The New Chinese Foreign Investment Law and Its Implication on Foreign Investors

A major change in the regulation of foreign investment in China is underway. In 2015, the Ministry of Commerce issued the Draft Foreign Investment Law for public comment. If adopted, the new foreign investment law will replace the regulatory structure that has guided foreign investment in China for decades. The new law aims to further open the Chinese market and simplify the regulatory approval procedures for foreign investors. However, it will also limit foreign investment in restricted industries, which are still accessible to foreign investors through Varity Interest Entities under the current regulations. This note intends to examine the Draft Foreign Investment Law and analyze its impact on foreign investment in China

Time to Change What to Sow: Risk Preferences and Technology Adoption Decisions of Cotton Farmers in China

The slow diffusion of new technology in the agricultural sector of developing countries has long puzzled development economists. While most of the current empirical research on technology adoption focuses on credit constraints and learning spillovers, this paper examines the role of individual risk attitudes in the decision to adopt a new form of agricultural biotechnology in China. I conducted a survey and a field experiment to elicit the risk preferences of 320 Chinese farmers, who faced the decision of whether to adopt genetically modified Bt cotton a decade ago. Bt cotton is more effective in pest prevention and thus requires less pesticides than traditional cotton. In my analysis, I expand the measurement of risk preferences beyond expected utility theory to incorporate prospect theory parameters such as loss aversion and nonlinear probability weighting. Using the parameters elicited from the experiment, I find that farmers who are more risk averse or more loss averse adopt Bt cotton later. Farmers who overweight small probabilities adopt Bt cotton earlier.Technology Adoption, Risk Preferences, Prospect Theory

Vanishing viscosity limit to the planar rarefaction wave with vacuum for 3-D full compressible Navier-Stokes equations with temperature-dependent transport coefficients

In this paper, we construct a family of global-in-time solutions of the 3-D full compressible Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations with temperature-dependent transport coefficients (including viscosity and heat-conductivity), and show that at arbitrary times {and arbitrary strength} this family of solutions converges to planar rarefaction waves connected to the vacuum as the viscosity vanishes in the sense of $L^\infty(\R^3)$. We consider the Cauchy problem in $\R^3$ with perturbations of the infinite global norm, particularly, periodic perturbations. To deal with the infinite oscillation, we construct a suitable ansatz carrying this periodic oscillation such that the difference between the solution and the ansatz belongs to some Sobolev space and thus the energy method is feasible. The novelty of this paper is that the viscosity and heat-conductivity are temperature-dependent and degeneracies caused by vacuum. Thus the a priori assumptions and two Gagliardo-Nirenberg type inequalities are essentially used. Next, more careful energy estimates are carried out in this paper, by studying the zero and non-zero modes of the solutions, we obtain not only the convergence rate concerning the viscosity and heat conductivity coefficients but also the exponential time decay rate for the non-zero mode.Comment: The version has been updated and the results have been extende

Study on properties of epoxy resin and polyurethane modified with organic silicon

In order to solve the problem of poor compatibility of traditional resins, improve its adhesion, toughness, corrosion, heat resistance, salt spray, and other properties of the coating, the epoxy resin and polyurethane was modified with organic silicon. Some modified methods were introduced and summarized, the prospects for the research development in the future were look forward

p21-activated kinase is involved in the sporulation, pathogenicity, and stress response of Arthrobotrys oligospora under the indirect regulation of Rho GTPase-activating protein

The p21-GTPase-activated protein kinases (PAKs) participate in signal transduction downstream of Rho GTPases, which are regulated by Rho GTPase-activating proteins (Rho-GAP). Herein, we characterized two orthologous Rho-GAPs (AoRga1 and AoRga2) and two PAKs (AoPak1 and AoPak2) through bioinformatics analysis and reverse genetics in Arthrobotrys oligospora, a typical nematode-trapping (NT) fungus. The transcription analyses performed at different development stages suggested that Aopaks and Aorga1 play a crucial role during sporulation and trap formation, respectively. In addition, we successfully deleted Aopak1 and Aorga1 via the homologous recombination method. The disruption of Aopak1 and Aorga1 caused a remarkable reduction in spore yield and the number of nuclei per cell, but did not affect mycelial growth. In ∆Aopak1 mutants, the trap number was decreased at 48 h after the introduction of nematodes, but nematode predatory efficiency was not affected because the extracellular proteolytic activity was increased. On the contrary, the number of traps in ∆Aorga1 mutants was significantly increased at 36 h and 48 h. In addition, Aopak1 and Aorga1 had different effects on the sensitivity to cell-wall-disturbing reagent and oxidant. A yeast two-hybrid assay revealed that AoPak1 and AoRga1 both interacted with AoRac, and AoPak1 also interacted with AoCdc42. Furthermore, the Aopaks were up-regulated in ∆Aorga1 mutants, and Aorga1 was down-regulated in ∆Aopak1 mutants. These results reveal that AoRga1 indirectly regulated AoPAKs by regulating small GTPases

Protective Effect and Mechanism of Chinese Yam Total Protein on High D-Glucose Induced Oxidative Stress in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells

To explored the protective effect and mechanism of Chinese yam total protein in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) with high-concentration D-glucose (HG)-induced oxidative stress injury. The HUVECs injury model was established by 50 mmol/L HG. HUVECs were randomly divided into control, model, low-dose Chinese yam total protein (0.5 mg/mL), and high-dose Chinese yam total protein (1 mg/mL) groups. The effects of Chinese yam total protein on the viability, morphology, and angiogenetic ability of HUVECs treated with HG were evaluated. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities in cells were determined. The nitric oxide (NO), 8-hydroxy deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), malondialdehyde (MDA), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels in culture medium supernatant were measured. Protein expression levels of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), Bcl-2-associated X (Bax), thioredoxin-interacting protein (Txnip), NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3), cleaved Caspase-1, and IL-1β were determined. The results showed that Chinese yam total protein could significantly increased the cell viability of HUVECs treated with HG (P<0.01), improved cell apoptotic morphology, and significantly increased the activities of SOD and CAT (P<0.05, P<0.01) and ratio of apoptosis-related proteins (Bcl-2/Bax), angiogenetic ability and nitric oxide (NO) secretion. Moreover, Chinese yam total protein significantly decreased the levels of ROS, MDA, 8-OHdG, IL-1β, and IL-6 (P<0.05, P<0.01) and the expression levels of inflammation-related proteins (Txnip, NLRP3, cleaved Caspase-1, and IL-1β) (P<0.05, P<0.01). Changes in these indicators showed a significant concentration-dependent manner. The results indicate that Chinese yam total protein may protect against HG-induced oxidative stress by inhibiting the Txnip/NLRP3 signaling pathway, restoring the oxidative balance, and reducing the inflammatory response of HUVECs

Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease with depression as the first symptom: a case report with literature review

BackgroundAlzheimer’s disease is a common neurodegenerative disease, and patients with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (onset age &lt; 65 years) often have atypical symptoms, which are easily misdiagnosed and missed. Multimodality neuroimaging has become an important diagnostic and follow-up method for AD with its non-invasive and quantitative advantages.Case presentationWe report a case of a 59-year-old female with a diagnosis of depression at the age of 50 after a 46-year-old onset and a 9-year follow-up observation, who developed cognitive dysfunction manifested by memory loss and disorientation at the age of 53, and eventually developed dementia. Combined with neuropsychological scales (MMSE and MOCA scores decreased year by year and finally reached the dementia criteria) and the application of multimodal imaging. MRI showed that the hippocampus atrophied year by year and the cerebral cortex was extensively atrophied. 18F-FDG PET image showed hypometabolism in right parietal lobes, bilateral frontal lobes, bilateral joint parieto-temporal areas, and bilateral posterior cingulate glucose metabolism. The 18F-AV45 PET image showed the diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease was confirmed by the presence of Aβ deposits in the cerebral cortex.ConclusionEarly-onset Alzheimer’s disease, which starts with depression, often has atypical symptoms and is prone to misdiagnosis. The combination of neuropsychological scales and neuroimaging examinations are good screening tools that can better assist in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.Graphical Abstrac