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The purpose of this paper is to understand the dynamics of private sector employment in China in recent years and to provide insight into the effects private sector employment has had on internal variations in growth and development. Our findings indicate a divergence in employment sources in cities and the countryside, a growing spatial divide between areas that rely on state-owned enterprises for employment, and places where the private sector is an increasingly important employer. We conclude that private enterprises are essential drivers of prosperity in urban China but are less significant for employment or growth in rural areas.

Pain is a multidimensional perception that includes unpleasant somatosensory and affective experiences; however, the underlying neural circuits that mediate different components of pain remain elusive. Although hyperactivity of basolateral amygdala glutamatergic (BLA

Using most recent data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey for China, this research shows that ownership structure has a significant impact on firm performance and firm characteristics. Our results show the importance of getting to grips with government regulation, as the time spent by senior management dealing with government regulation is the most significant independent variable. Another key finding of this paper is that China has very good economic institutions that are conductive to doing business. It is far easier to conduct business in China than the other BRIC countries. We conclude that partial privatisations of SOEs on its own is unlikely to bring huge gains in efficiency. Reforms must also include better incentives and monitoring of management. Our findings are robust and consistent to various controls, alternative measures of firm performance, and different estimation methods including quantile regression.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease of the brain. It cannot be cured currently, and those suffering from AD place a great burden on their caregivers and society. AD is characterized by high levels of iron ions in the brain, which catalyze radicals that damage the neurons. Knowing that the Aβ42 peptide precipitates iron by binding iron ions at amino acid residues D1, E3, H11, H13, and H14, we synthesized a 5-repeat (HAYED) sequence peptide. By treating iron-stressed SH-SY5Y cells with it and injecting it into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of naturally senescence Kunming mouse, which displaying AD-similar symptoms such as learning and memory dysfunction, neuron degeneration and high level of iron in brain, we found that HAYED (5) decreased the iron and radical levels in the cell culture medium and in the CSF. Specially, the synthesized peptide prevented cell and brain damage. Furthermore, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Morris water maze and passive avoidance tests demonstrated that the peptide ameliorated brain blood-oxygen metabolism and slowed cognitive loss in the experimental senescence mice, and clinical and blood tests showed that HAYED (5) was innoxious to the kidney, the liver and blood and offset the AD-associated inflammation and anemia.

Burn injury is one of the most common physical injuries in clinic. It is a big challenge to find an ideal treatment for burn injury. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been suggested as a promising candidate for wound healing. However, it is critical to improve the therapeutic efficiency of MSCs for treatment of burn injury. Here, we demonstrated that overexpression of caveolin-1, the main component of the caveolae plasma membranes, promoted the proliferation of MSCs both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, transplantation of MSCs overexpressing caveolin-1 facilitated the expression of various growth factors and immunoregulatory cytokines and accelerated deep second-degree burn wound healing in a rat model of burn injury. Our results suggest that overexpression of caveolin-1 can improve the therapeutic efficiency of MSCs, which may be a promising strategy for the treatment of deep second-degree burn injury in clinic.

A catastrophic ice storm occurred in the spring of 2008, which severely destroyed nearly 13% of China&rsquo, s forests, among them, the broad-leaved forest suffered the most extensive damage. In this study, allometric models of the evergreen broad-leaved forests damaged at different recovery stages after the disaster were established to estimate the aboveground biomass of damaged trees. Plant plots were established and surveyed in damaged forests to determine species composition and diameter distribution, and finally a sample scheme was formulated that contained 47 trees from 13 species. The destructive measurements of aboveground biomass of trees selected according to the scheme were conducted in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2016, respectively. Undamaged trees in the same region were also selected to measure the biomass in 2010. Linear regression of logarithmic transformation of the power function form was performed using Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) as predictor to develop build biomass allometric models. The results showed that the ice storm caused tree aboveground biomass loss, which caused different parameters of the tree biomass models at different recovery stages. The models have a high accuracy in predicting trunk and total aboveground biomass, with high determination coefficients (R2, 0.913~0.984, mean 0.957), and have a relatively low accuracy in predicting the biomass of branches and leaves (R2, 0.703~0.892, mean 0.784). The aboveground biomass reduced by 35.0% on average due to the ice storm, and recovered to the same level of undamaged trees in the same diameter 8 years after the disturbance. The branches and leaves recovered very fast, and the biomass of these parts exceeded that of the undamaged trees, reaching the same diameter 2 years after the disaster, indicating an over compensatory growth. The trees with a smaller diameter were mostly composed of middle and late succession species, and recovered faster than other species, indicating that the ice storm may alter the forest structure and accelerate community succession. The biomass allometric models built in this study, combined with forest inventory data, can estimate forest biomass loss and recovery after disturbance, and offer an important sense of the assessment of forest damage and the formulation of forest post-disaster management strategies.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand whether the personal capital of the entrepreneur positively or negatively affects outcomes from self-employment. Design/methodology/approach Data from the UK’s longitudinal household surveys (BHPS, UKLHS) between 1991 and 2014 were analysed. Relationships between age, education, health and family status, income earned and hours worked were tested. Findings Entrepreneurs with higher levels of personal capital enjoyed higher incomes. However, those with lower levels of personal capital were more likely to have negative returns from self-employment, and so experience it as “self-exploitation”. Research limitations/implications A basis for understanding different outcomes from self-employment was developed and tested. Practical implications Specific characteristics of continuing and new entrepreneurs were identified that are positively associated with beneficial outcomes from self-employment. Originality/value Positive and negative outcomes from self-employment are explained. The notion of personal capital is developed as an explanatory framework for variable outcomes from self-employment.

The paper investigates the extent to which life-satisfaction is biased by peer-comparison by looking at the relative value attached to the different domains of life-satisfaction, as suggested by Easterlin (Economics and happiness: framing the analysis, Oxford University Press, New York, 2005), by social group. We postulate that group membership influences the ranking of the satisfaction domains affecting subjective well-being which allows individuals to go back to their individual threshold over time. Using ordered probit models with random effects, the evidence for professional (self-employed vs. employee) and social (male vs. female) groups using the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society—UK Household Longitudinal Study from 1996 to 2014 shows that the ranking of the satisfaction domains is group-based suggesting a "keeping up with the Joneses" effect linked to the housing bubble.

In this paper we develop a framework for macro stress testing of China's banking system. Our estimates of the correlations between banks' stability indicators and macroeconomic factors establish significant relationships between the non-performing loan ratio and key macroeconomic variables, such as GDP growth, the retail price index (RPI), the unemployment rate, total fixed investment, the money supply, interest rates, and exchange rates. Further, results from the macro stress tests show that robustness, or otherwise, of the banking system is highly dependent on the source of the potential risk. Our value-at-risk tests suggest that (at a 99% confidence level) the Chinese banking system is robust with respect to interest rate shocks. However, GDP growth and exchange rate shocks exhibit a profound negative effect, indicating that significant losses become likely. These results should inform investors, policy-makers and regulators with regard to loss-limitation in China’s banking system.

Forest ecosystems greatly affect the global carbon (C) budget. Because subtropical regions typically have wet and dry seasons that are likely to differ in their effects on soil respiration, our estimates of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from subtropical soil would be improved by consideration of both wet and dry seasons rather than wet seasons alone. In this 10-year study, we determined soil respiration rates (SRRs) and soil properties in a typical subtropical forest in southern China, and we quantified the relationships between SRRs and soil abiotic and biotic properties during the dry and wet seasons. During the 10 years, soil organic carbon contents, microbial biomass, and fine root biomass were generally higher in the wet season than in the dry season. Microbial biomass C and fine root biomass were positively associated with precipitation in dry seasons but negatively associated with precipitation in wet seasons. The SRRs of wet season were consistently and significantly higher than the counterparts of dry season, with the average SRR being 5.94 ± 0.32 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1 in the wet season and 1.56 ± 0.41 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1 in the dry season. In the wet and dry seasons, cumulative CO2 emissions were positively correlated with microbial biomass C and fine root biomass, but the abiotic and biotic factors explaining variation in SRR differed in the wet and dry seasons. Most of the variation in SRRs was explained by fine roots in the wet season but by fine roots, microorganisms, and soil pH in the dry season. The results revealed that the precipitation generated significantly positive effects on the cumulative CO2 emissions in the dry seasons and that the fine root was the crucial factor contributing to the SRRs in wet and dry seasons.

Extreme climate events always leave numerous fresh plant materials (FOM) in forests, thus increasing the input of carbon (C) resources to soil system. The input of exogenous C may accelerate or inhibit the decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC), which is defined as the positive or negative priming effect (PE), respectively. However, the characteristics and microbial mechanisms of PE caused by FOM remain unknown. A 110-day in situ soil incubation experiment was conducted in a subtropical forest, with 13C-labeled fresh leaves from four native species (Castanopsis fissa, CF; Pinus massoniana, PM; Machilus chekiangensis, MC; and Castanopsis chinensis, CC) serving as the FOM respectively. We measured the CO2 effluxes derived from 13C-labeled FOM and soil, and the composition and diversity of soil bacterial and fungal communities throughout the incubation to explore the correlations between PE and microbial attributes. As a result, the PE caused by FOM inputs were negative initially but became positive after 61 d. The FOM decomposition rate was positively related to PE intensity, and there was a significant difference between coniferous and broadleaved species in the middle period of the study. More than 77% of the total C lost from FOM was emitted as CO2, indicating that FOM-C serves as an energy resource for soil microbes. The α-diversity of the bacterial community at genus-level showed significantly positive correlation with PE at 24 d, and the composition of bacterial community at OTU-level had a marked relationship with the PE between 24–110 d. The relationship between fungal community diversity and composition with PE was only observed at 7 and 110 d, respectively. This study firstly investigated the patterns of PE resulted from numerous FOM input, and the results suggested that soil bacterial community, in particular the Actinobacteria phyla, played a more important role in triggering such PEs than fungal community.

This article considers drivers of second job holding among the self-employed in comparison with the employed. Econometric analysis of panel data explores whether the self-employed are more or less likely to take on a second job when already running their own business than their employed counterparts. The findings contribute to the literature through identification of a need-based variable—difficulty in meeting housing costs—as a key driver of movements from self-employment to hybrid entrepreneurship. Findings, further, identify different patterns of second job holding by gender, particularly among self-employed individuals.

Schima superba is a widely distributed and broadly planted broadleaf tree in southern China. Information regarding the probability of stump resprouting, characteristics of the growth of resprouts and their influencing factors after disturbance is lacking. In this study, plant survey plots were established in fertile and barren soil conditions one month after a severe ice-snow storm disaster and the resprouting investigations were conducted four years after the treatment. The species showed a rather high (87.8% in total) resprouting probability and independent of stump diameter and soil fertility condition but positively affected by stump height. Stumps in fertile soil can generate more resprouts than in barren soil and there is no influence in the subsequent resprouts survival and growth. Stump diameter has no influence on the number of resprouts per stump generated, but facilitated the survival and growth of resprouts. Stump height had a positive influence on resprouts number per stump generated and a negative influence on resprouts growth, but had no significant influence on resprouts survival rate and dominant resprouts growth. We recommend conducting a harvest of S. superba at

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is currently incurable and places a large burden on the caregivers of AD patients. In the AD brain, iron is abundant, catalyzing free radicals and impairing neurons. The blood-brain barrier hampers antidementia drug delivery via circulation to the brain, which limits the therapeutic effects of drugs. Here, according to the method described by Gobinda, we synthesized a 16 lysine (K) residue-linked low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP)-binding amino acid segment of apolipoprotein E (K16APoE). By mixing this protein with our designed therapeutic peptide HAYED, we successfully transported HAYED into an AD model mouse brain, and the peptide scavenged excess iron and radicals and decreased the necrosis of neurons, thus easing AD.

Ammonia–water solution is widely used in absorption cycle systems, but the generation of ammonia from solution requires a great amount of heat consumption. In this work, a vertical-tube heat exchanger was adopted as the generator of an ammonia–water absorption cycle. The generation of ammonia from an ammonia–water solution in the generator was experimentally analyzed. The generator has an annular structure: a falling film of ammonia–water solution flows inside the inner tube, and an upflowing water stream flows in the annular space between the outside surface of the inner tube and the inside surface of the outer tube. First, the heat transfer enhancement effect of the annular structure was confirmed using water as the working fluid; then, the effect was tested for an ammonia–water solution. It was found that the heat transfer coefficient of Annulus I (0.5 mm annulus gap) was 316.2% higher than that of Annulus III (2.5 mm annulus gap) at the water flow rate of 50 g⋅s−1 through the annulus space. When the flow rate of the upflowing fluid exceeds a certain value, the effect of heat transfer for these annuli deviates obviously. The solution in the falling film with an initial ammonia concentration of 18.7 wt. % was used in the generation experiment. The outlet ammonia concentration of Annulus I was 12.7% lower than that of Annulus III at the water flow rate of 33.3 g⋅s−1. Based on the Sieder–Tate formula, the Nusselt number correlation equations were developed with ±10% error.

Receptor-interacting serine-threonine kinase 3 (RIPk3) is a key signaling molecule in the regulation of cell apoptosis and necroptosis, it plays an important role in the pathophysiological changes of many hematologic diseases. However, the regulatory role of RIPk3 in programmed cell death (PCD) is not fully known. In this study, bone marrow-specific RIPk3 gene knockout homozygotes (RIPk3-/- mice) were established by homologous recombination. The physiological index of peripheral blood, the morphology and structure of the bone marrow, the bone marrow nucleated cells (BMNCs), the hemopoietic stem cells (HSCs), interleukin-6 (IL-6) level and the colony formation capacity of bone marrow hematopoietic progenitor cells were compared between RIPk3-/- mice and wild-type mice. The results showed that, the cell death rate of BMNCs in RIPk3-/- mice was significantly higher than that in control mice, indicated that RIPk3 gene knockout may cause damage to bone marrow cells to some extent. However, the bone marrow had normal structure and morphology in the bone marrow-specific RIPk3-knockout mice, and there were not significantly different between the two mice in most of the blood physiological indicators, and colony yields of hemopoietic stem/progenitor cells. Further study found that the bone marrow IL-6 level of the RIPk3-/- mice increased significantly, besides, the number of BMNCs and HSCs in the bone marrow of the RIPk3-/- mice increased considerably as compared with the control mice. The findings implies that bone marrow RIPk3 gene knockout may lead to the increase of BMNCs cell death, however, increased secretion of hematopoietic cytokines such as IL-6 may promote the proliferation of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells and thus maintain the stability of bone marrow hematopoiesis. This hypothesis and the detailed mechanisms remain to be further investigated.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of self-employment, using data from the British Household Panel Survey.Design/methodology/approach– Using the maximum likelihood estimation, the authors estimate the Probit models via disaggregation of the sample by male and female, and inclusion of regional and industrial controls.Findings– This paper finds that the intergenerational links in self-employment run significantly through father-son, and mother-daughter. In addition, the authors find that lump-sum endowment, aspiration, marriage and education attainment are all significant and positive determinants for female self-employed while insignificant for male self-employed. Variables including number of children, health of the individual, and age effect are more important determinants for male than for female self-employed.Research limitations/implications– The findings show that there are significant differences between male and female self-employed. Future studies on self-employment should therefore distinguish the two genders in their econometric models.Originality/value– The authors reinforce and add to the exiting literature on gender differences in the determinants of self-employment. The authors disaggregate the data by gender, and introduce some important variables for empirical studies, such as father self-employed, mother self-employed, aspiration, health of the individual, and age effect.

This paper empirically examines time-use and its impact on satisfaction levels among dual career households in a post-industrial economy, the UK. Analysis explores the 1993-2009 British Household Panel Survey using panel probit regression. The evidence reveals distinctions in time-use relative to gender, occupations, and employment sector. Long hours persist among managers and professionals. The uneven division of household labour, further, continues to burden women with extensive amounts of housework and care. Satisfaction with working hours and amount/use of leisure time are lower among women, especially public sector professionals. Provision of care, occupation, and partner employment characteristics represent important satisfaction determinants present among women, while income (including partner’s income) only has relevance among men. Housework does not itself generate dissatisfaction. It is the overload of household tasks, due to inequality in the household division of labour, which constrains many highly skilled working women reducing satisfaction with time-use and life overall.

Tropical rainforest soil is an important source of atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O). However, there is still considerable uncertainty about the spatial and temporal variability of N2O fluxes. To understand these fluxes, we quantified the annual N2O emissions from three tropical mountain rainforests (primary mountain rainforest, PMR; secondary mountain rainforest, SMR; and Podocaipus imbricatus plantation, PIP) in the Jian-fengling National Natural Reserve on Hainan Island, China. The average of N2O emissions in this area was 2.52 +/- 033 kg N-N2O ha(-1) yr(-1) (3.52 kg N-N2O ha(-1) yr(-1) in the wet season and 1.62 kg N-N2O ha(-1) yr(-1) in the dry season) during our study period, with highly seasonal variations. The mean N2O emission rates were significantly higher during the wet season (68% of the total average) than the dry season (32% of the total average) (P < 0.05). PIP had the highest N2O emission rate at 3.49 +/- 0.61 kg N-N2O ha(-1) yr(-1) (4.74 kg N-N2O ha(-1) yr(-1) in the wet season and 232 kg N-N2O ha(-1) yr(-1) in the dry season), followed by SMR at 3.03 +/- 0.64 kg N-N2O ha(-1) yr(-1) (4.16 kg N-N2O ha(-1) yr(-1) in the wet season and 1.97 kg N-N2O ha(-1) yr(-1) in the dry season), and then PMR at 1.53 +/- 0.49 kg N-N2O ha(-1) yr(-1) (2.21 kg N-N2O ha(-1) yr(-1) in the wet season and 0.94 kg N-N2O ha(-1) yr(-1) in the dry season). We observed a significant Gaussian relationship between the N2O fluxes and soil temperature for SMR and PIP but no significant relationship in PMR. There was a significant exponential relationship between the N2O fluxes and water filled pore space (WFPS) in SMR and PIP but not in PMR. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We focus on the impact of migrants’ remittances on consumption patterns in China. Using a large homogenous sample of rural households surveyed in 2001 and 2004, we find that remittances are spent on nonhousing consumption expenditures at the margin, virtually dollar-for-dollar, when we instrument remittances and local employed earnings using proxies of social networks. Our findings are robust to intra-household division of labour and to fixed-effect for the county in which the respondents are registered. These results imply that rural households largely take remittances as permanent income and are consistent with the prevalence of circular and repeat migration in China.

mplementing Total Quality Environmental Management (TQEM) improves environment, quality, sustainability, and reduces food risks. TQEM has emerged from integrating Environmental Management System (EMS) into the Total Quality Management (TQM). In this paper, an investigation is presented to study the current situation, and identify the barriers and motivations for implementing TQEM towards sustainability for Libyan food industry (LFI). A qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was adopted to collect the data with general, operation, and quality managers in LFI. The findings show that LFI are still in the early stage of quality and a little concern about the EMS and TQM has been given. There are five key barriers and five motivations for implementing TQEM in LFI. The paper contributes to the existing knowledge by investigating the implementation of TQEM in different context (i.e., Arab/North African) to the one that the quality and environmental theory developed in. Also, the paper studies all barriers and motivations of TQM and EMS implementation compared with previous studies focusing on few barriers and motivations. The paper provides ideas and insights for LFI managers to develop their implementation in TQEM while also considering quality and environmental issues.

Parasecretion of the hematopoietic cytokines is considered as one of the mechanisms account for bone marrow hematopoiesis disorder. In this study, the level of IL-6 secreted by bone marrow stromal cells from a mouse model of aplastic anemia was analyzed. The aplastic anemia mouse model was established with cyclophosphamide in combination with chloramphenicol and 60Coγ radiation. The impairment of bone marrow hematopoiesis induced by irradiation and chemotherapeutic drugs was subsequently characterized by peripheral blood cell count, pathomorphological changes, and apoptosis rate. Furthermore, the in vitro proliferation of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) and the IL-6 secretion levels of BMSC were analyzed. In our model of aplastic anemia, the number of peripheral blood cells and bone marrow cells (BMC) were notably decreased, and the apoptosis rate of BMC increased. Furthermore, the proliferation of BMSC was obviously impeded while the IL-6 secretion levels of BMSC significantly increased. The findings of our study suggested that the IL-6 secretion level may be enhanced to some extent by the induction of aplastic anemia caused by irradiation and chemotherapeutic drugs and that the abnormal level of IL-6 might probably interfere with the stability of the bone marrow hematopoietic microenvironment.

The forecasted changes in global climate include not only shifts in average conditions, but also changes in the frequency and intensity of climatic extremes. One such climate extreme expected to change in the future are extreme cold spells. Although these disturbances may become less frequent, extreme cold spells are believed to persist in the foreseeable future and will likely have profound effects on species distributions, community organization, and ecosystem function. However, generalities about how ecosystems respond to these disturbances remain understudied. In 2008, an extreme once‐in‐50‐year cold spell affected sub‐tropical China, causing catastrophic damage to natural systems within the swath of the disturbance. In this study, we investigated the effects of this disturbance on a community of butterflies in the Nanling Mountain Preserve in southern China. Butterfly count surveys were conducted from 2006 to 2011. We predicted that the 2008 cold spell would have disproportionate effects on tropical butterfly species, increasing community dominance of more broadly tolerant temperate species. Over the course of the study, we counted 3403 butterflies from 249 species. Our results showed that the cold spell reduced abundances of temperate and tropical species by 50% and 88%, respectively. The disproportionate loss of tropical butterfly species changed butterfly community structure, resulting in a post cold spell community nearly completely dominated by temperate species. Butterfly communities remained dominated by temperate species for 2 years before the abundances of tropical species return to predisturbance conditions in 2011. As cold spells change in frequency and intensity in the future, we should expect their role in structuring sub‐tropical communities, in particular, the presence and dominance of tropical species to also change.

The paper mainly applies three-dimensional (3D) scanners to carry out mapping for traditional furniture parts, making a systematic study on the parts size, recognising the application potential of 3D furniture mapping. In the course of the study, firstly an historic wenge bench is selected with its components acting as measurable objects, and then secondly we carry out specific work for the experimental study. Combined with advanced 3D scanning equipment and the measuring process study, details are described using 3D mapping methods, mapping key technologies to acquire a series of data through the mapping experiment on the antique furniture. The purpose of this research is to enable furniture design to be better integrated with advanced technologies; the study and design of traditional furniture can be further developed using high-tech means. It can provide basic design parameters and image data to inform digital furniture development and design systems.

Aims:\ud Investigates national environmental factors on implementing total quality environmental management (TQEM) in the Libyan food industry (LFI), in order to develop modern managerial techniques.\ud Study Design:\ud A questionnaire was conducted with 62 managers and 518 employees from three companies in the LFI.\ud Place and Duration of Study:\ud The study was carried out in Libya, the fieldwork was conducted in 2013.\ud Methodology:\ud Using existing measures obtained from the literature and new ones specifically developed for this research, a battery of items was derived to investigate technical capability, organizational culture, competition, government policy and human resource.\ud Results:\ud The results revealed that, five national environmental factors are identified. The findings show that the social responsibility factor is a new phenomenon that has not generally been studied in Libya, and particularly not in the LFI.\ud Conclusion:\ud This research contributes to the knowledge by investigating the national environmental factors for implementation of TQEM in a different context (i.e., the Arab/North African context). The findings provide a valuable basis to establish a framework model for the implementation of the TQEM in the Libyan context.

This article studies the impact of remittances on the savings behaviour of rural households in China, using a primary survey undertaken by the authors in 2006. Allowing for endogeneity and left-cen...

Using the British Household Panel Survey, this paper finds that inheritance has a concave effect on the hours worked by male entrepreneurs. Receiving an inheritance increases the labor supply of unemployed male entrepreneurs; however this effect becomes smaller for higher inheritances.

Plants release secondary metabolites into the soil that change the chemical environment around them. Exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) is an important allelochemical whose role in successional trajectories has not been examined. We hypothesized that ABA can accumulate in the soil through successional processes and have an influence on forest dynamics. To this end, we investigated the distribution of ABA in forest communities from early to late successional stages and the response of dominant species to the gradient of ABA concentrations in three types of forests from northern to southern China. Concentrations of ABA in the soils of three forest types increased from early to late successional stages. Pioneer species' litters had the lowest ABA content, and their seed germination and seedling early growth were the most sensitive to the inhibitory effect of ABA. Mid- and late-successional species had a much higher ABA content in fallen leaves than pioneer species, and their seed germination and seedling early growth were inhibited by higher concentrations of ABA than pioneers. Late-successional species showed little response to the highest ABA concentration, possibly due to their large seed size. The results suggest that ABA accumulates in the soil as community succession proceeds. Sensitivity to ABA in the early stages, associated with other characteristics, may result in pioneer species losing their advantage in competition with late-successional species in an increasingly high ABA concentration environment, and being replaced by ABA-tolerant, late-successional species.

Extreme events often expose vulnerabilities of socioeconomic infrastructures and point to directions of much-needed policy change. Integrated impact assessment of such events can lead to finding of sustainability principles. Southern and central China has for decades been undergoing a breakneck pace of socioeconomic development. In early 2008, a massive ice storm struck this region, immobilizing millions of people. The storm was a consequence of sustained convergence between tropical maritime and continental polar air masses, caused by an anomalously stable atmospheric general circulation pattern in both low and high latitudes. Successive waves of freezing rain occurred during a month period, coating southern and central China with a layer of ice 50–160 mm in thickness. We conducted an integrated impact assessment of this event to determine whether and how the context of socioeconomic and human-disturbed natural systems may affect the transition of natural events into human disasters. We found th...

The mechanism of acquired aplastic anemia (AA), a bone marrow hematopoiesis failure disease, has not been fully understood. TNF-α is a pleiotropic cytokine involved in cell proliferation, differentiation and death, and inflammation through binding to specific receptors on cell membranes. Aberrant secretion of TNF-α contributes to a number of human diseases, including tumor development and inflammation. TNF-α is also an important negative regulator of hematopoiesis. Over-expression of TNF-α not only directly inhibits the proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic cells, but also initiates the intracellular death pathway to induce hematopoietic cell death, leading to bone marrow hematopoiesis failure. In this review, we summarize the mechanisms underlying extrinsic apoptosis and necroptosis of hematopoietic cells induced by TNF-α, and discuss the role of TNF-α-induced programmed cell death in the pathogenesis of acquired AA.

The panel data evidence in this article shows that the wage curve does not exist in China when utilizing the provincial unemployment rate. However, the wage curve exists when utilizing the provincial youth unemployment rate. Youth unemployment data are more reliable in China, as they are not distorted by the exclusion of significant numbers of adult laid off workers from the more familiar unemployment statistics. It is also found that the semi-log function is a good approximation for urban wage curve of China. The wage unemployment relationship becomes more negative when utilizing fixed effects and random effects models.

In this paper, we use pooled cross-sectional data on 28 provinces to study out-migration in China. In particular, we estimate inter- and intra-province rural-to-urban migration in a simultaneous-equations model. Allowing for the joint determination of inter- and intra-migration, we find the effect of the within province rural–urban income gap on intra-province migration to be almost three times as strong as that of the between province urban wage gap on inter-province migration.

Harris and Todaro [Am. Econ. Rev. 60 (1970) 126] developed a migration model for less developed countries focusing on equating expected earnings between the rural and urban sectors. Their model provides a useful framework for theoretical studies on rural–urban migration. In practice, the model has critical limitations, as it does not consider the effects of changes in industrial structure and the existence of rural industries on migratory behaviour. In China, for example, the change of industrial development strategy from being capital intensive to being labour intensive after economic reforms, and the rapid growth of a nonfarm sector in the rural areas have important implications on rural–urban migration. This paper uses a panel data from 1995 to 1998 and an alternative migration model to demonstrate that the change of industrial structure and the development of rural nonfarm industries play a significant role in migration decision among the Chinese peasants.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the pattern of regional unemployment in transitional China. A model is developed to explore how urban unemployment in the provinces is influenced by peasants' wages, formal sector wages, and the size of the formal sector. Evidence from panel data suggests that a significant indicator of high unemployment rates is greater Urban–Rural Income Inequality within the province. The hypothesis is that the urban–rural income gap produces migration, and more rural migrants substitute for urban workers, causing further urban unemployment. Since the economic reforms began in 1978, the non-state owned enterprises have been carrying an increasing weight in the economy, and they have contributed significantly to the rapid economic growth of China. Empirical evidence shows that economic reforms have reduced unemployment. The provinces that are still heavily dependent on the state sector are therefore more likely to experience higher unemployment.

Dual career households have the potential to be the most egalitarian of all households. However, while paid work is increasingly distributed evenly between career men and women, household time remains a social constraint for many women. This paper considers the distribution of work among dual career households, using weekly time-use trends, reflecting on the fit of household models and the effectiveness of current work-focused policy. Descriptive analysis, random-effects probit regression, and case households provide an empirical focus on a post-industrial economy - the UK - using the 1993-2009 British Household Panel Survey. Long hours, especially overtime, persist in managerial and professional occupations. Meanwhile, housework burdens women with up to fourteen hours of additional work per week. Preferences for shorter hours remain greater among women, reflecting the impact of household time on paid work. The evidence presented in this paper suggests that the distribution of household labor renders dual career households less than egalitarian.

A model of crime is developed based on principles from the existing literature with some original insight. The implications of the model are that income inequality and unemployment are important explanatory variables for crimes motivated by economic gain, but do not offer much explanatory power for other types of crime. A panel data of UK regions over the years from 2002 to 2007 is then used to test these predictions. The empirical results strongly support the hypothesis that crime is an economic phenomenon.

This paper studies the impact of mortgages on consumer debt and on debt on durable goods. Outstanding debt, representing mortgages, affects positively consumer debt, and the debt on durable goods. This hypothesis is empirically tested for the U.S. using PSID 2005 wave. Our results are striking. First, we find strong evidence supporting a positive association between mortgage loans and consumer debts, regardless of the measures used, the control variables used, and the methods used. The results remain unchanged when we address potential endogeneity and measurement error problems. Second, we find that the effects of mortgages on the debt on durable goods are in general smaller than the effects of mortgages on other types of debts. Third, our distributional analysis reveals an interesting pattern of the effects on consumer debt of mortgage over the distribution. Specifically, the effects monotonically decrease as the quantile increase, with the smallest effects being at the upper tail of the distribution. Finally, we also examine the short-run dynamics of the relation between mortgage and consumer debts. We find that there is no systematic relation between the growth rate of mortgage and the growth rates of consumer debts.

Introduction. Financial Sector Reform and the International Integration of China: An Overview Zhongmin Wu Part 1: Financial Sector Reform 1. The Internationalization of China's Auditing Standards: Developments and Challenges Jinyu Zhu and Simon S. Gao 2. The Collusive Analysis of Large Shareholders and Managers after China's Shareholder Splitting Reforms Zhenxin Wu, Xufeng Zhang and Shuping Wang 3. Corporate Bond Performance in China and Its Default Spread Xiaobing Feng, Sharon Xiaowen Lin and Feng Zhao 4. Stock Market Liberalization and Liquidity: Firm Level Evidence from the Chinese Market Wei Huang 5. Analysis into IPO Underpricing and Clustering in Hong Kong Equity Market Yongyuan Qiao 6. China's RMB Exchange Rate Regime Option, Capital Integration, and Financial Development Ping He 7. Testing for Credit Restrictions in Chinese Agriculture Xiaoli Liu 8. Influence of FDI on Financial Stability of China: Su-Kun Pan 9. An Analysis of China's Derivatives Market and Accounting for Derivatives Zhen Huang & Simon Gao Part 2: The International Integration of China 10. The long-term growth effects of the Olympic Games in Beijing - A theoretical investigation of growth channels of mega-events Tobias Birkendorf 11. An Empirical Analysis of the Chinese Move to Africa Mario Biggeri and Marco Sanfilippo 12. Chinese Firms enter Europe: Some Empirical Evidence F. Hay, C. Milelli and Y. Shi 13. The Factors Limiting the Overseas Listing of Chinese Privately-owned Enterprises: The Ningbo Case Jianying Tian and Weiqi Shen 14. China's Integration into a Global Economy: A Case of Natural Economic Development or the Deliberate Outcome of Political Decisions to Re-legitimise the Leading Role of the CCP? Christian Ploberger 15. Globalization, North-South Industrial Location and Environment Competition Rieber Arsene and Tran Thi Anh-Dao 16. Foreign R&D Spillovers and Total Factor Productivity in the East Asian Manufacturing Industry Hailin Liao, Xiaohui Liu and Tom Weyman-Jones. Concluding Remarks

Introduction: China in the World Economy Zhongmin Wu Part 1: Three Decades of Economic Growth 1. Structural Changes and the Transition Process of China Alberto Bagnai and Christian A. Mongeau Ospina 2. Do Sentiment Indicators Help to Assess and Predict Actual Developments of the Chinese Economy? Aaron Mehrotra and Jouko Rautava 3. Supporting China's GDP with Ecologically Efficient Ultra-high Speed Freight Transport Systems John Kidd and Marielle Stumm 4. Dynamic Evolution of Regional Growth Disparity in China: Evidence from 1978 to 2005 Ru Zhang 5. Growth, Inequality and Poverty in China Gopal Krishna Pal Part 2: Labour Market Reform 6. The Impact of Technology Adoption on Employment: Exploration from the Perspective of Manufacturing Industry in Transitional China Guangjie Ning 7. Evaluating Job Training in Two Chinese Cities Benu Bidani, Niels-Hugo Blunch, Chor-ching Goh, and Christopher O'Leary 8. Job Search with Non-participation Teng Ge 9. Youth Unemployment in Urban China Zhongmin Wu Part 3: Sustainable Development and Policy 10. Openness and Productivity in China M.J. Herrerias and Vicente Orts 11. Private Sector Development in Anhui Province - The Impact of Regional Spillovers from Jiangsu Province Genia Kostka 12. Does Public Ownership Really Help? - China's TVE Development and the Change of Ownership Structure Jiannan Guo 13. Developing a Corporate Social Responsibility in China - The Impact of Government Regulations, Market Orientation and Ownership Structure Riliang Qu 14. Technological Entrepreneurship: Regional Variations and Impacts of Entrepreneurship Policy Gang Zhang, Xuebing Peng and Jun Li 15. Efficient and Equitable Compensation of Agricultural Land Conversion: Theory and an Application for China Xiuqing Zou and Arie J. Oskam. Concluding Remarks