China’s new exchange rate regime, optimal basket currency and currency diversification

We build an optimising framework to analyse a class of economies that adopt an ECU-type basket currency while in transition to increased flexibility of the exchange rate regime. Instead of conventional basket pegging, such an economy uses an ECU-type currency index as a benchmark for monitoring and assessing exchange rate movements. This provides an anchoring device for the nations exchange rate regime and allows the home currencys exchange rate to fluctuate. Under the assumption that the central bank is chiefly interested in maintaining stability, the optimal structure of the basket currency is based on its contribution to minimizing the volatility of the countrys external account. A currency invariance index is applied to capture the effect of the countrys exit from exclusive linkage with the US dollar. The approach is illustrated by Chinese exchange rate policy. We find it advisable and viable for China to form a basket currency with a diversified portfolio of currencies. While the portfolios weighting scheme could favour the dollar, euro and Japanese yen, we show that the composition of the basket is open to a wide range of possibilities. Moreover, contrary to general fears, there is considerable potential for China to engage in currency diversification, which will not necessarily affect the dollars position.basket currency; currency diversification; China

Involvement of NADH Oxidase in Biofilm Formation in Streptococcus sanguinis

Biofilms play important roles in microbial communities and are related to infectious diseases. Here, we report direct evidence that a bacterial nox gene encoding NADH oxidase is involved in biofilm formation. A dramatic reduction in biofilm formation was observed in a Streptococcus sanguinis nox mutant under anaerobic conditions without any decrease in growth. The membrane fluidity of the mutant bacterial cells was found to be decreased and the fatty acid composition altered, with increased palmitic acid and decreased stearic acid and vaccenic acid. Extracellular DNA of the mutant was reduced in abundance and bacterial competence was suppressed. Gene expression analysis in the mutant identified two genes with altered expression, gtfP and Idh, which were found to be related to biofilm formation through examination of their deletion mutants. NADH oxidase-related metabolic pathways were analyzed, further clarifying the function of this enzyme in biofilm formation

Strategic IT Investment of B2B E-commerce Platform Considering the Variable Investment Cost

In the competitive market of B2B E-commerce platform, the former entrant has the advantage of switching cost while the later entrant has the advantage of declining IT cost. Considering the variable investment cost due to the improvement of platform quality, the paper develops an IT investment model to investigate the best investment strategy for B2B E-commerce platform under the impact of switching cost, declining IT cost, user price-sensitive coefficient and quality-sensitive coefficient. The results show that, switching costs helps former entrant increase investment in platform quality, assume an aggressive investment strategy. Declining IT cost helps later entrant increase investment in platform quality and assumes an aggressive investment strategy only when user switching costs are lower. With the increase of user price-sensitive coefficient, former entrant and later entrant should both decrease investment in platform quality. With the increase of user quality-sensitive coefficient, former entrant and later entrant should both increase investment in platform quality

INTERACTION BETWEEN WATER AND PLANTS: RICH DYNAMICS IN A SIMPLE MODEL

An ordinary differential equation model describing interaction of water and plants in ecosystem is proposed. Despite its simple looking, it is shown that the model possesses surprisingly rich dynamics including multiple stable equilibria, backward bifurcation of positive equilibria, supercritical or subcritical Hopf bifurcations, bubble loop of limit cycles, homoclinic bifurcation and Bogdanov-Takens bifurcation. We classify bifurcation diagrams of the system using the rain-fall rate as bifurcation parameter. In the transition from global stability of bare-soil state for low rain-fall to the global stability of high vegetation state for high rain-fall rate, oscillatory states or multiple equilibrium states can occur, which can be viewed as a new indicator of catastrophic environmental shift

PO-019 Effects of Yin Yoga for Three Months on Insomnia in Menopausal Women

Objective To assess changes in sleep quality before and after 3 months Yin yoga on insomnia in menopausal women,which provides a scientific and reliable theoretical basis for improving insomnia of menopausal women by doing Yin yoga exercise. Methods Twenty menopausal women (year,48.16±3.66) with non-organic insomnia who volunteered for Yin yoga were selected. They all performed the same six poses of Yin yoga at 22:00 PM. Each pose lasted for 5min, 30 min each time, 5 times per week, and for 3 consecutive months. Before and after 3 month Yin yoga exercise, polysomnogram(PSG) and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) were used to evaluate the improvement of insomnia. Results After 3 months Yin yoga exercise, the sleep latency (SL), rem sleep latency (RL) and sleep efficiency (SE) of the insomniacs all improved, with statistically significant differences (P<0.05). Three months of Yin yoga exercise later, the Pittsburgh sleep quality index showed a significant difference in sleep scores compared with the start of exercise(P<0.01). Conclusions Yin yoga exercise can improve insomnia in menopausal women and the effect is significant, worthy of promotion