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Cultural greenway projects (CGPs) are widely regarded as an urban planning approach which connects open green spaces and sites of sociocultural value to provide access to living, working and recreational spaces and enhance local social well-being. This paper examines the impact of such CGPs on public living desire before and after a given project is completed through analyzing housing prices in the surrounding area. We deployed a hedonic pricing model (HPM) and differences in differences (DID) model to analyze and record any changes in housing market trends that may have been caused by such a cultural greenway project. Via analysis of single-family home sale transactions in central Beijing from 2013 to 2017, we found substantial evidence that proximity to a cultural greenway project is positively linked with rising property prices. Once complete, CGPs were similarly associated with positive increases per HPM and DID modeling. Our results revealed that the distance to greenway contributed significantly positive impact on the housing market after the cultural greenway project completed. Moreover, our result indicated that once a CGP was open to the public, it increased the price of properties within 1 km by 13.3%. Seller and buyer expectations of the development of local, green public infrastructure also began to factor into housing prices prior to the greenway opening to the public. Post-completion, the positive trend in property pricing due to local CGPs indicates that the public still have an increasing desire to live near the greenway. These results will help policymakers better understand how cultural greenways affect neighborhoods in high-density urban contexts, and will support the development of urban greenway policies for cities in China that reap the maximum economic benefit.

Over the past decades, organometallic complexes with precious elements, such as ruthenium and iridium, are widely used as visible-light photoredox catalysts. Recently, more and more complexes based on earth-abundant and inexpensive elements have been used as sensitizers in photochemistry. Although the photoexcited state lifetimes of iron complexes are typically shorter than those of traditional photosensitizers, the utilization of iron catalysts in photochemistry has sprung up owing to their abundance, low price, nontoxicity, and novel properties, including exhibiting ligand to metal charge transfer states. This concept focuses on recent advances in light-driven iron catalysis in organic transformations, including iron/photoredox dual catalysis, light-induced iron photoredox catalysis and light-induced generation of active iron catalysts. The prospect for the future of this field is also discussed.

Herein we report a novel visible-light-mediated external reductant-free reductive cross coupling for the construction of C sp2 – C sp3 bonds. A variety of benzylammonium salts underwent selective coupling with (hetero)aryl nitriles to deliver important diarylmethanes under mild reaction conditions. Importantly, photocatalysts can be omitted for many cases, which might involve the electron donor acceptor (EDA) complex. Mechanistic studies indicated benzylic radicals might be involved as the key intermediates. Moreover, the in situ generated NMe3 via cleavage of C–N bond in ammonium salts acts as the electron donor, thus avoiding the use of external-reductant.

This paper documents that the spread of communism in China was partly caused by state failures in the early 20th century. It finds that famines became more frequent after China fell into warlord fragmentation, especially for prefectures with less rugged borders and those facing stronger military threat. The relation between topography and famines holds when using historical border changes to instrument border ruggedness. More people from famine-inflicted prefectures died in the subsequent decades for the communist movement, but not for the Nationalist Army. There is evidence that famines exacerbated rural inequality, which pushed more peasants to the side of the communists.

The study's motivation is to gauge the effects of remittances on openness: financial and economic openness and financial stability in least developed countries (LDCs) for the period spanning 1975–2018. The study applies Generalized Moment of Methods (GMM) and System-GMM to detect the magnitude of remittances, gross capital formation, and government debt on openness and financial stability, and their directional association is established by performing a Granger causality test with System-GMM specification. The results of cross-sectional dependency ascertain the presence of a common dynamic among the research units; on the other hand, both first, and second-generation unit root tests establish that variables are integrated either at level or after the first difference, neither variables are exposed to order of integration after second difference. A panel co-integration test based on error correction confirms the availability of the long-run association among variables. Study findings with GMM and System-GMM estimation expose positive statistically significant effects of remittance inflows to economic and financial openness and financial stability. In LDCs, remittance inflows positively augment economic and financial openness; moreover, financial stability remittances play a critical role. The study implemented the Granger causality test with System-GMM specification, and results disclosed the feedback hypothesis that is bidirectional causality availability in the tested empirical causal model.JEL Classifications: F24, F43, P34.

Why are certain communities more prone to anti-government protests than others? Do past rebellions lead to more protests today? We study the historical roots of social unrest using the experience of China. We document that counties with higher incidence of peasant uprisings against local government officials during the Qing dynasty period (1644-1912) also have higher incidence of anti-government protests in present-day China. To generate plausibly exogenous variation in the incidence of past protests, we exploit differences in the visibility and magnitude of solar eclipses during the Qing dynasty period. In the Confucian tradition, solar eclipses are considered a negative divine signal on the legitimacy of the ruler, facilitating the coordination of protest actions. We test this mechanism using detailed data on the timing and location of anti-government rebellions extracted from local chronicles. Counties within the totality zone of a solar eclipse were significantly more likely to experience a rebellion in the eclipse year. Leaders of early anti-Qing rebellions were recorded in popular culture and celebrated in temples, favoring the transmission of the memory of their actions across generations. The persistent effect of past protests is stronger in counties with such temples and memorials, consistent with a long-term memory of revolutions.

Background The less volatile fraction of perfumes is susceptible to contamination by phthalate esters (PAEs), which are endocrine-disrupting chemicals encountered during the production, bottling, and transportation processes. There is a need to establish an innovative and rapid method for the determination of trace PAEs in commercial perfumes. Objective Therefore, self-built spray-inlet microwave plasma torch (MPT) ionization coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) tandem MS (MS/MS) was developed for the direct analysis of PAEs in perfumes without sample pretreatment. Methods Perfumes were sprayed directly onto the flame of the MPT by means of a sampling pump at a rate of 10 µL/min and the ions produced by the MPT were introduced into the QTOF-MS equipment with the MPT operating at 2450 MHz and 40 W at a flow rate of 800 ml/min of argon. Results For the established method, excellent linearity was obtained with a correlation coefficient of 0.9799 for di-n-pentyl phthalate and of greater than 0.99 for the other substances tested. The LOD and LOQ obtained were in the ranges of 1.452–18.96 and 4.839–63.19 ng/g, respectively. The spiked recoveries of PAEs ranged from 100.1 to 105.2% with satisfactory intraday RSDs and interday RSDs ranging from 1.51 to 4.34% and 3.45 to 5.65%, respectively. PAEs in commercial perfumes were successfully detected by spray-inlet MPT-MS/MS with low concentrations ranging from 0.036 to 1.352 µg/g. Conclusions The method is a promising tool for the on-site analysis of PAEs in cosmetic solutions requiring rapid qualitative and quantitative analysis. Highlights The method was successfully applied to the analysis of the commercial perfume samples within 30 s, and displayed the merits of simplicity, sensitivity, environmental friendliness and ease of operation.

Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) is a baculovirus that infects silkworms, and its interaction with silkworm has been considered an important model in the field of insect virology. Accumulating evidence indicates that most viruses promote glycolytic metabolism in host cells to favor infection. However, similar reports are lacking in insects, especially in the area of post-translational modifications of proteins. In this study, we found that BmNPV infection induced the acetylation of fructose-bisphosphate aldolase (ALDO) on lysine 42 (K42) to promote its enzyme activity. To explore the underlying mechanisms, site-directed mutagenesis of deacetylated mimic (K/R) was performed. The results demonstrated that K42 acetylation promoted viral proliferation by exacerbating the glycolytic flux induced by BmNPV infection, which resulted in increased ATP, glucose uptake and lactate accumulation. Inhibiting glycolysis with 2-deoxygucose (2DG) revealed that glycolysis was essential for optimal BmNPV infection. Finally, we showed that BmNPV-infected cells enhanced the transcription of glycolysis-related genes, including Glut1, Hk2 and Ldh. In parallel, K42 acetylation of ALDO also promoted the expression of these genes. Therefore, acetylation of ALDO could be considered a regulator of BmNPV-induced glycolysis. These finding provide insights into the interaction between silkworm and BmNPV.

Diode trigger SCR (DTSCR) structure is introduced in FinFET technology for low voltage circuit ESD protection. The current direction is chosen to flow vertically down through the fins to make full use of the bulk silicon region. Further optimization of DTSCR is investigated to improve layout efficiency.

Late expression factor 3 (LEF3) is a single-stranded DNA binding protein of Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) with multiple functions. It is an essential factor for viral DNA replication and plays an important regulatory role during BmNPV infection. Our recent quantitative analysis of protein acetylome revealed for the first time that LEF3 can be acetylated at four lysine residues during the viral infection, but the underlying mechanism is unknown. Among the modification sites, two of them (K18 and K27) are located in the conserved nuclear localization sequence region. The acetylation level for K18 especially was up-regulated approximately 7.4 times after 36 h of post-infection. To understand the regulatory function of this modification, site-direct mutagenesis for acetylated mimic (K18Q) or deacetylated mimic (K18R) mutants was performed on LEF3. The fluorescence analysis results showed that the replication capacity of the virus was significantly reduced after K18 acetylation. Meanwhile, co-localization analysis revealed that acetylation at K18 caused LEF3 to lose its nuclear targeting ability and affected the interaction between LEF3 and P143, retaining P143 in the cytoplasm. And further Yeast two-hybrid analysis results also confirmed that the acetylation at K18 did affect the interaction between LEF3 and P143. In conclusion, the acetylation of LEF3 at K18 might act as one of the antiviral strategies for silkworm host by affecting nuclear localization of LEF3, interaction with P143, and then blocking viral replication.

Diodes are effective devices for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection. To accurately predict ESD robustness through circuit simulation of protection architectures in integrated circuits that use diodes, an enhanced model is proposed. This model is constructed with several compact model elements to simulate all physical device behaviors under high current transient ESD conditions, namely, voltage overshoot, on-resistance variation, and thermal failure. The proposed model implements a thermal monitor, which cannot only correlate current–voltage characteristics with the self-heating effect, but accurately predicts thermal failure under different pulse width conditions. The simulation results of this comprehensive diode model benchmarked against measurements are also reported.

Drug resistance in bacteria is becoming a significant threat to global public health, and the development of novel and efficient antibacterial compounds is urgently needed. Recently, rhodium complexes have attracted attention as antimicrobial agents, yet their antibacterial mechanism remains unknown. In this study, we observed that the dirhodium (II) complex Rh2Ac4 inhibited Streptococcus. pneumoniae growth without significant cytotoxic side-effects on host cells in vitro. We subsequently investigated the antibacterial mechanism of Rh2Ac4 using iTRAQ-based proteomics combined with cellular and biochemical assays. Bioinformatics analysis on the proteomic alterations demonstrated that six molecular functional groups, including metal ion binding and twelve metabolic pathways, were significantly affected after treatment with Rh2Ac4. The interaction network analysis of metal ion binding proteins suggested that Rh2Ac4 decreased the protein expression levels of SPD_1652, SPD_1590 and Gap, which are associated with haem uptake/metabolism. Cellular and biochemical assays further confirmed that Rh2Ac4 could be taken up by bacteria via the PiuABCD haem-uptake system. The structurally similar Rh complex may compete with Fe-haem to decrease Fe-uptake via the PiuABCD system, disrupting iron metabolism to exert its antibacterial activity against S. pneumoniae. These data indicate that Rh2Ac4 is a promising new drug for the treatment of S. pneumoniae infections.

Activated carbons have been prepared by phosphoric acid activation of lignocellulosic precursors, an industrial method, followed by heat treatment in ammonia. Thus, a cost-effective, scalable and metal-free electrocatalyst was developed for use in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at fuel cell cathodes. The physicochemical properties of the activated carbons have been analyzed by elemental analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and nitrogen adsorption. The ORR electrocatalytic performances of the activated carbons have been investigated by cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry in an alkaline electrolyte. The results showed that phosphorus-containing groups are key to endowing phosphoric-acid-activated carbons with comparable electrocatalytic activity to that of commercial Pt/C. This was because these phosphorus-containing groups facilitated the formation of both nitrogen-containing groups and defects in the microstructure. Besides, heat treatment of phosphoric-acid-activated carbons in ammonia produced a highly developed mesopore structure and thus kinetically facilitated the ORR.

Graphite-like crystallites are the predominant structures that are strongly bonded together via amorphous carbons in biomass-based activated carbon. Here, we demonstrate a scalable process for efficiently decomposing biomass-based activated carbons into independent graphite-like crystallites with a high yield of 78 wt% by a selective oxidation scheme to rapidly break the amorphous carbon parts between graphite-like crystallites. The results show that the obtained graphite-like crystallite-based nanomaterials with tunable dimensions and morphologies has remarkable features, such as high water solubility and a strong tendency to self-assemble into a film structure.

The demand for insulating polymeric composites with high thermal conductivity has increased remarkably for electronic packaging. Since polymers usually suffer from low thermal conductivity, boron nitrides (BN) are emerging as advanced fillers in polymeric composites. BN nanomaterials strikingly reinforce thermal conductivity of polymers and simultaneously improve insulation, thermal expansion, and dielectricity. We herein introduce diverse BN nanomaterials and summarize the progress about thermal conductive composites with various BN fillers from 0D BN particles via 1D nanotubes to 2D nanosheets. 3D fillers, multi-scale and multi-dimensional mixed BN fillers developed recently are also presented. The functionalization and the controlled orientation of fillers are reviewed, and current challenges towards higher thermal conductivity of BN/polymer composites are additionally discussed.

We study non-performing loan (NPL) resolution using proprietary data on NPL transactions in China. Rather than representing orderly NPL resolution, the transactions appear to reflect banks concealing non-performing assets from regulators as (i) transaction prices do not reflect underlying credit risks; (ii) banks fund the NPL transactions and remain responsible for debt collection, and (iii) after two years, over 95% of NPL packages are re-sold at a profit to bank borrowers who do not appear to be NPL resolution specialists. Our findings suggest banks remain at least partially exposed to the NPLs that were removed from their balance sheets.

We demonstrate the negative impact of air pollution on China’s Initial Public Offering review process. We find that the pass rate of firms with connection to the review committee is increased by 10 percentage points when reviewed on a polluted day. The effect only exists for air pollution during working hours and pollutants near the workplace of the reviewers. The result is unchanged when using the wind speed as an instrumental variable and when controlling for a variety of potential missing factors. Using LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) model, we show that the reviewers intentionally ask trivial questions during the review, supporting the idea that the committee members become more reckless during hazy days. This effect translates to an economic loss amounting to RMB 200 billion (USD 33 billion).

Silkworm (Bombyx mori) is a model organism with great agricultural economic value that plays a crucial role in biological studies. B. mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) is a major viral pathogen found in silkworms, which leads to huge silk loss annually. In a recent lysine acetylome of silkworm infected with BmNPV, we focused on the heat shock cognate protein 70-4 (HSC70-4) lysine acetylation change due to the consequent nuclear accumulation and viral structure assembly. In this study, the genome replication, proliferation, and production of budded viruses (BVs) were arrested by HSP/HSC70 inhibitor treatment. However, HSC70-4 overexpression enhanced BmNPV reproduction. Furthermore, site-direct mutagenesis for acetylated mimic (K/Q) or deacetylated mimic (K/R) mutants of HSC70-4 demonstrated that lysine 77 (K77) deacetylation promotes HSC70-4 stability, viral DNA duplication, and HSC70-4 nuclear entry upon BmNPV challenge, and the nuclear propulsion of HSC70-4 after viral stimulus might be dependent on the interaction with the carboxyl terminus of HSC70-interacting protein (CHIP, an E3 ubiquitin ligase), followed by ubiquitin-proteasome system assistance. In this study, single lysine 77 deacetylation of HSC70-4 was deemed a part of the locomotive pathway for facilitating BmNPV proliferation and provided novel insights into the antiviral strategic development.