Engaging the dragon: UK government documents on doing business with China

China’s rise as a global economic and political power has created a policy puzzle for established global players. For the United Kingdom (UK), the policy towards China has pursued a dual emphasis: seeking commercial benefits and promoting a positive social and political change. We explore the scope and tone of official UK policy publications on doing business with China. We argue that, while these documents reflect some of the predominant concerns of public debates over the UK’s relationship with China, the political neutrality of the civil service and insulation from external forces enable the relationship to continue. We conduct content and sentiment analyses of government publications focussing on China from 2013 to 2018. During this period, the key policy focusses have remained stable, while the extent to which the main topics are discussed changes slightly with time. Sensitive topics are dealt with using a neutral tone, while publications have become increasingly positive on the prospects of business interactions with China

Phosducin regulates the expression of transducin betagamma subunits in rod photoreceptors and does not contribute to phototransduction adaptation.

For over a decade, phosducin's interaction with the betagamma subunits of the G protein, transducin, has been thought to contribute to light adaptation by dynamically controlling the amount of transducin heterotrimer available for activation by photoexcited rhodopsin. In this study we directly tested this hypothesis by characterizing the dark- and light-adapted response properties of phosducin knockout (Pd- / -) rods. Pd- / - rods were notably less sensitive to light than wild-type (WT) rods. The gain of transduction, as measured by the amplification constant using the Lamb-Pugh model of activation, was 32% lower in Pd- / - rods than in WT rods. This reduced amplification correlated with a 36% reduction in the level of transducin betagamma-subunit expression, and thus available heterotrimer in Pd- / - rods. However, commonly studied forms of light adaptation were normal in the absence of phosducin. Thus, phosducin does not appear to contribute to adaptation mechanisms of the outer segment by dynamically controlling heterotrimer availability, but rather is necessary for maintaining normal transducin expression and therefore normal flash sensitivity in rods

Analytical technique for simplification of the encoder-decoder circuit for a perfect five-qubit error correction

Simpler encoding and decoding networks are necessary for more reliable quantum error correcting codes (QECCs). The simplification of the encoder-decoder circuit for a perfect five-qubit QECC can be derived analytically if the QECC is converted from its equivalent one-way entanglement purification protocol (1-EPP). In this work, the analytical method to simplify the encoder-decoder circuit is introduced and a circuit that is as simple as the existent simplest circuits is presented as an example. The encoder-decoder circuit presented here involves nine single- and two-qubit unitary operations, only six of which are controlled-NOT (CNOT) gates

Tensor coupling effects on spin symmetry in anti-Lambda spectrum of hypernuclei

The effects of $\bar\Lambda\bar\Lambda\omega$-tensor coupling on the spin symmetry of $\bar{\Lambda}$ spectra in $\bar{\Lambda}$-nucleus systems have been studied with the relativistic mean-field theory. Taking $^{12}$C+$\bar{\Lambda}$ as an example, it is found that the tensor coupling enlarges the spin-orbit splittings of $\bar\Lambda$ by an order of magnitude although its effects on the wave functions of $\bar{\Lambda}$ are negligible. Similar conclusions has been observed in $\bar{\Lambda}$-nucleus of different mass regions, including $^{16}$O+$\bar{\Lambda}$, $^{40}$Ca+$\bar{\Lambda}$ and $^{208}$Pb+$\bar{\Lambda}$. It indicates that the spin symmetry in anti-lambda-nucleus systems is still good irrespective of the tensor coupling.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures

Citizen Science for Post-disaster Sustainable Community Development in Ecologically Fragile Regions - A Case from China

The world’s mountains host some of the most complex, dynamic, and diverse ecosystems and are also hotspots for natural disasters, such as earthquake, landslide and flood. One factor that limits the mountain communities to recover from disasters and pursue sustainable development is the lack of locally relevant scientific knowledge, which is hard to gain from global and regional scale observations and models. The rapid advances in ICT, computing, communication technologies and the emergence of citizen science is changing the situation. Here we report a case from Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuary World Natural Heritage in China on the application of citizen science in a community reconstruction project. Dahe, a mountainous community (ca. 8000 ha in size) is located covering part of the World Heritage’s core and buffer zones, with an elevation range of 1000-3000 meters. The community suffered from two major earthquakes of 7.9 and 6.9 Mw in 2008 and 2013 respectively. Landslides and flooding threat the community and significantly limit their livelihood options. We integrated participatory disaster risk mapping (e.g., community vulnerability and capacity assessment) and mobile assisted natural hazards and natural resources mapping (e.g., using free APP GeoODK) into more conventional community reconstruction and livelihood building activities. We showed that better decisions are made based on results from these activities and local residents have a high level of buy-in in these new knowledge. We suggest that initiatives like this, if successfully scale-up, can also help generate much needed data and knowledge in similar less-developed and data deficient regions of the world

Collapses and revivals of exciton emission in a semiconductor microcavity: detuning and phase-space filling effects

We investigate exciton emission of quantum well embedded in a semiconductor microcavity. The analytical expressions of the light intensity for the cases of excitonic number state and coherent state are presented by using secular approximation. Our results show that the effective exciton-exciton interaction leads to the appearance of collapse and revival of the light intensity. The revival time is twice compared the coherent state case with that of the number state. The dissipation of the exciton-polariton lowers the revival amplitude but does not alter the revival time. The influences of the detuning and the phase-space filling are studied. We find that the effect of the higher-order exciton-photon interaction may be removed by adjusting the detuning.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Sustained peak low-cycle fatigue: The role of oxidation resistant bond coatings

Important developments in turbine blade technology, including cast thin-walled airfoils with complex internal cooling passes, place significant thermal gradients and stresses on the multilayered coating systems used to thermally insulate the blade from the hot combustion gases. As gas turbine engine operating temperatures increase, the intermetallic bond coatings traditionally used in thermal barrier coating systems undergo increased creep deformation. Bond coats for single crystal turbine blades have been designed primarily for oxidation protection with minimal consideration of mechanical and microstructural optimization. At higher temperatures, intrinsic failure mechanisms of coatings such as rumpling and cracking due to sustained peak low-cycle fatigue (SPLCF), limit the lifetimes of engine blades [1]. Bond coatings have been shown to extend or reduce the SPLCF lifetime of a specimen as compared to uncoated single crystals. The mechanical and microstructural properties bond coatings and their oxides that impact fatigue crack propagation rates have been investigated. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

The Euler Number of Bloch States Manifold and the Quantum Phases in Gapped Fermionic Systems

We propose a topological Euler number to characterize nontrivial topological phases of gapped fermionic systems, which originates from the Gauss-Bonnet theorem on the Riemannian structure of Bloch states established by the real part of the quantum geometric tensor in momentum space. Meanwhile, the imaginary part of the geometric tensor corresponds to the Berry curvature which leads to the Chern number characterization. We discuss the topological numbers induced by the geometric tensor analytically in a general two-band model. As an example, we show that the zero-temperature phase diagram of a transverse field XY spin chain can be distinguished by the Euler characteristic number of the Bloch states manifold in a (1+1)-dimensional Bloch momentum space

Pengaruh Penambahan Serat Bambu Dan Pelapisan Batu Apung Terhadap Kuat Tekan Beton Ringan

Beton merupaka bahan konstruksi yang paling banyak dipakai di Indonesia, namun bahan penyusunyang pakai semakin terbatas. Dengan adanya perkembanganteknologi material, khususnya teknologi beton, muncul ide untukmemanfaatkan material organik sebagai bahan penyusun. Batu Apung merupakan bagian dari agregat alami yang memiliki berat jenis 1600 kg/m3.Pelapisan dilakukan dengan menggunakan lem beton dan pasir. Pada penelitian ini, objek yang diamati yaitu, Silinder beton agregat kasar batu apung tanpa pelapisan dan Silinder beton agregat kasar batu apung dengan pelapisan. Kedua jenis silinder beton tersebut masing-masing ditambahkan serat bambu sebesar 0%, 1%, 1,2%, dan 1,4%. Masing - masing silinder uji tiap prosentase penambahan serat dikedua jenis beton menggunakan 5 benda uji. Diameter silinder 15 cm dan tinggi silinder 30 cm. Uji tekan dilakukan setelah silinder beton berumur 28 hari Hasil kuat tekan beton ringan tanpa pelapisan batu apung mengalami kenaikan nilai kuat tekan dengan penambahan serat bambu dari 0%, 1%, 1,2% dari berat semen, tetapi nilai kuat tekan menurun ketika serat bambu ditambahkan sebesar 1,4 % dari berat semen. Hasil kuat tekan beton ringan dengan pelapisan batu apung mengalami penurunan nilai kuat tekan dari penambahan serat sebesar 0% ke 1%, hal ini disebabkan karena faktor nilai slump yang rendah pada penambahan serat 0% dan nilai slump tinggi pada penambahan serat sebesar 1%. Nilai kuat tekan pada penambahan serat 1% ke 1,2% mengalami kenaikan. Untuk nilai kuat tekan dengan penambahan serat 1,2% ke 1,4% mengalami penurunan. Sama seperti hasil sebelumnya faktor yang mempengaruhi juga sama, yaitu faktor penambahan air untuk mencapai nilai slump tertentu

Detecting very-high-frequency relic gravitational waves by electromagnetic wave polarizations in a waveguide

The polarization vector (PV) of an electromagnetic wave (EW) will experience a rotation in a region of spacetime perturbed by gravitational waves (GWs). Based on this idea, Cruise's group has built an annular waveguide to detect GWs. We give detailed calculations of the rotations of the polarization vector of an EW caused by incident GWs from various directions and in various polarization states, and then analyze the accumulative effects on the polarization vector when the EW passes n cycles along the annular waveguide. We reexamine the feasibility and limitation of this method to detect GWs of high frequency around 100 MHz, in particular, the relic gravitational waves (RGWs). By comparing the spectrum of RGWs in the accelerating universe with the detector sensitivity of the current waveguide, it is found that the amplitude of the RGWs is too low to be detected by the waveguide detectors currently running. Possible ways of improvements on detection are discussed also.Comment: 18pages, 10 figures, accepted by ChJA