Live-streaming selling strategies for competitive firms

The booming live-streaming commerce has significantly changed the traditional e-commerce model,thus attracting much attention from both industry and academia.In recent years,an increasing number of scholars have applied analytical models to explore live-streaming strategies for firms in different scenarios.However,the previous literature mainly considers monopolists,while in the real world,competition is not rare.To fill this gap between the literature and practical observations,this paper applies a game theoretical model to study live-streaming adoption and pricing strategy for firms under competitive environments.The results show that,for competitive firms,the equilibrium strategy depends on the relation between the commission rate and the intensity of the market expansion effect.Additionally,compared to the case in which no firm adopts live-streaming,competitive firms do not always benefit from the adoption of live-streaming selling.The paper also shows that competition plays a negative role in inducing a firm to adopt live-streaming.

A prospective cohort study on serum A20 as a prognostic biomarker of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage

BACKGROUND:A20 may be a neuroprotective factor.Herein,we aimed to investigate whether serum A20 levels were associated with disease severity,delayed cerebral ischemia(DCI),and outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage(aSAH).METHODS:In this prospective cohort study containing 112 aSAH patients and 112 controls,serum A20 levels were quantified.At 90 d poststroke,Modified Rankin Scale(MRS) scores≥3 were defined as a poor outcome.All correlations and associations were assessed using multivariate analysis.RESULTS:Compared with controls,there was a significant elevation of serum A20 levels in patients(median 123.7 pg/mL vs.25.8 pg/mL;P<0.001).Serum A20 levels were independently correlated with Hunt-Hess scores(β 9.854;95% confidence interval [95% CI] 2.481-17.227,P=0.009) and modified Fisher scores(β 10.349,95% CI 1.273-19.424,P=0.026).Independent associations were found between serum A20 levels and poor outcome(odds ratio [OR] 1.015,95%CI 1.000-1.031,P=0.047) and DCI(OR 1.018,95% CI 1.001-1.035,P=0.042).Areas under the curve for predicting poor outcome and DCI were 0.771(95% CI 0.682-0.845) and 0.777(95% CI 0.688-0.850),respectively.Serum A20 levels ≥128.15 pg/mL predicted poor outcome,with a sensitivity of 73.9% and specificity of 74.2%,and A20 levels ≥160.55 pg/mL distinguished the risk of DCI with65.5% sensitivity and 89.2% specificity.Its ability to predict poor outcome and DCI was similar to those of Hunt-Hess scores and modified Fisher scores(both P>0.05).CONCLUSION:Enhanced serum A20 levels are significantly associated with stroke severity and poor clinical outcome after aSAH,implying that serum A20 may be a potential prognostic biomarker for aSAH.

The enhanced genomic 6mA metabolism contributes to the proliferation and migration of TSCC cells

In contrast to the well-established genomic 5-methylcytosine(5mC),the existence of N^(6)-methyladenine(6 mA)in eukaryotic genomes was discovered only recently.Initial studies found that it was actively regulated in cancer cells,suggesting its involvement in the process of carcinogenesis.However,the contribution of 6 mA in tongue squamous cell carcinoma(TSCC)still remains uncharacterized.In this study,a pan-cancer type analysis was first performed,which revealed enhanced 6mA metabolism in diverse cancer types.The study was then focused on the regulation of 6 mA metabolism,as well as its effects on TSCC cells.To these aspects,genome 6mA level was found greatly increased in TSCC tissues and cultured cells.By knocking down 6mA methylases N6AMT1 and METTL4,the level of genomic 6mA was decreased in TSCC cells.This led to suppressed colony formation and cell migration.By contrast,knockdown of 6mA demethylase ALKBH1 resulted in an increased 6 mA level,enhanced colony formation,and cell migration.Further study suggested that regulation of the NF-κB pathway might contribute to the enhanced migration of TSCC cells.Therefore,in the case of TSCC,we have shown that genomic 6mA modification is involved in the proliferation and migration of cancer cells.

Coordination bonds reinforcing mechanical strength of silicon anode to improve the electrochemical stability

The severe volumetric expansion and poor conductivity of silicon when used as anode in lithium-ion batteries present challenges in maintaining the stability of electrochemical performance.Herein,the binding between silicon nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes(CNTs)is achieved by the utilization of sodium alginate(S A),which is then strengthened by the coordination between Ca^(2+)and the carboxyl group(-COO^(-))of SA,resulting in a stable conductive network with ionic transport pathway.The consolidated binding relationship enables silicon-based anode material to possess high mechanical strength and strong deformation resistance,preventing the separation of silicon from CNTs network.Consequently,this silicon-based anode material demonstrates a discharge specific capacity of811 mAh·g^(-1)after 100 cycles at a current density of 1 A·g^(-1),and exhibits high rate performance,with a discharge specific capacity of 1612 mAh·g^(-1)at 2 A·g^(-1).

Regulatory effects of traditional Chinese medicine on intestinal flora

Two traditional Chinese medicines(TCMs),namely WangshiBaochiwan and Panax Notoginseng Saponins(notoginsenoside),were chosen to study their effects on gut microbiota.Both of them have a long history of application in China.During a test of 28 d,different doses of the medicines were administered to male Wistar rats daily.At the end of the administration,fresh fecal samples were collected and subjected to 16S rRNA sequencing to determine the profiles of gut microbiota.In relative to the controls,effects on gut microbiota were evaluated with medicine-treated rats.Consistent with its unique bidirectional effects on constipation and diarrhea,treatment of WangshiBaochiwan led to a balanced regulation of Lactobacillus and Bacteroides.The treatment also led to increased populations of Ruminiclostridium_9 and Eubacterium_ventriosum that are the major producer of short-chain fatty acid(SCFA),and decreased populations of genus Jeotgalicoccus and Bilophila that are associated with inflammation.These changes therefore resulted in a much healthier microbiota environment in WangshiBaochiwan-treated rates.For the treatment of notoginsenoside,effects were found with Enterobacteriaceae species that is associated with Parkinson's disease,Christensenellaceae family that is associated with aging,and hypertension-associated Rikenellaceae,Christensenellaceae,Lachnospiraceae and Bacteroidaceae species.In agreement with its major indications,the treatment further led to increased populations of SCFA-producing bacteria,such as Elusimicrobium,Anaerotruncus,Ruminococcaceae_NK4A214_group,and Intestinimonas.Taken together,treatment of the two TCMs led to active and distinguishable regulations of gut microbiota.Impressively,these changes were in agreement with their clinical efficacy,and suggested that they were involved in the treatment of these diseases.

Preclinical safety evaluation of WangShiBaoChiWan

Wang Shi Bao Chi Wan(WSBCW)is a traditional Chinese medicine with a recorded administration history of more than 180 years.In the present study,the preclinical safety of WSBCW was evaluated the preclinical safety of WSBCW using a toxicity test,which consisted of an administration period of 28 d and a recovery period of 15 d.During the test,male and female SD rats were administered the medicine once a day by oral gavage,at a dose of 60 mg/kg/day,600 mg/kg/day,or 1500 mg/kg/day.As a reference medicine,mosapride citrate was administered at a dose of 37.5 mg/kg/day,which was clinically equivalent to the high-dosage treatment of WSBCW.With all the dosage groups,statistically,no adverse effect was observed in terms of clinical observation,food intake,body weights,organ coefficient,blood biochemistry,and histopathology examination.No intestinal melanosis was observed in the rats.When the data were examined animal by animal,test substance-related adverse effects were found with the high-dosage rats in hematology assay.The deranged,however,reversible changes suggested a compromised intestinal barrier,which was also observed with in mosapride citrate-treated rats.In addition to the histopathology assay,molecular toxicology was explored using high-throughput gene sequencing.No evident toxicity was revealed.In summary,administration of WSBCW was well tolerated within a treatment of 28 d.

Strengthening synergistic effects between hard carbon and soft carbon enabled by connecting precursors at molecular level towards high-performance potassium ion batteries

Synergistic effects between hard carbons and soft carbons are proven to be helpful for improving the electrochemical performance of carbonaceous anode for potassium-ion batteries(PIBs).However,the phase separation of precursors limits the synergistic effects and improvement of electrochemical performance.Here,inspired by the esterification reaction,the precursors of two sorts of carbon are connected at the molecular level,which boosts the synergistic effects in hybrid carbon,resulting in excellent electrochemical kinetics and low charge/discharge voltage.Consequently,the hybrid carbon anode exhibited a high specific capacity of 121 mAh·g^(−1)at 3.2 A·g^(−1),a high-rate capability,and stable cycling performance.After 500 cycles at 1 A·g^(−1),the average capacity fading is only 0.078%per cycle.

Percutaneous balloon compression for primary trigeminal neuralgia in patients older than 80 years

Background: It has been demonstrated that the incidence of trigeminal neuralgia in elderly patients is higher and thus, neurosurgeons often encounter elderly patients with this disorder.However, for those with poor basic condition, the optimal surgical treatment remains controversial.In this study, the authors aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of percutaneous balloon compression (PBC) for primary trigeminal neuralgia in elderly patients older than 80 years.Methods: From September 2009 to March 2013, a total of 68 patients older than 80 years underwent PBC, and a retrospective study of the clinical data of these patients was performed.Results: After PBC, pain relief was immediate in 66 (97.0 ％) patients, 1 (1.5 ％) patient had no pain relief, and 1 (1.5 ％) patient had some pain that could be controlled with medication.With a mean length of follow-up of 40.1 months, ranging from 24 to 66 months after surgery, 55 (80.9 ％) patients were still pain free.Of the 11 patients with recurrence, 9 cases had mild recurrence and 2 cases suffered severe recurrence.The mean time to recurrence was 18.9 months (1-64 months).Postoperative morbidity included common side effects such as facial numbness in 66 (97.1％) patients, masseter muscle weakness in 19 (27.9 ％) patients, paresthesia in 7 (10.3 ％) patients, and diplopia secondary to abducens nerve weakness in 1 (1.5 ％) patient.No corneal anesthesia, subarachnoid hemorrhage, or other serious surgical complications occurred in this study.Conclusions: In this study, the authors reviewed data on a cohort of patient older than 80 years.The PBC procedure has advantages in that it is minimally invasive, safe, effective, and could be performed under general anesthesia.This makes it an optimized choice for elderly patients.

Exogenous nucleic acids aggregate in non-P-body cytoplasmic granules when transfected into cultured cells

To modulate gene expression in research studies or in potential clinical therapies,transfection of exogenous nucleic acids including plasmid DNA and small interference RNA(siRNA)are generally performed.However,the cellular processing and the fate of these nucleic acids remain elusive.By investigating the cellular behavior of transfected nucleic acids using confocal imaging,here we show that when siRNA was cotransfected into cultured cells with other nucleic acids,including single-stranded RNA oligonucleotides,single and double-stranded DNA oligonucleotides,as well as long double-stranded plasmid DNA,they all aggregate in the same cytoplasmic granules.Interestingly,the amount of siRNA aggregating in granules was found not to correlate with the gene silencing activity,suggesting that assembly of cytoplasmic granules triggered by siRNA transfection may be separable from the siRNA silencing event.Our results argue against the claim that the siRNAaggregating granules are the functional site of RNA interference(RNAi).Taken together,our studies suggest that,independent of their types or forms,extraneously transfected nucleic acids are processed through a common cytoplasmic pathway and trigger the formation of a new type of cytoplasmic granules“transfection granules”.

A pharmacological study of pioglitazone in the regulation of adipocyte differentiation

As a pathological result of the abnormal differentiation of adipocytes,the occurrence of obesity will not only lead to weight gain,abnormal energy metabolism,but also the development of the diseases such as diabetes.Early studies have focused on the discovery of protein factors that regulate this process.Recently,long noncoding RNAs(lncRNAs)are found to actively participate in the process of adipocyte differentiation.By means of literature investigation,we get to know that in the treatment of diabetes,taking pioglitazone for a long time will lead to weight gain and obesity.However,the undeerlying mechanisms are far from being clarified.To this aspect,the effects of pioglitazone treatment on adipocyte differentiation were systematically investigated,in the present study.Using an in vitro adipocyte differentiation model of 3T3-L1 cells,pioglitazone treatment was found to promot the process of differentiation.Studies were then performed with the effects on protein signaling pathway,in terms of the expressional regulation of PPARγ,C/EBPα,FABP4 and CD36.To further elucidate the effects of pioglitazone,regulation of a adipogenic lncRNA was also investigated in the study.

Specificity of CRISPR/Cpf1 on single-nucleotide mismatched target sites

CRISPR/Cas has been coming to prosperity since its discovery and application. It becomes a standard solution for gene editing in the past few years. A guide RNA is used to lead the endonuclease, such as Cas9 and Cpf1, to specific sites and break the double strand. However, there is also possibility that the system will cut a non-specific position, which is called 'off-target effect'. The off-target cleavage may cause trouble to gene function research or clinic treatment. In order to reveal the target specificity of Cpf1, this study explored the single-nucleotide mismatches by a dual-luciferase system. Our results showed that the poly(T) structure was prohibitive in spacer for Cpf1 targeting. Moreover, rA mismatches seemed to be of the least tolerance for CRISPR/Cpf1, which was same as CRISPR/Cas9. The phenomenon might be attributed to the homology of the two enzymes. In summary, our research suggest that more attention should be paid to off-target effects when using CRISPR/Cpf1 or CRISPR/Cas9, as this is an intrinsic characteristic of the system.

Effects of chain length and hydrophobicity/charge ratio of AMP on its antimicrobial activity

Using two series of de novo designed antimicrobial peptides,we studied the effects of peptide length and hydrophobicity/charge(H/C) ratio on the antimicrobial activities.For these peptides,a correlation was established between their antimicrobial efficacy and the leakage,aggregation,and fusion activities on artificial membrane.The results showed that peptides with an H/C ratio of 1.3,and a length of about half of the membrane thickness caused most potent membrane leakage,and negligible membrane aggregation and fusion.In addition,such peptide also exhibited the highest antimicrobial activity.Analysis of the hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions showed that the strength,the order and the position of these interactions determined the activities of the peptides on the artificial membrane and thus the antimicrobial efficacy.Further analyses on the tilt angle of the peptides on the membrane surface indicated that the peptides distorted the membrane in a dynamic mode,instead of being fixed in the membrane at a constant angle.

Serum Copeptin and In-Hospital Major Adverse Events after Head Trauma: A Multicenter Study

Background: Copeptin is a biomarker for brain injury. However,it is unclear whether it is discriminative regarding in-hospital major adverse events (IMAEs),including acute lung injury,acute traumatic coagulopathy,progressive hemorrhagic injury and post-traumatic cerebral infarction,in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study was aimed at investigating the relationship between the serum copeptin level and occurrences of IMAEs. Methods: In this multicenter observational study,we recruited 173 severe TBI patients and 173 healthy controls. Serum levels of copeptin,interleukin-6,tumor necrosis factor-alpha,C-reactive protein,myelin basic protein,glial fibrillary astrocyte protein,S100B,neuron-specific enolase,phosphorylated axonal neurofilament subunit H,tau protein and ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1 were quantified using available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) were estimated to determine and compare their discriminatory ability for IMAEs. Results: Patients had dramatically elevated levels of the afore-mentioned biomarkers,as compared with controls. In the discrimination of IMAEs,serum copeptin had a significantly higher AUC than serum interleukin-6,tumor necrosis factor-alpha and C-reactive protein and its AUC was similar to that of the Glasgow coma scale (GCS) score and the other remaining biomarkers mentioned above. Except copeptin,no other biomarkers could significantly improve the AUC of the GCS score. Conclusion: Serum copeptin levels combined with the GCS score might aid in discriminating IMAEs following TBI.