Digital economy and institutional dynamics: striving for equitable public service in a digitally transformed era.

Background: The rapid emergence of China's digital economy has sparked profound interest in the complex interplay between digitalization and the provision of public services. This study aims to delve deeper into how the development of the digital economy impacts the level of equalization in public service delivery and evaluates whether institutional factors can moderate this transformation. Against the backdrop of pursuing "common prosperity," this research provides valuable guidance for policymaking and strategic planning. It ensures that the ascent of the digital economy not only elevates the standards of public services but also fosters their equitable distribution, thereby advancing the cause of social equity. Methodology: The study utilized the System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model along with longitudinal trend data spanning from 2009 to 2018. This approach facilitated an in-depth analysis of the relationship between the digital economy and the level of equalization in public service delivery. The application of this model provided deeper insights into the impact of the digital economy on public service equalization and the identification of underlying mechanisms. Findings: This study reveals a complex paradox that the digital economy is exacerbating regional disparities in the provision of basic public services. Furthermore, the research underscores the pivotal role of institutional environments in mitigating the adverse effects of the digital economy on public service provision. By examining the interplay between digital economy growth and institutional frameworks, the study suggests that adaptable and robust institutions are essential for harnessing the digital economy's benefits while minimizing its potential drawbacks. Conclusion: In conclusion, the findings from this study offer substantial insights into the dual impact of the digital economy on public service provision, enriching the ongoing discourse on digital transformation and social equity. The research underscores the significance of strategic policy reforms and institutional adjustments to harness the transformative power of the digital economy, promoting equitable access to public services and advancing the goal of "common prosperity" in the digital age.

Exosomal U2AF2 derived from human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells attenuates the intervertebral disc degeneration through circ_0036763/miR-583/ACAN axis.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is one of the major leading causes of back pain affecting the patient's quality of life. However, the roles of circular RNA (circRNA) in IDD remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the function and underlying mechanism of circ_0036763 in IDD. In this study, expressions of circ_0036763, U2 small nuclear RNA auxiliary factor 2 (U2AF2), miR-583 and aggrecan (ACAN) in primary human nucleus pulposus cells (HNPCs) derived from IDD patients and healthy controls were detected by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) or Western blot (WB). The relationship between pre-circ_0036763 and U2AF2, circ_0036763 and miR-583, miR-583 and ACAN mRNA was determined by bioinformatic analysis, miRNA pull down or RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay. The expressions of Collagen I and Collagen II were evaluated by WB. Co-culture of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (bMSCs) or bMSCs-derived exosomes and HNPCs were performed to identify the effect of U2AF2 on the mature of circ_0036763 and ACAN. Results indicated that circ_0036763, U2AF2 and ACAN were downregulated while miR-583 was upregulated in HNPCs derived from IDD patients compared with that in normal HNPCs. Besides, overexpression of circ_0036763 elevated the expressions of ACAN and Collagen II whereas reduced Collagen I expression in HNPCs. Moreover, U2AF2 promoted the mature of circ_0036763, and circ_0036763 positively regulated ACAN by directly sponging miR-583. Furthermore, exosomal U2AF2 derived from bMSCs could increase U2AF2 levels in HNPCs and subsequently regulate the expression of ACAN by circ_0036763/miR-583 axis. In summary, circ_0036763 modified by exosomal U2AF2 derived from bMSCs alleviated IDD through regulating miR-583/ACAN axis in HNPCs. Thus, this study might provide novel therapeutic targets for IDD.

Preparation, characterization of light-colored lignin from corn stover by new ternary deep eutectic solvent extraction.

The industrial lignin has shown great potential to replace some of petrochemical. But the deep color of lignin limits their application in high-value field. The extraction of light-colored lignin from lignocellulose still remains challenging. Here, we reported a strategy for rapid extraction of lignin from corn stover by using a new ternary deep eutectic solvent (TDES) composed of choline chloride (ChCl), formic acid (FA) and maleic acid (MA). The color feature and structural characterization of obtained lignin was comprehensively elucidated. The results revealed that the lignin streams had light color (brightness ISO 23.44 %) with a high yield (76.3 %), purity (93.5 %), low molecular weight (Mw 1544-2040 g/mol), and low polydispersity (PDI ≤ 1.76). The introduction of MA could reduce the destruction of lignin substructure during the treatment process and avoid the deepening of lignin color. Quantitative analysis of conjugated carbonyl and quinone carbonyl and semi-quantitative analysis of lignin by 2D NMR showed that temperature had a great influence on its structure.

Highly efficient and rapid purification of organic dye wastewater using lignin-derived hierarchical porous carbon.

Coating manufacturing, textile processing, and plastic industry have led to dramatical release levels of hazardous organic dye pollutants threatening public health and the environment. To solve this problem, porous carbon materials are being developed following with the United Nations initiative on water purification. However, conventional porous carbon materials face many challenges, such as limited removal rates, low adsorption capacity, and high chemicals consumption, hampering their large-scale utilization in dye wastewater treatment. Herein, we demonstrate a high-performance lignin-derived hierarchical porous carbon (LHPC) material directly prepared from renewable lignin through a low-cost activation procedure. The large specific surface area (1824 m2/g) enables the rapid and effective adsorption of organic dyes. Therefore, the LHPC exhibits an ultrahigh adsorption ability (1980.63 mg/g) and removal rate (99.03% in 10 min) for Azure B, superior to that of other adsorbents. Additionally, the LHPC adsorbent, organic dyes, eluting agent, and water all can be recycled and reused in a designed close-looped system. Its high removal ability and rate, strong retrievability, low-cost and scalable production combined with high dyes adsorption universality, positions our LHPC as a promising commercial adsorbent candidate for the purification of harmful organic dye wastewater, especially for heavily polluted area with an insistent demand for clear water.

Physicochemical transformation and enzymatic hydrolysis promotion of reed straw after pretreatment with a new deep eutectic solvent.

This work proposed a promising biorefinery method for the deconstruction of reed straw by using a novel deep eutectic solvent (DES) consisted of benzyltriethylammonium chloride/formic acid (BTEAC/FA). BTEAC/FA showed significant delignification and xylan removal while preserving most of the cellulose. Under the optimum conditions (molar ratio: 1:6), the glucose yield of cellulose-rich substrates by enzymatic hydrolysis reached 76.64%, which was about 5.24-fold higher than that of raw reed straw. The removal of lignin and hemicellulose and the changes in the cellulose crystal structure were presumed to the reason for enhancing enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency. The highest lignin yield reached 78.34%. Moreover, the lignin exhibited high purity (84.25%-91.45%), medium molecular weight (3812-9918 g/mol), and low polydispersity (1.47-2.75) because of the cleavage of ß-O-4 and ß-ß linkages. Overall, this work provided a theoretical basis for the in-depth utilization of reed straw.

Pretreatment of pine lignocelluloses by recyclable deep eutectic solvent for elevated enzymatic saccharification and lignin nanoparticles extraction.

This study investigated the process intensification strategies for the pretreatment of Radiata Pine with the green deep eutectic solvent (DES) system composed of benzyltrimethylammonium chloride/formic acid (BTMAC/FA). The results showed that DES pretreatment drastically improved the delignification and hemicelluloses-removal capacity. The conducted process acceptably remained most of the cellulose in pretreated biomass (88.3%-91.8%). Benefiting from the overcoming of recalcitrance, the enzymatic digestibility of pretreated residues reached 92.4%. The efficient conversion was mainly ascribed to the lignin and hemicelluloses co-extraction. Meanwhile, the lignin yield and enzymatic saccharification was still largely maintained after five reuses. Further structural characteristics of lignin nanoparticles revealed that the lignin possessed high purity (95.19-97.51%), medium molecular weight (9600 to 6495 g/mol), and low polydispersity (ca 2.0), which was attributed to cleavage of ether bonds in lignin as well as linkages between lignin and hemicelluloses. Overall, this study illustrated that DES pretreatment was promising to achieve an efficient fractionation of woody biomass into fermentable glucose and high-quality lignin.

Source apportionment of pulping wastewater and application of mechanical vapor recompression: Environmental and economic analyses.

It is expected that low-energy and scientific zero discharge of chemical-mechanical pulping wastewater will be achieved by applying the mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) technology. In this paper, the equal-standard pollution load model was introduced into pulp and paper field to parse the pollution sources for the first time. The results from the source apportionment indicated that the screw press and concentrating were the major pollution unit operations, and their cumulative load ratio reached 92.92%. The further survey demonstrated that the dominating pollution factors in the traditional chemical-mechanical pulping process were Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5), and Suspended Solids (SS), whose cumulative load ratio was 92.69%. The environmental analysis demonstrated the implementation of MVR technology significantly decreased the pollution load and reduce the pressure of subsequent wastewater treatment. In addition, a further economic performance indicated that the utilization of MVR technology possessed a smaller operating cost of 2.899 $/m3. The result of the given model provides a scientific gist and instruction for the future treatment of water pollutants in the chemical-mechanical pulping process. The MVR technology is conducive for wastewater treatment to minimize environmental effects and costs.

Evaluation of Cartilaginous Endplate Degeneration Based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

In order to carry out the evaluation of cartilaginous endplate degeneration based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), this paper retrospectively analyzed the MRI data from 120 cases of patients who were diagnosed as lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration and underwent MRI examinations in the designated hospital of this study from June 2018 to June 2020. All cases underwent conventional sagittal and transverse T1WI and T2WI scans, and some cases were added with sagittal fat-suppression T2WI scans; then, the number of degenerative cartilaginous endplates and its ratio to degenerative lumbar intervertebral discs were counted and calculated, and the T1WI and T2WI signal characteristics of each degenerative cartilage endplate and its correlation with cartilaginous endplate degeneration were summarized, compared, and analyzed to evaluate the cartilaginous endplate degeneration by those magnetic resonance information. The study results show that there were 33 cases of cartilaginous endplate degeneration, accounting for 27.50% of all those 120 patients with lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration (54 degenerative endplates in total), including 9 cases with low T1WI and high T2WI signals, 5 cases with high T1WI and low T2WI signals, 12 cases with high and low mixed T1WI and high or mixed T2WI signals, and 4 cases with both low T1WI and T2WI signals. Therefore, MRI scanning can clearly present the abnormal signals of lumbar intervertebral disc and cartilaginous endplate degeneration, accurately identity their lesion locations, and type their degenerative characteristics, which may be best inspection method for the evaluation of cartilaginous endplate degeneration in the early diagnosis of intervertebral disc degeneration. The study results of this paper provide a reference for further researches on the evaluation of cartilaginous endplate degeneration based on magnetic resonance imaging.

Rapid and accurate determination of carboxyl groups in carbon materials by headspace gas chromatography.

This paper reports a novel and rapid method for determining carboxyl groups in carbon materials by headspace gas chromatography (HS-GC). Taking carboxylated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as an example, the experiment based on GC measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2) generated by complete reaction between carboxyl groups and sodium bicarbonate in a sealed vial, which showed that carboxyl groups in CNTs could be completely transformed into CO2 under the equilibrium temperature at 60 °C for 10 min. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of this method in the repeatability test was less than 1.52%, and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) for carboxyl content was 0.014 mmol/g in CNTs. More significantly, appropriate ultrasound of the sample before headspace injection could greatly improve the detection efficiency by reducing the equilibrium time. All in all, the HS-GC method provides an automated and accurate analysis for testing carboxyl groups in carbon materials, and it is of profound significance to develop a new way for quantitative research of carbon materials.

[Faster detection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in foods by FQ-PCR technique].

OBJECTIVE: To establish a rapid and accurate qualitative and quantitative method to detect Vibrio parahaemolyticus in food. METHODS: Primers and Taqman probe were designed according to the sequence of gyrase gene of Vibrio parahaemolyticus. The PCR fragment was cloned into PTM vector and was used as positive template for establishing the criterion curve. The simulated samples, made from negative food samples with Vibrio parahaemolyticus positive strain, were used to evaluate the sensitivity of the PCR reaction. 8 Vibrio parahaemolyticus standard strains and other 24 negative strains (8 strains were Vibrionaceae other than Vibrio parahaemolyticus, the rest 16 strains were none-Vibrionaceae) were treated in the same way to evaluate the specificity. All samples were detected with PE7000 sequence detection system and DA620 fluorescene detection system. RESULTS: FQ-PCR method had good specificity and high sensitivity. All 8 strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus tested showed positive results while all other 24 strains were negative (8 strains were Vibrionaceae, 16 strain were from different). The correlation was 0.9871 between the concentration of positive template and the quantitative curve circular threshold. The threshold for detecting Vibrio parahaemolyticus in pure culture is 10 cfu/ml, and the threshold is as low as 2 cfu/ml with 16 simulative samples after these samples were incubated for a period of time. By direct quantitative detection for uncultured 16 food samples, the threshold is 100 cfu/g. CONCLUSION: FQ-PCR method has high sensitivity and specificity, and it is a handy and rapid detection method. Comparing with regular PCR method, it is not easily contaminated in operation, and can achieve high sensitivity and specificity with domestic instruments. FQ-PCR method has potential and applied value for detection of pathogenic bacteria in food.