International Production Networks Are Overcoming COVID-19 Shocks: Evidence from Japan's Machinery Trade

This paper investigates the impacts of COVID-19 on international production networks in machinery sectors by shedding light on negative supply shocks, negative demand shocks, and positive demand shocks. Specifically, we examined changes in trade in the trade-fall periods amid COVID-19 in 2020 using Japan's machinery trade at the most disaggregated level and decomposed them into two intensive margins (i.e., the quantity effect and the price effect) and two extensive margins (i.e., the entry effect and the exit effect). Our empirical results show that trade relationships for parts and components were robust even amid COVID-19 and that international production networks in machinery sectors were almost intact. They also demonstrate that COVID-19 brought positive demand shocks for specific products with special demand due to its nature in addition to negative supply shocks and negative demand shocks, which partially explains heterogeneous effects not only among sectors but also among products in the same sector. As of October 2020, Japan's machinery trade seems to have mostly recovered.

The Mechanism of Lavender Essential Oil in the Treatment of Acute Colitis Based on “Quantity–Effect” Weight Coefficient Network Pharmacology

This study aimed to introduce a new weight coefficient combined with network pharmacology to predict the potential active components, action targets, and signal pathways of lavender essential oil and to investigate the therapeutic effect of lavender essential oil on colitis through animal experiments. The component targets of lavender essential oil were mined from the Pubchem and SwissTargetPrediction databases, and the relative content of lavender essential oil was compared with OB (oral bioavailability) to establish a “quantity–effect” weight coefficient. Online databases such as GeneCards and String were used to construct a “lavender essential oil compound target disease target” network to extract the key targets of core compounds acting on diseases. The clusterProfiler package in R language programming of Rstudio software was used to analyze the enrichment of the related targets by Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and the enriched pathways were reordered according to the “quantity–effect” weight coefficient of the targets they participated in. Following up on the findings, the pharmacodynamic test showed that, after injecting lavender essential oil into mice, the levels of inflammatory cytokines including EGFR, TNF-α, and IFN-γ in serum and colon tissue decreased, and lavender essential oil could mediate Th17 cell differentiation by reducing dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced ulcerative colitis (UC) colonic mucosal damage. The results indicated that lavender essential oil can alleviate DSS-induced colonic mucosal injury in ulcerative Colitis mice. Based on the network pharmacology of the “quantity–effect” weight coefficient, this study indicated that lavender essential oil can regulate the level of inflammatory factors, inhibit inflammatory reactions through a multicomponent and multitarget strategy, and ultimately alleviate the colonic mucosal injury of UC mice. Through the weight coefficient network pharmacology mining, it was concluded that the Th17 cell differentiation, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and Th1 and Th2 cell differentiation of lavender essential oil in the treatment of UC may be the key pathway for the treatment of the disease. Through the establishment of a weight coefficient combined with network pharmacology and the combination of dose and effect, it shows that network pharmacology may provide a better basis for the treatment of disease mechanism.

A Bad Year? Climate Variability and the Wine Industry in Chile

Short-term climate conditions may affect crop yields and vintage quality and, as a consequence, wine prices and vineyards’ earnings. In this paper, we use a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model for Chile, which incorporates very detailed information about the value chain of the wine sector in the country. Using information for the 2015-2016 harvest, we calibrate climate variability shocks associated with a “bad year” for the wine industry in Chile, when premature rains occurred in important wine regions, reducing the area harvested and leading to wines with less concentrated flavors, particularly for reds. We model the climate shocks as a productivity change in the grape-producing sector (quantity effect). Moreover, we model quality effects as a shift in the foreign demand curve for Chilean wine. Given the specific economic environment in the model and the proposed simulation, it is possible to note the reduction of Chilean real GDP by about 0.067%. By decomposing this result, we verify that the quality effect has a slightly greater weight compared to the quantity effect.

Does Firms' Dissemination of Corporate Social Responsibility Information through Facebook Matter for Corporate Reputation?

ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of firms' dissemination of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information through Facebook on corporate reputation. We investigate this relationship empirically by using a corporate reputation index that tracks nonprofessional stakeholders' daily perceptions of corporate reputation over time. We find that firms disclosing CSR information on Facebook experience a decrease in reputation. If we differentiate Facebook postings based on whether their content provides environmental or social information, we only find a negative effect on reputation for firms posting social information (quality effect). However, reputation is not affected by the number of CSR postings (quantity effect). Data Availability: Data are available from the commercial databases and public sources identified in the paper.

Effect of different attributes of the mimic human lumbar spine biomechanics material structure change by finite element analysis

Background In this study, we compared stress changes and quantity effect relationships from 3D finite element models of normal and degenerative lumbar segments. We further defined the mechanisms causing alterations in mechanical stability the control of normal and degenerative lumbar segments using traditional Chinese medicine. Objective The characteristics of the stress change and the quantity effect relationships of the three-dimensional finite element model of normal and degenerative lumbar segments were compared. The mechanism(s) leading to changes in mechanical stability and the intervention and balance between normal and degenerative lumbar segments of the traditional Chinese medicine was analyzed. Methods A 3D-FEM of degenerative lumbar segments L4~5 of the human spine was established to simulate the physiological and pathological changes of the lumbar spine in response to flexion, extension, lateral bending and torsion. The stress changes in the normal and degenerative lumbar vertebrae were assessed through external force interventions and the response to TCM. Stress in the degenerative lumbar vertebrae changed according the external load. Stress and strain were compared in the FEM model under a range of motion states. Results Components of the human lumbar vertebrae including the cortical vertebrae, cancellous bone, endplates, fibrous rings, and facet articular processes were investigated. The elastic modulus of the nerve roots and the posterior marginal structures of the vertebral body increased with lumbar degeneration. The stress distribution in the intervertebral discs were influenced by TCM, and the space in the spinal canal enlarged so that nerve root stress decreased, vertebral body stress increased, and facet processes and pedicle stress in the posterior regions exceeded those of the anterior flexion position. The internal stress of the intervertebral disc increased in the flexion compared to the extension position, gradually increasing from top to bottom. Conclusion TCM can improve and treat lumbar disc disease through its ability to regulate the mechanical environment of degenerative lumbar vertebrae. Compared to the FEM models of the lumbar vertebrae, lumbar degenerative changes could be assessed in response to alterations in the biomechanical environment. These findings provide a scientific basis for the popularization and application of TCM to prevent and treat spinal degenerative disease.

Influence of Different Configurations of Microjet Injection on Structure and Acoustic Radiation of Supersonic Jet

The work is devoted to experimental study of the structure and acoustic radiation of a supersonic underexpanded jet Ma = 1, Npr = 5 with the presence of vortexgenerators in the form of small-sized jets injections. Ten different configurations were tested, in which following the gas-dynamic and geometrical parameters of the microjets were changed one by one: microjets pressure, the injection distance from the main nozzle section, azimuthal, tangential, and axial angles of micronozzles inclination. The flow visualization, azimuthal Pitot pressure profiles and characteristics of jet noise in the far field were obtained. It has been revealed that the injection of microjets in general leads to an increase in the jet long-range and a decrease in its mixing. The advantageous parameters of the microjets injection for reducing the jet acoustic emission are the injection point vicinity to the main nozzle section, micronozzles inclination to main jet axis and the small tangential angle of micronozzles. The micronozzles quantity effect is non-linearly in relation to the structure and the jet noise. The average pressure measuring distribution near artificial longitudinal vortices in a jet stream cannot predict the characteristics of its mixing and acoustic radiation.