PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically study the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on food prices in China and provides policy implications for crisis management for other countries who are still under the crisis of COVID-19 and for the future in China and beyond as well.Design/methodology/approachThis paper first designed a theoretical model of market equilibrium, which shows that the impact of COVID-19 on food prices is linked to the impact difference on demand and supply in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Then we collected the representative prices data for four major food products (rice, wheat flour, pork and Chinese cabbages) from three provinces (Shandong as a producing base, Beijing as a consumption base and Hubei as the epicenter), and set up an iGARCH model.Findings(1) No significant impact on rice and wheat flour prices, (2) significantly positive impact on cabbages prices and (3) various impact on pork prices. Note that the outbreak and the severity of COVID-19 have different impacts. The outbreak itself may have a relatively large impact on pork and cabbage prices, which may result from social panic, while the magnitude of the impact of severity is relatively small, and some are negative, perhaps due to more reduced demand during the quarantine.Practical implicationsChina always puts food security in its prior position of policy agenda and has been preparing for the worst scenario of the food security crisis. In the anti-COVID-19 campaign, China's local governments developed many measures to ensure food provision for each consumer. Hence, the impact of COVID-19 on food prices is minor. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 crisis could cause social panic in some scenarios where consumers may hoard food. Eventually, it may form a vicious cycle to push up food prices. This will be a challenging policy issue in crisis management for almost all governments.Originality/valueThis paper provides empirical evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on food prices in China. China has basically contained the COVID-19 in the whole country, and no major food crisis occurred during this process. The results will provide information on crisis management for other countries that are still under the COVID-19 crisis, and for future China and beyond.

The Uyghur people residing in Xinjiang, a territory located in the far west of China and crossed by the Silk Road, are a key ethnic group for understanding the history of human dispersion in Eurasia. Here we assessed the genetic structure and ancestry of 951 Xinjiang's Uyghurs (XJU) representing 14 geographical subpopulations. We observed a southwest and northeast differentiation within XJU, which was likely shaped jointly by the Tianshan Mountains, which traverses from east to west as a natural barrier, and gene flow from both east and west directions. In XJU, we identified four major ancestral components that were potentially derived from two earlier admixed groups: one from the West, harboring European (25-37%) and South Asian ancestries (12-20%), and the other from the East, with Siberian (15-17%) and East Asian (29-47%) ancestries. By using a newly developed method, MultiWaver, the complex admixture history of XJU was modeled as a two-wave admixture. An ancient wave was dated back to ∼3,750 years ago (ya), which is much earlier than that estimated by previous studies, but fits within the range of dating of mummies that exhibited European features that were discovered in the Tarim basin, which is situated in southern Xinjiang (4,000-2,000 ya); a more recent wave occurred around 750 ya, which is in agreement with the estimate from a recent study using other methods. We unveiled a more complex scenario of ancestral origins and admixture history in XJU than previously reported, which further suggests Bronze Age massive migrations in Eurasia and East-West contacts across the Silk Road.

As the largest ethnic group in the world, the Han Chinese population is nonetheless underrepresented in global efforts to catalogue the genomic variability of natural populations. Here, we developed the PGG.Han, a population genome database to serve as the central repository for the genomic data of the Han Chinese Genome Initiative (Phase I). In its current version, the PGG.Han archives whole-genome sequences or high-density genome-wide single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) of 114 783 Han Chinese individuals (a.k.a. the Han100K), representing geographical sub-populations covering 33 of the 34 administrative divisions of China, as well as Singapore. The PGG.Han provides: (i) an interactive interface for visualization of the fine-scale genetic structure of the Han Chinese population; (ii) genome-wide allele frequencies of hierarchical sub-populations; (iii) ancestry inference for individual samples and controlling population stratification based on nested ancestry informative markers (AIMs) panels; (iv) population-structure-aware shared control data for genotype-phenotype association studies (e.g. GWASs) and (v) a Han-Chinese-specific reference panel for genotype imputation. Computational tools are implemented into the PGG.Han, and an online user-friendly interface is provided for data analysis and results visualization. The PGG.Han database is freely accessible via http://www.pgghan.org or https://www.hanchinesegenomes.org.

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of nanofiltration and evaporation concentration technologies on the physiochemical properties of milk protein concentrate (MPC) during processing. Skim milk, ultrafiltered milk, evaporated milk, nanofiltered milk, evaporated MPC, and nanofiltered MPC samples were collected at different processing stages. Chemical composition, microstructure of casein micelles, free sulfhydryl content, and surface hydrophobicity of the samples were determined. The insolubility index of MPC was also determined. Casein micelles aggregated compactly after evaporation while surface hydrophobicity increased and free sulfhydryl content decreased in evaporated milk compared with skim milk. However, the microstructure of the casein micelles was relatively undisturbed after nanofiltration, with reduced surface hydrophobicity and free sulfhydryl content. No significant difference was found in chemical composition between the 2 MPC preparations: approximately 61.40% protein and 28.49% lactose. In addition, the particulate microstructures of both MPC were similar. However, the insolubility index of evaporated MPC was significantly (0.58mL) higher than that of nanofiltered MPC. Nanofiltration may be an effective way to improve the solubility of MPC products.

Recent research has found that the Taylor-rule fundamentals have power to forecast changes in U.S. dollar exchange rates out of sample. Our work casts some doubt on that claim. However, we find strong evidence of a related in-sample anomaly. When we include U.S. inflation in the wellknown uncovered interest parity regression of the change in the exchange rate on the interest-rate differential, we find that the inflation variable is highly significant and the interest-rate differential is not. Specifically, high U.S. inflation in one month forecasts dollar appreciation in the subsequent month. We introduce a model in which a Taylor rule determines monetary policy, but in which not only monetary shocks but also liquidity shocks drive nominal interest rates. This model can potentially account for the empirical findings.