Recently, interest in aluminium ion batteries with aluminium anodes, graphite cathodes and ionic liquid electrolytes has increased; however, much remains to be done to increase the cathode capacity ...and to understand details of the anion-graphite intercalation mechanism. Here, an aluminium ion battery cell made using pristine natural graphite flakes achieves a specific capacity of ∼110 mAh g
with Coulombic efficiency ∼98%, at a current density of 99 mA g
(0.9 C) with clear discharge voltage plateaus (2.25-2.0 V and 1.9-1.5 V). The cell has a capacity of 60 mAh g
at 6 C, over 6,000 cycles with Coulombic efficiency ∼ 99%. Raman spectroscopy shows two different intercalation processes involving chloroaluminate anions at the two discharging plateaus, while C-Cl bonding on the surface, or edges of natural graphite, is found using X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Finally, theoretical calculations are employed to investigate the intercalation behaviour of choloraluminate anions in the graphite electrode.
The issue of authentic leadership has been generating increased interest in both practical and academic domains. This study examines the influence of authentic leadership on employee trust and ...employee work engagement from the dyadic supervisor-employee viewpoint. The sample data consists of responses from 77 team supervisors and 345 employees in 36 companies. We utilize hierarchical linear modeling to test the hypotheses. The cross-level results show that employee trust fully mediates supervisor-perceived authentic leadership and employee work engagement, and that employee-perceived authentic leadership fully mediates the relationship between supervisor-perceived authentic leadership and employee trust, as well as the relationship between supervisor-perceived authentic leadership and employee work engagement. On the individual level, employee trust has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between employee-perceived authentic leadership and employee work engagement.
An increasing amount of evidence emphasizes the role of metabolic reprogramming in immune cells to fight infections. However, little is known about the regulation of metabolite transporters that ...facilitate and support metabolic demands. In this study, we found that the expression of equilibrative nucleoside transporter 3 (ENT3, encoded by solute carrier family 29 member 3, Slc29a3) is part of the innate immune response, which is rapidly upregulated upon pathogen invasion. The transcription of Slc29a3 is directly regulated by type I interferon‐induced signaling, demonstrating that this metabolite transporter is an interferon‐stimulated gene (ISG). Suprisingly, we unveil that several viruses, including SARS‐CoV‐2, require ENT3 to facilitate their entry into the cytoplasm. The removal or suppression of Slc29a3 expression is sufficient to significantly decrease viral replication in vitro and in vivo. Our study reveals that ENT3 is a pro‐viral ISG co‐opted by some viruses to gain a survival advantage.
Synopsis
ENT3 is an IFN‐stimulated metabolite transporter in macrophages that facilitates viral genome release. Suppression of ENT3 expression is sufficient to decrease viral replication both in vitro and in vivo.
ENT3 is a fast‐responding metabolite transporter upon pathogen insults.
ENT3 is an interferon‐stimulated gene whose expression is regulated by the type I IFN‐IFNAR axis.
Viruses have co‐evolved with the host and take advantage of ENT3 for their genome release and their replication.
ENT3 is an IFN‐stimulated metabolite transporter in macrophages that facilitates viral genome release. Suppression of ENT3 expression is sufficient to decrease viral replication both in vitro and in vivo.
Analyst Report Readability and Stock Returns Hsieh, Chia-Chun; Hui, Kai Wai; Zhang, Yao
Journal of business finance & accounting,
January-February 2016, Volume:
43, Issue:
1-2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This study investigates the market's response to analyst report readability. We posit that readable reports decrease uncertainty of earnings expectations and by extension increase stock prices. Our ...results show that the equity market reacts more positively to readable reports and that this positive reaction is attributable to a reduction in uncertainty of future performance. Moreover, we find that the effect of readability on stock prices is significantly positive only for firms with greater R&D spending, higher bid‐ask spreads, a greater proportion of uninformed investors, and more experienced analysts, which suggests that readability matters only when information asymmetry in the equity market is high.
In this study we examined the effect of authentic leadership on employee engagement through employee trust. We collected data from 386 employees in the top 1,000 manufacturing companies and the top ...500 service companies in Taiwan. Hierarchical multiple regression was employed to test
the hypotheses. The results showed that both supervisors' consistency between words and actions as well as their moral perceptions are positively related to employee engagement, while only supervisors' consistency between words and actions is positively related to employee trust. Moreover,
employee trust was shown to be positively related to employee engagement. Finally, employee trust was found to have a partial mediating effect between authentic leadership and employee engagement.
Background
We hypothesized that patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) with smoking cessation during curative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) had fewer complications and lower tumor ...progression risks.
Methods
Sixty‐three patients with nonmetastatic HNSCC who were smokers at diagnosis (carbon monoxide CO breath concentrations ≥3 ppm) and underwent curative CRT were prospectively enrolled. Successful smoking cessation throughout CRT was confirmed by CO breath concentrations <3 ppm at CRT completion.
Results
Forty‐one patients (65%) successfully discontinued smoking throughout CRT. With a median 33‐month follow‐up, patients with successful smoking cessation during CRT had significantly fewer, greater, and lower probabilities of grade ≥3 acute toxicities (P = .01), progression‐free survival (P = .03), and permanent gastrostomy or tracheostomy (P = .04), respectively, than those continuing smoking throughout CRT. In multivariate analysis, successful smoking cessation during CRT significantly reduced tumor progression risks (hazard ratio: 0.4, P = .05).
Conclusion
Smoking cessation during curative CRT reduced treatment‐related toxicities and tumor progression risks in patients with HNSCC.
This paper mainly discusses the applicability of using soft x‐ray tomography technology to examine the multidimensional structure of metal–organic frameworks, such as their core‐shell and hollow ...framework, by visually observing their corresponding images in different energy bands by different excitation energies for different elements. The results show that the use of soft x‐ray tomography (SXT) can effectively observe the distribution of metals in the structure, as well as observe the type of hollow pores the metal–organic framework (MOF) possesses. This pioneering evaluation of MOFs via SXT shows excellent performance in the structure identification of multidimensional metal–organic frameworks.
For the first time, soft x‐ray tomography was used for structure evaluation and identification of multidimensional (MD) metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). This unique technique shows applicability in two types of MD‐MOFs tested and shows excellent performance.
Chronic ketamine abuse is associated with bladder dysfunction and cystitis. However, the effects of ketamine abuse on the urinary proteome profile and the correlations among urinary proteins, urinary ...ketamine (and metabolites) and clinicopathological features of ketamine-induced bladder dysfunction remain to be established. Here, we recruited 56 ketamine abusers (KA) and 40 age-matched healthy controls (HC) and applied the iTRAQ-based proteomics approach to unravel quantitative changes in the urine proteome profile between the two groups. Many of the differentially regulated proteins are involved in the complement and coagulation cascades and/or fibrotic disease. Among them, a significant increase in APOA1 levels in KA relative to control samples (392.1 ± 59.9 ng/ml vs. 13.7 ± 32.6 ng/ml, p < 0.0001) was detected via ELISA. Moreover, urinary ketamine, norketamine and dehydronorketamine contents (measured via LC-SRM-MS) were found to be positively correlated with overactive bladder syndrome score (OABSS) and APOA1 levels with urinary RBC, WBC, OABSS and numeric pain rating scale in KA. Collectively, our results may aid in developing new molecular tool(s) for management of ketamine-induced bladder dysfunction. Moreover, information regarding the differentially regulated proteins in urine of KA provides valuable clues to establish the molecular mechanisms underlying ketamine-induced cystitis.
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a common degenerative articular disorder and considered one of the primary causes of pain and functional disability. Knee OA is prevalent in 10% of men and 13% of women ...aged 60 years above. The study aims to use cartilage tissue engineering that combines the triads of decellularized porcine cartilage graft as “scaffold,” plasma rich platelet (PRP) as “signal” and chondrocytes from rat as “cell” to attenuate ACLT‐induced OA progression and regenerate the knee cartilage in rats. Decellularization of the porcine cartilage was characterized by hematoxylin and eosin, 4,6‐Diamidino‐2‐phenylindole staining, scanning electron microscopy and residual DNA quantification. The protective effect of decellularized porcine cartilage graft (dPCG) was evaluated by intra‐articular administration in surgically induced anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) rat osteoarthritis (OA) model. Supercritical carbon dioxide technology completely decellularized the porcine cartilage. Intra‐articular administration of dPCG with or without PRP significantly reduced the ACLT‐induced OA symptoms and attenuated the OA progression. Pain‐relief by dPCG with or without PRP was assessed by capacitance meter and improved articular cartilage damage in the rat knee was characterized by X‐ray and micro‐CT. Besides, the histological analysis depicted cartilage protection by dPCG with or without PRP. The repairation and attenuation effect by dPCG with or without PRP in the articular knee cartilage damage were also explored by safranin‐O, type II collagen, aggrecan and SOX‐9 immuno‐staining. To conclude, intra‐articular administration of dPCG with or without PRP is efficient in repairing the damaged cartilage in the experimental OA model.
We investigate whether accounting conservatism can be explained as a rational response to ambiguity. Decision analysis shows that decision rules that work well under ambiguity put greater weight on ...negative than on positive outcomes, i.e., exhibit caution. Accounting conservatism increases the timeliness of bad news that is more relevant under cautious decision rules and thereby helps corporate managers and investors implement them. We, therefore, hypothesize that firms facing greater ambiguity report more conservatively. We adopt two different measures to proxy for the firm-specific level of ambiguity. First, we identify firms pursuing the “prospector” versus “defender” business strategies. Compared with defenders, who focus on utilizing existing resources, prospectors actively create their future by seeking new business opportunities and thus face greater ambiguity. Second, we conduct an additional set of tests based on environmental scanning, which reduces ambiguity. Both sets of results suggest that firms facing greater ambiguity report more conservatively.
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