Legal Refl ections on China’s Stock Market

The long-term sluggish stock market of China has got rooted in the current Chinese securities law and regulatory practice which fails to give an appropriate consideration to promoting efficiency, competition, and capital formation while focusing on maintaining the social and economic order and the public interest superficially and protecting investors nominally. Based on the provisions of the current Chinese securities law, the sluggish stock market mainly comes from the failure to integrate such three components of securities law as the public disclosure (especially IPO) system, the fiduciary system and the liability (especially civil liability) system, or rather it is mainly due to the unfair offering system, the inadequate civil liability system and the insufficient fiduciary system. Thus, correspondingly fundamental reforms are required in China.Key words: IPO system; Civil liability; Fiduciary syste

Fei-Liu-Ping ointment inhibits lung cancer growth and invasion by suppressing tumor inflammatory microenvironment

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the primary therapeutic methods for lung cancer with the use of combination therapies gaining popularity. The frequency and duration of treatment, as well as, managing lung cancer by targeting multiple aspects of cancer biology is often limited by toxicity to the patient. There are many naturally occurring anticancer agents that have a high degree of efficacy and low toxicity, offering a viable and safe approach for the treatment of lung cancer. The herbs traditionally used in Chinese medicine for anticancer treatment offer great potential to enhance the efficacy of conventional therapy. In this study, we evaluated the synergistic effects of Fei-Liu-Ping (FLP) ointment in treating lung cancer; a known anticancer Chinese herbal based formula. METHODS: In this study, A549 human lung carcinoma cell line and Lewis lung carcinoma xenograft mouse model were used. In addition, we utilized an in vitro co-culture system to simulate the tumor microenvironment in order to evaluate the molecular mechanisms of FLP treatment. RESULTS: FLP treatment significantly inhibited tumor growth in the Lewis lung xenograft by 40 percent, compared to that of cyclophosphamide (CTX) of 62.02 percent. Moreover, combining FLP and CTX inhibited tumor growth by 83.23 percent. Upon evaluation, we found that FLP treatment reduced the concentration of serum pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β. In addition, we also found an improvement in E-cadherin expression and inhibition of N-cadherin and MMP9. We found similar findings in vitro when we co-cultured A549 cells with macrophages. FLP treatment inhibited A549 cell growth, invasion and metastasis, in part, through the regulation of NF-κB and altering the expression of E-cadherin, N-cadherin, MMP2 and MMP9. CONCLUSIONS: FLP exerts anti-inflammatory properties in the tumor microenvironment, which may contribute to its anticancer effects. FLP treatment may be a promising therapy for inflammation associated lung cancer treatment alone, or in combination with conventional therapies and may prevent lung cancer metastasis

whu-nercms at trecvid2021:instance search task

We will make a brief introduction of the experimental methods and results of the WHU-NERCMS in the TRECVID2021 in the paper. This year we participate in the automatic and interactive tasks of Instance Search (INS). For the automatic task, the retrieval target is divided into two parts, person retrieval, and action retrieval. We adopt a two-stage method including face detection and face recognition for person retrieval and two kinds of action detection methods consisting of three frame-based human-object interaction detection methods and two video-based general action detection methods for action retrieval. After that, the person retrieval results and action retrieval results are fused to initialize the result ranking lists. In addition, we make attempts to use complementary methods to further improve search performance. For interactive tasks, we test two different interaction strategies on the fusion results. We submit 4 runs for automatic and interactive tasks respectively. The introduction of each run is shown in Table 1. The official evaluations show that the proposed strategies rank 1st in both automatic and interactive tracks.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Compound Kushen Injection suppresses human breast cancer stem-like cells by down-regulating the canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play an important role in cancer initiation, relapse and metastasis. To date, no specific medicine has been found to target CSCs as they are resistant to most conventional therapies and proliferate indefinitely. Compound Kushen Injection (CKI) has been widely used for cancer patients with remarkable therapeutic effects in Chinese clinical settings for many years. This study focused on whether CKI could inhibit MCF-7 SP cells in vitro and in vivo.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The analysis of CKI on SP population and the main genes of Wnt signaling pathway were studied first. Then we studied the tumorigenicity of SP cells and the effects of CKI on SP cells in vivo. The mice inoculated with 10,000 SP cells were randomly divided into three groups (6 in each group) and treated with CKI, cisplatin and saline (as a control) respectively for 7 weeks. The tumor formation rates of each group were compared. The main genes and proteins of the Wnt signaling pathway were analyzed by RT-PCR and western blot.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>CKI suppressed the size of SP population (approximately 90%), and down-regulated the main genes of Wnt signaling pathway. We also determined that MCF-7 SP cells were more tumorigenic than non-SP and unsorted cells. The Wnt signaling pathway was up-regulated in tumors derived from SP cells compared with that in tumors from non-SP cells. The tumor formation rate of the CKI Group was 33% (2/6, <it>P </it>< 0.05), and that of Cisplatin Group was 50%(3/6, <it>P </it>< 0.05), whereas that of the Control Group was 100% (6/6).The RT-PCR and western blot results indicated that CKI suppressed tumor growth by down-regulating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, while cisplatin activated the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and might spare SP cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>It suggested that CKI may serve as a novel drug targeting cancer stem-like cells, though further studies are recommended.</p

Gujin Dan is a Chinese medicine formulation that stimulates cell proliferation and differentiation by controlling multiple genes involved in MC3T3-E1 cells

Background: With the development of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in recent years, the use of TCM in the treatment of osteoporosis has received much attention and research. Gujin Dan (GJD) is one of the representative Chinese medicine formulations that work synergistically with 19 herbs and has been used for decades to treat cervical spondylosis, lumbar disc herniation, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. However, the exact molecular mechanism by which GJD is used to strengthen bones in the treatment of osteoporosis remains largely unknown. / Methods: In this study, an aqueous extract of GJD was prepared and its components were identified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The effect of GJD aqueous extract on MC3T3-E1 cells was determined by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and alizarin red S staining (ARS), combined with RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and qRT-PCR. / Results: Our study showed that GJD significantly promoted the proliferation of MC3T3-E1 cells, as well as the synthesis and mineralisation of the extracellular matrix. GJD significantly increased the expression levels of genes that promote cell proliferation such as Adamts1, Mcam, Cyr61, Fos, Cebpd, Fosl2, Sirt1, Nipbl, Sema3c and Kcnq1ot1, up-regulated genes that inhibit apoptosis such as Gadd45a, Birc3, up-regulated genes that inhibit osteoclastogenesis such as Bcl6, Nfkbiz, Clcf1, Bcl3, Lgals3, Wisp1, Dusp1 and Fblim1, up-regulated genes that promote MC3T3-E1 cell differentiation such as Junb, Egr1, Klf10, Atf6, Malat1, Btg2, Sertad4, Zfyve16, Tet2, Creb5, Snai2, Fam46a, Calcrl and Pdzrn3. In addition, GJD mildly upregulated the expression levels of gene markers such as Atf4, Fn1, Usp7, Sox4, Col16a1, Spp1, Bmp1, Runx2, Bglap, Col12a1, and Alpl in osteoblasts. / Conclusions: Our results show that GJD promotes the differentiation and proliferation of MC3T3-E1 cells, inhibits osteoclast formation, and prevents osteoblast apoptosis. The present study significantly improves the current understanding of the molecular effects of GJD on MC3T3-E1 cells. This study also provides a new strategy for the further use of Chinese medicinal preparations against bone metabolism-related diseases

Trends in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma on the lip incidence and mortality in the United States, 2000–2019

ObjectiveThis study provided a systematic analysis of the trend in incidence and incidence-based mortality for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) on the lips in the USA using demographic characteristics from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.MethodsPatients diagnosed with cSCC on the lips between 2000 and 2019 from the 17 registries of the USA were identified. Incidence and incidence-based mortality rates were analyzed using SEER*Stat 8.4.0.1 software. This paper calculated incidence rates and incidence-based mortality rates by 100,000 person-years for sex, age, race, SEER registries, median household income ($/year), rural-urban distribution, and primary site. The annual percent changes (APC) in incidence and incidence-based mortality rates were then calculated using joinpoint regression software.ResultsAmong 8,625 patients diagnosed with cSCC on the lips from 2000 to 2019, men (74.67%), white (95.21%), and 60–79 years old were the most common population, and 3,869 deaths from cSCC on the lips occurred. The overall incidence of cSCC on the lips was 0.516 per 100,000 person-years. cSCC on the lip incidence rates were highest among men, white, and patients aged 60–79 years old. cSCC on the lip incidence rates decreased by 3.210%/year over the study period. The incidence of cSCC on the lips has been decreasing in all sexes, ages, high- or low-income households, and urban or rural patients. The overall incidence-based mortality rate of cSCC on the lips during 2000–2019 was 0.235 per 100,000 person-years. cSCC on the lip incidence-based mortality rates were highest among men, whites, and people older than 80 years old. cSCC on the lip incidence-based mortality increased by 4.975%/year over the study period. cSCC on the lip incidence-based mortality rates increased for all sexes, races, ages, primary sites, high- or low-income households, and urban or rural patients during the study period.ConclusionAmong patients in the USA diagnosed with cSCC on the lips from 2000 to 2019, the overall incidence decreased by 3.210% annually, and incidence-based mortality increased by 4.975%/year. These findings update and supplement the epidemiological information of cSCC on the lips in the USA

Analisis Portofolio Optimal Dengan Single Index Model Untuk Meminimumkan Risiko Bagi Investor Di Bursa Efek Indonesia (Studi Pada Saham Indeks Kompas 100 Periode Februari 2010-juli 2014)

Investments can be made in the capital market, capital market instruments which are mostly attractive for investors is stock. Stock provides a return in the form of capital gains and dividends yield, not only noticing the return, investors need to pay attention to the investments risk. Unsystematis risk can be minimized by forming the optimal portfolio using one of the methods that is single index model. Study purpose is to knowing the stocks forming the optimal portfolio, the proportion of funds allocated to each stocks, the level of expectation return and risk.The method used in this research is descriptive research method with a quantitative approach. The samples used were 46 stocks in Kompas 100 Index, which meets the criteria for sampling. The results showed that 12 stocks of forming optimal portfolio, the stocks of which are UNVR, TRAM, MNCN, BHIT, JSMR, BMTR, GJTL, KLBF, AALI, CPIN, AKRA, and ASRI. Stock with highest proportion of funds is TRAM (23,52%), stock with lowest proportion of funds is AALI (0,62%). Portfolio which are formed will give return expectations by 3,05477% and carry the risk for about 0,1228%

Smithian platform-bearing gondolellid conodonts from Yiwagou Section, northwestern China and implications for their geographic distribution in the Early Triassic

Abundant platform-bearing gondolellid conodonts, including Scythogondolella mosheri (Kozur and Mostler), Sc. phryna Orchard and Zonneveld, and Sc. cf. milleri (Müller), have been discovered from the Yiwagou Section of Tewo, together with Novispathodus waageni waageni (Sweet) and Nv. w. eowaageni Zhao and Orchard. This is the first report of Smithian platform-bearing gondolellids from the Paleo-Tethys region. In addition, Eurygnathodus costatus Staesche, E. hamadai(Koike), Parafurnishius xuanhanensis Yang et al., and the genera Pachycladina Staesche, Parachirognathus Clark, and Hadrodontina Staesche have also been recovered from Dienerian to Smithian strata at Yiwagou Section. Three conodont zones are established, in ascending order: Eurygnathodus costatus-E. hamadai Assemblage Zone, Novispathodus waageni-Scythogondolella mosheri Assemblage Zone, and the Pachycladina-Parachirognathus Assemblage Zone. The platform-bearing gondolellids were globally distributed just after the end-Permian mass extinction, but the formerly abundant Clarkina Kozur disappeared in the late Griesbachian. Platform-bearing gondolellids dramatically decreased to a minimum of diversity and extent in the Dienerian before recovering in the Smithian. Scythogondolella Kozur, probably a thermophilic and eurythermic genus, lived in all latitudes at this time whereas other genera did not cope with Smithian high temperatures and so became restricted to the high-latitude regions. However, the maximum temperature in the late Smithian likely caused the extinction of almost all platform-bearing gondolellids. Finally, the group returned to equatorial regions and achieved global distribution again in the cooler conditions of the late Spathian. We conclude that temperature (and to a lesser extent oxygen levels) exerted a strong control on the geographical distribution and evolution of platform-bearing gondolellids in the Early Triassic

Giant power output in lead-free ferroelectrics by shock-induced phase transition

The force-electric effect in ferroelectrics is characterized by the release of bound charge during pressure/shock-induced depolarization. In contrast to other electrical energy storage systems, the charge-storage/release by the force-electric effect of ferroelectrics is determined by polarization switching or polar-nonpolar phase transition. This offers a further set of options for materials design in the realm of energy conversion, especially for the high power density applications. Here, we report that a ferroelectric ceramic, N a 0.5 B i 0.5 Ti O 3 (NBT), can generate a high power output ( 3.04 × 10 8 W / kg ) under shock compression, which is one of the highest values achieved by the force-electric effect. The in situ synchrotron x-ray diffraction studies reveal that this power output mainly arises from a polar-nonpolar phase transition (rhombohedral-orthorhombic). First-principles calculations show that this is a first-order phase transition that undergoes two-step structure changes. These results extend the application of the force-electric effect and are a key step in understanding the phase transition behaviors of NBT under high pressure