Analysis and Research on Influencing Factors of Coal Reservoir Permeability

The permeability of coal is an important parameter in the theory of coal reservoir gas flow. Experiments have demonstrated that after the coal matrix adsorbs gas, adsorption swelling deformation will occur and when gas desorbs from coal matrix, it undergoes a shrinkage deformation. A new formula for estimating permeability is developed. By considering the adsorption swelling and desorption shrinkage deformation in this formula for permeability, the effect of coal matrix swelling and shrinkage on coal reservoir permeability is studied. The study shows that, as gas in the coal reservoir desorbs, gas pressure decreases and the coal matrix shrinks, so as to make swelling deformation smaller and increase the permeability of the coal reservoir. In addition, the influence of effective stress, Klinkenberg effects, burial depth and natural fracture on coal reservoir permeability is analyzed. The analysis and research is of significance to coal mine gas disaster prevention and coal bed methane gas resource development

Analysis of an age-structured dengue model with multiple strains and cross immunity

Dengue fever is a typical mosquito-borne infectious disease, and four strains of it are currently found. Clinical medical research has shown that the infected person can provide life-long immunity against the strain after recovering from infection with one strain, but only provide partial and temporary immunity against other strains. On the basis of the complexity of transmission and the diversity of pathogens, in this paper, a multi-strain dengue transmission model with latency age and cross immunity age is proposed. We discuss the well-posedness of this model and give the terms of the basic reproduction number R0 = max{R1, R2} , where Ri is the basic reproduction number of strain i (i = 1, 2). Particularly, we obtain that the model always has a unique diseasefree equilibrium P0 which is locally stable for R0 1, the strain-i dominant equilibrium Pi is locally stable for Rj < R∗ i (i, j = 1, 2, i 6= j). Additionally, the threshold criteria on the uniformly persistence, the existence and global asymptotically stability of coexistence equilibrium are also obtained. Finally, these theoretical results and interesting conclusions are illustrated with some numerical simulations

Impacts of anthropogenic heat on summertime rainfall in Beijing

Anthropogenic heat is an important component of the urban energy budgets that can affect land surface and atmospheric boundary layer processes. Representation of anthropogenic heat in numerical climate modeling systems is therefore important when simulating urban meteorology and climate and has the potential to improve weather forecasts, climate process studies, and energy demand analysis. Here, spatiotemporally dynamic anthropogenic heat data estimated by the Building Effects Parameterization and Building Energy Model (BEP-BEM) are incorporated into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model system to investigate its impact on simulation of summertime rainfall in Beijing, China. Simulations of four local rainfall events with and without anthropogenic heat indicate that anthropogenic heat leads to increased rainfall over the urban area. For all four events, anthropogenic heat emission increases sensible heat flux, enhances mixing and turbulent energy transport, lifts PBL height, increases dry static energy, and destabilizes the atmosphere in urban areas through thermal perturbation and strong upward motion during the prestorm period, resulting in enhanced convergence during the major rainfall period. Intensified rainfall leads to greater atmospheric dry-down during the storm and a higher poststorm LCL

Characterizing and Predicting Early Reviewers for Effective Product Marketing on E-Commerce Websites

Online reviews have become an important source of information for users before making an informed purchase decision. Early reviews of a product tend to have a high impact on the subsequent product sales. In this paper, we take the initiative to study the behavior characteristics of early reviewers through their posted reviews on two real-world large e-commerce platforms, i.e., Amazon and Yelp. In specific, we divide product lifetime into three consecutive stages, namely early, majority and laggards. A user who has posted a review in the early stage is considered as an early reviewer. We quantitatively characterize early reviewers based on their rating behaviors, the helpfulness scores received from others and the correlation of their reviews with product popularity. We have found that (1) an early reviewer tends to assign a higher average rating score; and (2) an early reviewer tends to post more helpful reviews. Our analysis of product reviews also indicates that early reviewers' ratings and their received helpfulness scores are likely to influence product popularity. By viewing review posting process as a multiplayer competition game, we propose a novel margin-based embedding model for early reviewer prediction. Extensive experiments on two different e-commerce datasets have shown that our proposed approach outperforms a number of competitive baselines

TOLERANCE TOWARDS LGBT INDIVIDUALS AMONG MALAYSIANS

Of late, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) has made its presence felt in Malaysian society. The study examined tolerance towards LGBT individuals among Malaysians. Questionnaire data were collected from 411 respondents consisting of different age, ethnicity, and religion groups. The results indicate that a majority of the respondents felt that heterosexuality is the best because of religion and morality. There was some agreement that LGBT individuals should be counselled so that they can overcome their feelings of wanting to be LGBT and return to being either male or female. However, at the same time, the respondents somewhat believed that people are born with LGBT tendencies and they need not keep their sexual orientation a secret. The respondents agreed that LGBT individuals can fit into society, and LGBT in itself is not a problem but society makes it a problem. Interestingly, the respondents were open to LGBT individuals standing up for their rights. They also agreed to some extent that LGBT individuals can live the life they want to live, including adopting a child, dating and living with whoever they want, and expressing their views on Malaysian television channels. The results suggest some tolerance towards LGBT existence in society

A Review and Reflection on the Use and Abuse of Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database

Empirical research has called for intensive use of disaggregated data. One of the most heavily used data set in studying the corporate behavior and performance in China is Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database. As we will show, this data set suffers from data matching problems as well as measurement errors, unrealistic outliers and definition ambiguities etc., all of which practically lead to research results thereupon that are at best questionable. In this article, we briefly summarize the data set, selectively review its uses in previous studies, address some critical issues regarding its usage, and propose some remedies and recommendations

Attitudes towards LGBT in Malaysia : Insights from questionnaires versus interviews.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) is considered a sexual minority group in relation to heterosexuals which form the majority in the society. Throughout the years, LGBT individuals have experienced discrimination and negative stigma due to their sexual orientation and gender identity (Buyantueva, 2018). For instance, in Turkey, Yilmaz, and Gocmen (2016) found that LGBT individuals who were discriminated have experienced negative consequences such as dropping out of school, inability to perform in their own profession, and even suffering trauma due to “conversion therapy”. Moreover, LGBT individuals continue to face harassment even in Philippines which is considered as a gay-friendly country, and it is mainly due to the lack of legal protection and religious teachings – mainly Roman Catholic which is against LGBT practice (Tang & Poudel, 2018). Many past researchers have investigated attitudes towards LGBT individuals in colleges and universities (Copp & Koehler, 2017), workplaces (Resnick & Galupo, 2018), and in the health care setting (Naal et al., 2019). Reyes et al. (2019) examined whether religiosity and gender role beliefs influence attitudes toward lesbians and gay men among 633 non-LGBT Filipinos. The findings showed a significant relationship where higher religiosity and more traditional gender role beliefs are associated with more negative attitudes toward lesbians and gay men among the Filipinos participants. In Malaysia, most of the people do not see unconventional sexuality as a norm due to the conservative ideology that being heterosexuals is normal. Tan et al. (2021) reviewed 44 studies on LGBTQ in Malaysia from 1998 to 2020, which involved both quantitative analyses and qualitative interviews. Tan et al.’s (2021) review showed that most of the studies focussed on men who have sex with men (MSM) (Burch et al., 2018), trans women (Galka et al., 2020; Rutledge et al., 2018), and gay men (Felix, 2014; Liow et al., 2017). The researchers either collected data using questionnaires or interviews, but not both. The use of different data collection techniques has been found to influence results in school choice studies where ethnicity is a factor (Bagley, 1996; Elacqua, Schneider, & Buckley, 2006), but it is not known whether the different means of eliciting data would affect results in LGBT studies. This study employed a mixed method research design, using both questionnaire and interviews to examine the Malaysians’ attitudes towards LGBT individuals. The questionnaire data were from 413 respondents (88.1% heterosexuals, 11.9% LGBTs) and a majority of them were aged 21 to 30 (82.3%). Also, a majority of the respondents identified themselves as Chinese (71.7%), 18.6% identified as Malay, 4.6% identified as Sarawak indigenous, 2.2% identified as Indian, and 1.2% identified as Sabah indigenous. The interview data were from 20 participants (14 heterosexuals and six LGBT). The distribution of religious background is as follows: Muslim (45.0%), Christians (25.0%), Buddhists (10.0%), Others (5.0%). The questionnaire elicited data on four main constructs (tolerance towards LGBT individuals, 13 items), social knowledge on morality (9 items), tolerance towards social interaction with LGBT individuals, 10 items), and intergroup contact with LGBTs (11 items), using a seven-point Likert scale. The interview guide elicited the heterosexuals’ attitudes towards LGBT and the LGBT participants’ experiences in disclosing their identity. The quantitative data were collected through the distribution of Google Forms link to first author’s social network. Respondents answered the questionnaire after they had given consent. For the interviews, the researcher first contacted eligible heterosexual respondents and interviewed them. After that, researcher requested help from heterosexual respondents to recruit LGBT respondents, mainly their acquaintances, to take part in the interviews. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS Version 26.0 and qualitative data were analysed using discourse-historical approach (DHA) proposed by Reisigl and Wodak (2009). The results from both data were then compared to examine whether discursive strategies used by respondents to talk about LGBTs reflect their self-reported attitudes towards LGBTs too. The questionnaire and interview results were compared on three points, namely, nature versus nurture, rights, and acceptable social roles for LGBT individuals. Firstly, the questionnaire results showed mixed responses on whether LGBT is nature or nurture, but the interviews revealed that heterosexual participants mostly agreed that being LGBT is a personal choice due to environmental influence such as upbringing and social media. On the other hand, the LGBT participants felt that it is a natural kind of expression and they cannot change their sexual orientation. Therefore, most of them would disagree with heterosexuals who advise them to change their sexual orientation. Secondly, on the LGBT rights construct, the self-reported questionnaire results showed that a majority of the participants agreed that LGBT individuals deserve all kinds of rights in the society including getting married legally and adopting children. However, the interview results showed that heterosexuals expressed a range of attitudes, from disagreement to neutrality and agreement, on the idea of legalizing same-sex marriage. In other words, there was more granularity in the interview results, compared to questionnaire responses which were subject to social desirability bias – with the participants wanting to appear as if they support human rights and were open to LGBT. Thirdly, on the acceptable social roles for LGBT individuals, the questionnaire results and interview results were similar. The questionnaire results showed that a majority of the participants can accept LGBTs in most of the social roles, including friends, neighbors, teachers, military officers, and colleagues. The interview results for the heterosexual participants were similar to the questionnaire results in that they could not accept it if their religious leaders and their own children were to be LGBT. Because of this, the LGBT participants interviewed in this study were afraid to disclose their sexual orientation to their parents because they knew that their parents would not able to accept them. From the interviews, it is clear that the first group of people that LGBT participants would come out to is their friends, but only selected friends. The LGBT participants felt the acceptance from their heterosexual friends and colleagues even after they have come out from the closet. In conclusion, the study showed that for LGBT studies, the data collection technique does not substantially influence results. This result is important because it means that questionnaires can be used to study attitudes towards LGBT on a large scale, and still capture the key patterns. The only difference is that interviews enable researchers to attain a more in-depth understanding of the thoughts, beliefs and experiences that underlie the professed or reported attitudes towards LGBT. Selected References: Bagley, C. (1996). Black and white unite or flight? The racialised dimension of schooling and parental choice. British Educational Research Journal 22(5), 569–580. doi:10.1080/0141192960220504. 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