11,915 research outputs found
Technology, creativity and the media in engineering Chinaâs future
Political, economic and intellectual elites in China have for some time been in the grip of âfuturologyâ as they reflect on thirty yearsâ of extraordinary economic development and ask âwhat nextâ? China has a dream, in fact it has many visions of what it may become, reflecting robust debate and competition to define the nationâs future course of reform and development (Callahan, 2013). On assuming the top party and state positions in October 2012 Xi Jinping quickly unveiled the China Dream (Zhonguomeng) as the maxim for his leadership. Although specification of what the dream will entail is yet to be fully explicated, one thing is certain: low-cost production and outsourcing more advanced economiesâ dirty jobs is neither the subject of Chinaâs dream nor is it any longer considered the means to delivering it. The âworldâs factoryâ model that facilitated Chinaâs remarkable economic growth has come under pressure from all sides, as the party acknowledges its unsustainability and people deal with the consequences. Party elites and policymakers have taken significant steps toward a different and more sustainable model to secure long term growth and it is hoped that low-end manufacturing will give way to a service based economy and consumer culture facilitated by urbanization, migration and developing greater creative capacity. These plans are underpinned by the ambition to become an âinnovative nationâ (chuangxinxing de guojia), to develop soft power resources to go with economic might, and to raise the âqualityâ (suzhi) of the people. As the three books covered in this review essay demonstrate, technology, culture and the media are closely implicated, and closely controlled, in the Chinese stateâs quest for development
Delayed crack propagation in barium titanate single crystals in humid air
2007-2008 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe
Alternative antibody for the detection of CA19-9 antigen: a European multicenter study for the evaluation of the analytical and clinical performance of the Access (R) GI Monitor assay on the UniCel (R) Dxl 800 Immunoassay System
Background: Gastrointestinal cancer antigen CA19-9 is known as a valuable marker for the management of patients with pancreatic cancer. Methods: The analytical and clinical performance of the Access(R) GI Monitor assay (Beckman Coulter) was evaluated on the UniCel(R) Dxl 800 Immunoassay System at five different European sites and compared with a reference method, defined as CA19-9 on the Elecsys System (Roche Diagnostics). Results: Total imprecision (%CV) of the GI Monitor ranged between 3.4% and 7.7%, and inter-laboratory reproducibility between 3.6% and 4.0%. Linearity upon dilution showed a mean recovery of 97.4% (SD+7.2%). Endogenous interferents had no influence on GI Monitor levels (mean recoveries: hemoglobin 103%, bilirubin 106%, triglycerides 106%). There was no high-dose hook effect up to 115,000 kU/L. Clinical performance investigated in sera from 1811 individuals showed a good correlation between the Access' GI Monitor and Elecsys CA19-9 (R = 0.959, slope = 1.004, intercept +0.17). GI Monitor serum levels were low in healthy individuals (n = 267, median = 6.0 kU/L, 95th percentile = 23.1 kU/L), higher in individuals with various benign diseases (n = 550, medians = 5.8-13.4 kU/L, 95th percentiles = 30.1-195.5 kU/L) and even higher in individuals suffering from various cancers (n = 995, medians = 8.4-233.8 kU/L, 95th percentiles = 53.7-13,902 kU/L). Optimal diagnostic accuracy for cancer detection against the relevant benign control group by the GI Monitor was found for pancreatic cancer {[}area under the curve (AUC) 0.83]. Results for the reference CA19-9 assay were comparable (AUC 0.85). Conclusions: The Access(R) GI Monitor provides very good methodological characteristics and demonstrates an excellent analytical and clinical correlation with the Elecsys CA19-9. The GI Monitor shows the best diagnostic accuracy in pancreatic cancer. Our results also suggest a clinical value of the GI Monitor in other cancers
A review of physical supply and EROI of fossil fuels in China
This paper reviews Chinaâs future fossil fuel supply from the perspectives of physical output and net energy output. Comprehensive analyses of physical output of fossil fuels suggest that Chinaâs total oil production will likely reach its peak, at about 230Â Mt/year (or 9.6Â EJ/year), in 2018; its total gas production will peak at around 350Â Bcm/year (or 13.6Â EJ/year) in 2040, while coal production will peak at about 4400Â Mt/year (or 91.9Â EJ/year) around 2020 or so. In terms of the forecast production of these fuels, there are significant differences among current studies. These differences can be mainly explained by different ultimately recoverable resources assumptions, the nature of the models used, and differences in the historical production data. Due to the future constraints on fossil fuels production, a large gap is projected to grow between domestic supply and demand, which will need to be met by increasing imports. Net energy analyses show that both coal and oil and gas production show a steady declining trend of EROI (energy return on investment) due to the depletion of shallow-buried coal resources and conventional oil and gas resources, which is generally consistent with the approaching peaks of physical production of fossil fuels. The peaks of fossil fuels production, coupled with the decline in EROI ratios, are likely to challenge the sustainable development of Chinese society unless new abundant energy resources with high EROI values can be found
Overexpression of protein kinase C-beta 1 isoenzyme suppresses SC-236-induced apoptosis in gastric epithelial cells
published_or_final_versio
An avalanche-photodiode-based photon-number-resolving detector
Avalanche photodiodes are widely used as practical detectors of single
photons.1 Although conventional devices respond to one or more photons, they
cannot resolve the number in the incident pulse or short time interval.
However, such photon number resolving detectors are urgently needed for
applications in quantum computing,2-4 communications5 and interferometry,6 as
well as for extending the applicability of quantum detection generally. Here we
show that, contrary to current belief,3,4 avalanche photodiodes are capable of
detecting photon number, using a technique to measure very weak avalanches at
the early stage of their development. Under such conditions the output signal
from the avalanche photodiode is proportional to the number of photons in the
incident pulse. As a compact, mass-manufactured device, operating without
cryogens and at telecom wavelengths, it offers a practical solution for photon
number detection.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Role of peripheral quantitative computed tomography in identifying disuse osteoporosis in paraplegia
Objective: Disuse osteoporosis is a major long-term health consequence of spinal cord injury (SCI) that still needs to be addressed. Its management in SCI should begin with accurate diagnosis, followed by targeted treatments in the most vulnerable subgroups. We present data quantifying disuse osteoporosis in a cross-section of the Scottish paraplegic population to identify subgroups with lowest bone mineral density (BMD).
Materials and Methods: Forty-seven people with chronic SCI at levels T2-L2 were scanned using peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (pQCT) at four tibial sites and two femoral sites, at the Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit, Glasgow (U.K.). At the distal epiphyses, trabecular BMD (BMDtrab), total BMD, total bone cross-sectional area (CSA), and bone mineral content (BMC) were determined. In the diaphyses, cortical BMD, total bone CSA, cortical CSA, and BMC were calculated. Bone, muscle and fat CSAs were estimated in the lower leg and thigh.
Results: BMDtrab decreased exponentially with time since injury, at different rates in the tibia and femur. At most sites, female paraplegics had significantly lower BMC, total bone CSA and muscle CSA than male paraplegics. Subjects with lumbar SCI tended to have lower bone values and smaller muscle CSAs than in thoracic SCI.
Conclusion: At the distal epiphyses of the tibia and femur, there is generally a rapid and extensive reduction in BMDtrab after SCI. Female subjects, and those with lumbar SCI, tend to have lower bone values than males or those with thoracic SCI, respectively.
Keywords: Bone loss, osteoporosis, paraplegia, peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography, spinal cord injur
Automatic Frame Selection Using MLP Neural Network in Ultrasound Elastography
Ultrasound elastography estimates the mechanical properties of the tissue
from two Radio-Frequency (RF) frames collected before and after tissue
deformation due to an external or internal force. This work focuses on strain
imaging in quasi-static elastography, where the tissue undergoes slow
deformations and strain images are estimated as a surrogate for elasticity
modulus. The quality of the strain image depends heavily on the underlying
deformation, and even the best strain estimation algorithms cannot estimate a
good strain image if the underlying deformation is not suitable. Herein, we
introduce a new method for tracking the RF frames and selecting automatically
the best possible pair. We achieve this by decomposing the axial displacement
image into a linear combination of principal components (which are calculated
offline) multiplied by their corresponding weights. We then use the calculated
weights as the input feature vector to a multi-layer perceptron (MLP)
classifier. The output is a binary decision, either 1 which refers to good
frames, or 0 which refers to bad frames. Our MLP model is trained on in-vivo
dataset and tested on different datasets of both in-vivo and phantom data.
Results show that by using our technique, we would be able to achieve higher
quality strain images compared to the traditional methods of picking up pairs
that are 1, 2 or 3 frames apart. The training phase of our algorithm is
computationally expensive and takes few hours, but it is only done once. The
testing phase chooses the optimal pair of frames in only 1.9 ms
A Two-Tiered Correlation of Dark Matter with Missing Transverse Energy: Reconstructing the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle Mass at the LHC
We suggest that non-trivial correlations between the dark matter particle
mass and collider based probes of missing transverse energy H_T^miss may
facilitate a two tiered approach to the initial discovery of supersymmetry and
the subsequent reconstruction of the LSP mass at the LHC. These correlations
are demonstrated via extensive Monte Carlo simulation of seventeen benchmark
models, each sampled at five distinct LHC center-of-mass beam energies,
spanning the parameter space of No-Scale F-SU(5).This construction is defined
in turn by the union of the Flipped SU(5) Grand Unified Theory, two pairs of
hypothetical TeV scale vector-like supersymmetric multiplets with origins in
F-theory, and the dynamically established boundary conditions of No-Scale
Supergravity. In addition, we consider a control sample comprised of a standard
minimal Supergravity benchmark point. Led by a striking similarity between the
H_T^miss distribution and the familiar power spectrum of a black body radiator
at various temperatures, we implement a broad empirical fit of our simulation
against a Poisson distribution ansatz. We advance the resulting fit as a
theoretical blueprint for deducing the mass of the LSP, utilizing only the
missing transverse energy in a statistical sampling of >= 9 jet events.
Cumulative uncertainties central to the method subsist at a satisfactory 12-15%
level. The fact that supersymmetric particle spectrum of No-Scale F-SU(5) has
thrived the withering onslaught of early LHC data that is steadily decimating
the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and minimal Supergravity
parameter spaces is a prime motivation for augmenting more conventional LSP
search methodologies with the presently proposed alternative.Comment: JHEP version, 17 pages, 9 Figures, 2 Table
Generating Antibacterial Microporous Structures Using Microfluidic Processing
The aim of this study is to investigate the potential of microfluidic techniques to generate microporous structures, with potential utility as scaffolds, with a highly uniform architecture, possessing an antibacterial activity. Scaffolds were prepared by introducing N2 gas to gelatin (GE)-water or gelatin/hyaluronic acid (GE/HA)-water mixtures to form microbubbles at the interface. The effect of solution temperature on microbubble stability and their structural integrity were studied. A solution temperature of 40 °C produced the best results due to the higher solution viscosity. The effect of different cross-linking concentrations on scaffold swelling ratio was investigated. A concentration of 5% glutaraldehyde was found to be optimal and was chosen to cross-link structure and conduct subsequent degradation and antibacterial experiments. HA was incorporated into the scaffolds owing to its ability to make stable and highly absorbent scaffolds. This led to a decrease in the degradation rate and the introduction of an antibacterial effect. This effect could be further enhanced with the inclusion of lactoferrin. This work is the first reported attempt for making antibacterial GE/HA scaffolds by using microfluidics
- âŠ