This article presents an augmented deep factor model that generates latent factors for cross-sectional asset pricing. The conventional security sorting on firm characteristics for constructing long–short factor portfolio weights is nonlinear modeling, while factors are treated as inputs in linear models. We provide a structural deep-learning framework to generalize the complete mechanism for fitting cross-sectional returns by firm characteristics through generating risk factors (hidden layers). Our model has an economic-guided objective function that minimizes aggregated realized pricing errors. Empirical results on high-dimensional characteristics demonstrate robust asset pricing performance and strong investment improvements by identifying important raw characteristic sources.

The selection of an analogical source is a critical step in the design-by-analogy process. Previous researchers have explored the reasons and preferences of individual designers or design teams in selecting analogical sources. Non-designers, who instead have more knowledge of other fields, may offer new possibilities for retrieving novel analogical sources. This study focuses on differences in the selection of analogical sources between collaborative design teams composed of designers and nondesigners. There are indeed significant differences in the selection of the source type, the reasons for selecting the source, the level of abstraction in inspiration stimuli, and the novelty of design ideas between designers and non-designers. This work may provide theoretical guidance for the development of collaborative design tools and methods for teams composed of designers and non-designers with different knowledge bases.

Methomyl is a widely used carbamate insecticide and environmental oestrogen that has adverse effects on the reproductive system. However, there have been no reports on the effect of methomyl on early embryos in mammals. In this study, we explored the effect of methomyl exposure on the quality of early embryonic development in mice and the possible mechanisms. During in vitro culture, different concentrations of methomyl (10, 20, 30 and 35 μM) were added to mouse zygote medium. The results showed that methomyl had an adverse effect on early embryonic development. Compared with the control group, the addition of 30 μM methomyl significantly reduced the rate of early embryo blastocyst formation. Methomyl exposure can increase oxidative stress and impair mitochondrial function, which may be the cause of blastocyst formation. In addition, we found that methomyl exposure promoted apoptosis and autophagy in mouse blastocysts. The toxic effect of methomyl on early embryos may be the result of oxidative stress induction. Taken together, our results indicate that methomyl can cause embryonic development defects in mice, thereby reducing the quality of early embryo development.

Kaempferol (KAE) is one of the most common dietary flavonols possessing biological activities such as anticancer, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Although previous studies have reported the biological activity of KAE on a variety of cells, it is not clear whether KAE plays a similar role in oocyte and embryo in vitro culture systems. This study investigated the effect of KAE addition to in vitro maturation on the antioxidant capacity of embryos in porcine oocytes after parthenogenetic activation. The effects of kaempferol on oocyte quality in porcine oocytes were studied based on the expression of related genes, reactive oxygen species, glutathione and mitochondrial membrane potential as criteria. The rate of blastocyst formation was significantly higher in oocytes treated with 0.1 µm KAE than in control oocytes. The mRNA level of the apoptosis-related gene Caspase-3 was significantly lower in the blastocysts derived from KAE-treated oocytes than in the control group and the mRNA expression of the embryo development-related genes COX2 and SOX2 was significantly increased in the KAE-treated group compared with that in the control group. Furthermore, the level of intracellular reactive oxygen species was significantly decreased and that of glutathione was significantly increased after KAE treatment. Mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) was increased and the activity of Caspase-3 was significantly decreased in the KAE-treated group compared with that in the control group. Taken together, these results suggested that KAE is beneficial for the improvement of embryo development by inhibiting oxidative stress in porcine oocytes.

In the era of knowledge networking, the structure and production mode of knowledge are constantly changing. This article creatively introduces the knowledge mapping method in design research, and based on the perspective of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) to compile literature, uses word frequency analysis, co-word analysis, and citation analysis to construct knowledge graphs of design science. This study graphically shows the distribution and flow law of knowledge within design discipline and probes into the research frontier and evolution trend of Chinese design science.