Low-carbon pilot (LCP) policy aims to not only achieve economic development but also address climate change problems in China. With a difference-in-difference (DID) approach, this study provides ...empirical evidence to support the policy’s implementation by analysing its impacts on green total factor productivity (GTFP). We find that the implementation of the low-carbon pilot policy has a significant positive impact on GTFP. The low-carbon pilot policy significantly improves the GTFP in the year following implementation, and its efficacy diminishes over time. In terms of mechanism analysis, the policy enables China to achieve win-win development through industry structure adjustment and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. Innovation does not immediately improve GTFP, although the low-carbon pilot policy promotes regional innovation. Our results provide strong support for China’s recent third set of low-carbon pilot policies. As for global mitigation strategy, countries should incorporate the low-carbon development path into their strategic planning. In particular, developing countries should enforce more efforts on low-carbon development as such development path may improve their green productivity. It helps narrow the gap between developing and developed countries.
The current study was conducted to investigate the influences of ferulic acid (FA) as a dietary addition on growth performance, serum biochemical indices, liver morphology, antioxidant capacity, ...non-specific immunity, and expression of genes related to growth, immunity, apoptosis, and antioxidation in juvenile hybrid grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus♀ × Epinephelus polyphekadion♂). Seven experimental diets added with 0 (Diet1), 40 (Diet2), 80 (Diet3), 160 (Diet4), 320 (Diet5), 640 (Diet6), and 1280 (Diet7) mg/kg FA, were formulated and fed to triplicate groups of 30 fish (9.51 ± 0.01 g) respectively for 10 weeks. The results exhibited that fish fed the diets with FA supplementation of 80 mg/kg presented the best growth performance and feed utilization, whereas the inclusion of 1280 mg/kg FA was the worst respect to Diet1 (control) (P < 0.05). The levels of serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and alkaline phosphatase were significantly decreased, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level was increased following the FA-containing (80–160 mg/kg) diets (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, dietary 80–160 mg/kg FA administration provided an increase in the contents of complement 3, immunoglobulin M, and lysozyme (P < 0.05). The antioxidant-related parameters of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and total antioxidant capacity were outstandingly elevated, while malondialdehyde content was significantly reduced in 80–160 mg/kg FA treatment (P < 0.05). Additionally, dietary FA intake of 40–320 mg/kg could ameliorate hepatic morphology. Regarding genes expression, the transcriptional levels of immune-related genes (IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α, IFN-γ) were considerably upregulated in the liver, head kidney, and spleen of fish fed the diets added with 80–160 mg/kg FA, which also significantly enhanced the expression of hepatic genes related to growth and antioxidation (GH, IGF-1, GHR1, GHR2, Nrf2, Cu/ZnSOD, and MnSOD). In contrast, the genes expression of apoptosis (Caspase-3 and p53) and keap1b were downregulated (P < 0.05). To sum up, dietary supplementation of FA at the optimal dosage (80 mg/kg) could enhance growth, antioxidant status, and immunity, as well as ameliorate liver morphology and health of fish. Interestingly, the high dosage (over 640 mg/kg) of FA had adverse effects on hybrid grouper, particularly for growth performance.
•Appropriate Dietary Ferulic acid (FA) enhances growth performance in hybrid grouper.•Antioxidant capacity and innate immunity of hybrid grouper were improved by FA.•The intake of high dose FA exerted negative effects on hybrid grouper.
The gut-brain axis is a bidirectional information interaction system between the central nervous system (CNS) and the gastrointestinal tract, in which gut microbiota plays a key role. The gut ...microbiota forms a complex network with the enteric nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, and the neuroendocrine and neuroimmunity of the CNS, which is called the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Due to the close anatomical and functional interaction of the gut-liver axis, the microbiota-gut-liver-brain axis has attracted increased attention in recent years. The microbiota-gut-liver-brain axis mediates the occurrence and development of many diseases, and it offers a direction for the research of disease treatment. In this review, we mainly discuss the role of the gut microbiota in the irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, functional dyspepsia, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, alcoholic liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy via the gut-liver-brain axis, and the focus is to clarify the potential mechanisms and treatment of digestive diseases based on the further understanding of the microbiota-gut- liver-brain axis.
Intraspecific competition is a common phenomenon in agricultural production, and maize is one of the most sensitive grass species to intraspecific competition due to its low tillering ability. This ...study evaluated and analyzed intraspecific competition in maize, and screened competitive indices that could be used to evaluate intraspecific competition in a maize population. A 2-year field experiment was conducted using the maize hybrid Zhongdan 2 at 12 plant densities ranging from 1.5 to 18.0 plants (pl) m−2. The results showed that the response of single-plant grain yield and dry matter at harvest to increased plant density decreased exponentially and that the harvest index decreased linearly. The response of population-level grain yield to plant density was curvilinear, producing a maximum value at the optimum population density. However, the yielddensity equation agreed well with the Steinhart-Hart equation curves, but not with the quadratic equation curves reported by most previous studies. Competitive indices are used to evaluate competition in a plant population or plant species. The present results show that competitive intensity (CI) and absolute severity of competition (ASC) increased with increasing plant density; however, relative yield (RY) and relative reproductive efficiency (RReff) decreased. The different responses of these indices reflect different aspects of competition. According to the analysis of CI, ASC, RY, and RReff, higher CI and ASC values indicate higher intraspecific competition, whereas higher RY and RReff values indirectly reflect lower intraspecific competition. These competitive indices evaluate not only the intraspecific competitive intensity under different plant densities of the same cultivar but also those of different cultivars under the same plant density. However, some overlap exists in the calculations of ASC, CI, and RY, so one could simply select any one of these indices to evaluate intraspecific competition in a maize population. In conclusion, the present study provides a method to evaluate intraspecific competition in maize populations, which may be beneficial for breeding high-yield maize varieties in the future.
Yield gap exists because the current attained actual grain yield cannot yet achieve the estimated yield potential. Chinese high yield maize belt has a wide span from east to west which results in ...different solar radiations between different regions and thus different grain yields. We used multi-site experimental data, surveyed farmer yield data, the highest recorded yield data in the literatures, and simulations with Hybrid-Maize Model to assess the yield gap and tried to reduce the yield gap by matching the solar radiation and plant density. The maize belt was divided into five regions from east to west according to distribution of accumulated solar radiation. The results showed that there were more than 5.8 Mg ha–1 yield gaps between surveyed farmer yield and the yield potential in different regions of China from east to west, which just achieved less than 65% of the yield potential. By analyzing the multi-site density experimental data, we found that the accumulated solar radiation was significantly correlated to optimum plant density which is the density with the highest yield in the multi-site density experiment (y=0.09895×–32.49, P<0.01), according to which the optimum plant densities in different regions from east to west were calculated. It showed that the optimum plant density could be increased by 60.0, 55.2, 47.3, 84.8, and 59.6% compared to the actual density, the grain yield could be increased by 20.2, 18.3, 10.9, 18.1, and 15.3% through increasing plant density, which could reduce the yield gaps of 33.7, 23.0, 13.4, 17.3, and 10.4% in R (region)-1, R-2, R-3, R-4, and R-5, respectively. This study indicates that matching maize plant density and solar radiation is an effective approach to reduce yield gaps in different regions of China.
Rolling element bearing is a critical component of various rotating machineries. As the demand of reliability of machinery gradually increases, the accurate diagnosis of bearing degradation becomes ...increasingly important to ensure safe production and reduce operation cost. With more knowledge and data of the bearing degradation accumulated, vibration data of bearings with different fault patterns and indicators are obtained. A diagnosis model with self-learning capability helps the model to understand various features in different degradation stages of bearings. Hence, the model provides more accurate diagnosis information of the current conditions of bearings. In this paper, a tight Gaussian mixture clustering unsupervised learning algorithm is implemented with the assistance of an optimized complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition (CEEMD) to diagnose the damage severity of rolling element bearings. The obtained information is used for characterizing the severity of damage existed within the machine and facilitating the decision-making of machinery maintenance. The experimental vibrational signals of rolling element bearings are decomposed using the improved CEEMD. After obtaining the critical intrinsic mode function from the CEEMD, the features are calculated, and a tight clustering algorithm is implemented to categorize the bearing degradation stage. The tight clustering algorithm overcomes the incapability of traditional clustering algorithm in distinguish scattered features. A more stable categorization is generated by using the proposed algorithm. Less quantity and more accurate training data are used to improve training efficiency. The proposed model can be implemented in expert systems to distinguish different degradation stages with a self-learning capability.
A fundamental frequency-sorting algorithm with staircase modulation is proposed to balance the floating capacitors for modular multilevel converters. The driving pulses are assigned to the submodules ...at every fundamental period according to their charging capabilities for the capacitors. The charging capabilities of the driving pulses can be evaluated by sorting the voltage increments of the capacitors or derived from the symmetrical characteristic of the curve between the voltage increments and the pulse numbers. With this method, all the power devices switch only once per fundamental period, which is suitable for high-power applications. Meanwhile, the sorting frequency decreases to the fundamental frequency. Hence, a large number of calculation resources can be saved. Moreover, it does not need to measure the arm currents so that several current sensors can be saved and the communication protocol between the central and local controllers can be simplified. At last, a three-phase simulation platform with 20 submodules per arm and a down-scaled experimental prototype with eight submodules in each arm are built to validate the proposed voltage-balancing method.
► The studies was prepared as a preliminary groundwork for a more accurate designing of CP current during coatings aging periods. ► Four distinguishing impedance models were used to fit the sample ...spectra without CP. However, for samples with CP, only two models were employed to fit the EIS data. ► A “two-stage sorption” for water in coatings without CP was observed from the time dependence of coating capacitance. The water diffusion coefficient of samples with CP was smaller than the sample without CP.
Cathodic protection (CP) is usually combined with organic coatings to protect metallic structures exposed to seawater. However, the application of CP would enhance coating failure, such as cathodic delamination. To date, there has been few works characterizing the impedance models and water transport behaviors of cathodically polarized coating. In the present article, the analyses of impedance models and water uptake processes of chlorinated rubber coating subjected to various levels of cathodic protection were studied during coatings aging process by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS).
Four distinguished electrical equivalent circuits (EEC) were used to fit the EIS plots of coatings without CP, while only two were employed for samples with CP. Since no corrosion was expected to take place at the metal/coating interface for sample which was polarized cathodically. Coating capacitance was used to investigate the sorption characteristic of water in coating since the increase of
C
c was associated with water penetration into the coating. Compared with the sample without CP, those coating systems under CP have a smaller water diffusion coefficient and a further water uptake process after the saturation period.
Quadri-stimuli-responsive gating membranes with hierarchically structured gates, which are able to respond to temperature, pH, salt concentration and anion species, are successfully developed. The ...diblock poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-block-poly(methacrylic acid) (PNM) polymeric chains, which act as hierarchically structured responsive gates in the membrane pores, are grafted onto the membrane pore surfaces by using the surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) method. The thermo-responsive and pH-responsive gating performances of the PNM-grafted membranes are resulted directly from the poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PN) and poly(methacrylic acid) (PM) segments in the grafted PNM gates respectively. The prepared PNM-grafted membrane pores tend to “open” as increasing the environmental temperature across the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) or as decreasing the pH value of the surrounding solution across the pKa, and vice versa. The salt-concentration- and anion-species-responsive gating performances of the PNM-grafted membranes are obtained by adopting the Hofmeister effect or salt effect on the swelling/shrinking behaviors of grafted PNM polymeric gates. If the proportion of PN segments in the grafted PNM gates is dominated, the membrane pores tend to “open” as increasing the salt concentration or changing the salt from sodium chloride to sodium sulfate in the buffer solution; on the contrary, if the proportion of PM segments is dominated, the membrane pores tend to “close” as increasing the salt concentration or changing the salt from sodium chloride to sodium sulfate. The results provide valuable guidance for developing multiple-stimuli-responsive gating membranes for diverse applications including chemical valves and sensors.
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•Quadri-stimuli-responsive gating membranes with grafted gates are developed.•Diblock polymeric gates are grafted onto porous membranes via the SI-ATRP method.•Membrane gating performances are dependent on grafting yields of segments in gates.
Some drugs have the potential to cause cellular degeneration of cochlear and/or vestibular system, leading to temporary or permanent hearing loss, innitus, ataxia, dizziness, ear infections, ...hyperacusis, vertigo, nystagmus and other ear problems. Thus, precise assessment of ototoxicity has become a strong urge task for the toxicologist. In this research, the in silico prediction model of ototoxicity was developed based on 2612 diverse chemicals by using naïve Bayes classifier approach. A set of 7 molecular descriptors considered as important for ototoxicity was selected by genetic algorithm method, and some structural alerts for ototoxicity were identified. The established naïve Bayes prediction model produced 90.2% overall prediction accuracy for the training set and 88.7% for the external test set. We hope the established naïve Bayes prediction model should be employed as precise and convenient computational tool for assessing and screening the chemical-induced ototoxicity in drug development, and these important information of ototoxic chemical structures could provide theoretical guidance for hit and lead optimization in drug design.
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•A novel prediction model of ototoxicity was developed by using a naïve Bayes classifier.•A set of 7 molecular descriptors considered as important for ototoxicity were identified.•Some structural alerts for ototoxicity were identified.
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