The Va : Traditional Culture and Modernization of a Minority Nationality in China

The Va nationality, despite its small population compared to other nationalities in China, has preserved most of its traditions largely due to limits placed by historical circumstances and geographical isolation. To non-Chinese anthropologists, the Va people still remain unknown, as there is little or no information about them in English or other Western languages. One of the purposes of this study is to narrow this gap by presenting an ethnographic description of the Va, giving them a place in the world anthropological studies. Since the Va have retained their own cultural characteristics, their societal development has been rather slow. Part of the reason for this slow development is inherent in the basic nature of Va culture, and part of it lies in misguided administrative policies and programs. This study proposes ways to help the Va make progress toward development without destroying their culture and examines several possible ways of modifying or revamping government policy and programs directed toward the Va people

Graphene sensing meshes for densely distributed strain field monitoring

The objective of this study is to design and validate distributed strain field monitoring using a patterned nanocomposite “sensing mesh” that is coupled with an electrical impedance tomography (EIT) measurement strategy and algorithm. Although EIT has been used in other studies and in conjunction with a piezoresistive thin film for spatial damage detection, different strain components cannot be directly extracted from reconstructed EIT conductivity maps. Therefore, this study seeks to address this issue by patterning piezoresistive graphene-based thin films to form a mesh-like pattern. The high aspect ratio of each nanocomposite grid interconnect acts as a linear distributed strain sensor, capable of resolving strains along the entire length and direction of the element. This study first began with the design, fabrication, and characterization of the strain sensing response of a graphene-based thin film of high strain sensitivity. Second, the strain-sensitive film was spray-coated onto patterned polymer substrates to form the sensing meshes, which were then subjected to load tests. Upon validating distributed strain field monitoring through EIT, its applicability for field implementation and damage characterization was also demonstrated by instrumenting sensing meshes in the column of a seven-story reinforced-concrete building subjected to shaking table earthquake excitations. The large-scale shaking table test results successfully validated distributed damage detection

The effects of monetary policy on real estate investment in China: a regional perspective

Monetary policy on real estate investment in China has had varying impacts across the country due to regional differences. A supply-determined model is used to measure the policy effects on property investment volume based on a set of regional data from 2003 to 2010. This research yields several important findings contributing to an understanding of uneven policy effects on the unbalanced regional markets. Firstly, it is revealed that the eastern coastal provinces in China have a higher dependence on bank loans for housing investment than that of the other inland provinces. Secondly, this research has disentangled the specific transmission channels of monetary policy in the property market. Bank loan supply, instead of interest rates, would be a potentially effective policy tool for the government in making property market adjustment. Thirdly, the eastern coastal provinces are more sensitive in their responses to the changes of monetary stances than the other non-coastal central and western provinces. Therefore, the government must take note of the significant heterogeneity arising from the regional differences in estimating the policy impacts, although monetary policy is uniformly employed in the nation most of the time

Uniform Beam Distributions at the Target of the NSRL Beam Transfer Line

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Uniform Beam Distributions at the Target of the NSRL Beam Transfer Line

Uniform irradiation of biological or material samples with charged particle beams is desired by experimenters because it reduces radiation dose errors. In this paper we present results of uniform beams produced in the NASA SPACE RADIATION LABORATORY (NSRL) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) by a method which was developed theoretically and was proven experimentally at BNL. A similar method which requires collimation of the beam, and also lacks the flexibility of the present method to produce beam various beam sizes at the target, was patented in the year 1988. The present method of producing uniform beam distributions on a plane transverse to the direction of the beam, is based on purely magnetic focusing of the beam and requires no collimation of the beam or any other type of beam interaction with materials. It can also generate uniform beam distributions of various sizes. The method is favorably compared with alternative methods of producing uniform beam distributions and can be applied to the whole energy spectrum of the charged particle beams that are delivered by the BNL Booster synchrotron

Electromagnetic Meson Production in the Nucleon Resonance Region

Recent experimental and theoretical advances in investigating electromagnetic meson production reactions in the nucleon resonance region are reviewed.Comment: 75 pages, 42 figure