Chinese student circular migration and global city formation: a relational case study of Shanghai and Paris

More than 1.2 million students have left China to study abroad during the past three decades of economic reform in China. In 2007 alone, China sent around 144,000 students abroad, 167 times of the number of students in 1978. This large scale of student migration has often raised debate on brain drain , because many of these student migrants do not return to China upon graduation. However, there has been a reverse trend in the past decade as China witnessed a growing wave of return migration. More and more Chinese students are coming back to China after their studies and work abroad due to the strong economic situation and promising career opportunities at home. These returnees are given the nick-name Haigui or, in English, sea-turtles. This doctoral research is therefore an academic inquiry to this emerging social phenomenon. While international migration is mainly researched on the national level, this innovative doctoral research seeks to understand the relationship between migration and global city formation. To do so, it analyses inter-city migration flow by applying a relational case study of circular student migration between Shanghai and Paris and examines the rationale behind return migration and the role of management/business student returnees from French business schools on Shanghai s pathway to become China s premier global city. This research reveals that global cities have become the strategic points for Chinese talents (students and skilled professionals) acting the role as sending, transiting and receiving sites, which are interconnected in the dynamic process of knowledge accumulation, contact making and network creation. Chinese student returnees contribute to the development of Shanghai by actively engaging in transnational activities including developing and maintaining cross-border organisation/corporate ties and personal networks, knowledge transfer, acting as global-local business and cultural interface, as well as enriching cosmopolitan and multicultural business and cultural spaces in Shanghai

Pathways of change: shifting connectivities in the world city network, 2000-08

This is an empirical paper that measures and interprets changes in intercity relations at the global scale in the period 2000-08. It draws on the network model devised by the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research group to measure global connectivities for 132 cities across the world in 2000 and 2008. The measurements for both years are adjusted so that a coherent set of services/cities is used. A range of statistical techniques is used to explore these changes at the city level and the regional scale. The most notable changes are: the general rise of connectivity in the world city network; the loss of global connectivity of US and Sub-Saharan African cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami in particular); and, the gain in global connectivity of south Asian, Chinese and eastern European cities (Shanghai, Beijing and Moscow in particular)

Characterization of Bazooka and aPKC in Asymmetric Drosophila Cyst Stem Cell Division

Asymmetric stem cell division is important for maintaining tissue homeostasis. Some stem cells undergo asymmetric stem cell divisions when they reside in local microenvironments (i.e. stem cell niches), which provide essential signals to maintain stem cell identity. The intrinsic cellular machinery of asymmetric stem cell division remains, however, poorly understood. In this study, the importance of polarity proteins (i.e. Bazooka and aPKC) in regulating the asymmetric Drosophila cyst stem cell (CySC) division was discussed. First of all, the localization of Bazooka and aPKC was visualized by confocal microscopy, and the expression was quantified by a pixel intensity analysis program. Results showed Bazooka was almost evenly distributed along CySC cortex from interphase to metaphase, but illustrated higher expression level in the basal cortex during anaphase. Additionally, aPKC also displayed different localizations at different cell cycles. These results demonstrated dynamic localization of Bazooka and aPKC during asymmetric CySCs division. Time-lapse live-cell imaging provides a means to directly investigate the dynamic cellular processes, demonstrating the function of Bazooka and aPKC in regulating the asymmetric CySCs divisions. Either Bazooka or aPKC knockdown severely disrupted the anaphase spindle repositioning, leading to symmetric stem cell division. Spindle pole dynamics and mitosis duration analysis illustrated that both spindle pole dynamics were disrupted in Bazooka and aPKC knockdown. Meanwhile, the E-cadherin, which is highly localized to the hub- CySC interface for wildtype, was disrupted and distributed throughout the cell cortex in Bazooka and aPKC knockdown. These findings demonstrated the role of Bazooka and aPKC in establishing polarization in the CySCs. Moreover, this study may also lead to further investigation of mechanisms of the stem cell niche and the cellular machinery ensuring asymmetric stem cell divisions

The performances of pre-miRNA prediction.

<p>The performances of pre-miRNA prediction.</p

Low-Cost Chemical-Responsive Adhesive Sensing Chips

Chemical-responsive adhesive sensing chip is a new low-cost analytical platform that uses adhesive tape loaded with indicator reagents to detect or quantify the target analytes by directly sticking the tape to the samples of interest. The chemical-responsive adhesive sensing chips can be used with paper to analyze aqueous samples; they can also be used to detect and quantify solid, particulate, and powder analytes. The colorimetric indicators become immediately visible as the contact between the functionalized adhesives and target samples is made. The chemical-responsive adhesive sensing chip expands the capability of paper-based analytical devices to analyze solid, particulate, or powder materials via one-step operation. It is also a simpler alternative way, to the covalent chemical modification of paper, to eliminate indicator leaching from the dipstick-style paper sensors. Chemical-responsive adhesive chips can display analytical results in the form of colorimetric dot patterns, symbols, and texts, enabling clear understanding of assay results by even nonprofessional users. In this work, we demonstrate the analyses of heavy metal salts in silica powder matrix, heavy metal ions in water, and bovine serum albumin in an aqueous solution. The detection is one-step, specific, sensitive, and easy-to-operate

Illustration of the construction of the stem-bulge-gap notation.

<p>In the stem-bulge-gap notation at the bottom line, the symbols of ‘|’, ‘!’ and ‘:’ represent respectively the base pair of ‘CG’, ‘AU’ and ‘GU’, the symbols of ‘o’, ‘x’ and ‘-’ represent respectively the loop, bulge and gap. In the asymmetric bulges, the symmetric part is indicated with ‘x’ and the asymmetric part with ‘-’.</p

Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve of FOMmiR predictor.

<p>Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve of FOMmiR predictor.</p

Quantitative distribution of miRNA strands in positive training dataset.

<p>Quantitative distribution of miRNA strands in positive training dataset.</p

Distribution of the signal scores in positive and negative datasets.

<p>Distribution of the signal scores in positive and negative datasets.</p

Anticipation of landing leg masks ankle inversion orientation deficits and peroneal insufficiency during jump landing in people with chronic ankle instability

Ankle inversion orientation and peroneal activation insufficiency may contribute to lateral ankle sprains during landing in chronic ankle instability (CAI), however, how anticipation alters these factors is neglected. This study aimed to assess the impact of anticipation on joint orientation and muscle activity during landing in individuals with CAI. Fifteen participants with CAI and fifteen healthy participants (control) were recruited to perform single-leg landings after bilateral countermovement jumps when the landing limb was specified before (planned) or after (unplanned) take-off. Joint angle (hip, knee, and ankle) and electromyography (gluteus medius, rectus femoris, biceps femoris, gastrocnemius lateral head, tibialis anterior, peroneal longus) were collected and analysed with 2 (groups) x 2 (conditions) statistical parametric mapping ANOVA. In the unplanned condition, the CAI group demonstrated a less plantarflexed (maximum difference = 9.5˚, p=0.047) and more inverted ankle joint (maximum difference = 4.1˚, p<0.001) before ground contact, along with lower peroneal activity at ground contact compared to the control group (maximum difference = 28.9 % of peak activation, p<0.001). No significant differences between groups were observed in the planned condition. In conclusion, anticipation may mask jump landing deficits in people with CAI, including inverted ankle orientation and reduced peroneus longus activity pre- and post-landing, which were observed exclusively in unplanned landings. Clinicians and researchers need to recognize the impact of anticipation on apparent landing deficits and consider the implications for injury prevention and rehabilitation strategies.</p