The new Executive Committee was elected (Table 3) under the presi

The new Executive Committee was elected (Table 3) under the presidency of Fred W. Wittich, with S. F. Feinberg as president-elect, B. N. Halpern as secretary-general, and A. S. Grumbach as treasurer. TABLE 3 IAA/IAACI Executive Committees (1951�C2009) The congress was held at the Z��rich Congress Building and was followed by ��Symposium on sellckchem the influence of the hypophysis and the adrenal cortex on biological reactions�� sponsored by the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. Therefore, from the beginning, the IAA was associated with the most modern aspects of allergy, in that case the discovery of the role of corticosteroid hormones, the most recent medical discovery of the time.

The importance of the new field was also recognized by political authorities, the congress being held under the patronage of the Swiss Federal Council and the honorary president being Phillip Etter, head of the Department of the Interior. During the congress, honorary membership was awarded to various illustrious scientists in the field of allergy: A. F. Coca, New Jersey (United States) Sir Henry Dale, London (United Kingdom) R. Doerr, Basel (Switzerland) C. Frugoni, Rome (Italy) D. M. Heidelberger, New York (United States) R. Otto, Frankfurt (Germany) P. Portier, Paris (France) R. R?ssle, Berlin (Germany) B. Schick, New York (United States). In the course of the week, 26 reports, 22 opening lectures, and 132 individual contributions were presented. The accompanying spouses had also an extensive program, with a dahlia show, a fashion show at the famous Grieder House, various private tea receptions at private homes, an excursion to the Lake Lucerne, and a visit to the Monastery of Einsiedeln.

As indicated by W. L?ffler in his closing remarks, this first meeting of experts on a worldwide basis exceeded the most optimistic expectations and set the tone for many other fruitful congresses. The spirit had well changed since a little anecdote concerning Pirquet and which was recalled by W. L?ffler �� Shortly before his death, Pirquet was visited by a colleague who was also scientifically interested in allergy. After his colleague had left, Pirquet said to his assistant, ��I don’t like at all when other people poke their noses in my personal affairs.�� He regarded apparently allergy, in which he was the pioneer, as an interesting and personal affair.

6 As L?ffler concluded: The future of allergy research and understanding are bright and will require participation of many disciplines. As said by Claude GSK-3 Bernard, science consists not only in facts but also in the conclusions drawn from them.6 As a sign of changing times, it could also
DNA of Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), or human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), has been detected in KS tissues from patients with AIDS-KS, classic KS, African endemic KS, and transplantation-associated KS (6, 9, 12, 49, 50).

For instance, chlorophyllin and pheophorbid were shown to possess

For instance, chlorophyllin and pheophorbid were shown to possess LD50 values of 6.88 and 8.44 mg/l, respectively, against Culex sp. larvae exposed for 3 h to a light intensity of 147 W/m2 [24], and hematoporphyrin determined Vorinostat clinical trial 100% mortality in Culex pipiens larvae at a concentration of 10 ��M after 3 days of exposure to natural sunlight [25]. The biological activity of porphyrin derivatives is known to be related to their molecular structure. Hydrophilic porphyrins are inefficient photoinsecticidal agents [34], possibly because of their inability to enter or cross the lipid layer of the cell membranes, which hinders their distribution into the target tissues.

Hydrophobic porphyrins, on the other hand, can easily cross lipid membranes and reach different target cell compartments, such as plasma, mitochondrial and RER membranes [18], but may turn into photobiologically inactive dimers or oligomers in the aqueous medium, a major obstacle when targeting aquatic organisms such as mosquito larvae [26]. Amphiphilic porphyrins maintain a high tendency to cross the biological membranes and to partition in relatively large amounts within the tissues, owing to sufficient water solubility [35]. Therefore, such compounds show the most potent photokilling activities against insects such as flies and mosquitoes [24], [27], [34]. The amphiphilic character of C14 is guaranteed by the presence of four positive charges and a 14 carbon alkyl chain, hence it can undergo a ready and stable association to PFP particles , which are used to feed the mosquito larvae in the laboratory.

We showed that C14 is taken up by ingestion of porphyrin-containing PFP. In agreement with our observations, Dondji et al. reported that incubating Ae. aegypti and Anopheles stephensi larvae in the dark in a hematoporphyrin solution (containing food) for 3 h and 24 h, respectively, enhanced the larval mortality at the following irradiation with visible light, in comparison to larvae exposed simultaneo
Only ovarian cancer patients who have undergone a thorough surgical staging procedure, with early-stage and well or moderately differentiated tumours, may be considered as cured by surgery alone, and therefore do not require adjuvant therapy (Trimbos et al, 1991). Occult extra-ovarian metastases are found in about 15�C20% of patients initially diagnosed as early ovarian cancer confined to the ovary.

The confirmed absence of such micrometatstatic lesions in the peritoneal cavity does have impact on the decision-making process of the physician with respect to the treatment regimen as well as on patient’s quality of life. Statistically, these occult lesions are found in the diaphragm (7%), the omentum (5%), peritoneal AV-951 biopsy specimens (10%), and peritoneal cytology (20%) (Leblanc et al, 2000). The magnitude of the problem becomes even more apparent following optimally performed re-staging operations.

22 Insertional mutagenesis represents a major concern for gene th

22 Insertional mutagenesis represents a major concern for gene therapy applications. Such a safety concern has dramatically risen after serious events in some of the patients with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency, who received gene therapy treatment with murine oncoretroviral vectors.23,24 So far, in selleck Romidepsin contrast to oncoretroviral vectors, no adverse events have been reported after gene transfer with human immunodeficiency virus-1�Cderived lentiviral vector, and tumorigenesis was not stimulated in tumor-prone mice after human immunodeficiency virus-1�C derived lentiviral vector integration.25,26 However, preclinical animal and clinical studies may underscore vector genotoxicity because of the short animal lifespan as compared to humans, and because some observed adverse events might be due to negative synergy with underlying disease and other treatments.

Therefore, it is important to allow conditional ablation of transduced hepatocytes when required. The HSV-TK/GCV suicide strategy has been proven to be safe in a clinical trial of cancer gene therapy27 or modulation of graft-versus-host disease.28 The combined expression of the suicide HSV-TK gene with a therapeutic gene (in our study, the marker gene EPO) has, therefore, a clinically relevant application in liver gene therapy. HSV-TK�Cexpressing cells could be selectively eliminated by GCV treatment, a drug commonly used in clinical medicine for viral infections, which in itself is not toxic, but is converted to a toxic drug by viral thymidine kinase phosphorylation.

Cells expressing HSV-TK are producing highly toxic GCV-triphosphates that lead to cell death by inhibiting cellular DNA polymerase activity.29 Human, or simian in our study, thymidine kinase has narrow nucleotide specificity and is unable to activate the drug. We demonstrated HSV-TK functionality of the mTTR-cmEPO-TK vector both in human hepatic cell lines and in vivo in macaques upon GCV treatment. It should be noted that we waited for up to 16 months before complete ablation of transduced hepatocytes in macaques with GCV treatment, as assessed by qPCR. This data gave additional evidence that transduced hepatocytes were present and functional in the long term and that the mTTR promoter was not silenced.

This could be interpreted as an absence of immune response against the transgenes, but we did not perform assay to directly evaluate the presence of a cellular immune response against HSV-TK (or cmEPO), or this could be explained by a selection of low expressing EPO/HSV-TK hepatocytes over time, and these cells could be responsible for the residual EPO expression or HSV-TK in the long term. This finding demonstrates the possibility to selectively eliminate the transplanted cells, and suggest they could be similarly AV-951 killed if they displayed uncontrolled proliferation. Thus, the inclusion of the HSV-TK gene in the lentiviral vectors constitutes an additional guarantee for biosafety.

Furthermore, the EnPEC also colonised the endometrium and invaded

Furthermore, the EnPEC also colonised the endometrium and invaded throughout the uterine wall. A mouse model of PID may be useful to study host-pathogen interactions and the mechanisms of infection and immunity in the endometrium. The present work has most relevance for PID in cattle rather than humans research only because the bacteria infecting the upper female genital tract differ between species [1], [3], [6], [7]. However, an in vivo model for the endometrium per se is important because mucosal immunity mechanisms in the endometrium appear to be different from the other commonly studied mucosa such as the intestinal or respiratory tracts, and are closely regulated by ovarian steroids [35], [36]. In conclusion, the present study counters the previous hypothesis that bacteria causing PID are genetically diverse isolates from the feces or environment that randomly infect the reproductive tract.

Here we have identified for the first time specific strains and clonal groups of E. coli that posses a pathogenic potential for causing PID in cattle, which we call endometrial pathogenic E. coli (EnPEC). The clusters of E. coli identified using MLST differed from reference strains of E. coli, including DEC, ExPEC and a bovine mastitis strain, but further genotyping is required to understand their origins. The EnPEC did not posses invasins, adhesins and virulence genes typical of DEC- or ExPEC, except for fyuA, which is associated with iron scavenging. The E. coli strains associated with PID were most adherent and invasive for endometrial cells. These E.

coli stimulated a host cell immune response, which was at least in part mediated by LPS binding to TLR4 on endometrial cells. The EnPEC were also used to establish a murine model of PID but whether EnPEC cause disease in humans requires investigation. The implications of the findings from the present study provide a paradigm shift for development of vaccines or biological therapeutics for PID, which should specifically target EnPEC rather than other strains of E. coli. Materials and Methods Ethics Statement All procedures were conducted under the UK Animal Scientific Procedures Act (1986) with the approval of the UK Government Home Office, the Royal Veterinary College Local Ethical Review Committee and Swansea University Ethical Review Process committee. Collection of E.

coli from the Uterus All procedures were conducted under the UK Animal Scientific Procedures Act (1986) with the approval of the UK Government Home Drug_discovery Office and the Royal Veterinary College Local Ethical Review Committee. All postpartum Holstein-Friesian cows in the Royal Veterinary College dairy herd (median parity 3; range: 1 to 7) were maintained under standard conditions and examined as described during a one-year period [6]. Animals with non-uterine bacterial infections were excluded.

Other proteins may also be regulated in this way in the ��-cell

Other proteins may also be regulated in this way in the ��-cell. For example, SUMO protein was shown to inhibit the voltage-dependent K+ channel Kv2.1 that resulted in widening of ��-cell action potentials and a decreased firing frequency, selleck chemical but inhibition of Kv2.1 might augment insulin secretion in mouse ��-cells (5, 14). Similarly, SUMO-mediated upregulation of signaling pathways in cellular stress, such as the NF-��B transcription pathway, might be beneficial under certain circumstances (7). On the other hand, a recent report shows that SUMO-1 impairs glucose-stimulated insulin secretion by binding to synaptogamin VII and preventing exocytosis (6). We found that overexpression of SUMO-1 resulted in intracellular retention of the GLP-1R that was associated with reduced receptor density at the cell membrane.

Even though the role of SUMO in nucleocytoplasmic trafficking is well documented (11), how SUMO aids in forward trafficking to the plasma membrane is yet to be investigated. One possibility is that SUMO prevents GLP-1R oligomerization. Receptor oligomerization is essential for forward trafficking of the secretin family of class B G protein-coupled receptors, of which the GLP-1R is a member (20). SUMO modification was also shown to inhibit oligomerization of other proteins such as apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 and E26 leukemia (TEL) protein (18, 38). Furthermore, enhanced SUMO modification increases solubility of proteins as in the case of vaccinea virus protein (26). Thus SUMO modification may affect GLP-1R oligomerization, perhaps by a change in the solubility or binding ability of sumoylated proteins.

The mechanism by which SUMO affects trafficking of GLP-1R could also be due to posttranslational modification of GLP-1R and concomitant effects on components of the trafficking machinery. Moreover, downregulation of GLP-1R signaling is likely due to a compound effect of direct SUMO modification of the GLP-1R and the possible modifications of the components of this pathway. For example, SUMO-mediated regulation of cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase-4D5 has been reported previously (19). Similarly, SUMO modification of transcription factors involved in insulin gene expression could also contribute to attenuation of exendin-4-stimulated insulin secretion (24, 32). Incretin responses and its use in therapy are becoming central to the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Here, we describe sumoylation as a mechanism that regulates incretin responsiveness that could contribute to the reduction of the incretin effect in diabetes. A thorough understanding of the role of SUMO in incretin receptor regulation will help improve the efficacy of incretin-based therapy for diabetes. GRANTS This work was partially supported by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Grants DK-48494 Entinostat and DK-063493, DK-075706, P60 DK-020595, the Blum-Kovler Foundation, and the Merck IIS Grant 38186.

, 2009), neither positioning nor migration of MKs or their commit

, 2009), neither positioning nor migration of MKs or their committed progenitors in marrow spaces is controlled by S1pr1. Figure 3. Loss of S1pr1 increases the size but has no effect on the positioning and motility of MKs in vivo. (A) Representative MP-IVM images of YFP+ or EGFP+ MKs (green) in BM. sellckchem BM microvasculature was visualized by intravenous injection of TRITC-dextran (red). … S1pr1 is essential for intravascular PP formation (PPF) During thrombopoiesis, mature MKs extend transendothelial protrusions, termed PPs, into BM microvessels (Junt et al., 2007). To test whether S1P/S1P receptor signaling plays a role during PPF, we cultured MKs in vitro (Lecine et al., 1998) and found that on average, 9 out of 100 WT MKs spontaneously formed PPs as assessed by phase-contrast microscopy.

MKs isolated from S1pr2?/? and S1pr4?/? mice generated similar number of PPs (unpublished data). In sharp contrast, in vitro PPF was reduced by >70% in S1pr1?/? MKs, as <2 out of 100 S1pr1?/? MKs formed PPs (Fig. 4 A). Importantly, lentiviral reexpression of GpIb�� promoter�Cdriven S1pr1 in S1pr1?/? MKs corrected PPF in vitro (Fig. 4 B). These results clearly indicate that S1pr1 plays a critical and intrinsic role for PPF by MKs. Figure 4. S1P regulates PPF. (A) The percentage of MKs displaying PPF. PPF is expressed as the percentage of MKs carrying PPs (8,000-10,000 MKs per experiment, five independent experiments with triplications). (B) The percentage of MKs displaying PPF in S1pr1+/+ ...

When we examined how S1pr1 might control PPF, we could exclude a primary lack of the invaginated demarcation membrane system (DMS), the predominant reservoir for PP membranes (Radley and Haller, 1982; Schulze et al., 2006), in S1pr1?/? MKs, as electron microscopy of S1pr1?/? BM MKs did not reveal abnormalities of the DMS when compared with S1pr1+/+ BM MKs (Fig. 4 C). Next we tested whether S1P serves as a chemoattractant for polarizing MKs and for inducing the formation of PP protrusions. Within the normal BM compartment, S1P is rapidly degraded by lyases and phosphatases expressed by most hematopoietic cells. Thus, the local S1P concentrations in the BM (with its densely packed hematopoietic cells) are exceedingly low (unpublished data), reflecting similar concentrations reported for other tissues such as lymph nodes (Schwab et al., 2005; Pappu et al., 2007).

In contrast, high Cilengitide S1P concentrations exist in the blood stream (Caligan et al., 2000; Berdyshev et al., 2005; Pappu et al., 2007). Because of their positioning at the vascular interface, MKs are therefore exposed to a steep transendothelial S1P gradient. To mimic the situation in the BM, we exposed cultured MKs to a gradient of S1P in vitro. Notably, PP extensions developed preferentially toward increasing concentrations of S1P but not of vehicle (Fig. 4 D). A similar result was also obtained with S1pr2?/? and S1pr4?/? MKs (Fig. 4 D). VPC23019, a previously described S1pr1 and S1pr3 antagonist (Davis et al.

[9] verified that the

[9] verified that the Vorinostat solubility fraction in vinasse with the highest proteinaceous fluorescence has the greatest ability to bind with Cu. According to previous research, raw pig manure and cattle manure DOM also have a large number of proteinaceous materials [8, 10]. Whether the proteinaceous materials in manure DOM play a key role in complexing with Cu was not clear.Composting is a useful method for organic wastes stabilization [11�C13]. A decline in DOM has been reported by Inbar et al. [14] and Huang et al. [12] for cattle manure and pig manure composting, respectively. The common characteristic is that DOM composition may undergo significant transformation after the composting process [10, 15]. For example, domestic organic wastes (coffee residues and garden trimmings) had a reduction of carbohydrates and increase of aromatic, phenolic, carboxylic, and carbonylic C in DOM after composting [16].

Accordingly, a decrease in the tyrosine-like and tryptophan-like materials and an increase in the humic, and fulvic-like materials were observed by excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy during composting of winery residues and municipal solid wastes [10, 13]. However, little is reported about the transformation of animal manure DOM during composting process at present. Furthermore, variation of binding ability of manure DOM with heavy metals after composing was also unknown. As a selective, sensitive, and nondestructive analytical technique, EEM fluorescence spectroscopy has been always used to characterize the DOM composition using contour plots, number of fluorescence peaks, position of wavelength-independent fluorescence maxima (Exmax/Emmax), and fluorescence intensity at Exmax/Emmax [8, 17�C19].

However, it is limited to quantifying the properties based on one, two, or three data points from the fluorescence spectra. Chen et al. [20] developed the fluorescence regional integration (FRI) technique for quantitative analysis, which has been successfully used to study the evolution of organic waste DOM during the composting process [10, 13]. In addition, fluorescence spectroscopy has been revealed as a very promising technique for the study of metal ion binding to DOM [7, 21, 22]. Metal ions, especially paramagnetic metals, that is, Cu and Hg, are able to quench the intrinsic fluorescence of DOM [23, 24].

Therefore, together with the fluorescence quenching titration, the metal ion complexing capacities of DOM and stability constants of metal-DOM complexes can be examined. Dacomitinib The objectives of this study were (1) to explore the composition evolution of animal manure (pig manure and cattle manure) DOM during composting by EEM fluorescence spectroscopy; (2) to investigate the effect of composting process on manure DOM complexation with Cu.2. Materials and Methods2.1.

Table 1The sensitivity, PPV, and F1 values in four scenarios of t

Table 1The sensitivity, PPV, and F1 values in four scenarios of the simulation studies.As the number of genes p increases, the number of parameters to be estimated increases rapidly. Due to the sparsity of partial correlation coefficient matrix, selleck chem the number of true zero parameters increases much more than that of true non-zero parameters, causing the chance of estimating a zero parameter to be non-zero increases more than that of estimating a non-zero parameter to be zero. As presented in Table 1, although the sensitivity of LEP did not change significantly as p increasing from 10 to 20, its PPV reduced obviously from ~90% in scenario 1 and 2 to ~80% in scenario 3 and 4. The LASSO and SCAD showed similarly.

Note that beside the penalty term, the performances of different methods also depend on the true value of covariance matrix ��, which was generated at the beginning of each scenario.Across all the scenarios, although LASSO reached the highest sensitivity, its PPV was far lower than that of SCAD and LEP, which means that LASSO could identify more gene regulatory relationships, but there might be many false positives. Among these three methods, LEP achieved the highest PPV with its sensitivity controlled at similar level to that of SCAD. Its F1 score also reached the highest value in scenario 1, 3, and 4. More importantly, using the algorithm proposed by [14], LEP was the fastest, whose computation time was almost 1/18, 1/10, 1/7 and 1/9 of LASSO and 1/5, 1/4, 1/3, and 1/3 of SCAD in four scenarios, respectively.

For intuitive illustration, we also plotted the relative frequency matrix for each method in each scenario, where the (i, j)-element indicates the relative frequency of non-zero estimates among 100 repetitions. The darker the color is, the higher the frequency of non-zero estimates is. The true partial correlation coefficient matrix was shown in the first panel of each row in Figure 1. From Figure 1, we can see that the color of LASSO is significantly darker than others, especially the Carfilzomib truth, which means that LASSO estimated many true zero parameters to be non-zero, resulting in many false positives. Comparing to LASSO, the SCAD plot became much closer to the truth and LEP made a further improvement upon the SCAD plot.Figure 1The relative frequency matrices in four scenarios of the simulation studies. The first, second, third and forth rows correspond to scenario 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively.3.2. A Real Data ExampleIn this section, the publicly available gene expression dataset “type”:”entrez-geo”,”attrs”:”text”:”GSE6536″,”term_id”:”6536″GSE6536 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=”type”:”entrez-geo”,”attrs”:”text”:”GSE6536″,”term_id”:”6536″GSE6536) was investigated.

695�C50) Also, depressive symptoms predicted agreement with vent

695�C50). Also, depressive symptoms predicted agreement with ventilator use in the case of a license with Pfizer terminal condition in our cohort (OR = 1.43, CI: 1.08�C1.89).Table 2Characteristics associated with agreement with ventilator use in a terminal condition.Table 3Factors associated with older Mexican Americans’ positive attitudes toward Ventilator Support.4. DiscussionOur study is the first of which we are aware to examine attitudes towards ventilator use among older, community-dwelling older Mexican Americans in a hypothetical end-of-life scenario. Older Mexican Americans who were first or second generation American or were functionally independent were more likely to favor end-of-life artificial ventilation. In previous studies of older Mexican Americans cultural variables have not been shown to be significant in ethical decision making.

Our results indicate those older Mexican Americans who recently immigrated to the United States are more likely to favor aggressive end-of life care. This may indicate a general mistrust of the health care system with a reflexive response to favor aggressive care in terminal situations. It also may reflect the difficulties associated with language differences, especially when dealing with complex and life-ending decisions such as ventilator use. It is possible that assimilation results in older US born Mexican Americans making end-of-life decisions which are more consistent with the majority of Americans when compared to the relatively newer immigrant Mexican Americans [10]. Also of interest were that those who were IADL independent were more likely to prefer end-of life ventilation.

This is consistent with what has been seen previously in other older populations [11]. Healthier persons usually prefer ventilation in these situations, even in an end-of-life scenario [12]. That the more functionally independent older Mexican American may have difficulty translating his current functional status to that of a sicker, more frail person in a terminal condition is not unexpected.Depressive symptoms were also noted to be significant and has been seen in multiple studies as a significant factor in choosing ventilator use [11, 13]. The presence of depressive symptoms may ultimately be more important than other factors such as religiosity in understanding older Mexican American decision making with regard to the issue of ventilator use at the end of life. However, the practical difference (1.43 versus 2.18) on the 15-item GDS renders the depressive symptom variation seen in our sample to that of minimal importance from Dacomitinib a clinical perspective but may more accurately reflect the psychological stress in working through this hypothetical scenario.4.1.

4 Structural

4. Structural Abiraterone Sigma ConstraintsWe already mentioned the evolution in criminological theories. Hirschi rephrased the question of ��why do offenders commit crime�� into ��why do they not commit crimes,�� which led him to explore social bonds and focus less on motivation. The present scholars however acknowledge and emphasise the role of the individual actor. This theoretical shift can be situated within a cultural shift. In the modernization proc
Great achievements have been made in China’s economy during the past three decades of reform and opening up. However, with rapid economic growth, the depletion of natural resources and the environmental degradation have become increasingly prominent. Based on a forecast for 2005�C2035, China is to replace the USA as the world’s leading embodied energy consumer in 2027, when its per capita energy consumption will be one quarter of that of the USA [1].

What’s more, the total cost of environmental degradation and ecological damage reached about 2037 billion US dollars, accounting for 3.8% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 [2]. The problems of resources and environment not only have brought huge losses to China’s economic and social development, but also may directly lead to unsustainable development in the future. Therefore, the 12th five-year plan of China request policy makers promote the coordination and sustainability of economic development. In addition, carbon emissions associated with industry transfer and international trades are illustrated in terms of impacts on global climate policies [3], so the globalization also promotes China to pay more emphasis on energy saving and environment protection.

In much of the contemporary literature, researchers have been studying the changes in China’s efficiency and productivity and their influence on economic growth and transformation from various perspectives. Nevertheless, with increasingly prominent problems of resources and environment in the process of economic development, a growing number of researchers believe that resources and environment are not only endogenous variables, but also rigid constraints on economic development [4, 5]. Therefore, when evaluating economic performance by total factor productivity (TFP), it is necessary to consider the resource and environmental factors which have tremendous impacts on economic development as well as a traditional factors such as capital and labor.

In fact, resource and environmental factors have been added into efficiency and productivity analysis framework to reestimate China’s economic growth efficiency and TFP in recent literature which draws many valuable conclusions [6�C9]. However, among these literatures, most of their Cilengitide data are based on subprovincial level in China, and very few of them are carried out from the subindustrial level in China.