Short-Term Rental Regulation and House Sharing Behavior: Evidence From Airbnb.com

The controversial short-term rental (STR) industry and the relevant STR regulation have been in the spotlight in recent years. Despite all the pros and cons of regulating the STR industry, yet it is unclear what the real effects of the STR regulation are. This study seeks to shed light on the questions regarding how the city STR regulation and should be conceived as well as what the outcomes of the regulation implementation are. We employ a comprehensive data set assembled from multiple resources to analyze the effects of the STR regulation from different geographic levels. Indeed, STR regulation turns out to be effective in improving the STR business. Registration requirement would encourage people from affluent neighborhoods to list their properties online. And internal requirements of the listed properties are critical in preventing listings from those non-affluent neighborhoods. At the clause level, the clauses vary in their effects in different types of neighborhoods. The clause specifically requiring listing to achieve certain standards would be more efficient in crowding out the listings with low quality from the STR market. STR regulation would be able to raise the quality of the listings online and standardize the listing process. Consequently, STR regulation would reduce the information-based uncertainties exist in the online STR mediatory platforms. Overall, the results suggest that STR regulation helps release the “lemon problems” in the STR market by encouraging listings with good quality while crowd out the “bad apples” from the platforms by adjusting the STR business in different types of neighborhoods

SabR enhances nikkomycin production via regulating the transcriptional level of sanG, a pathway-specific regulatory gene in Streptomyces ansochromogenes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>sabR </it>is a pleiotropic regulatory gene which has been shown to positively regulate the nikkomycin biosynthesis and negatively affect the sporulation of <it>Streptomyces ansochromogenes</it>. In this study, we investigate the mechanism of SabR on modulating nikkomycin production in <it>Streptomyces ansochromogenes</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The transcription start point of <it>sabR </it>was determined by high-resolution S1 nuclease mapping and localized at the nucleotide T at position 37 bp upstream of the potential <it>sabR </it>translation start codon (GTG). Disruption of <it>sabR </it>enhanced its own transcription, but retarded the nikkomycin production. Over-expression of <it>sabR </it>enhanced nikkomycin biosynthesis in <it>Streptomyces ansochromogenes</it>. EMSA analysis showed that SabR bound to the upstream region of <it>sanG</it>, but it did not bind to the upstream region of its encoding gene (<it>sabR</it>), <it>sanF </it>and the intergenic region between <it>sanN </it>and <it>sanO</it>. DNase 1 footprinting assays showed that the SabR-binding site upstream of <it>sanG </it>was 5'-CTTTAAGTCACCTGGCTCATTCGCGTTCGCCCAGCT-3' which was designated as SARE. Deletion of SARE resulted in the delay of nikkomycin production that was similar to that of <it>sabR </it>disruption mutant.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results indicated that SabR modulated nikkomycin biosynthesis as an enhancer via interaction with the promoter region of <it>sanG</it>, and expanded our understanding about regulatory cascade in nikkomycin biosynthesis.</p

Investigation into the nature behind the interesting half levitation behavior of claimed superconductor LK-99

A recent article published by Lee et.al. claimed to have successfully achieved superconductivity at room temperature (RT) has become a topical issue. Besides the research paper, Lee and his team provided a demonstration video of LK-99 half levitating (HL) on a magnet. Such interesting HL appearance has drawn tremendous sensation both in academia and the network. However, the true identity of LK-99 still remains unclear, i.e., whether the HL behavior can necessarily indicate the diamagnetism behavior of the sample. Here, we fabricated our own LK-99 samples following the procedures reported by Lee et al. We found quite a few sample pieces showing the typical HL that is similar to those reported. Meanwhile, oxidation during the sample preparation was found to deleterious to acquiring HL in the sample, while furnace cooling or water quenching in the last step revealed little effect. However, our careful observations indicated that those HL pieces are more likely simple ferromagnetic. Then we conducted a comprehensive study on the behavior patterns of typical diamagnetism and ferromagnetic substances interacting with a Nd2Fe14B magnet, and provided instructions to distinguish the characteristics between ferromagnetic and diamagnetic to prevent misunderstanding of LK-99 like levitation behavior

Aligning Large Language Models to a Domain-specific Graph Database

Graph Databases (Graph DB) are widely applied in various fields, including finance, social networks, and medicine. However, translating Natural Language (NL) into the Graph Query Language (GQL), commonly known as NL2GQL, proves to be challenging due to its inherent complexity and specialized nature. Some approaches have sought to utilize Large Language Models (LLMs) to address analogous tasks like text2SQL. Nevertheless, when it comes to NL2GQL taskson a particular domain, the absence of domain-specific NL-GQL data pairs makes it difficult to establish alignment between LLMs and the graph DB. To address this challenge, we propose a well-defined pipeline. Specifically, we utilize ChatGPT to create NL-GQL data pairs based on the given graph DB with self-instruct. Then, we use the created data to fine-tune LLMs, thereby achieving alignment between LLMs and the graph DB. Additionally, during inference, we propose a method that extracts relevant schema to the queried NL as the input context to guide LLMs for generating accurate GQLs.We evaluate our method on two constructed datasets deriving from graph DBs in finance domain and medicine domain, namely FinGQL and MediGQL. Experimental results demonstrate that our method significantly outperforms a set of baseline methods, with improvements of 5.90 and 6.36 absolute points on EM, and 6.00 and 7.09 absolute points on EX, respectively.Comment: 13 pages,2 figure

Biocontrol of Pear Postharvest Decay by Kombucha

Kombucha is sweetened, slightly alcoholic, and lightly effervescent tea drink. Its acidity inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria. Here, we studied effect of kombucha on post-harvest preservation of pear. The Hosui pears were soaked with the kombucha for 15 minutes, and in distilled water as the control, respectively. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), proline content, electric conductivity, weight loss rate and good fruit rate in pear were measured during storage at room temperature. The results showed that the kombucha could effectively prolong the storage time of pear fruit. The fruit quality of the treated group was 1.5 times higher than that of the control pear fruit when stored at room temperature for 18 days. The weight loss rate, MDA content and electric conductivity of the treatment group were lower than those of the control group during the whole storage period, indicating that kombucha can inhibit the transformation of polysaccharides such as starch and pectin, and delay the degradation of nutrients in the fruit, resulting in a decrease in weight loss rate, inhibition of membrane lipid peroxidation, reducing MDA content, electric conductivity, maintaining cell membrane stability, delaying pear fruit senescence. Kombucha can inhibit the content of H2O2 and proline, increase the activity of POD and SOD increase the storage stability of fruits. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the physiological mechanism of post-harvest preservation of pear by kombucha. The use of kombucha can prolong the supply period of pear, increase economic benefits and expand the market of pear

The role of digital technologies in contemporary craft practice from UK–China insights

Digital technologies such as digital production and online marketplaces have generated revenue growth and sustained work in the music and game creative industries. However, there is little research on how digital technologies impact contemporary craft. Here we present the results of a twenty-month AHRC research project which explored the role of digital technologies for craft in China and the United Kingdom. The research was undertaken prior to the mass adoption of online tools such as videoconferencing, which became necessary due to enforced social distancing during the recent pandemic. It provides an account of the craft ecosystems in China and the United Kingdom as they started to embrace digital technologies – ecosystems which inevitably evolved with craftmakers’ enforced migration online. This article reports on mixed-methods research stakeholder surveys, workshops and quick ethnographic studies conducted to capture how digital technologies were used across the craft making journey from Planning and Inspiration through Materials and Preparation to Production and Making. Comparing the differences and similarities between China and the United Kingdom enables us to better understand the potential of digital technologies for craft. For example, live streaming, an emerging digital technology at the time of the research, was already a popular way for craftmakers to engage broad audiences in China, whilst UK craftmakers tended to use personal websites, e-mails and newsletters. Craftmakers’ knowledge has necessarily shifted to encompass the digital, often at the expense of precious making time. On the one hand, digital tools and processes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution have transformed many craft skills from making by hand to making by computer; on the other hand, social media and online marketplaces have changed the relationship between craftmakers and consumers and may shape which crafts flourish in the future

Highly dispersed and ultrafine Co3O4@N-doped carbon catalyst derived from metal-organic framework for efficient oxygen reduction reaction

932-937Electrocatalysts are composed of transition metal/metal oxide and N-doped carbon can overcome the sluggish kinetics of oxygen reduction reactio. Herein, the Co3O4/ketjen black (KB)@MOF-derived with uniformly dispersed and ultrafine Co3O4 nanoparticles (1-5 nm) are synthesized by a facile in-situ method and subsequent mild pyrolysis process. It exhibits enhanced activity with onset potential of 0.96 V (vs. RHE) and a half-wave potential of 0.86 V (vs. RHE) in 0.1 M KOH solution, the excellent durability with E1/2 a small negative shift of 10 mV after 5000 continuous cycles and good methanol-tolerance property. The ultrahigh catalytic performance of Co3O4/KB@MOF-derived can be ascribed to the small particle size range of 1-5 nm of Co3O4, as well as the strong interaction between the in-situ formed N-Co3O4 active sites and substrate under the mild calcination temperature. Above all, these indicate that the as-prepared Co3O4/KB@MOF-derived may be a good alternative to commercial Pt-based catalysts