Collaborative governance in emergencies: community food supply in COVID-19 in Wuhan, China

Country governments and the WHO advocated that the "whole-of-government" and the "whole-of-society" approaches are necessary to fight against the pandemic. However, it is unclear what it means in practice and its implications in the of context of food security and in emergencies. This article examines the “whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach” (WOG-WOS), how the government and non-government stakeholders have quickly engaged in collaborative governance to address the community food supply challenges. This research analyzed government policies and reports, scanned grey literature and conduced in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in Wuhan working on the frontline of food supply during the first wave of COVID-19 lockdown. The findings contribute to the literature on collaborative governance in emergency management. The case of Wuhan makes the point that the government and the society are interdependent in emergencies. For the whole society to achieve its full potential, the governments need to focus on the goals, function as open-minded coordinators and adopt a flexible governing structure

Interacting heavy fermions in a disordered optical lattice

We have theoretically studied the effect of disorder on ultracold alkaline-earth atoms governed by the Kondo lattice model in an optical lattice via simplified double-well model and hybridization mean-field theory. Disorder-induced narrowing and even complete closure of hybridization gap have been predicted and the compressibility of the system has also been investigated for metallic and Kondo insulator phases in the presence of the disordered potential. To make connection to the experimental situation, we have numerically solved the disordered Kondo lattice model with an external harmonic trap and shown both the melting of Kondo insulator plateau and an compressibility anomaly at low-density

Revealing nascent proteomics in signaling pathways and cell differentiation.

Regulation of gene expression at the level of protein synthesis is a crucial element in driving how the genetic landscape is expressed. However, we are still limited in technologies that can quantitatively capture the immediate proteomic changes that allow cells to respond to specific stimuli. Here, we present a method to capture and identify nascent proteomes in situ across different cell types without disturbing normal growth conditions, using O-propargyl-puromycin (OPP). Cell-permeable OPP rapidly labels nascent elongating polypeptides, which are subsequently conjugated to biotin-azide, using click chemistry, and captured with streptavidin beads, followed by digestion and analysis, using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Our technique of OPP-mediated identification (OPP-ID) allows detection of widespread proteomic changes within a short 2-hour pulse of OPP. We illustrate our technique by recapitulating alterations of proteomic networks induced by a potent mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor, MLN128. In addition, by employing OPP-ID, we identify more than 2,100 proteins and uncover distinct protein networks underlying early erythroid progenitor and differentiation states not amenable to alternative approaches such as amino acid analog labeling. We present OPP-ID as a method to quantitatively identify nascent proteomes across an array of biological contexts while preserving the subtleties directing signaling in the native cellular environment

Increase in neuroexcitability of unmyelinated C-type vagal ganglion neurons during initial postnatal development of visceral afferent reflex functions

BACKGROUND: Baroreflex gain increase up closely to adult level during initial postnatal weeks, and any interruption within this period will increase the risk of cardiovascular problems in later of life span. We hypothesize that this short period after birth might be critical for postnatal development of vagal ganglion neurons (VGNs). METHODS: To evaluate neuroexcitability evidenced by discharge profiles and coordinate changes, ion currents were collected from identified A- and C-type VGNs at different developmental stages using whole-cell patch clamping. RESULTS: C-type VGNs underwent significant age-dependent transition from single action potential (AP) to repetitive discharge. The coordinate changes between TTX-S and TTX-R Na(+) currents were also confirmed and well simulated by computer modeling. Although 4-AP or iberiotoxin age dependently increased firing frequency, AP duration was prolonged in an opposite fashion, which paralleled well with postnatal changes in 4-AP- and iberiotoxin-sensitive K(+) current activity, whereas less developmental changes were verified in A-types. CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate for the first time that the neuroexcitability of C-type VGNs increases significantly compared with A-types within initial postnatal weeks evidenced by AP discharge profiles and coordinate ion channel changes, which explain, at least in part, that initial postnatal weeks may be crucial for ontogenesis in visceral afferent reflex function

Two types of generalized integrable decompositions and new solitary-wave solutions for the modified Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation with symbolic computation

The modified Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (mKP) equation is shown in this paper to be decomposable into the first two soliton equations of the 2N-coupled Chen-Lee-Liu and Kaup-Newell hierarchies by respectively nonlinearizing two sets of symmetry Lax pairs. In these two cases, the decomposed (1+1)-dimensional nonlinear systems both have a couple of different Lax representations, which means that there are two linear systems associated with the mKP equation under the same constraint between the potential and eigenfunctions. For each Lax representation of the decomposed (1+1)-dimensional nonlinear systems, the corresponding Darboux transformation is further constructed such that a series of explicit solutions of the mKP equation can be recursively generated with the assistance of symbolic computation. In illustration, four new families of solitary-wave solutions are presented and the relevant stability is analyzed.Comment: 23 page

Nonlinear Improvement of Qubit-qudit Entanglement Witnesses

The entanglement witness is an important and experimentally applicable tool for entanglement detection. In this paper, we provide a nonlinear improvement of any entanglement witness for $2\otimes d$ quantum systems. Compared with any existing entanglement witness, the improved separability criterion only needs two more measurements on local observables. Detailed examples are employed to illustrate the efficiency of the nonlinear improvement for general, optimal and non-decomposable entanglement witnesses.Comment: 11 pages, 0 figure