"Democratisation" and "Enterprisation" in the Chinese Industrial Enterprise - A Socio-Political Perspective.

In 1948 the twin policies of "democratisation" and "enterprisation" were put forward for application in Chinese industrial enterprises in the liberated areas. This essay explores the meaning of these two policies in the period of New Democracy down to the first year of the first Five Year Plan (1949-53). "Democratisation" is examined in terms of the establishment of factory management committees and the Democratic Reform Movement which sought to remove "feudal elements" from factory management. We note that a switch occurred from a representative to a participatory definition of democracy. The term "enterprisation" is examined in terms of the establishment of a unified command structure within industrial enterprises, the adoption of a Soviet model of incentive and planning and the conclusion of intra-enterprise contractual agreements. Finally, an attempt is made to specify the roles of enterprise Party and union organisations. The essay notes that throughout the period there occurred a contradiction between policy and resources which was most marked with regard to technically and politically competent personnel. This lack of necessary resources made elements of the Soviet model unrealistic in a Chinese context and sometimes resulted in patterns of organisation and incentive which were not at all in accordance with the prescriptions of that model. The adoption of the Soviet model was further complicated by the rural tradition of the Chinese Communist Party and constant reference is made in this essay both to Yenan in the 1940s and to later periods when older views on organisation and incentive reasserted themselves and when it was seen that many of the problems that began to occur in this early period demanded radical solution. The focus of this essay is political (concerned with power) and sociological (concerned with roles and structures) and relies heavily on secondary sources for economic analysis

Does the tail wag the dog? How the structure of a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor affects prion formation

There is increasing interest in the role of the glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor attached to the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)). Since GPI anchors can alter protein targeting, trafficking and cell signaling, our recent study examined how the structure of the GPI anchor affected prion formation. PrP(C) containing a GPI anchor from which the sialic acid had been removed (desialylated PrP(C)) was not converted to PrP(Sc) in prion-infected neuronal cell lines and in scrapie-infected primary cortical neurons. In uninfected neurons desialylated PrP(C) was associated with greater concentrations of gangliosides and cholesterol than PrP(C). In addition, the targeting of desialylated PrP(C) to lipid rafts showed greater resistance to cholesterol depletion than PrP(C). The presence of desialylated PrP(C) caused the dissociation of cytoplasmic phospholipase A(2) (cPLA(2)) from PrP-containing lipid rafts, reduced the activation of cPLA(2) and inhibited PrP(Sc) production. We conclude that the sialic acid moiety of the GPI attached to PrP(C) modifies local membrane microenvironments that are important in PrP-mediated cell signaling and PrP(Sc) formation

Panspecies small-molecule disruptors of heterochromatin-mediated transcriptional gene silencing

Heterochromatin underpins gene repression, genome integrity, and chromosome segregation. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, conserved protein complexes effect heterochromatin formation via RNA interference-mediated recruitment of a histone H3 lysine 9 methyltransferase to cognate chromatin regions. To identify small molecules that inhibit heterochromatin formation, we performed an in vivo screen for loss of silencing of a dominant selectable kanMX reporter gene embedded within fission yeast centromeric heterochromatin. Two structurally unrelated compounds, HMS-I1 and HMS-I2, alleviated kanMX silencing and decreased repressive H3K9 methylation levels at the transgene. The decrease in methylation caused by HMS-I1 and HMS-I2 was observed at all loci regulated by histone methylation, including centromeric repeats, telomeric regions, and the mating-type locus, consistent with inhibition of the histone deacetylases (HDACs) Clr3 and/or Sir2. Chemical-genetic epistasis and expression profiles revealed that both compounds affect the activity of the Clr3-containing Snf2/HDAC repressor complex (SHREC). In vitro HDAC assays revealed that HMS-I1 and HMS-I2 inhibit Clr3 HDAC activity. HMS-I1 also alleviated transgene reporter silencing by heterochromatin in Arabidopsis and a mouse cell line, suggesting a conserved mechanism of action. HMS-I1 and HMS-I2 bear no resemblance to known inhibitors of chromatin-based activities and thus represent novel chemical probes for heterochromatin formation and function

Dynamics of HIV-1 Assembly and Release

Assembly and release of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) occur at the plasma membrane of infected cells and are driven by the Gag polyprotein. Previous studies analyzed viral morphogenesis using biochemical methods and static images, while dynamic and kinetic information has been lacking until very recently. Using a combination of wide-field and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, we have investigated the assembly and release of fluorescently labeled HIV-1 at the plasma membrane of living cells with high time resolution. Gag assembled into discrete clusters corresponding to single virions. Formation of multiple particles from the same site was rarely observed. Using a photoconvertible fluorescent protein fused to Gag, we determined that assembly was nucleated preferentially by Gag molecules that had recently attached to the plasma membrane or arrived directly from the cytosol. Both membrane-bound and cytosol derived Gag polyproteins contributed to the growing bud. After their initial appearance, assembly sites accumulated at the plasma membrane of individual cells over 1–2 hours. Assembly kinetics were rapid: the number of Gag molecules at a budding site increased, following a saturating exponential with a rate constant of ∼5×10−3 s−1, corresponding to 8–9 min for 90% completion of assembly for a single virion. Release of extracellular particles was observed at ∼1,500±700 s after the onset of assembly. The ability of the virus to recruit components of the cellular ESCRT machinery or to undergo proteolytic maturation, or the absence of Vpu did not significantly alter the assembly kinetics

Assessing changes in global fire regimes

PAGES, Past Global Changes, is funded by the Swiss Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and supported in kind by the University of Bern, Switzerland. Financial support was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation award numbers 1916565, EAR-2011439, and EAR-2012123. Additional support was provided by the Utah Department of Natural Resources Watershed Restoration Initiative. SSS was supported by Brigham Young University Graduate Studies. MS was supported by National Science Centre, Poland (grant no. 2018/31/B/ST10/02498 and 2021/41/B/ST10/00060). JCA was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101026211. PF contributed within the framework of the FCT-funded project no. UIDB/04033/2020. SGAF acknowledges support from Trond Mohn Stiftelse (TMS) and University of Bergen for the startup grant ‘TMS2022STG03’. JMP participation in this research was supported by the Forest Research Centre, a research unit funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia I.P. (FCT), Portugal (UIDB/00239/2020). A.-LD acknowledge PAGES, PICS CNRS 06484 project, CNRS-INSU, Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, University of Bordeaux DRI and INQUA for workshop support.Background The global human footprint has fundamentally altered wildfire regimes, creating serious consequences for human health, biodiversity, and climate. However, it remains difficult to project how long-term interactions among land use, management, and climate change will affect fire behavior, representing a key knowledge gap for sustainable management. We used expert assessment to combine opinions about past and future fire regimes from 99 wildfire researchers. We asked for quantitative and qualitative assessments of the frequency, type, and implications of fire regime change from the beginning of the Holocene through the year 2300. Results Respondents indicated some direct human influence on wildfire since at least ~ 12,000 years BP, though natural climate variability remained the dominant driver of fire regime change until around 5,000 years BP, for most study regions. Responses suggested a ten-fold increase in the frequency of fire regime change during the last 250 years compared with the rest of the Holocene, corresponding first with the intensification and extensification of land use and later with anthropogenic climate change. Looking to the future, fire regimes were predicted to intensify, with increases in frequency, severity, and size in all biomes except grassland ecosystems. Fire regimes showed different climate sensitivities across biomes, but the likelihood of fire regime change increased with higher warming scenarios for all biomes. Biodiversity, carbon storage, and other ecosystem services were predicted to decrease for most biomes under higher emission scenarios. We present recommendations for adaptation and mitigation under emerging fire regimes, while recognizing that management options are constrained under higher emission scenarios. Conclusion The influence of humans on wildfire regimes has increased over the last two centuries. The perspective gained from past fires should be considered in land and fire management strategies, but novel fire behavior is likely given the unprecedented human disruption of plant communities, climate, and other factors. Future fire regimes are likely to degrade key ecosystem services, unless climate change is aggressively mitigated. Expert assessment complements empirical data and modeling, providing a broader perspective of fire science to inform decision making and future research priorities.Peer reviewe

Prognostic utility of vitamin D in acute coronary syndrome patients in coastal Norway

BACKGROUND: An inverse relationship between cardiovascular risk and levels of vitamin D and omega-3 index may exist. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the prognostic utility of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] in 871 patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and to assess the seasonal correlation between 25(OH)D and the omega-3 index in 456 ACS patients from southwestern Norway. RESULTS: In the univariate analysis the hazard ratio (HR) at 2-year follow-up for all-cause mortality in the highest as compared to the lowest quartile of 25(OH)D in the total population was 0.61 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.37-1.00), P = 0.050. At 7-year follow-up, the corresponding HR for all-cause mortality was 0.66 (95% CI, 0.49-0.90), P = 0.008, and for females alone 0.51 (95% CI, 0.32-0.83), P = 0.006. Quartile survival did not differ in the multivariable analysis, whereas 25(OH)D < 40 nM (<16 ng/mL) was found to be independently related to mortality. Seasonal differences in 25(OH)D, but not for the omega-3 index, were noted, and the two biomarkers were positively correlated, especially during winter-spring; Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.358, P < 0.001. CONCLUSION: Vitamin D levels are related to survival, especially in females, and correlate with the omega-3 index

Silicon nanowire AFM tips grown on released scanning probe cantilevers from stencil-deposited catalysts

We present a parallel, full wafer technique for deposition of catalyst on released scanning probe bodies for the growth of individual high aspect-ratio Si nanowire tips. 1-D probes are necessary for imaging high aspect-ratio nano-patterns, such as deep and narrow trench geometries, or nanometer lateral resolution in single cell probing [1]. Together with carbon nanotubes, Si nanowires are excellent candidates for providing such tips. The main challenge remains the efficient integration at full-wafer scale of these 1D nano-objects with the scanning probe bodies, while still maintaining their good mechanical properties as scanning tips [2]. We are integrating here NW growth with a shadow mask technique, a unique approach providing the capability of parallel nanopatterning on top of 3D substrates [3-4]. In this work stencil lithography is used to deposit nano-catalysts for Si nanowire growth at controlled positions on released cantilever bodies. We started by fabricating two wafers: the substrate with tip-less Si scanning probes connected only by a thin Si bridge to the wafer body, and the stencil, with 100 nm thin low-stress SiN membranes containing apertures, as shown in Fig. 1. A customized SUSS MA/BA6 stencil aligner was used to align the two and mechanically clamp them. In the aligned position, each aperture from one membrane corresponds to a position close to the tip of the cantilevers. The clamped set was introduced in an evaporator and 20 nm Au was deposited on the tip of the cantilevers through the 300 nm diameter circular stencil apertures, as illustrated in Fig. 2. Epitaxial Si nanowires were then grown from the Au catalysts by the vapor-liquid-solid method at 530 ºC with a hydrogen diluted SiH4 precursor with a partial pressure of 0.2 mbar for 5 minutes. Fig. 3 shows an example of Si nanowire grown at the tip of the cantilever. The grown nanowires were well suited for tapping mode atomic force microscopy measurements. We scanned Si nanotrenches fabricated by e-beam lithography, 100 nm wide, 275 nm apart, and 600 nm deep. The comparison between scans of this sample done with a super-sharp tip and with a Si nanowire tip is shown in Fig. 4. The high aspect-ratio of the nanowire tips provided a clear advantage for this geometry: the side walls of the trenches are much sharper when scanned with the nanowire tip, while a deconvolution technique has to be used if attempting to obtain the same information from the super-sharp tip image. We thus proved for the first time the use of stencil lithography for the deposition of catalysts at controlled positions on released micro-structures at full-wafer scale. Si nanowires were grown from the deposited catalysts on cantilever tips. These nanowires were used as scanning probes for 1:6 aspect-ratio Si nanotrenches and showed to perform much better than commercially-available super-sharp tips