1,862 research outputs found
Reassessing Chinaâs Higher Education Development: A Focus on Academic Culture
During the past three and a half decades, China has been progressing in higher education in a surprisingly dramatic manner, evidenced especially by scientific publications and sheer numbers of graduates. Such a fact has national, regional and global implications. Chinaâs higher education development and its future directions are now placed highly on the research agendas of many from various parts of the world. Unlike the general acknowledgment of Chinaâs achievements, assessment of the future development of Chinaâs higher education is wide open to question. To some, Chinese universities are on a trajectory to become âworld-classâ and Chinaâs high-fliers challenge Western supremacy. To others, Chinaâs notion of âworld-classâ status has been largely imitative. Pumping resources into universities will only lead to diminishing returns as Chinese culture and practices will act as a brake to the pursuit of academic excellence. An increasing deal of attention has been paid to where China will be located in a global higher education landscape and in what shape. Based on the authorâs long-standing professional observation and recent empirical studies, this article assesses Chinaâs higher education development, with a particular focus on the challenges brought forward by academic culture. It interrogates Chinaâs pride of the idea that Chinese universities are not willing to assume that Western models define excellence, and asks how far Chinese universities could move within their current development model.postprin
Multimode quantum interference of photons in multiport integrated devices
We report the first demonstration of quantum interference in multimode
interference (MMI) devices and a new complete characterization technique that
can be applied to any photonic device that removes the need for phase stable
measurements. MMI devices provide a compact and robust realization of NxM
optical circuits, which will dramatically reduce the complexity and increase
the functionality of future generations of quantum photonic circuits
Collaboration with general practitioners: preferences of medical specialists â a qualitative study
BACKGROUND: Collaboration between general practitioners (GPs) and specialists has been the focus of many collaborative care projects during the past decade. Unfortunately, quite a number of these projects failed. This raises the question of what motivates medical specialists to initiate and continue participating with GPs in new collaborative care models. The following question is addressed in this study: What motivates medical specialists to initiate and sustain new models for collaborating with GPs? METHODS: We conducted semi-structured interviews with eighteen medical specialists in the province of Groningen, in the North of The Netherlands. The sampling criteria were age, gender, type of hospital in which they were practicing, and specialty. The interviews were recorded, fully transcribed, and analysed by three researchers working independently. The resulting motivational factors were grouped into categories. RESULTS: 'Teaching GPs' and 'regulating patient flow' (referrals) appeared to dominate when the motivational factors were considered. In addition, specialists want to develop relationships with the GPs on a more personal level. Most specialists believe that there is not much they can learn from GPs. 'Lack of time', 'no financial compensation', and 'no support from colleagues' were considered to be the main concerns to establishing collaborative care practices. Additionally, projects were often experienced as too complex and time consuming whereas guidelines were experienced as too restrictive. CONCLUSION: Specialists are particularly interested in collaborating because the GP is the gatekeeper for access to secondary health care resources. Specialists feel that they are able to teach the GPs something, but they do not feel that they have anything to learn from the GPs. With respect to professional expertise, therefore, specialists do not consider GPs as equals. Once personal relationships with the GPs have been established, an informal network with incidental professional contact seems to be sufficient to satisfy the collaborative needs of the specialist. The concerns seem to outweigh any positive motivational forces to developing new models of collaborative practice
Leadership and decision-making practices in public versus private universities in Pakistan
The goal of this study is to examine differences in leadership and decision-making practices in public and private universities in Pakistan, with a focus on transformational leadership (TL) and participative decision-making (PDM). We conducted semi-structured interviews with 46 deans and heads of department from two public and two private universities in Pakistan. Our findings indicate that leadership and decision-making practices are different in public and private universities. While differences were observed in all six types of TL-behaviour, the following three approaches emerged to be crucial in both public and private universities: (1) articulating a vision, (2) fostering the acceptance of group goals, and (3) high-performance expectations. In terms of PDM, deans and heads of department in public and private universities adopt a collaborative approach. However, on a practical level this approach is limited to teacher- and student-related matters. Overall, our findings suggest that the leadership and decision-making practices in Pakistani public and private universities are transformational and participative in nature
Interaction of Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin with the plasma membrane: The role of amino acids Y42, Y43 and H162
This is the final version. Available from MDPI via the DOI in this record.âŻData Availability Statement: The data presented in this study are available on request from the
corresponding authors.Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin (Etx) is a pore forming toxin that causes enterotoxaemia in ruminants and may be a cause of multiple sclerosis in humans. To date, most in vitro studies of Etx have used the Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cell line. However, studies using Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells engineered to express the putative Etx receptor, myelin and lymphocyte protein (MAL), suggest that amino acids important for Etx activity differ between species. In this study, we investigated the role of amino acids Y42, Y43 and H162, previously identified as important in Etx activity towards MDCK cells, in Etx activity towards CHO-human MAL (CHO-hMAL) cells, human red blood cells (hRBCs) and synthetic bilayers using site-directed mutants of Etx. We show that in CHO-hMAL cells Y42 is critical for Etx binding and not Y43 as in MDCK cells, indicating that surface exposed tyrosine residues in the receptor binding domain of Etx impact efficiency of cell binding to MAL-expressing cells in a species-specific manner. We also show that Etx mutant H162A was unable to lyse CHO-hMAL cells, lysed hRBCs, whilst it was able to form pores in synthetic bilayers, providing evidence of the complexity of Etx pore formation in different lipid environments.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)Academy of Medical Sciences, Springboard AwardEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Counci
Integrated photonic quantum gates for polarization qubits
Integrated photonic circuits have a strong potential to perform quantum
information processing. Indeed, the ability to manipulate quantum states of
light by integrated devices may open new perspectives both for fundamental
tests of quantum mechanics and for novel technological applications. However,
the technology for handling polarization encoded qubits, the most commonly
adopted approach, is still missing in quantum optical circuits. Here we
demonstrate the first integrated photonic Controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate for
polarization encoded qubits. This result has been enabled by the integration,
based on femtosecond laser waveguide writing, of partially polarizing beam
splitters on a glass chip. We characterize the logical truth table of the
quantum gate demonstrating its high fidelity to the expected one. In addition,
we show the ability of this gate to transform separable states into entangled
ones and vice versa. Finally, the full accessibility of our device is exploited
to carry out a complete characterization of the CNOT gate through a quantum
process tomography.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
A multi-gene signature predicts outcome in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
© 2014 Haider et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain
Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article,
unless otherwise stated.Improved usage of the repertoires of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) profiles is crucially needed to guide the development of predictive and prognostic tools that could inform the selection of treatment options
Reactivation of Fault Systems by Compartmentalized Hydrothermal Fluids in the Southern Andes Revealed by Magnetotelluric and Seismic Data
In active volcanic arcs such as the Andean volcanic mountain belt, magmaticallyâsourced fluids are channelled through the brittle crust by faults and fracture networks. In the Andes, volcanoes, geothermal springs and major mineral deposits have a spatial and genetic relationship with NNEâtrending, marginâparallel faults and marginâoblique, NWâtrending Andean Transverse Faults (ATF). The Tinguiririca and PlanchĂłnâPeteroa volcanoes in the Andean Southern Volcanic Zone (SVZ) demonstrate this relationship, as their spatially associated thermal springs show strike alignment to the NNEâoriented El Fierro Thrust Fault System. We constrain the fault system architecture and its interaction with volcanically sourced hydrothermal fluids using a combined magnetotelluric (MT) and seismic survey that was deployed for 20 months. High conductivity zones are located along the axis of the active volcanic chain, delineating fluids and/or melt. A distinct WNWâtrending cluster of seismicity correlates with resistivity contrasts, considered to be a reactivated ATF. Seismicity occurs below 4 km, suggesting activity is limited to basement rocks, and the cessation of seismicity at 9 km delineates the local brittleâductile transition. As seismicity is not seen west of the El Fierro fault, we hypothesize that this structure plays a key role in compartmentalizing magmaticallyâderived hydrothermal fluids to the east, where the fault zone acts as a barrier to crossâfault fluid migration and channels faultâparallel fluid flow to the surface from depth. Increases in fluid pressure above hydrostatic may facilitate reactivation. This siteâspecific case study provides the first threeâdimensional seismic and magnetotelluric observations of the mechanics behind the reactivation of an ATF
Synchronization modulation increases transepithelial potentials in MDCK monolayers through Na/K pumps
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Millisecond Oscillations in X-Ray Binaries
The first millisecond X-ray variability phenomena from accreting compact
objects have recently been discovered with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer.
Three new phenomena are observed from low-mass X-ray binaries containing
low-magnetic-field neutron stars: millisecond pulsations, burst oscillations
and kiloHertz quasi-periodic oscillations. Models for these new phenomena
involve the neutron star spin, and orbital motion closely around the neutron
star and rely explicitly on our understanding of strong gravity and dense
matter. I review the observations of these new neutron-star phenomena and
possibly related ones in black-hole candidates, and describe the attempts to
use them to perform measurements of fundamental physical interest in these
systems.Comment: 40 pages, 17 figures, 4 tables - submitted to the Annual Review of
Astronomy and Astrophysics; to appear September 200
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