Search

Rational allocation of the urban construction land is an important task of urbanization in China. This paper, based on Malmquist index model, studies the allocation scheme of construction land of China during urbanization with the carbon emissions caused by the urban land use change as constraints. The major finding of this study is that the ecological efficiency of urban construction land in eastern China is the highest, followed by the middle region, and the efficiency in western China is the lowest. Therefore, the eastern region of China should be allocated with more construction land and the weatern region should be allocated with more agricultural land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patrinia scabiosaefolia Fisch (PSF), a well-known traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been used as a "heat-clearing and detoxifying" agent. The present study was to illustrate the preventive effect of PSF on pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in rats. The PID model was constructed by multipathogen infection of the upper genital tract with reference to the method previously reported. Urine metabolomic analysis was conducted with a GC-MS coupled with derivatization method. In this study, PID rats showed obvious infiltration of inflammatory cells and elevated expression of cytokines (IL-1β and IL-6) in upper genital tract, compared with control rats. Sixteen differentiating metabolites contributed to the alteration of metabolic profile in PID rats, including two amino acids, three fat acids, nine organic acids, and two types of sugars. The rats, infected by multipathogen and administered with PSF, showed decreased infiltration of inflammatory cells and lowered expression of cytokines in upper genital tract, compared with PID rats. Meanwhile, PSF intervened in the PID-associated alterations in TCA cycle, sugar metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and other uncertain metabolic pathways. These results indicate that PSF has preventive effect on multipathogen induced PID and holistic interventional effect on disease-associated metabolomic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Three influenza pandemics outbroke in the last century accompanied the viral antigen shift and drift, resulting in the change of antigenic property and the low cross protective ability of the existed antibody to the newly emerged pandemic virus, and eventually the death of millions of people. The antigenic characterizations of the viruses isolated in central China in 2004 and 2006-2007 were investigated in the present study. Results: Hemagglutinin inhibition assay and neutralization assay displayed differential antigenic characteristics of the viruses isolated in central China in two periods (2004 and 2006-2007). HA genes of the viruses mainly located in two branches in phylogeny analysis. 53 mutations of the deduced amino acids of the HA genes were divided into 4 patterns. Mutations in pattern 2 and 3 showed the main difference between viruses isolated in 2004 and 2006-2007. Meanwhile, most amino acids in pattern 2 and 3 located in the globular head of the HA protein, and some of the mutations evenly distributed at the epitope sites. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that a major antigenic drift had occurred in the viruses isolated in central China. And monitoring the antigenic property should be the priority in preventing the potential pandemic of H5N1 avian influenza virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop an extended North-South model to analyse the US-China IPRs conflict and possible policies. In our model, innovation in the North (US), imitation in the South (China), and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) are all endogenous. We predict that whether tighter IPRs benefit the US or China depends crucially on market structure. In an oligopoly market induced by vertical innovation, tighter IPRs hurt both economies; while, in a monopolistic competition market induced by horizontal innovation, tighter IPRs benefit both economies as long as the degree of IPRs is appropriately chosen. We prove the existence of an optimal degree of IPRs protection in China, which may differentiate it from that in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 1987–2006 panel data for China, we explore the dynamics of the skill premium. The present paper focuses on the skill premium as an explanation for why income differences are so large in China. Our empirics show that: the rise in the relative supply of skilled labor results in an increase, instead of a decrease, in the skill premium; domestic investment is not complementary with skill formation; the skillpremium is higher in more developed provinces; economic openness facilitates an increase in the skill premium; whether foreign direct investment induces skill-based technology change or not, it drives up the skillpremium. An array of policy prescriptions for reducing income differences and ensuring sustained economic growth are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An avian H10N5 influenza virus, A/swine/Hubei/10/2008/H10N5, was isolated from pigs in the Hubei Province of central China. Homology and phylogenetic analyses of all eight gene segments demonstrated that the strain was wholly of avian origin and closely homologous to the Eurasian lineage avian influenza virus. To our knowledge, this is the first report of interspecies transmission of an avian H10N5 influenza virus to domestic pigs under natural conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reported the complete genome sequence of an H5N5 avian influenza virus (AIV) that was first isolated from duck in central China in 2010. Genomic sequence and phylogenetic analyses showed that this virus was a recombinant between H5N1 AIV circulated in southeastern Asia and an N5 subtype influenza virus. These data are beneficial for investigating the epidemiology and ecology of AIVs in central China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]