Search Results (3)

As it has an export-oriented economy, Taiwan urgently needs to keep up with the growing trends toward carbon taxation. However, making the institution of a carbon tax a reality in Taiwan has proven to be difficult. Since 1998, Taiwan has explored the possibility of putting a tax on carbon many times. Specifically, three main windows of opportunity emerged to adopt a carbon tax during this period; however, all of them failed. This study mainly explores why these three opportunities failed, what structural factors hindered them, and how those structural factors formed path dependence and locked the entire society back onto the existing development track. Firstly, Taiwan’s high-carbon industrial structure has established the rapid growth of energy-intensive industries since the end of the 1990s and has created an economy with high energy consumption and pollution levels. Secondly, this analysis showed that through the combination of government bureaucracy, industry, and the China National Federation of Industries, this brown economy and high-carbon emission structure generated institutional, cognitive, and techno-institutional complex lock-ins, which have led Taiwan to its current path and hindered its transformation. Thirdly, under the above framework, this study further analyzes the contexts and problems that caused the three windows of opportunity to fail. Finally, by linking the economy-first orientation of developmental states, this study identifies structural difficulties and possible breakthrough conditions for newly industrialized/industrializing countries that are undergoing low-carbon transitions. Full article

A profile of endogenous hormones and sugars in leaves and pseudobulbs of Laelia anceps subsp. anceps (Orchidaceae) plants induced and non-induced to flowering by the effect of different doses of exogenous gibberellic acid (GA₃), considering the current and back growth structures (CGS and BGS), were investigated. A factorial experiment with five doses of GA₃ and two growth structures was designed. Adult plants with undifferentiated vegetative buds were selected and sprayed with doses of 0, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 mg GA₃ L⁻¹. The main results showed a strong interaction between GA₃ dose and growth structures, which promoted the highest kinetin (KIN) concentration in CGS. Exogenous GA₃ increased endogenous GA₃ in leaves and pseudobulbs induced (I-Leaf and I-PSB) and non-induced (NI-Leaf and NI-PSB) to flowering. For sugar concentration, the 400 mg L⁻¹ GA₃ dose promotes significant interaction with the CGS in NI-PSB. In general, the hormone profile revealed opposite balances of endogenous hormone concentrations for KIN, zeatin (ZEA), trans-zeatin (T-ZEA), indoleacetic acid (IAA), indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and GA₃, not only for growth structures but also for vegetative organs analyzed, depending on whether the plants were induced or not induced to flowering, with the highest concentration of endogenous hormones in pseudobulbs. Likewise, different sugar concentration balances were observed. These balances of both endogenous hormones and sugars are likely to be involved in the flowering of L. anceps. Full article

Tuberculosis (TB) is a world-wide health problem with approximately 2 billion people infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb, the causative bacterium of TB). The pathologic hallmark of Mtb infection in humans and Non-Human Primates (NHPs) is the formation of spherical structures, primarily in lungs, called granulomas. Infection occurs after inhalation of bacteria into lungs, where resident antigen-presenting cells (APCs), take up bacteria and initiate the immune response to Mtb infection. APCs traffic from the site of infection (lung) to lung-draining lymph nodes (LNs) where they prime T cells to recognize Mtb. These T cells, circulating back through blood, migrate back to lungs to perform their immune effector functions. We have previously developed a hybrid agent-based model (ABM, labeled GranSim) describing in silico immune cell, bacterial (Mtb) and molecular behaviors during tuberculosis infection and recently linked that model to operate across three physiological compartments: lung (infection site where granulomas form), lung draining lymph node (LN, site of generation of adaptive immunity) and blood (a measurable compartment). Granuloma formation and function is captured by a spatio-temporal model (i.e., ABM), while LN and blood compartments represent temporal dynamics of the whole body in response to infection and are captured with ordinary differential equations (ODEs). In order to have a more mechanistic representation of APC trafficking from the lung to the lymph node, and to better capture antigen presentation in a draining LN, this current study incorporates the role of dendritic cells (DCs) in a computational fashion into GranSim. Results: The model was calibrated using experimental data from the lungs and blood of NHPs. The addition of DCs allowed us to investigate in greater detail mechanisms of recruitment, trafficking and antigen presentation and their role in tuberculosis infection. Conclusion: The main conclusion of this study is that early events after Mtb infection are critical to establishing a timely and effective response. Manipulating CD8+ and CD4+ T cell proliferation rates, as well as DC migration early on during infection can determine the difference between bacterial clearance vs. uncontrolled bacterial growth and dissemination. Full article