The pain point is a specific form of consumer demand and a concept that has been widely used in marketing business strategies in recent years. Pain points arise when consumers have put in enough ...effort to achieve their goals but have little effect. In this paper, the concept of the pain-feature matching effect is proposed by combining past research on consumer pain points and consumers’ attitudes with pain point targeting features. It is predicted that consumers’ willingness to pay may decrease significantly when the product feature matches their pain point to a high degree. This hypothesis was tested through a questionnaire experiment: by assigning products with different pain scenarios and features, the conclusion was judged based on different feedback data from participants. The results show that consumers’ willingness to pay decreases when there is high pain-feature matching. This finding adds to the theory of the effectiveness of consumer pain marketing and provides guidance to retailers on how to effectively promote product features in their business activities.
Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI)-induced acute kidney injury (IRI-AKI) is characterized by elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial dysfunction, and inflammation, but the ...potential link among these features remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the specific role of mitochondrial ROS (mtROS) in initiating mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage and inflammation during IRI-AKI.
The changes in renal function, mitochondrial function, and inflammation in IRI-AKI mice with or without mtROS inhibition were analyzed
. The impact of mtROS on TFAM (mitochondrial transcription factor A), Lon protease, mtDNA, mitochondrial respiration, and cytokine release was analyzed in renal tubular cells
. The effects of TFAM knockdown on mtDNA, mitochondrial function, and cytokine release were also analyzed
. Finally, changes in TFAM and mtDNA nucleoids were measured in kidney samples from IRI-AKI mice and patients.
Decreasing mtROS levels attenuated renal dysfunction, mitochondrial damage, and inflammation in IRI-AKI mice. Decreasing mtROS levels also reversed the decrease in TFAM levels and mtDNA copy number that occurs in HK2 cells under oxidative stress. mtROS reduced the abundance of mitochondrial TFAM in HK2 cells by suppressing its transcription and promoting Lon-mediated TFAM degradation. Silencing of TFAM abolished the Mito-Tempo (MT)-induced rescue of mitochondrial function and cytokine release in HK2 cells under oxidative stress. Loss of TFAM and mtDNA damage were found in kidneys from IRI-AKI mice and AKI patients.
mtROS can promote renal injury by suppressing TFAM-mediated mtDNA maintenance, resulting in decreased mitochondrial energy metabolism and increased cytokine release. TFAM defects may be a promising target for renal repair after IRI-AKI.
Pluripotent stem cells have broad applications in regenerative medicine and offer ideal models for understanding the biological process of embryonic development and specific diseases. Studies suggest ...that the self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation of stem cells are regulated by a complex network consisting of transcription factors, chromatin regulators, signaling factors, and non-coding RNAs. It is of great interest to identify RNA regulatory factors that determine the fate of stem cells. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), a class of non-coding RNAs with more than 200 bp in length, has been shown to act as essential epigenetic regulators of stem cell pluripotency and specific lineage commitment. In this review, we focus on recent research progress related to the function and epigenetic mechanisms of lncRNA in determining the fate of stem cells, particularly pluripotency maintenance and lineage-specific differentiation. We discuss the role of the
and
promoter-interacting lncRNA as identified by Chromatin RNA
reverse Transcription sequencing (CRIST-seq). Further understanding of their potential actions will provide a basis for the development of regenerative medicine for clinical application. This work offers comprehensive details and better understanding of the role of lncRNA in determining the fate of stem cells and paves the way for clinical stem cell applications.
The outstanding electrical and mechanical properties remain elusive on macroscopic carbon nanotube (CNT) films because of the difficult material process, which limits their wide practical ...applications. Herein, we report high-performance multifunctional MWCNT films that possess the specific electrical conductivity of metals as well as high strength. These MWCNT films were synthesized by a floating chemical vapor deposition method, purified at high temperature and treated with concentrated HCl, and then densified due to the developed chlorosulfonic acid-enhanced zipping effect. These large scalable films exhibit high electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency, high thermoelectric power factor, and high ampacity because of the densely packed crystalline structure of MWCNTs, which are promising for practical applications.
REY‐rich mud, consisting of deep‐sea sediments with high concentrations of rare‐earth elements and yttrium (REY), holds significant economic potential. Many studies have been conducted on biogenic ...apatite, ferromanganese micronodule, and phillipsite within these deposits to ascertain the REY enrichment mechanisms. However, the knowledge of clay minerals in REY‐rich mud, which is the predominant component of pelagic sediments, is still limited. In this study, two adjacent gravity cores (core GC02: REY‐rich mud; core GC03: typical sediments of equatorial Pacific) were collected from the Clarion‐Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCFZ) of the Eastern Pacific to study the role of different clay minerals in REY enrichment. The clay minerals in core GC03 and core GC02 are primarily illite (averaging 60%) and smectite (averaging 63%), respectively, and the smectite in core GC02 was mainly Fe‐rich, which was probably formed via the reaction between opal and FeOOH. Moreover, multiple studies have reported similar smectite enrichment in REY‐rich mud, suggesting that it is a common characteristic. The presumed hydrothermal or volcanic origination of smectite in REY‐rich layers of core GC02 indicates the essential role of hydrothermal and volcanic activities in REY‐rich mud formation during the Oligocene in the western CCFZ.
Key Points
Smectite is likely to be commonly enriched in rare‐earth elements and yttrium (REY)‐rich mud of the Pacific
Authigenic smectite probably originated from hydrothermal or volcanic activity and concentrated moderate amounts of REY
The REY‐rich mud of the western Clarion‐Clipperton Fracture Zone presumably formed through hydrothermal or volcanic activities during the Oligocene
•A zoning method based on ecological indicators and economic indicators is applied.•Ecological and economic situations are highly correlated with topographic conditions.•The coupling coordination ...degree(CCD) between ecology and economy is calculated.•Economic development is highly positively correlated with CCD.•Targeted regional sustainable development strategies are put forward.
The coordinated development of ecology and economy is one of the key issues of sustainable development. A full understanding of the relationship between ecology and economy is necessary for the coordinated development of the two. This paper takes Sichuan Province as the research area and county-level administrative districts as the research unit. Based on the medium value of the ecological quality index and economic growth index of each unit, Sichuan Province is divided into dual pressure zones (DPZ), economic backward zones (EBZ), ecological crisis zones (ECZ), and coordinated development zones (CDZ) and the coupling coordination degree (CCD) of each unit is studied. The results show that: (1) On the whole, the eastern part of Sichuan Province has a better level of economic development, and the southern part of the western region has a higher ecological quality. The ecological quality and economic growth pattern are highly correlated with topographical conditions. (2) The distribution characteristics of the four types of partitions are significantly different. The EBZ are more distributed in the western and southern of Sichuan Province, the ECZ are more distributed in the eastern, the DPZ and CDZ are relatively more sporadic. More than 90% of the partition changed zones are distributed in the eastern area. (3) The CCD of more than 95% units belongs to moderate coordination and high coordination. The overall CCD of the four types of zones has shown an upward trend from 2010 to 2015. Based on the results, Sichuan Province should follow the path of clear waters and green mountains are as good as mountains of gold and silver, and targeted sustainable development suggestions for DPZ, EBZ, ECZ, and CDZ are put forward. This paper provides guidance for formulating regional sustainable development strategies, especially in areas with unbalanced development due to congenital topographical conditions.
Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology has been widely used to study the differences in gene expression at the single cell level, providing insights into the research of cell development, ...differentiation, and functional heterogeneity. Various pipelines and workflows of scRNA-seq analysis have been developed but few considered multi-timepoint data specifically. In this study, we develop CASi, a comprehensive framework for analyzing multiple timepoints' scRNA-seq data, which provides users with: (1) cross-timepoint cell annotation, (2) detection of potentially novel cell types emerged over time, (3) visualization of cell population evolution, and (4) identification of temporal differentially expressed genes (tDEGs). Through comprehensive simulation studies and applications to a real multi-timepoint single cell dataset, we demonstrate the robust and favorable performance of the proposal versus existing methods serving similar purposes.
Developing high performance solution-processable n-type thermoelectric materials is challenging. In this paper, we report that single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) prepared in dimethyl sulfoxide ...(DMSO) (SWCNTs/DMSO) exhibit a high n-type electrical conductivity of 2298 S/cm at room temperature, which is superior to that of previously reported n-type solution-processable SWCNTs. The maximum n-type electrical conductivity was 3490 S/cm at 373 K. The great electrical conductivity results in a high n-type power factor of 195 μW/m-K2 for SWCNTs/DMSO films at 373 K which is larger than most of the n-type solution-processable SWCNTs. The theoretical calculation indicates that the wrapping morphology of the surfactant on SWCNTs is strongly affected by different solvent polarities which lead to different packing densities of the SWCNT films as demonstrated in the scanning electron microscope images, subsequently affecting the n-type doping efficiency and the n-type electrical conductivity. The electrical conductivity affected by the mixed p- and n-type carriers in the film were discussed. A full SWCNT thermoelectric generator has been fabricated to show the heat-to-electricity conversion ability of the materials. This work reveals a potential method to prepare highly conductive n-type SWCNTs by choosing the proper solvent for optimized thermoelectric performance.
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•Highest n-type electrical -properties for solution-processable SWCNTs films with a high TE power factor achieved.•Relationships between solvents and the electrical properties of p- and n-type SWCNTs films discovered.•Extensive experimental studies to unveil the mixed p- and n-type carrier issues in the films.
Outlier detection is one of the most critical and challenging tasks of data mining. It aims to find patterns in data that do not conform to expected behavior. Data streams in streaming computing are ...huge in nature and arrive continuously with changing distribution, which imposes new challenges for outlier detection algorithms in time and space efficiency. Incremental local outlier factor (ILOF) detection dynamically updates the profiles of data points, while the arrival of consecutive and massive volume data points in a streaming manner causes high local data density and leads to expensive time and space overhead. Our work is motivated by its deficiencies, and in this paper we propose a cube-based outlier detection algorithm (CB-ILOF). The data space of streaming data is divided into multiple cubes, then the outlier detection of data points is transferred into the outlier detection of cubes, which significantly reduces time and memory overhead. We also present a performance evaluation on 5 datasets. Experimental results show the superiority of the CB-ILOF over the ILOF on accuracy, memory usage, and execution time.
Solar energy conversion is of great interest in developing green and sustainable energy. Herein, we report the solar-to-electricity capability of a new two dimensional (2D) Cu2S-phenol superlattice ...(CP-SL) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) composites for the first time. CP-SL is demonstrated to have a high Seebeck coefficient and a low thermal conductivity comparable to that of metal-organic frameworks. CP-SL based solar thermoelectric generator (STEG) exhibits stable output voltages for long time usages superior to previously reported STEGs. The device is made of p- and n-type modules that are composed of CP-SL/CNT and CP-SL/polyethyleneimine (PEI) doped CNTs (PEI-CNT) composites, respectively. The polarity of the composites is dominated by the CNTs which have higher carrier concentration. The carrier transport mechanism in the composites matches well with a parallel model, indicating the CP-SL and CNT interfaces play a minor role in carrier transport. The maximum ZT value of CP-SL/CNT is achieved by an in-situ growth method, which is about 35 times higher than that of the original CP-SL. These results indicate that 2D CP-SL is a new material with tunable thermoelectric properties and polarities, which may lay a foundation to realize p- and n-type properties in one material for single-material organic electronic devices development.
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•New organic superlattices with large Seebeck coefficient and low thermal conductivity, comparable to MOFs.•Methodology of obtaining high electrical conductivity without significantly increasing thermal conductivity.•Extensive experimental studies to unveil the origin of mixed carrier in composites, promising for single-material devices.
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