Empirical Assessment and Comparison of Educational Efficiency between Major Countries across the World

Education is a fundamental factor to enhance a country’s comprehensive national strength and international competitiveness. Recently, several governments have been attracting investments in educational sectors in contemplation of meliorating a country’s overall strength. This study empirically assesses and compares the educational efficiency of 29 major countries across the world using panel data for 2010–2016 by employing data envelopment analysis (DEA) and the super-slacks-based measure (super-SBM) model at the static level combined with the Malmquist index (MI) to investigate educational efficiency at the dynamic level. The results indicate, inter alia, huge average education efficiency differences existed among the studied countries, the highest being Japan (3.2845) and lowest Norway (0.4137), there are differences in the bias of technological progress among the studied countries during the sample period and technological progress directly affects the sustainability of educational efficiency, the growth rate of total factor productivity (TFP) index has been reduced in 2010–2013 but increased in 2014–2016 and techno-logical progress has been the dominant factor influencing the rise of the education TFP index. Based on the results, this study identifies the merits and drawbacks of education efficiency across the sample countries and presents relevant recommendations to promote investment in the education sector and human capital

Epirubicin and gait apraxia: a real-world data analysis of the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System database

Introduction: Epirubicin is widely used in many malignancies with good efficacy and tolerability. However, investigations about adverse events (AEs) using real-world information are still insufficient.Methods: We extracted Epirubicin-related reports submitted between the first quarter of 2014 and first quarter of 2023 from FAERS database. Four algorithms were utilized to evaluate whether there was a significant correlation between Epirubicin and AEs.Results: After de-duplicating, a total of 3919 cases were extracted. Among the 3919 cases, we identified 1472 AEs, 253 of which were found to be adverse drug reactions (ADRs) associated with Epirubicin. We analysed the occurrence of Epirubicin-induced ADRs and found several unexpected significant ADRs, such as hepatic artery stenosis, hepatic artery occlusion, intestinal atresia and so on. Interestingly, we found gait apraxia, a neurological condition, was also significantly associated with Epirubicin. To our knowledge, there haven't studies that have reported an association between gait disorders and the usage of epirubicin.Discussion: Our study identified new unexpected significant ADRs related to Epirubicin, providing new perspectives to the clinical use of Epirubicin

Photoluminescence mechanism and applications of Zn-doped carbon dots

Heteroatom-doped carbon dots (CDs) with excellent optical characteristics and negligible toxicity have emerged in many applications including bioimaging, biosensing, photocatalysis, and photothermal therapy. The metal-doping of CDs using various heteroatoms results in an enhancement of the photophysics but also imparts them with multifunctionality. However, unlike nonmetal doping, typical metal doping results in low fluorescence quantum yields (QYs), and an unclear photoluminescence mechanism. In this contribution, we detail results concerning zinc doped CDs (Zn-CDs) with QYs of up to 35%. The zinc ion charges serve as a surface passivating agent and prevent the aggregation of graphene p–p stacking, leading to an increase in the QY of the Zn-CDs. Structural and chemical investigations using spectroscopic and first principle simulations further revealed the effects of zinc doping on the CDs. The robust Zn-CDs were used for the ultra-trace detection of Hg2+ with a detection limit of 0.1 mM, and a quench mechanism was proposed. The unique optical properties of the Zn-CDs have promise for use in applications such as in vivo sensing and future phototherapy applications

Identification of a SARS-CoV-2 virus-derived vmiRNA in COVID-19 patients holding potential as a diagnostic biomarker

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a lasting threat to public health. To minimize the viral spread, it is essential to develop more reliable approaches for early diagnosis of the infection and immediate suppression of the viral replication. Herein, through computational prediction of SARS-CoV-2 genome and screening analysis of specimens from covid-19 patients, we predicted 15 precursors for SARS-CoV-2-encoded miRNAs (CvmiRNAs) containing 20 mature CvmiRNAs, in which CvmiR-2 was successfully detected by quantitative analysis in both serum and nasal swab samples of patients. CvmiR-2 showed high specificity in distinguishing covid-19 patients from normal controls, and high conservation between SARS-CoV-2 and its mutants. A positive correlation was observed between the CvmiR-2 expression level and the severity of patients. The biogenesis and expression of CvmiR-2 were validated in the pre-CvmiR-2-transfected A549 cells, showing a dose-dependent pattern. The sequence of CvmiR-2 was validated by sequencing analysis of human cells infected by either SARS-CoV-2 or pre-CvmiR-2. Target gene prediction analysis suggested CvmiR-2 may be involved in the regulation of the immune response, muscle pain and/or neurological disorders in covid-19 patients. In conclusion, the current study identified a novel v-miRNA encoded by SARS-CoV-2 upon infection of human cells, which holds the potential to serve as a diagnostic biomarker or a therapeutic target in clinic

Cobalt phosphosulfide nanoparticles encapsulated into heteroatom-doped carbon as bifunctional electrocatalyst for Zn−air battery

The design of non‐noble electrocatalysts with low overpotential, high effectiveness, and good cycling stability for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is highly desirable for high-performance Zn–air batteries. Herein, CoPS nanoparticles encapsulated with S, P, N tri-doped carbon material (SPNC) is proposed as bifunctional electrocatalyst of ORR and OER derived from zeolitic imidazolate framework-67. Density functional theory calculations consistently reveal that P element in CoPS@SPNC improve the electrical conductivity and reduce OH* hydrogenation energy barrier on Co sites, thereby facilitating the overall ORR/OER activities. A flexible Zn–air battery with CoPS@SPNC delivers an overpotential of 0.49 V, an energy efficiency above 80%, and a discharge voltage of 1.29 V at 2 mA cm−2 for 80 h. Such strategy could provide numerous possibilities for the design of highly efficient electrocatalysts

Crystal Structure of a Novel Esterase Rv0045c from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

There are at least 250 enzymes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) involved in lipid metabolism. Some of the enzymes are required for bacterial survival and full virulence. The esterase Rv0045c shares little amino acid sequence similarity with other members of the esterase/lipase family. Here, we report the 3D structure of Rv0045c. Our studies demonstrated that Rv0045c is a novel member of α/β hydrolase fold family. The structure of esterase Rv0045c contains two distinct domains: the α/β fold domain and the cap domain. The active site of esterase Rv0045c is highly conserved and comprised of two residues: Ser154 and His309. We proposed that Rv0045c probably employs two kinds of enzymatic mechanisms when hydrolyzing C-O ester bonds within substrates. The structure provides insight into the hydrolysis mechanism of the C-O ester bond, and will be helpful in understanding the ester/lipid metabolism in M. tuberculosis

Scour protection of submarine pipelines using rubber plates underneath the pipes

YesThis paper presents the results from laboratory experiments to investigate the protection of scour around submarine pipelines under unidirectional flow using a rubber plate placed underneath the pipes. The pressure difference on the two sides of the pipeline is the driving force to initiate the movement of sediment particles and can be obtained by force balance analysis. Experiments covering a wide range of incoming flow velocity, pipe diameter and plate length show that there exists a critical pressure difference over which the movement of sediment and, thus, scour takes place. Analysis of the experimental results demonstrates that this critical pressure difference is related to the pressure difference of the axial points between upstream and downstream of the pipe, which can be easily determined. This critical pressure difference is used to develop an empirical formula for estimating the critical length of the rubber plate, over which the sediment movement and scour will not take place. Good agreement between the experiments and calculated critical plate length using the proposed formula is obtained.National High-Tech Research and Development program of China (863 Program, Grant No.2008AA09Z309), National Nature Science Fund of China (Grant No.50879084, 51279071 and 51279189), the Open Funding from the State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, Sichuan University (SKLH-OF-1306

HDAC Inhibitors Act with 5-aza-2′-Deoxycytidine to Inhibit Cell Proliferation by Suppressing Removal of Incorporated Abases in Lung Cancer Cells

5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (5-aza-CdR) is used extensively as a demethylating agent and acts in concert with histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACI) to induce apoptosis or inhibition of cell proliferation in human cancer cells. Whether the action of 5-aza-CdR in this synergistic effect results from demethylation by this agent is not yet clear. In this study we found that inhibition of cell proliferation was not observed when cells with knockdown of DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1), or double knock down of DNMT1-DNMT3A or DNMT1-DNMT3B were treated with HDACI, implying that the demethylating function of 5-aza-CdR may be not involved in this synergistic effect. Further study showed that there was a causal relationship between 5-aza-CdR induced DNA damage and the amount of [3H]-5-aza-CdR incorporated in DNA. However, incorporated [3H]-5-aza-CdR gradually decreased when cells were incubated in [3H]-5-aza-CdR free medium, indicating that 5-aza-CdR, which is an abnormal base, may be excluded by the cell repair system. It was of interest that HDACI significantly postponed the removal of the incorporated [3H]-5-aza-CdR from DNA. Moreover, HDAC inhibitor showed selective synergy with nucleoside analog-induced DNA damage to inhibit cell proliferation, but showed no such effect with other DNA damage stresses such as γ-ray and UV, etoposide or cisplatin. This study demonstrates that HDACI synergistically inhibits cell proliferation with nucleoside analogs by suppressing removal of incorporated harmful nucleotide analogs from DNA

Current Situation of Information Demand of Farmers in Taihang Mountain Area: A Case Study of Pingshan County in Hebei Province

Since the reform and opening-up, economy of mountain areas in China has realized considerable development. However, due to such factors as terrain, traffic, and individual differences, compared with plain and coastal areas, mountain areas still lag far behind. In recent years, informationization construction of China develops rapidly, but it nearly stagnates in mountain rural areas. Information has become an essential factor restricting economic development of rural areas. Based on the survey of current information demand of farmers carried out in Pingshan County in Hebei Province in 2010, this study came up with relevant recommendations, in order to speed up development of rural economic in mountain areas, narrow the regional gap, improve living condition of farmers in mountain areas, and increase income level of farmers in mountain areas