National images, trust and international friendship: Evidence from Chinese students

This article uses a new dataset of Chinese student attitudes to foreign affairs to analyse how perceptions of the United States, Russia, Japan and North and South Korea affect respondent perceptions of international friendship with these states. Employing a mediation analysis we find that perceptions of national trustworthiness above all other images is the crucial factor in explaining cross-national friendship. These findings suggest that trust-building measures would be a fruitful avenue for both reducing the likelihood of conflict in the region and fostering cooperative international interactions

Profiled Leading Edge Groove Tilting Pad Journal Bearing For Light Load Operation.

LecturePg. 1-16Optimization of a leading edge groove tilting pad journal bearing for application in a small, high speed, multistage steam turbine is described. Rotordynamics constraints to meet a design objective maximum operating speed of 1 8000 rpm resulted in a rotor with a 51.0 in bearing span and 5.0 in diameter tilting pad journal bearings. This configuration yielded a design with projected bearing loads of less than 25 psi, and journal surface speeds that could approach 400 ft/sec. Under these conditions, the applicable limits of conventional style tilting pad journal bearings are stretched, since operation is well into the turbulent flow regime. This can result in significantly higher than predicted operating pad temperatures and increased frictional losses. Furthermore, at very light pad loads, bearing dynamic performance and influence on rotor behavior often does not correlate well with theory. For this application, high efficiency leading edge groove bearings (journal and thrust) were used, due to their preferred steady state operating characteristics at high speed. However, as is often observed with lightly loaded conventional style journal bearings, dynamic performance did not precisely match that predicted by theory. This was investigated by profiling the exit side of the leading edge groove with both a tapered and pocket geometry. Two case histories are presented demonstrating their effect on rotor-bearing stability and unbalance response. The modified bearings yielded greater system stability at high speeds, reduced overall vibration amplitudes, and greatly improved effective damping on passing through the rotor's first peak response speed

Influence of aerosol acidity on the chemical composition of secondary organic aerosol from β-caryophyllene

The secondary organic aerosol (SOA) yield of β-caryophyllene photooxidation is enhanced by aerosol acidity. In the present study, the influence of aerosol acidity on the chemical composition of β-caryophyllene SOA is investigated using ultra performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/ESI-TOFMS). A number of first-, second- and higher-generation gas-phase products having carbonyl and carboxylic acid functional groups are detected in the particle phase. Particle-phase reaction products formed via hydration and organosulfate formation processes are also detected. Increased acidity leads to different effects on the abundance of individual products; significantly, abundances of organosulfates are correlated with aerosol acidity. To our knowledge, this is the first detection of organosulfates and nitrated organosulfates derived from a sesquiterpene. The increase of certain particle-phase reaction products with increased acidity provides chemical evidence to support the acid-enhanced SOA yields. Based on the agreement between the chromatographic retention times and accurate mass measurements of chamber and field samples, three β-caryophyllene products (i.e., β-nocaryophyllon aldehyde, β-hydroxynocaryophyllon aldehyde, and β-dihydroxynocaryophyllon aldehyde) are suggested as chemical tracers for β-caryophyllene SOA. These compounds are detected in both day and night ambient samples collected in downtown Atlanta, GA and rural Yorkville, GA during the 2008 August Mini-Intensive Gas and Aerosol Study (AMIGAS)

Morphometric Growth Characteristics and Body Composition of Fish and Amphibians

Describing animal growth through the nonlinear models allows a detailed evaluation of their behavior, besides revealing important information of the response to a particular treatment. In this chapter, the parameters of mathematical models (Gompertz, Von Bertalanffy, Logistic and Brody) for live weight, feed and protein intakes, total and standard lengths and nutrient deposition are described systematically and comprehensively. Also the relative growth and allometric coefficients of body components in relation to body weight of fish and amphibians are described, explaining better the use of the allometric equation and classifying the growth of the body components

Introduction: Ideology, propaganda, and political discourse in the Xi Jinping era

The ideology, propaganda, and political discourse of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have continued to function as key elements of the political system of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the post-Maoist period since 1978. In the first term of the Xi Jinping leadership (2012–2017), the CPC, for instance, elaborated on its guiding ideological concepts, devised inventive ideational framings of phenomena usually perceived as tangible (such as the BNew Normal^), engaged in complex intellectual debates on crucial topics (such as Beco-civilization^), intensified and diversified its argumentation patterns and discursive strategies, and consolidated ideational governance over some citizens’ individual values, beliefs, and loyalties. Furthermore, it is often no longer possible to differentiate between the CPC’s internal and external propaganda, as seemingly exclusively domestic ideational and discursive issues increasingly correlate with international phenomena. However, the trends in the Xi era do not present paradigmatic shifts, but rather an overall reassertion-cuminnovation of previous Maoist and post-Maoist uses of ideology, propaganda, and political discourse, primarily aiming at strengthening one-party rule

Moment analysis of the probability distributions of different sandpile models

We reconsider the moment analysis of the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld and the Manna sandpile model in two and three dimensions. In contrast to recently performed investigations our analysis turns out that the models are characterized by different scaling behavior, i.e., they belong to different universality classes.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Single-Cell Metabolic Profiling of Macrophages Using 3D OrbiSIMS: Correlations with Phenotype

Macrophages are important immune cells that respond to environmental cues acquiring a range of activation statuses represented by pro-inflammatory (M1) and anti-inflammatory (M2) phenotypes at each end of their spectrum. Characterizing the metabolic signature (metabolic profiling) of different macrophage subsets is a powerful tool to understand the response of the human immune system to different stimuli. Here, the recently developed 3D OrbiSIMS instrument is applied to yield useful insight into the metabolome from individual cells after in vitro differentiation of macrophages into naïve, M1, and M2 phenotypes using different cytokines. This analysis strategy not only requires more than 6 orders of magnitude less sample than traditional mass spectrometry approaches but also allows the study of cell-to-cell variance. Characteristic metabolites in macrophage subsets are identified using a targeted lipid and data-driven multivariate approach highlighting amino acids and other small molecules. The diamino acids alanylasparagine and lipid sphingomyelin SM(d18/16:0) are uniquely found in M1 macrophages, while pyridine and pyrimidine are observed at increased intensity in M2 macrophages, findings which link to known biological pathways. The first demonstration of this capability illustrates the great potential of direct cell analysis for in situ metabolite profiling with the 3D OrbiSIMS to probe functional phenotype at the single-cell level using molecular signatures and to understand the response of the human body to implanted devices and immune diseases

Lifeworld Inc. : and what to do about it

Can we detect changes in the way that the world turns up as they turn up? This paper makes such an attempt. The first part of the paper argues that a wide-ranging change is occurring in the ontological preconditions of Euro-American cultures, based in reworking what and how an event is produced. Driven by the security – entertainment complex, the aim is to mass produce phenomenological encounter: Lifeworld Inc as I call it. Swimming in a sea of data, such an aim requires the construction of just enough authenticity over and over again. In the second part of the paper, I go on to argue that this new world requires a different kind of social science, one that is experimental in its orientation—just as Lifeworld Inc is—but with a mission to provoke awareness in untoward ways in order to produce new means of association. Only thus, or so I argue, can social science add to the world we are now beginning to live in