Study of Carbon Reduction and Marketing Decisions with the Envisioning of a Favorable Event under Cap-and-Trade Regulation.

To achieve SDGs (sustainable development goals) and carbon neutrality goals, the Chinese government have been adopting the cap-and-trade regulation to curb carbon emissions. With this background, members in the supply chain should properly arrange their carbon reduction and marketing decisions to acquire optimal profits, especially when the favorable event may happen, which tends to elevate goodwill and the market demand. However, the event may not be of their benefit when the cap-and-trade regulation is conducted, since the increase in market demand is always associated with an increase in carbon emissions. Hence, questions arise about how the members adjust their carbon reduction and marketing decisions while envisioning the favorable event under the cap-and-trade regulation. Given the fact that the event occurs randomly during the planning period, we use the Markov random process to depict the event and use differential game methodology to dynamically study this issue. After solving and analyzing the model, we acquire the following conclusions: (1) the occurrence of the favorable event splits the whole planning period into two regimes and the supply chain members should make optimal decisions in each regime to maximize the overall profits. (2) The potential favorable event will elevate the marketing and carbon reduction efforts, as well as the goodwill level before the event. (3) If the unit emissions value is relatively low, the favorable event will help to decrease the emissions quantity. However, if the unit emissions value is relatively large, then the favorable event will help to increase the emissions quantity.

Green Agricultural Products Supply Chain Subsidy Scheme with Green Traceability and Data-Driven Marketing of the Platform.

Government subsidies have played an important role in the development of green agriculture. In addition, the Internet platform is becoming a new channel to realize green traceability and promote the sale of agricultural products. In this context, we consider a two-level green agricultural products supply chain (GAPSC) consisting of one supplier and one Internet platform. The supplier makes green R&D investments to produce green agricultural products along with conventional agricultural products, and the platform implements green traceability and data-driven marketing. The differential game models are established under four government subsidy scenarios: no subsidy (NS), consumer subsidy (CS), supplier subsidy (SS), and supplier subsidy with green traceability cost-sharing (TSS). Then, the optimal feedback strategies under each subsidy scenario are derived using Bellman's continuous dynamic programming theory. The comparative static analyses of key parameters are given, and the comparisons among different subsidy scenarios are conducted. Numerical examples are employed to obtain more management insights. The results show that the CS strategy is effective only if the competition intensity between two types of products is below a certain threshold. Compared to the NS scenario, the SS strategy can always improve the supplier's green R&D level, the greenness level, market demand for green agricultural products, and the system's utility. The TSS strategy can build on the SS strategy to further enhance the green traceability level of the platform and the greenness level and demand for green agricultural products due to the advantage of the cost-sharing mechanism. Accordingly, a win-win situation for both parties can be realized under the TSS strategy. However, the positive effect of the cost-sharing mechanism will be weakened as the supplier subsidy increases. Moreover, compared to three other scenarios, the increase in the environmental concern of the platform has a more significant negative impact on the TSS strategy.

Identification of Marek's disease virus pUL56 homologue and analysis of critical amino acid stretches indispensable for its intracellular localization.

Marek's disease virus (MDV) is considered a unique member of the Alphaherpesvirinae subfamily that induces rapid onset of T cell lymphoma in chickens. Compared with other conserved UL56 gene homologues of herpesviruses, little is known about the roles of MDV UL56 gene, while recent studies of mammalian herpesvirus pUL56 proteins have revealed their involvement in promoting ubiquitination of the Nedd4 (neural precursor cell expressed developmentally down-regulated protein 4) -like E3 ubiquitin ligases for proteasomal degradation and in modulating host immune responses. To determine the expression kinetics of UL56 gene products, chicken embryo fibroblasts were infected with very virulent or attenuated MDV strain and analyzed by quantitative PCR and Western blotting. During the time course of infection, the levels of UL56 mRNA transcripts increased consistently. At the translational level, the pUL56 protein encoded by UL56 gene was expressed in the size of 32 kDa, which emerged as early as 12 h post-infection (hpi) but otherwise began to wane at 72 hpi thereafter. With the treatment of viral DNA synthesis inhibitors, the pUL56 expression was significantly reduced, featuring the dynamics of a late (γ)-gene product. By confocal imaging, pUL56 was found to reside in the Golgi compartment. Both the L-domain motifs and the C-terminal tail-anchored transmembrane were essential for its intracellular localization. Noticeably, pUL56 co-localized with a truncated mutant of the chicken Nedd4-like family protein harboring only the WW domains; however, co-immunoprecipitation assay established no direct interaction between them, and the ectopic expression of pUL56 did not alter the abundance of endogenous Nedd4-like protein. Overall, the present study provides a caveat that the pUL56 homologues of different herpesviruses with structural similarities might vary in expression patterns and probably in functional consequences. For this reason, further investigation should be encouraged to focus on the potential association between UL56 gene and MDV pathogenesis in the context of engineered viral mutants.

ER/AR Multi-Conformational Docking Server: A Tool for Discovering and Studying Estrogen and Androgen Receptor Modulators.

The prediction of the estrogen receptor (ER) and androgen receptor (AR) activity of a compound is quite important to avoid the environmental exposures of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The Estrogen and Androgen Receptor Database (EARDB, http://eardb.schanglab.org.cn/) provides a unique collection of reported ERα, ERß, or AR protein structures and known small molecule modulators. With the user-uploaded query molecules, molecular docking based on multi-conformations of a single target will be performed. Moreover, the 2D similarity search against known modulators is also provided. Molecules predicted with a low binding energy or high similarity to known ERα, ERß, or AR modulators may be potential endocrine-disrupting chemicals or new modulators. The server provides a tool to predict the endocrine activity for compounds of interests, benefiting for the ER and AR drug design and endocrine-disrupting chemical identification.

Platform Selling Mode Selection Considering Consumer Reference Effect in Carbon Emission Reduction.

Considering the significant impact of the reference effect on consumer purchasing decisions and corporate profits, this paper mainly focuses on the influence of the reference effect of consumers in carbon emission reduction (CER) on the platform selling mode selection. To this end, this paper establishes a two-level supply chain consisting of a manufacturer who decides on CER in the production process and an online platform that conducts low-carbon publicity. Four differential game models in which the platform uses reselling mode or agency selling mode with or without consumer reference effect are established. The long-term stable cooperation relationship between the manufacturer and the platform, as well as the consumer surplus and social welfare under four models are further investigated. It is found that the reference effect on the platform selling mode is related to the low-carbon publicity effect and commission rate. When the reference effect exists, the intuition indicates that the platform will choose the reselling mode when the commission rate is relatively low. We clarify this result under the condition that the publicity effect is high. However, the manufacturer also prefers platform reselling, which is counterintuitive. When the commission rate is in the middle range, the platform chooses the agency selling mode, which is in line with the preference of the manufacturer. Surprisingly, when the platform's publicity effect is low, the manufacturer and the platform reach stable cooperation in reselling mode when the commission rate is low or high, which is also counterintuitive. When the commission rate is in the middle range, they both prefer the agency selling mode. In addition, it is suggested that the triple benefits in economy, environment, and society are achieved as the optimal selling mode is confirmed in the presence of consumer reference effect in CER.