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182 results on '"Xu, Jiansong"'

1. The Role of Carbon Pricing in Food Inflation: Evidence from Canadian Provinces

Author

Xu, Jiansong

Subjects
Economics - Econometrics
Abstract

In the search for political-economic tools for greenhouse gas mitigation, carbon pricing, which includes carbon tax and cap-and-trade, is implemented by many governments. However, the inflating food prices in carbon-pricing countries, such as Canada, have led many to believe such policies harm food affordability. This study aims to identify changes in food prices induced by carbon pricing using the case of Canadian provinces. Using the staggered difference-in-difference (DiD) approach, we find an overall deflationary effect of carbon pricing on food prices (measured by monthly provincial food CPI). The average reductions in food CPI compared to before carbon pricing are $2\%$ and $4\%$ within and beyond two years of implementation. We further find that the deflationary effects are partially driven by lower consumption with no significant change via farm input costs. Evidence in this paper suggests no inflationary effect of carbon pricing in Canadian provinces, thus giving no support to the growing voices against carbon pricing policies.

Published
2024

34. Gray-matter relationships to diagnostic and transdiagnostic features of drug and behavioral addictions

Author

Yip, Sarah W., Worhunsky, Patrick D., Xu, Jiansong, Morie, Kristen P., Constable, R. Todd, Malison, Robert T., Carroll, Kathleen M., and Potenza, Marc N.

Subjects
Adult, Cerebral Cortex, Male, Brain, Prefrontal Cortex, Organ Size, Middle Aged, Amygdala, Gyrus Cinguli, Hippocampus, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Article, Cocaine-Related Disorders, Case-Control Studies, Gambling, Impulsive Behavior, Humans, Female, Gray Matter
Abstract

Alterations in neural structure have been reported in both cocaine-use disorder and gambling disorder, separately, suggesting similarities across addiction diagnoses. Individual variation in neural structure has also been associated with impulsivity, a dimensional construct implicated in addictions. This study combines categorical (diagnosis-based) and dimensional (transdiagnostic) approaches to identify neural structural alterations linked to addiction subtypes and trait impulsivity, respectively, across individuals with gambling disorder (n = 35), individuals with cocaine-use disorder (n = 37) and healthy comparison individuals (n = 37). High-resolution T1-weighted data were analyzed using modulated voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Statistical analyses were conducted using whole-brain general-linear models, corrected for family-wise error (pFWE .05). Categorical analyses indicated a main effect of diagnostic group on prefrontal (dorsal anterior cingulate and ventromedial prefrontal cortex) gray matter volumes (GMVs), involving decreased GMVs among cocaine-use disorder participants only. Dimensional analyses indicated a negative association between trait impulsivity and cortical (insula) and subcortical (amygdala and hippocampus) GMVs across all participants. Conjunction analysis indicated little anatomical overlap between regions identified as differentiating diagnostic groups and regions covarying with impulsivity. These data provide first evidence of neural structural differences between gambling disorder and an illicit substance-use disorder. They further indicate dissociable effects of diagnostic groupings and trait impulsivity on neural structure among individuals with behavioral and drug addictions. Study findings highlight the importance of considering both categorical and dimensional (e.g. Research Domain Criteria; RDoC) analysis approaches within the context of addictions research.

Published
2017

39. The czcD(NiCo) Riboswitch Responds to Iron(II)

Author

Xu, Jiansong and Cotruvo, Joseph A.

Abstract

Iron is essential for nearly every organism, and mismanagement of its intracellular concentrations (either deficiency or excess) contributes to diminished virulence in human pathogens, necessitating intricate metalloregulatory mechanisms. To date, although several metal-responsive riboswitches have been identified in bacteria, none has been shown to respond to FeII. The czcDriboswitch, present in numerous human gut microbiota and pathogens, was recently shown to respond to NiIIand CoIIbut thought not to respond to FeII, on the basis of aerobic, in vitro assays; its function in vivo is not well understood. We constructed a fluorescent sensor using this riboswitch fused to the RNA aptamer, Spinach2. When assayed anaerobically, the resulting sensor responds in vitro to FeII, as well as to MnII, CoII, NiII, and ZnII, but only in the cases of FeIIand MnIIdo the apparent Kdvalues (0.4 and 11 μM, respectively) fall within the range of labile metal concentrations maintained by known metalloregulators. We also show that the sensor—which is, to the best of our knowledge, the first reversible genetically encoded fluorescent sensor for FeII—responds to iron in Escherichia colicells. Finally, we demonstrate that the putative metal exporters directly downstream of two czcDriboswitches efficiently rescue iron toxicity in a heterologous expression system. Together, our results indicate that iron merits consideration as a plausible physiological ligand for czcDriboswitches, although a response to general metal stress cannot be ruled out at present.

Published
2020
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