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This paper uses the test proposed by Generalized Supremum Augmented Dickey-Fuller to identify whether there are multiple bubbles in copper price. The empirical results show that base on market fundamentals, there are seven bubbles existed from January 1980 to March 2023. Through analyses, the first two bubbles can be explained by the demand from Japan by the industry concentration and persistent supply constraint. The third to sixth bubbles are mainly negatively impacted by the global financial crisis and growing demand of China. The last bubble is caused by the economic recovery from Covid-19. The logit regression has stated that aluminum price, copper production, all metals index and GDP have a positive impact on copper bubbles, while China's copper imports and precious metals price negatively explains copper bubbles. The main contributions are the investigation of the copper price bubbles, its determinants and the different technique of GSADF to detect copper price bubbles. Furthermore, it provides helpful information for those investors to make reasonable investment decisions and thus, avoid potential price risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the InCites tool of Thomson Reuters, this study compares normalized citation impact values calculated for China, Japan, France, Germany, United States, and the UK throughout the time period from 1981 to 2010. InCites offers a unique opportunity to study the normalized citation impacts of countries using (i) a long publication window (1981 to 2010), (ii) a differentiation in (broad or more narrow) subject areas, and (iii) allowing for the use of statistical procedures in order to obtain an insightful investigation of national citation trends across the years. Using four broad categories, our results show significantly increasing trends in citation impact values for France, the UK, and especially Germany across the last thirty years in all areas. The citation impact of papers from China is still at a relatively low level (mostly below the world average), but the country follows an increasing trend line. The USA exhibits a stable pattern of high citation impact values across the years. With small impact differences between the publication years, the US trend is increasing in engineering and technology but decreasing in medical and health sciences as well as in agricultural sciences. Similar to the USA, Japan follows increasing as well as decreasing trends in different subject areas, but the variability across the years is small. In most of the years, papers from Japan perform below or approximately at the world average in each subject area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the financial system has illustrated an increasingly prominent characteristic of inextricable connections, information theory is gradually utilized to study the financial system. By collecting the daily data of industry index (2005-2020) and region index (2012-2020) listed in China as samples, this paper applies an innovative measure named partial mutual information on mixed embedding to generate directed networks. Based on the analysis of nonlinear relationships among sectors, this paper realizes the accurate construction of "time-varying" financial network from the perspective of risk spillover. The results are presented as follow: (1) interactions can be better understood through the nonlinear networks among distinct sectors, and sectors in the networks could be classified into different types according to their topological properties connected to risk spillover; (2) in the rising stage, information is transmitted rapidly in the network, so the risk is fast diffused and absorbed; (3) in the declining stage, the network topology is more complex and panic sentiments have long term impact leading to more connections; (4) The US market, Japan market and Hongkong market have significant affect on China's market. The results suggest that this nonlinear measure is an effective approach to develop financial networks and explore the mechanism of risk spillover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the current technological revolution and unprecedented major changes, countries are facing the situation of accelerating the development of key core technologies, which is caused by the transformation from the dispute over trade to the dispute over ecology and scientific and technological strength. Competitive situation analysis is an important link of key core technology innovation. The construction of a universal model of international competitive situation analysis of key core technology can provide scientific support for decision makers of science and technology innovation to solve technical difficulties. This study takes the new generation of information technology industry as an example, identifies key core technologies of the industry and evaluates the competitive situation of the major world countries. Studies indicate that in the field of new generation information technology, the US and Japan is in the leading position globally. In addition, China has active innovation activities in all fields, but overall there remains a considerable gap with the world-leading level, and its R&D quality needs to be further improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently acquired archaeological record for soybean from Japan, China and Korea is shedding light on the context in which this important economic plant became associated with people and was domesticated. This paper examines archaeological (charred) soybean seed size variation to determine what insight can be gained from a comprehensive comparison of 949 specimens from 22 sites. Seed length alone appears to represent seed size change through time, although the length6width6thickness product has the potential to provide better size change resolution. A widespread early association of small seeded soybean is as old as 9000-8600 cal BP in northern China and 7000 cal BP in Japan. Direct AMS radiocarbon dates on charred soybean seeds indicate selection resulted in large seed sizes in Japan by 5000 cal BP (Middle Jomon) and in Korea by 3000 cal BP (Early Mumun). Soybean seeds recovered in China from the Shang through Han periods are similar in length to the large Korean and Japanese specimens, but the overall size of the large Middle and Late Jomon, Early Mumun through Three Kingdom seeds is significantly larger than any of the Chinese specimens. The archaeological record appears to disconfirm the hypothesis of a single domestication of soybean and supports the view informed by recent phyologenetic research that soybean was domesticated in several locations in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed a novel preparative method for nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab) paclitaxel with high drug loading, which was based on improved paclitaxel solubility in polyethylene glycol (PEG) and self-assembly of paclitaxel in PEG with albumin powders into nanoparticles. That is, paclitaxel and PEG were firstly dissolved in ethanol, which was subsequently evaporated under vacuum. The obtained liquid was then mixed with human serum albumin powders. Thereafter, the mixtures were added into phosphate-buffered saline and nab paclitaxel suspensions emerged after ultrasound. Nab paclitaxel was finally acquired after dialysis and freeze drying. The drug loading of about 15% (W/V) were realized in self-made nab paclitaxel, which was increased by approximately 50% compared to 10% (W/V) in Abraxane. Now this new preparative method has been authorized to obtain patent from China and Japan. The similar characteristics of self-made nab paclitaxel compared to Abraxane were observed in morphology, encapsulation efficiency, in vitro release, X-ray diffraction analysis, differential scanning calorimetry analysis, and circular dichroism spectra analysis. Consistent concentration-time curves in rats, biodistributions in mice, anti-tumor activities in mice, and histological transmutation in mice were also found between Abraxane and self-made nanoparticles. In a word, our novel preparative method for nab paclitaxel can significantly improve drug loading, obviously decrease product cost, and is considered to have potent practical value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A risk assessment was conducted to assess the risk of ASFV entry into Japan through pork products illegally brought in by air passengers from China and fed to pigs in Japan. Scenario tree modelling was used with the following entry and exposure pathway considered to be the most likely route of ASF entry: an ASFV infected pork product is illegally brought into Japan by air travellers from China; this pork product is then used in a restaurant where scrap waste is recycled for animal feed and subsequently fed to pigs without being heat-treated. Input parameter values were based on surveys conducted by the authors, scientific data gathered from the literature and official data published by government agencies. The annual probability of ASFV entry into Japan via this pathway was predicted to be 0.20 (90% prediction interval: 0.00–0.90). The wide prediction interval was mainly caused by the uncertainty regarding the dose response relation of ASFV, followed by the probability of an ASF infected pig dying on affected farms, the loading of ASFV in an infected pig and the probability of an illegally imported pork product being heat-treated in China and used in restaurants. The results of scenario analysis revealed that the annual probability of ASFV entry into Japan will increase with an increase in the number of ASF affected farms in China. The probability of ASFV entry will increase substantially even if only a small proportion of Ecofeed is not heat-treated during the production process. The probability will decrease if an increased proportion of farms that feed swill apply heat-treatment before feeding swill to their pigs. These findings indicate that stringent application of heat-treatment of Ecofeed and swill is key to protecting the Japanese pig industry from the introduction of ASFV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HAdV-56 is a new recombinant type isolated from epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) patients and has been sporadically isolated in Japan several times. Here, an outbreak of EKC in the city of Dalian, China involving a large number of workers in two factories was reported; this was the first outbreak of EKC associated with HAdV-56 worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When testing association between rare variants and diseases, an efficient analytical approach involves considering a set of variants in a genomic region as the unit of analysis. One factor complicating this approach is that the vast majority of rare variants in practical applications are believed to represent background neutral variation. As a result, analyzing a single set with all variants may not represent a powerful approach. Here, we propose two alternative strategies. In the first, we analyze the subsets of rare variants exhaustively. In the second, we categorize variants selectively into two subsets: one in which variants are overrepresented in cases, and the other in which variants are overrepresented in controls. When the proportion of neutral variants is moderate to large we show, by simulations, that the both proposed strategies improve the statistical power over methods analyzing a single set with total variants. When applied to a real sequencing association study, the proposed methods consistently produce smaller p-values than their competitors. When applied to another real sequencing dataset to study the difference of rare allele distributions between ethnic populations, the proposed methods detect the over-representation of variants between the CHB (Chinese Han in Beijing) and YRI (Yoruba people of Ibadan) populations with small p-values. Additional analyses suggest that there is no difference between the CHB and CHD (Chinese Han in Denver) datasets, as expected. Finally, when applied to the CHB and JPT (Japanese people in Tokyo) populations, existing methods fail to detect any difference, while it is detected by the proposed methods in several regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of globalization has separated the production and consumption of products spatially, and the international trade of products has become a carrier of embodied carbon trade. This paper adopted the perspective of value-added trade to calculate the amount of embodied carbon trade of China from 2006 to 2015 and perform a structural decomposition analysis of the changes in China's embodied carbon trade. This study found that: (1) China's embodied carbon exports are much larger than its embodied carbon imports, and there are differences between countries. China imported the largest amount of embodied carbon from South Korea, and it exported the largest amount of embodied carbon to the United States. (2) The structural decomposition analysis shows that changes in the value-added carbon emission coefficient during the study period would have caused China's embodied carbon trade to decrease, and changes in value-added trade would have caused China's embodied carbon trade to increase. Therefore, countries trading with China need to strengthen their cooperation with China in energy conservation, emission reduction, and product trade. In order to accurately reflect China's embodied carbon trade, it is necessary to calculate embodied carbon trade from the perspective of value-added trade., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Industrial robots are a strategic future technology and an important part of the development of artificial intelligence, and they are a necessary means for the intelligent transformation of manufacturing industry. Based on global industrial robot trade data from 1998 to 2017, this paper applies the dynamic complex network analysis method to reveal the spatial and temporal variation characteristics and trade status evolution of the global industrial robot trade network. The results show that the global industrial robot network density has steadily increased, and the industrial robot trade has been characterized by 'diversification'. The number of major industrial robot exporters in the world is increasing, and the import market is increasingly diversified. The export market structure is relatively tight, the centrality of the global industrial robot trade network shows a downward trend, and the dissimilarity of the 'core-edge' clusters decreases year by year. The trade status of 'catch-up' countries represented by China has rapidly increased. However, Japan, Germany, and Italy are still in the central position of the industrial robot trade. Moreover, trade of the 'catch-up' countries' is dominated by imports, and exports of industrial robot products are insufficient. Finally, policy suggestions are provided according to the results., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Economic cycles may lead to changes in corporate bond credit ratings. This paper utilizes the Markov model to describe transition probability matrixes of economic states for the separation of economic cycles. We develop a new model, which we term the Markov rating shopping dual reputation model, incorporating two reputation effects. This model is well suited to analyze the conditions of the dual rating incentive regulation and the constraint regulation for preventing rating inflation in collusion among credit rating agencies. Then, we apply the Markov regime switching-vector auto-regression (MS-VAR) to estimate the transition probability matrixes of America, England, Japan and China. Based on the numerical analysis and the simulations, the results show that a dual rating regulation can prevent the collusion of inflated ratings, as well as increased rating fees with the separation of economic cycles; additionally, when separating the economic cycles, a constraint regulation is more effective at reducing the risk of rating inflation in collusion and regulatory cost., Competing Interests: PZ is an employee of Purdue Technology Company Ltd of Shenzhen. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. All other authors declare no competing interests exist.

Background: In the past decade, scientific research has developed rapidly in China, but the growth seems to vary widely between different disciplines. In this study, we aimed to compare the quantity and quality of publications in urology and nephrology journals from USA, China and Japan., Methods: Journals listed in the "Urology and Nephrology" category of Science Citation Index Expanded subject categories were included. Scientific papers in these journals written by researchers from USA, Japan and China were retrieved from the "PubMed" and "Web of Knowledge" online databases., Results: The annual number of total scientific articles increased significantly from 2001 to 2010 in China, and has ranked second in the world since 2006. In the field of urology and nephrology, the annual number increased significantly from 2001 to 2010 in USA and China; but not in Japan. The share of articles increased significantly over time in China, decreased significantly in Japan, and remained unchanged in USA. In 2010, USA contributed 32.17% of the total world output in urology and nephrology field and ranked 1(st); Japan contributed 5.19% and ranked 5(th); China contributed 3.83% and ranked 9(th). Publications from USA had the highest accumulated IFs and the highest total citations of articles (USA>Japan>China, p<0.001). No significant difference was found in average IF among the three countries. USA published the most articles in the top 10 urology and nephrology journals (USA(35165)>Japan(6704)>China(2233), p<0.001). Researchers from USA published more clinical trials and randomized controlled trials than Japan and China (USA>Japan>China, p<0.001)., Conclusion: Although China has undergone significant increase in annual number and percentage of scientific publication in urology and nephrology journals in the past decade, it still lags far behind USA and Japan in the field of urology and nephrology in terms of quantity and quality.