Social Innovation and Chinese Overseas Hydropower Dams: The Nexus of National Social Policy and Corporate Social Responsibility

The nexus between hydropower dams, social policy and corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a currently understudied topic. This paper aims to fill parts of this gap by discussing these issues in relation to the world's largest builder of hydropower dams, Chinese state-owned enterprise Sinohydro. This paper draws on the analysis of firm strategy documents and CSR documents and gains additional insights from key informant interviews. The research finds that in 2011 Sinohydro developed its first comprehensive policy framework for social and environmental safeguards that was in line with international standards set by the World Bank/International Finance Corporation. These policies were however later replaced by weaker, vaguer policy. The paper suggests there is a need for Sinohydro and other dam-builders to re-engage with social innovation to mitigate some of the negative social and environmental implications of hydropower dams

Protein crystals in adenovirus type 5-infected cells: requirements for intranuclear crystallogenesis, structural and functional analysis

Intranuclear crystalline inclusions have been observed in the nucleus of epithelial cells infected with Adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) at late steps of the virus life cycle. Using immuno-electron microscopy and confocal microscopy of cells infected with various Ad5 recombinants modified in their penton base or fiber domains, we found that these inclusions represented crystals of penton capsomers, the heteromeric capsid protein formed of penton base and fiber subunits. The occurrence of protein crystals within the nucleus of infected cells required the integrity of the fiber knob and part of the shaft domain. In the knob domain, the region overlapping residues 489–492 in the FG loop was found to be essential for crystal formation. In the shaft, a large deletion of repeats 4 to 16 had no detrimental effect on crystal inclusions, whereas deletion of repeats 8 to 21 abolished crystal formation without altering the level of fiber protein expression. This suggested a crucial role of the five penultimate repeats in the crystallisation process. Chimeric pentons made of Ad5 penton base and fiber domains from different serotypes were analyzed with respect to crystal formation. No crystal was found when fiber consisted of shaft (S) from Ad5 and knob (K) from Ad3 (heterotypic S5-K3 fiber), but occurred with homotypic S3K3 fiber. However, less regular crystals were observed with homotypic S35-K35 fiber. TB5, a monoclonal antibody directed against the Ad5 fiber knob was found by immunofluorescence microscopy to react with high efficiency with the intranuclear protein crystals in situ. Data obtained with Ad fiber mutants indicated that the absence of crystalline inclusions correlated with a lower infectivity and/or lower yields of virus progeny, suggesting that the protein crystals might be involved in virion assembly. Thus, we propose that TB5 staining of Ad-infected 293 cells can be used as a prognostic assay for the viability and productivity of fiber-modified Ad5 vectors

Results of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR's Search for Double-Beta Decay of 76Ge to Excited States of 76Se

The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is searching for double-beta decay of 76Ge to excited states (E.S.) in 76Se using a modular array of high purity Germanium detectors. 76Ge can decay into three E.S.s of 76Se. The E.S. decays have a clear event signature consisting of a ββ-decay with the prompt emission of one or two γ-rays, resulting in with high probability in a multi-site event. The granularity of the DEMONSTRATOR detector array enables powerful discrimination of this event signature from backgrounds. Using 21.3 kg-y of isotopic exposure, the DEMONSTRATOR has set world leading limits for each E.S. decay, with 90% CL lower half-life limits in the range of (0.56 2.1) ⋅ 1024 y. In particular, for the 2v transition to the first 0+ E.S. of 76Se, a lower half-life limit of 0.68 ⋅ 1024 at 90% CL was achieved

Characterizing the morphology of the debris disk around the low-mass star GSC 07396-00759

Context. Debris disks have commonly been studied around intermediate-mass stars. Their intense radiation fields are believed to efficiently remove the small dust grains that are constantly replenished by collisions. For lower-mass stars, in particular M-stars, the dust removal mechanism needs to be further investigated given the much weaker radiation field produced by these objects. Aims. We present new polarimetric observations of the nearly edge-on disk around the pre-main sequence M-type star GSC 07396-00759, taken with VLT/SPHERE IRDIS, with the aim to better understand the morphology of the disk, its dust properties, and the star-disk interaction via the stellar mass-loss rate. Methods. We model our observations to characterize the location and properties of the dust grains using the Henyey-Greenstein approximation of the polarized phase function and evaluate the strength of the stellar winds. Results. We find that the observations are best described by an extended and highly inclined disk (i\approx 84.3\,^{\circ}\pm0.3) with a dust distribution centered at a radius $r_{0}\approx107\pm2$ au. The polarized phase function $S_{12}$ is best reproduced by an anisotropic scattering factor $g\approx0.6$ and small micron-sized dust grains with sizes $s>0.3\,\mathrm{\mu}$m. We furthermore discuss some of the caveats of the approach and a degeneracy between the grain size and the porosity. Conclusions. Even though the radius of the disk may be over-estimated, our results suggest that using a given scattering theory might not be sufficient to fully explain key aspects such as the shape of the phase function, or the dust grain size. With the caveats in mind, we find that the average mass-loss rate of GSC 07396-00759 can be up to 500 times stronger than that of the Sun, supporting the idea that stellar winds from low-mass stars can evacuate small dust grains from the disk

ADC Nonlinearity Correction for the Majorana Demonstrator

Imperfections in analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) cannot be ignored when signal digitization requirements demand both wide dynamic range and high resolution, as is the case for the Majorana Demonstrator 76Ge neutrinoless double-beta decay search. Enabling the experiment's high-resolution spectral analysis and efficient pulse shape discrimination required careful measurement and correction of ADC nonlinearities. A simple measurement protocol was developed that did not require sophisticated equipment or lengthy data-taking campaigns. A slope-dependent hysteresis was observed and characterized. A correction applied to digitized waveforms prior to signal processing reduced the differential and integral nonlinearities by an order of magnitude, eliminating these as dominant contributions to the systematic energy uncertainty at the double-beta decay Q value

A special road to AdS vacua

We apply the techniques of special Kaehler geometry to investigate AdS_4 vacua of general N=2 gauged supergravities underlying flux compactifications of type II theories. We formulate the scalar potential and its extremization conditions in terms of a triplet of prepotentials P_x and their special Kaehler covariant derivatives only, in a form that recalls the potential and the attractor equations of N=2 black holes. We propose a system of first order equations for the P_x which generalize the supersymmetry conditions and yield non-supersymmetric vacua. Special geometry allows us to recast these equations in algebraic form, and we find an infinite class of new N=0 and N=1 AdS_4 solutions, displaying a rich pattern of non-trivial charges associated with NSNS and RR fluxes. Finally, by explicit evaluation of the entropy function on the solutions, we derive a U-duality invariant expression for the cosmological constant and the central charges of the dual CFT's.Comment: 41 pages; v2, v3: minor improvements, references added, published versio

The deuteron: structure and form factors

A brief review of the history of the discovery of the deuteron in provided. The current status of both experiment and theory for the elastic electron scattering is then presented.Comment: 80 pages, 33 figures, submited to Advances in Nuclear Physic

Relation between Plasmodium falciparum asymptomatic infection and malaria attacks in a cohort of Senegalese children

© 2008 Le Port et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Unexpected High Digestion Rate of Cooked Starch by the Ct-Maltase-Glucoamylase Small Intestine Mucosal α-Glucosidase Subunit

For starch digestion to glucose, two luminal α-amylases and four gut mucosal α-glucosidase subunits are employed. The aim of this research was to investigate, for the first time, direct digestion capability of individual mucosal α-glucosidases on cooked (gelatinized) starch. Gelatinized normal maize starch was digested with N- and C-terminal subunits of recombinant mammalian maltase-glucoamylase (MGAM) and sucrase-isomaltase (SI) of varying amounts and digestion periods. Without the aid of α-amylase, Ct-MGAM demonstrated an unexpected rapid and high digestion degree near 80%, while other subunits showed 20 to 30% digestion. These findings suggest that Ct-MGAM assists α-amylase in digesting starch molecules and potentially may compensate for developmental or pathological amylase deficiencies