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The ability of various pests and diseases to adapt to a single plant resistance gene over time leads to loss of resistance in transgenic rice. Therefore, introduction of different pest and disease resistance genes is critical for successful cultivation of transgenic rice strains with broad-spectrum resistance to multiple pathogens. Here, we produced resistance rice lines with multiple, stacked resistance genes by stacking breeding and comprehensively evaluated their resistance to Chilo suppressalis (striped rice stemborer), Magnaporthe oryzae (rice blast), and Nilaparvata lugens (brown planthopper) in a pesticide-free environment. CRY1C and CRY2A are exogenous genes from Bacillus thuringiensis. Pib, Pikm, and Bph29 are natural genes in rice. CH121TJH was introduced into CRY 1C, Pib, Pikm, and Bph29. CH891TJH and R205XTJH were introduced into CRY 2A, Pib, Pikm, and Bph29. Compared with those observed in their recurrent parents, CH121TJH significantly increased the mortality of borers. The other two lines CH891TJH and R205XTJH are the same result. Three lines introduction of Pib and Pikm significantly reduced the area of rice blast lesions, and introduction of Bph29 significantly reduced seedling mortality from N. lugens. Introduction of the exogenous genes had relatively few effects on agronomic and yield traits of the original parents. These findings suggest that stacking of rice resistance genes through molecular marker-assisted backcross breeding can confer broad spectrum and multiple resistance in differently genetic backgrounds.

Omics techniques provide effective detection tools for assessing the potential impact of plant composition at the DNA, RNA, and protein levels. Among these, protein is the executor of gene function and the embodiment of biological traits, so that organisms show various genetic characteristics. Proteomics can be used to assess whether genetic engineering will lead to changes in plant traits beyond those introduced by conventional plant breeding. Here, we compare the extent of the proteome occurring in the leaves of three transgenic rice restorer lines expressing CRY1C and CRY2A genes developed by genetic engineering and their corresponding recurrent parents developed by conventional breeding. CRY1C and CRY2A genes were inserted into chromosomes 11 and 12, respectively, which significantly improved the resistance of restorer lines to Chilo suppressalis. Although differentially expressed proteins could be distinguished between transgenic rice and its recurrent parents, these differences were not sufficient to cause unintended effects on grain yield and quality traits of transgenic rice. In contrast, differences in phenotypic traits are more because of differences in genetic background. Functional cluster analysis showed that the differentially expressed proteins caused by the insertion of exogenous genes mainly involved signal transduction and secondary metabolites(serine, tryptophan) biosynthesis, transport and catabolism pathways. The study successfully used 4D label-free quantitative proteomics technology to assess the unexpected changes in new rice varieties, and the results showed that transgenic rice did not cause unintended effects.

A lack of stability in the expression of Bacillus thuringiensisgenes (CRY) and the dialaninophosphate resistance gene (BAR) in transgenic rice plants can lead to the loss of important characters. The genetic stability of transgenic expression in high-generation lines is thus critically important for ensuring the success of molecular breeding efforts. Here, we studied the genetic stability of resistance to insect pests and herbicides in transgenic rice lines at the molecular and phenotypic levels in a pesticide-free environment. Southern blot analysis, real-time polymerase chain reaction, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays revealed high stability in the copy numbers and expression levels of CRY1C, CRY2A, and BAR in transgenic lines across different generations, and gene expression levels were highly correlated with protein expression levels. The insecticide resistance of the transgenic rice lines was high. The larval mortality of Chilo suppressalis was 50.25% to 68.36% higher in transgenic lines than in non-transgenic control lines. Percent dead hearts and percent white spikelets were 16.66% to 22.15% and 27.07% to 33.47% lower in transgenic lines than in non-transgenic control lines, respectively. The herbicide resistance of the transgenic rice lines was also high. The bud length and root length ranged were 2.53 cm to 4.20 cm and 0.28 cm to 0.73 cm higher in transgenic lines than in non-transgenic control lines in the budding stage, respectively. Following application of the herbicide Basta, the chlorophyll content of the transgenic lines began to recover 2 d later in the seedling and tillering stages and 3 d later in the booting and heading stages, by contrast, the chlorophyll content of the non-transgenic lines did not recover and continued to decrease. These findings revealed high genetic stability of the resistance to insect pests and herbicides across several generations of transgenic rice regardless of the genetic background.

Interhospital transfer (IHT) is common in care delivery. As a form of care transition, IHT faces coordination challenges and can negatively affect care outcomes. Understanding the underlying reasons and the associated operational challenges of different IHT types can help hospital managers design mitigation mechanisms to improve the IHT care outcomes. We conceptually and empirically differentiate between clinical and non-clinical transfers based on their unique characteristics and compare their respective impacts on care outcomes, including length of stay (LOS), readmission, and mortality. Non-clinical transfers are found to have worse care outcomes than clinical transfers and largely accounts for the inferior care outcomes of IHT compared with direct admissions, perhaps due to inadequate care coordination. Since poor coordination between hospitals is frequently cited as a root cause of care quality problems, we investigate whether two coordination mechanisms, namely hospital system affiliation and transfer routinization, can mitigate the potential negative effects of IHT on care outcomes. Our analyses suggest that the two coordination mechanisms are associated with improved IHT outcomes, and both seem to have stronger effects for non-clinical transfers. Specifically, system affiliation and transfer routinization can reduce LOS and readmission for non-clinical transfers. The results offer valuable insights to hospital managers for improving IHT care outcomes.

Abrupt drought-flood alternation is a frequent meteorological disaster during the summer in Southern China. The study of physiological and translation mechanisms of rice yield recovery after abrupt drought-flood alternation has great potential benefits in field production. Our results showed that yield recovery upon nitrogen (N) application after abrupt drought-flood alternation was due to the increase in effective panicle numbers per plant. The N application resulted in the regulation of physiological and biochemical as well as growth development processes, which led to a rapid growth recovery effect after abrupt drought-flood alternation stress in rice. Using ribosome profiling combined with RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) technology, the interactions between transcription and translation for N application after abrupt drought-flood alternation were analyzed. It was found that a small proportion of response genes were shared at the transcriptional and translational levels, that is, 14% of the expressed genes were upregulated and 6.6% downregulated. Further analysis revealed that the translation efficiency (TE) of the genes was influenced by their sequence characteristics, including their GC content, coding sequence length and normalized minimal free energy. Compared with the number of untranslated upstream open reading frames (uORFs), the increased number of translated uORFs promoted the improvement of TE. The TE of the uORFs for N application was lower than the control without N application after abrupt drought-flood alternation. This study characterizes the translational regulatory pattern in response to N application after abrupt drought-flood alternation stress.

Yazhan is a restorer rice line bred by Jiangxi Tianya Seed Industry Co., LTD, and its hybrid combination has a high yield, excellent rice quality, and strong resistance. In this study, Yazhan, Huazhan, and Zhanhui 15 were used as the experimental materials. Based on agronomic traits, SSR primer screening and second-generation resequencing were conducted to study the genetic basis of Yazhan. The results showed that the plant height of Yazhan was significantly lower than Zhanhui 15, and the yield was not different from the parent lines. The genetic material on chromosome 1, 3, 4, 5, and 10 in the genome of Yazhan were mainly from Zhanhui 15, genetic materials from chromosomes 2, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12 mainly come from Huazhan, and the chromosomes 1, 5, and 6 had the most variation. In terms of genomic similarity, Yazhan was more similar to the male parent (Huazhan). Yazhan and Huazhan carried the Wxb genotype, while Zhanhui 15 carried the Wxa genotype. The amylose contents of Yazhan and Huazhan were significantly lower than Zhanhui 15. Yazhan and Huazhan carried the Pita blast resistance gene, and Zhanhui 15 carried the Pita susceptibility gene. The results of this study provide a theoretical reference for elucidating the genetic composition of Yazhan and determining the main genetic sources of its important agronomic traits.

Oryza longistaminata is an African wild rice species that possesses special traits for breeding applications. Self-incompatibility is the main cause of sterility in O. longistaminata, but here we demonstrated that its pollen vitality are normal. Lipid and carbohydrate metabolism were active throughout pollen development. In this study, we used I2-KI staining and TTC staining to investigate pollen viability. Aniline-blue-stained semithin sections were used to investigate important stages of pollen development. Tandem mass tags (TMT)-based quantitative analysis was used to investigate the profiles of proteins related to lipid and carbohydrate metabolism in 4-, 6-, and 8.5-mm O. longistaminata spikelets before flowering. Pollen was found to germinate normally in vitro and in vivo. We documented cytological changes throughout important stages of anther development, including changes in reproductive cells as they formed mature pollen grains through meiosis and mitosis. A total of 31,987 RNA transcripts and 8,753 proteins were identified, and 6,842 of the proteins could be quantified. RNA-seq and proteome association analysis indicated that fatty acids were converted to sucrose after the 6-mm spikelet stage, based on the abundance of most key enzymes of the glyoxylate cycle and gluconeogenesis. The abundance of proteins involved in pollen energy metabolism was further confirmed by combining quantitative real-time PCR with parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) analyses. In conclusion, our study provides novel insights into the pollen viability of O. longistaminata at the proteome level, which can be used to improve the efficiency of male parent pollination in hybrid rice breeding applications.

The panicle apical abortion (PAA) causes severe yield losses in rice production, but details about its development and molecular basis remain elusive. Here, we detected PAA quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in three environments using a set of chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) that was constructed with indica Changhui121 as the recurrent parent and japonica Koshihikari as the donor parent. First, we identified a novel major effector quantitative trait locus, qPAA7, and selected a severe PAA line, CSSL176, which had the highest PAA rate among CSSLs having Koshihikari segments at this locus. Next, an F2 population was constructed from a cross between CSS176 and CH121. Using F2 to make recombinantion analysis, qPAA7 was mapped to an 73.8-kb interval in chromosome 7. Among nine candidate genes within this interval, there isn’t any known genes affecting PAA. According to the gene annotation, gene expression profile and alignment of genomic DNA, LOC_Os07g41220 and LOC_Os07g41280 were predicted as putative candidate genes of qPAA7. Our study provides a foundation for cloning and functional characterization of the target gene from this locus.

Background Nitrogen application can effectively mitigate the damage to crop growth and yield caused by drought. However, the efficiency of heavy nitrogen application before drought (NBD) and heavy nitrogen application after drought (NAD) to regulate rice response to drought stress remains controversial. In this study, we profiled physiology, proteomics and metabolomics in rice variety Wufengyou 286 of two nitrogen management modes (NBD and NAD) to investigate their yield formation and the mechanism of nitrogen regulation for drought resistance. Results Results revealed that the yield of NBD and NAD decreased significantly when it was subjected to drought stress at the stage of young panicle differentiation, while the yield of NBD was 33.85 and 36.33% higher than that of NAD in 2017 and 2018, reaching significant levels. Under drought conditions, NBD increased chlorophyll content and net photosynthetic rate in leaves, significantly improved the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase and catalase, and decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) content compared with NAD. NBD promoted nitrogen assimilation in leaves, which was characterized by increased activities of nitrate reductase (NR) and glutamine synthetase (GS). In addition, NBD significantly increased the contents of osmotic regulatory substances such as soluble sugar, soluble protein and free proline. Gene ontology and KEGG enrichment analysis of 234 differentially expressed proteins and 518 differential metabolites showed that different nitrogen management induced strong changes in photosynthesis pathway, energy metabolism pathway, nitrogen metabolism and oxidation-reduction pathways. Conclusion Different nitrogen management methods have significant differences in drought resistance of rice. These results suggest that heavy nitrogen application before drought may be an important pathway to improve the yield and stress resistance of rice, and provide a new ecological perspective on nitrogen regulation in rice.

Leaf senescence is one of the most common factors that affects the growth and yield of rice. Although numerous genes affecting leaf senescence have been identified, few involved in cuticular wax synthesis have been described for rice premature leaf senescence. Here, we cloned and characterized Premature Leaf Senescence 4 (PLS4) in rice (Oryza sativa), which encodes a putative 3-oxoacyl-reductase in the fatty acid biosynthetic pathway. Subcellular localization of OsPLS4 was observed in the chloroplast. A single nucleotide substitution in OsPLS4 reduced leaf cuticular wax, and the expression levels of most wax biosynthesis-associated genes were downregulated. TEM showed chloroplast development were defective in the pls4 mutant. Further investigation revealed that the chlorophyll (Chl) content was reduced in the pls4 mutant compared with the WT and that the photosynthesis rate was lower, which caused ROS dramatic accumulation at the heading stage. These results confirmed premature leaf senescence in pls4 plants. Cold treatment indicated that the mutant was more sensitive than the WT was to cold stress. Together, all the above results indicate that the OsPLS4 mutation affects cuticular wax biosynthesis and chloroplast development in rice, causing reduced cuticular wax and premature leaf senescence.

Additional file 4: Figure S4. Detection of total protein in ‘Wufengyou 286’ under heavy nitrogen application before and after drought by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis. NBD-1, NBD-2 and NBD-3; NAD-1, NAD-2 and NAD-3 represent three repeats of different treatments.

Additional file 3: Figure. S3. Hierarchical clustering of metabolites changes in ‘Wufengyou 286’ under heavy nitrogen application before and after drought. The columns correspond to repeats of the NAD and NBD groups and the rows correspond to differential metabolites. Red and green represent high and low expression of DMs for NBD and NAD, respectively. For more information on metabolites, please refer to Supplementary Dataset S2.

Addressing endogeneity can be a challenging task given the different sources of endogeneity and their impacts on empirical results. While premier business journals typically expect authors to rigorously address endogeneity, this expectation is relatively new to many Operations Management (OM) scholars, as exemplified by a recent editorial in Journal of Operations Management that calls for more rigorous treatment for endogeneity. This study serves two purposes. First, we summarize recent OM literature with respect to the treatment for endogeneity by reviewing studies published in leading OM journals between 2012 and 2017. The review provides evidence that endogeneity problems have received increasing attention from OM scholars. However, we also find some common problems that may render the chosen techniques for addressing endogeneity less effective and potentially lead to biased analysis results. Second, since instrumental variable regression is the most prevalent technique for dealing with endogeneity in the OM literature according to our review, we provide an empirical illustration tailored to OM researchers for using instrumental variable regression in the post-design (data analysis) phase. Using variables from a publicly available healthcare dataset, our analysis sheds light on the importance of examining instruments' quality and triangulating results based on more than one test/estimator.

This study examines the effect of delivery performance on customer transactions. We propose that different delivery performance dimensions (on-time delivery rate, early delivery inaccuracy, late delivery inaccuracy, and delivery speed) have varying impacts on future customer transaction quantities and unit prices. We further explore the effect of customer types on the proposed relationships. Trade customers (resellers) and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) customers generally have different operational needs for deliveries and therefore may value these metrics differently. Using instrumental variable regression, we analyze a proprietary transaction-level dataset. The information was compiled by a Fortune 500 manufacturer from its Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) control product supply chain, consisting of the manufacturer and its customers. The results indicate that measures of delivery performance affect customer transaction quantity and unit price differently. Furthermore, these impacts can differ significantly between trade customers and OEM customers. These findings provide fine-grained insights about tuning delivery capabilities to increase sales volume or boost price.

This research explores the fine-grained relationships between nurse slack and hospital operating performance with respect to care quality and operating costs. We also investigate the effect of comp...

This paper studies the effect of M&A announcements on shareholder value of listed companies from Chinese logistics industry. Using event study method, this research examines the market reaction to 181 initial announcements of successful M&As between 2000 and 2016. Some important findings are obtained. Firstly, we find a significantly positive mean market reaction (1.125%) to successful M&As for acquiring firms. Secondly, the market reaction is more positive for firms with a higher level of logistics service integration. The higher the logistics subsector concentration, the higher the abnormal returns. The market reaction to mergers involving the vertical integration of logistics service is more positive than those involving the horizontal integration of logistics service. Finally, the post hoc analysis finds that the market reacts negatively to failed M&As (−1.53%).

Abrupt drought-flood alternation (T1) is a meteorological disaster that frequently occurs during summer in southern China and the Yangtze river basin, often causing a significant loss of rice production. In this study, the response mechanism of yield decline under abrupt drought-flood alternation stress at the panicle differentiation stage was analyzed by looking at the metabolome, proteome as well as yield and physiological and biochemical indexes. The results showed that drought and flood stress caused a decrease in the yield of rice at the panicle differentiation stage, and abrupt drought-flood alternation stress created a synergistic effect for the reduction of yield. The main reason for the decrease of yield per plant under abrupt drought-flood alternation was the decrease of seed setting rate. Compared with CK0 (no drought and no flood), the net photosynthetic rate and soluble sugar content of T1 decreased significantly and its hydrogen peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase activity increased significantly. The identified differential metabolites and differentially expressed proteins indicated that photosynthesis metabolism, energy metabolism pathway and reactive oxygen species response have changed strongly under abrupt drought-flood alteration stress, which are factors that leads to the rice grain yield reduction.

Background Despite the great contributions of utilizing heterosis to crop productivity worldwide, the molecular mechanism of heterosis remains largely unexplored. Thus, the present research is focused on the grain number heterosis of a widely used late-cropping indica super hybrid rice combination in China using a high-throughput next-generation RNA-seq strategy. Results Here, we obtained 872 million clean reads, and at least one read could maps 27,917 transcripts out of 35,679 annotations. Transcript differential expression analysis revealed a total of 5910 differentially expressed genes (DGHP) between super-hybrid rice Wufengyou T025 (WFYT025) and its parents were identified in the young panicles. Out of the 5910 DGHP, 63.1% had a genetic action mode of over-dominance, 17.3% had a complete-dominance action, 15.6% had a partial-dominance action and 4.0% had an additive action. DGHP were significantly enriched in carotenoid biosynthesis, diterpenoid biosynthesis and plant hormone signal transduction pathways, with the key genes involved in the three pathways being up-regulated in the hybrid. By comparing the DGHP enriched in the KEGG pathway with QTLs associated with grain number, several DGHP were located on the same chromosomal segment with some of these grain number QTLs. Conclusion Through young panicle development transcriptome analysis, we conclude that the over-dominant effect is probably the major contributor to the grain number heterosis of WFYT025. The DGHP sharing the same location with grain number QTLs could be considered a candidate gene and provide valuable targets for the cloning and functional analysis of these grain number QTLs. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12284-018-0229-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been found to play a vital role in several gene regulatory networks involved in the various biological processes in plants related to stress response. However, systematic analyses of lncRNAs expressed in rice Cadmium (Cd) stress are seldom studied. Thus, we presented the characterization and expression of lncRNAs in rice root development at an early stage in response to Cd stress. Results The lncRNA deep sequencing revealed differentially expressed lncRNAs among Cd stress and normal condition. In the Cd stress group, 69 lncRNAs were up-regulated and 75 lncRNAs were down-regulated. Furthermore, 386 matched lncRNA-mRNA pairs were detected for 120 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 362 differentially expressed genes in cis, and target gene-related pathway analyses exhibited significant variations in cysteine and methionine metabolism pathway-related genes. For the genes in trans, overall, 28,276 interaction relationships for 144 lncRNAs and differentially expressed protein-coding genes were detected. The pathway analyses found that secondary metabolites, such as phenylpropanoids and phenylalanine, and photosynthesis pathway-related genes were significantly altered by Cd stress. All of these results indicate that lncRNAs may regulate genes of cysteine-rich peptide metabolism in cis, as well as secondary metabolites and photosynthesis in trans, to activate various physiological and biochemical reactions to respond to excessive Cd. Conclusion The present study could provide a valuable resource for lncRNA studies in response to Cd treatment in rice. It also expands our knowledge about lncRNA biological function and contributes to the annotation of the rice genome. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-4807-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

HighlightAbrupt drought-flood alteration is a frequent meteorological disaster that occurs during summer in southern China and the Yangtze river basin, which often causes a large area reduction of rice yield. We previously reported abrupt drought-flood alteration effects on yield and its components, physiological characteristics, matter accumulation and translocation, rice quality of rice. However, the molecular mechanism of rice yield reduction caused by abrupt drought-flood alternation has not been reported.In this study, four treatments were provided, no drought and no floods (control), drought without floods (duration of drought 10 d), no drought with floods (duration of floods 8 d), and abrupt drought-flood alteration (duration of drought 10 d and floods 8 d). The quantitative analysis of spike metabolites was proceeded by LC-MS (liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometry) firstly. Then the Heat-map, PCA, PLS-DA, OPLS-DA and response ranking test of OPLS-DA model methods were used to analysis the function of differential metabolites (DMs) during the rice panicle differentiation stage under abrupt drought-flood alteration. In addition, relative quantitative analysis of spike total proteins under the treatment was conducted iTRAQ (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification) and LC-MS. In this study, 5708 proteins were identified and 4803 proteins were quantified. The identification and analysis of DEPs function suggested that abrupt drought-flood alteration treatment can promote carbohydrate metabolic, stress response, oxidation-reduction, defense response, and energy reserve metabolic process, etc, during panicle differentiation stage. In this study relative quantitative proteomics, metabolomics and physiology data (soluble protein content, superoxide dismutase activity, hydrogen peroxidase activity, peroxidase activity, malondialdehyde content, free proline content, soluble sugar content and net photosynthetic rate) analysis were applied to explicit the response mechanism of rice panicle differentiation stage under abrupt drought-flood alteration and provides a theoretical basis for the disaster prevention and mitigation.AbstractAbrupt drought-flood alternation is a meteorological disaster that frequently occurs during summer in southern China and the Yangtze river basin, often causing a significant loss of rice production. In this study, a quantitative analysis of spike metabolites was conducted via liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and Heat-map, PCA, PLS-DA, OPLS-DA, and a response ranking test of OPLS-DA model methods were used to analyze functions of differential metabolites (DMs) during the rice panicle differentiation stage under abrupt drought-flood alternation. The results showed that 102 DMs were identified from the rice spike between T1 (abrupt drought-flood alternation) and CK0 (control) treatment, 104 DMs were identified between T1 and CK1 (drought) treatment and 116 DMs were identified between T1 and CK2 (flood) treatment. In addition, a relative quantitative analysis of spike total proteins was conducted using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) and LC-MS. The identification and analysis of DEPs functions indicates that abrupt drought-flood alternation treatment can promote carbohydrate metabolic, stress response, oxidation-reduction, defense response, and energy reserve metabolic process during the panicle differentiation stage. In this study, relative quantitative metabolomics and proteomics analyses were applied to explore the response mechanism of rice panicle differentiation in response to abrupt drought-flood alternation.AbbreviationsCK0no drought and no floodsCK1drought without floodsCK2no drought with floodsT1abrupt drought-flood alterationLC-MSliquid chromatograph-mass spectrometryPCAprinciple component analysis(O)PLS-DA(orthogonal) partial least-squares-discriminant analysisDMsdifferential metabolitesiTRAQisobaric tags for relative and absolute quantificationDEPsdifferentially expressed proteinsKEGGkyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomesGOgene ontologySODsuperoxide dismutaseCAThydrogen peroxidasePODperoxidaseMDAmalondialdehydePnnet photosynthetic rateROSreactive oxygen speciesVIPvariable importance in the projectionFCfold change

Figure S1. Scatterplots comparing gene expression scores from biological replicates of WFYT025 and its parents. CS 1-3, YS 1-3, and BS 1-3 denote biological replicates from CHT025, WFYT025 and WFB, respectively. (DOC 142 kb)

The nanopowders of V 2 O 5 and Mn-doped V 2 O 5 were prepared by the sol–gel processing and characterized by X-ray diffraction. The photoactivity of the prepared catalyst V 2 O 5 and Mn-doped V 2 O 5 under UV irradiation were evaluated by degradation of methyl orange solution. The effect of pH of precursor for V 2 O 5 and doping amount of Mn ions on photocatalytic activity were investigated. The pH value had affected the species of precursor and the crystal morphology. The minimum particle size could approach to 26.5 nm. The result showed the degradation rate of methyl orange could approach 62% at pH=6. While doped with Mn ions, Mn dopant can improve the photocatalytic activity of V 2 O 5 powder. The appearance of the second phase Mn(VO 3 ) 2 is also beneficial to increase photocatalytic activity.

Many service firms deliver services via a mix of internally developed and delivered (i.e., insourced) and externally developed and delivered (i.e., outsourced) service processes. Service process outsourcing is especially common in e-retailing. Portions of e-retail customer ordering processes and delivery processes can be digitized and contracted to third-party vendors. Via outsourcing, service systems change from dyadic to triadic. Prior research examines consumer perceptions of dyadic (consumer to e-retailer) outcomes, but little research considers service co-delivery with outsourcing partners (i.e., triadic systems). Literature also does not focus on joint associations of service process outsourcing and customer traffic with e-retailer operations. We analyze several years of data on North American e-retailers. We first examine factors associated with e-retailer outsourcing levels, for front-end and back-end service processes. We observe customer traffic is positively associated with future outsourcing. We then examine how outsourcing moderates associations between contemporaneous customer traffic and e-retailer operational performance, as measured by numbers of processed orders, website response times, and customer satisfaction. Results suggest outsourcing levels are associated with operational outcomes, yet surprisingly, high outsourcing and high traffic jointly may not benefit e-retailers

This article examines demand, manufacturing, and supply factors proposed to inhibit manufacturer delivery execution. Extant research proposes many factors expected to harm delivery performance. Prior cross-sectional empirical research examines such factors at the plant level, generally finding factors arising from dynamic complexity to be significant, but factors arising from detail complexity to be insignificant. Little empirical research examines the factors using product-level operating data, which arguably makes more sense for analyzing how supply chain complexity factors inhibit delivery. For purposes of research triangulation, we use longitudinal product-level data from MRP systems to examine whether the factors inhibit internal manufacturing on time job rates and three customer-oriented measures of delivery performance: product line item fill rates, average delivery lead times, and average tardiness. Our econometric models pool product line item data across division plants and within distinct product families, using a proprietary monthly dataset on over 100 product line items from the environmental controls manufacturing division of a Fortune 100 conglomerate. The data summarize customer ordering events of over 900 customers and supply chain activities of over 80 suppliers. The study contributes academically by finding significant detail complexity inhibitors of delivery that prior studies found insignificant. The findings demonstrate the need for empirical research using data disaggregated below the plant-level unit of analysis, as they illustrate how some factors previously found insignificant indeed are significant when considered at the product-level unit of analysis. Managers can use the findings to understand better which drivers and inhibitors of delivery performance are important.

We examine the impact of three classes of Web site functions (foundational, customer-centered, and value-added) upon e-retailer performance. Using secondary panel data for 2007�2009 on operating characteristics of over 600 e-retailers, our econometric analysis finds that only the value-added service functions are positively associated with changes in e-retail sales revenues across time. We also observe a decreasing marginal impact of deploying additional value-added service features. To account for possible alternate explanations, we control for firm- and time-specific fixed effects, merchant types, merchandise categories, and order fulfillment strategies. By further decomposing e-retail sales revenues into Web site traffic, conversion rate, and average order value, we find that Web site functions affect e-retail sales revenues mainly through their impact on Web site traffic. Our investigation demonstrates the empirical research usefulness of the Voss conceptual e-service sand cone model. Our results identify for managers where to focus ongoing e-retailing system development efforts, yet suggest that focusing too many retailing capabilities on exploratory and experimental value-added service features may backfire, potentially leading to worsening e-retailer performance.

To study the genetic basis of rice flag leaf morphology, quantitative genetic analysis was conducted in a population of 37 chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) of indica elite variety ‘Habataki’ in the background of japonica cultivar ‘Sasanishiki’ across three different environments. The CSSLs showed normal distribution with transgressive segregation, indicating that these four traits are controlled by polygenes. Moreover, analyses of variance showed that these traits were highly influenced by the growing environment, which are typical for polygenic quantitative traits. Seven quantitative trait loci (QTLs) on four chromosomes were detected in total: four for flag leaf width, one for flag leaf area and two for flag leaf angle. Two key QTLs, qFLW4 and qFLAG5 controlling flag leaf width and angle, respectively, were identified in all three environments. These QTLs could provide useful information for marker-assisted selection in improving the performance of plant architecture with regard to leaf angle and area. Moreover, developed CSSLs with these QTLs information are also useful research materials to reveal the importance of leaf morphology in relation to grain yield.

Hospital mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been on the rise since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2010. Drawing on the theoretical perspective of proximity in M...

Inter-hospital transfer (IHT) has great impacts on patients. This study first differentiates between IHT types, namely clinical transfers and non-clinical transfers, and investigates their varying ...