Visionary Management: Footstone of Sustained Firm Growth

As an important discipline of the learning organization, vision provides guidance about what core to preserve and what future to stimulate progress toward. It had been proved by the experiences of foreign companies’ successful practice that visionary management was an actually new managerial philosophy and tool after the corporation reengineering theory to support sustained firm growth. It should be worthy our stated-owned enterprises and short-life’s to learn and practice

Magnetic phase transitions in the triangular-lattice spin-1 dimer compound K2Ni2(SeO3)3

In our study, we conduct magnetization and heat capacity measurements to investigate field-induced magnetic phase transitions within the newly synthesized compound K2Ni2(SeO3)3, a spin-1 dimer system arranged on a triangular lattice. The Ni-Ni dimers exhibit a ferromagnetic intra-dimer interaction, effectively behaving as an ensemble with a total spin of S=2. In contrast, antiferromagnetic interactions manifest between these dimers on the triangular lattice. The trigonal distortion of the NiO6 octahedra introduces easy-axis magnetic anisotropy, accounting for the distinct magnetic phase diagrams observed when applying c-axis directional and in-plnae magnetic fields. Notably, our investigation unveils a two-step phase transition with the magnetic field aligned with the c direction. We propose that the system at the first transition is from a paramagnetic state to an up-up-down state, characterized by the Z3 lattice-symmetry breaking. Subsequently, a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, involving the breaking of the c-axis spin-rotation symmetry, leads to the formation of the "Y state" at low temperatures. These findings yield valuable insights into the magnetic phase transitions inherent to geometrically frustrated magnetic systems featuring dimer structures.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

An update on the functional roles of long non‑coding RNAs in ischemic injury (Review)

Ischemic injuries result from ischemia and hypoxia in cells. Tissues and organs receive an insufficient supply of nutrients and accumulate metabolic waste, which leads to the development of inflammation, fibrosis and a series of other issues. Ischemic injuries in the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and other organs can cause severe adverse effects. Acute renal ischemia induces acute renal failure, heart ischemia induces myocardial infarction and cerebral ischemia induces cerebrovascular accidents, leading to loss of movement, consciousness and possibly, life-threatening disabilities. Existing evidence suggests that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are regulatory sequences involved in transcription, post-transcription, epigenetic regulation and multiple physiological processes. lncRNAs have been shown to be differentially expressed following ischemic injury, with the severity of the ischemic injury being affected by the upregulation or downregulation of certain types of lncRNA. The present review article provides an extensive summary of the functional roles of lncRNAs in ischemic injury, with a focus on the brain, heart, kidneys and lungs. The present review mainly summarizes the functional roles of lncRNA MALAT1, lncRNA MEG3, lncRNA H19, lncRNA TUG1, lncRNA NEAT1, lncRNA AK139328 and lncRNA CAREL, among which lncRNA MALAT1, in particular, plays a crucial role in ischemic injury and is currently a hot research topic

Approaching Disorder-Tolerant Semiconducting Polymers

Doping has been widely used to control the charge carrier concentration in organic semiconductors. However, in conjugated polymers, n-doping is often limited by the tradeoff between doping efficiency and charge carrier mobilities, since dopants often randomly distribute within polymers, leading to significant structural and energetic disorder. Here, we screen a large number of polymer building block combinations and explore the possibility of designing n-type conjugated polymers with good tolerance to dopant-induced disorder. We show that a carefully designed conjugated polymer with a single dominant planar backbone conformation, high torsional barrier at each dihedral angle, and zigzag backbone curvature is highly dopable and can tolerate dopant-induced disorder. With these features, the designed diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based polymer can be efficiently n-doped and exhibit high n-type electrical conductivities over 120 S cm−1, much higher than the reference polymers with similar chemical structures. This work provides a polymer design concept for highly dopable and highly conductive polymeric semiconductors

Differential expression of proteomics models of colorectal cancer, colorectal benign disease and healthy controls

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Colorectal cancer (CRC) is often diagnosed at a late stage with concomitant poor prognosis. The hypersensitive analytical technique of proteomics can detect molecular changes before the tumor is palpable. The surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectra (SELDI-TOF-MS) is a newly-developed technique of evaluating protein separation in recent years. The protein chips have established the expression of tumor protein in the serum specimens and become the newly discovered markers for tumor diagnosis. The objective of this study was to find new markers of the diagnosis among groups of CRC, colorectal benign diseases (CBD) and healthy controls. The assay of SELDI-TOF-MS with analytical technique of protein-chip bioinformatics was used to detect the expression of protein mass peaks in the sera of patients or controls. One hundred serum samples, including 52 cases of colorectal cancer, 27 cases of colorectal benign disease, and 21 cases of healthy controls, were examined by SELDI-TOF-MS with WCX2 protein-chips.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The diagnostic models (I, II and III) were setup by analyzed the data and sieved markers using Ciphergen - Protein-Chip-Software 5.1. These models were combined with 3 protein mass peaks to discriminate CRC, CBD, and healthy controls. The accuracy, the sensitivity and the particularity of cross verification of these models are all highly over 80%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The SELDI-TOF-MS is a useful tool to help diagnose colorectal cancer, especially during the early stage. However, identification of the significantly differentiated proteins needs further study.</p

Fresh raspberry phytochemical extract inhibits hepatic lesion in a Wistar rat model

Background: Red raspberry possesses potent antioxidant capacity and antiproliferative activity against cancer in vitro. Methods: The objective of this study was to determine the protective effects of raspberry 80% acetone extract in a rat hepatic lesions model induced by diethylnitrosamine (DEN). Rats were treated with the red raspberry extract (0.75, 1.5 or 3.0 g/kg of body weight) by gavage starting 2 h after DEN administration and continuing for 20 weeks. Results: A dose-dependent inhibition by red raspberry extract of DEN-induced hepatic nodule formation which stands for hepatic lesions was observed. Corresponding hepatic nodule incidence rates were 45.0, 40.0, 25.0 and 5.0% in positive control, low, middle and high groups, respectively (P < 0.01 or 0.05). Gross findings, histopathological and ultrastructural evaluations of hepatic lesion were performed on 9, 8, 5 and 1 hepatic nodule in positive control, low, middle and high doses of groups, respectively, identified in rats from the respective groups of 20. A decreasing trend of proportions of hepatocellular carcinoma masses accompanied the increasing doses of red raspberry extract. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that the potent capacity of red raspberry diet could not only suppress DEN-induced hepatic lesions in rats, but also reduce the definite diagnostic features of neoplasm

The LAMOST Survey of Background Quasars in the Vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum Galaxies -- II. Results from the Commissioning Observations and the Pilot Surveys

We present new quasars discovered in the vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies with the LAMOST during the 2010 and 2011 observational seasons. Quasar candidates are selected based on the available SDSS, KPNO 4 m telescope, XSTPS optical, and WISE near infrared photometric data. We present 509 new quasars discovered in a stripe of ~135 sq. deg from M31 to M33 along the Giant Stellar Stream in the 2011 pilot survey datasets, and also 17 new quasars discovered in an area of ~100 sq. deg that covers the central region and the southeastern halo of M31 in the 2010 commissioning datasets. These 526 new quasars have i magnitudes ranging from 15.5 to 20.0, redshifts from 0.1 to 3.2. They represent a significant increase of the number of identified quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33. There are now 26, 62 and 139 known quasars in this region of the sky with i magnitudes brighter than 17.0, 17.5 and 18.0 respectively, of which 5, 20 and 75 are newly-discovered. These bright quasars provide an invaluable collection with which to probe the kinematics and chemistry of the ISM/IGM in the Local Group of galaxies. A total of 93 quasars are now known with locations within 2.5 deg of M31, of which 73 are newly discovered. Tens of quasars are now known to be located behind the Giant Stellar Stream, and hundreds behind the extended halo and its associated substructures of M31. The much enlarged sample of known quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33 can potentially be utilized to construct a perfect astrometric reference frame to measure the minute PMs of M31 and M33, along with the PMs of substructures associated with the Local Group of galaxies. Those PMs are some of the most fundamental properties of the Local Group.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, AJ accepte