Digital economy, environmental regulation and green eco-efficiency—Empirical evidence from 285 cities in China

Strengthening green eco-efficiency has emerged as one of China’s key objectives for its present economic green development. All walks of life have progressively begun to pay attention to how to leverage the rapidly developing digital economy to promote regional green eco-efficiency upgrading. This work first develops a mathematical model to investigate the inherent mechanism of digital economy development on green eco-efficiency enhancement and presents a research hypothesis, which is then followed by a fixed-effects model and a spatial econometric model to evaluate the geographic spillover effect of digital economy development on green eco-efficiency enhancement and the moderating influence of environmental regulation. According to the test results, the growth of the digital economy can greatly increase green eco-efficiency, with environmental legislation acting as a helpful moderator. Additional empirical research revealed that environmental regulation and the development of the digital economy both favourably promote and adjust green eco-efficiency. However, there are various effects of different regions and different time periods, it shows that there are “strong in the East and weak in the west,” “weak in the East and weak in the west” and “weak first and then strong.” Therefore, each region in China should promote the development of digital economy, accelerate the digitization of industry, and promote the green ecological efficiency of China’s industry with the digital economy a grip. At the same time, the regulating role of government environmental regulations should be given full play to narrow the differences between regions and promote the green, coordinated, and sustainable development of each regional economy

RES-Scanner:a software package for genome-wide identification of RNA-editing sites

BACKGROUND: High-throughput sequencing (HTS) provides a powerful solution for the genome-wide identification of RNA-editing sites. However, it remains a great challenge to distinguish RNA-editing sites from genetic variants and technical artifacts caused by sequencing or read-mapping errors. RESULTS: Here we present RES-Scanner, a flexible and efficient software package that detects and annotates RNA-editing sites using matching RNA-seq and DNA-seq data from the same individuals or samples. RES-Scanner allows the use of both raw HTS reads and pre-aligned reads in BAM format as inputs. When inputs are HTS reads, RES-Scanner can invoke the BWA mapper to align reads to the reference genome automatically. To rigorously identify potential false positives resulting from genetic variants, we have equipped RES-Scanner with sophisticated statistical models to infer the reliability of homozygous genotypes called from DNA-seq data. These models are applicable to samples from either single individuals or a pool of multiple individuals if the ploidy information is known. In addition, RES-Scanner implements statistical tests to distinguish genuine RNA-editing sites from sequencing errors, and provides a series of sophisticated filtering options to remove false positives resulting from mapping errors. Finally, RES-Scanner can improve the completeness and accuracy of editing site identification when the data of multiple samples are available. CONCLUSION: RES-Scanner, as a software package written in the Perl programming language, provides a comprehensive solution that addresses read mapping, homozygous genotype calling, de novo RNA-editing site identification and annotation for any species with matching RNA-seq and DNA-seq data. The package is freely available. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13742-016-0143-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Construction applicability of mechanical methods for connecting aisle in the bohai mudstone stratum with high water pressure

China’s traditional connecting aisle construction technology is mainly to combine soil reinforcement with mining excavation. The technology is relatively mature, but it has shortcomings such as long construction period and long-term construction settlement. In order to overcome the above shortcomings, mechanical methods for connecting aisle technology has become increasingly mature after years of research and development, and has been successfully applied in many areas. For the cross-sea tunnel project, this technology was first tried and applied in the interval tunnel of Qingdao Metro Line 8. It is challenging to construct the connecting aisle by mechanical method in Bohai mudstone stratum with high water pressure, which has the construction difficulties such as high excavation requirements, high requirements for post-support function and limited space of main tunnel. In this study, a cutter, propulsion system, and back supporting system were designed to handle the key and difficult points and risks of the aforementioned construction. Furthermore, targeted construction schemes were adopted for sleeve sealing, sleeve removal, and improvement of sleeve sealing. The applicability of the improved mechanical construction method to the geological conditions of the Qingdao area was verified through a numerical simulation. The research results can provide a reference for the mechanical construction of connecting aisle under similar formation conditions

Draft genome of the leopard gecko, <i>Eublepharis macularius</i>

BACKGROUND: Geckos are among the most species-rich reptile groups and the sister clade to all other lizards and snakes. Geckos possess a suite of distinctive characteristics, including adhesive digits, nocturnal activity, hard, calcareous eggshells, and a lack of eyelids. However, one gecko clade, the Eublepharidae, appears to be the exception to most of these ‘rules’ and lacks adhesive toe pads, has eyelids, and lays eggs with soft, leathery eggshells. These differences make eublepharids an important component of any investigation into the underlying genomic innovations contributing to the distinctive phenotypes in ‘typical’ geckos. FINDINGS: We report high-depth genome sequencing, assembly, and annotation for a male leopard gecko, Eublepharis macularius (Eublepharidae). Illumina sequence data were generated from seven insert libraries (ranging from 170 to 20 kb), representing a raw sequencing depth of 136X from 303 Gb of data, reduced to 84X and 187 Gb after filtering. The assembled genome of 2.02 Gb was close to the 2.23 Gb estimated by k-mer analysis. Scaffold and contig N50 sizes of 664 and 20 kb, respectively, were comparable to the previously published Gekko japonicus genome. Repetitive elements accounted for 42 % of the genome. Gene annotation yielded 24,755 protein-coding genes, of which 93 % were functionally annotated. CEGMA and BUSCO assessment showed that our assembly captured 91 % (225 of 248) of the core eukaryotic genes, and 76 % of vertebrate universal single-copy orthologs. CONCLUSIONS: Assembly of the leopard gecko genome provides a valuable resource for future comparative genomic studies of geckos and other squamate reptiles. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13742-016-0151-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Caste-specific RNA editomes in the leaf-cutting ant <i>Acromyrmex echinatior</i>

Eusocial insects have evolved the capacity to generate adults with distinct morphological, reproductive and behavioural phenotypes from the same genome. Recent studies suggest that RNA editing might enhance the diversity of gene products at the post-transcriptional level, particularly to induce functional changes in the nervous system. Using head samples from the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior, we compare RNA editomes across eusocial castes, identifying ca. 11,000 RNA editing sites in gynes, large workers and small workers. Those editing sites map to 800 genes functionally enriched for neurotransmission, circadian rhythm, temperature response, RNA splicing and carboxylic acid biosynthesis. Most A. echinatior editing sites are species specific, but 8–23% are conserved across ant subfamilies and likely to have been important for the evolution of eusociality in ants. The level of editing varies for the same site between castes, suggesting that RNA editing might be a general mechanism that shapes caste behaviour in ants

Caste-specific RNA-editomes in the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior

4 - Insect epigenomics: bridging the gap between genotype and phenotype, Oral Presentatio