Fruit set is a key process for crop production in tomato which occurs after successful pollination and fertilization naturally. However, parthenocarpic fruit development can be uncoupled from ...fertilization triggered by exogenous auxin or gibberellins (GAs). Global transcriptome knowledge during fruit initiation would help to characterize the molecular mechanisms by which these two hormones regulate pollination-dependent and -independent fruit set.
In this work, digital gene expression tag profiling (DGE) technology was applied to compare the transcriptomes from pollinated and 2, 4-D/GA3-treated ovaries. Activation of carbohydrate metabolism, cell division and expansion as well as the down-regulation of MADS-box is a comprehensive regulatory pathway during pollination-dependent and parthenocarpic fruit set. The signaling cascades of auxin and GA are significantly modulated. The feedback regulations of Aux/IAAs and DELLA genes which functioned to fine-tune auxin and GA response respectively play fundamental roles in triggering fruit initiation. In addition, auxin regulates GA synthesis via up-regulation of GA20ox1 and down-regulation of KNOX. Accordingly, the effect of auxin on fruit set is mediated by GA via ARF2 and IAA9 down-regulation, suggesting that both pollination-dependent and parthenocarpic fruit set depend on the crosstalk between auxin and GA.
This study characterizes the transcriptomic features of ovary development and more importantly unravels the integral roles of auxin and GA on pollination-dependent and parthenocarpic fruit set.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
China is gradually changing its pursuit of rapid economic growth into a pursuit of economic development quality. In this context, whether “cyberpower” and “digital China” strategies are truly ...conducive to China's sustainable development still needs to be further tested. This paper constructs China's provincial information and communication technology (ICT) comprehensive development level index from the four dimensions of penetration, coverage, information resources, and business and then innovatively undertakes a theoretical framework integrating ICT, environmental regulations, and green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE) for the analysis. Using panel data from China's 30 provincial administrative regions from 2006 to 2017, this study explores the direct impact, moderating effect, nonlinear relationship, and regional differences of ICT development on GTFEE. It is indicated that ICT development plays a positive role in promoting GTFEE and that this role is moderated by environmental regulations. The regression results of the dynamic threshold model indicate that diverse environmental regulation intensities lead to different influences of ICT development on GTFEE. Moreover, the impact of ICT development on GTFEE is heterogeneous among different regions. Specifically, the western region may gain more benefits from ICT development by virtue of the late‐mover advantage.
This paper seeks to contribute to the existing business strategy and the environment literature by examining the effect of governance structures on environmental performance within a unique context ...of improving environmental governance, policies, regulations, and management. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which corporate board gender diversity, including the proportion, age, and level of education of female directors, affects environmental performance of Chinese publicly listed corporations. Using one of the largest Chinese data sets to date, consisting of a sample of 383 listed A‐shares from 2011 to 2015 (i.e., observations of 1,674), our findings are threefold. First, we find that the proportion and age of female directors have a positive effect on the overall corporate environmental performance. Second, our findings indicate that the proportion and age of female directors also have a positive effect on the three individual environmental performance components, namely, environmental (a) strategy, (b) implementation, and (c) disclosure. Finally, and by contrast, we do not find any evidence that suggests that the level of education of female directors has any impact on environmental performance, neither the overall environmental performance measure nor its individual components. Our findings have important implication for regulators and policymakers. Our evidence is robust to controlling for alternative measures, other governance and firm‐level control variables, and possible endogeneities. We interpret our findings within a multitheoretical framework that draws insights from agency, legitimacy, neo‐institutional, resource dependence, stakeholder, and tokenism theoretical perspectives.
With China's tremendous economic development following its reform and opening-up, the problem of environmental deterioration has become increasingly serious. To achieve a win-win situation between ...economic growth and environmental protection, enterprises are being encouraged to carry out green technology innovation, but due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in it, the government is providing research and development (R&D) subsidies while at the same time implementing environmental regulations. As the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 5 divides green technology innovation into green product innovation and green process innovation, this study focuses on the latter in order to better study its relationship with environmental regulations and government subsidies. We select panel data of 30 provinces and cities in China from 2009 to 2017 (excluding Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, because of a lack of data) and use the system GMM and threshold-effect model for empirical analysis. The results show that environmental regulations have a U-shape non-linear effect on green process innovation, while government subsidies have a positive role in promoting green process innovation, or the so-called leverage effect. Based on government subsidies, the impact of environmental regulations on green process innovation has a threshold effect, and therefore regulations and subsidies should be increased. In addition, the level of economic development has a U-shape effect of inhibition and then promotion on green process innovation. Overall, the China government should continue to develop its economy, but must not neglect the impact of environmental regulations on technological innovation at the expense of environmental damage.
•Environmental regulations have a U-shaped effect on green process innovation.•Government subsidies have a positive role in promoting green process innovation.•Environmental regulations and government subsidies should be increased.•Economic development has a “U"-shaped effect on green process innovation.•Environmental regulations have a huge impact on technological innovation.
Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in an open economy has gradually become an important source of green innovation (GI). With the rapid development of China’s OFDI, this research studies the ...impact of OFDI on the country’s GI, employing panel data of 30 provinces from 2006 to 2017. We first use the Super-SBM model to measure GI performance and then test the impact of OFDI on GI with the system GMM model. Evidence finds that the negative impact of OFDI on GI is not significant on the whole, but the results of regional regression show that impact of OFDI on GI exhibits obvious regional differences. We then utilize the dynamic threshold panel model to determine the non-linear relationship between OFDI and GI through the perspective of environmental regulation in order to avoid the bias caused by ignoring the impact of institutional factors and time dynamic change. After dividing environmental regulations into command control environmental regulation and market incentive environmental regulation, the research results show that the double threshold effects of both environmental regulations are significant. Command control environmental regulation does not play a role in promoting the effect of OFDI on GI. When the intensity of market incentive environmental regulation is low, OFDI negatively affects GI. Moreover, only when the market incentive regulation shows high intensity can OFDI significantly promote GI. With the continuous growth of China’s OFDI, it is therefore necessary to determine the appropriate environmental regulation to improve the reverse spillover effect of OFDI enterprises on the country’s GI.
Given the rapid industrialization and urbanization of China, environmental problems have gradually become major constraints that hinder its sustainable economic development. Moreover, China's ...pollution abatement and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions have been severely affected by pressures coming from domestic environmental appeals and international environmental diplomacy. By using integrated data from the Chinese Industrial Enterprise and the Chinese Enterprise Environmental Survey and Reporting databases, this study constructs comprehensive indicators of pollutant discharge intensity and carbon emissions index at the enterprise level and uses the panel fixed effect model, Kaya identity, and mediation effect model to assess the effects of environmental regulations on pollution abatement and collaborative emissions reduction from the micro-perspective. Results show that these regulations can abate the pollution emissions of Chinese industrial enterprises and verify the effectiveness of environmental policies. These regulations can also efficiently reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of enterprises through pollution abatement. In other words, environmental regulations facilitate a collaborative emissions reduction of pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions from enterprises. Such collaborative emissions reduction effect is also influenced by the energy structure and consumption of enterprises. This paper presents empirical evidence and policy basis for further improving China's environmental regulation policy system and achieving coordinated progress in China's economic development and environmental governance.
•Pollution abatement effect of environmental regulation is investigated.•Collaborative emissions reduction effect of environmental regulation is explored.•Pollution emissions reduce with the enhance of environmental regulation intensity.•Environmental regulation can reduce carbon dioxide emissions.•Collaborative effect is influenced by energy structure and energy consumption.
Some members of Congress, the D.C. Circuit, and the legal academy are promoting a particular, abstract form of cost-benefit analysis for financial regulation: judicially enforced quantification. How ...would CBA work in practice, if applied to specific, important, representative rules, and what is the alternative? Detailed case studies of six rules—(1) disclosure rules under Sarbanes-Oxley section 404; (2) the SECs mutual fund governance reforms; (3) Basel Ill's heightened capital requirements for banks; (4) the Volcker Rule; (5) the SEC's crossborder swap proposals; and (6) the FSA's mortgage reforms—show that precise, reliable, quantified CBA remains unfeasible. Quantified CBA of such rules can be no more than "guesstimated," as it entails (a) causal inferences that are unreliable under standard regulatory conditions; (b) the use of problematic data; and/or (c) the same contestable, assumption-sensitive macroeconomic and/or political modeling used to make monetary policy, which even CBA advocates would exempt from CBA laws. Expert judgment remains an inevitable part of what advocates label "gold-standard" quantified CBA, because finance is central to the economy, is social and political, and is non-stationary. Judicial review of quantified CBA can be expected to do more to camouflage discretionary choices than to discipline agencies or promote democracy.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, PRFLJ, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study explores the impact of environmental regulations in China on infant mortality. In 1998, the Chinese government imposed stringent air pollution regulations, in one of the first large-scale ...regulatory attempts in a developing country. We find that the infant mortality rate fell by 20 percent in the treatment cities designated as “Two Control Zones.” The greatest reduction in mortality occurred during the neonatal period, highlighting an important pathophysiologic mechanism, and was largest among infants born to mothers with low levels of education. The finding is robust to various alternative hypotheses and specifications. Further, a falsification test using deaths from causes unrelated to air pollution supports these findings.
Context: The International Health Regulations (IHR) have been the governing framework for global health security for the past decade and are a nearly universally recognized World Health Organization ...(WHO) treaty, with 196 States Parties. In the wake of the Ebola epidemic, major global commissions have cast doubt on the future effectiveness of the IHR and the leadership of the WHO. Methods: We conducted a review of the historical origins of the IHR and their performance over the past 10 years and analyzed all of the ongoing reform panel efforts to provide a series of politically feasible recommendations for fundamental reform. Findings: We propose a series of recommendations with realistic pathways for change. These recommendations focus on the development and strengthening of IHR core capacities; independently assessed metrics; new financing mechanisms; harmonization with the Global Health Security Agenda, Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) Pathways, the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework, and One Health strategies; public health and clinical workforce development; Emergency Committee transparency and governance; tiered public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) processes; enhanced compliance mechanisms; and an enhanced role for civil society. Conclusions: Empowering the WHO and realizing the IHR's potential will shore up global health security—a vital investment in human and animal health—while reducing the vast economic consequences of the next global health emergency.
Since its reform and opening up, China’s economy has undergone rapid development and has experienced problems such as the overexploitation of resources and the destruction of the ecological ...environment. To achieve a balance between economic growth and environmental protection and to follow the sustainable development path, China must implement corresponding environmental regulation policies and vigorously encourage enterprises to pursue green technology innovation. In this paper, environmental regulation is divided into command-and-control, market incentive and voluntary participation. Command-and-control environmental regulation is measured using the entropy method and the logarithm of the pollution discharge fee income in each region is used as the measurement index of market-incentive environmental regulations. At the same time, the logarithm of the number of environmental protection proposals planned by the National People’s Congress and the number of environmental protection proposals planned by the CPPCC is used as the measurement index of voluntary participation in environmental regulations. Based on a regression equation of the effects of environmental regulations on green technology innovation, this paper uses the two-step system GMM method to analyze the panel data of industrial enterprises larger than a designated size in 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China from 2006 to 2017. Moreover, the paper compares the effects of command-and-control, market-incentive and voluntary participatory environmental regulations on green technology innovation. The empirical results show that command-and-control environmental regulations initially have an inverted U-shaped effect on green technology innovation and market incentive and voluntary participatory environmental regulations have a U-shaped effect on green technology innovation. A comparison of the three environmental regulation policies shows that the effect of command-and-control environmental regulation is more significant.