Why Are the Elite in China Motivated to Promote Growth

Rapid economic development in China in the post-1978 era has been considered ‘intriguing’ and ‘puzzling’ since it occurred under the dominance of the Chinese Communist Party – the fusion of politics and economics is supposed to be a powerful impediment to market growth. Scholars have proposed different accounts to explain this paradox, with particular emphasis on the role of the political elite in economic progress. This paper contributes to this literature by studying why the political elite are motivated to promote economic development in China. It argues that like politicians in other types of political regimes, autocratic leaders are interested in high growth rates. It also studies the historical development of China’s developmental elites to understand their motivations for economic growth in the reform era. To better understand whether or not elites in developing countries promote economic growth, scholars should focus on factors such as historical experience, political stability, leadership turnover, or elite perceptions about the impact of growth on their hold on power rather than the differences between autocracy and democracy.China, democracy, autocracy, development, growth, elites

Characterization of genes involved in sumoylation during embryogenesis in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

SUMOylation is the post-translational modification of proteins by the addition of the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO), which plays an important role in various cellular processes. It has been reported that SUMO and its related proteins are important in diverse reproductive functions such as ovulation, gametogenesis, and embryogenesis. Modification of target proteins by SUMO is an ATP-dependent enzymatic cascade involving three key enzymes: E1 activating enzyme (the heterodimer SAE1-SAE2), E2 conjugating enzyme (UBC9) and several E3 ligating enzymes (PIAS, RanBP2/Nup358 and Pc2). The objectives of this study were to characterize the genes involved in SUMOylation and determine their expression profiles during embryogenesis in rainbow trout. Through database analysis, ten Sumo related genes, which include Sumo1, Sumo2, Sumo3, Sae1, Sae2, Ubc9, Pias1, Pias4, Cbx4, and Nse2, were identified. Analysis of protein sequences of SUMO1 and UBC9, the key components in the pathway, revealed that they are highly conserved among human, mice, rat, cattle, pig, chicken, Xenopus, zebrafish and rainbow trout species. The expression profiles of the Sumo related genes during embryonic development in rainbow trout were analyzed by quantitative real time PCR using cDNAs derived from unfertilized eggs and embryos of 17 different developmental stages (0h, 3h, 7.5h, 11.5h, 13.5h, 18h, 27h, 34h, 2d, 3d, 4d, 5d, 6d, 8d, 10d, 12d, 16d and 25d post fertilization). The expression of Sumo3, Ubc9, Pias4, and Nse2 genes showed similar patterns, being low in unfertilized eggs and increasing gradually in early embryos until 18 h post fertilization followed by a gradual decrease in embryos after 18 h post fertilization; both Sumo1 and Sumo2 genes were highly expressed during maternal to zygotic transition (3d-5d post fertilization); while Sae1, Sae2, Pias1, and Cbx4 were expressed constitutively at steady-state levels throughout embryogenesis. The data indicate that the expression of Sumo related genes are dynamically regulated during the embryonic development in rainbow trout. To better understand how SUMO modification regulates embryonic development, two oocyte specific factors, FIGLA and LHX8, were studied for their interactions with SUMO. Under the experimental conditions used in the study, no apparent interactions of FIGLA or LHX8 with SUMO were detected. The study represents the first attempt to characterize genes involved in SUMOylation in rainbow trout. Further studies to understand the role of SUMOylation in controlling early embryogenesis may ultimately lead to the development of molecular markers for egg quality and embryonic development potential in rainbow trout

Why are the elite in China motivated to promote growth?

Rapid economic development in China in the post-1978 era has been considered 'intriguing' and 'puzzling' since it occurred under the dominance of the Chinese Communist Party - the fusion of politics and economics is supposed to be a powerful impediment to market growth. Scholars have proposed different accounts to explain this paradox, with particular emphasis on the role of the political elite in economic progress. This paper contributes to this literature by studying why the political elite are motivated to promote economic development in China. It argues that like politicians in other types of political regimes, autocratic leaders are interested in high growth rates. It also studies the historical development of China's developmental elites to understand their motivations for economic growth in the reform era. To better understand whether or not elites in developing countries promote economic growth, scholars should focus on factors such as historical experience, political stability, leadership turnover, or elite perceptions about the impact of growth on their hold on power rather than the differences between autocracy and democracy

Ceramics Coated Metallic Materials: Methods, Properties and Applications

Surface coating can allow the bulk materials to remain unchanged, while the surface functionality is engineered to afford a more wanted characteristic. Ceramic coatings are considered as ideal coatings on metal which can significantly improve the surface properties of metal materials including anti-fouling, self-cleaning, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, oil/water separation and biocompatibility. Furthermore, various techniques have been utilized to fabricate a range of different ceramic coatings with more desirable properties on metal materials, which make the materials widely used in service environment. This chapter focus will be on the types, fabrication methods, surface properties and applications of ceramics coated metal materials

Task-Irrelevant Context Learned Under Rapid Display Presentation: Selective Attention in Associative Blocking

In the contextual cueing task, visual search is faster for targets embedded in invariant displays compared to targets found in variant displays. However, it has been repeatedly shown that participants do not learn repeated contexts when these are irrelevant to the task. One potential explanation lays in the idea of associative blocking, where salient cues (task-relevant old items) block the learning of invariant associations in the task-irrelevant subset of items. An alternative explanation is that the associative blocking rather hinders the allocation of attention to task-irrelevant subsets, but not the learning per se. The current work examined these two explanations. In two experiments, participants performed a visual search task under a rapid presentation condition (300 ms) in Experiment 1, or under a longer presentation condition (2,500 ms) in Experiment 2. In both experiments, the search items within both old and new displays were presented in two colors which defined the irrelevant and task-relevant items within each display. The participants were asked to search for the target in the relevant subset in the learning phase. In the transfer phase, the instructions were reversed and task-irrelevant items became task-relevant (and vice versa). In line with previous studies, the search of task-irrelevant subsets resulted in no cueing effect post-transfer in the longer presentation condition; however, a reliable cueing effect was generated by task-irrelevant subsets learned under the rapid presentation. These results demonstrate that under rapid display presentation, global attentional selection leads to global context learning. However, under a longer display presentation, global attention is blocked, leading to the exclusive learning of invariant relevant items in the learning session

Identification of crystal orientation for turbine blades with anisotropy materials

A novel approach to identify the crystal orientation of turbine blades with anisotropy materials is proposed. Based on enhanced mode basis, with the main advantages of its efficiency, accuracy and general applicability, the blade vibration mode of each order is linearly constructed by several specified mode shapes, which are obtained from the considered turbine blade with specified crystal orientations correspondingly. Then, a surrogate model based on Kriging method is introduced for constructing the condensed perturbed matrix of stiffness in order to improve the efficiency even further. The constructed surrogate model allows to perform the modal analysis of turbine blades with arbitrary crystal orientations in higher efficiency, due to the fact that the elements of condensed perturbed matrix of stiffness are considered in construction of the surrogate model rather than concerning the perturbation of all the elements of the initial stiffness matrix for the blade. Genetic algorithm is finally employed to optimize the defined fitness functions in order to identify the crystal orientation angles of turbine blades. Several corresponding examples demonstrated the accuracy, efficiency and general applicability of the proposed method

Quantitative analysis of lab-to-lab variability in Caco-2 permeability assays

In this study, Caco-2 permeability results from different laboratories were compared. Six different sets of apparent permeability coefficient (Papp) values reported in the literature were compared to experimental Papp obtained in our laboratory. The differences were assessed by determining the root mean square error (RMSE) values between the datasets, which reached levels as high as 0.581 for the training set compounds, i.e. ten compounds with known effective human permeability (Peff). The consequences of these differences in Papp for prediction of oral drug absorption were demonstrated by introducing the Papp into the absorption and pharmacokinetics simulation software application GastroPlus™ for prediction of the fraction absorbed (Fa) in humans using calibrated “user-defined permeability models”. The RMSE were calculated to assess the differences between the simulated Fa and experimental values reported in the literature. The RMSE for Fa simulated with the permeability model calibrated using experimental Papp from our laboratory was 0.128. When the calibration was performed using Papp from literature datasets, the RMSE values for Fa were higher in all cases except one. This study shows quantitative lab-to-lab variability of Caco-2 permeability results and the potential consequences this can have in the use of these results for predicting intestinal absorption of drugs

Postprandial administration but not controlled release in the colon increases oral bioavailability of DF030263, a promising drug candidate for chronic lymphocytic leukemia

For treatment of chronic cancers, the oral administration route is preferred as it provides numerous advantages over other delivery routes. However, these benefits of oral chemotherapy can be limited due to unfavorable pharmacokinetics. Accordingly, pharmacokinetic development of chemotherapeutic agents is crucial to the improvement of cancer treatment. In this study, assessment and optimization of biopharmaceutical properties of a promising drug candidate for cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) inhibitor (DF030263) was performed to promote oral delivery. Oral bioavailability of DF030263 in fasted rats was 23.8%, and a distinct double-peak phenomenon was observed. A two-site absorption windows mechanism was proposed as a possible explanation to the phenomenon. The two-site absorption window hypothesis was supported by in vitro solubility assays in biorelevant fluids with different pH levels, as well as by in silico simulation by GastroPlusTM. Controlled release to the colon was conducted in rats in order to exploit the colonic absorption window but did not improve the oral bioavailability. On the other hand, oral administration at postprandial conditions in rats (performed based on the high in vitro solubility in fed state simulated fluid and reduced pH-dependency) resulted in an almost 3-fold increase in bioavailability to 63.6%. In conclusion, this study demonstrates an efficient in vitro-in vivo-in silico drug development approach for improving the oral bioavailability of DF030263, a promising candidate for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Semen cassiae Extract Inhibits Contraction of Airway Smooth Muscle

β2-adrenoceptor agonists are commonly used as bronchodilators to treat obstructive lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), however, they induce severe side effects. Therefore, developing new bronchodilators is essential. Herbal plants were extracted and the extracts’ effect on airway smooth muscle (ASM) precontraction was assessed. The ethyl alcohol extract of semen cassiae (EESC) was extracted from Semen cassia. The effects of EESC on the ACh- and 80 mM K+-induced sustained precontraction in mouse and human ASM were evaluated. Ca2+ permeant ion channel currents and intracellular Ca2+ concentration were measured. HPLC analysis was employed to determine which compound was responsible for the EESC-induced relaxation. The EESC reversibly inhibited the ACh- and 80 mM K+-induced precontraction. The sustained precontraction depends on Ca2+ influx, and it was mediated by voltage-dependent L-type Ca2+ channels (LVDCCs), store-operated channels (SOCs), TRPC3/STIM/Orai channels. These channels were inhibited by aurantio-obtusin, one component of EESC. When aurantio-obtusin removed, EESC’s action disappeared. In addition, aurantio-obtusin inhibited the precontraction of mouse and human ASM and intracellular Ca2+ increases. These results indicate that Semen cassia-contained aurantio-obtusin inhibits sustained precontraction of ASM via inhibiting Ca2+-permeant ion channels, thereby, which could be used to develop new bronchodilators