China's Campaign to Open the West: Xinjiang and the Center

This paper examines China's ambitious Campaign to Open the West and its impact upon Han and ethnic minority populations in Xinjiang. It focuses on analyzing the components of the campaign that are being implemented to develop Xinjiang through the intensification of agriculture, exploitation of energy resources, and reforms to Xinjiang's education system, revealing that the campaign, rather than alleviating poverty, is leading to greater asymmetry between Han and ethnic minority populations within Xinjiang. Rather than a plan for bridging the gap of economic disparity between the eastern and western regions of China, as construed by Beijing, the plan fits into a greater strategy for integration and assimilation of Xinjiang's restive ethnic population by Beijing

Effects of spaceflight on the proliferation of jejunal mucosal cells

The purpose of this project was to test the hypothesis that the generalized, whole body decrease in synthetic activity due to microgravity conditions encountered during spaceflight would be demonstrable in cells and tissues characterized by a rapid rate of turnover. Jejunal mucosal cells were chosen as a model since these cells are among the most rapidly proliferating in the body. Accordingly, the percentage of mitotic cells present in the crypts of Lieberkuhn in each of 5 rats flown on the COSMOS 2044 mission were compared to the percentage of mitotic cells present in the crypts in rats included in each of 3 ground control groups (i.e., vivarium, synchronous and caudal-elevated). No significant difference (p greater than .05) was detected in mitotic indices between the flight and vivarium group. Although the ability of jejunal mucosal cells to divide by mitosis was not impaired in flight group, there was, however, a reduction in the length of villi and depth of crypts. The concommitant reduction in villus length and crypth depth in the flight group probably reflects changes in connective tissue components within the core of villi

Tertiary Treatment of Wastewater Using Oxidation Ponds

The purpose of the project was to determine the value of using lagoons as a supplemental process for treating the effluent from an activated sludge wastewater treatment plant. Only tentative conclusions can be suggested since the project was not carried to completion. It appears that lagoons will have only minimal effect on the amounts of total nitrogen and phosphate in the plant effluent, although conversion of a portion of the ammonia to nitrate can be expected. However, the concentration of ammonia was never lower than that required by EPA guidelines. Some reduction of soluble BOD appears to occur, perhaps through conversion to new cell material. Suspended solids concentrations can be expected to increase during periods of algae growth. The numbers of both fecal and total coliform bacteria decreased substantially during the detention period provided by the lagoon system. Although not confirmed, it was concluded that the most probable cause for the decrease was the intensity and duration of sunlight. The lagoon served very effectively as a buffer between the treatment plant and the receiving stream, providing a considerable measure of protection to the stream even during those periods during which the plant was by-passing a portion of the inflow

Sex-Specific Relationships Between Interoceptive Accuracy and Emotion Regulation

Over the last years, there has been a resurge in the interest to study the relationship between interoception and emotion. By now, it is well established that interoception contributes to the experience of emotions. However, it may also be possible that interoception contributes to the regulation of emotions. To test this possibility, we studied the relationship between interoception and emotion regulation in a sample of healthy individuals (n = 84). We used a similar heartbeat detection task and a similar self-report questionnaire for the assessment of interoceptive accuracy and emotion regulation as in previous studies. In contrast to previous studies, we differentiated between male and female individuals in our analyses and controlled our analyses for individual characteristics that may affect the relationship between interoceptive accuracy and emotion regulation. We found sex-differences in interoceptive accuracy and emotion regulation that amounted to a sex-specific relationship between interoceptive accuracy and emotion regulation: Whereas interoceptive accuracy was related to reappraisal but not to suppression in male individuals, interoceptive accuracy was unrelated to reappraisal and suppression in female individuals. These findings indicate that the relationship between interoception and emotion regulation is far more complex than has been suggested by previous findings. However, these findings nonetheless support the view that interoception is essential for both, the regulation and experience of emotions

Experimental Based Evaluation of PV Inverters Harmonic and Interharmonic Distortion Due to Different Operating Conditions

This paper presents the results of comprehensive testing and subsequent detailed analysis of the obtained test results, evaluating harmonic and interharmonic performances of photovoltaic inverters (PVInvs) for a range of different operating conditions. The presented results indicate significant power-dependent changes in harmonic and interharmonic emissions of tested PVInvs for different supply voltage conditions (presence of voltage waveform distortions and various source impedance values). To correctly quantify and describe these changes in PVInv performance, this paper discusses and applies measurement procedures and metrics for evaluating harmonic and interharmonic emission recommended in existing standards, as well as some additional metrics and indicators. For some operating conditions, tested PVInvs significantly increase both harmonic and interharmonic emissions, and this paper also discusses the impact of PVInv control (e.g., maximum power point tracking control) as a possible origin of the interharmonic distortion

Trade Space Specification Tool (TSST) for Rapid Mission Architecture (Version 1.2)

Trade Space Specification Tool (TSST) is designed to capture quickly ideas in the early spacecraft and mission architecture design and categorize them into trade space dimensions and options for later analysis. It is implemented as an Eclipse RCP Application, which can be run as a standalone program. Users rapidly create concept items with single clicks on a graphical canvas, and can organize and create linkages between the ideas using drag-and-drop actions within the same graphical view. Various views such as a trade view, rules view, and architecture view are provided to help users to visualize the trade space. This software can identify, explore, and assess aspects of the mission trade space, as well as capture and organize linkages/dependencies between trade space components. The tool supports a user-in-the-loop preliminary logical examination and filtering of trade space options to help identify which paths in the trade space are feasible (and preferred) and what analyses need to be done later with executable models. This tool provides multiple user views of the trade space to guide the analyst/team to facilitate interpretation and communication of the trade space components and linkages, identify gaps in combining and selecting trade space options, and guide user decision-making for which combinations of architectural options should be pursued for further evaluation. This software provides an environment to capture mission trade space elements rapidly and assist users for their architecture analysis. This is primarily focused on mission and spacecraft architecture design, rather than general-purpose design application. In addition, it provides more flexibility to create concepts and organize the ideas. The software is developed as an Eclipse plug-in and potentially can be integrated with other Eclipse-based tools

Two Sides of the same Coin: Do the Dual ‘Types’ of Passion Describe Distinct Subgroups of Individuals?

The fact that harmonious and obsessive passion are called ‘types of passion’ (Vallerand, 2012; Vallerand et al., 2003) suggests that they describe subgroups of individuals. This study takes a person-oriented approach to examine groups of individuals with distinct profiles of harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP). The aim of the study was to investigate whether HP and OP describe types in the sense of distinct groups of individuals with different passion profiles (intra-individual constellations), or if HP and OP are instead two constructs with distinct outcomes but possible alignment within individuals. Toward this aim, we analyzed four different samples (N total = 1149) of German and Brazilian adolescents and young adults. Using HP and OP as classification indicators, we compared three different classification procedures in terms of the resulting groups. We found that the previously applied classification based on z-scores of HP and OP was misleading, because it classified individuals as ‘obsessive’ who had reported higher HP than OP when responding to the original response scale. Alternative classification based on raw scores and cluster analyses revealed that most individuals experienced either co-occurring high HP and OP, or co-occurring low HP and OP, whereas the assumed mainly obsessive group was not found in any of our four samples. The general degree of passion rather than the distinction between harmonious and obsessive individuals accounted for inter-individual differences in passion, and related constructs such as dispositional approach motivation, and affect. The findings were replicated in all four samples. This person-oriented approach gives novel and unique insights about inter-individual differences and intra-individual variation that can be easily overlooked or misunderstood in merely variable-oriented approaches, which prevail in prior research. Implications for the research on passion and pitfalls of z-scores in profile analyses are discussed