Study on the Impact of Private Enterprises\u27 Participation in the Mixed Reform of State-owned Enterprises on the Value Preservation and Appreciation of State-owned Assets

State-owned listed companies in the commercial category in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2013 to 2020 were selected as the research sample. Data related to the shareholding and delegated behavior of private shareholders among the top ten shareholders are utilized. Using a fixed-effects model, we empirically analyze the impact of private companies\u27 participation in the mixed reform of state-owned enterprises on the value preservation and appreciation of state-owned assets at the equity level and the management right level. Explore the moderating effects of internal control and the level of market-oriented development on the above relationships. The study shows that the participation of private enterprises in the mixed reform of SOEs can effectively contribute to the value preservation and appreciation of state-owned assets, both at the equity level and at the management level. Meanwhile, the level of internal control of SOEs has a significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between the participation of private firms in SOEs\u27 mixed reform and the value-added of SOEs\u27 assets; The participation of private firms can effectively compensate for the impact of insufficient market development on the value-added of SOEs\u27 assets

Enhanced Group Delay of the Pulse Reflection with Graphene Surface Plasmon via Modified Otto Configuration

In this paper, the group delay of the transverse magnetic (TM) polarized wave reflected from a modified Otto configuration with graphene surface plasmon is investigated theoretically. The findings show that the optical group delay in this structure can be enhanced negatively and can be switched from negative to positive due to the excitation of surface plasmon by graphene. It is clear that the negative group delay can be actively tuned through the Fermi energy of the graphene. Furthermore, the delay properties can also be manipulated by changing either the relaxation time of graphene or the distance between the coupling prism and the graphene. These tunable delay characteristics are promising for fabricating grapheme-based optical delay devices and other applications in the terahertz regime

An Empirical Comparative Study on the Two Methods of Eliciting Singers’ Emotions in Singing: Self-Imagination and VR Training

Emotional singing can affect vocal performance and the audience’s engagement. Chinese universities use traditional training techniques for teaching theoretical and applied knowledge. Self-imagination is the predominant training method for emotional singing. Recently, virtual reality (VR) technologies have been applied in several fields for training purposes. In this empirical comparative study, a VR training task was implemented to elicit emotions from singers and further assist them with improving their emotional singing performance. The VR training method was compared against the traditional self-imagination method. By conducting a two-stage experiment, the two methods were compared in terms of emotions’ elicitation and emotional singing performance. In the first stage, electroencephalographic (EEG) data were collected from the subjects. In the second stage, self-rating reports and third-party teachers’ evaluations were collected. The EEG data were analyzed by adopting the max-relevance and min-redundancy algorithm for feature selection and the support vector machine (SVM) for emotion recognition. Based on the results of EEG emotion classification and subjective scale, VR can better elicit the positive, neutral, and negative emotional states from the singers than not using this technology (i.e., self-imagination). Furthermore, due to the improvement of emotional activation, VR brings the improvement of singing performance. The VR hence appears to be an effective approach that may improve and complement the available vocal music teaching methods

Auto-adjustable Spoiler Control System

Veroptimal Solution would like to present the Auto-adjustable Spoiler Control System (ASCS).  This system is a feedback control system which is able to either automatically or manually change the elevation and angle of attack (AOA) of the car spoiler. Research shows that when the spoiler elevation is low, or stays very close to the surface of the boot lid, the spoiler can more effectively spoil out the undesirable flows and reshape airflow streams around the vehicle.  The major benefit to this would be the reduction of drag and the increase of fuel efficiency. When the spoiler elevation is high, the AOA of the spoiler plays a crucial role because the angle determines how much air should be deflected upwards and this generates downforce at the rear of the vehicle

Resveratrol activation of SIRT1/MFN2 can improve mitochondria function, alleviating doxorubicin‐induced myocardial injury

Background Doxorubicin is a widely used cytotoxic chemotherapy agent for treating different malignancies. However, its use is associated with dose-dependent cardiotoxicity, causing irreversible myocardial damage and significantly reducing the patient's quality of life and survival. In this study, an animal model of doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy was used to investigate the pathogenesis of doxorubicin-induced myocardial injury. This study also investigated a possible treatment strategy for alleviating myocardial injury through resveratrol therapy in vitro. Methods Adult male C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into a control group and a doxorubicin group. Body weight, echocardiography, surface electrocardiogram, and myocardial histomorphology were measured. The mechanisms of doxorubicin cardiotoxicity in H9c2 cell lines were explored by comparing three groups (phosphate-buffered saline, doxorubicin, and doxorubicin with resveratrol). Results Compared to the control group, the doxorubicin group showed a lower body weight and higher systolic arterial pressure, associated with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction and left ventricular fractional shortening, prolonged PR interval, and QT interval. These abnormalities were associated with vacuolation and increased disorder in the mitochondria of cardiomyocytes, increased protein expression levels of α-smooth muscle actin and caspase 3, and reduced protein expression levels of Mitofusin2 (MFN2) and Sirtuin1 (SIRT1). Compared to the doxorubicin group, doxorubicin + resveratrol treatment reduced caspase 3 and manganese superoxide dismutase, and increased MFN2 and SIRT1 expression levels. Conclusion Doxorubicin toxicity leads to abnormal mitochondrial morphology and dysfunction in cardiomyocytes and induces apoptosis by interfering with mitochondrial fusion. Resveratrol ameliorates doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity by activating SIRT1/MFN2 to improve mitochondria function

Houttuynia cordata thunb. alleviates inflammatory bowel disease by modulating intestinal microenvironment: a research review

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a complex group of chronic intestinal diseases, the cause of which has not yet been clarified, but it is widely believed that the disorder of the intestinal microenvironment and its related functional changes are key factors in the development of the disease. Houttuynia cordata thunb. is a traditional plant with abundant resources and long history of utilization in China, which has attracted widespread attention in recent years due to its potential in the treatment of IBD. However, its development and utilization are limited owing to the aristolochic acid alkaloids contained in it. Therefore, based on the relationship between the intestinal microenvironment and IBD, this article summarizes the potential mechanisms by which the main active ingredients of Houttuynia cordata thunb., such as volatile oils, polysaccharides, and flavonoids, and related traditional Chinese medicine preparations, such as Xiezhuo Jiedu Formula, alleviate IBD by regulating the intestinal microenvironment. At the same time, combined with current reports, the medicinal and edible safety of Houttuynia cordata thunb. is explained for providing ideas for further research and development of Houttuynia chordate thunb. in IBD disease, more treatment options for IBD patients, and more insights into the therapeutic potential of plants with homology of medicine and food in intestinal diseases, and even more diseases

Molecular imaging research in atherosclerosis: A 23-year scientometric and visual analysis

Background: Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are major global health problems, and the main cause is atherosclerosis. Recently, molecular imaging has been widely employed in the diagnosis and therapeutic applications of a variety of diseases, including atherosclerosis. Substantive facts have announced that molecular imaging has broad prospects in the early diagnosis and targeted treatment of atherosclerosis.Objective: We conducted a scientometric analysis of the scientific publications over the past 23 years on molecular imaging research in atherosclerosis, so as to identify the key progress, hotspots, and emerging trends.Methods: Original research and reviews regarding molecular imaging in atherosclerosis were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. Microsoft Excel 2021 was used to analyze the main findings. CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and a scientometric online platform were used to perform visualization analysis of the co-citation of journals and references, co-occurrence of keywords, and collaboration between countries/regions, institutions, and authors.Results: A total of 1755 publications were finally included, which were published by 795 authors in 443 institutions from 59 countries/regions. The United States was the top country in terms of the number and centrality of publications in this domain, with 810 papers and a centrality of 0.38, and Harvard University published the largest number of articles (182). Fayad, ZA was the most productive author, with 73 papers, while LIBBY P had the most co-citations (493). CIRCULATION was the top co-cited journal with a frequency of 1,411, followed by ARTERIOSCL THROM VAS (1,128). The co-citation references analysis identified eight clusters with a well-structured network (Q = 0.6439) and highly convincing clustering (S = 0.8865). All the studies calculated by keyword co-occurrence were divided into five clusters: “nanoparticle,” “magnetic resonance imaging,” “inflammation,” “positron emission tomography,” and “ultrasonography”. Hot topics mainly focused on cardiovascular disease, contrast media, macrophage, vulnerable plaque, and microbubbles. Sodium fluoride ⁃PET, targeted drug delivery, OCT, photoacoustic imaging, ROS, and oxidative stress were identified as the potential trends.Conclusion: Molecular imaging research in atherosclerosis has attracted extensive attention in academia, while the challenges of clinical transformation faced in this field have been described in this review. The findings of the present research can inform funding agencies and researchers toward future directions

A comprehensive review on motion trajectory reconstruction for EEG-based brain-computer interface

The advance in neuroscience and computer technology over the past decades have made brain-computer interface (BCI) a most promising area of neurorehabilitation and neurophysiology research. Limb motion decoding has gradually become a hot topic in the field of BCI. Decoding neural activity related to limb movement trajectory is considered to be of great help to the development of assistive and rehabilitation strategies for motor-impaired users. Although a variety of decoding methods have been proposed for limb trajectory reconstruction, there does not yet exist a review that covers the performance evaluation of these decoding methods. To alleviate this vacancy, in this paper, we evaluate EEG-based limb trajectory decoding methods regarding their advantages and disadvantages from a variety of perspectives. Specifically, we first introduce the differences in motor execution and motor imagery in limb trajectory reconstruction with different spaces (2D and 3D). Then, we discuss the limb motion trajectory reconstruction methods including experiment paradigm, EEG pre-processing, feature extraction and selection, decoding methods, and result evaluation. Finally, we expound on the open problem and future outlooks

Improving Sparsity and Modularity of High-Order Functional Connectivity Networks for MCI and ASD Identification

High-order correlation has recently been proposed to model brain functional connectivity network (FCN) for identifying neurological disorders, such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In practice, the high-order FCN (HoFCN) can be derived from multiple low-order FCNs that are estimated separately in a series of sliding windows, and thus it in fact provides a way of integrating dynamic information encoded in a sequence of low-order FCNs. However, the estimation of low-order FCN may be unreliable due to the fact that the use of limited volumes/samples in a sliding window can significantly reduce the statistical power, which in turn affects the reliability of the resulted HoFCN. To address this issue, we propose to enhance HoFCN based on a regularized learning framework. More specifically, we first calculate an initial HoFCN using a recently developed method based on maximum likelihood estimation. Then, we learn an optimal neighborhood network of the initially estimated HoFCN with sparsity and modularity priors as regularizers. Finally, based on the improved HoFCNs, we conduct experiments to identify MCI and ASD patients from their corresponding normal controls. Experimental results show that the proposed methods outperform the baseline methods, and the improved HoFCNs with modularity prior consistently achieve the best performance

Metformin ameliorates ionizing irradiation-induced long-term hematopoietic stem cell injury in mice

AbstractExposure to ionizing radiation (IR) increases the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) not only by the radiolysis of water but also through IR-induced perturbation of the cellular metabolism and disturbance of the balance of reduction/oxidation reactions. Our recent studies showed that the increased production of intracellular ROS induced by IR contributes to IR-induced late effects, particularly in the hematopoietic system, because inhibition of ROS production with an antioxidant after IR exposure can mitigate IR-induced long-term bone marrow (BM) injury. Metformin is a widely used drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Metformin also has the ability to regulate cellular metabolism and ROS production by activating AMP-activated protein kinase. Therefore, we examined whether metformin can ameliorate IR-induced long-term BM injury in a total-body irradiation (TBI) mouse model. Our results showed that the administration of metformin significantly attenuated TBI-induced increases in ROS production and DNA damage and upregulation of NADPH oxidase 4 expression in BM hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). These changes were associated with a significant increase in BM HSC frequency, a considerable improvement in in vitro and in vivo HSC function, and complete inhibition of upregulation of p16Ink4a in HSCs after TBI. These findings demonstrate that metformin can attenuate TBI-induced long-term BM injury at least in part by inhibiting the induction of chronic oxidative stress in HSCs and HSC senescence. Therefore, metformin has the potential to be used as a novel radioprotectant to ameliorate TBI-induced long-term BM injury