This study examines the impact of state participation on the alleviation of financing constraints faced by private Chinese enterprises. The analysis is based on data collected from a sample of 2,256 ...private Chinese enterprises surveyed by the World Bank in 2011 and 2013, and a sample of 3,197 listed enterprises in China from 2009 to 2020. The empirical findings demonstrate that (1) State equity participation can effectively alleviate the financial constraints faced by enterprises, and its approach is to alleviate financing constraints by lessening the competitive pressure on mixed-equity enterprises. (2) Anxiety related to survival and development that arises from competitive pressures compels private enterprises to seek competitive advantages through new investments. Consequently, private enterprises' demand for external capital has increased. However, the conversion of capital requirements into external financing applications has become increasingly challenging due to deficiencies in enterprises' internal cognitive processes regarding financial information. (3) Heterogeneity analysis reveals that state equity participation has a more pronounced impact on alleviating the financing constraints faced by emerging, non-group, and non-listed enterprises.
The emerging trend of online self-presentation that cause the selective release of photos and thus create biased city images circulating in social networks deserves greater research attention. As a ...response to this, the paper investigates the image of Wangfujing Beijing on Instagram, which cements its reputation as a symbol of traditional food culture but limits its potential to be the embodiment of cosmopolitan urban living. After arguing that the exotic images of the food market can better help Instagrammers play an urban adventurer before followers, the paper analyzes over 5500 sets of Instagram data, and then examines three narrative patterns used to describe the place, corresponding to the context description, the connection establishment, and the visual emphasis of the dominant theme. The visual storytelling techniques used in them will assist in understanding the image-based communication between social network users and thereby increase the possibility of managing the online city image.
Abstract
Animal oils would not only pollute the water but also block the sewer. Using hydrophilic membrane is an effective approach for oil/water separation. However, abrasion would cause the damage ...of the membrane and shorten their service life. In this work, we prepared a sandwich structured oil/water separation membrane (SSM) with two layers of cotton fabric and a core layer of PAM modified stainless‐steel mesh via a cost‐effective and facile process. The as‐prepared membrane can selectively separate water from oil/water mixtures with high efficiency, high flux (beyond 6000 L m
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), and good reusability. Moreover, as compared with hydrogel coated mesh, the SSM exhibited good abrasion resistance, which would effectively improve the usability in real scenarios. More importantly, the SSM has successfully blocked the oil in a simulated sewer and a real sewer in the kitchen, which will help prevent sewer blockage.
The major hurdle in glioblastoma therapy is the low efficacy of drugs crossing the blood–brain barrier (BBB). Neisseria meningitidis is known to specifically enrich in the central nervous system ...through the guidance of an outer membrane invasion protein named Opca. Here, by loading a chemotherapeutic drug methotrexate (MTX) in hollow manganese dioxide (MnO2) nanoparticles with surface modification of the Opca protein of Neisseria meningitidis, a bionic nanotherapeutic system (MTX@MnO2‐Opca) is demonstrated to effectively overcome the BBB. The presence of the Opca protein enables the drug to cross the BBB and penetrate into tumor tissues. After accumulating in glioblastoma, the nanotherapeutic system catalyzes the decomposition of excess H2O2 in the tumor tissue and thereby generates O2, which alleviates tumor hypoxia and enhances the effect of chemotherapy in the treatment of glioblastoma. This bionic nanotherapeutic system may exhibit great potential in the treatment of glioblastoma.
By loading the chemotherapeutic drug methotrexate in hollow manganese dioxide nanoparticles with surface modification of Opca protein of Neisseria meningitidis, a bionic nanotherapeutic system is constructed to effectively overcome the blood–brain barrier for improved glioblastoma therapy.
A giant electrocaloric effect (ECE) near room temperature is reported in a lead‐free bulk inorganic material. By tuning Ba(ZrxTi1–x)O3 compositions which also exhibit relaxor ferroelectric response ...to near the invariant critical point, the Ba(ZrxTi1–x)O3 bulk ceramics at x ∼ 0.2 exhibit a large adiabatic temperature drop of 4.5 K, a large isothermal entropy change of 8 J kg−1 K−1, and a large EC coefficient (|ΔTc/ΔE| = 0.52 × 10−6 KmV−1 and ΔS/ΔE = 0.93 × 10−6 J m kg−1 K−1 V−1) over a 30 K temperature range. These properties added together indicate a general solution of the electrocaloric materials with high performance for practical cooling applications.
A giant electrocaloric effect (ECE), i.e., a large adiabatic temperature drop (ΔTc) with a high electrocaloric coefficient (ΔTc/ΔE), is demonstrated in a modified lead‐free ferroelectric ceramic, BaTiO3, over a broad temperature range near the invariant critical point (ICP). Multiphase coexistence near ICP provides a larger entropy change compared with that of a pure ferroelectric–paraelectric transition. When coupled with the relaxor behavior, this leads to the observed giant ECE in BZT (x = 0.2) over a broad temperature range
This is the first randomised controlled trial for assessment of the immunogenicity and safety of a candidate non-replicating adenovirus type-5 (Ad5)-vectored COVID-19 vaccine, aiming to determine an ...appropriate dose of the candidate vaccine for an efficacy study.
This randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial of the Ad5-vectored COVID-19 vaccine was done in a single centre in Wuhan, China. Healthy adults aged 18 years or older, who were HIV-negative and previous severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection-free, were eligible to participate and were randomly assigned to receive the vaccine at a dose of 1 × 1011 viral particles per mL or 5 × 1010 viral particles per mL, or placebo. Investigators allocated participants at a ratio of 2:1:1 to receive a single injection intramuscularly in the arm. The randomisation list (block size 4) was generated by an independent statistician. Participants, investigators, and staff undertaking laboratory analyses were masked to group allocation. The primary endpoints for immunogenicity were the geometric mean titres (GMTs) of specific ELISA antibody responses to the receptor binding domain (RBD) and neutralising antibody responses at day 28. The primary endpoint for safety evaluation was the incidence of adverse reactions within 14 days. All recruited participants who received at least one dose were included in the primary and safety analyses. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04341389.
603 volunteers were recruited and screened for eligibility between April 11 and 16, 2020. 508 eligible participants (50% male; mean age 39·7 years, SD 12·5) consented to participate in the trial and were randomly assigned to receive the vaccine (1 × 1011 viral particles n=253; 5 × 1010 viral particles n=129) or placebo (n=126). In the 1 × 1011 and 5 × 1010 viral particles dose groups, the RBD-specific ELISA antibodies peaked at 656·5 (95% CI 575·2–749·2) and 571·0 (467·6–697·3), with seroconversion rates at 96% (95% CI 93–98) and 97% (92–99), respectively, at day 28. Both doses of the vaccine induced significant neutralising antibody responses to live SARS-CoV-2, with GMTs of 19·5 (95% CI 16·8–22·7) and 18·3 (14·4–23·3) in participants receiving 1 × 1011 and 5 × 1010 viral particles, respectively. Specific interferon γ enzyme-linked immunospot assay responses post vaccination were observed in 227 (90%, 95% CI 85–93) of 253 and 113 (88%, 81–92) of 129 participants in the 1 × 1011 and 5 × 1010 viral particles dose groups, respectively. Solicited adverse reactions were reported by 183 (72%) of 253 and 96 (74%) of 129 participants in the 1 × 1011 and 5 × 1010 viral particles dose groups, respectively. Severe adverse reactions were reported by 24 (9%) participants in the 1 × 1011 viral particles dose group and one (1%) participant in the 5 × 1010 viral particles dose group. No serious adverse reactions were documented.
The Ad5-vectored COVID-19 vaccine at 5 × 1010 viral particles is safe, and induced significant immune responses in the majority of recipients after a single immunisation.
National Key R&D Programme of China, National Science and Technology Major Project, and CanSino Biologics.
To explore the mechanisms underlying the specific inhibitor targeting SGLT-2 empagliflozin in alleviating myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. A mouse model of I/R injury and H
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...-induced H9C2 cell model were established. The expressions of Bcl-2, Bax, LC3, Beclin1, GRP78, CHOP, PERK, ATF4, ATF6, IREα and P62 were examined by western blot, immunofluorescence or immunohistochemistry staining, respectively. The cardiac function was measured by echocardiography, TCC staining, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) activity. Cell apoptosis was analysed by TUNEL, Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) staining and caspase 3 and 9 activities. CCK-8 assay was used for analysing cell viability. PBA, TUDC and 3-MA were utilised for blocking ER stress and autophagy, respectively. Empagliflozin suppressed myocardial I/R injury in vivo and H
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-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis in vitro. Blockade of ER stress and autophagy inhibited H
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-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis. ER stress activated autophagy through the PERK signalling in H
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-treated H9C2 cells. Empagliflozin suppressed ER stress-induced autophagy by inhibiting the PERK/ATF4/Beclin1 signalling. H
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and I/R-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis was restrained by empagliflozin through inhibition of ER stress-induced autophagy. Empagliflozin suppressed ER stress-induced autophagy via suppressing the PERK/ATF4/Beclin1 signalling, thus alleviating myocardial I/R injury and cardiomyocyte apoptosis.
Uniform and patterned orientation of a crystallographic direction of ordered materials is of fundamental significance and of great interest for electronic and photonic applications. However, such ...orientation control is generally complicated and challenging with regard to inorganic and organic crystalline materials due to the occurrence of uncontrollable dislocations or defects. Achieving uniform lattice orientation in frustrated liquid‐crystalline phases, like cubic blue phases, is a formidable task. Taming and tailoring the ordering of such soft, cubic lattices along predetermined or desired directions, and even imparting a prescribed pattern on lattice orientation, are more challenging, due to the entropy‐domination attribute of soft matter. Herein, we disclose a facile way to realize designed micropatterning of a crystallographic direction of a soft, cubic liquid‐crystal superstructure, exhibiting an alternate uniform and random orientation of the lattice crystallographic direction enabled by a photoalignment technique. Because of the rewritable trait of the photoalignment film, the pattern can be erased and rewritten on‐demand by light. Such an oriented soft lattice sensitively responds to various external stimuli such as temperature, electric field, and light irradiation. Furthermore, advanced reflective photonic applications are achieved based on the patterned crystallographic orientation of the cubic blue phase, soft lattice.
A facile way to realize designed micropatterning of a crystallographic direction of a soft, cubic liquid‐crystal superstructure is disclosed, exhibiting an alternate uniform and random orientation of the lattice crystallographic direction, enabled by a photoalignment technique, which has not been accomplished before.
Covering: 2016 to 2023
The synthetic chemistry community is always in pursuit of efficient routes to natural products. Among the many available general strategies, skeletal reorganization, which ...involves the formation, cleavage, and migration of C-C and C-heteroatom bonds, stands out as a particularly useful approach for the efficient assembly of molecular skeletons. In addition, it allows for late-stage modification of natural products for quick access to other family members or unnatural derivatives. This review summarizes efficient syntheses of steroid, terpenoid, and alkaloid natural products that have been achieved by means of this strategy in the past eight years. Our goal is to illustrate the strategy's potency and reveal the spectacular human ingenuity demonstrated in its use and development.
This review highlights controllable skeletal reorganization, which involves the formation, cleavage, and migration of C-C and C-heteroatom bonds, as a powerful strategy in the efficient syntheses of steroid, terpenoid and alkaloid natural products.
The structural and electronic characteristics of fluorinated graphene are investigated based on first‐principles density‐functional calculations. A detailed analysis of the energy order for ...stoichiometric fluorographene membranes indicates that there exists prominent chair and stirrup conformations, which correlate with the experimentally observed in‐plane lattice expansion contrary to a contraction in graphane. The optical response of fluorographene is investigated using the GW–Bethe–Salpeter equation approach. The results are in good conformity with the experimentally observed optical gap and reveal predominant charge‐transfer excitations arising from strong electron–hole interactions. The appearance of bounded excitons in the ultraviolet region can result in an excitonic Bose–Einstein condensate in fluorographene.
Chair and stirrup conformers of fluoro‐graphene are prominent stoichiometric membranes, which correlate with the experimentally observed in‐plane lattice expansion. The calculated optical response of fluorographene reveals predominant charge‐transfer excitations. The bounded excitons in the ultraviolet region can result in an excitonic Bose–Einstein condensate in fluorographene.
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