Effects of public funding on the commercial diffusion of on-site hydrogen production technology: A system dynamics perspective

As the prospect of the fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) market is uncertain, the effects of government subsidies on the commercial diffusion of hydrogen production infrastructure will need to be effectively evaluated to help policymakers decide how they should financially support the development of future hydrogen technologies. Currently, there is a high intermediate cost in the supply chain of centralized hydrogen production. Decentralized on-site hydrogen production technology is an effective alternative method that can guarantee the operation of hydrogen refueling stations and has been attracting more and more attention from the public. In this paper, which is based on market data from California, we build a system dynamics model to simulate the feedback mechanism of the effects of public funding on the commercial diffusion of on-site hydrogen production technology. The insights derived from the simulation of our system dynamics model suggest that: (1) moderate public funding can help establish the scale of application of on-site hydrogen production technology in the early stages of market development and also provide buffer time for technology upgrading; (2) the adoption of large on-site hydrogen refueling stations is a feasible approach to shorten the standstill period; and (3) excess levels and periods of subsidies would stagnate the growth of supply and demand. We conclude with a discussion about the relevant policy implications from these findings

VAMP724 and VAMP726 are involved in autophagosome formation in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>

Macroautophagy/autophagy, an evolutionarily conserved degradative process essential for cell homeostasis and development in eukaryotes, involves autophagosome formation and fusion with a lysosome/vacuole. The soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) proteins play important roles in regulating autophagy in mammals and yeast, but relatively little is known about SNARE function in plant autophagy. Here we identified and characterized two Arabidopsis SNAREs, AT4G15780/VAMP724 and AT1G04760/VAMP726, involved in plant autophagy. Phenotypic analysis showed that mutants of VAMP724 and VAMP726 are sensitive to nutrient-starved conditions. Live-cell imaging on mutants of VAMP724 and VAMP726 expressing YFP-ATG8e showed the formation of abnormal autophagic structures outside the vacuoles and compromised autophagic flux. Further immunogold transmission electron microscopy and electron tomography (ET) analysis demonstrated a direct connection between the tubular autophagic structures and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in vamp724-1 vamp726-1 double mutants. Further transient co-expression, co-immunoprecipitation and double immunogold TEM analysis showed that ATG9 (autophagy related 9) interacts and colocalizes with VAMP724 and VAMP726 in ATG9-positive vesicles during autophagosome formation. Taken together, VAMP724 and VAMP726 regulate autophagosome formation likely working together with ATG9 in Arabidopsis.</p