The influence of leader humor on employee creativity: from the perspective of employee voice

Creativity is a primary factor in driving transformational change. This study explored the impact of leader humor on employee creativity (incremental and radical creativity) from the perspective of employee voice. Data were collected from 812 Chinese employees through multipoint surveys. Through the surveys, we found that (1) leader humor has a significant positive effect on employee incremental and radical creativity; (2) promotive/prohibitive voice mediates the relationship between leader humor and employee incremental/radical creativity separately; (3) contradictory thinking moderates the effect of leader humor on prohibitive voice and further moderates the indirect effect of leader humor on radical creativity; and (4) the moderated mediation model mainly applies to state-owned enterprises rather than private-owned enterprises. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

HPV Infection in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Its Relationship to the Prognosis of Patients in Northern China

Purpose. Human papillomavirus (HPV) as a risk factor for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has previously been studied, but importance of HPV status in ESCC for prognosis is less clear. Methods. A total of 105 specimens with ESCC were tested by in situ hybridization for HPV 16/18 and immunohistochemistry for p16 expression. The 5-year overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival were calculated in relation to these markers and the Cox proportional hazards model was used to determine the hazard ratio (HR) of variables in univariate and multivariate analysis. Results. HPV was detected in 27.6% (29) of the 105 patients with ESCC, and all positive cases were HPV-16. Twenty-five (86.2%) of the 29 HPV-positive tumors were stained positive for p16. HPV infected patients had better 5-year rates of OS (65.9% versus 43.4% among patients with HPV-negative tumors; P = 0.002 by the log-rank test) and had a 63% reduction in the risk of death (adjusted HR = 0.37, 95% CI = 0.16 to 0.82, and P = 0.01). Conclusions. HPV infection may be one of many factors contributing to the development of ESCC and tumor HPV status is an independent prognostic factor for survival among patients with ESCC

Association between dietary inflammatory index and risk of endometriosis: A population-based analysis

Background and aimsChronic inflammation plays a significant role in the etiology of endometriosis, which might be affected by dietary intake. This study aimed to investigate the association between dietary inflammatory index (DII) and the risk of endometriosis.MethodsA cross-sectional analysis using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999–2006) was conducted on 3,410 American participants, among whom 265 reported a diagnosis of endometriosis. DII scores were calculated based on the dietary questionnaire. The association of DII scores with endometriosis was evaluated by adjusted multivariate logistic regression analyzes, which were further investigated in the subgroups.ResultsIn the fully adjusted models, the odds ratio (OR) for endometriosis participants in the highest and middle tertiles of DII scores were 1.57 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14–2.17] and 1.18 (95% CI: 0.84–1.65), compared to the lowest tertile (Ptrend = 0.007). In subgroup analyzes, the significant positive association between DII scores and the endometriosis risk was also observed in non-obese women (ORtertile3vs1: 1.69, 95% CI: 1.12–2.55; Ptrend = 0.012), women without diabetes (ORtertile3vs1: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.16–2.27; Ptrend = 0.005), women with hypertension (ORtertile3vs1: 2.25, 95% CI: 1.31–3.87; Ptrend = 0.003), parous women (ORtertile3vs1: 1.55, 95% CI: 1.11–2.17; Ptrend = 0.011), and women using oral contraceptives (ORtertile3vs1: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.15–2.30; Ptrend = 0.006).ConclusionThis nationally representative study found that increased intake of the pro-inflammatory diet, as a higher DII score, was positively associated with endometriosis risk among American adults. Our results suggested anti-inflammatory dietary interventions may be promising in the prevention of endometriosis. Further prospective studies are necessary to confirm these findings

Global intron retention mediated gene regulation during CD4+ T cell activation.

T cell activation is a well-established model for studying cellular responses to exogenous stimulation. Using strand-specific RNA-seq, we observed that intron retention is prevalent in polyadenylated transcripts in resting CD4(+) T cells and is significantly reduced upon T cell activation. Several lines of evidence suggest that intron-retained transcripts are less stable than fully spliced transcripts. Strikingly, the decrease in intron retention (IR) levels correlate with the increase in steady-state mRNA levels. Further, the majority of the genes upregulated in activated T cells are accompanied by a significant reduction in IR. Of these 1583 genes, 185 genes are predominantly regulated at the IR level, and highly enriched in the proteasome pathway, which is essential for proper T cell proliferation and cytokine release. These observations were corroborated in both human and mouse CD4(+) T cells. Our study revealed a novel post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism that may potentially contribute to coordinated and/or quick cellular responses to extracellular stimuli such as an acute infection

Solvothermal synthesis and thermoelectric properties of indium telluride nanostring-cluster hierarchical structures

A simple solvothermal approach has been developed to successfully synthesize n-type α-In2Te3 thermoelectric nanomaterials. The nanostring-cluster hierarchical structures were prepared using In(NO3)3 and Na2TeO3 as the reactants in a mixed solvent of ethylenediamine and ethylene glycol at 200°C for 24 h. A diffusion-limited reaction mechanism was proposed to explain the formation of the hierarchical structures. The Seebeck coefficient of the bulk pellet pressed by the obtained samples exhibits 43% enhancement over that of the corresponding thin film at room temperature. The electrical conductivity of the bulk pellet is one to four orders of magnitude higher than that of the corresponding thin film or p-type bulk sample. The synthetic route can be applied to obtain other low-dimensional semiconducting telluride nanostructures

Characteristics of InAlAs/InGaAs heterostructures grown on InP substrates by molecular beam epitaxy

Molecular beam epitaxial growth of In0.52Al0.48As epilayer on InP(100) substrate at a wide range of substrate temperatures (470-550 degrees celcius) and at arsenic overpressure (V/III ratio) which is higher than previously reported is carried out. Analysis performed using low temperature (4 K) photoluminescence (PL) showed a strong dependence of the PL linewidth on the substrate temperature.Master of Engineerin

Effect of ultrasonic treatment and Sr addition on microstructure of Al-20%Si alloy

Many investigations have revealed that transition of melt structure can effectively influence the final solidification microstructures. In this study, ultrasonic treatment was applied to Al-20%Si melt and Sr-modified Al-20%Si melt at 720 ℃ (i.e. above liquidus of about 690℃) for 60 s, and then the melt was quickly quenched to room temperature. Experimental results show that ultrasonic treatment can refine the primary Si phase and α-Al of Al-20%Si alloy; strontium can make the morphology of Si phase spheroidized and refined as Sr addition changes the faceted growth characteristic of Si phase; however, the refinement effect of ultrasonic treatment on the primary Si phase and α-Al is weakened by Sr addition

Shallow multi-well plastic chip for thermal multiplexing

US8080411Granted Paten

Shallow multi-well plastic chip for thermal multiplexing

US7442542Granted Paten

Predicting Soil Saturated Water Conductivity Using Pedo-Transfer Functions for Rocky Mountain Forests in Northern China

Soil physicochemical properties and macropore spatial structure affect saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks). However, due to regional differences and long measurement time, Ks is tedious to quantify. Therefore, it is of great importance to find simplified but robust methods to predict Ks. One possibility is to use pedo-transfer functions (PTFs). Along this line, stratified sampling was carried out in six typical forestlands in the rocky mountain area of Northern China. Penetration experiments and industrial CT scanning were combined to explore the distribution characteristics of regional Ks and its influencing factors. Based on this, we compared three Ks PTF models by multiple linear regression for Ks prediction. The results indicated that: (1) Ks decreased with increasing soil depth, which followed the order coniferous forest Ks (p Ks. (3) Soil macropore structure, such as number density, length density, surface area density, and volume density, all decreased with increasing soil depth. They were all significantly positively correlated with Ks (p Ks. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of forest hydrological infiltration processes in rocky mountain forests in Northern China, and provide theoretical support for the prediction and management of water loss and soil erosion and the enhancement of water conservation functions