Extant studies on cross-border venture capital (VC) investment predominantly focus on how country-level formal institutions impact the flow of VCs across borders, but the potential role of country-level sentiments in this process has received less attention. Drawing upon the trust literature, we explore how home country political sentiment affects cross-border VC investment. Using data on Chinese VCs’ cross-border investments from 2000 to 2021, we find that home country political sentiment positively affects the amount of cross-border VC investment. Government VC (GVC) and connected VC (through sentiment transmission) positively, while investor managerial team education and investor host country experience (through sentiment suppression) negatively, moderate the influence of home country political sentiment.

Femoral neck bone mineral density (FNBMD) is a high risk factor for femoral head fractures, and coffee intake affects bone mineral density, but the effect on FNBMD remains to be explored. First, we conducted an observational study in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and collected data on coffee intake, FNBMD, and sixteen covariates. Weight linear regression was used to explore the association of coffee intake with FNBMD. Then, Mendelian randomisation (MR) was used to explore the causal relationship between coffee intake and FNBMD, the exposure factor was coffee intake, and the outcome factor was FNBMD. The inverse variance weighting (IVW) method was used for the analysis, while heterogeneity tests, sensitivity, and pleiotropy analysis were performed. A total of 5 915 people were included in the cross-sectional study, including 3 178 men and 2 737 women. In the completely adjusted model, no coffee was used as a reference. The ORs for the overall population at ‘< 1’, ‘1–<2’, ‘2–<4’, and ‘4+’ (95% CI) were 0.02 (–0.01, 0.04), 0.00 (–0.01, 0.02), –0.01 (–0.02, 0.00), and 0.00 (–0.01, 0.02), respectively. The male and female population showed no statistically significant differences in both univariate and multivariate linear regressions. In the MR study, the IVW results showed an OR (95% CI) of 1.06 (0.88–1.27), a P-value of 0.55, and an overall F-value of 80.31. The heterogeneity, sensitivity analyses, and pleiotropy had no statistical significance. Our study used cross-sectional studies and MR to demonstrate that there is no correlation or causal relationship between coffee intake and FNBMD.

Ultra-thin liquid sheets generated by impinging two liquid jets are crucial high-repetition-rate targets for laser ion acceleration and ultra-fast physics, and serve widely as barrier-free samples for structural biochemistry. The impact of liquid viscosity on sheet thickness should be comprehended fully to exploit its potential. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that viscosity significantly influences thickness distribution, while surface tension primarily governs shape. We propose a thickness model based on momentum exchange and mass transport within the radial flow, which agrees well with the experiments. These results provide deeper insights into the behaviour of liquid sheets and enable accurate thickness control for various applications, including atomization nozzles and laser-driven particle sources.

Using the syntactic priming paradigm, this study investigated abstract syntactic knowledge of Chinese transitive structures (i.e., subject-verb-object [SVO], BA, and BEI) in deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs). Specifically, we focused on the differences in the development of various syntactic structures (within CI children and compared with their typically hearing children) and the possible individual differences during this process. Results showed that both CI and hearing children exhibited structural priming for all syntactic structures (i.e., SVO, SbaOV structure [agent-patient ordering], and ObeiSV structure [patient-agent ordering]) after comprehending and repeating the prime sentence regardless of verb repetition. However, verb repetition induced an intense abstract priming effect in CI children but not hearing children, with the lexical boost effect more significant for SVO and BA structures. In addition, CI children’s working memory capability modulated the production of the BA structure but not SVO and BEI structures.

The multi-colour complete light curves and low-resolution spectra of two short period eclipsing Am binaries V404 Aur and GW Gem are presented. The stellar atmospheric parameters of the primary stars were derived through the spectra fitting. The observed and TESS-based light curves of them were analysed by using the Wilson-Devinney code. The photometric solutions suggest that both V404 Aur and GW Gem are semi-detached systems with the secondary component filling its critical Roche Lobe, while the former should be a marginal contact binary. The $O-C$ analysis found that the period of V404 Aur is decreasing at a rate of $dP/dt=-1.06(\pm0.01)\times 10^{-7}\,\mathrm{d}\,\mathrm{ yr}^{-1}$, while the period of GW Gem is increasing at $dP/dt=+2.41(\pm0.01)\times 10^{-8} \mathrm{d}\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$. The period decrease of V404 Aur may mainly be caused by the combined effects of the angular momentum loss (AML) via an enhanced stellar wind of the more evolved secondary star and mass transfer between two components. The period increase of GW Gem supports the mass transfer from the secondary to the primary. Both targets may be in the broken contact stage predicted by the thermal relaxation oscillations theory and will eventually evolve to the contact stage. We have collected about 54 well-known eclipsing Am binaries with absolute parameters from the literature. The relations of these parameters are summarised. There are some components that have a higher degree of evolution. The majority of their hydrogen shell may have been stripped away and the stellar internal layer exposed. The accretion processes from such evolved components may be very important for the formation of Am peculiarity in binaries.

Computer-based interactive items have become prevalent in recent educational assessments. In such items, detailed human–computer interactive process, known as response process, is recorded in a log file. The recorded response processes provide great opportunities to understand individuals’ problem solving processes. However, difficulties exist in analyzing these data as they are high-dimensional sequences in a nonstandard format. This paper aims at extracting useful information from response processes. In particular, we consider an exploratory analysis that extracts latent variables from process data through a multidimensional scaling framework. A dissimilarity measure is described to quantify the discrepancy between two response processes. The proposed method is applied to both simulated data and real process data from 14 PSTRE items in PIAAC 2012. A prediction procedure is used to examine the information contained in the extracted latent variables. We find that the extracted latent variables preserve a substantial amount of information in the process and have reasonable interpretability. We also empirically prove that process data contains more information than classic binary item responses in terms of out-of-sample prediction of many variables.

The inverse probability of treatment weighted (IPTW) estimator can be used to make causal inferences under two assumptions: (1) no unobserved confounders (ignorability) and (2) positive probability of treatment and of control at every level of the confounders (positivity), but is vulnerable to bias if by chance, the proportion of the sample assigned to treatment, or proportion of control, is zero at certain levels of the confounders. We propose to deal with this sampling zero problem, also known as practical violation of the positivity assumption, in a setting where the observed confounder is cluster identity, i.e., treatment assignment is ignorable within clusters. Specifically, based on a random coefficient model assumed for the potential outcome, we augment the IPTW estimating function with the estimated potential outcomes of treatment (or of control) for clusters that have no observation of treatment (or control). If the cluster-specific potential outcomes are estimated correctly, the augmented estimating function can be shown to converge in expectation to zero and therefore yield consistent causal estimates. The proposed method can be implemented in the existing software, and it performs well in simulated data as well as with real-world data from a teacher preparation evaluation study.

Accurate assessment of a student’s ability is the key task of a test. Assessments based on final responses are the standard. As the infrastructure advances, substantially more information is observed. One of such instances is the process data that is collected by computer-based interactive items and contain a student’s detailed interactive processes. In this paper, we show both theoretically and with simulated and empirical data that appropriately including such information in the assessment will substantially improve relevant assessment precision.

Process data refer to data recorded in log files of computer-based items. These data, represented as timestamped action sequences, keep track of respondents’ response problem-solving behaviors. Process data analysis aims at enhancing educational assessment accuracy and serving other assessment purposes by utilizing the rich information contained in response processes. The R package ProcData presented in this article is designed to provide tools for inspecting, processing, and analyzing process data. We define an S3 class ‘proc’ for organizing process data and extend generic methods summary and print for ‘proc’. Feature extraction methods for process data are implemented in the package for compressing information in the irregular response processes into regular numeric vectors. ProcData also provides functions for making predictions from neural-network-based sequence models. In addition, a real dataset of response processes from the climate control item in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment is included in the package.

This study aims to evaluate the impact of low-carbohydrate diet, balanced dietary guidance and pharmacotherapy on weight loss among individuals with overweight or obesity over a period of 3 months. The study involves 339 individuals with overweight or obesity and received weight loss treatment at the Department of Clinical Nutrition at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, School of Medicine, between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2023. The primary outcome is the percentage weight loss. Among the studied patients, the majority chose low-carbohydrate diet as their primary treatment (168 (49·56 %)), followed by balanced dietary guidance (139 (41·00 %)) and pharmacotherapy (32 (9·44 %)). The total percentage weight loss for patients who were followed up for 1 month, 2 months and 3 months was 4·98 (3·04, 6·29) %, 7·93 (5·42, 7·93) % and 10·71 (7·74, 13·83) %, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified low-carbohydrate diet as an independent factor associated with percentage weight loss of ≥ 3 % and ≥ 5 % at 1 month (OR = 0·461, P < 0·05; OR = 0·349, P < 0·001). The results showed that a low-carbohydrate diet was an effective weight loss strategy in the short term. However, its long-term effects were comparable to those observed with balanced dietary guidance and pharmacotherapy.

In China, both governments and civil institutions play important roles in non-profit regulation. However, with various regulatory instruments available, it remains unclear which has the strongest public support and most effectively promotes civic engagement. This study compared the impact of different non-profit regulatory instruments addressing information disclosure on two aspects of civic engagement intention: willingness to donate and willingness to volunteer. A survey experiment was conducted to analyse the perspectives of 939 Chinese participants on four types of regulation: no regulation, civil regulation, accommodative government regulation and deterrent government regulation. Results showed that regulation was preferred to no regulation and deterrent government regulation was preferred to accommodative government regulation, which was preferred to civil regulation. Additionally, public trust in non-profits significantly mediated the relationship between regulation and civic engagement intention. These findings suggest that government regulation, particularly the deterrent approach, garners strong public support and may be prioritized within the Chinese context.

This study investigates the molecular intricacies of the transmembrane protein TSP11 gene in Echinococcus strains isolated from livestock and patients in Yunnan Province afflicted with Echinococcus granulosus (E. granulosus) between 2016 and 2020. Gene typing analysis of the ND1 gene revealed the presence of the G1 type, G5 type and untyped strains, constituting 52.4, 38.1 and 9.5%, respectively. The analysis of 42 DNA sequences has revealed 24 novel single nucleotide polymorphic sites, delineating 11 haplotypes, all of which were of the mutant type. Importantly, there were no variations observed in mutation sites or haplotypes in any of the hosts. The total length of the TSP11 gene's 4 exons is 762 bp, encoding 254 amino acids. Our analysis posits the existence of 6 potential B-cell antigenic epitopes within TSP11, specifically at positions 49-KSN-51, 139-GKRG-142, 162-DNG-164, 169-NGS-171, 185-DS-186 and 231-PPRFTN-236. Notably, these epitopes exhibit consistent presence among various intermediate hosts and haplotypes. However, further validation is imperative to ascertain their viability as diagnostic antigens for E. granulosus in the Yunnan Province.

Human alveolar echinococcosis is a hard-to-treat and largely untreated parasitic disease with high associated health care costs. The current antiparasitic treatment for alveolar echinococcosis relies exclusively on albendazole, which does not act parasiticidally and can induce severe adverse effects. Alternative, and most importantly, improved treatment options are urgently required. A drug repurposing strategy identified the approved antimalarial pyronaridine as a promising candidate against Echinococcus multilocularis infections. Following a 30-day oral regimen (80 mg kg−1 day−1), pyronaridine achieved an excellent therapeutic outcome in a clinically relevant hepatic alveolar echinococcosis murine model, showing a significant reduction in both metacestode size (72.0%) and counts (85.2%) compared to unmedicated infected mice, which revealed significantly more potent anti-echinococcal potency than albendazole treatment at an equal dose (metacestode size: 42.3%; counts: 4.1%). The strong parasiticidal activity of pyronaridine was further confirmed by the destructive damage to metacestode tissues observed morphologically. In addition, a screening campaign combined with computational similarity searching against an approved drug library led to the identification of pirenzepine, a gastric acid-inhibiting drug, exhibiting potent parasiticidal activity against protoscoleces and in vitro cultured small cysts, which warranted further in vivo investigation as a promising anti-echinococcal lead compound. Pyronaridine has a known drug profile and a long track record of safety, and its repurposing could translate rapidly to clinical use for human patients with alveolar echinococcosis as an alternative or salvage treatment.

In this study, we integrate work–family enrichment and upper echelons theories to examine how and when chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) family experiences impact their firms’ performance. We argue that CEO family harmony has an indirect effect on their firms’ product innovation performance through top management team (TMT) behavioral integration. Additionally, we propose that CEO founder status strengthens the effects of CEO family harmony. Our analysis of data from 101 CEOs and 458 TMT members in various high-tech industries in China indicates that the positive relationship between CEO family harmony and firms’ product innovation performance is mediated by TMT behavioral integration. Moreover, CEO founder status increases the direct effect of CEO family harmony on TMT behavioral integration and its indirect effect on firms’ product innovation performance through TMT behavioral integration. These findings have theoretical and practical implications and provide new research directions in the study of CEO family–work spillover and CEO–TMT interfaces.

This research communication screened and identified differentiated expressed genes in bovine mammary epithelial cells (BMECs) upon prolactin (PRL) stimulation. PRL of 5 μg/ml increased β-casein synthesis in BMECs with milk protein synthesis capacity. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to screen differentially expressed genes (DEGs). A total of 375 DEGs (165 up-regulated and 210 down-regulated) were identified between PRL-stimulated group and the control group. Gene ontology enrichment analysis showed that the up-regulated genes were primarily associated with cell functions, metabolic processes, and biological regulatory processes. Pathway enrichment analysis showed that the up-regulated genes were mainly enriched in JAK-STAT, Rap1, Ras and Notch signaling pathways, which are widely involved in cell proliferation, differentiation and milk component synthesis. This study provides an initial understanding of the changes in gene expression in BMECs with PRL-stimulation, as determined by RNA-seq transcriptomic analysis, thereby enhancing our knowledge of the molecular regulation of lactation metabolism.

In this paper, a high-level Green–Naghdi (HLGN) model for large-amplitude internal waves in a two-layer fluid system, where the upper-fluid layer is of finite depth and the lower-fluid layer is of infinite depth, is developed under the rigid-lid free-surface approximation. The equations of the present HLGN model follow Euler's equations under the sole assumption that the horizontal and vertical velocity distributions along the vertical column are presented by known shape functions for each layer. The linear dispersion relations of the HLGN model for different levels are presented and compared with those obtained by other strongly nonlinear models for deep water, including the fully nonlinear models that include the dispersion effects $O(\mu )$ (where $\mu$ is the ratio of the upper-fluid layer depth to a typical wavelength) derived by Choi & Camassa (Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 77, 1996, pp. 1759–1762) and $O(\mu ^2)$ derived by Debsarma et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 654, 2010, pp. 281–303). It is shown that the HLGN model has a wider application range than other models. Solutions of travelling large-amplitude internal solitary waves in the absence and presence of background shear-current are then investigated by using the HLGN model. For the no-current cases, results obtained by the HLGN model show better agreement with Euler's solution on wave profile, velocity profile at the maximum interface displacement and wave speed compared with those obtained by other models. For the background shear-current cases, results obtained by the HLGN model also show good agreement with those obtained by solving the Dubreil-Jacotin–Long equation.