Background Because consumption of conventional yogurt has beneficial effects in a healthy population, and insulin resistance (IR) is the mutual pathogenesis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and metabolic syndrome (MetS), we hypothesized that yogurt would ameliorate IR in patients with NAFLD and MetS. Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of yogurt on IR and secondary endpoints including liver fat, gut microbiota, and serum biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress in obese women with NAFLD and MetS. Methods One hundred obese women aged 36–66 y with both NAFLD and MetS were randomly assigned to consume 220 g/d of either conventional yogurt or milk for 24 wk. At baseline and week 24, we measured anthropometric indices, serum glucose, insulin, lipids, and cytokines in all participants, and liver fat and gut microbiota in 20 participants randomly selected from each group. Results Forty-eight participants from the yogurt group and 44 from the milk group completed the intervention. Compared with milk, yogurt significantly decreased the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (−0.53; 95% CI: −1.03, −0.02), fasting insulin (−2.77 mU/L; 95% CI: −4.91, −0.63 mU/L), 2-h insulin (−25.5 mU/L; 95% CI: −33.0, −17.9 mU/L), 2-h area under the curve for insulin (−29.4 mU/L · h; 95% CI: −44.0, −14.8 mU/L · h), alanine aminotransferase (−4.65 U/L; 95% CI: −8.67, −0.64 U/L), intrahepatic lipid (−3.44%; 95% CI: −6.19%, −0.68%), and hepatic fat fraction (−3.48%; 95% CI: −6.34%, −0.63%). Yogurt also decreased serum LPS (−0.31 EU/mL; 95% CI: −0.48, −0.14 EU/mL), fibroblast growth factor 21 (−57.76 pg/mL; 95% CI: −86.32, −29.19 pg/mL), lipids, and biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress, and altered gut microbiota composition. Mediation analysis showed that yogurt may improve IR by reducing serum lipids, inflammation, oxidative stress, and LPS. Conclusions Yogurt was better than milk at ameliorating IR and liver fat in obese Chinese women with NAFLD and MetS, possibly by improving lipid metabolism, reducing inflammation, oxidative stress, and LPS, and changing the gut microbiota composition. This trial was registered at www.chictr.org.cn as ChiCTR-IPR-15006801.

To examine the influence of elevated temperature and nitrogen (N) addition on species composition and development of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and the effect of AMF on plant community structure and aboveground productivity, we conducted a 5-year field experiment in a temperate meadow in northeast China and a subsequent greenhouse experiment. In the field experiment, N addition reduced spore population diversity and richness of AMF and suppressed the spore density and the hyphal length density (HLD). Elevated temperature decreased spore density and diameter and increased the HLD, but did not affect AMF spore population composition. In the greenhouse experiment, AMF altered plant community composition and increased total aboveground biomass in both elevated temperature and N addition treatments; additionally, AMF also increased the relative abundance and aboveground biomass of the grasses Leymus chinensis (Poaceae) and Setaria viridis (Gramineae) and significantly reduced the relative abundance and aboveground biomass of the Suaeda corniculata (Chenopodiaceae). Although elevated temperature and N addition can affect species composition or suppress the development of AMF, AMF are likely to play a vital role in increasing plant diversity and productivity. Notably, AMF might reduce the threat of climate change induced degradation of temperate meadow ecosystems.

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Using China's short-selling pilot program as a quasi-experiment, we find that the prospect of short selling has significantly increased conditional accounting conservatism among firms that are eligible for short selling, consistent with a short sellers' disciplining effect hypothesis. When short selling takes position ex post, accounting conservatism starts to decrease with an increased downward pressure on stock prices. Moreover, the short-selling effect of increased conditional accounting conservatism becomes stronger for stateowned enterprises, and this effect is accompanied by an increase of unconditional conservatism. As corroborating evidence to support the disciplining hypothesis, we show that accounting conservatism is significantly decreased for firms that are removed from the shortselling eligibility list. Our results are robust after considering the endogeneity issue in measuring downward stock price pressure, and after constructing the control firms by using both a propensity score matching method and an alternative measure for accounting conservatism. Overall, we provide important evidence on the feedback effects that the capital market has on firm financial reporting.

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