CHINA\u27S MERGER REVIEW: THE REVIEW AGENCY IS IN BALANCE WITH MAJOR STAKEHOLDERS

China\u27s relatively new merger review system continues trending toward those of the United States and the European Union. However, its merger review will never entirely converge with the Western model from either a competition policy or review methodology perspective. Such divergence from the West, this article claims, is rooted in the decision-making mechanism of China\u27s merger reviews. Traditionally, China\u27s decision-making mechanism has been viewed as a singular review-agency domination like that of the West. In fact, however, China\u27s merger reviews have issued remedies reflecting policies generated by major stakeholders as well as the review agency. These co-decision-makers have balancing relationships that forge an agency-stakeholder, rather than sole agency domination. Today, China\u27s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), established in 2018, follows a path set by the earlier China\u27s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). This article provides valuable insight into how the new active type of agency-stakeholder domination in China\u27s merger reviews balances both economic and non-economic (political) policies to protect markets and consumers, as well as to be ready to react to the rise of protectionism globally

ORAL PROBIOTIC EFFECT OF LACTOBACILLUS CASEI SHIROTA ON STREPTOCOCCUS MUTANS

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Bridging the Granularity Gap for Acoustic Modeling

While Transformer has become the de-facto standard for speech, modeling upon the fine-grained frame-level features remains an open challenge of capturing long-distance dependencies and distributing the attention weights. We propose \textit{Progressive Down-Sampling} (PDS) which gradually compresses the acoustic features into coarser-grained units containing more complete semantic information, like text-level representation. In addition, we develop a representation fusion method to alleviate information loss that occurs inevitably during high compression. In this way, we compress the acoustic features into 1/32 of the initial length while achieving better or comparable performances on the speech recognition task. And as a bonus, it yields inference speedups ranging from 1.20$\times$ to 1.47$\times$. By reducing the modeling burden, we also achieve competitive results when training on the more challenging speech translation task.Comment: ACL 2023 Finding

Genome-wide annotation and comparative analysis of cuticular protein genes in the noctuid pest \u3cem\u3eSpodoptera litura\u3c/em\u3e

Insect cuticle is considered an adaptable and versatile building material with roles in the construction and function of exoskeleton. Its physical properties are varied, as the biological requirements differ among diverse structures and change during the life cycle of the insect. Although the bulk of cuticle consists basically of cuticular proteins (CPs) associated with chitin, the degree of cuticular sclerotization is an important factor in determining its physical properties. Spodoptera litura, the tobacco cutworm, is an important agricultural pest in Asia. Compared to the domestic silkworm, Bombyx mori, another lepidopteran whose CP genes have been well annotated, S. litura has a shorter life cycle, hides in soil during daytime beginning in the 5th instar and is exposed to soil in the pupal stage without the protection of a cocoon. In order to understand how the CP genes may have been adapted to support the characteristic life style of S. litura, we searched its genome and found 287 putative cuticular proteins that can be classified into 9 CP families (CPR with three groups (RR-1, RR-2, RR-3), CPAP1, CPAP3, CPF, CPFL, CPT, CPG, CPCFC and CPLCA), and a collection of unclassified CPs named CPH. There were also 112 cuticular proteins enriched in Histidine residues with content varying from 6% to 30%, comprising many more His-rich cuticular proteins than B. mori. A phylogenetic analysis between S. litura, M. sexta and B. mori uncovered large expansions of RR-1 and RR-2 CPs, forming large gene clusters in different regions of S. liturachromosome 9. We used RNA-seq analysis to document the expression profiles of CPs in different developmental stages and tissues of S. litura. The comparative genomic analysis of CPs between S. litura and B. moriintegrated with the unique behavior and life cycle of the two species offers new insights into their contrasting ecological adaptations

Evaluation of the Antidepressant Effect of the Functional Beverage Containing Active Peptides, Menthol and Eleutheroside, and Investigation of Its Mechanism of Action in Mice

Pozadina istraživanja. Depresija je postala globalna prijetnja ljudskom zdravlju. Znanstvenici provode različita ispitivanja uključujući i analizu prehrane kako bi riješili taj problem. Mnogi bioaktivni spojevi iz hrane imaju antidepresivni učinak. No, mali se broj istraživanja bavi razvojem industrijskih prehrambenih proizvoda s antidepresivnim učinkom. Svrha je ovoga rada bila ocijeniti antidepresivni učinak i mehanizme djelovanja funkcionalnog napitka pripremljenog od nekoliko sastojaka s mogućim antidepresivnim svojstvima. Eksperimentalni pristup. Napitak se sastoji od ulja paprene metvice, aktivnih peptida iz kazeina kravljeg mlijeka i ekstrakta sibirskog ginsenga (Acanthopanax senticosus), čiji je aktivni sastojak eleuterozid. Ispitan je dodatak različitih udjela ekstrakta sibirskog ginsenga da bi se utvrdila optimalna koncentracija eleuterozida u ovom funkcionalnom napitku, radi postizanja najboljeg antidepresivnog učinka. Provedena su opsežna ispitivanja ponašanja, uključujući preliminarne testove akutnog stresa te kroničnog nepredvidljivog blagog stresa. Rezultati i zaključci. Rezultati pokazuju da napitak s 15 mg/kg eleuterozida može bitno smanjiti vrijeme mirovanja miša u testovima vješanja za rep i prisilnog plivanja, pozitivno utjecati na preferenciju saharoze i promjene ponašanja u testu otvorenog polja, povećati udjel dopamina, norepinefrina, serotonina i aktivnost superoksid dismutaze, te smanjiti udjel malondialdehida u mozgu miševa. To potvrđuje da su poboljšana neurotransmisija monoamina i antioksidacijski status mogući mehanizmi antidepresivnog učinka. Novina i znanstveni doprinos. U ovom je radu predložen sastav funkcionalnog napitka s antidepresivnim svojstvima za učinkovitu prevenciju i liječenje depresije.Research background. Depression has become a global threat to human health. In order to solve it, researchers have conducted multi-faceted studies including diet. Many food-derived bioactive substances have shown antidepressant effects. However, there are few studies on the design of industrialized food with antidepressant effect. This study aims to evaluate the antidepressant effect of afunctional beverage made from several ingredients with potential antidepressant function and investigate its antidepressant mechanisms. Experimental approach. The beverage consists of peppermint oil, active peptides derived from bovine milk casein and Acanthopanax senticosus extract (ASE) whose active ingredient is eleutheroside. Different amounts of ASE were evaluated to determine the optimal concentration of eleutheroside in this functional beverage to deliver the best antidepressant effect through extensive behavioral testing, including preliminary acute stress experiments and further chronic unpredictable mild stress test. Results and conclusions. The results demonstrated that the beverage with 15 mg/kg of eleutheroside could significantly reduce the mice’s immobility time of tail suspension test and forced swimming test, recover mice’s sucrose preference and behavior changes in the open field test, improve the contents of dopamine, norepinephrine, 5-hydroxytryptamine and the activity of superoxide dismutase and reduce the content of malondialdehyde in mice’s brains, which indicated that the improvement of monoamine neurotransmitter systems and antioxidation was one potential mechanism of antidepressant action. Novelty and scientific contribution. This study provides a design of antidepressant functional beverage and an efficient way for the prevention and treatment of depression

Analysis of the association between testosterone and cardiovascular disease potential risk factor apolipoprotein B in adult males without cancer: national health and nutrition examination survey 2011-2016

BackgroundOver the years, there has been extensive exploration of the association between testosterone and lipid profiles, yet the precise mechanisms underlying their interaction remain incompletely elucidated. Similarly, there is a dearth of research on the correlation between serum apolipoprotein B (apoB) and serum total testosterone (TT), particularly within specific populations.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study to assess the relationship between serum TT concentration and serum apoB concentration. Using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2011 to 2016, we employed weighted generalized linear models, weighted univariate, weighted multivariate analysis, and smooth curve fitting to assist in exploring the relationship between serum TT and apoB. Serum apoB concentration served as the independent variable, and serum TT concentration as the dependent variable. ApoB was divided into four quartiles—Q1 (<0.7g/L, N=691), Q2 (≥0.7g/L to <0.9g/L, N=710), Q3 (≥0.9g/L to <1.1g/L, N=696), and Q4 (≥1.1g/L, N=708)—thereby further solidifying the stable association between the two. Additionally, the application of smooth curve fitting will contribute to a more detailed elucidation of the specific relationship between serum TT concentration and serum apoB concentration under different factors (Drinking, Smoke, Diabetes, Hypertension, and High cholesterol level.).ResultsThe results indicate a negative correlation between serum TT concentration and apoB concentration (β=-113.4; 95% CI: -146.6, -80.2; P<0.001). After adjusting for confounding variables, the negative correlation between apoB concentration and TT concentration remains significant (β=-61.0; 95% CI: -116.7, -5.2; P=0.040). When apoB concentration was converted from a continuous variable to a categorical variable (quartiles: Q1<0.7g/L; Q2:≥0.7g/L to<0.9g/L; Q3:≥0.9g/L to <1.1g/L; Q4: ≥1.1g/L), TT level of participants in the highest quartile (≥1.1g/L) was -47.2 pg/mL (95% CI: -91.2, -3.3; P=0.045) lower than that in the lowest quartile (<0.7g/L). The smooth curve fitting diagram revealed differences in the relationship between TT concentration and apoB among individuals with different cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors.ConclusionsThis study elucidates a robust inverse correlation between serum TT concentration and apoB concentration, maintaining statistical significance even upon adjustment for confounding factors. These findings present a promising avenue for addressing the prevention and treatment of low testosterone and CVD