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

Hazard Assessment of Abraded Thermoplastic Composites Reinforced with Reduced Graphene Oxide

Graphene-related materials (GRMs) are subject to intensive investigations and considerable progress has been made in recent years in terms of safety assessment. However, limited information is available concerning the hazard potential of GRM-containing products such as graphene-reinforced composites. In the present study, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of the potential biological effects of particles released through an abrasion process from reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-reinforced composites of polyamide 6 (PA6), a widely used engineered thermoplastic polymer, in comparison to as-produced rGO. First, a panel of well-established in vitro models, representative of the immune system and possible target organs such as the lungs, the gut, and the skin, was applied. Limited responses to PA6-rGO exposure were found in the different in vitro models. Only as-produced rGO induced substantial adverse effects, in particular in macrophages. Since inhalation of airborne materials is a key occupational concern, we then sought to test whether the in vitro responses noted for these materials would translate into adverse effects in vivo. To this end, the response at 1, 7 and 28 days after a single pulmonary exposure was evaluated in mice. In agreement with the in vitro data, PA6-rGO induced a modest and transient pulmonary inflammation, resolved by day 28. In contrast, rGO induced a longer-lasting, albeit moderate inflammation that did not lead to tissue remodeling within 28 days. Taken together, the present study suggests a negligible impact on human health under acute exposure conditions of GRM fillers such as rGO when released from composites at doses expected at the workplace

GATA6 Activates Wnt Signaling in Pancreatic Cancer by Negatively Regulating the Wnt Antagonist Dickkopf-1

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly lethal disease characterized by late diagnosis and treatment resistance. Recurrent genetic alterations in defined genes in association with perturbations of developmental cell signaling pathways have been associated with PDAC development and progression. Here, we show that GATA6 contributes to pancreatic carcinogenesis during the temporal progression of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia by virtue of Wnt pathway activation. GATA6 is recurrently amplified by both quantitative-PCR and fluorescent in-situ hybridization in human pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia and in PDAC tissues, and GATA6 copy number is significantly correlated with overall patient survival. Forced overexpression of GATA6 in cancer cell lines enhanced cell proliferation and colony formation in soft agar in vitro and growth in vivo, as well as increased Wnt signaling. By contrast siRNA mediated knockdown of GATA6 led to corresponding decreases in these same parameters. The effects of GATA6 were found to be due to its ability to bind DNA, as forced overexpression of a DNA-binding mutant of GATA6 had no effects on cell growth in vitro or in vivo, nor did they affect Wnt signaling levels in these same cells. A microarray analysis revealed the Wnt antagonist Dickopf-1 (DKK1) as a dysregulated gene in association with GATA6 knockdown, and direct binding of GATA6 to the DKK1 promoter was confirmed by chromatin immunoprecipitation and electrophoretic mobility shift assays. Transient transfection of GATA6, but not mutant GATA6, into cancer cell lines led to decreased DKK1 mRNA expression and secretion of DKK1 protein into culture media. Forced overexpression of DKK1 antagonized the effects of GATA6 on Wnt signaling in pancreatic cancer cells. These findings illustrate that one mechanism by which GATA6 promotes pancreatic carcinogenesis is by virtue of its activation of canonical Wnt signaling via regulation of DKK1

Four Major Factors Contributing to Intrahepatic Stones

Intrahepatic stone is prevalent in Asian countries; though the incidence declines in recent years, the number of patients is still in a large quantity. Because of multiple complications, high recurrence rates, serious systemic damage, and a lack of extremely effective procedure for the management, it is more important to find out the etiology and pathogenesis of intrahepatic stones to prevent the disease from happening and developing rather than curing. A number of factors contribute to the development of the disease, such as cholestasis, infection, and anatomic abnormity of bile duct and bile metabolic defect. The four factors and possible pathogenesis will be discussed in detail in the review

Four Major Factors Contributing to Intrahepatic Stones

Intrahepatic stone is prevalent in Asian countries; though the incidence declines in recent years, the number of patients is still in a large quantity. Because of multiple complications, high recurrence rates, serious systemic damage, and a lack of extremely effective procedure for the management, it is more important to find out the etiology and pathogenesis of intrahepatic stones to prevent the disease from happening and developing rather than curing. A number of factors contribute to the development of the disease, such as cholestasis, infection, and anatomic abnormity of bile duct and bile metabolic defect. The four factors and possible pathogenesis will be discussed in detail in the review

Sustained and Microenvironment-Accelerated Release of Minocycline from Alginate Injectable Hydrogel for Bacteria-Infected Wound Healing

During wound healing, bacterial infection is one of the main limiting factors for the desired efficiency. Wound dressing-mediated antibiotics therapies could overcome this problem to a great extent due to sustained drug release and controllable dose. Here, we designed a kind of alginate injectable hydrogel loaded with minocycline (SA@MC) as a dressing for staphylococcus aureus-infected wound healing. SA@MC hydrogel possessed good injectability and can be injected by syringes. MC participated in the gel formation, causing the microstructure change based on the morphology characterization. The element mapping and FT-IR spectra further confirmed the successful loading of MC in SA hydrogel. Interestingly, MC was released more efficiently in a weakly alkaline condition (pH 7–8) than in a weakly acidic condition (pH 4–6) from SA@MC injectable hydrogel, which means that there is an accelerated release to respond to the weakly alkaline wound microenvironment. Meanwhile, SA@MC injectable hydrogel had high biocompatibility and excellent antibacterial activity due to the sustained release of MC. Further, in vivo experiment results demonstrated that SA@MC injectable hydrogel promoted staphylococcus aureus-infected wound healing efficiently. In summary, the injectable composite hydrogel can serve as an ideal dressing to prevent bacterial infection and promote wound healing

Effect of different heat-treated temperatures upon structural and abrasive performance of Ni-TiN composite nanocoatings

This study reports the synthesis of Ni-TiN composite nanocoatings on a Q235 steel matrix using the electrodeposition technique, and were then treated at different temperatures. The surface morphology, structure, hardness, and abrasion performances of composite nanocoatings were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and friction-abrasion testing machine. SEM images illustrated smooth/dense surface morphology for Ni-TiN composite nanocoatings treated at 250 °C. XRD patterns revealed Ni and TiN phase appearance within Ni-TiN composite nanocoatings. The broader and low-intensity XRD peaks were observed for the composite following heat treatment at 250 °C, indicating the smallest size of TiN particle and Ni grain. Furthermore, Ni-TiN composite nanocoatings exhibited the highest hardness of 821 Hv following heat treatment at 250 °C. The frictional coefficient, wear rate, and indentation depth for Ni-TiN composite nanocoatings were found to be lowest at 0.45, 0.58 mg/min, and 13.8 μm, respectively after heat treatment at 250 °C. Furthermore, the Ni-TiN composite nanocoatings had peak abrasion resistance across three composite nanocoatings following heat treatment at 250 °C

Fiber Core-Offset Humidity Sensor Based on Graphene Oxide Characteristics

On the basis of the photoelectric properties and hydrophilicity and multimode interference of Graphene Oxide (GO), this study proposes an all-fiber humidity sensor. Two core-offset regions are constructed with a fiber fusion splicer, and a GO film is coated on a single-mode fiber (SMF) between the core-offset regions to form a humidity-sensitive Mach–Zehnder interference structure. As the external humidity environment changes, the refractive index of the GO changes, and the light in the SMF is modulated by humidity. External humidity is measured by detecting the changes in the wavelength of the transmission spectrum of the sensing structure. A saturated salt solution is used to build a stable humidity environment. The sensitivity of the sensor is 0.05 nm/% relative humidity (RH) at 35.3%–95.8% RH, and the linear relationship between the characteristic wavelength and RH is 88%. In addition, the linear relationship between the light intensity and the RH of the sensor at a single wavelength at 1571 nm is analyzed, and the linearity is 97.45%. According to this finding, photoelectric conversion is used to convert the light intensity signal into a voltage signal. The data are processed by a computer to achieve the real-time and visual monitoring of the humidity environment. The fiber optic humidity sensor proposed in this work has a simple structure, simple production, low cost, and high sensitivity. This work provides a new method for humidity sensing