Investigating the Effects of Social Trust and Perceived Organizational Support on Irrigation Management Performance in Rural China

Understanding the factors affecting irrigation management performance is crucial for sustainable resource use, especially with the decentralized management mode of irrigation systems being implemented in rural China. This paper contributes to the research field by incorporating different categories of social trust and perceived organization support (POS) into the analysis of irrigation management performance, by linking multiple elements that are based on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. We employed principal component analysis (PCA) and ordered probit regression to analyze a database covering 785 households in the upstream of the Yellow River basin. The results suggested that social trust and POS positively affected the irrigation management performance, and social trust strengthened the positive effect of POS on the performance. Furthermore, the results indicated that personal trust and institutional trust, as well as perceived emotional support and physical support, positively affected the performance. In addition, we also found that household characteristics, household cognition, group characteristics, physical conditions, and rules-in-use also had significant impact on the performance. This paper can be used to inform the government that social trust and POS need to be considered in the common-pool resources (CPRs) management.Understanding the factors affecting irrigation management performance is crucial for sustainable resource use, especially with the decentralized management mode of irrigation systems being implemented in rural China. This paper contributes to the research field by incorporating different categories of social trust and perceived organization support (POS) into the analysis of irrigation management performance, by linking multiple elements that are based on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. We employed principal component analysis (PCA) and ordered probit regression to analyze a database covering 785 households in the upstream of the Yellow River basin. The results suggested that social trust and POS positively affected the irrigation management performance, and social trust strengthened the positive effect of POS on the performance. Furthermore, the results indicated that personal trust and institutional trust, as well as perceived emotional support and physical support, positively affected the performance. In addition, we also found that household characteristics, household cognition, group characteristics, physical conditions, and rules-in-use also had significant impact on the performance. This paper can be used to inform the government that social trust and POS need to be considered in the common-pool resources (CPRs) management.Peer reviewe

The Determinants of Capital structure: Evidence from the Real Estate Industry and the Electronic and Electrical Equipment Industry listed on the SSE

This paper aims to analyze the determinants of capital structure among the real estate industry and the electronic and electrical equipment (EEE) industry. All the firms are listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and the data of firms are collected in the DataStream. Using the panel data model to analyze data over the period between 2007 and 2016, it finds that there are some differences of empirical results between those two industries. For the real estate industry, leverage increases along with the rise of size, growth and non-debt tax shields, but the association among profitability, tangibility, volatility and total leverage is negative. With regard to the EEE industry, size, growth and tangibility have positive association with leverage while profitability, non-debt tax shields and volatility are negatively relevant to leverage. Moreover, the determinants of the real estate industry and the EEE industry also have differences. The determinants of the real estate firms are size, growth, non-debt tax shields and volatility. However, in the EEE industry, the capital structure determinants are size, profitability and growth. This paper also has compared the empirical results of two industries with the whole market listed on the SSE. It turns out that the determinants of a specific industry and the whole market are different. The different results indicate that the firm’s capital structure determinants are different from each other. Since the firms may have various determinants, managers need to analyze the financing conditions and to find the accurate determinants of capital structure for the firms

Synthesis of Silver Nanowires with Reduced Diameters Using Benzoin-Derived Radicals to Make Transparent Conductors with High Transparency and Low Haze.

Reducing the diameter of silver nanowires has been proven to be an effective way to improve their optoelectronic performance by lessening light attenuation. The state-of-the-art silver nanowires are typically around 20 nm in diameter. Herein we report a modified polyol synthesis of silver nanowires with average diameters as thin as 13 nm and aspect ratios up to 3000. The success of this synthesis is based on the employment of benzoin-derived radicals in the polyol approach and does not require high-pressure conditions. The strong reducing power of radicals allows the reduction of silver precursors to occur at relatively low temperatures, wherein the lateral growth of silver nanowires is restrained because of efficient surface passivation. The optoelectronic performance of as-prepared 13 nm silver nanowires presents a sheet resistance of 28 Ω sq-1 at a transmittance of 95% with a haze factor of ∼1.2%, comparable to that of commercial indium tin oxide (ITO)

A Comparative Study of Mouse Hepatic and Intestinal Gene Expression Profiles under PPARα Knockout by Gene Set Enrichment Analysis

Gene expression profiling of PPARα has been used in several studies, but fewer studies went further to identify the tissue-specific pathways or genes involved in PPARα activation in genome-wide. Here, we employed and applied gene set enrichment analysis to two microarray datasets both PPARα related respectively in mouse liver and intestine. We suggested that the regulatory mechanism of PPARα activation by WY14643 in mouse small intestine is more complicated than in liver due to more involved pathways. Several pathways were cancer-related such as pancreatic cancer and small cell lung cancer, which indicated that PPARα may have an important role in prevention of cancer development. 12 PPARα dependent pathways and 4 PPARα independent pathways were identified highly common in both liver and intestine of mice. Most of them were metabolism related, such as fatty acid metabolism, tryptophan metabolism, pyruvate metabolism with regard to PPARα regulation but gluconeogenesis and propanoate metabolism independent of PPARα regulation. Keratan sulfate biosynthesis, the pathway of regulation of actin cytoskeleton, the pathways associated with prostate cancer and small cell lung cancer were not identified as hepatic PPARα independent but as WY14643 dependent ones in intestinal study. We also provided some novel hepatic tissue-specific marker genes

Does China’s stock market react to COVID-19 differently at industry level? Evidence from China

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, global economic growth has been negatively affected. The reaction of financial markets was particularly dramatic, especially in countries severely affected by the outbreak. Based on Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) data from August 13, 2019 to December 31, 2020, this study investigates the short-term and the long-term market reactions of industry indices. The event study method and the Fama-French five-factor model are used to analyse the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings reveal that cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) in most industries followed a similar short-term trajectory. However, the excess returns of the SSE Information Technology, SSE Telecommunication Services and SSE Materials show different performance in the long term. This study facilitates the analysis of the impact of large public emergencies, such as global pandemics, on investors’ expectations and decision-making. It also helps investors to make rational decisions and the government to formulate targeted policies

Micropore evolution in additively manufactured aluminum alloys under heat treatment and inter-layer rolling

The application of wire + arc additively manufactured (WAAM) aluminum alloys has been restricted by the porosity defect, which is generally detrimental to the mechanical properties. Suppressing of micropores in the WAAM components has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Inter-layer rolling was introduced to eliminate micropores during the WAAM deposition of the Al–Cu6.3 and Al–Mg4.5 alloys. The distribution characteristics and individual morphology of micropores were revealed by the X-ray diffraction tomography. Key findings demonstrated that the number, volume, size, and roundness of micropores in rolled alloys decreased similarly with increasing loads, eventually achieving a density of over 99.9%. After the heat treatment, the homogeneous distribution of fine (around 5.3 μm) and spherical (0.70–0.74) micropores was realized in the 45 kN rolled alloys. All the evaluated indicators of micropores in the 45 kN rolled + heat treated alloys were superior to the post-deposition heat treated state. The evolution mechanisms include the reprecipitation of hydrogen pores, formation of vacant voids, and re-opening of unclosed pores. The hybrid technique of WAAM + rolling + heat treatment has great potential in promoting mechanical properties of WAAM alloys. The results will provide a theoretical guidance for the design of high-performance WAAM aluminum alloy components

Microstructure, defects, and mechanical properties of wire + arc additively manufactured AlCu4.3-Mg1.5 alloy

The wire with a composition of AlCu4.3%Mg1.5% was customized and used to deposit the WAAM alloy with the power source of cold metal transfer. The microstructure, defect, and mechanical properties of the as-deposited and heat-treated WAAM alloys were studied. Key findings demonstrated that the microstructure of the as-deposited alloy was characterized by a hierarchical distribution of dendrites, equiaxed grains, and a slight number of columnar grains. The volume fraction of the network-like scattered coarse particles of second phases θ + S reduced by 95% after the T6 heat treatment. With an average microhardness of 161.4 HV, the mean yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of the WAAM alloy increased by 116% and 66% achieving 399 MPa and 485 MPa in the horizontal direction after heat treatment. The precipitation of a high density of needle-shaped metastable S′ precipitates was responsible for the significantly enhanced mechanical properties. However, this WAAM alloy has exhibited an anisotropic tensile property. A considerable number of sharp-angled defects like linear and chain-like micropores, which generally depress the mechanical properties, were formed in the WAAM alloys

ReCGiP, a database of reproduction candidate genes in pigs based on bibliomics

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Reproduction in pigs is one of the most economically important traits. To improve the reproductive performances, numerous studies have focused on the identification of candidate genes. However, it is hard for one to read all literatures thoroughly to get information. So we have developed a database providing candidate genes for reproductive researches in pig by mining and processing existing biological literatures in human and pigs, named as ReCGiP.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>Based on text-mining and comparative genomics, ReCGiP presents diverse information of reproduction-relevant genes in human and pig. The genes were sorted by the degree of relevance with the reproduction topics and were visualized in a gene's co-occurrence network where two genes were connected if they were co-cited in a PubMed abstract. The 'hub' genes which had more 'neighbors' were thought to be have more important functions and could be identified by the user in their web browser. In addition, ReCGiP provided integrated GO annotation, OMIM and biological pathway information collected from the Internet. Both pig and human gene information can be found in the database, which is now available.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>ReCGiP is a unique database providing information on reproduction related genes for pig. It can be used in the area of the molecular genetics, the genetic linkage map, and the breeding of the pig and other livestock. Moreover, it can be used as a reference for human reproduction research.</p

Is Generalized Maternal Optimism or Pessimism During Pregnancy Associated with Unplanned Cesarean Section Deliveries in China?

This research examines whether maternal optimism/pessimism is associated with unplanned Cesarean section deliveries in China. If so, does the association remain after controlling for clinical factors associated with C-sections? A sample of 227 mostly primiparous women in the third trimester of pregnancy was surveyed in a large tertiary care hospital in Beijing, China. Post-delivery data were collected from medical records. In bivariate analysis, both optimism and pessimism were related to unplanned c-section. However, when optimism and pessimism were entered into a regression model together, optimism was no longer statistically significant. Pessimism remained significant, even when adjusting for clinical factors such as previous abortion, previous miscarriage, pregnancy complications, infant gestational age, infant birthweight, labor duration, birth complications, and self-rated difficulty of the pregnancy. This research suggests that maternal mindset during pregnancy has a role in mode of delivery. However, more research is needed to elucidate potential causal pathways and test potential interventions

Dynamic Scheduling Method for Job-shop Manufacturing Systems by Deep Reinforcement Learning with Proximal Policy Optimization

With the rapid development of Industry 4.0, modern manufacturing systems have been experiencing profound digital transformation. Development of new technologies can help to improve the efficiency of production and the quality of products. With the increasingly complex production systems, operational decision-making has encountered challenges in the sustainable manufacturing process to satisfy customers and markets' ever-changing demands. Nowadays, the rule-based heuristics approaches are widely used for scheduling management in production systems, which however significantly depends on the expert domain knowledge. In this way, the efficiency of decision-making cannot be guaranteed nor meet the dynamic scheduling requirements in the job-shop manufacturing environment. In this study, we propose using deep reinforcement learning (DRL) methods to tackle the dynamic scheduling problem in the job-shop manufacturing system. The proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm has been used in the DRL framework to accelerate the learning process and improve performance. The proposed method has been testified within a real-world dynamic production environment, and it performs better compared with the state-of-the-art method