Greening Supply Chains in China: Practical Lessons From China-Based Suppliers in Achieving Environmental Performance

Presents case studies of how five China-based suppliers are meeting international buyers' environmental requirements. Examines management processes; effective low-cost ways to reduce water pollution; and the roles of multistakeholders and third parties

Devote much attention to neuropathological study on meningeal diffuse lesions

DOI：10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2011.05.00

Association between thyroid function and diabetes peripheral neuropathy in euthyroid type 2 diabetes mellitus patients

Abstract Previous studies disclosed that a high thyroid stimulating hormone level is an independent risk factor for diabetes peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, whether thyroid metabolism has an effect on DPN in euthyroid T2DM patients remains unknown. The aim of this study was to identify the association between thyroid function and DPN in euthyroid T2DM patients. A set of 580 euthyroid T2DM patients was enrolled in the current study and stratified into DPN and Non-DPN groups. Mann–Whitney U test was performed to analyze the continuous variables of biochemical and thyroid metabolism indicators, and the Chi-square test was used to compare the categorical variables. Spearman correlation analysis was performed to analyze the relationship between clinical indicators and free thyroxine (FT4). By using the logistic regression analysis, the prevalence of DPN in different thyroid function indicators were evaluated. T2DM patients with DPN had obviously lower levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alpha-hydroxybutyric dehydrogenase (α-HBDH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), calcium (Ca), creatinine (Cr), uric acid (UA), retinol binding protein (RBP), total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and FT4 than the T2DM patients without DPN (P < 0.05). FT4 was associated with TP, prealbumin (PA), ALB, SOD, anion gap (AG), Ca, chlorine (Cl), UA, RBP, apoprotein A (Apo A), apoprotein B (Apo B), apoprotein E (Apo E), and total cholesterol (TC). According to the FT4 quartile, participants were sequentially divided into four groups to compare the prevalence of DPN between each group. The data suggested that the prevalence of DPN in these four groups was 53.79%, 53.28%, 54.97%, 38.10%, respectively. Moreover, compared with quartile 4, patients in quartile 1, 2, 3 all had a significantly higher risk of DPN (P = 0.007, P = 0.011, P = 0.004). The level of FT4 was negatively correlated with the prevalence of DPN in euthyroid T2DM patients

CloudyFL:a cloudlet-based federated learning framework for sensing user behavior using wearable devices

Abstract Wearable devices have been widely utilized by the general public for tracking physical activities. Many complex machine learning models leverage wearable devices to address application problems, such as predicting pedestrian behaviors and health management. These models often incur heavy computing load and energy cost, which is challenging for wearable devices. However, aggregating the data from different wearable devices to a central server introduces privacy concerns. To address these challenges, we propose an architecture, CloudyFL, by deploying cloudlets close to wearable devices. In CloudyFL, each cloudlet forms a trusted zone covering a subset of nearby wearable devices. Models are trained in this trusted zone, and then, only the model parameters are transmitted to a centralized aggregator using a federated learning framework. We additionally propose an LSTM-based model for user behavior sensing, with a neural network design to adjust to the non-IID data distribution on multiple cloudlets. Experimental results show that our training model within the CloudyFL architecture can achieve a performance better than existing methodologies

K₂RENb₅O₁₅ (RE = Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd–Ho): A Family of Quasi-One-Dimensional Spin-Chain Compounds with Large Interchain Distance

One-dimensional (1D) spin chain systems have received special attention to discover novel magnetic ground states and emergent phenomena, while magnetic studies on rare-earth (RE)-based 1D spin chain materials are still rare. Here, we report the synthesis, structure, and magnetic behaviors of a family of tetragonal tungsten-bronze (TTB) structure K2RENb5O15 (RE = Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd–Ho) compounds, which consist of a 1D linear spin-chain structure built by RE3+ ions along the c-axis and well spatially separated by nonmagnetic K/Nb–O polyhedrons with large interchain distances of ∼8.80–8.88 Å in the ab-plane. In this family of K2RENb5O15 compounds, the nearest-neighboring interchain exchange interactions through the RE–O–K/Nb–O–RE routes are much smaller than the intrachain ones via the RE–O–RE pathways, and the low-temperature magnetic results reveal the absence of long-range magnetic order down to 1.8 K for all compounds. Among them, K2GdNb5O15, with spin-only magnetic moment S = 7/2, exhibits a long-range magnetic order with TN ∼ 0.31 K and strong spin fluctuations at low temperatures due to its low-dimension characteristics. Moreover, a large magnetocaloric effect under low field change (ΔB) of ΔB = 0–2 T is realized at temperatures below 1 K for K2GdNb5O15, making it an ideal candidate for adiabatic magnetic refrigeration applications at sub-Kelvin temperatures. The K2RENb5O15 become a rare family of insulating RE-based magnets for exploring the novel 1D spin chain physics beyond the 3d TM-based counterparts in terms of their combination of low dimension, strong spin–orbital coupling, and rich diversity of RE ions

K₂RENb₅O₁₅ (RE = Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd–Ho): A Family of Quasi-One-Dimensional Spin-Chain Compounds with Large Interchain Distance

One-dimensional (1D) spin chain systems have received special attention to discover novel magnetic ground states and emergent phenomena, while magnetic studies on rare-earth (RE)-based 1D spin chain materials are still rare. Here, we report the synthesis, structure, and magnetic behaviors of a family of tetragonal tungsten-bronze (TTB) structure K2RENb5O15 (RE = Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd–Ho) compounds, which consist of a 1D linear spin-chain structure built by RE3+ ions along the c-axis and well spatially separated by nonmagnetic K/Nb–O polyhedrons with large interchain distances of ∼8.80–8.88 Å in the ab-plane. In this family of K2RENb5O15 compounds, the nearest-neighboring interchain exchange interactions through the RE–O–K/Nb–O–RE routes are much smaller than the intrachain ones via the RE–O–RE pathways, and the low-temperature magnetic results reveal the absence of long-range magnetic order down to 1.8 K for all compounds. Among them, K2GdNb5O15, with spin-only magnetic moment S = 7/2, exhibits a long-range magnetic order with TN ∼ 0.31 K and strong spin fluctuations at low temperatures due to its low-dimension characteristics. Moreover, a large magnetocaloric effect under low field change (ΔB) of ΔB = 0–2 T is realized at temperatures below 1 K for K2GdNb5O15, making it an ideal candidate for adiabatic magnetic refrigeration applications at sub-Kelvin temperatures. The K2RENb5O15 become a rare family of insulating RE-based magnets for exploring the novel 1D spin chain physics beyond the 3d TM-based counterparts in terms of their combination of low dimension, strong spin–orbital coupling, and rich diversity of RE ions

CEPC Conceptual Design Report: Volume 2 - Physics & Detector

The Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) is a large international scientific facility proposed by the Chinese particle physics community to explore the Higgs boson and provide critical tests of the underlying fundamental physics principles of the Standard Model that might reveal new physics. The CEPC, to be hosted in China in a circular underground tunnel of approximately 100 km in circumference, is designed to operate as a Higgs factory producing electron-positron collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 240 GeV. The collider will also operate at around 91.2 GeV, as a Z factory, and at the WW production threshold (around 160 GeV). The CEPC will produce close to one trillion Z bosons, 100 million W bosons and over one million Higgs bosons. The vast amount of bottom quarks, charm quarks and tau-leptons produced in the decays of the Z bosons also makes the CEPC an effective B-factory and tau-charm factory. The CEPC will have two interaction points where two large detectors will be located. This document is the second volume of the CEPC Conceptual Design Report (CDR). It presents the physics case for the CEPC, describes conceptual designs of possible detectors and their technological options, highlights the expected detector and physics performance, and discusses future plans for detector R&D and physics investigations. The final CEPC detectors will be proposed and built by international collaborations but they are likely to be composed of the detector technologies included in the conceptual designs described in this document. A separate volume, Volume I, recently released, describes the design of the CEPC accelerator complex, its associated civil engineering, and strategic alternative scenarios

CEPC Conceptual Design Report: Volume 2 - Physics & Detector

The Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) is a large international scientific facility proposed by the Chinese particle physics community to explore the Higgs boson and provide critical tests of the underlying fundamental physics principles of the Standard Model that might reveal new physics. The CEPC, to be hosted in China in a circular underground tunnel of approximately 100 km in circumference, is designed to operate as a Higgs factory producing electron-positron collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 240 GeV. The collider will also operate at around 91.2 GeV, as a Z factory, and at the WW production threshold (around 160 GeV). The CEPC will produce close to one trillion Z bosons, 100 million W bosons and over one million Higgs bosons. The vast amount of bottom quarks, charm quarks and tau-leptons produced in the decays of the Z bosons also makes the CEPC an effective B-factory and tau-charm factory. The CEPC will have two interaction points where two large detectors will be located. This document is the second volume of the CEPC Conceptual Design Report (CDR). It presents the physics case for the CEPC, describes conceptual designs of possible detectors and their technological options, highlights the expected detector and physics performance, and discusses future plans for detector R&D and physics investigations. The final CEPC detectors will be proposed and built by international collaborations but they are likely to be composed of the detector technologies included in the conceptual designs described in this document. A separate volume, Volume I, recently released, describes the design of the CEPC accelerator complex, its associated civil engineering, and strategic alternative scenarios

CEPC Conceptual Design Report: Volume 2 - Physics & Detector

The Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) is a large international scientific facility proposed by the Chinese particle physics community to explore the Higgs boson and provide critical tests of the underlying fundamental physics principles of the Standard Model that might reveal new physics. The CEPC, to be hosted in China in a circular underground tunnel of approximately 100 km in circumference, is designed to operate as a Higgs factory producing electron-positron collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 240 GeV. The collider will also operate at around 91.2 GeV, as a Z factory, and at the WW production threshold (around 160 GeV). The CEPC will produce close to one trillion Z bosons, 100 million W bosons and over one million Higgs bosons. The vast amount of bottom quarks, charm quarks and tau-leptons produced in the decays of the Z bosons also makes the CEPC an effective B-factory and tau-charm factory. The CEPC will have two interaction points where two large detectors will be located. This document is the second volume of the CEPC Conceptual Design Report (CDR). It presents the physics case for the CEPC, describes conceptual designs of possible detectors and their technological options, highlights the expected detector and physics performance, and discusses future plans for detector R&D and physics investigations. The final CEPC detectors will be proposed and built by international collaborations but they are likely to be composed of the detector technologies included in the conceptual designs described in this document. A separate volume, Volume I, recently released, describes the design of the CEPC accelerator complex, its associated civil engineering, and strategic alternative scenarios