An empirical assessment of the influence of digital transformation on sports corporate sustainability.

The trend of digital transformation fosters enterprise change, helps cultivate enterprises' own competitive advantages and is crucial to the advancement of sports enterprises' sustainable development in the framework of the emerging digital economy as a national strategy. However, there have been few empirical studies on the microlevel of digital transformation and its impact on the sustainability of sports organizations. Therefore, the sustainable growth dynamic model is used to construct indicators of corporate sustainability by referencing 48 sports corporations listed on Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares markets and the New Third Board in China from 2012 to 2021. The intrinsic relationship between digital transformation and the sustainable development of sports enterprises and the underlying mechanism of action are explored by constructing a panel fixed effects model, a chain mediating effects model, and a panel threshold model. The most important contribution is as follows: To provide a useful reference for analyzing enterprise digital transformation, a more complete indicator indicating the extent of corporate digital transformation is built. The micro viewpoint broadens our awareness of sustainable development in sports organizations and deepens our understanding of the interaction model between sustainable development and enterprise digital transformation. This study provides methodical evidence and insights for an accurate understanding of digital transformation for sustainable enterprise development, looking into the "black box" of the mechanism between digital transformation and sustainable business development. The results show that digital transformation significantly aids sports enterprises in their pursuit of long-term sustainability. Heterogeneity tests demonstrate the pivotal role of digital transformation in advancing the sustained growth of sports firms and high-tech sports enterprises situated in the eastern region of China. Regarding transmission mechanisms, the chain mediating effect of enterprises' digital transformation on improved technological innovation and TFP, which in turn promote long-term business growth, has yet to be validated. Further examination exposes that within the context of the correlation between digital transformation and the sustainability of corporations, there is a single threshold effect based on financing restrictions and operational costs and a double threshold effect based on operational efficiency.

Protective role of MerTK in diabetic peripheral neuropathy via inhibition of the NF-κb signaling pathway.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy impacts patient quality of life. Increased Mer tyrosine kinase expression has been demonstrated in such patients, yet its mechanism remains unclear. This study established type 2 diabetes mellitus and diabetic peripheral neuropathy models in Sprague Dawley rats via low-dose streptozotocin and a high-fat diet. Mer tyrosine kinase-specific inhibitors were administered by gavage once daily for 2 weeks. Sciatic nerve conduction velocity and nerve structure were measured. The levels of Mer tyrosine kinase, nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1 beta, and relevant biochemical indexes were detected. The study revealed Mer tyrosine kinase upregulation in type 2 diabetes mellitus and more so in diabetic peripheral neuropathy groups. Inhibiting Mer tyrosine kinase led to reduced nerve conduction velocity and further deterioration of sciatic nerve structure, as evidenced by structural morphology. Concurrently, serum levels of total cholesterol, glycated hemoglobin, and triglyceride significantly rose. Moreover, nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells levels increased in both serum and nerve tissue, alongside a significant rise in tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-1 beta expressions. Mer tyrosine kinase was found to bind to inhibitor of kappa B kinase beta in Schwann cells, establishing inhibitor of kappa B kinase beta as a precursor to nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells activation. Inhibition of Mer tyrosine kinase exacerbates neuropathy, indicating its protective role in diabetic peripheral neuropathy by suppressing the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells pathway, highlighting a potential new target for its diagnosis and treatment.

Genetic analysis of the early bud flush trait of tea plants (Camellia sinensis) in the cultivar 'Emei Wenchun' and its open-pollinated offspring.

The timing of bud flush (TBF) in the spring is one of the most important agronomic traits of tea plants (Camellia sinensis). In this study, we designed an open-pollination breeding program using 'Emei Wenchun' (EW, a clonal tea cultivar with extra-early TBF) as a female parent. A half-sib population (n = 388) was selected for genotyping using specific-locus amplified fragment sequencing. The results enabled the identification of paternity for 294 (75.8%) of the offspring, including 11 (2.8%) from EW selfing and 217 (55.9%) assigned to a common father, 'Chuanmu 217' (CM). The putative EW × CM full-sib population was used to construct a linkage map. The map has 4244 markers distributed in 15 linkage groups, with an average marker distance of 0.34 cM. A high degree of collinearity between the linkage map and physical map was observed. Sprouting index, a trait closely related to TBF, was recorded for the offspring population in 2020 and 2021. The trait had moderate variation, with coefficients of variation of 18.5 and 17.6% in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping that was performed using the linkage map identified two major QTLs and three minor QTLs related to the sprouting index. These QTLs are distributed on Chr3, Chr4, Chr5, Chr9, and Chr14 of the reference genome. A total of 1960 predicted genes were found within the confidence intervals of QTLs, and 22 key candidate genes that underlie these QTLs were preliminarily screened. These results are important for breeding and understanding the genetic base of the TBF trait of tea plants.