Consumer misperception and misinterpretation of food labels can lead to consumers not buying a product or purchasing products that do not align with their environmental or sustainability interests. Consumer purchasing behavior can be explained by looking at consumer food values or food quality attributes. This study aimed to (a) determine the effect label information has on consumer preference shares for selected sustainability-related food labels and (b) if correlations exist between food labels and food values. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the comprehension of 12 different labels and identify how food labels relate to food value preferences. Responses from the best-worst scaling experiment of food value and environmental food label choice sets were analyzed using the random parameter logit model. Results reveal preference shares changed for each label as more information was provided to the respondents about the various labels included in the study. These findings should support food policy efforts requiring strict, clear label standards. Food labels should represent the food’s core food values to increase consumer preference for the product. These findings also further support the need for efforts to increase consumer knowledge and understanding of the labels on food packaging.

Profitability, yield, and fertilizer use are compared across three different potassium (K) fertilizer rate recommendation ideologies. Existing agronomic, “build and maintain” rate recommendations (KE) are compared to profit-maximizing rates with and without taking long-run soil-test K (STK) implications into account. Regardless of starting STK, K use equilibrated over the course of 3 years irrespective of ideology. Since taking long-run STK into account did not alter ending STK and only led to a miniscule yield effect, we encourage producers to use annual profit-maximizing K rates that were 3–11% lower than KE rates and generated more profit with minimal yield loss.

A novel g-C3N4 nanoparticle@porous g-C3N4 (CNNP@PCN) composite has been successfully fabricated by loading g-C3N4 nanoparticles on the porous g-C3N4 matrix via a simply electrostatic self-assembly method. The composition, morphological structure, optical property, and photocatalytic performance of the composite were evaluated by various measurements, including XRD, SEM, TEM, Zeta potential, DRS, PL, FTIR, and XPS. The results prove that the nanolization of g-C3N4 leads to an apparent blueshift of the absorption edge, and the energy band gap is increased from 2.84 eV of porous g-C3N4 to 3.40 eV of g-C3N4 nanoparticle (Fig. 6). Moreover, the valence band position of the g-C3N4 nanoparticle is about 0.7 eV lower than that of porous g-C3N4. Therefore, the photo-generated holes and electrons in porous g-C3N4 can transfer to the conduction band of g-C3N4 nanoparticle, thereby obtaining higher separation efficiency of photo-generated carriers as well as longer carrier lifetime. Under visible-light irradiation, 6CNNP@PCN exhibits the highest photocatalytic performance (Fig. 8) on MB, which is approximately 3.4 times as that of bulk g-C3N4.

Accumulation of human capital is indispensable to spur economic growth. If students fail to acquire needed skills, not only will they have a hard time finding high-wage employment in the future but the development of the economies in which they work may also stagnate owing to a shortage of human capital. The overall goal of this study is to try to understand if China is ready in terms of the education of its labour force to progress from middle-income to high-income country status. To achieve this goal, we seek to understand the share of the labour force that has attained at least some upper secondary schooling (upper secondary attainment) and to benchmark these educational attainment rates against the rates of the labour forces in other countries (e.g. high-income/OECD countries; a subset of G20 middle-income/BRICS countries). Using the sixth population census data, we are able to show that China's human capital is shockingly poor. In 2010, only 24 per cent of China's entire labour force (individuals aged 25–64) had ever attended upper secondary school. This rate is less than one-third of the average upper secondary attainment rate in OECD countries. China's overall upper secondary attainment rate and the attainment rate of its youngest workers (aged 25–34) is also the lowest of all the BRICS countries (with the exception of India for which data were not available). Our analysis also demonstrates that the statistics on upper secondary education reported by the Ministry of Education (MoE) are overestimated. In the paper, we document when MoE and census-based statistics diverge, and raise three possible policy-based reasons why officials may have begun to have an incentive to misreport in the mid-2000s.

Introduction: The mortality of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and its associated risk factors among clinically definite PD patients in China has been rarely investigated. Our study aimed to identify the mortality rates and predictors of death in PD patients in China. Methods: 157 consecutive, clinically definite PD patients from the urban area of Shanghai were recruited from a central hospital based movement disorder clinic in 2006. All patients were regularly followed up at the clinic until December 31, 2011, or death. Mortality and associations with baseline demographics, health and medical factors were then determined within the cohort. Results: After 5 years, 11(7%) patients had died. The standardised mortality ratio was 0.62 (95% CI 0.32 to 1.07, P=0.104). The main causes of death were pneumonia (54.5%, 6/11) and digestive disorders (18.2%, 2/11), respectively. Age at onset, independent living, the mini mental state examination score, the Parkinson’s disease sleep scale score and the Epworth sleepiness scale score at baseline were statistically significantly different between the survival group and the deceased group (P<0.05). Across all participants, risk factors for death included low mini mental state examination score, and high Epworth sleepiness scale score according to a binary variable logistic regression analysis. Conclusions: This study confirms the similar survival of patients with PD to the control population up to a follow-up of 5 years. Interventions tailored to potential risk factors associated with death may offer further benefits.

An epigenetic mechanism has been suggested to explain the effects of the maternal diet on the development of disease in offspring. The present study aimed to observe the effects of a maternal high-lipid, high-energy (HLE) diet on the DNA methylation pattern of male offspring in mice. Female C57BL/6J mice were fed an HLE diet during gestation and lactation. The genomic DNA methylations at promoter sites of genes in the liver, mRNA and protein levels of selected genes related to lipid and glucose metabolism were measured by microarray, real-time PCR and Western blot. The results indicated that the percentage of methylated DNA in offspring from dams that were fed an HLE diet was significantly higher than that from dams that were fed a chow diet, and most of these genes were hypermethylated in promoter regions. The nuclear protein content and mRNA levels of hypermethylated genes, such as PPARγ and liver X receptor α (LXRα), were decreased significantly in offspring in the HLE group. The results suggested that the DNA methylation profile in adult offspring livers was changed by the maternal HLE diet during gestation and lactation.

The principal–principal (PP) perspective of corporate governance shows that multiple large shareholder (MLS) structure has competing monitoring and entrenchment governance effects. We argue that the dominant effect depends on contest for control among large shareholders and the number of large shareholders involved. Using data from Chinese family listed companies from 2004 to 2007, this study shows inverse U-shaped relationships between contest for control and corporate market value, as measured by Tobin's Q, and between the number of large shareholders and corporate market value. Findings indicate that at low to medium levels of contest for control or number of large shareholders, formal institutions can strengthen MLS structure's monitoring effect and can help this effect last longer. As a whole, the findings extend the institution-based view in the context of family corporate governance by showing that formal institutions can shape the ability of MLS structure to exert governance.

The cryptic species Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1), formerly referred to as ‘B biotype’, of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci complex entered China in the mid 1990s, and the Mediterranean (MED) cryptic species, formerly referred to as ‘Q biotype’, of the same whitefly complex entered China around 2003. Field surveys in China after 2003 indicate that in many regions MED has been replacing the earlier invader MEAM1. The factors underlying this displacement are unclear. We conducted laboratory experiments and field sampling to examine the effects of insecticide application on the competitive interactions between MEAM1 and MED. In the laboratory, on cotton, a plant showing similar levels of suitability to both whitefly species, MEAM1 displaced MED in five generations when initial populations of the two species were equal and no insecticide was applied. In contrast, MED displaced MEAM1 in seven and two generations, respectively, when 12.5 and 50.0 mg l−1 imidacloprid was applied to the plants via soil drench. Field sampling indicated that in a single season MED displaced MEAM1 on crops heavily sprayed with neonicotinoid insecticides but the relative abundance of the two species changed little on crops without insecticide spray. We also examined the effects of host plants on the competitive interactions between the two species in the laboratory. When cohorts with equal abundance of MEAM1 and MED were set up on different host plants, MEAM1 displaced MED on cabbage and tomato in five and seven generations, respectively, but MED displaced MEAM1 on pepper in two generations. As field populations of MED have lower susceptibility than those of MEAM1 to nearly all commonly used insecticides including imidacloprid, insecticide application seems to have played a major role in shifting the species competitive interaction effects in favour of MED in the field across China. Host plants may also shape competition between the two species depending on the relative levels of plant suitability.

Transgenes integrated into mammalian cells are silenced rapidly. This phenomenon correlates with repressed chromatin structure marked by histone hypoacetylation. This study investigated the effect of trichostatin A (TSA; a histone-deacetylase inhibitor) on EGFP expression in transfected cells and embryonic development after somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Porcine adult fibroblasts were transfected with a pEGFP-C1 vector. Then transfected cells, donor cells for SCNT, were pretreated with TSA, with the untreated cells being used as the control. Expression of EGFP in donor cells and reconstructed embryos was detected when exposed to blue light. Results showed that the percentage of EGFP-positive cells significantly increased when the transfected cells were treated with TSA and the increased expression of EGFP was sustained to at least the morula stage. In addition, the cytotoxic effect of TSA on the transfected cells was dose dependent. In conclusion, TSA can rescue the silenced EGFP gene. Even after transferring the TSA-treated cells to enucleated recipient oocytes, TSA retained the ability to rescue a silenced EGFP gene. In addition, TSA had an impact on cell proliferation.

A method of absolutely unfolding the atomic spectrum by a pinhole transmission grating spectrometer (TGS) is discussed in detail. The numerical process considers both the factors of higher-dispersive-order overlapping of TGS and source-size widening effects. Real soft-X-ray spectra of aluminum, copper, and gold plasmas are presented of experiments performed on the Six-Beam Laser Facility at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics.