Sorting of Amphiphile Membrane Components in Curvature and Composition Gradients

Phase and shape heterogeneities in biomembranes are of functional importance. However, it is difficult to elucidate the roles membrane heterogeneities play in maintaining cellular function due to the complexity of biomembranes. Therefore, investigations of phase behavior and composition/curvature coupling in lipid and polymer model membranes offer some advantages. In this thesis, phase properties in lipid and polymer giant vesicles were studied. Line tension at the fluid/fluid phase boundary of giant lipid unilamellar vesicles was determined directly by micropipette aspiration, and found to be composition-dependent. Dynamics of calcium-induced domains within polyanionic vesicles subject to chemical stimuli were investigated, which revealed the strength of molecular interaction and suggested applications in triggered delivery. In addition, curvature sorting of lipids and proteins was examined. Lipid membrane tethers were pulled from giant unilamellar vesicles using two micropipettes and a bead. Tether radius can be controlled and measured in this system. By examining fluorescence intensity of labeled molecules as a function of curvature, we found that DiI dyes (lipid analogues with spontaneous curvatures) had no curvature preference down to radii of 10 nm. Theoretical calculation predicted that the distribution of small lipids was dominated by entropy instead of bending energy. However protein Cholera toxin subunit B was efficiently sorted away from the high positive curvature due to its negative spontaneous curvature. Bending stiffness was determined to decrease as curvature increased in homogeneous membranes with ternary lipid mixtures near a critical consulate point, revealing the strong preferential intermolecular interactions of such mixtures. In addition, diffusion controlled domain growth was observed in tethers pulled from phase-separated vesicles, which provides a new dynamic sorting principle for lipids and proteins in curvature gradients

THE EFFECTS OF EDUCATION ON YOUTH CRIME PARTICIPATION USING SELF-REPORTED DATA FROM NLSY97

This paper empirically examines the impacts of education on crime participation among youth aged between 18 -24, using data from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 97(NLSY97). First, it estimates the reduction effects of high school graduation on general crime participation, which shows significant negative effects. Then this paper predicts the effects of high school graduation on three types of crime. A robust finding is that all of the three types of crimes are negative associated with high school graduation whether or not controlling family background and cognitive skill. Also, this paper classifies education level into three levels and predicts the effects of crime participation for each education level. The results reflect that more higher education level has larger crime reduction effects than lower education level. In order to check the robustness of the findings above, this paper explores the effects of high school graduation and ability on incarceration. The implications of these findings are clear and could give policy suggestion. That is, improving education could exert a key policy tool to reduce crime

Problems of SNS E-Commerce Development in China and Countermeasures

With the development of electronic commerce, the economic development gradually depends on it. In recent years, a new way of electronic commerce known as SNS (Social Network Service) emerging network applications, has become the most popular in the current Internet industry of China’s ,SNS sites have mushroomed emerged, which are widely welcomed and sought after by users.In this article, first, we show the conception of the SNS and its classification. Second we analyze the status quo of the SNS in China and find what happened in the area. Third, we make the analysis of the problems which we offered previously. Finally, we put forward some of the suggestions and countermeasures which are suitable for the development of SNS which are based on the analysis of the problems.

Development of and Strategies for Stock Index Futures in China

Since 2010 the stock index futures in China has been launched for three years, we have make a big progress in the development of stock index futures market which play an important role in the progress of finance market. But some of the problems still exist for the influence of many factors; we need to find the corresponding solutions and strategies urgently. First, we show the conception of stock index futures and then we analyze the problems existing in the stock index futures market and state the factors in China such as the shortcomings of China’s stock index futures contract in the development process. Finally, we put forward some of the strategies and countermeasures which are suitable to the development of stock index futures in China such as effective risk control, improve the varieties, positive the cultivation and development of market based on the analysis of the problems

Construction and Strategies in Economics and Management Emulation Laboratory in Higher Education of China

The construction of economics and management laboratory has become a common understanding of the economics and management subject in higher education development in China, but the constructing immersion teaching experimental environment does not keep in path with increasing requirement. In this paper, combining with the fact of the laboratory center, we investigate some related problems on the construction of comprehensive emulation laboratory of economy management and propose some relative strategies for development

Simulating Random Packing of Porous Media

The microstructure of porous media strongly influences the motion and distribution of fluids in the pore space. Although considerable effort has been made to incorporate pore-level phenomena and pore structure data into network micromodels of pore space for prediction of macroscopic flow behavior, quantitative information on pore geometric configuration is required to test the validity of the theoretical models. Given our lack of knowledge of pore-scale characteristics (e.g., pore body, pore throat size distributions, and coordination number distributions) to capture the complexity of microstructure in porous media, random packing research can provide the necessary conceptual and quantitative basis for the network model development. This work contributes to these efforts by developing a computer algorithm that generates random or correlated packing realizations of porous media systems quickly and rigorously. Porous media are modeled as random packings of spheres with specified porosities, log-normal particle sized distributions and spatial correlations. The packings are gravitationally stable and range from random loose packing to random close packing. The packing porosity for both close and loose packed lattices decreases when the standard deviation of the sphere radius size distribution increases. The mean coordination number for both types of packings remains stable when the standard deviation is less than 0.4, but steadily decreases when the standard deviation is greater than 0.4. Tests of simulation size effects show that both the packing porosity and mean coordination number reach plateaus when the number of packed spheres is greater than 3x10[4] in the purely random packing. When packing with spatial correlation, however, the size at which these two properties attain constant states is highly dependent upon correlation length, standard deviation and domain size. Results of spatially correlated random packings demonstrate that great statistical fluctuation exists as the ratio of correlation length to domain length is greater than 0.1.Master of Science in Environmental Engineerin

The New Old: A Post Fashion Consumption Practice

The rapid changes of trend and style in fashion have inevitably caused clothing to become almost disposable, because staying current and ‘new’ is the motto. Subsequently, this fast-paced fashion phenomenon caused an abundance of fashion and textile wastage in general. And thus, the objective of this thesis work is to suggest a design framework to counteract this fashion phenomenon, and hoping to slow down its consumption. The New Old, as suggested by the title, is a paradox itself. It proposes ‘renew-old’ as a design strategy in addressing the issue of excessive textile and clothing consumption through the re-working of used garments. This research was done in two segments. The first part consists of theories and data collected from four selected Asian cities: Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, which includes questionnaires and interviews related to the used clothing culture in a particular city. This target group was chosen because the mentality of Asians in adorning used clothing is different from ‘Westerners’, usually related to taboos and perceptions affected by cultural, social, education and economic aspects. Hence, it was interesting to seek the differences between Asia and Europe in this aspect, where the Western culture shows such a great acceptance in wearing second-hand clothing. Besides, renew-old also have been discussed in a more detailed manner and comparison has been made with other seemingly similar yet different fashion terminology such as ‘recycle’ in order to distinguish the positioning of renew-old. Renew-old is thought of as an upcycling process in this research context. The second segment of the research was the actual renewing process from the used garments, contributed by the interviewees from the aforementioned Asian cities. The aim of the final execution was to demonstrate the possibilities of renewing-old garments and to put them into practice. Three approaches have been realised in each of the wearable, in which all the used clothing have been ‘assessed’ and segregated into parts before ‘mixing’ them together during the renewing process. Eventually, these renewed outfits were sent back to its owners, where they obligatorily ‘own’ a bit of something from another stranger of another city, which is almost similar to the action of buying second-hand clothing