Many societies around the world are rapidly aging and this has implications for social and economic development. We collect data on NEEQ-listed enterprises from 2010 to 2021 in China and empirically ...test the effect of population aging on the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The findings show that population aging has a significant positive impact on SME digital transformation, and private enterprises and enterprises in eastern regions of China tend to benefit more than other regions. The mechanism studies find that population aging positively impacts SME digital transformation by increasing labor costs, facilitating human capital accumulation, and raising savings rates. Furthermore, the threshold effect analyses find that the marginal promotion effect of population aging will weaken with greater aging and will strengthen with a higher level of marketization. Finally, we provide policy recommendations for promoting digital transformation in SMEs against the background of population aging.
Evidence concerning the acute health effects of air pollution caused by fine particulate matter (PM
) in developing countries is quite limited.
To evaluate short-term associations between PM
and ...daily cause-specific mortality in China.
A nationwide time-series analysis was performed in 272 representative Chinese cities from 2013 to 2015. Two-stage Bayesian hierarchical models were applied to estimate regional- and national-average associations between PM
concentrations and daily cause-specific mortality. City-specific effects of PM
were estimated using the overdispersed generalized additive models after adjusting for time trends, day of the week, and weather conditions. Exposure-response relationship curves and potential effect modifiers were also evaluated.
The average of annual mean PM
concentration in each city was 56 μg/m
(minimum, 18 μg/m
; maximum, 127 μg/m
). Each 10-μg/m
increase in 2-day moving average of PM
concentrations was significantly associated with increments in mortality of 0.22% from total nonaccidental causes, 0.27% from cardiovascular diseases, 0.39% from hypertension, 0.30% from coronary heart diseases, 0.23% from stroke, 0.29% from respiratory diseases, and 0.38% from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. There was a leveling off in the exposure-response curves at high concentrations in most, but not all, regions. The associations were stronger in cities with lower PM
levels or higher temperatures, and in subpopulations with elder age or less education.
This nationwide investigation provided robust evidence of the associations between short-term exposure to PM
and increased mortality from various cardiopulmonary diseases in China. The magnitude of associations was lower than those reported in Europe and North America.
Carbon‐rich materials have drawn tremendous attention toward a wide spectrum of energy applications due to their superior electronic mobility, good mechanical strength, ultrahigh surface area, and ...more importantly, abundant diversity in structure and components. Herein, rationally designed and bottom‐up constructed carbon‐rich materials for energy storage and conversion are discussed. The fundamental design principles are itemized for the targeted preparation of carbon‐rich materials and the latest remarkable advances are summarized in terms of emerging dimensions including sp2 carbon fragment manipulation, pore structure modulation, topological defect engineering, heteroatom incorporation, and edge chemical regulation. In this respect, the corresponding structure–property relationships of the resultant carbon‐rich materials are comprehensively discussed. Finally, critical perspectives on future challenges of carbon‐rich materials are presented. The progress highlighted here will provide meaningful guidance on the precise design and targeted synthesis of carbon‐rich materials, which are of critical importance for the achievement of performance characteristics highly desirable for urgent energy deployment.
Emerging carbon‐rich materials, from the viewpoints of rational molecular design principles and bottom‐up synthetic strategies, are reviewed. The latest remarkable progress is summarized in the targeted preparation of carbon‐rich materials in terms of emerging dimensions. Of note, the corresponding structure–property relationships of the resultant carbon‐rich materials for energy‐related applications are comprehensively and thoroughly discussed.
Exposure to heavy metals (cadmium, mercury, and lead) has been linked with adverse health outcomes, especially their nephrotoxic effects at high levels of exposure. We conducted a replication study ...to examine the association of low-level heavy metal exposure and chronic kidney disease (CKD) using a larger NHANES data set compared to previous studies.
The large cross-sectional study comprised 5,175 CKD cases out of 55677 participants aged 20-85 years from the 1999-2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey NHANES. Logistic regression analysis was applied to estimate the associations between CKD and heavy metals Cd, Pb, Hg measured as categorical variables after adjusting with age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and blood cotinine level as smoking status.
Compared to the lowest quartile of blood Cd, exposures to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quartiles of blood Cd were statistically significantly associated with higher odds of CKD after adjustment for blood Pb and Hg, with OR = 1.79, 95% CI; 1.55-2.07, p<0.0001, OR = 2.17, 95% CI; 1.88-2.51, p<0.0001 and OR = 1.52, 95% CI; 1.30-1.76, p<0.0001 respectively. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th quartiles of blood Cd remained statistically significantly associated with higher odds of CKD after adjustment for blood cotinine level, with OR = 2.06, 95% CI; 1.80-2.36, p<0.0001, OR = 3.18, 95% CI; 2.79-3.63, p<0.0001 and OR = 5.54, 95% CI; 4.82-6.37, p<0.0001 respectively. Exposure to blood Pb was statistically significantly associated with higher odds of CKD in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quartile groups, after adjustment for all co-variates (ag, gender, race, socio-economic status, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, blood cadmium, mercury, and cotinine levels) in all the four models. Blood Hg level was statistically significantly associated with lower odds of CKD in the 2nd quartile group in model 2, 3rd quartile group in model 1, 2 and 3, and the 4th quartile group in all the four models.
Our findings showed that low blood levels of Cd and Pb were associated with higher odds of CKD while low blood levels of Hg were associated with lower odds of CKD in the US adult population. However, temporal association cannot be determined as it is a cross sectional study.
The prognostic role of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in ovarian cancer has been investigated in previous studies, but the results remain controversial. Here we present a ...meta-analysis to systematically review the association between HER2 expression and ovarian cancer prognosis.
Observational studies published until July 2017 were searched in Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane library databases. Hazard ratios (HRs) for survival with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), subgroup analyses, publication bias and sensitivity analyses were implemented under a standard manner. Estimates of overall survival (OS), progress-free survival (PFS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were weighted and pooled using Der Simonian-Laird random-effect model.
Thirty-four studies that include 5180 ovarian cancer patients were collected for analysis. Expression of HER2 was negatively correlated with clinical prognosis of overall survival (HR = 1.57, 95% CI: 1.31 to 1.89, P < 0.001) and disease-free survival / progress-free survival (HR = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.06 to 1.49) in ovarian cancers. The association between HER2 expression and poor ovarian cancer prognosis in overall survival was also statistically significant in subgroups of unclassified ovarian cancer, Caucasian population and Asian population, while irrespective of detection method.
HER2 expression was related with poor prognosis in ovarian cancer patients and can be used as a predicting cancer prognostic biomarker in ovarian cancer patients.
•Culture medium from OGD preconditioned astrocytes ameliorates OGD-induced neuron injury.•Exosomes derived from preconditioned astrocytes can be internalized into neurons.•OGD preconditioning ...promotes the production of exosomal miR-92b-3p from astrocytes.•MiR-92b-3p mimic as same as exosomes from preconditioned astrocytes exerts protective effects on neurons after OGD.
Ischemic preconditioning (IPC) exerts protective effects against ischemic cerebral injury. In the present study, an in vitro model of cerebral ischemia (oxygen and glucose deprivation, OGD) was established to investigate the neuroprotective mechanism of IPC. We found that conditioned medium (C.M.) from astrocytes rather than neurons nor microglia cell line BV2 exerted neuroprotection. Moreover, exosomes derived from OGD preconditioned astrocytes can be taken up by neurons and attenuated OGD-induced neuron death and apoptosis. High-throughput microRNA (miRNA) sequencing revealed that miR-92b-3p levels in exosomes released from preconditioned astrocytes were increased. Overexpression of miR-92b-3p in neurons with miR-92b-3p mimic achieved the same protective effects as C.M. from astrocytes. Thus, we propose that the mechanism of IPC may associate with astrocytes, and that exosome-mediated miR-92b-3p shuttle from preconditioned astrocytes to neurons participate in these process.
This paper investigates the problem of the dynamic behaviors of a class of complex-valued neural networks with mixed time delays. Some sufficient conditions for assuring the existence, uniqueness and ...exponential stability of the equilibrium point of the system are derived using the vector Lyapunov function method, homeomorphism mapping lemma and the matrix theory. The obtained results not only are convenient to check, but also generalize the previously published corresponding results. A numerical example is used to show the effectiveness of the obtained results.
Atherosclerosis (AS) is a cardiovascular disease that arise due to dysfunction of lipid deposition and metabolism. AS is causes the mortality and morbidity worldwide. Sinomenine isolated from the ...Sinomenium acutum is used extensively against the various cardiac diseases in China. However, the anti-atherosclerosis effect of sinomenine still not explore. In this study, we explore the cardioprotective and anti-atherosclerosis effect of sinomenine against Vitamin D3 and High fat induced atherosclerosis in rats. Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were used in this study. The rats were received the vitamin D (60000) and High fat diet to induce the atherosclerosis and divided into groups and received the oral administration of sinomenine (2.5, 5 and 10 mg/kg) and simvastatin (5 mg/kg). Body weight, organ weight and biochemical parameters were estimated. The mRNA expression of MyD88, TLR4, NF-κB and IκB were estimated. Sinomenine treated rats significantly (p<0.001) suppressed the body weight and modulated the organ weight (hepatic, renal and heart). Sinomenine significantly (p<0.001) decreased the level of triacylglycerols (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), total cholesterol (TC), very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-c) and augmented the level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c). Sinomenine treatment also reduced the level of atherogenic index (TC/HDL-c and LDL-c/HDL-c). Sinomenine treatment decrease the ratio of HMG CoA/Mevalonate and level of collagen and total protein. Sinomenine significantly (p<0.001) altered the level of heart parameters, antioxidant parameters and inflammatory cytokines. Sinomenine significantly (p<0.001) reduced the expression of MyD88, TLR4, NF-κB and IκB. Taken together, sinomenine exhibited the protective effect against the atherosclerosis via alteration of TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway.
Few prior cohort studies exist in developing countries examining the association of ambient particulate matter (PM) with mortality. We examined the association of particulate air pollution with ...mortality in a prospective cohort study of 71,431 middle-aged Chinese men. Baseline data were obtained during 1990–1991. The follow-up evaluation was completed in January, 2006. Annual average PM exposure between 1990 and 2005, including TSP and PM10, were estimated by linking fixed-site monitoring data with residential communities. We found significant associations between PM10 and mortality from cardiopulmonary diseases; each 10 μg/m3 PM10 was associated with a 1.6% (95%CI: 0.7%, 2.6%), 1.8% (95%CI: 0.8%, 2.9%) and 1.7% (95%CI: 0.3%, 3.2%) increased risk of total, cardiovascular and respiratory mortality, respectively. For TSP, we observed significant associations only for cardiovascular morality. These data contribute to the scientific literature on long-term effects of particulate air pollution for high exposure settings typical in developing countries.
•There have been few air pollution cohort studies in developing countries.•PM10 was associated with increased cardiorespiratory mortality in 71,431 Chinese men.•PM was not significantly associated with lung cancer mortality.
PM10 was associated with increased cardiorespiratory mortality in a cohort of 71,431 Chinese men.
There is a growing body of epidemiological research reporting the neurological effects of ambient air pollution. We examined current evidence, identified the strengths and weaknesses of published ...epidemiological studies, and suggest future directions for research in this area. Studies were identified through a systematic search of online scientific databases, in addition to a manual search of the reference lists from the identified papers. Despite being a relatively new area of investigation, overall, there is mounting evidence implicating adverse effects of air pollution on neurobehavioral function in both adults and children. Further research is needed to expand our understanding of these relationships, including improvement in the accuracy of exposure assessments; focusing on specific toxicants and their relationships to specific health endpoints, such as neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases; investigating the combined neurological effects of multiple air pollutants; and further exploration of genetic susceptibility for neurotoxicity of air pollution. In order to achieve these goals collaborative efforts are needed from multidisciplinary teams, including experts in toxicology, biostatistics, geographical science, epidemiology, and neurology.
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