How Does Rising House Price Influence Stock Market Participation in China?

This is an empirical study on the effect of house price on stock-market participation and its depths based on unique China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data in 2011 and 2013 including 36213 sample households. We mainly found that, with an increase of one thousand RMB per square meter in macro house price, the probability to participate in the stock market will increase by 5.4% before controlling for wealth effect and 2.84% afterwards, indicating the existence of wealth effect. The participation depths of the stock-total asset ratio is expected to decrease by 0.23% and absolute stock asset is observed to decrease by 5.8 thousand RMB in response to one thousand RMB increase of per square meter house price. The effect of house price on participation decision is also related to housing area, and the negative effect of house price on stock market participation depths gets more intense with the increase of the stock-total asset ratio

Overview of Transition Metal Phosphide Catalysts and Hydrogen Production by Electrolyzed Water

Hydrogen energy is a green and efficient secondary energy source. With the help of cheap non-precious metal catalysts, electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen has attracted widespread attention because of its low cost and high efficiency. The transition metal phosphide can expose more coordinated unsaturated surface atoms due to its unique nearly spherical triangular prism unit structure, so it exhibits excellent catalytic activity, strong corrosion resistance and high efficiency in the production of hydrogen from electrolyzed water. This article mainly reviews the preparation methods of transition metal phosphides and their application and performance improvement in electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Finally, some problems that need to be solved in transition metal phosphide catalysts are discussed, which is beneficial to the development of other non-noble metal electrolyzed hydrogen production catalysts

Tail loss affects fecundity but not offspring traits in the Chinese skink Eumeces chinensis

We used the Chinese skink Eumeces chinensis as a model animal to study the effects of tail loss on reproductive investment and offspring traits. A total of 147 wild-captured adult females were divided into four groups according to their tail conditions. Tail breaks occurred most frequently in the proximal portion of the tail and least frequently in the distal portion, with the middle portion in between. This finding suggests that tail breaks occurring in nature often entails substantial energetic costs in E. chinensis where the tail is a major site of energy storage. The proportion of females that laid eggs was higher in females with intact or completely regenerated tails than in those with broken tails. Following whole-tail autotomy, the clutch size was reduced by 17%, and the clutch mass was reduced by 14%. Females undergoing substantial tail autotomy reduced reproductive investment, and they did so by reducing the number but not the size of eggs produced. None of the egg and hatchling traits was affected by tail loss. Comparing our data with those reported for other oviparous and viviparous skinks allows us to draw two general conclusions: one is that fecundity (clutch or litter size) is affected by tail loss in all species so far studied, whereas offspring size is affected by tail loss in some species, but not in others; the other is that the reduction in fecundity following tail loss is more evident in species lacking abdominal fat bodies [Current Zoology 58 (2): 228-235, 2012]

Tuning the Mn Dopant To Boost the Hydrogen Evolution Performance of CoP Nanowire Arrays

Because of its advantages such as abundant resources, low cost, simple synthesis, and high electrochemical stability, cobalt phosphide (CoP) is considered as a promising candidate for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction. Through element doping, the morphology and electronic structure of the catalyst can be tuned, resulting in both the increase of the active site number and the improvement of the intrinsic activity of each site. Herein, we designed and fabricated Mn-doped CoP nanowires with a length of 3 mu m, a diameter of 50 nm, and the pores between the grains of 10 nm. As a highly efficient electrocatalyst for alkaline hydrogen evolution, the Mn-10-doped CoP/NF (doping amount is about 10 atom %) electrode presented overpotentials of 60 mV @ g 10 mA cm(-2) and 112 mV g 100 mA cm(-2), improved by 35 and 23%, respectively, compared with CoP/NF. Characterizations indicate that Mn doping increases the electrochemical active area, reduces the impedance, and tunes the electronic structure of the material. Density functional theory calculations also revealed that an appropriate amount of Mn dopant at a suitable location can both react as an active site itself and boost the activity of the surrounding Co sites, delivering favorable H* adsorption and rapid reaction kinetics. This result may not only promote the development of hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts but also encourage explorations of the relationship between the property and fine doping structure

Tuning the Mn Dopant To Boost the Hydrogen Evolution Performance of CoP Nanowire Arrays

Because of its advantages such as abundant resources, low cost, simple synthesis, and high electrochemical stability, cobalt phosphide (CoP) is considered as a promising candidate for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction. Through element doping, the morphology and electronic structure of the catalyst can be tuned, resulting in both the increase of the active site number and the improvement of the intrinsic activity of each site. Herein, we designed and fabricated Mn-doped CoP nanowires with a length of 3 mu m, a diameter of 50 nm, and the pores between the grains of 10 nm. As a highly efficient electrocatalyst for alkaline hydrogen evolution, the Mn-10-doped CoP/NF (doping amount is about 10 atom %) electrode presented overpotentials of 60 mV @ g 10 mA cm(-2) and 112 mV g 100 mA cm(-2), improved by 35 and 23%, respectively, compared with CoP/NF. Characterizations indicate that Mn doping increases the electrochemical active area, reduces the impedance, and tunes the electronic structure of the material. Density functional theory calculations also revealed that an appropriate amount of Mn dopant at a suitable location can both react as an active site itself and boost the activity of the surrounding Co sites, delivering favorable H* adsorption and rapid reaction kinetics. This result may not only promote the development of hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts but also encourage explorations of the relationship between the property and fine doping structure

Metabolic profile and transcriptome reveal the mystery of petal blotch formation in rose

Abstract Background Petal blotch is a unique ornamental trait in angiosperm families, and blotch in rose petal is rare and has great esthetic value. However, the cause of the formation of petal blotch in rose is still unclear. The influence of key enzyme genes and regulatory genes in the pigment synthesis pathways needs to be explored and clarified. Results In this study, the rose cultivar ‘Sunset Babylon Eyes’ with rose-red to dark red blotch at the base of petal was selected as the experimental material. The HPLC-DAD and UPLC-TQ-MS analyses indicated that only cyanidin 3,5-O-diglucoside (Cy3G5G) contributed to the blotch pigmentation of ‘Sunset Babylon Eyes’, and the amounts of Cy3G5G varied at different developmental stages. Only flavonols but no flavone were found in blotch and non-blotch parts. As a consequence, kaempferol and its derivatives as well as quercetin and its derivatives may act as background colors during flower developmental stages. Despite of the differences in composition, the total content of carotenoids in blotch and non-blotch parts were similar, and carotenoids may just make the petals show a brighter color. Transcriptomic data, quantitative real-time PCR and promoter sequence analyses indicated that RC7G0058400 (F3’H), RC6G0470600 (DFR) and RC7G0212200 (ANS) may be the key enzyme genes for the early formation and color deepening of blotch at later stages. As for two transcription factor, RC7G0019000 (MYB) and RC1G0363600 (WRKY) may bind to the promoters of critical enzyme genes, or RC1G0363600 (WRKY) may bind to the promoter of RC7G0019000 (MYB) to activate the anthocyanin accumulation in blotch parts of ‘Sunset Babylon Eyes’. Conclusions Our findings provide a theoretical basis for the understanding of the chemical and molecular mechanism for the formation of petal blotch in rose

Comparative Transcriptomes Analysis of Red- and White-Fleshed Apples in an F1 Population of Malus sieversii f. niedzwetzkyana Crossed with M. domestica 'Fuji'.

Transcriptome profiles of the red- and white-fleshed apples in an F1 segregating population of Malus sieversii f.Niedzwetzkyana and M.domestica 'Fuji' were generated using the next-generation high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) technology and compared. A total of 114 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained, of which 88 were up-regulated and 26 were down-regulated in red-fleshed apples. The 88 up-regulated genes were enriched with those related to flavonoid biosynthetic process and stress responses. Further analysis identified 22 genes associated with flavonoid biosynthetic process and 68 genes that may be related to stress responses. Furthermore, the expression of 20 up-regulated candidate genes (10 related to flavonoid biosynthesis, two encoding MYB transcription factors and eight related to stress responses) and 10 down-regulated genes were validated by quantitative real-time PCR. After exploring the possible regulatory network, we speculated that flavonoid metabolism might be involved in stress responses in red-fleshed apple. Our findings provide a theoretical basis for further enriching gene resources associated with flavonoid synthesis and stress responses of fruit trees and for breeding elite apples with high flavonoid content and/or increased stress tolerances

Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes Associated with Apple Fruit Ripening and Softening by Suppression Subtractive Hybridization.

Apple is one of the most economically important horticultural fruit crops worldwide. It is critical to gain insights into fruit ripening and softening to improve apple fruit quality and extend shelf life. In this study, forward and reverse suppression subtractive hybridization libraries were generated from 'Taishanzaoxia' apple fruits sampled around the ethylene climacteric to isolate ripening- and softening-related genes. A set of 648 unigenes were derived from sequence alignment and cluster assembly of 918 expressed sequence tags. According to gene ontology functional classification, 390 out of 443 unigenes (88%) were assigned to the biological process category, 356 unigenes (80%) were classified in the molecular function category, and 381 unigenes (86%) were allocated to the cellular component category. A total of 26 unigenes differentially expressed during fruit development period were analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR. These genes were involved in cell wall modification, anthocyanin biosynthesis, aroma production, stress response, metabolism, transcription, or were non-annotated. Some genes associated with cell wall modification, anthocyanin biosynthesis and aroma production were up-regulated and significantly correlated with ethylene production, suggesting that fruit texture, coloration and aroma may be regulated by ethylene in 'Taishanzaoxia'. Some of the identified unigenes associated with fruit ripening and softening have not been characterized in public databases. The results contribute to an improved characterization of changes in gene expression during apple fruit ripening and softening

Red- and white-fleshed apples at the ripe stage used for RNA-Seq.

<p>(A)Red-fleshed apples in the F₁ population. Scale bar = 1cm. (B) White-fleshed apples in the F₁ population. Scale bar = 1cm. (C) Flavonoid content in red- and white-fleshed apples. (D) Anthocyanin content in red- and white-fleshed apples.</p

Up-regulated genes involved in flavonoid biosynthetic processes in red-fleshed apples.

<p>Up-regulated genes involved in flavonoid biosynthetic processes in red-fleshed apples.</p