Context Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. (Labiatae) (SMB) is applied clinically for management of diabetic osteoporosis in China, and research results has suggested its potential action on renin–angiotensin system (RAS).Objective This study screens and explores naturally occurring bioactive constituents from the root of SMB acting on renin activity and evaluates its osteoprotective efficacy in diabetic mice.Materials and methods Human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells, engineered to express human renin, were used as an in vitro model to identify bioactive compound, tanshinone IIA, inhibiting renin activity. The C57BL/6 mice (n = 10 in each group) with diabetes induced by streptozotocin (STZ) were intraperitoneally injected with tanshinone IIA (10 and 30 mg/kg). The mice without STZ treatment and the diabetic mice treated with aliskiren were used as non-diabetic control and positive control, respectively.Results Tanshinone IIA was found to display inhibitory effects on renin activity of HEK-293 cells; moreover, it down-regulated protein expression of ANG II in human renin-expressed HEK-293 cells. Treatment of diabetic mice with tanshinone IIA with both doses could significantly decrease ANG II level in serum (from 16.56 ± 1.70 to 10.86 ± 0.68 and 9.14 ± 1.31 pg/mL) and reduce ANG II expression in bone, consequently improving trabecular bone mineral density and micro-structure of proximal tibial end and increasing trabecular bone area of distal femoral end in diabetic mice.Conclusions This study revealed beneficial effects of tanshinone IIA on bone of diabetic mice, and potentially suggested the application of Salvia miltiorrhiza in the treatment of osteoporosis and drug development of tanshinone IIA as a renin inhibitor.
Promoting green development has emerged as a pivotal approach to optimizing the ecological and economic structure, thereby fostering sustainable development. Whether the implementation of environmental regulations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), an important economic corridor in China, has increased the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of cities remains to be investigated. This paper uses Chinese city panel data from 2007 to 2019 to calculate the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of 107 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt using the super-efficiency SBM (Slacks-Based Measure) model and the GML (Global Malmquist–Luenberger) index and measures the intensity of environmental regulations through textual analysis. Through empirical analyses, this paper finds that environmental regulation has an inverted U-shaped effect on green total factor productivity (GTFP), which is first promoted and then suppressed, and the inflection point of the inverted U-shaped curve is about 0.51. Mechanism analyses show that environmental regulation in the Yangtze River Economic Belt promotes the growth of GTFP by facilitating green technological innovation but does not improve GTFP by enhancing the level of industrial structure. Heterogeneity analyses show that the effect of environmental regulation on GTFP is more significant in the city clusters in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and in cities outside the city clusters. Therefore, when formulating environmental regulation policies, the relationship between economic development and environmental protection should be balanced, while focusing on regional heterogeneity and adapting to local conditions, to coordinate the environment and economic development of the whole Yangtze River basin.
This study compares ad valorem and per-unit taxes in public finance and international trade and examines the welfare effects of trade cost in general oligopolistic equilibrium (GOLE). In chapter two, following Grazzini (2006), the welfare comparison of ad valorem and per-unit taxation is conducted in an exchange economy under Cournot competition. It is shown that the exceptional result in Grazzini (2006) that a per-unit tax can be welfare superior to an ad valorem tax, entirely depends on the form of social welfare function. Furthermore, the possibility of the dominance of per-unit taxation is due to the effect of taxation on the redistribution of income rather than from any efficiency gain.
In chapter three, assuming that the home government maximises the tariff revenue, the welfare with ad valorem tariff is higher than that with per-unit tariff given the constraint of FDI cost. The maximum revenue collected by the home government is always higher with ad valorem tariff under Cournot competition. However, under Bertrand competition with differentiated products, the maximum revenue with per-unit tariff is higher than that with ad valorem tariff if the FDI cost is sufficiently low. This is because the introduction of product differentiation and nature of Bertrand competition both intensify the competition and lower the prices.
In chapter four, by using the general oligopolistic equilibrium (GOLE) model developed by J. Peter Neary, it is shown that social welfare is also U-shaped in the trade cost under Cournot competition. The result is in line with Brander (1981) and Brander and Krugman (1983). In particular, when the trade cost is sufficiently high, a reduction in trade cost will increase the competitive wage due to the redistribution of labour, and the equilibrium prices as a function of trade costs follows a hump-shaped pattern if the products are homogeneous.
This article investigates the dynamic relationship between economic progress and environmental quality at a regional level. An important economic intuition in this context is that environmental degradation will be limited by human behaviour if costs and benefits of such degradation are local since economic agents will then be incentivized to choose appropriate corrective action. Therefore, we note the likelihood that regional economic development can help regions 'grow out of' environmental problems. Using a new data set from Yangtze River Delta of China, we find a strong confirmation of the intuition that human can and will resolve the environmental problem by altering the damaging behaviour of economic agents. A very interesting finding of this study is that the relationship between environmental quality and economic progress measured by per capita income can display a wave-like function in the case of water pollution, as opposed to the much dramatized environmental Kuznets curve, with significant policy implications.
Aims/hypothesis
By analysing available evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs), we aimed to examine whether and to what extent sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors affect serum electrolyte levels in type 2 diabetes patients.
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