Production efficiency measurement and its determinants across OECD countries: The role of business sophistication and innovation

Abstract Raising employment has been at the heart of EU strategies for over twenty years. Social investment, by now a widely debated topic in the comparative welfare state literature, has been suggested as a way to pursue this. However, there are only a couple of systematic comparative analyses that focus on the employment outcomes associated with social investment. Analyses of the interdependence of these policies with regard to their outcomes are even more scarce. We empirically analyse the extent to which variation in employment rates within 26 OECD countries over the period 1990-2010 can be explained by effort on five social investment policies. We additionally explore the role of policy and institutional complementarities. Using time-series cross-section analyses we find robust evidence for a positive association between effort on ALMPs and employment rates. For other policies we obtain mixed results. ALMPs are the only policies for which we observe signs of policy interdependence, which point at diminishing marginal returns. Additionally, our analysis demonstrates that the interdependence of social investment policies varies across welfare state regimes. Together, this indicates that the employment outcomes of social investment policies are also contingent on the broader framework of welfare state policies and institutions.

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The role of CO2 emissions and economic growth in energy consumption: empirical evidence from Belt and Road and OECD countries

Environmental Science and Pollution Research ◽

10.1007/s11356-020-11982-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Maxwell Kongkuah ◽

Hongxing Yao ◽

Brice Berinyuy Fongjong ◽

Andrew Osei Agyemang

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Co2 Emissions ◽

Oecd Countries ◽

Belt And Road

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The role of JrPPOs in the browning of walnut explants

BMC Plant Biology ◽

10.1186/s12870-020-02768-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Shugang Zhao ◽

Hongxia Wang ◽

Kai Liu ◽

Linqing Li ◽

Jinbing Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tissue Culture ◽

Production Efficiency ◽

Phenolic Content ◽

Leaf Tissue ◽

Limiting Factor ◽

Mature Leaves ◽

Survival Percentage ◽

Highly Active ◽

Young Leaves

Abstract Background Tissue culture is an effective method for the rapid breeding of seedlings and improving production efficiency, but explant browning is a key limiting factor of walnut tissue culture. Specifically, the polymerization of PPO-derived quinones that cause explant browning of walnut is not well understood. This study investigated explants of ‘Zanmei’ walnut shoot apices cultured in agar (A) or vermiculite (V) media, and the survival percentage, changes in phenolic content, POD and PPO activity, and JrPPO expression in explants were studied to determine the role of PPO in the browning of walnut explants. Results The results showed that the V media greatly reduced the death rate of explants, and 89.9 and 38.7% of the explants cultured in V media and A media survived, respectively. Compared with that of explants at 0 h, the PPO of explants cultured in A was highly active throughout the culture, but activity in those cultured in V remained low. The phenolic level of explants cultured in A increased significantly at 72 h but subsequently declined, and the content in the explants cultured in V increased to a high level only at 144 h. The POD in explants cultured in V showed high activity that did not cause browning. Gene expression assays showed that the expression of JrPPO1 was downregulated in explants cultured in both A and V. However, the expression of JrPPO2 was upregulated in explants cultured in A throughout the culture and upregulated in V at 144 h. JrPPO expression analyses in different tissues showed that JrPPO1 was highly expressed in stems, young leaves, mature leaves, catkins, pistils, and hulls, and JrPPO2 was highly expressed in mature leaves and pistils. Moreover, browning assays showed that both explants in A and leaf tissue exhibited high JrPPO2 activity. Conclusion The rapid increase in phenolic content caused the browning and death of explants. V media delayed the rapid accumulation of phenolic compounds in walnut explants in the short term, which significantly decreased explants mortality. The results suggest that JrPPO2 plays a key role in the oxidation of phenols in explants after branch injury.

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