Impact of FDI on Domestic Firms' Exports in China

Using manufacturing industry firm-level census data from the period of 2000-2003 in China, this paper examines the impact of foreign direct investment on domestic firms' exports. After dealing with econometric problems of endogeneity and sample selection, we find that foreign direct investment in China has had a positive impact on domestic firms' export value through backward industrial linkages and a positive impact on domestic firms' export propensities in the same industry through demonstration effects. In particular, non-exporting FDI firms and FDI firms producing homogeneous products are more likely to generate the positive export spillovers to domestic firms through industrial linkages while exporting FDI firms and FDI firms producing heterogeneous products are more likely to generate positive export spillovers to domestic firms through demonstration effects in the same industry.Foreign Direct Investment, export spillovers, industrial linkage

Agriculture and Food Security in China

China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has had profound consequences for the structure of its economy, and there will many more before the full benefits of an open trading regime will be realised. Agriculture and Food Security in China explains the background to China’s WTO accession and links accession to reforms beginning as far back as 1979. The book highlights China’s policymakers’ decision to move away from protectionism and gain self-sufficiency, and illustrates how China’s step away from direct participation in the agricultural sector to indirect regulatory involvement and liberalisation could encourage further economic growth. Yet not all economic growth is cost-free. Agriculture and Food Security in China explores the short-term impacts of WTO accession as well as the mid and long-term implications of greater market involvement at an economy-wide and regional level. Growing divides between coastal and inland regions—and differences in rural and urban growth—will require a better understanding of the consequences of greater market dependency. Agriculture and Food Security in China adds to the existing knowledge of China’s agricultural growth as well as the impacts and interrelationships between WTO accession and China’s participation in other regional free trade agreements

Output regulation of nonlinear singularly perturbed systems

AbstractIn this paper, the state feedback regulator problem of nonlinear singularly perturbed systems is discussed. It is shown that, under standard assumptions, this problem is solvable if and only if a certain nonlinear partial differential equation is solvable. Once this equation is solvable, a feedback law which solves the problem can easily be constructed. The developed control law is applied to a nonlinear chemical process

Influence of secondary structure on kinetics and reaction mechanism of DNA hybridization

Hybridization of nucleic acids with secondary structure is involved in many biological processes and technological applications. To gain more insight into its mechanism, we have investigated the kinetics of DNA hybridization/denaturation via fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) on perfectly matched and single-base-mismatched DNA strands. DNA hybridization shows non-Arrhenius behavior. At high temperature, the apparent activation energies of DNA hybridization are negative and independent of secondary structure. In contrast, when temperature decreases, the apparent activation energies of DNA hybridization change to positive and become structure dependent. The large unfavorable enthalpy of secondary structure melting is compensated for by concomitant duplex formation. Based on our results, we propose a reaction mechanism about how the melting of secondary structure influences the hybridization process. A significant point in the mechanism is that the rate-limiting step switches along with temperature variation in the hybridization process of structured DNA, because the free energy profile of hybridization in structured DNA varies with the variation in temperature

Oxidation Degradation of Rhodamine B in Aqueous by UV

The UV photolysis of persulfate (S2O8 2−) is a novel advanced oxidation technologies (AOTs), which leads to the formation of strong oxidizing radicals, sulfate radicals (SO4 •−). The effect of oxidant S2O8 2− concentration, initial dye concentration, initial pH of solution, and various inorganic anions (Cl−, H2PO4 −, and HCO3 −) were investigated using Rhodamine B (RhB), a kind of xanthene dye, as a model pollutant. With the increase of oxidant S2O8 2−, more SO4 •− produced to attack RhB molecules and result in the increase of RhB degradation. While the improvement was not sustained above a critical value, beyond which degradation rate does not increase. Initial pH of solution had great effect on the RhB degradation rate during UV/S2O8 2− system. SO4 •− is rather stable in acidic solutions, while increasing system pH results in the transformation of SO4 •− to •OH. The effects of three inorganic anions (Cl−, H2PO4 −, and HCO3 −) all had some negative effect on the degradation of RhB. Based on the RhB solution changes of the UV-vis absorption intensity during the UV/S2O8 2− treatment, decolorization of RhB accompanied the destruction of aromatic ring structures of RhB molecules

The effect of continuous venovenous hemofiltration on neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin plasma levels in patients with septic acute kidney injury

International audienceCe texte d’introduction au dossier de Flux 2017/2 (N° 108) questionne l’émergence de la thématique de la circularité des matières dans les politiques publiques urbaines contemporaines. Les articles ont en commun de porter une attention minutieuse à la matérialité des flux qui traversent et constituent la ville et aux objets sociaux qui la composent. Ils analysent les modalités et les conséquences de leur mise en circulation, ainsi que les régulations et les conflits qui l’accompagnent. Que l’ensemble des articles traite de pratiques et de politiques ancrées dans l’espace de la région de Lyon résulte moins d’une volonté monographique que d’une rencontre en partie fortuite. Mais cela souligne en tout cas l’importance d’une approche toujours attentive aux faits géographiques et aux effets de lieu dans la diversité de leurs échelles. Trois thématiques transversales sont présentes : d’abord, en identifiant de nouvelles ressources, les articles permettent de réfléchir à l’invention et à la construction de nouveaux circuits pour les matières. Ensuite, la régulation de ces circuits implique l’identification de nouveaux acteurs et la mise en place de nouvelles formes de relations avec les producteurs et gestionnaires des matières, formant donc l’espace d’une gouvernance renouvelée. Enfin, si ces circuits se structurent dans un espace qui est celui de la proximité géographique, ils s’inscrivent néanmoins dans une logique relationnelle qui ne cesse de questionner les normes et les échelles. Ce numéro permet ainsi de nuancer et de re-matérialiser les injonctions à faire advenir l’économie circulaire dans les villes

Rab3-GEF controls active zone development at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction

Synaptic signaling involves the release of neurotransmitter from presynaptic active zones (AZs). Proteins that regulate vesicle exocytosis cluster at AZs, composing the cytomatrix at the active zone (CAZ). At the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ), the small GTPase Rab3 controls the distribution of CAZ proteins across release sites, thereby regulating the efficacy of individual AZs. Here we identify Rab3-GEF as a second protein that acts in conjunction with Rab3 to control AZ protein composition. At rab3-GEF mutant NMJs, Bruchpilot (Brp) and Ca(2+) channels are enriched at a subset of AZs, leaving the remaining sites devoid of key CAZ components in a manner that is indistinguishable from rab3 mutant NMJs. As the Drosophila homologue of mammalian DENN/MADD and Caenorhabditis elegans AEX-3, Rab3-GEF is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for Rab3 that stimulates GDP to GTP exchange. Mechanistic studies reveal that although Rab3 and Rab3-GEF act within the same mechanism to control AZ development, Rab3-GEF is involved in multiple roles. We show that Rab3-GEF is required for transport of Rab3. However, the synaptic phenotype in the rab3-GEF mutant cannot be fully explained by defective transport and loss of GEF activity. A transgenically expressed GTP-locked variant of Rab3 accumulates at the NMJ at wild-type levels and fully rescues the rab3 mutant but is unable to rescue the rab3-GEF mutant. Our results suggest that although Rab3-GEF acts upstream of Rab3 to control Rab3 localization and likely GTP-binding, it also acts downstream to regulate CAZ development, potentially as a Rab3 effector at the synapse