Drawing upon the literature on complementary fit theory, the purpose of this study is to examine how the dynamic tenure moderates the relationship between leader-employee congruence/incongruence in ...humor and employee innovative behavior. Data were collected from 108 leader-employee dyads from information technology companies in China. Polynomial regression combined with the response surface methodology was used to test the hypotheses. Four conclusions were drawn. First, employee innovative behavior was maximized when leaders and employees were incongruent in humor. Second, in the case of incongruence, employees had higher innovative behavior when employees were more humorous than their leaders. Third, in the case of congruence, employees had higher innovative behavior when a leader's and an employee's humor matched at high levels. Fourth, dynamic tenure moderated the leader-employee congruence/incongruence effect of humor on employee innovative behavior. This study enhanced theoretical developments by considering the importance of leaders' congruence with employees in humor for the first time. Additionally, the research results provided better practical guidance for effectively promoting employee innovative behavior.
There is currently a lack of strong evidence linking childhood elevated blood pressure to long-term cardiovascular risk in adulthood. Repeated observations of abnormal blood pressure in childhood may ...enhance the prediction of cardiovascular risk in adulthood compared with a single observation. The study included 1738 individuals in rural areas of Hanzhong City, Shaanxi, who had been followed for 30 years since baseline (1987, at which time participants were aged 6-15 years). According to four independent measurements of blood pressure in 1987, 1989, 1992, and 1995, childhood elevated blood pressure was defined as 2 in-person examinations with blood pressure values above the 90th percentile. Arterial stiffness and left ventricular hypertrophy in adulthood were assessed by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity and the Cornell product index, respectively. Childhood elevated blood pressure was associated with an increased risk of adult hypertension (OR, 2.01; 95% CI, 1.53-2.65), arterial stiffness (OR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.32-2.16) and left ventricular hypertrophy (OR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.13-3.05) (all P < 0.05). Cardiovascular risk in adults increased with increasing childhood blood pressure levels. In addition, two abnormal childhood blood pressure observations predicted an increased likelihood of hypertension in adulthood (0.77 for 2 versus 0.70 for 1 observation, P < 0.001). Our study provides strong evidence that elevated blood pressure in childhood predicts cardiovascular risk in adults. The prediction was enhanced by two observations of abnormal blood pressure in childhood compared with a single measurement. We emphasize the importance of childhood blood pressure monitoring and control in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.
Exosomes are nanoscale membrane vesicles secreted from many types of cells. Carrying functional molecules, exosomes transfer information between cells and mediate many physiological and pathological ...processes. In this report, utilizing selective inhibitors, molecular tools, and specific endocytosis markers, the cellular uptake of PC12 cell-derived exosomes was imaged by high-throughput microscopy and statistically analyzed. It was found that the uptake was through clathrin-mediated endocytosis and macropinocytosis. Furthermore, PC12 cell-derived exosomes can enter and deliver microRNAs (miRNAs) into bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs), and decrease the expression level of transforming growth factor β receptor II (TGFβRII) and tropomyosin-1 (TPM1) through miR-21. These results show the pathway of exosome internalization and demonstrate that tumor cell-derived exosomes regulate target gene expression in normal cells.
To identify distinct body mass index (BMI) trajectories across the life-course and explore the effects of BMI trajectories on the adult cardiovascular disease outcomes using a dataset with 30 years ...of follow-up in northern China.
A total of 2839 participants aged 6-18 years whose BMIs were measured 3-6 times during the Hanzhong Adolescent Hypertension Study were included in our analysis. Latent mixture modeling was used to clarify distinct BMI trajectories in longitudinal analyses.
Three groups with distinct trajectories in BMI were identified by the latent mixed models: a low-increasing group (n = 1324 36.64%), a moderate-increasing group (n = 1178 16.89%), and a high-increasing group (n = 337 39.46%). Compared with the participants in the low-increasing group, the risk ratios of hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, high-risk triglycerides, and high-risk high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were more than 3.0 in the high-increasing group (all P < .001) after being fully adjusted. Increased risks existed in high brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity for the high-increasing group compared with the low-increasing group (RR, 2.75; 95% CI, 1.94-3.91; P < .001). Additionally, participants in the moderate-increasing group had a 2.31-fold increased risks of left ventricular hypertrophy (95% CI, 1.25-4.30; P = .008).
Our study indicates that BMI trajectories from childhood to adulthood vary and that an elevated BMI trajectory in early life is predictive of an increased the risk of developing cardiovascular disease risks.
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02734472.
The aim of the study was to examine the associations of uric acid (UA) in blood and urine with subclinical renal damage (SRD) and its progression in a Chinese cohort.
1) 2342 participants from our ...previously established cohort who were followed up in 2017 were included. Cross-sectional analysis was used to examine the relationships between serum and urinary UA and the risk of SRD. 2) A total of 266 participants were recruited from the same cohort in 2013, and followed up in 2017. Longitudinal analysis was used to determine the relationships of serum and urinary UA with progression of SRD, which was defined as urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (uACR) progression or estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) decline.
In cross-sectional analysis, higher levels of uACR were associated with higher levels of serum uric acid (SUA) and urinary uric acid/creatinine ratio (uUA/Cre). Lower eGFR was associated with higher levels of SUA and fractional excretion of uric acid (FEUA) but lower uUA/Cre levels in all subjects. In addition, the multivariate-adjusted odds ratios for SRD compared with non-SRD were 3.574 (2.255-5.664) for uUA/Cre. Increasing uUA/Cre levels were associated with higher risk of SRD. In longitudinal analysis, 4-year changes of uUA/Cre and SUA were significantly associated with eGFR decline.
This study suggested that urinary UA excretion was significantly associated with the risk of SRD in Chinese adults. Furthermore, 4-year changes of serum and urinary UA were associated with SRD progression. These findings suggest that UA, especially urinary UA, may be used as a simple, noninvasive marker for early detection of decreased renal function in otherwise healthy subjects.
This paper presents a methodology for modeling and analyzing the load demand in a distribution system due to electric vehicle (EV) battery charging. Following a brief introduction to the common types ...of EV batteries and their charging characteristics, an analytical solution for predicting the EV charging load is developed. The method is stochastically formulated so as to account for the stochastic nature of the start time of individual battery charging and the initial battery state-of-charge. A comparative study is carried out by simulating four EV charging scenarios, i.e., uncontrolled domestic charging, uncontrolled off-peak domestic charging, "smart" domestic charging and uncontrolled public charging-commuters capable of recharging at the workplace. The proposed four EVs charging scenarios take into account the expected future changes to the electricity tariffs in the electricity market place and appropriate regulation of EVs battery charging loads. A typical U.K. distribution system is adopted as an example. The time-series data of EV charging loads is taken from two commercially available EV batteries: lead-acid and lithium-ion. Results show that a 10% market penetration of EVs in the studied system would result in an increase in daily peak demand by up to 17.9%, while a 20% level of EV penetration would lead to a 35.8% increase in peak load, for the scenario of uncontrolled domestic charging-the "worst-case" scenario.
Superhydrophobic surfaces have been reported to reduce bacterial adhesion, but interactions between bacterial media and solid surfaces at the interface have rarely been associated with the solid area ...fraction ( f ) from the Cassie–Baxter wetting state. This study aimed to investigate the effective surface area for bacterial adhesion by analyzing the solid area fraction of surfaces where the bacterial medium is in contact with a solid surface. Also, the self-cleaning ability of the superhydrophobic surface against adhered bacteria was examined. The influences of roughness, surface energy, entrapped air, and surface charge of substrate materials on bacterial adhesion were examined, and the critical surface characteristics that are conducive to reducing Escherichia coli adherence to polymeric surfaces were determined. Moderate hydrophobicity with water contact angle of about 90° produced the highest level of bacterial adhesion. Entrapped air at the interface of superhydrophobic surfaces interfered with the direct contact of bacteria to solid surfaces, leading to less bacterial adhesion. The superhydrophobic surface with a reduced solid area fraction displayed self-cleaning ability, where initially-adhered bacteria were removed by washing. The superhydrophilic substrate with negative zeta potential exhibited limited bacterial binding, due to the reduced hydrophobic interaction and possible repulsive interaction between bacteria and surface. The findings of this study can be utilized for an effective surface design to circumvent bacterial adhesion as an alternative solution to using antibiotics.
Based on the background of the economic construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in the new era, this paper selects the panel data of 11 cities from 2008 to 2020 to build a ...financial ecological environment index system and calculate the comprehensive evaluation index. The coupled coordination model and Moran’I index model are used to conduct quantitative research on the relationship between financial ecological environment and economic growth in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, comprehensively evaluate the financial ecological environment and economic growth status in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and verify the two-way driving relationship between the two. Explore the regional differences and spatial agglomeration phenomenon in the relationship between financial ecological environment and economic growth from the two dimensions of time and space. Finally, it is concluded that the financial ecological environment in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area varies significantly and geographically, and there is indeed a significant two-way promotion relationship between the financial ecological environment and the economic growth. The financial ecological environment will not only promote the economic growth of the region, but also have a spatial spillover effect on the surrounding areas.
Contrary to the common expectation that the reference evapotranspiration (ETo), which is an indicator of the atmospheric evaporation capability, increases in warming climate, the decline of the ETo ...has been reported worldwide, and this contradiction between the expected increasing ETo and the observed decreasing one is now termed the "evaporation paradox". Based on the updated meteorological data (1960-2019), we separately detected the spatiotemporal characteristics and the causes of the "evaporation paradox" in three subregions, namely Huaibei, Jianghuai, and Sunan, and throughout the entire province of Jiangsu in southeastern China. Different from the reported continuous unidirectional variations in the ETo, in the province of Jiangsu, it generally showed a decreasing trend before 1990 but followed an increasing trend from 1990 to 2019, which led to the different characteristics of the "evaporation paradox" in the periods from 1960 to 1989, from 1990 to 2019, and from 1960 to 2019. In the first 30 years, the reduction of the wind speed (WS) was the main reason for the decreased ETo, which consequently gave rise to the "evaporation paradox" in spring and winter in the Huaibei region and only in winter in the two other subregions and throughout the entire province. We noticed that the "evaporation paradox" in spring in the Sunan region was expressed by the decreased daily mean air temperature (Tmean) and the increased ETo which was chiefly induced by the decreased relative humidity (RH) and the increased vapor pressure deficit (VPD). After 1990, the decreased WS also dominated the decreased ETo and resulted in the "evaporation paradox" in winter in the Jianghuai region. Furthermore, the decreased sunshine hour (SH) was the main factor influencing the decreased ETo, thereby inducing the "evaporation paradox" in summer and autumn in the Jianghuai region and only in autumn in the Huaibei region and throughout the whole province from 1990 to 2019. In the whole study period from 1960 to 2019, the decreased SH was also found to be responsible for the decreased ETo and for the "evaporation paradox" in summer in all the subregions and throughout the whole province. However, regarding the "evaporation paradox" in autumn, in winter, and in the entire year in the Huaibei region and throughout the whole province, the observed decreased ETo was largely due to the reduced WS from 1960 to 2019. In summary, in addition to the air temperature, the ETo has shifted due to the other meteorological variables (especially the WS, the SH, and the VPD) and shaped the unique spatiotemporal characteristics of the "evaporation paradox" in the province of Jiangsu in southeastern China. Moreover, future studies and simulations addressing the regional climate change and hydrological cycles should take account of the changeable key meteorological variables in different subregions and seasons of the province of Jiangsu.
Metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) has been reported to be associated with the development of vascular damage by the carotid intima-media thickness, but the relationship between metabolic health and ...obesity phenotypes and arterial stiffness is still unknown. Our hypothesized that different metabolic health and obesity phenotypes might be associated with the development of arterial stiffness, and that subjects in MHO phenotype might not have increased risks of arterial stiffness compared with those in metabolically healthy nonobesity phenotype (MHNO), while metabolic unhealthy individuals might have increased risks of arterial stiffness.
A prospective cohort of 2076 participants (aged 36-48 years) who were enrolled in the Hanzhong Adolescent Hypertension Cohort Study in 2017 was analyzed in a cross-sectional analysis. A subgroup of 202 participants from 2005 to 2017 was selected by an isometric sampling method and was included in the final longitudinal analysis.
We identified four metabolic health and obesity phenotypes for both the cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses as follows: MHNO, metabolically unhealthy nonobesity (MUNO), MHO, and metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO). In the cross-sectional analysis, individuals with the MHO phenotype had the lowest brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) levels of the four phenotypes (
< 0.001), and participants with the MHO phenotype had a similar risk of arterial stiffness after fully adjustment odds ratio (OR) = 0.99 (0.61-1.60) as the MUNO subjects. Subjects with metabolically unhealthy status had a significantly higher risk of arterial stiffness than the MHNO individuals, particularly females (
< 0.005). In the longitudinal analysis, subjects with the MUNO and MUO phenotypes had a significantly higher risk of arterial stiffness than the MHNO individuals after adjustment for age and sex OR = 5.21 (2.26-12.02), OR = 3.32 (1.18-9.32), respectively.
The MHO phenotype did not significantly increase the progression of arterial stiffness. Metabolically unhealthy individuals (MUNO, MUO), regardless of obesity status, showed a worse effect for the development of arterial stiffness, particularly females.
NCT02734472. Registered 12 April 2016 - Retrospectively registered, http:www.clinicaltrials.gov.
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