The Opium Question in China 1860-1887.

The Opium Question in China from 1360 to 1887 was composed of three inter-related aspects: the taxation of foreign opium; Chinese customs blockade of Hong Kong (and Macao); and the growth of native (Chinese) opium. The Question arose as a result of the legalization of the opium trade in 1860. During the period that this Question was in existences attempts were made by the Chinese and British, governments to reach an agreement over the taxation of foreign opium and to devise means to put an end to smuggling from Hong Kong so that the blockade could be lifted. The Alcock Convention of 1869 and the Chefoo convention of 1876 contained stipulations that would, provide solutions to these out-standing problems. Their rejection by the British government meant that negotiations had to be continued, both at Peking and. London, and on the local scene, at Hong Kong and Canton. Signing of the Additional Article to the Chefoo Convention in 1885 provided settlement of the taxation issue; and promulgation of the Ordinance on opium in 1887 by the Hong Kong government solved the blockade issue. During this period, the growth of native opium Greatly increased and it competed successfully with the Indian import in China. This fact, together with the increasing activity of the Anti-opium society in Britain, contributed much to the agreement of 1885. This dissertation is concerned with an analysis of the Opium Question briefly explained in the preceding paragraph. It also analyses the various governments and personalities involved. For Britain, these included the Home government with its Foreign, colonial and India Offices; the Hong Kong and. Indian governments; and the diplomatic service in China and the Governors of Hong Kong. For China, these included the Imperial and provincial Governments, the Foreign Inspectorate, and responsible officials such as Li Hung-chang, Tso Tsung-t'ang and Tseng Chi-tse. A more astute understanding of Sino-British relations during this period, both diplomatic and commercial, is reached by such analyses

Self and team prioritisation effects in perceptual matching: : Evidence for a shared representation

Acknowledgements This work was supported by grants from the ERC (Advanced Investigator), Wellcome Trust (106164/Z/14/Z) (Senior Investigator) and ESRC to the last author and from the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2012-6) (Group Modulation of Perception) to the third author. The work was completed in partial fulfilment of a PhD funded through a DSTL studentship by the first author.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

In-group relevance facilitates learning across existing and new associations

Studies have shown that attention prioritizes stimuli associated with the in-group. However, the extent to which this so-called in-group favoritism is driven by relevance is not clear. Here, we investigated this issue in a group of university rowers using a novel perceptual matching task based on the team label–color associations. Across three experiments, participants showed enhanced performance for the in-group stimulus regardless of its familiarity level. These findings confirmed the role of relevance in in-group favoritism. In a further control study, the advantage for certain stimuli was not found in an independent sample of participants who were not identified with the teams but were familiar with the label–color associations, indicating that in-group relevance was necessary for the in-group favoritism. Together, these findings suggest that in-group relevance facilitates learning across existing and new associations. The consequences of these findings for understanding in-group effects on perceptual processing are discussed.</p

How Ontologies Can Help in an eMarketplace

Recently, ontologies have been developed in various business domains with the recent maturing of the Semantic Web technologies. However, ontology-related researches have largely focused on the facilitation of successful matchmaking but not much on traders’ requirement elicitation and potential negotiations in e-marketplaces. Because ontology provides the key knowledge about the inter-relationships among the issues and alternatives of the traders’ requirements, we show how to elicit trade requirements, alternatives, and tradeoff from an agreed ontology. This facilitates the whole business process of the e-marketplace, from matchmaking, recommendation, to negotiation. We further propose a novel methodology for the elicitation of dependencies among traders’ requirements for the formulation of an effective decision plan. As a result, traders can have a better cognition of their requirements and the overall operations of the e-marketplace can be streamlined

The Association of Virulence Factors with Genomic Islands

Background: It has been noted that many bacterial virulence factor genes are located within genomic islands (GIs; clusters of genes in a prokaryotic genome of probable horizontal origin). However, such studies have been limited to single genera or isolated observations. We have performed the first large-scale analysis of multiple diverse pathogens to examine this association. We additionally identified genes found predominantly in pathogens, but not non-pathogens, across multiple genera using 631 complete bacterial genomes, and we identified common trends in virulence for genes in GIs. Furthermore, we examined the relationship between GIs and clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) proposed to confer resistance to phage. Methodology/Principal Findings: We show quantitatively that GIs disproportionately contain more virulence factors than the rest of a given genome (p,1E-40 using three GI datasets) and that CRISPRs are also over-represented in GIs. Virulence factors in GIs and pathogen-associated virulence factors are enriched for proteins having more ‘‘offensive’ ’ functions, e.g. active invasion of the host, and are disproportionately components of type III/IV secretion systems or toxins. Numerous hypothetical pathogen-associated genes were identified, meriting further study. Conclusions/Significance: This is the first systematic analysis across diverse genera indicating that virulence factors are disproportionately associated with GIs. ‘‘Offensive’ ’ virulence factors, as opposed to host-interaction factors, may more ofte

Altered Topological Properties of Functional Network Connectivity in Schizophrenia during Resting State: A Small-World Brain Network Study

Aberrant topological properties of small-world human brain networks in patients with schizophrenia (SZ) have been documented in previous neuroimaging studies. Aberrant functional network connectivity (FNC, temporal relationships among independent component time courses) has also been found in SZ by a previous resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. However, no study has yet determined if topological properties of FNC are also altered in SZ. In this study, small-world network metrics of FNC during the resting state were examined in both healthy controls (HCs) and SZ subjects. FMRI data were obtained from 19 HCs and 19 SZ. Brain images were decomposed into independent components (ICs) by group independent component analysis (ICA). FNC maps were constructed via a partial correlation analysis of ICA time courses. A set of undirected graphs were built by thresholding the FNC maps and the small-world network metrics of these maps were evaluated. Our results demonstrated significantly altered topological properties of FNC in SZ relative to controls. In addition, topological measures of many ICs involving frontal, parietal, occipital and cerebellar areas were altered in SZ relative to controls. Specifically, topological measures of whole network and specific components in SZ were correlated with scores on the negative symptom scale of the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS). These findings suggest that aberrant architecture of small-world brain topology in SZ consists of ICA temporally coherent brain networks

Early chemical diagenesis, sediment-water solute exchange, and storage of reactive organic matter near the mouth of the Changjiang, East China Sea

【Abstract】A substantial proportion of the material delivered to the modern oceans is supplied by a few large rivers such as the Changjiang. Early diagenetic reactions in surficial bottom sediments determine in large part both the eventual influence of these rivers on the sea and the nature of sedimentary deposits formed. The region off the mouth of the Changjiang exemplifies the interplay between physical, chemical, and biological factors which can produce particular spatial patterns of diagenesis and sediment-water exchange. To examine these patterns measurement of pore water solute profiles, sediment-water solute fluxes, and solute reaction rates in the upper few decimeters of sediment were made at 27 stations near the Changjiang in the East China Sea. Direct measurements of dissolved Si(OH)4, NH4+, and NO3−, fluxes from or into bottom sediments made during summer and autumn periods (15 to 24°C) range from 0.13 to 13.2, −2.6 to 3.4, and −1.4 to 3.2mmol m−2 day−1, respectively. Net solute flux from the sea floor is often lowest from deposits having the highest interstitial solute concentrations. In addition, bottom regions having the highest build up of reaction products or depletion of reactants in pore waters (with respect to overlying water) actually have the lowest rates of reaction. These same areas of elevated (products) or depleted (reactants) pore water solute concentrations, low reaction rates, and low net rate of solute exchange which are located near the mouth of the Changjiang are sites of high sedimentation rates and depauperate benthic communities. High water turbidity and resuspension apparently hinder water column production and input of reactive organic matter or other biogenic material which drive many diagenetic reactions. Rapid sedimentation or disturbance hinders benthic community development, lowers biogenic reworking, and allows build up or depletion of reaction products or reactants in bottom sediments. Offshore areas of lower sedimentation, higher productivity, and active bottom communities are sites of high initial reaction rates and increased sediment-water solute exchange compared with rapid sedimentation regions. A diagenetic paradox resulting from the interaction between benthic communities and the physical environment of sedimentation is that proportionally the greatest storage of diagenetic products related to organic matter decomposition can occur in sediments that are initially the least diagenetically reactive

In-group relevance facilitates learning across existing and new associations

Studies have shown that attention prioritizes stimuli associated with the in-group. However, the extent to which this so called ‘in-group favoritism’ is driven by relevance is not clear. Here, we investigated this issue in a group of university rowers using a novel perceptual matching task based on the team label-color associations. Across three Experiments participants showed enhanced performance for the in-group stimulus regardless of its familiarity level. These findings confirmed the role of relevance in in-group favoritism. In a further control study, the advantage for certain stimuli was not found in an independent sample of participants who were not identified with the teams but were familiar with the label-color associations, indicating that in-group relevance was necessary for the in-group favoritism. Together these findings suggest that in-group relevance facilitates learning across existing and new associations. The consequences of these findings for understanding in-group effects on perceptual processing are discussed

RNA–protein binding kinetics in an automated microfluidic reactor

Microfluidic chips can automate biochemical assays on the nanoliter scale, which is of considerable utility for RNA–protein binding reactions that would otherwise require large quantities of proteins. Unfortunately, complex reactions involving multiple reactants cannot be prepared in current microfluidic mixer designs, nor is investigation of long-time scale reactions possible. Here, a microfluidic ‘Riboreactor’ has been designed and constructed to facilitate the study of kinetics of RNA–protein complex formation over long time scales. With computer automation, the reactor can prepare binding reactions from any combination of eight reagents, and is optimized to monitor long reaction times. By integrating a two-photon microscope into the microfluidic platform, 5-nl reactions can be observed for longer than 1000 s with single-molecule sensitivity and negligible photobleaching. Using the Riboreactor, RNA–protein binding reactions with a fragment of the bacterial 30S ribosome were prepared in a fully automated fashion and binding rates were consistent with rates obtained from conventional assays. The microfluidic chip successfully combines automation, low sample consumption, ultra-sensitive fluorescence detection and a high degree of reproducibility. The chip should be able to probe complex reaction networks describing the assembly of large multicomponent RNPs such as the ribosome