French Automobiles and the Chinese Boycotts of 2008: Politics Really Does Affect Commerce

We explore the economic impact of boycotts of French automobiles in China during the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Conditions were favorable for a boycott, enabling Chinese consumers to overcome the collective action problems that can prevent boycott success and other voluntary contributions to public goods. We use brand and model level data in a difference-in-difference specification to investigate the boycotts’ effects on sales. A robust pattern of large impacts emerges: sales of French automobile brands fell 25-33% or more. Consumers substituted mostly toward Chinese and other Asian cars. The sales of the French models did not experience similar relative sales declines in countries other than China—triple-difference estimates point toward even larger relative loss of market share in China. Our results provide evidence that commerce can be used as an effective political weapon

Ku80 cooperates with CBP to promote COX-2 expression and tumor growth.

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) plays an important role in lung cancer development and progression. Using streptavidin-agarose pulldown and proteomics assay, we identified and validated Ku80, a dimer of Ku participating in the repair of broken DNA double strands, as a new binding protein of the COX-2 gene promoter. Overexpression of Ku80 up-regulated COX-2 promoter activation and COX-2 expression in lung cancer cells. Silencing of Ku80 by siRNA down-regulated COX-2 expression and inhibited tumor cell growth in vitro and in a xenograft mouse model. Ku80 knockdown suppressed phosphorylation of ERK, resulting in an inactivation of the MAPK pathway. Moreover, CBP, a transcription co-activator, interacted with and acetylated Ku80 to co-regulate the activation of COX-2 promoter. Overexpression of CBP increased Ku80 acetylation, thereby promoting COX-2 expression and cell growth. Suppression of CBP by a CBP-specific inhibitor or siRNA inhibited COX-2 expression as well as tumor cell growth. Tissue microarray immunohistochemical analysis of lung adenocarcinomas revealed a strong positive correlation between levels of Ku80 and COX-2 and clinicopathologic variables. Overexpression of Ku80 was associated with poor prognosis in patients with lung cancers. We conclude that Ku80 promotes COX-2 expression and tumor growth and is a potential therapeutic target in lung cancer

Molecular Evidence for a Functional Ecdysone Signaling System in Brugia malayi

Filarial parasites such as Brugia malayi and Onchocerca volvulus are the causative agents of the tropical diseases lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis, which infect 150 million people, mainly in Africa and Southeast Asia. Filarial nematodes have a complex life cycle that involves transmission and development within both mammalian and insect hosts. The successful completion of the life cycle includes four molts, two of which are triggered upon transmission from one host to the other, human and mosquito, respectively. Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms involved in the molting processes in filarial nematodes may yield a new set of targets for drug intervention. In insects and other arthropods molting transitions are regulated by the steroid hormone ecdysone that interacts with a specialized hormone receptor composed of two different proteins belonging to the family of nuclear receptors. We have cloned from B. malayi two members of the nuclear receptor family that show many sequence and biochemical properties consistent with the ecdysone receptor of insects. This finding represents the first report of a functional ecdysone receptor homolog in nematodes. We have also established a transgenic hormone induction assay in B. malayi that can be used to discover ecdysone responsive genes and potentially lead to screening assays for active compounds for pharmaceutical development

French Automobiles and the Chinese Boycotts of 2008: Politics Really Does Affect Commerce

We explore the economic impact of boycotts of French automobiles in China during the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Conditions were favorable for a boycott, enabling Chinese consumers to overcome the collective action problems that can prevent boycott success and other voluntary contributions to public goods. We use brand and model level data in a difference-in-difference specification to investigate the boycotts’ effects on sales. A robust pattern of large impacts emerges: sales of French automobile brands fell 25-33 percent or more. Consumers substituted mostly toward Chinese and other Asian cars. The sales of the French models did not experience similar relative sales declines in countries other than China—triple-difference estimates point toward even larger relative loss of market share in China. Our results provide evidence that commerce can be used as an effective political weapon.

Effect of Copper Doping on Electronic Structure and Optical Absorption of Cd33Se33 Quantum Dots

The photophysical properties of Cu-doped CdSe quantum dots (QDs) can be affected by the oxidation state of Cu impurity, but disagreement still exists on the Cu oxidation state (+1 or +2) in these QDs, which is debated and poorly understood for many years. In this work, by using density functional theory (DFT)-based calculations with the Heyd–Scuseria–Ernzerhof (HSE) screened hybrid functional, we clearly demonstrate that the incorporation of Cu dopants into the surface of the magic sized Cd33Se33 QD leads to non-magnetic Cu 3d orbitals distribution and Cu+1 oxidation state, while doping Cu atoms in the core region of QDs can lead to both Cu+1 and Cu+2 oxidation states, depending on the local environment of Cu atoms in the QDs. In addition, it is found that the optical absorption of the Cu-doped Cd33Se33 QD in the visible region is mainly affected by Cu concentration, while the absorption in the infrared regime is closely related to the oxidation state of Cu. The present results enable us to use the doping of Cu impurity in CdSe QDs to achieve special photophysical properties for their applications in high-efficiency photovoltaic devices. The methods used here to resolve the electronic and optical properties of Cu-doped CdSe QDs can be extended to other II-VI semiconductor QDs incorporating transition-metal ions with variable valence

Lignin valorization: lignin nanoparticles as high-value bio-additive for multifunctional nanocomposites

Background: Although conversion of low value but high-volume lignin by-product to its usable form is one of the determinant factors for building an economically feasible integrated lignocellulose biorefinery, it has been challenged by its structural complexity and inhomogeneity. We and others have shown that uniform lignin nanoparticles can be produced from a wide range of technical lignins, despite the varied lignocellulosic biomass and the pretreatment methods/conditions applied. This value-added nanostructure lignin enriched with multifunctional groups can be a promising versatile material platform for various downstream utilizations especially in the emerging nanocomposite fields. Results: Inspired by the story of successful production and application of nanocellulose biopolymer, two types of uniform lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) were prepared through self-assembling of deep eutectic solvent (DES) and ethanol-organosolv extracted technical lignins derived from a two-stage fractionation pretreatment approach, respectively. Both LPNs exhibited sphere morphology with unique core–shell nanostructure, where the DES–LNPs showed a more uniform particle size distribution. When incorporated into the traditional polymeric matrix such as poly(vinyl alcohol), these LPN products displayed great potential to formulate a transparent nanocomposite film with additional UV-shielding efficacy (reached ~80% at 400 nm with 4 wt% of LNPs) and antioxidant functionalities (reached ~160 μm mol Trolox g−1 with 4 wt% of LNPs). At the same time, the abundant phenolic hydroxyl groups on the shell of LNPs also provided good interfacial adhesion with PVA matrix through the formation of hydrogen bonding network, which further improved the mechanical and thermal performances of the fabricated LNPs/PVA nanocomposite films. Conclusions: Both LNPs are excellent candidates for producing multifunctional polymer nanocomposites using facile technical route. The prepared transparent and flexible LNPs/PVA composite films with high UV-shielding efficacy, antioxidant activity, and biocompatibility are promising in the advanced packaging field, which potentially provides an additional high-value lignin product stream to the lignocellulose biorefinery. This study could open the door for the production and application of novel LNPs in the nascent bioeconomy. Graphical abstract Lignin nanoparticle for transparent nanocomposite film with UV-shielding efficacyForestry, Faculty ofNon UBCWood Science, Department ofReviewedFacult

Valorizing Recalcitrant Cellulolytic Enzyme Lignin via Lignin Nanoparticles Fabrication in an Integrated Biorefinery

Conversion of condensed lignin into value-added products in current lignocellulosic biorefineries has been challenging due to its structure recalcitrance. However, this work showed a technically feasible route to valorize recalcitrant cellulolytic enzyme lignin (CEL: lignin residue after enzymatic hydrolysis) via “high-quality” lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) fabrication. Three representative CELs obtained from hydrolysis of industrial relevant, steam-pretreated, agriculture reside corn stover, hardwood poplar, and softwood lodgepole pine were evaluated for their potential to produce LNPs through the prevalent dialysis method, which gave a LNPs yield of 81.8%, 90.9% and 41.0% with a corresponding average particle size of 218, 131, and 104 nm, respectively. The obtained “high-quality” LNPs were in sphere-like shapes, abundant with functional groups, and highly stable from pH 4 to 10, which showed tremendous promise for the applications in the emerging nanomaterial fields. When the substructures of these three LNPs were further characterized using prevalent ¹³C and 2D-HSQC NMR techniques, they showed that their structure recalcitrance followed the order of lodgepole pine LNPs > poplar LNPs > corn stover LNPs. It was also apparent that the biomass lignin condensation occurring during steam pretreatment could be considered as a “hydrophobic modification”, which benefits the self-assembling of LNPs to small particle sizes and regular shapes

Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of new ALDH2 activators

Mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is an important enzyme response for the metabolism or detoxification of toxic aldehydes, in particular acetaldehyde and 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), which were important risk factors for acute alcoholism and stroke respectively. A special variant ALDH2∗2 with reduced enzymatic activity was carried by a high percentage of East Asians, especially Han Chinese, and that could increase the risk of these diseases further. Therefore, ALDH2 activators had important potential clinical values. N-benzylbenzamide compounds represented by Alda-1 were the only ALDH2-specific activators that have been reported so far. In this study, three new classes of compounds were modified from Alda-1 to improve their water-solubility and then drug-like properties. The results showed that all compounds had increased water solubility and two classes of compounds exhibited good activation activity. Among them, compound I-6 showed the best activity. Keywords: Mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase 2, Activators, Synthesis, Biological evaluatio

MOESM1 of Lignin valorization: lignin nanoparticles as high-value bio-additive for multifunctional nanocomposites

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Material balance of each crucial step during the two-stage fractionation pretreatment approach. The tailored two-stage pretreatment could greatly enhance the enzymatic hydrolyzability of cellulose fraction while producing a usable lignin fraction for further valorization. Figure S2. AFM images of (a) and (b) DLNPs and (c) and (d) OLNPs. Figure S3. High-resolution TEM images of (a) DLNPs and (b) OLNPs. Figure S4. Translation of the UV–Visible transmittance spectra into Tauc’s plots to calculate the optical energy bandgap (Eg) of each nanocomposite film (a) DLNPs/PVA, (b) OLNPs/PVA. Figure S5. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curves of heating scans for neat PVA and 4 wt% lignin nanoparticles/PVA composite films. Figure S6. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of neat PVA and 4 wt% lignin nanoparticles/PVA composite films. Figure S7. Thermal gravity (TG) and Differential thermal gravity (DTG) curves of neat PVA and 4 wt% lignin nanoparticles/PVA composite films. Figure S8. Quantitative 31P NMR spectra of these two lignin nanoparticles tagged with the phosphorous reagent using cyclohexanol as internal standar