The self‐assembly of sodium dodecyl benzene sulphonate (SDBS) functionalized graphene sheets (GSs) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) by electrostatic attraction into novel hierarchical nanostructures ...in aqueous solution is reported. Data from scanning electron microscopy, high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy, and X‐ray diffraction demonstrate that the HRP–GSs bionanocomposites feature ordered hierarchical nanostructures with well‐dispersed HRP intercalated between the GSs. UV‐vis and infrared spectra indicate the native structure of HRP is maintained after the assembly, implying good biocompatibility of SDBS‐functionalized GSs. Furthermore, the HRP–GSs composites are utilized for the fabrication of enzyme electrodes (HRP–GSs electrodes). Electrochemical measurements reveal that the resulting HRP–GSs electrodes display high electrocatalytic activity to H2O2 with high sensitivity, wide linear range, low detection limit, and fast amperometric response. These desirable electrochemical performances are attributed to excellent biocompatibility and superb electron transport efficiency of GSs as well as high HRP loading and synergistic catalytic effect of the HRP–GSs bionanocomposites toward H2O2. As graphene can be readily non‐covalently functionalized by “designer” aromatic molecules with different electrostatic properties, the proposed self‐assembly strategy affords a facile and effective platform for the assembly of various biomolecules into hierarchically ordered bionanocomposites in biosensing and biocatalytic applications.
A simple method for assembling graphene sheets with HRP through electrostatic attraction into novel hierarchically ordered nanocomposites is described, and the enzyme electrode with good biocompatibility and excellent electrochemical catalytic performance to H2O2 is fabricated.
The issue of corporate rent-seeking, which stems from the misuse of authority, remains a critical concern for the international community. Drawing on agency theory and resource dependence theory, ...this study explores the relationship between corporate digitalization strategies (DSs) and corporate rent-seeking. We test our theoretical hypotheses by utilizing panel data encompassing Chinese A-share listed companies from 2004 to 2021. Our findings suggest that corporate DSs have a significant negative influence on rent-seeking. Several robustness tests support this conclusion. Moreover, our analysis indicates that a DS is particularly effective in curtailing rent-seeking behaviors within state-owned enterprises (SOEs) compared with their non-state-owned counterparts. However, contrary to our hypothesis, a DS is less effective in suppressing corporate rent-seeking among firms where the executive team has legal backgrounds. These findings suggest that top managers, especially within SOEs, should prioritize the early formulation of digital transformation strategies to reduce rent-seeking behavior. Additionally, when implementing digital transformation, firms should carefully integrate members with legal backgrounds into their executive teams and strengthen ethical education and supervision for executives with legal expertise.
The cardioprotective effects of ginsenoside Rb2 on oxidative stress, which is induced by hydrogen peroxide and myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (MI/R) injury, have been studied. The mechanisms were ...associated with the inhibition of cardiomyocyte apoptosis, a high concentration of antioxidant defense enzymes, and scavenging oxidative stress products. Because of the association with oxidative reaction and cardioprotection, sirtuin‐1 (SIRT1) was selected as a promising target for investigating whether MI/R injury can be alleviated by ginsenoside Rb2 pretreatment through SIRT1 activation. The rats were exposed to ginsenoside Rb2 with or without SIRT1 inhibitor EX527 before ligation of coronary artery. Ginsenoside Rb2 reduced myocardial superoxide generation; downregulated gp91phox expression; and decreased the mRNA expression levels and activities of interleukin‐1β, interleukin‐6, and tumor necrosis factor‐α. The results demonstrated that ginsenoside Rb2 significantly attenuated oxidative stress and inflammation induced by MI/R injury. In addition, ginsenoside Rb2 upregulated SIRT1 expression and downregulated Ac‐p53 expression. However, EX527 blocked the protective effects, indicating that the pharmacological action of ginsenoside Rb2 involves SIRT1. Our results thus revealed that ginsenoside Rb2 alleviated MI/R injury in rats by inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammatory response through SIRT1 activation.
Practical Application
Ginsenoside Rb2 has a protective effect on MI/R injury by activating SIRT1 expression, reducing myocardium inflammation, and alleviating oxidative stress. Thus, ginsenoside Rb2 is a promising novel agent for ameliorating MI/R injury in ischemic heart diseases and cardiac surgery.
Many blue and white porcelain are unearthed in Jingdezhen every year. The patterns on the sherds have important research significance. At present, the classification of porcelain shards is mainly ...based on manual work, which has the disadvantages of large workload. The use of automatic classification methods also faces complex patterns and sample sizes. In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes a new automatic recognition method based on deep learning, including data preprocessing method combined with color segmentation algorithm, a new data augmentation method FCutMix for regions of interest, a new integration strategy and the redesigned deep network model FFCNet that integrates multiple features. After experiments, the data preprocessing method, feature fusion method and integration strategy proposed in the paper can effectively improve the performance of the model by removing redundant information and adding effective features. The FCutMix method can also obtain more accurate mixed samples than the traditional CutMix. The method proposed in this paper improves the accuracy of tasks in 14 categories from 71.7% to 83.2% in a dataset containing only 373 images of porcelain sherds. In the future, this research will further design the network structure and multi-level feature fusion.
As omnichannel shopping behavior becomes increasingly popular among consumers, how to leverage the respective advantages and synergies of online and offline channels to retain customers for a long ...time is an urgent issue for retailers to solve. The purpose of this study is to explore the key advantages of online and offline channels influencing the omnichannel shopping experience in the decision-making process, and investigate their impact on consumer perceived value and brand relationship performance, as well as the interaction effect of online channel advantages and offline channel advantages. This study identifies the key advantages of online channels (search convenience, customer-generated information richness, and social connection) and offline channels (direct product experience, sales-staff assistance, and servicescape aesthetics) through a qualitative study and relevant literature review. Then, the proposed research framework was tested using the structural model equation in AMOS and hierarchical regression techniques in SPSS utilizing data from 347 shoppers. The results show that all variables except customer-generated information richness have positive impact on consumer perceived value. Other than search convenience and customer-generated information richness, consumer perceived value mediates the effect of other variables on brand relationship performance. Additionally, the interaction effect of online and offline channel advantages positively impacts consumer perceived value.
Laparoscopic liver resection is recommended as the standard operation for left lateral sectionectomy (LLS). Robotic liver resection is theoretically better than laparoscopic liver resection in ...complex cases of liver resection. However, in a complex case of LLS, whether robotic LLS (R-LLS) is still better than laparoscopic LLS (L-LLS) is unclear. This study aims to assess the perioperative outcomes of R-LLS and L-LLS in the overall and in the subgroup of complex cases of LLS.
From January 2015 to June 2017, the data on consecutive patients who underwent R-LLS were retrospectively compared with those who underwent L-LLS. Based on defined criteria for complex cases, the subgroup of such patients who underwent R-LLS were compared with the subgroup of patients who underwent L-LLS. The patient characteristics and surgical outcomes in the whole groups and subgroups of patients were analyzed.
The overall R-LLS and L-LLS groups showed no significance differences in operative time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative hospital stay, blood transfusion and morbidity rates. The overall medical costs were significantly higher in the R-LLS group than in the L-LLS group (12786.4 vs. 7974.3 USD; p < 0.001). On subgroup analysis of the complex cases, the estimated blood loss was significantly less in the R-LLS subgroup than the L-LLS subgroup (131.9 vs. 320.8 ml, p = 0.003). The two subgroups showed no significant differences in postoperative hospital stay (4.7 vs. 5.3 days; p = 0.054) and operative times (126.4 vs. 110.8 min; p = 0.379). The R-LLS subgroup had significantly higher overall medical costs than the L-LLS subgroup (13536.9 vs. 9186.7 USD, p = 0.006).
The overall R-LLS group was comparable to the overall L-LLS group in perioperative outcomes. Although the overall medical costs in the robotic subgroup was higher, R-LLS might be a better choice for the subgroup of patients with complex cases when compared to L-LLS.
•There were no significant differences between the robotic and laparoscopic groups in estimated blood loss for ordinary-cases.•Robotic left lateral sectionectomy showed significantly less estimated blood loss for the complex-case subgroup.•Robotic left lateral sectionectomy is significantly more expensive than laparoscopic left lateral sectionectomy.
The Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) vaccine was introduced in China in December 2015 as a preventive measure against hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) caused by EV-A71. However, the effectiveness of the ...vaccine (VE) in real-world settings needs to be evaluated. We conducted a test-negative case-control study to assess the effectiveness of EV-A71 vaccines in preventing EV-A71-associated HFMD. Children aged 6-71 months with HFMD were enrolled as participants. The case group comprised those who tested positive for EV-A71, while the control group comprised those who tested negative for EV-A71. To estimate VE, a logistic regression model was employed, adjusting for potential confounders including age, gender, and clinical severity. In total, 3223 children aged 6 to 71 months were included in the study, with 162 in the case group and 3061 in the control group. The proportion of children who received EV-A71 vaccination was significantly lower in the case group compared to the control group (
< .001). The overall VE
was estimated to be 90.8%. The VE
estimates for partially and fully vaccinated children were 90.1% and 90.9%, respectively. Stratified by age group, the VE
estimates were 88.7% for 6 to 35-month-olds and 95.5% for 36 to 71-month-olds. Regarding disease severity, the VE
estimates were 86.3% for mild cases and 100% for severe cases. Sensitivity analysis showed minimal changes in the VE point estimates, with most changing by no more than 1% point. Our study demonstrates a high level of vaccine effectiveness against EV-A71-HFMD, especially in severe cases. Active promotion of EV-A71 vaccination is an effective strategy in preventing EV-A71 infections.
At present, many patients who undergo reperfusion immediately after percutaneous coronary intervention will undergo microvascular obstruction and reduction in myocardial blood flow. This phenomenon ...is called "no-reflow (NR)," and there is still no effective therapy for NR. Studies showed
saponins (PQS) have effect on MI/R injury, while the effect and mechanism of PQS on MI/R induced NR are not clear. In this study, we established a MI/R model to investigate whether PQS decrease NR phenomenon
suppression of inflammation. We found that PQS significantly alleviated the symptoms of NR by reducing ischemia, infarction, and NR area; improving cardiac function; preventing pathological morphology changes of myocardium; depressing leukocytes' aggregation and adhesion; and suppressing the excessive inflammation. Further study demonstrated that PQS remarkably inhibited TLR4, MyD88, p-NF-κB, and NLRP3 inflammasome-associated protein, and these effects could be reversed by LPS. These results indicated that PQS may protect NR by inhibiting the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome
TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway in part, suggesting that PQS exist potential in preventing NR induced by MI/R.
Cell‐free methylated DNA immunoprecipitation and high‐throughput sequencing (cfMeDIP‐seq) is a new bisulfite‐free technique, which can detect the whole‐genome methylation of blood cell‐free DNA ...(cfDNA). Using this technique, we identified differentially methylated regions (DMR) of cfDNA between lung tumors and normal controls. Based on the top 300 DMR, we built a random forest prediction model, which was able to distinguish malignant lung tumors from normal controls with high sensitivity and specificity of 91.0% and 93.3% (AUROC curve of 0.963). In summary, we reported a non–invasive prediction model that had good ability to distinguish malignant pulmonary nodules.
This study reported the whole‐genome methylation profiling of plasma cfDNA of patients with pulmonary nodules by cfMeDIP‐seq. A random forest model was used to distinguish pulmonary malignant tumors from normal controls, based on the whole‐genome methylation profiling.
The initiation of atherosclerosis (AS) induced by dyslipidemia is accompanied by endothelial dysfunction, including decreased healing ability and increased recruitment of monocytes. Studies showed ...ginsenoside Rg3 has potential to treat diseases associated with endothelial dysfunction which can protects against antineoplastic drugs induced cardiotoxicity by repairing endothelial function, while the effect and mechanism of Rg3 on dyslipidemia induced endothelial dysfunction and AS are not clear. Therefore, we investigated the effects of Rg3 on oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) induced human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) dysfunction and high-fat diets (HFD) induced atherosclerosis in ApoE
mice, as well as the mechanism. For
assay, Rg3 enhanced healing of HUVECs and inhibited human monocytes (THP-1) adhesion to HUVECs disturbed by ox-LDL, down-regulated focal adhesion kinase (FAK)-mediated expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1); restrained the FAK-mediated non-adherent dependent pathway containing matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2/9 expression, activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), high mRNA levels of monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) and interleukin 6 (IL-6), besides Rg3 up-regulated peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) in ox-LDL-stimulated HUVECs. GW9662, the PPARγ-specific inhibitor, can repressed the effects of Rg3 on ox-LDL-stimulated HUVECs. For
assay, Rg3 significantly reduced atherosclerotic pathological changes in ApoE
mice fed with HFD, up-regulated PPARγ, and inhibited activation FAK in aorta, thus inhibited expression of VCAM-1, ICAM-1 in intima. We conclude that Rg3 may protect endothelial cells and inhibit atherosclerosis by up-regulating PPARγ
repressing FAK-mediated pathways, indicating that Rg3 have good potential in preventing dyslipidemia induced atherosclerosis.
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