Impacts of Climate Change on the People's Republic of China's Grain Output - Regional and Crop Perspective

This paper investigates the impacts of climate change on the People's Republic of China's (PRC) grain output using rural household survey data. We highlight the regional differences of impacts by estimating output elasticities for different grain crops and different regions. Our results indicate that the overall negative climate impacts on the PRC's grain output range from –0.31% to –2.69% in 2030, and from –1.93% to –3.07% in 2050, under different emission scenarios. The impacts, however, differ substantially for different grain crops and different regions. From the perspective of grain crops, for example, modeling results suggest a decrease in rice output by 15.62%–24.26% in 2030 and by 25.95%–45.09% in 2050. Conversely, positive impacts of climate change are reported for both corn and soybean, with corn output increasing by 18.59%–24.27% in 2030 and 32.77%– 49.58% in 2050, and soybean output increasing by 0.48%–5.53% in 2030 and 3.96%–6.48% in 2050. The impacts on wheat output are relatively small. Looking at the regional perspective, modeling results reveal that the impacts of climate change in the northern and central regions of the PRC are positive. Specifically, climate change in Northern PRC is calculated to increase the country's grain output by 2.85%–4.80% in 2030, and 5.30%–8.49% in 2050; while in Central PRC the increases will be 3.53%–4.97% in 2030, and 8.91%–13.43% in 2050. Climate change in South PRC and Northwest PRC is projected to have small positive impacts on the country's grain output. On the other hand, the impacts of climate change are negative in the remaining regions, with reductions in 2030 of 4.10%–8.58% in East PRC, 2.29%–4.05% in Southwest PRC, and 2.58%–2.66% in Northeast PRC

Climate Change and Agricultural Interregional Trade Flows in the People's Republic of China

The impacts of climate change on agricultural production in the People's Republic of China (PRC) are significant, and differ across regions and crops. The substantial regional differences will induce changes in the agricultural interregional trade pattern. In this paper, we investigate the climate change impacts on this trade pattern, using a computable general equilibrium model of multiple regions and multiple sectors. The results indicate that Northwest, South, Central, and Northeast PRC will see increases in the outflows of agricultural products in 2030 and 2050. Conversely, outflows from East, North, and Southwest PRC will decrease. Grain handling and transportation facilities need to be repositioned to address the changes in agricultural trade flows

Two revenue sharing contracts in a three-echelon supply chain with a risk-neutral or a risk-averse retailer

Purpose: This paper compares the efficiency of two revenue-sharing contracts and discusses the members’ preference for a three-echelon supply chain with the retailer’s different risk attitude. Design/methodology/approach: This paper focuses on a three-echelon supply chain with a manufacturer, a distributor and a retailer. If the retailer is risk-neutral, the coordination of the supply chain based on the two revenue-sharing contracts is comparatively studied. If the retailer is downside-risk-aversion, the supply chain performance is comparatively analyzed and a risk-sharing contract is designed to coordinate the supply chain. Finally, the two revenue-sharing contracts under the risk-sharing contract are still compared. Findings: Although both the two revenue-sharing contracts can coordinate the supply chain with a risk-neutral retailer, they are not always able to coordinate the supply chain with a risk-averse retailer. It is interesting that the supply chain with a risk-averse retailer can be coordinated by executing a designed risk-sharing contract, which is based on any kind of revenue-sharing contract. Finally, any kind of revenue-sharing contracts is not absolutely better than another. Based on the risk-sharing contract, the retailer’s preference is equivalent between the two contracts; but for the distributor and the manufacturer, their preferences between the two contracts are positively related to their own profit share in the supply chain. Originality/value: Comprehensively comparing the two revenue-sharing contracts is the only presented research in the supply chain.Peer Reviewe

Analysis of Non-pharmacological Management Strategies for Stable Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Based on 2021 GOLD's Global Strategy for the Diagnosis，Management，and Prevention of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is now the third leading cause of death in the world, after ischemic heart disease and stroke. However, in the face of this preventable and curable major public health problem, there are still many problems in clinical diagnosis and treatment in China, such as insufficient health education, missing follow-up data, and non-standardized clinical management, which may be important causes of the deterioration of conditions, leading to increased difficulties in treating and higher possibility of poor outcome after late treatment as well as increased social and economic burden of COPD. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to accelerate the standardization of prevention, diagnosis and management of COPD to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of diagnosis and treatment of COPD. To provide a reference for emergency and respiratory clinicians to better treat COPD patients clinically, in view of domestic diagnosis, treatment and studies regarding COPD, we comprehensively analyzed the non-pharmacological treatment of stable COPD based on the updated GOLD's Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, mainly including pulmonary function measurement and assessment, smoking cessation, pulmonary rehabilitation, oxygen therapy, ventilatory support and surgical interventions

Above-knee Prosthesis Control Based on Posture Recognition by Support Vector Machine

Abstract-In order for individuals suffering from transfemoral amputation to walk in a variety of circumstances, the above-knee prosthesis based on posture recognition was presented. The body posture of lower limb was classified into four classes, "stair", "sitting", "standing", and "walking". For measure the amputee's movement intent, surface EMG signals which can reflect amputee's movement intent and can be measured without invasion were applied to identify postural adjustments by support vector machine. The result of this study indicates that this method can recognize every postural adjustment with a higher identification rate, and has a great potential in practical application of artificial lower limb

Spatiotemporal clustering of the epigenome reveals rules of dynamic gene regulation

Spatial organization of different epigenomic marks was used to infer functions of the epigenome. It remains unclear what can be learned from the temporal changes of the epigenome. Here, we developed a probabilistic model to cluster genomic sequences based on the similarity of temporal changes of multiple epigenomic marks during a cellular differentiation process. We differentiated mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells into mesendoderm cells. At three time points during this differentiation process, we used high-throughput sequencing to measure seven histone modifications and variants—H3K4me1/2/3, H3K27ac, H3K27me3, H3K36me3, and H2A.Z; two DNA modifications—5-mC and 5-hmC; and transcribed mRNAs and noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). Genomic sequences were clustered based on the spatiotemporal epigenomic information. These clusters not only clearly distinguished gene bodies, promoters, and enhancers, but also were predictive of bidirectional promoters, miRNA promoters, and piRNAs. This suggests specific epigenomic patterns exist on piRNA genes much earlier than germ cell development. Temporal changes of H3K4me2, unmethylated CpG, and H2A.Z were predictive of 5-hmC changes, suggesting unmethylated CpG and H3K4me2 as potential upstream signals guiding TETs to specific sequences. Several rules on combinatorial epigenomic changes and their effects on mRNA expression and ncRNA expression were derived, including a simple rule governing the relationship between 5-hmC and gene expression levels. A Sox17 enhancer containing a FOXA2 binding site and a Foxa2 enhancer containing a SOX17 binding site were identified, suggesting a positive feedback loop between the two mesendoderm transcription factors. These data illustrate the power of using epigenome dynamics to investigate regulatory functions

Identification and Functional Analysis of a Protein Disulfide Isomerase (AtPDI1) in Arabidopsis thaliana

Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) catalyzes the conversion of thiol-disulfide and plays an important role in various physiological events in animals. A PDI (OaPDI) from a tropical plant was detailed studied and it was found to be involved in response of biotic stress (Gruber et al., 2007). However, the activities of PDI related to physiological functions in plants are poorly understood. In the present study, a homolog of human PDI in Arabidopsis (AtPDI1), encoded by the gene (At3g54960), was characterized. The recombinant AtPDI1 protein had disulfide isomerase activity in vitro and two pairs of conservative cysteines in catalytic domains play a crucial role in the PDI activities. Expression of AtPDI1 in Escherichia coli significantly enhanced stress tolerance of cells and the mutations of critical cysteines almost lose this function. In plants, AtPDI1 was strongly induced by abiotic stresses and exogenous abscisic acid. An ArabidopsisAtPDI1 knockdown mutant (pdi1) and overexpression lines of transgenic plants obtained by this investigation were used to further examine the function of AtPDI1. The mutant line was more sensitive to stresses than the wild-type, while overexpressing AtPDI1 increased tolerance of seedlings to abiotic stresses, with a higher germination ratio and longer length of roots than the wild-type. Our results suggested AtPDI1 played roles in anti-stresses in Arabidopsis, which relate to the activities of PDI

Compound Kushen Injection suppresses human breast cancer stem-like cells by down-regulating the canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play an important role in cancer initiation, relapse and metastasis. To date, no specific medicine has been found to target CSCs as they are resistant to most conventional therapies and proliferate indefinitely. Compound Kushen Injection (CKI) has been widely used for cancer patients with remarkable therapeutic effects in Chinese clinical settings for many years. This study focused on whether CKI could inhibit MCF-7 SP cells in vitro and in vivo.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The analysis of CKI on SP population and the main genes of Wnt signaling pathway were studied first. Then we studied the tumorigenicity of SP cells and the effects of CKI on SP cells in vivo. The mice inoculated with 10,000 SP cells were randomly divided into three groups (6 in each group) and treated with CKI, cisplatin and saline (as a control) respectively for 7 weeks. The tumor formation rates of each group were compared. The main genes and proteins of the Wnt signaling pathway were analyzed by RT-PCR and western blot.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>CKI suppressed the size of SP population (approximately 90%), and down-regulated the main genes of Wnt signaling pathway. We also determined that MCF-7 SP cells were more tumorigenic than non-SP and unsorted cells. The Wnt signaling pathway was up-regulated in tumors derived from SP cells compared with that in tumors from non-SP cells. The tumor formation rate of the CKI Group was 33% (2/6, <it>P </it>< 0.05), and that of Cisplatin Group was 50%(3/6, <it>P </it>< 0.05), whereas that of the Control Group was 100% (6/6).The RT-PCR and western blot results indicated that CKI suppressed tumor growth by down-regulating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, while cisplatin activated the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and might spare SP cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>It suggested that CKI may serve as a novel drug targeting cancer stem-like cells, though further studies are recommended.</p