Media framing and public support for China’s social credit system: An experimental study

Although China’s social credit system (SCS) is widely portrayed by Western media as repressive surveillance, recent studies show that it receives high levels of support among Chinese citizens. Previous research suggests that people support the SCS because they lack knowledge about the system. This study further examines the roles of media framing (Western vs Chinese framing) and monitored behaviors (financial vs social behaviors). The results from a survey experiment conducted in China (N = 1600) demonstrate that when exposed to Western framing, public support for the SCS is lower, but only when participants are informed that the SCS monitors social behavior. By contrast, when people are told that the SCS focuses on financial behavior, Western framing exposure is not associated with low levels of public support. The findings suggest that an expansion to social domains and exposure to Western media framing will likely result in decreased support for the system

Effect Assessment of Airflow Resistance by Local Airway Stenosis with 3D Printing Airway Model

Clinically noticing airway constriction can randomly cause small airway quickly closed and the surrouding airway occlusion happens subsequently. A phenomenon may happened called "avalanche phenomenon" inside airway [1]. But few study on how local airway stenosis affects the respiratory flow. Because the real local airway stenosis and its flow are still unable to be directly observed and measured. In this paper, narrow numerical model of the main and branched airway are established based on CT data of normal human airways. Then the trachea and bronchial branched airway constriction models are printed out on the 3D printer by PLA material. Finally, to measure airflow impedance of different airway models and analyze the impact of structural changes in the airway (shrink and narrow) airway impedance, we adopt independent research and development Forced Oscillation Technique(FOT). The test results preliminary show that the trachea stenosis has big effect on the airway viscous resistance (Rrs) and the elastic resistance (Xrs). The bronchial stenosis obviously increases the airway elastic resistance. This article provides a new method for the study on how local constriction affects the airflow inside airway in the future

Can Large Language Models Be Good Companions? An LLM-Based Eyewear System with Conversational Common Ground

Developing chatbots as personal companions has long been a goal of artificial intelligence researchers. Recent advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) have delivered a practical solution for endowing chatbots with anthropomorphic language capabilities. However, it takes more than LLMs to enable chatbots that can act as companions. Humans use their understanding of individual personalities to drive conversations. Chatbots also require this capability to enable human-like companionship. They should act based on personalized, real-time, and time-evolving knowledge of their owner. We define such essential knowledge as the \textit{common ground} between chatbots and their owners, and we propose to build a common-ground-aware dialogue system from an LLM-based module, named \textit{OS-1}, to enable chatbot companionship. Hosted by eyewear, OS-1 can sense the visual and audio signals the user receives and extract real-time contextual semantics. Those semantics are categorized and recorded to formulate historical contexts from which the user's profile is distilled and evolves over time, i.e., OS-1 gradually learns about its user. OS-1 combines knowledge from real-time semantics, historical contexts, and user-specific profiles to produce a common-ground-aware prompt input into the LLM module. The LLM's output is converted to audio, spoken to the wearer when appropriate.We conduct laboratory and in-field studies to assess OS-1's ability to build common ground between the chatbot and its user. The technical feasibility and capabilities of the system are also evaluated. OS-1, with its common-ground awareness, can significantly improve user satisfaction and potentially lead to downstream tasks such as personal emotional support and assistance.Comment: 36 pages, 25 figures, Under review at ACM IMWU

The DNA Methylome of Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells

Analysis across the genome of patterns of DNA methylation reveals a rich landscape of allele-specific epigenetic modification and consequent effects on allele-specific gene expression

In situ construction, photocatalytic performance, and mechanism speculation of plasmonic binary Bi/beta-Bi2O3 hybrids

A facile synthetic route was adopted in this study to construct plasmonic binary Bi/beta-Bi2O3 hybrids through a solvothermal-incomplete calcination process. As-synthesized samples were systematically characterized by X-ray diffraction patterns, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and N-2 adsorption-desorption. The calcination temperature exerted an important effect on the surface phase composition variation and binary Bi/beta-Bi2O3 hybrids were formed at the suitable temperature with an intimate contact between both components. These hybrids showed enhanced photocatalytic degradation efficiencies over dyes Rhodamine B and methyl orange, mainly attributing to the enlarged specific surface areas, favorable morphology and optical property, and the involvement of semimetal Bi with the surface plasmon resonance effect by means of improved visible-light absorption and efficient charge carries separation. In addition, active species entrapping experiments was eventually conducted for the sake of the possible photocatalysis mechanism speculation

Synthesis and Photocatalytic Performance of Bi12O17Cl2 Semiconductors Calcined at Different Temperatures

In the current investigation a series of oxygen-rich bismuth oxychloride Bi12O17Cl2 samples through an ethylene glycol-solvothermal route were constructed at different calcination temperatures and fully characterized by X-ray diffraction patterns, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra, X-ray energy dispersion spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectra. It was demonstrated that the calcination temperatures indeed had a crucial effect on the crystallinity, grain size, morphology, optical property, and charge carrier separation of Bi12O17Cl2 series. These Bi12O17Cl2 samples showed significantly improved photocatalytic degradation over dye Rhodamine B and colorless antibiotic tetracycline hydrochloride. Particularly, the best candidate, the sample 350 A degrees C-Bi12O17Cl2 could show apparent reaction rate constants that were nearly 28.2, 1.2 times of N-TiO2 over Rhodamine B and tetracycline hydrochloride, respectively. The possible reason of enhancing photocatalytic performance by various Bi12O17Cl2 samples calcined at different temperatures was discussed and major oxidative radicals maybe generated during photocatalytic processes were detected

Enhanced heat transfer in a parabolic trough solar receiver by inserting rods and using molten salt as heat transfer fluid

With the aim to enhance the reliability and overall heat transfer performance of a parabolic trough receiver, concentric rod and eccentric rod are introduced as turbulators, and the flow and convective heat transfer characteristics of molten salt in a parabolic trough receiver are analyzed. A three-dimensional model was developed and has been validated with experimental results and empirical equations. Highly non-uniform heat flux was provided by a novel parabolic trough collector. The result shows that both concentric rod insert and eccentric rod insert can enhance the heat transfer performance effectively. For a parabolic trough receiver with a concentric rod insert, with the increasing of dimensionless diameter B, the normalized Nusselt number is about 1.10 to 7.42 times over a plain parabolic trough receiver. The performance evaluation criteria can't reasonably evaluate the effect of B growth on the comprehensive heat transfer performance. By introducing integrated performance factor, it can give a reasonable solution, and it shows that the integrated performance factor has a significance decreases with the increase of Reynolds number when B is larger than 0.8. With B increasing, the integrated performance factor of parabolic trough receiver with concentric rod insert decreasing under a certain Reynolds number. For an eccentric rod insert, the performance evaluation criteria and the integrated performance factor decrease with the increasing of Reynolds number under a certain dimensionless eccentricity H. The performance evaluation criteria decreases from about 1.84 to 1.68 times over a plain parabolic trough receiver when H is 0.8. Moreover, the temperature distribution can be uniformed and the maximum temperature on the absorber tube also can be remarkably reduced with the increasing of B and H under a certain Reynolds number, which helps to reduce the thermal deflection and increase the reliability for a parabolic trough receiver