As pollution emitters and energy users, firms are important causes of environmental problems, making it increasingly vital for them to strengthen their environmental management and information ...disclosure policies. However, firms doubt whether it pays to be green and whether it is worthwhile to disclose their environmental information, and there are hot debates on these questions in the literature. This paper analyzes the relationships among corporate environmental performance, environmental information disclosure, and financial performance in China, which witnessed rapid growth at the price of environmental degradation. With 950 observations from 475 Chinese listed companies between 2013 and 2014, we find a U-shaped nonlinear relationship between corporate environmental performance and environmental disclosure, an insignificant relationship between environmental performance and financial performance, and a negative relationship between environmental disclosure and financial performance, which is different from most findings in developed countries. The aforementioned results imply that Chinese firms have few motivations to disclose environmental information or improve environmental performance; therefore, mandatory disclosure of environmental information is necessary, and proper environmental policy should be made to punish environmental violations and encourage better environmental performance.
Down syndrome (DS), or trisomy 21, is one of the critical risk factors for early-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), implicating key roles for chromosome 21-encoded genes in the pathogenesis of AD. We ...previously identified a role for the deubiquitinase USP25, encoded on chromosome 21, in regulating microglial homeostasis in the AD brain; however, whether USP25 affects amyloid pathology remains unknown. Here, by crossing 5×FAD AD and Dp16 DS mice, we observed that trisomy 21 exacerbated amyloid pathology in the 5×FAD brain. Moreover, bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) transgene-mediated USP25 overexpression increased amyloid deposition in the 5×FAD mouse brain, whereas genetic deletion of Usp25 reduced amyloid deposition. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that USP25 promoted β cleavage of APP and Aβ generation by reducing the ubiquitination and lysosomal degradation of both APP and BACE1. Importantly, pharmacological inhibition of USP25 ameliorated amyloid pathology in the 5×FAD mouse brain. In summary, we identified the DS-related gene USP25 as a critical regulator of AD pathology, and our data suggest that USP25 serves as a potential pharmacological target for AD drug development.
BACKGROUND: Praziquantel (PZQ) is an effective pesticide against monogeneans. Its pharmacokinetics in fish may be affected by water environment and temperature. The present study was designed to ...compare the pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution, and elimination of PZQ in freshwater-acclimated grass carp and brackish water cultured grass carp. Plasma and tissue PZQ concentrations were determined after a single 10 mg/kg oral PZQ dose. RESULTS: The datas of plasma and tissues drug concentration was calculated by the software SPSS 13.0. According to the One-Way ANOVA, the results showed that the salinity had a significant effect on the drug concentration of plasma (p < 0.01), muscle (p < 0.01), liver (p < 0.01) and kidney (p < 0.01) in the all sampling time points between the brackish water grass carps and the freshwater grass carps, wherein, PZQ plasma and tissue concentrations in the brackish water group were constantly lower than that in the freshwater group. The peak PZQ levels of plasma, muscle, liver, and kidneys in the brackish water group were 0.76 μg/ml, 0.51 μg/g, 2.7 μg/g, and 2.99 μg/g, respectively; and that in the freshwater group were 0.91 μg/ml, 0.62 μg/g, 3.87 μg/g, and 3.39 μg/g, respectively. The elimination half-lives (t₁/₂ᵦ) in plasma and all tissues of the freshwater group were significantly longer than that in the brackish water group. The elimination half-lives (t₁/₂ᵦ) of plasma, muscle, liver and kidneys in brackish water grass carps were 56.46, 36.17, 15.31, and 132.64 h, respectively; and that in the freshwater grass carps were 71.15, 44.88, 23.86, and 150.23 h, respectively. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that water environment affects the tissue distribution and elimination of PZQ in grass carps, the elimination in brackish water grass carps is more rapid than that in fresh water grass carps and tissue concentrations of brackish water grass carps are lower than that in freshwater grass carps after orally administrating the same dosage at the same water temperature. We speculate that the main excretion pathway of the drug is through renal elimination, and the decreased kidney function in brackish water grass carps is likely responsible for the considerable difference in pharmacokinetics between the two groups of grass carps.
Regarded as the main contributor to various environmental issues, firms face increasing pressure from various stakeholders to incorporate green management into their business practices. This study ...aims to provide preliminary evidence regarding the impact of corporate quality management on green innovation and the moderating role of environmental regulation on this relationship. Data on top 100 listed companies from 2008 to 2014 in China indicate that quality management exerts significant negative effects on the likelihood of implementing corporate green technology innovation and green management innovation. Environmental regulation significantly mitigates the negative effects of quality management on both green management innovation and green technology innovation.
Our purpose of this study was to investigate the value of ultrasound combined with disposable cervical dilating stick and lidocaine in hysteroscopic intrauterine device (IUD) removal in ...postmenopausal women.
Ninety-six postmenopausal women who requested IUD removal in our hospital from March 2020 to March 2022 were selected and randomly divided into a control group (48 cases) and a study group (48 cases) according to random number table method, with the control group undergoing conventional hysteroscopic IUD removal and the study group undergoing hysteroscopic IUD removal with ultrasound combined with a single-use cervical dilator rod and lidocaine. The time of IUD removal, subjective comfort evaluation scale (SECS) scores, treatment compliance, quality of life scale (SF-36) scores, IUD removal results, hospital anxiety and depression scale (HAD) scores and complications were compared between the two groups.
The ring removal time of the study group was shorter than that of the control group, the postoperative SECS and SF-36 scores were higher than those of the control group, the compliance rate and the excellent and good rate of ring removal efficacy were higher than those of the control group, the postoperative HAD score was lower than that of the control group, and the incidence rate of complications was lower than that of the control group (P < .05).
In hysteroscopic IUD removal, ultrasound combined with single-use cervical dilation sticks and lidocaine can gently soften and dilate the cervix in a short time, shortening the procedure time and reducing pain. The procedure is simplified, rapid, safe and has a high success rate.
Accompanied with rapid economic growth in the emerging economies is the severe ecological deterioration. As major pollution makers and main energy consumers, enterprises are expected to be ...responsible to the natural environment. However, it's still in dispute whether and when it pays to be green. Based on institutional theory and agency theory, this paper explores the impact of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) on corporate financial performance (CFP) and studies the moderating effect, as well as the co-moderating effect, of external government regulation and internal organizational slack on the relationship. With the data of 1179 observations of Chinese energy-intensive listed companies in 2012–2014, empirical results show that CER significantly positively influences CFP, and that the moderating effect of government regulation is significantly positive, i.e., stringent government regulation significantly reinforces the positive influence of CER on CFP, while organizational slack has a negative moderating effect, i.e., the firms with abundant organization slack are less likely to gain a higher financial performance from undertaking environmental responsibility. In addition, the moderating effect of organizational slack also depends on the degree of government regulation, that is to say, stringent government regulation weakens the negative moderating effect of organizational slack between CER and CFP. The results demonstrate that it pays to be green, especially those lean firms with few slacks under stringent government regulation.
•The influencing of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) on corporate financial performance is explored in China.•CER significantly positively influences corporate financial performance.•The moderating effect of regulation on the relationship between CER and corporate financial performance is insignificant.•Organization slack has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between CER and corporate financial performance.•The moderating effect of organizational slack also depends on the degree of government regulation.
This paper investigates fully distributed scaled non-negative edge-consensus problems of networked systems with actuator saturation and unmeasurable internal states. By using the adaptive control ...method, output-feedback-based low-gain technique, and graph theory, a new adaptive algorithm is designed to obtain scaled edge-consensus conditions, under which the difficulties caused by the constraints on edge states and controllers are overcome. There are three interesting characteristics that any global information of networks is not used in this paper’s algorithm and result, including the number of vertexes and edges; the feasible solutions of the scaled edge-consensus conditions exist and can be easily obtained; the convergence rate of the controller is adjustable. Furthermore, the designed algorithm is expanded in the cases without actuator saturation. Finally, three examples are given to verify the theoretical results.
Piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG) with these advantages of low cost, small volume and stable output in extreme environment is constantly required to develop self-powered sensing system in Internet ...of Things (IoT), which can relieve energy crisis and reduce labor maintenance costs. However, low electrical output of PENG severely restricts its application and has been a key challenge in the development of PENG. To attain high output performance, a new PENG based on core-shell heterostructure of barium titanate(BT)/polyvinylidene fluoride(PVDF) composite fibers coated with BT@Ag was designed for energy harvesting and wireless sensing application. The outputs of PENG with this special structure are enhanced near 3 times than that of PENG based on traditional fibers, benefiting from the enhanced induced-polarization and stress transfer mechanism in PENG, which is confirmed by experimental results and explained by multi-physics simulations. Moreover, the PENG can effectively harvest wind and acoustic energy, which can deliver the high outputs of 107.5 V and 16.18 µA under 12 m/s wind speed, 45.4 V and 6.5 µA under 110 dB sound pressure, respectively. To verify the practicability of the PENG, a whole self-powered wireless sensing system based on the PENG to harvest energy in environment was demonstrated, where the signal of humidity condition of soil can be sensed periodically and transmitted to mobile phone for further analysis. This work provides an effective strategy to boost performance of PENG and further paves a route about advanced self-powered wireless sensing technology in IoT.
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•A strategy to enhance output performance of PENG based on core-shell heterostructure fibers by improving polarization and stress transfer mechanism.•The output of improved PENG is about 3 times enhanced, which delivers high output of 107.5 V/16.18 µA under 12 m/s wind speed, 45.4 V/6.5 µA under 110 dB sound pressure.•By designing of energy management circuit, a whole self-powered soil humidity wireless monitoring system based on the PENG has been achieved, which shows potential application in intelligent IoT.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of the monocyte-to-high-density lipoprotein ratio (MHR) in Kawasaki disease (KD) complicated with coronary artery lesions (CALs) and to ...construct a nomogram prediction model.
The medical records of KD inpatients diagnosed in the Department of Pediatrics of Lanzhou University Second Hospital from May 2015 to September 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. ROC curves were applied to evaluate the predictive value of MHR in KD complicated with CALs, and logistic regression analysis was used to screen independent risk factors. We constructed a nomogram model and performed internal validation.
A total of 568 KD patients were enrolled in the study. MHR was significantly higher in KD patients complicated with CALs and was identified as an independent risk factor for CALs (OR: 1.604, 95% CI: 1.292-1.990). The area under the ROC curve for MHR in predicting CALs was 0.661. The C-index of the nomogram model constructed by incorporating MHR was 0.725 (95% CI: 0.682-0.768), and the calibration curve revealed good agreement between the predicted and actual probabilities.
MHR may not be suitable as a single biomarker to predict the occurrence of CALs, but the nomogram model constructed in combination with other independent risk factors had acceptable predictive performance.
The inflammatory response plays an important role in the pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease. The monocyte-to-high-density lipoprotein ratio is a novel systemic inflammation marker. The monocyte-to-high-density lipoprotein ratio is an independent risk factor for Kawasaki disease complicated with coronary artery lesions. The nomogram established by incorporating the monocyte-to-high-density lipoprotein ratio has satisfactory predictive performance for coronary artery lesion formation.
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