Monetary and Macroprudential Policies, Output, Prices, and Financial Stability

We examine the time-varying causal link between monetary policies and macroeconomy, macroprudential policies and financial stability in China. We find that expansionary monetary policy leads to output growth, tightening monetary policy leads to price stability, and tightening quantitative monetary policy or expanding price-based monetary policy is effective in maintaining financial stability. In response to stagnation or deflation, the central bank implements an expansionary monetary policy. To prevent financial turbulence, the central bank pursues an expansionary quantitative monetary policy or a tight price-based monetary policy. In addition, macroprudential policy should be used in conjunction with monetary policy to maintain financial stability

Resveratrol reduces the inflammatory response in adipose tissue and improves adipose insulin signaling in high-fat diet-fed mice

Background Obesity-induced glucose metabolism disorder is associated with chronic, low-grade, systemic inflammation and is considered a risk factor for diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Resveratrol (RES), a natural anti-inflammatory compound, is observed to improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in obese rodents and humans. This study aimed to test the effects of RES administration on insulin signaling and the inflammatory response in visceral white adipose tissue (WAT) caused by a high-fat diet (HFD) in mice. Methods A total of 40 wild-type C57BL/6 male mice were divided into four groups (10 in each group): the standard chow diet (STD) group was fed a STD; the HFD group was fed a HFD; and the HFD-RES/L and HFD-RES/H groups were fed a HFD plus RES (200 and 400 mg/kg/day, respectively). The L and H in RES/L and RES/H stand for low and high, respectively. Glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, circulating inflammatory biomarkers and lipid profile were determined. Quantitative PCR and Western blot were used to determine the expression of CC-chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2), other inflammation markers, glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4), insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) and pAkt/Akt and to assess targets of interest involving glucose metabolism and inflammation in visceral WAT. Results HFD increased the levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and proinflammatory cytokines in serum, decreased the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level in serum, and induced insulin resistance and WAT inflammation in mice. However, RES treatment alleviated insulin resistance, increased the expressions of pAkt, GLUT4 and IRS-1 in WAT, and decreased serum proinflammatory cytokine levels, macrophage infiltration and CCR2 expression in WAT. Conclusion Our results indicated that WAT CCR2 may play a vital role in macrophage infiltration and the inflammatory response during the development of insulin resistance in HFD-induced obesity. These data suggested that administration of RES offers protection against abnormal glucose metabolism and inflammatory adaptations in visceral WAT in mice with HFD-induced obesity

Crop Production and Agricultural Carbon Emissions: Relationship Diagnosis and Decomposition Analysis

Modern agriculture contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, and agriculture has become the second biggest source of carbon emissions in China. In this context, it is necessary for China to study the nexus of agricultural economic growth and carbon emissions. Taking Jilin province as an example, this paper applied the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and a decoupling analysis to examine the relationship between crop production and agricultural carbon emissions during 2000–2018, and it further provided a decomposition analysis of the changes in agricultural carbon emissions using the log mean Divisia index (LMDI) method. The results were as follows: (1) Based on the results of CO2 EKC estimation, an N-shaped EKC was found; in particular, the upward trend in agricultural carbon emissions has not changed recently. (2) According to the results of the decoupling analysis, expansive coupling occurred for 9 years, which was followed by weak decoupling for 5 years, and strong decoupling and strong coupling occurred for 2 years each. There was no stable evolutionary path from coupling to decoupling, and this has remained true recently. (3) We used the LMDI method to decompose the driving factors of agricultural carbon emissions into four factors: the agricultural carbon emission intensity effect, structure effect, economic effect, and labor force effect. From a policymaking perspective, we integrated the results of both the EKC and the decoupling analysis and conducted a detailed decomposition analysis, focusing on several key time points. Agricultural economic growth was found to have played a significant role on many occasions in the increase in agricultural carbon emissions, while agricultural carbon emission intensity was important to the decline in agricultural carbon emissions. Specifically, the four factors’ driving direction in the context of agricultural carbon emissions was not stable. We also found that the change in agricultural carbon emissions was affected more by economic policy than by environmental policy. Finally, we put forward policy suggestions for low-carbon agricultural development in Jilin province

A Barycenter Control Method for the Bioinspired Forest Chassis Robot on Slope

To improve the stability of forestry chassis on the slope, a chassis-installed barycenter adjustable mechanism (BAM) is designed, and the control method of the counterweight is proposed to make the chassis barycenter move suitably to achieve the design purpose. The kinematic analysis of BAM is carried out, and the relationship between the translation, rotation, and vertical displacement of counterweight and the chassis barycenter is calculated. Furthermore, the variation curves obtained in Matlab show the barycenter can translate 100 mm, rotate from 0 to 360 degrees, and lower about 180 mm in the vertical direction. Adams is adopted to complete the kinematics simulation of the chassis, indicating that the control method can effectively adjust the barycenter position. Finally, experiments are carried out under slope conditions to analyze chassis stability by testing plantar pressure. The results show that forest chassis using the barycenter control method helps keep stable on the slope of 15 degrees, much better than standard normal chassis

Agricultural Support Policies and China’s Cyclical Evolutionary Path of Agricultural Economic Growth

Due to the weak nature of agricultural production, governments usually adopt supportive policies to protect food security. To discern the growth of agriculture from 2001 to 2018 under China’s agricultural support policies, we use the nonlinear MS(M)-AR(p) model to distinguish China’s agricultural economic cycle into three growth regimes—rapid, medium, and low—and analyze the probability of shifts and maintenance among the different regimes. We further calculated the average duration of each regime. Moreover, we calculated the growth regime transfers for specific times. In this study, we find that China’s agricultural economy has maintained a relatively consistent growth trend with the support of China’s proactive agricultural policies. However, China’s agricultural economy tends to maintain a low-growth status in the long-term. Finally, we make policy recommendations for agricultural development based on our findings that continue existing agricultural policies and strengthen support for agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry

Physics design of a 10 MeV injector test stand for an accelerator-driven subcritical system

The 10 MeV accelerator-driven subcritical system (ADS) Injector I test stand at Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) is a testing facility dedicated to demonstrate one of the two injector design schemes [Injector Scheme-I, which works at 325 MHz], for the ADS project in China. The injector is composed of two parts, the linac part and the beam dump line. The former is designed on the basis of 325 MHz four-vane type copper structure radio frequency quadrupole and superconducting (SC) spoke cavities with β=0.12. The latter is designed to transport the beam coming out of the SC section of the linac to the beam dump, where the beam transverse profile is fairly enlarged and unformed to simplify the beam target design. The SC section consists of two cryomodules with 14 β=0.12 Spoke cavities, 14 solenoid and 14 BPMs in total. The first challenge in the physics design comes from the necessary space required for the cryomodule separation where the periodical lattice is destroyed at a relatively lower energy of ∼5  MeV. Another challenge is the beam dump line design, as it will be the first beam dump line being built by using a step field magnet for the transverse beam expansion and uniformity in the world. This paper gives an overview of the physics design study together with the design principles and machine construction considerations. The results of an optimized design, fabrication status and end to end simulations including machine errors are presented