China’s evolving reserve requirements

This paper examines the evolving role of reserve requirements as a policy tool in China. Since 2007, the Chinese central bank (PBC) has relied more on this tool to withdraw domestic liquidity surpluses, as a cheaper substitute for open-market operation instruments in this period of rapid FX accumulation. China’s reserve requirement system has also become more complex and been used to address a range of other policy objectives, not least being macroeconomic management, financial stability and credit policy. The preference for using reserve requirements reflects the size of China’s FX sterilisation task and the associated cost considerations, a quantity-oriented monetary policy framework challenged to reconcile policy dilemmas and tactical considerations. The PBC often finds it easier to reach consensus over reserve requirement decisions than interest rate decisions and enjoys greater discretion in applying this tool. The monetary effects of reserve requirements need to be explored in conjunction with other policy actions and not in isolation. Depending on the policy mix, higher reserve requirements tend to signal a tightening bias, to squeeze excess reserves of banks, to push market interest rates higher, and to help widen net interest spreads, thus tightening domestic monetary conditions. There are, however, costs to using this policy tool, as it imposes a tax burden on Chinese banks that in turn appear to have passed a significant portion of this cost onto their customers, mostly depositors and SMEs. However, the pass-through onto bank customers appears to be partial.reserve requirements; sterilisation tools; monetary policy; net interest margin and spread; tax incidence; Chinese economy

HHT based analysis on seismic response recordings for a base-isolated building

Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) is proposed to process the seismic response recordings in an 8-story frame-shear wall base-isolated building. Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method is first applied to identify the time variant characteristics and the data series can be decomposed into several components. Hilbert transform is well-behaved in identifying the frequency components. The first 5 intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) are decomposed with their different frequencies. The analytical function is reconstructed and compared with the original signal. They are extremely consistent in amplitude and phase. Based on the IMFs obtained, frequencies of the original signal are inferred at 5 Hz and 1.6 Hz. The higher frequency is regarded as the vibration excited by surface waves. 1.6 Hz is suggested as the dominant frequency of the building. Analysis indicates that HHT is accurate in extracting the dynamic characteristics of structural systems

Chlorine corrosion of blast furnace gas pipelines: analysis from thermal perspective

With the broad application of dry dedusting of blast furnace gas(BFG), the issue of BFG pipeline corrosion comes up because of chlorine in the BFG. Existing methods in preventing the corrosion, such as spraying alkali or installing corrosion-resistant materials, require a significant amount of investment. This paper conducted a novel thermal analysis of the corrosion mechanism to support the study on corrosion prevention without using additional materials. Firstly, thermal models were established to reflect the relationships among the amount of condensation water, the mass transfer rate, the concentration of chloride ion and the ambient temperature. Secondly, the relationship between BFG temperature and the corrosion rate was obtained via a cyclic exposure experiment. Key factors that affect the pipeline corrosion under various BFG temperatures were identified. Finally, a control scheme of the BFG temperature was proposed to avoid the chlorine corrosion

A charging pricing strategy of electric vehicle fast charging stations for the voltage control of electricity distribution networks

With the increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs), the EV fast charging load will significantly affect the voltage quality of electricity distribution networks. On the other hand, EVs have potentials to change the choices of charging locations due to the incentives from the variations of charging prices, which can be considered as a flexible response resource for electricity distribution networks. In this paper, a charging pricing strategy of EV fast charging stations (FCSs) was developed to determine the pricing scheme for the voltage control of electricity distribution networks, which consisted of a simulation model of EV mobility and a double-layer optimization model. Considering the travel characteristics of users, the simulation model of EV mobility was developed to accurately determine the fast charging demand. Taking the total income of FCSs and the users’ response to the pricing scheme into account, the double-layer optimization model was developed to optimize the charging pricing scheme and minimize the total voltage magnitude deviation of distribution networks. A test case was used to verify the proposed strategy. The results show that the spatial distribution of EV fast charging loads was reallocated by the proposed charging pricing scheme. It can also be seen that the proposed strategy can make full use of the response capacity from EVs to improve the voltage profiles without decreasing the income of the FCSs

Prognostic Value of an Inflammation-Related Index in 6,865 Chinese Patients With Postoperative Digestive Tract Cancers: The FIESTA Study

Objectives: We sought to determine the optimal cutting points for two inflammatory biomarkers, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), to assess their prognostic value in patients with postoperative digestive tract cancers overall and by cancer sites, and further to construct an inflammation-related index based on the two biomarkers and assess its predictive performance.Methods: Total 6,865 assessable patients with digestive tract cancers who underwent tumor resection were consecutively enrolled from Fujian Cancer Hospital between January 2000 and December 2010, including 2535/3012/1318 patients with esophageal/gastric/colorectal cancer. The latest follow-up (median: 44.9 months) ended in December 2015. Optimal cutting points were determined using survival tree analysis overall and by cancer sites.Results: Among all study patients, the optimal cutting points were 2.07 and 168.50 to define high and low NLR and PLR, respectively. High NLR (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.48, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.37–1.61) and high PLR (HR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.29–1.53) were associated with a significantly increased risk for the mortality of digestive tract cancers as a whole. By cancer sites, effect-size estimates were comparable and statistically significant. Elevation over the selected optimal cutting points for both NLR and PLR was associated with 1.69-fold increased risk of cancer-specific mortality compared to patients with simultaneously low NLR and PLR among all study patients, and this association persisted by cancer sites, especially for gastric cancer.Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that the preoperative integrated NLR and PLR, as an inflammation-related index, is a significant independent predictor for postoperative mortality in Chinese patients with digestive tract cancers both overall and by cancer sites

Interaction Between Prediabetes and the ABO Blood Types in Predicting Postsurgical Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma-Specific Mortality: The FIESTA Study

Background: We aimed to investigate the interaction between prediabetes and the ABO blood types in predicting esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC)-specific mortality by analysing data from the FIESTA study on normal/prediabetic patients with ESCC.Methods: Total 1,857 normal/prediabetic patients with ESCC who underwent three-field lymphadenectomy between January 2000 and December 2010 and survived hospitalization were analyzable, with follow-up beginning in 2000 and ending in 2015.Results: At the end of the follow-up, there were 1,161 survivors and 696 non-survivors. The follow-up time ranged from 0.5 to 180 months. The cumulative survival rates in normal patients were obviously better than in prediabetic patients. The cumulative survival rates were significantly higher in normal patients than in prediabetic patients for the blood types O and A (Log-rank test P < 0.05), while no significance was detected for the blood types B and AB. Adjusted risk estimates for ESCC-specific mortality for prediabetic patients relative to normal patients were statistically significant in the blood type B− group (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.71; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.33–2.20; P < 0.001), but not in the blood type B+ group (HR: 1.12; 95% CI: 0.77–1.64; P = 0.5544).Conclusions: Our findings indicate that prediabetes can predict the significant risk of ESCC-specific mortality in Chinese Han patients with the blood types O and A

GPX8 regulates pan-apoptosis in gliomas to promote microglial migration and mediate immunotherapy responses

IntroductionGliomas have emerged as the predominant brain tumor type in recent decades, yet the exploration of non-apoptotic cell death regulated by the pan-optosome complex, known as pan-apoptosis, remains largely unexplored in this context. This study aims to illuminate the molecular properties of pan-apoptosis-related genes in glioma patients, classifying them and developing a signature using machine learning techniques.MethodsThe prognostic significance, mutation features, immunological characteristics, and pharmaceutical prediction performance of this signature were comprehensively investigated. Furthermore, GPX8, a gene of interest, was extensively examined for its prognostic value, immunological characteristics, medication prediction performance, and immunotherapy prediction potential. ResultsExperimental techniques such as CCK-8, Transwell, and EdU investigations revealed that GPX8 acts as a tumor accelerator in gliomas. At the single-cell RNA sequencing level, GPX8 appeared to facilitate cell contact between tumor cells and macrophages, potentially enhancing microglial migration. ConclusionsThe incorporation of pan-apoptosis-related features shows promising potential for clinical applications in predicting tumor progression and advancing immunotherapeutic strategies. However, further in vitro and in vivo investigations are necessary to validate the tumorigenic and immunogenic processes associated with GPX8 in gliomas

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements