Structural Embeddedness and Firms’ Impact on the Technology Standard Setting Process

The extant literatures often focus on the efficiency of standard committees to coordinate conflicts between members and how regulatory capture occurs, thus neglecting the impact of cooperation behaviour on the technology standard setting process. This paper aims to explore how structural embeddedness affects firms’ impact on the technology standard setting process. We construct a network with the national standard data in China's communications industry in 2000-2017. With 326 firms participating in the standard formulation as the research sample, we use the negative binomial regression method to explore the relationship between structural embeddedness of technology sponsors and the impacts on the technology standard setting process. We find that while there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the number of direct collaborators and firms’ impacts on the technology standard setting process, the structural holes positively affect firms’ impacts on the technology standard setting process. The conclusions obtained from this paper have important managerial implications for firms participating the technology standard setting processes

Emergent management of penetrating trauma of aortic arch in a countryside hospital

AbstractAccording to the literature, only a small proportion of occurrences regarding penetrating trauma of the thoracic aorta can be treated successfully. Herein we reported our experience of a recent rescue of such a patient in a countryside hospital lacking advanced instruments for cardiopulmonary bypass operations. A 20-year-old male was admitted for a penetrating injury with disrupted innominate vein and right common carotid artery together with a 1.5-cm laceration on the aortic arch between the innominate artery and the left common carotid artery. The patient was successfully saved without the implementation of cardiopulmonary bypass. Presentation and management in this case were discussed

7,8beta-dihydroponasterone A, a new phytoecdysteroid from the needles of the Japanese Yew, Taxus cuspidata

A new plant ecdysteroid 7,8beta-dihydroponasterone A, together with ponasterone A, were isolated from the methanol extract of the needles of the Japanese yew, Taxus cuspidata. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic analysis including ¹H NMR, 13C NMR, ¹H-¹H COSY, NOESY, HMQC and HMBC and confirmed by high-resolution FABMS data

A New pseudo-Alkaloid Taxane and a New Rearranged Taxane from the Needles of Taxus canadensis

A new taxane with an amino side chain on C-5 and a new 11(15→1)abeotaxane having a tetrahydrofuran ring along carbon atoms C-2, C-3, C-4, C-20 identified for the first time from the needles of the Canadian yew, Taxus canadensis. Their structures were characterized as 2α,7β ,9α,10β ,13-pentaacetoxy-11β -hydroxy-5α-(2 -hydroxy,3 -N,N-dimethylamino-3 -phenyl)-propionyloxytaxa-4(20),12-diene (1) and 13α,20β -diacetoxy-5α,7β ,9α,10β -tetrahydroxy-2α,20-epoxy-11(15→1)abeotaxa-11,15-diene (2) on the basis of 1D, 2D NMR spectroscopy and high-resolution FABMS analysis. Taxane 1 contains a rare C-12, C-13 double bond and a basic side chain, while taxane 2 bears a rare isopropenyl group at C-1

Responsiveness of voltage-gated calcium channels in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells on quasi-three-dimensional micropatterns formed with poly (l-lactic acid)

Introduction: In this study, quasi-three-dimensional (3D) microwell patterns were fabricated with poly (l-lactic acid) for the development of cell-based assays, targeting voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs). Methods and materials: SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells were interfaced with the microwell patterns and found to grow as two dimensional (2D), 3D, and near two dimensional (N2D), categorized on the basis of the cells’ location in the pattern. The capability of the microwell patterns to support 3D cell growth was evaluated in terms of the percentage of the cells in each growth category. Cell spreading was analyzed in terms of projection areas under light microscopy. SH-SY5Y cells’ VGCC responsiveness was evaluated with confocal microscopy and a calcium fluorescent indicator, Calcium GreenTM-1. The expression of L-type calcium channels was evaluated using immunofluorescence staining with DM-BODIPY. Results: It was found that cells within the microwells, either N2D or 3D, showed more rounded shapes and less projection areas than 2D cells on flat poly (l-lactic acid) substrates. Also, cells in microwells showed a significantly lower VGCC responsiveness than cells on flat substrates, in terms of both response magnitudes and percentages of responsive cells, upon depolarization with 50 mM K+. This lower VGCC responsiveness could not be explained by the difference in L-type calcium channel expression. For the two patterns addressed in this study, N2D cells consistently exhibited an intermediate value of either projection areas or VGCC responsiveness between those for 2D and 3D cells, suggesting a correlative relation between cell morphology and VGCC responsiveness. Conclusion: These results suggest that the pattern structure and therefore the cell growth characteristics were critical factors in determining cell VGCC responsiveness and thus provide an approach for engineering cell functionality in cell-based assay systems and tissue engineering scaffolds

FGF21 ameliorates the neurocontrol of blood pressure in the high fructose-drinking rats

Fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF21) is closely related to various metabolic and cardiovascular disorders. However, the direct targets and mechanisms linking FGF21 to blood pressure control and hypertension are still elusive. Here we demonstrated a novel regulatory function of FGF21 in the baroreflex afferent pathway (the nucleus tractus solitarii, NTS; nodose ganglion, NG). As the critical co-receptor of FGF21, β-klotho (klb) significantly expressed on the NTS and NG. Furthermore, we evaluated the beneficial effects of chronic intraperitoneal infusion of recombinant human FGF21 (rhFGF21) on the dysregulated systolic blood pressure, cardiac parameters, baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) and hyperinsulinemia in the high fructose-drinking (HFD) rats. The BRS up-regulation is associated with Akt-eNOS-NO signaling activation in the NTS and NG induced by acute intravenous rhFGF21 administration in HFD and control rats. Moreover, the expressions of FGF21 receptors were aberrantly down-regulated in HFD rats. In addition, the up-regulated peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ and -α (PPAR-γ/-α) in the NTS and NG in HFD rats were markedly reversed by chronic rhFGF21 infusion. Our study extends the work of the FGF21 actions on the neurocontrol of blood pressure regulations through baroreflex afferent pathway in HFD rats

Elliptic flow of electrons from heavy-flavor hadron decays in Au+Au collisions at sNN=\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 200, 62.4, and 39 GeV

We present measurements of elliptic flow ($v_2$) of electrons from the decays of heavy-flavor hadrons ($e_{HF}$) by the STAR experiment. For Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} =$ 200 GeV we report $v_2$, for transverse momentum ($p_T$) between 0.2 and 7 GeV/c using three methods: the event plane method ($v_{2}${EP}), two-particle correlations ($v_2${2}), and four-particle correlations ($v_2${4}). For Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 62.4 and 39 GeV we report $v_2${2} for $p_T< 2$ GeV/c. $v_2${2} and $v_2${4} are non-zero at low and intermediate $p_T$ at 200 GeV, and $v_2${2} is consistent with zero at low $p_T$ at other energies. The $v_2${2} at the two lower beam energies is systematically lower than at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} =$ 200 GeV for $p_T < 1$ GeV/c. This difference may suggest that charm quarks interact less strongly with the surrounding nuclear matter at those two lower energies compared to $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 200$ GeV.Comment: Version accepted by PR