Developments in Water Pollution Law and Policy in China: Effective Enough to Cope with Water Pollution Conflict?

Water pollution is one of the most serious environmental issues facing China. In 2005, an exceptionally serious water pollution accident in the Songhua River — caused by an unintended and sudden chemicals explosion — heralded an official recognition of a water pollution crisis in China. Although there have been new initiatives in national law and policy concerning water pollution that attempt to respond to issues of: social conflict caused by water pollution; government accountability; liability of polluting entities; and citizens’ rights in cases of water pollution, the challenges for the rule of environmental law in effectively reducing water pollution accidents and resolving water pollution conflict still exist. There is an urgent need to strengthen compliance and enforcement. This paper discusses the issues of water pollution conflict and the possible resolutions offered through law and policy

FOXP3 interacts with hnRNPF to modulate pre-mRNA alternative splicing

FOXP3 promotes the development and function of regulatory T cells mainly through regulating the transcription of target genes. RNA alternative splicing has been implicated in a wide range of physiological and pathophysiological processes. We report here that FOXP3 associates with heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) F through the exon 2-encoded region of FOXP3 and the second quasi-RNA recognition motif (qRRM) of hnRNPF. FOXP3 represses the ability of hnRNPF to bind to its target pre-mRNA and thus modulates RNA alternative splicing. Furthermore, overexpression of mouse hnRNPF in in vitro-differentiated regulatory T cells (Tregs) reduced their suppressive function. Thus, our studies identify a novel mechanism by which FOXP3 regulates mRNA alternative splicing to modulate the function of regulatory T cells

Measurement of T1 of the ultrashort T2* components in white matter of the brain at 3T.

Recent research demonstrates that white matter of the brain contains not only long T2 components, but a minority of ultrashort T2* components. Adiabatic inversion recovery prepared dual echo ultrashort echo time (IR-dUTE) sequences can be used to selectively image the ultrashort T2* components in white matter of the brain using a clinical whole body scanner. The T2*s of the ultrashort T2* components can be quantified using mono-exponential decay fitting of the IR-dUTE signal at a series of different TEs. However, accurate T1 measurement of the ultrashort T2* components is technically challenging. Efficient suppression of the signal from the majority of long T2 components is essential for robust T1 measurement. In this paper we describe a novel approach to this problem based on the use of IR-dUTE data acquisitions with different TR and TI combinations to selectively detect the signal recovery of the ultrashort T2* components. Exponential recovery curve fitting provides efficient T1 estimation, with minimized contamination from the majority of long T2 components. A rubber phantom and a piece of bovine cortical bone were used for validation of this approach. Six healthy volunteers were studied. An averaged T2* of 0.32 ± 0.09 ms, and a short mean T1 of 226 ± 46 ms were demonstrated for the healthy volunteers at 3T

The Impact of College Students' Career Decision Self-Efficacy on Career Adaptation from the Perspective of High-Quality Employment: The Mediating Role of Career Preparation Behavior

This study primarily analyzes the impact of career decision self-efficacy and career preparation behavior on career adaptation, discussing the mediating role of career preparation behavior among 522 college students. The results show significant positive correlations among career decision self-efficacy, career preparation behavior, and career adaptation. Career decision self-efficacy significantly positively influences career preparation behavior, with the sub-factors of influence in descending order being problem-solving, future planning, and goal-setting. Self-evaluation and career information do not have a significant impact on career decision self-efficacy. Career decision self-efficacy also has a significant positive effect on career adaptation, with future planning and problem-solving having the highest influence. Self-evaluation, career information, and goal-setting do not significantly impact career adaptation. Career preparation behavior has a significant positive effect on career adaptation, with the sub-factors in descending order being information gathering behavior, goal achievement behavior, and tool preparation behavior. In the mediation test, career preparation behavior partially mediates the effects, mainly through problem-solving and future planning influencing information gathering and goal achievement behaviors, thereby enhancing students' interest in careers, self-behavioral control, curiosity about future developments, and confidence. Thus, problem-solving and future planning in career decision self-efficacy are critical for enhancing students' career adaptation and achieving high-quality employment

Use of Biocides and Soy Oil in Preservative Treatment of Structural Flakeboard

Many uses of structural wood composite panels require preservative treatment to increase decay resistance. The most cost-effective way to treat structural flakeboard is done during manufacturing, but it is difficult to accomplish because of incompatibility between adhesive resins and preservatives. The objective of this study was to evaluate physical properties and decay resistance of flakeboard made with phenolic wood adhesive resins blended with biocides dissolved in soybean oil. The blended phenolic adhesive resins contained equal parts of iodo-propynyl butyl carbamate, propiconazole, and tebuconazole. Hybrid poplar flakeboards were made at the combined biocide retention levels of 0, 0.51, 0.81, and 1.63 kg/m3. Results indicated that the strength and dimensional stability properties of flakeboard were not affected by the in-process preservative treatment. The biocides were stable and maintained their efficacy against decay after pressing boards at 200°C for 7 min. Boards treated with 1.63 kg/m3 biocides sustained 2.5% to 5.0% weight loss after exposing to the brown-rot fungus (Postia placenta) for 12 wk compared with over 27% weight loss of nontreated boards

Deciphering of interactions between platinated DNA and HMGB1 by hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry

A high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) protein has been reported to recognize both 1,2-intrastrand crosslinked DNA by cisplatin (1,2-cis-Pt-DNA) and monofunctional platinated DNA using trans-[PtCl2(NH3)(thiazole)] (1-trans-PtTz-DNA). However, the molecular basis of recognition between the trans-PtTz-DNA and HMGB1 remains unclear. In the present work, we described a hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) method in combination with docking simulation to decipher the interactions of platinated DNA with domain A of HMGB1. The global deuterium uptake results indicated that 1-trans-PtTz-DNA bound to HMGB1a slightly tighter than the 1,2-cis-Pt-DNA. The local deuterium uptake at the peptide level revealed that the helices I and II, and loop 1 of HMGB1a were involved in the interactions with both platinated DNA adducts. However, docking simulation disclosed different H-bonding networks and distinct DNA-backbone orientations in the two Pt-DNA-HMGB1a complexes. Moreover, the Phe37 residue of HMGB1a was shown to play a key role in the recognition between HMGB1a and the platinated DNAs. In the cis-Pt-DNA-HMGB1a complex, the phenyl ring of Phe37 intercalates into a hydrophobic notch created by the two platinated guanines, while in the trans-PtTz-DNA-HMGB1a complex the phenyl ring appears to intercalate into a hydrophobic crevice formed by the platinated guanine and the opposite adenine in the complementary strand, forming a penta-layer π–π stacking associated with the adjacent thymine and the thiazole ligand. This work demonstrates that HDX-MS associated with docking simulation is a powerful tool to elucidate the interactions between platinated DNAs and proteins

Semantics-enhanced task-oriented dialogue translation: a case Study on hotel booking

We showcase TODAY, a semanticsenhanced task-oriented dialogue translation system, whose novelties are: (i) taskoriented named entity (NE) definition and a hybrid strategy for NE recognition and translation; and (ii) a novel grounded semantic method for dialogue understanding and task-order management. TODAY is a case-study demo which can efficiently and accurately assist customers and agents in different languages to reach an agreement in a dialogue for the hotel booking

Tourist Sentiment Mining Based on Deep Learning

Mining the sentiment of the user on the internet via the context plays a significant role in uncovering the human emotion and in determining the exactness of the underlying emotion in the context. An increasingly enormous number of user-generated content (UGC) in social media and online travel platforms lead to development of data-driven sentiment analysis (SA), and most extant SA in the domain of tourism is conducted using document-based SA (DBSA). However, DBSA cannot be used to examine what specific aspects need to be improved or disclose the unknown dimensions that affect the overall sentiment like aspect-based SA (ABSA). ABSA requires accurate identification of the aspects and sentiment orientation in the UGC. In this book chapter, we illustrate the contribution of data mining based on deep learning in sentiment and emotion detection