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The technological innovation of wind power is crucial to energy security and energy structure transformation. The Chinese government has been committed to improving the innovation of the wind power industry for decades. Although academic researchers and wind power policymakers have been widely concerned about the absolute score of innovation output, concentrating on innovation output in isolation is ultimately insufficient. This article goes beyond bean counting and evaluates the innovation of the Chinese wind power industry from the perspective of relative efficiency, and then assesses the efforts of the government to improve innovation efficiency (IE). The study uses the data of 105 wind power listed enterprises in China over the period 2008–2019. According to the recommendation made by the existing papers, IE is defined as the capability to generate innovation outputs per unit of R&D investment. Regression analysis is applied to test the policy effect. During 2008–2019, the average value of IE of Chinese wind power industry is 0.196. The IE of wind power enterprises in eastern China (0.265) is higher than that in central and western China (0.169). Besides, the regression results indicate that all categories of wind power innovation policies contribute to the IE of wind power industry in China. Furthermore, the innovation policies issued by the departments of the State Council significantly improve the IE of wind power industry, but the innovation policies from the National People's Congress and the State Council have no significant impacts on IE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant invasion causes changes in floristic composition, and structural and functional degradation of tropical rainforest, which is driven by global changes, deforestation and habitat fragmentation, with temperature increasing as a marked trait in rainforest remnants. Here, we hypothesized that microclimate change, particularly increased temperature, is a major driver for plant invasion to tropical rainforest. Laboratory and field experiments were designed to investigate the germination ecology and high-temperature tolerance of intermediate seeds from three species: Cinnamomum burmanni, Citrus maxima, and Coffea arabica, which are cultivated in Xishuangbanna, tropical China though not native. It was found that the seeds all exhibited sensitivity to high-temperature, including low germination when incubated at ≥ 35 °C or ≥ 9 h daily warm period at 40 °C, and viability loss after ≥ 4 d continuous heating at 40 °C or 30-min heating at temperature ≥ 50 °C, although with interspecific variations. Meanwhile, these species demonstrated a strong preference for forest habitats during plant regeneration from seeds, including higher germination percentage and longer seeds and seedling survival under forest conditions. Overall, intermediate seeds had high-temperature sensitivity, close to or slightly lower than recalcitrant seeds, but markedly higher than orthodox seeds of pioneer and weed species previously reported. We suggest that Cinnamomum burmanni, Citrus maxima, and Coffea arabica all have the potential to enter Xishuangbanna tropical rainforests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two different types of grinding stones, grinding slabs and rollers, as well as mortars and pestles from the Shuangdun site (ca. 7.3–6.8 ka BP) in the middle Huai River region, were subjected to starch grain analysis to investigate the evolution of plant food processing tools during the transition period from a gathering–fishing–hunting economy to farming. The results suggest that both types of grinding stones were used to process various plant species, including Triticeae, Job's tears (Coix lacryma‐jobi), lotus root (Nelumbo nucifera), and bean (Vigna spp.). However, starch grains of rice (Oryza sativa) were only discovered from mortar and pestle tools, indicating that mortars and pestles might have become a fixed combination tool for rice processing. Damage characteristics analysis for different kinds of starches indicated that mortars and pestles were also used for grinding plant foods besides dehusking rice, whereas some roughly made slabs no longer had a grinding function and were used only for pounding some specific plant foods. The functional degeneration of grinding slabs coincides with the rise of farming in Neolithic China around 7,000 BP. This study provides new evidence for understanding the evolution of prehistoric human plant food processing tools in Neolithic Eastern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum species is a serious disease on a range of economically important hosts. To determine the Colletotrichum species in coffee plantations in Hainan, China, 55 isolates were obtained from Coffea arabica (arabica) and C. canephora var. robusta (robusta) in five counties. Initially, partial sequences of glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) were used to measure fungal genetic diversity. Then a subset of 23 isolates was selected to represent the range of genetic diversity, varieties and geographic origin for further multilocus phylogenetic analyses. These isolates belong to eight known Colletotrichum species from three Colletotrichum species complexes, including gloeosporioides (C. endophytica, C. fructicola, C. ledongense, C. siamense and C. tropicale), boninense (C. karstii), gigasporum (C. gigasporum), and one singleton species (C. brevisporum). Of these, C. siamense was isolated in all sampled counties and C. fructicola was identified in three counties. The other six species were isolated only in one or two counties. Only C. siamense and C. fructicola were isolated from arabica, whereas all eight species were isolated from robusta. Occurrence of C. brevisporum, C. endophytica, C. ledongense and C. tropicale in coffee has not been reported previously. Pathogenicity tests showed that all eight species were pathogenic to coffee leaves and fruit. In vitro tests showed that Colletotrichum isolates from coffee in Hainan were most sensitive to prochloraz, less sensitive to carbendazim, propiconazole and difenoconazole, and least sensitive to myclobutanil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]