Research on the Promotion of New Energy Vehicles Based on Multi-Source Heterogeneous Data

Under the background of green development, new energy vehicles(NEVs), as an important strategic emerging industry, play a crucial role in energy conservation and emission reduction. In the post-epidemic era, steadily promoting the promotion of NEVs will be a hot topic. Based on heterogeneous source data, combined with the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model, Social Network Analysis (SNA), and econometric methods, this paper explores whether individual purchase decisions and company-level cooperative research and development will promote the promotion of new energy vehicles. The results show that whether BEV, HEV, or PHEV, users are more concerned about space dimension, power performance, and design style; Patent collaboration network analysis indicates that NEV enterprises are establishing close partnerships, which will urge the promotion of NEVs; For BEV and HEV models, new energy vehicle companies will invest more patents and R&D investment will better expedite the advancement of NEVs.

More Than Mental Illness: Experiences of Associating with Stigma of Mental Illness for Chinese College Students

From existing empirical research, we identified that Chinese college students commonly experience stigma surrounding mental illness and found some factors that support them in resisting the stigma and achieving psychological health. However, less research provides qualitative data involving individual experiences and insights on mental illness within this group of college students. This study, based on ACE-LYNX (an internationally cooperative research-sharing project between China and Canada), was conducted in Shandong, Jinan, and aims to promote the mental health of college students by empowering interdisciplinary professionals and students. Through the research project, this study analyzed the materials from 24 focus groups, explored the understanding of mental illness and prevalence of mental illness stigma in Chinese colleges at the present time, administered a background questionnaire, and provided statistical support for some revealed themes. The final themes are as follows: mental illness is stereotyped as “severe, pathetic, and complicated”; the misconception of “visiting a psychological counselor is scary”; from public stigma to self-stigma; barriers deterring students from seeking help or accessing services; two sides of the same coin: peer support versus peer pressure.

A national framework for promoting business excellence (NFPBE)

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a national framework for promoting business excellence (NFPBE) using a quality management assessment framework (QMAF) with information knowledge communication (IKC) as an enabler.Design/methodology/approachThe NFPBE using the plan–do–check–act (PDCA) cycle is developed, re-enforcing key quality management aspects/areas including national quality awards, QMAF summary and national innovation programmes using a meta-analysis.FindingsThe operationalising of the NFPBE is enabled and supported by an auditing tool to assess the degree of mentoring provided by universities/research institutions/consulting firms to participating firms whose progress will be assessed by the QMAF. It was emphasised that the success of the framework requires the buy-in of national governments to support the programme through stimulus incentives such as government assistance with the costs of research and development, and cooperative research ventures between universities and companies.Research limitations/implicationsThe framework is conceptualised into a process flowchart, which is a blueprint to advancing business excellence in organisations at a national scale. The study is limited to only the conceptualisation of the framework. Therefore, an extended study of the framework implementation/application is required for revealing implementation guidelines.Practical implicationsThe national framework has a propensity to enhancing the business excellence of organisations at a national level. Therefore, quality managers and policy makers could use the framework to understand the quality management shortfalls and consider strategies to achieving business excellence.Originality/valueThis research study proposed a blueprint to advancing quality excellence in organisations at a national level, guided by several quality frameworks.

The HROC-Xenobank—A High Quality Assured PDX Biobank of >100 Individual Colorectal Cancer Models

Based on our research group’s large biobank of colorectal cancers (CRC), we here describe the ongoing activity of establishing a high quality assured PDX biobank for more than 100 individual CRC cases. This includes sufficient numbers of vitally frozen (n > 30 aliquots) and snap frozen (n > 5) backups, “ready to use”. Additionally, PDX tumor pieces were paraffin embedded. At the current time, we have completed 125 cases. This resource allows histopathological examinations, molecular characterizations, and gene expression analysis. Due to its size, different issues of interest can be addressed. Most importantly, the application of low-passage, cryopreserved, and well-characterized PDX for in vivo studies guarantees the reliability of results due to the largely preserved tumor microenvironment. All cases described were molecularly subtyped and genetic identity, in comparison to the original tumor tissue, was confirmed by fingerprint analysis. The latter excludes ambiguity errors between the PDX and the original patient tumor. A cancer hot spot mutation analysis was performed for n = 113 of the 125 cases entities. All relevant CRC molecular subtypes identified so far are represented in the Hansestadt Rostock CRC (HROC)-Xenobank. Notably, all models are available for cooperative research approaches.

6 Immune correlates of clinical benefit in patients with HPV-associated malignancies treated with bintrafusp alfa

BackgroundThe safety and efficacy of bintrafusp alfa, a first-in-class bifunctional fusion protein targeting TGFβ and PD-L1 pathways, have been demonstrated in patients with HPV-related cancers in an open-label, multicenter phase 1 trial (NCT02517398), and an open-label, single-center phase 2 trial (NCT03427411). The current study aimed to identify immune related biomarkers prior to and following 1 cycle of bintrafusp alfa that associate with clinical benefit.MethodsImmune parameters were compared in patients (n=65) deriving clinical benefit from bintrafusp alfa (defined as BOR of stable disease (SD) or better, which included SD, mixed, partial, and complete responses) versus patients with a BOR of progressive disease (PD). Peripheral blood was obtained from patients before and after 1 cycle of therapy, and evaluated for complete blood counts, plasma cytokines/soluble factors, 158 immune subsets, and T cells specific for HPV-16 E6 and E7.ResultsPrior to therapy, patients who developed a BOR of SD or better had lower counts of neutrophils, monocytes, and platelets, lower levels of TGF-β1 and sCD73, and higher levels of sCD27:sCD40L than patients with a BOR of PD. Lower baseline frequencies of MDSCs, monocytes, naïve CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and CD8+ T cells that express CD73, an immune checkpoint associated with adenosine metabolism, were detected in patients with a BOR of SD or better than those with PD. Following 1 cycle of treatment, lymphocyte counts were reduced, while neutrophil counts and the NLR were increased, in patients with PD compared to those with a BOR of SD or better. IL-8, a cytokine involved in tumor progression and associated with reduced clinical benefit to immune checkpoint inhibitors, was increased in patients with PD compared to those with a BOR of SD or better, while conventional dendritic cells and CD8+ T cells expressing the proliferative marker ki67 were increased in patients with a BOR of SD or better compared to those with PD. Greater increases in the frequency and magnitude of HPV-16 specific CD8+ T-cells were also detected in individuals with a BOR of SD or better compared to PD.ConclusionsImmune profiling identified specific measures prior to therapy, as well as changes induced early after therapy (preceding restaging), that may serve as predictive biomarkers to identify patients with HPV-related cancers most likely to benefit from bintrafusp alfa. These findings also provide the rationale to combine bintrafusp alfa with other therapies including HPV-targeted therapeutic vaccines and agents that block IL-8 signaling.AcknowledgementsThis research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the Center for Cancer Research, NCI, National Institutes of Health, and through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with EMD Serono Research & Development Institute and GSK.Ethics ApprovalThe study protocol was approved by ethics committees at all participating institutions, and each patient provided written informed consent before study enrollment.

Study on Discovery Method of Cooperative Research Team Based on Improved Louvain Algorithm

According to the needs of scientific research project research and development, the research of cooperative team excavation methods was carried out. Aiming at the current difficulties in accurately and reliably defining and identifying cooperative research teams from co-author network, an improved Louvain algorithm that integrates core node recognition was proposed: Louvain-LSCR algorithm. Based on the analysis of the Louvain algorithm, considering the local topology of the node in the network and the communication range of the node, a new algorithm LSCR for core node identification was constructed. The LSCR algorithm and Louvain algorithm were merged to obtain a new and improved algorithm, Louvain-LSCR. In this algorithm, the leaf nodes in phase 1 of Louvain algorithm were first pruned to reduce calculations; then, seed nodes were selected according to the LSCR algorithm in phase 2. The experimental results on related datasets show that LSCR algorithm has certain advantages in identifying core nodes. The modularity of Louvian-LSCR algorithm is better than other algorithms, and the community structure is more reasonable. It was verified that the algorithm can mine potential cooperative research teams in co-author network.

Factors Affecting Customer Satisfaction with the Bus Service Quality of Phan Thiet Automobile Transport Cooperative

This study aims to determine the factors influencing customer satisfaction with the bus service quality of Phan Thiet Automobile Transport Cooperative. Research data are collected from 290 customers who regularly use bus services of Phan Thiet Automobile Transport Cooperative. Applying the exploratory factor analysis and multivariate linear regression, the research results indicate factors positively affecting customer satisfaction with bus service quality are trust, assurance, empathy, traffic culture, perceived value, quality of the station, and tangible facilities. In which, the perceived value puts the most impact on customer satisfaction with the bus service quality of Phan Thiet Automobile Transport Cooperative. Keywords: satisfaction, bus service, customer.

Building Scientific Capability and Reducing Biological Threats: The Effect of Three Cooperative Bio-Research Programs in Kazakhstan

Cooperative research programs aimed at reducing biological threats have increased scientific capabilities and capacities in Kazakhstan. The German Federal Foreign Office's German Biosecurity Programme, the United Kingdom's International Biological Security Programme and the United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Biological Threat Reduction Program provide funding for partner countries, like Kazakhstan. The mutual goals of the programs are to reduce biological threats and enhance global health security. Our investigation examined these cooperative research programs, summarizing major impacts they have made, as well as common successes and challenges. By mapping various projects across the three programs, research networks are highlighted which demonstrate best communication practices to share results and reinforce conclusions. Our team performed a survey to collect results from Kazakhstani partner scientists on their experiences that help gain insights into enhancing day-to-day approaches to conducting cooperative scientific research. This analysis will serve as a basis for a capability maturity model as used in industry, and in addition builds synergy for future collaborations that will be essential for quality and sustainment.

Hormesis Meetings at the Royal Palace

This commentary describes the origin and the main results of experimental work on adaptive stress responses at the university town Jena in Germany. These cooperative research activities exemplify the heuristic power of the hormesis phenomenon.