex type cyan organic light emitting diodes (external quantum efficiency: 16%). The transient infrared spectral assignment to the CT state is unambiguous due to its distinction from the local excited state of either the donor or the acceptor chromophore. Importantly, a broad absorption band centered at ~2060 cm
was observed and assigned to a polaron-pair absorption. Time-resolved kinetics lead us to conclude that CT excited states relax to a ground-state intermediate with a time constant of ~3 µs, followed by a structural relaxation to the original CN-Cz2:PO-T2T configuration within ~14 µs.
HCV prevails in uremic haemodialysis patients. The current study aimed to achieve HCV microelimination in haemodialysis centres through a comprehensive outreach programme.
The ERASE-C Campaign is an ...outreach programme for the screening, diagnosis and group treatment of HCV encompassing 2323 uremic patients and 353 medical staff members from 18 haemodialysis centres. HCV-viremic subjects were linked to care for directly acting antiviral therapy or received on-site sofosbuvir/velpatasvir therapy. The objectives were HCV microelimination (>80% reduction of the HCV-viremic rate 24 weeks after the end of the campaign in centres with ≥90% of the HCV-viremic patients treated) and 'No-C HD' (no HCV-viremic subjects at the end of follow-up).
At the preinterventional screening, 178 (7.7%) uremic patients and 2 (0.6%) staff members were HCV-viremic. Among them, 146 (83.9%) uremic patients received anti-HCV therapy (41 link-to-care; 105 on-site sofosbuvir/velpatasvir). The rates of sustained virological response (SVR12, undetectable HCV RNA 12 weeks after the end of treatment) in the full analysis set and per-protocol population were 89.5% (94/105) and 100% (86/86), respectively, in the on-site treatment group, which were comparable with the rates of 92.7% (38/41) and 100% (38/38), respectively, in the link-to-care group. Eventually, the HCV-viremic rate decreased to 0.9% (18/1,953), yielding an 88.3% reduction from baseline. HCV microelimination and 'No-C HD' were achieved in 92.3% (12/13) and 38.9% (7/18) of the haemodialysis centres, respectively.
Outreach strategies with mass screenings and on-site group treatment greatly facilitated HCV microelimination in the haemodialysis population.
NCT03803410 and NCT03891550.
Fibronectin 1 (FN1) is involved in cell adhesion and migration processes including embryogenesis, wound healing, blood coagulation, host defense, metastasis, and implicated in various biochemical ...processes. However, its effects on the development and progression of human cancer, especially colorectal cancer (CRC), are unclear. To evaluate the relationship between the expression of FN1 and the histopathologic parameters of patients with CRC or the proliferation, migration, and invasion of colorectal cancer cell lines, we screened FN1 as a new candidate gene which promotes development of CRC, in an independent dataset (The Human Protein Atlas website). Here, we reported that FN1 was elevated in CRC tissues compared with normal colon tissues. Further, FN1 expression level was correlated with age, lymph vascular invasion, and survival rate. Knockdown of FN1 in two CRC cell lines, LOVO, and SW1116, significantly inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion, and induced cell apoptosis. Western blot analysis showed that down‐regulation of FN1 significantly decreased the expression of Bcl‐2, MMP‐9, Twist, and increased the expression of Bax, Caspase‐3, and E‐cadherin in LOVO and SW1116 cells. Then, we found that the protein ITGA5 was identified as a binding partner of FN1 and ITGA5 overexpression reversed FN1‐induced tumorigenesis of CRC in vitro. Taken together, FN1 suppressed apoptosis and promoted viability, invasion, and migration in CRC through interacting with ITGA5. FN1 may be a prognostic factor and potential target for CRC treatment.
FN1 may act as an oncogene in CRC via suppressing apoptosis and promoting invasion and migration in CRC carcinogenesis. FN1 may be a prognostic factor and potential target for CRC treatment.
Maslinic acid is a pentacyclic triterpenoid that is distributed in the peel of olives. Previous studies found that maslinic acid inhibited inflammatory response and antioxidant effects. We ...investigated whether maslinic acid ameliorates nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in mice with high‐fat‐diet (HFD)‐induced obesity and evaluated the regulation of lipogenesis in hepatocytes. Male C57BL/6 mice fed a normal diet or HFD (60% fat, w/w) were tested for 16 wk. After the fourth week, mice were injected intraperitoneally with maslinic acid for 12 wk. In another experiment, HepG2 cells were treated with oleic acid to induce lipid accumulation or maslinic acid to evaluate lipogenesis. Maslinic acid significantly reduced body weight compared with HFD‐fed mice. Maslinic acid reduced liver weight and liver lipid accumulation and improved hepatocyte steatosis. Furthermore, serum glucose, leptin, and free fatty acid concentrations significantly reduced, but the serum adiponectin concentration was higher, in the maslinic acid group than in the HFD group. In liver tissue, maslinic acid suppressed transcription factors involved in lipogenesis and increased adipose triglyceride lipase. In vitro, maslinic acid decreased lipogenesis by activating AMPK. These findings suggest that maslinic acid acts against hepatic steatosis by regulating enzyme activity involved in lipogenesis, lipolysis, and fatty acid oxidation in the liver.—Liou, C.‐J., Dai, Y.‐W., Wang, C.‐L., Fang, L.‐W., Huang, W.‐C. Maslinic acid protects against obesity‐induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in mice through regulation of the Sirt1/AMPK signaling pathway. FASEB J. 33, 11791‐11803 (2019). www.fasebj.org
The mixed-criticality system provides multiple real-time applications with different criticalities in a single system. Poor energy-saving performance of the previous studies on mixed-criticality ...sporadic tasks are mainly due to the fact that the slack time generated from the random arrival of sporadic tasks is not taken into account. In this article, we focus on scheduling energy aware mixed-criticality sporadic tasks and take the random arrival of sporadic tasks into account. We proposed a dynamically frequency updating mixed-criticality algorithm (DFU). DFU based on the earliest deadline first scheme can exploit the slack time generated from high criticality tasks in a low criticality mode to reduce processor frequency. In addition, it also can dynamically update the utilization of sporadic tasks set to further reduce processor frequency. The simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of DFU and experimental results show that DFU consumes 34.29% less energy than that of the existing algorithms.
After studying the energy–momentum relation of charged particles’ Hamilton–Jacobi equations, we discuss the laws of thermodynamics and the weak cosmic censorship conjecture in torus-like black holes. ...We find that both the first law of thermodynamic as well as the weak cosmic censorship conjecture are valid in both the normal phase space and extended phase space. However, the second law of thermodynamics is only valid in the normal phase space. Our results show that the first law and weak cosmic censorship conjecture do not depend on the phase spaces while the second law depends. What’s more, we find that the shift of the metric function that determines the event horizon take the same form in different phase spaces, indicating that the weak cosmic censorship conjecture is independent of the phase space.
PDF
