How Social Capital Affects the Quality Performance of Agricultural Products: Evidence from a Binary Perspective of China

Improving the quality of agricultural products is the key factor in promoting agriculturaldevelopment in the Belt and Road program. Although many studies have investigated therelationship between social capital and performance, the findings are inconsistent. Moreover, themechanism of how social capital affects the quality performance of agricultural products remainsunclear. Accordingly, this study developed a theoretical model with propositions from a socialcapital-quality performance of agricultural products paradigm for examining and comparing thethree dimensions of social capital: The relationships among cognitive (measured by shared values),relational (measured by reciprocity) and structural (measured by communication), and their role inensuring quality performance of agricultural products from the company and farmer perspectives.This study selected the companies and farmers in “A company + farmers” model. The data analysisis based on a sample of 184 companies and 414 farmers. The results show that shared values andcommunication have a significant positive effect on reciprocity. In terms of the influence onreciprocity, communication is higher than shared values from both the corporate and farmerperspectives. The three dimensions of social capital have different effects on quality performance ofagricultural products. On the company side, communication and reciprocity in social capital have asignificant positive effect on the quality performance of agricultural products, with the order ofeffect being communication first followed by reciprocity. On the farmer side, reciprocity and sharedvalues have a significant positive effect on the quality performance of agricultural products, withthe order of effect being reciprocity first followed by shared values. These findings have positivetheoretical and practical significance for companies and farmers aiming to improve the quality ofagricultural products

Power, supply chain integration and quality performance of agricultural products: evidence from contract farming in China

Improving the quality of agricultural products is crucial for facilitating sustainable agricultural development. One widely embraced approach is contract farming, which generates guarantees—necessary for sustaining the continuous operations of vulnerable farmers—while enabling manufacturers to manage the aggregate supply chain risks and prices. Although management researchers have investigated power and quality performance issues between organisations, few have examined their impact on contract farming. This paper extends the literature by examining the relationships between power, supply chain integration and the quality performance of agricultural products, from the perspectives of farm households and agribusiness companies in contract farming. This study proposes and empirically examines a model, applying survey data from 78 agricultural companies and 321 peasant householders in China. The results show that different types of power have different effects on contract farming. In particular, non-economic power significantly and positively affects supply chain integration. Its impact on process coordination is greater than its impact on information sharing. The effect of economic power on supply chain integration is different from the binary perspective. These findings have positive theoretical and practical significance for agribusiness and will help farmers to improve the quality of primary agricultural products and achieve sustainable agricultural development

Chemical effect of NO on CH4 oxidation during combustion in O-2/NO environments

The effect of NO on methane oxidation in O-2/NO combustion atmosphere was investigated using reactive molecular dynamics (RMD) calculations. It has been observed that, the conversion of NO could accelerate the oxidation of CH4. To provide a detailed description for this phenomenon, the corresponding kinetic behavior of nitrogen-containing compounds were systematically analyzed at atomistic level. It revealed that NO presented a two-fold impact with respect to CH4 oxidation, on one hand, the presence of NO enhanced CH4 consumption by converting HO2 into OH radical; on the other hand, the appearance of NO inhibited CH4 consumption by catalyzing chain-carrier recombination reaction

Insights into the high-temperature oxidation of methylcyclohexane

Reactive molecular dynamics simulations were performed under different conditions in order to investigate indetail the chemical events associated with high-temperature oxidation of methylcyclohexane (MCH). The corresponding kinetic behaviors of the major intermediates and products were systematically analyzed at the atomistic level. Thus the overall reaction scheme of MCH oxidation was established from the initial step to the final products. It was observed that the oxidation of MCH was mainly initiated by two kinds of reactions, including unimolecular decomposition and H abstraction, with the former being more important. In agreement with the available experimental results, C2H4, CH2O, CO, CO2 and H2O were found to be the major products during the oxidation process. The results revealed that center dot CH3O2, center dot CH3O and center dot C3H5O radicals were the precursors for CH2O production, which was the key intermediate to generate CO. Additionally, center dot C2H3O also had closed relationship with the formation of CO. For a better description of the combustion behavior, small oxides related to intermolecular reactions should be considered in the oxidation of MCH mechanisms. The temperature and density had a positive effect on the oxidation of MCH; it was also found that an increase of the equivalence ratio had a negligible effect on the MCH oxidation

Bioinformatic identification of key genes and pathways that may be involved in the pathogenesis of HBV-associated acute liver failure

In order to explore the molecular mechanisms behind the pathogenesis of acute liver failure (ALF) associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, the present study aimed to identify potential key genes and pathways involved using samples from patients with HBV-associated ALF. The GSE38941 array dataset was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between 10 liver samples from 10 healthy donors and 17 liver specimens from 4 patients with HBV-associated ALF were analyzed using the Linear Models for Microarray Data package. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses of the DEGs were performed, followed by functional annotation of the genes and construction of a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network. Subnetwork modules were subsequently identified and analyzed. In total, 3142 DEGs were identified, of which 1755 were upregulated and 1387 were downregulated. The extracellular exosome, immune response, and inflammatory response pathways may potentially be used as biomarkers of ALF pathogenesis. In total, 17 genes (including CCR5, CXCR4, ALB, C3, VGEFA, and IGF1) were identified as hub genes in the PPI network and may therefore be potential marker genes for HBV-associated ALF. Keywords: Differentially expressed genes, Function enrichment analysis, HBV-associated ALF, Module analysis, Protein–protein interaction networ

Palladium-catalyzed regiocontrollable reductive Heck reaction of unactivated aliphatic alkenes

A general Pd-catalyzed intermolecular reductive Heck reaction of both terminal and internal unactivated aliphatic alkenes has been first developed. This method affords γ- and δ-arylated alkyl carboxylic acid derivatives in high yields with complete anti-Markovnikov selectivity. Notably, the coupling process is stereoretentive for the alkyl chain. Mechanistically, alkyl palladacycle intermediates stabilized by directing group and ligand, hydride species multigenerated from PS/TFA reductant, are two key factors that successfully promote the reaction and regioselectivity.MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore

Palladium-catalyzed anti-michael reductive heck reaction of α,β-unsaturated esters

A general intermolecular anti-Michael reductive Heck reaction of α,β-unsaturated esters with organobromides has been developed. Most topical classes of aryl, heteroaryl, and vinyl bromides were found to efficiently react with a variety of internal conjugated alkenes. This protocol set up a platform toward diverse α-arylated 1,6-dicarbonyl frameworks found in natural products and drugs, which are still highly challenging targets in traditional α-arylation protocols because of competitive selectivity of enolation. A removable directing group, gram-scale reaction, and modification of complex molecules have additionally demonstrated that the anti-Michael reductive Heck reaction is a powerful complementary strategy to the classical α-arylation approaches. Preliminary mechanistic studies are consistent with our proposed mechanistic design.We gratefully acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21602104), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (BK 20160986), the Starting Funding of Research (3983500176) from Nanjing Tech University. We thank Dr. Victor Gray and Dr. Sanyang Han (from Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) for proofreading

Intermolecular reductive heck reaction of unactivated aliphatic alkenes with organohalides

A general intermolecular reductive Heck reaction of organohalides with both terminal and internal unactivated aliphatic alkenes has been first realized in high yield with complete anti-Markovnikov selectivity. The challenging vinyl bromides, aryl chlorides, and polysubstituted internal alkenes were first applied. More than 100 remote carbofunctionalized alkyl carboxylic acid derivatives were rapidly synthesized from easily accessible starting materials. The synthesis of drug molecules has further demonstrated the wide synthetic utility of this scalable strategy. Preliminary mechanistic studies are consistent with the proposed catalytic cycle.We gratefully acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21602104), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (BK 20160986), and the Starting Funding of Research (3983500176) from Nanjing Tech University

Cycling-Induced Capacity Increase of Graphene Aerogel/ZnO Nanomembrane Composite Anode Fabricated by Atomic Layer Deposition

Abstract Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanomembranes/graphene aerogel (GAZ) composites were successfully fabricated via atomic layer deposition (ALD). The composition of GAZ composites can be controlled by changing the number of ALD cycles. Experimental results demonstrated that the anode made from GAZ composite with ZnO nanomembrane of 100 ALD cycles exhibited highest specific capacity and best rate performance. A capacity increase of more than 2 times during the first 500 cycles was observed, and a highest capacity of 1200 mAh g−1 at current density of 1000 mA g−1 was observed after 500 cycles. On the basis of detailed electrochemical investigations, we ascribe the remarkable cycling-induced capacity increase to the alloying process accompanied by the formation of a polymer layer resulting from kinetically activated electrolyte degradation at low voltage regions