In Support of “New China”: Origins of the China Lobby, 1937-1941

The “China Lobby,” a common term applied to groups and individuals aggressively seeking America’s political commitments to and financial aid for Chiang Kai-shek’s Guomindang (GMD) regime in China, came into popular use in the 1950\u27s, especially as it fit into the highly volatile context of the Cold War. A closer investigation of this lobby, however, reveals that it originated not in the postwar turmoil of Cold War politics but a decade earlier in the equally difficult debate over the proper role of the United States during the “China Incident” of the late 1930\u27s. Pro-Chinese lobbying and propaganda activities in America began in the 1930\u27s as efforts to persuade Washington to render its long-term commitment to China, then a semi-colony struggling against the Japanese empire. Yet, the U.S. State Department maintained a policy that discouraged America’s long-term political commitment or substantial financial aid to China. What cannot be overlooked was the Roosevelt administration’s diverse and often secretive way of conducting foreign policy. It preferred to deal with China behind the scenes, given the prominent isolationist sentiments and anxieties Americans held on U.S.-Japanese relations. Thus, although the State Department was unwilling to approve official aid to China, negotiations over U.S. aid to China were conducted largely through “non-regular” channels of diplomacy until 1941. These ad hoc channels of diplomacy took hold during the “China Incident” of 1937-1941 when Washington found it difficult to support China openly against Japan and yet agreed to finance China’s war against Japan through subsidiary agencies of the Treasury Department and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. At the same time, Washington allowed private American aid to flow to China on humanitarian grounds. This private support was accompanied by unofficial propaganda efforts that characterized China’s cause in terms of the struggle for a “New China.” Accordingly, lobbyists or publicists rather than the diplomats themselves played a major role in promoting Sino-American relations during that period. Yet, apart from the original intentions of the Roosevelt administration, these policies contributed directly to the formation of the China Lobby in America by 1941. In other words, the China Lobby grew as an offshoot of Roosevelt’s secret and often unconventional diplomacy that sought to keep China fighting Japan by supporting such low-risk measures as financial trade and propaganda rather than through open diplomatic commitment or political alliance. Tracing the influences on the U.S. government by individuals and organizations that in fact, if not in name, comprised a “China Lobby” in the prewar years, this study seeks to reveal that it was at least as powerful as the later one but, due to a Cold War emphasis on the “loss” of China in 1949, was never as well understood

Schwannomatosis of the tibial nerve

Schwannoma is the most common type of benign tumor arising from the sheaths of the peripheral nerves. It occurs as a solitary tumor in most cases, but when it appears in multiple forms, it is necessary to differentiate it from plexiform schwannoma, schwannomatosis, neurofibroma and malignant peripheral nerve tumors. The authors experienced schwannomatosis in the tibial nerve without the features of neurofibromatosis type 2, so here we present a case report and literature review

Ion-exchange membranes for blue energy generation: A short overview focused on nanocomposite

Blue energy can be harvested from salinity gradients between saline water and freshwater by reverse electrodialysis (RED). RED as a conversion technique to generate blue energy has received increasing attention in recent decades. As part of the RED system, ion exchange membranes (IEMs) are key elements to the success of future blue energy generation. However, its suboptimal performance often limits the applications and stagnates the deve­lopment of the technology. The key properties of IEMs include ion exchange capacity, perm­selectivity, and electrical resistance. The enhancement of such physical and electrochemical properties is crucial for studying energy production with acceptable output efficiency on a commercial scale. Recently, many studies have tried blending nanotechnology into the membrane fabrication process. Hybridizing inorganic nanomaterials with an organic polymeric material showed the great potential of improving electrical conductivity and perm­selectivity, as well as other membrane characteristics for power performance. In this short review, recent developments on the IEM synthesis in association with potential nanomaterials are reviewed and raising issues regarding the application and commercialization of RED-based energy production are discussed

Non-equilibrium stochastic thermodynamics of Brownian particle in an active bath

Department of PhysicsParticles kicked by external forces to produce mobility distinct from thermal diffusion are an iconic feature of the active matter problem. One example is the passive particles in the bath of active particles, such as swimming bacteria. In this case, the fluctuation of the particle position is influenced by the thermal and the active fluctuations simultaneously. Here, we map this onto a minimal model for experiment and theory covering the wide time and length scales of usual active matter systems. A particle`s diffusion perturbed by a programmable harmonic potential (optical trap) is captured. It gives a time correlated active kicks with a random interval following the Poisson process. The model???s generic simplicity allows us to find conditions for which displacements are Gaussian (or not), how diffusion is perturbed (or not) by kicks, and quantifying heat dissipation to maintain the non-equilibrium steady state in an active bath. The model proposed in the work successful reproduces the experimental results, as shown on example of the tracer mobility in an active bath of swimming algal cells. It can be used as a stochastic dynamic simulator for Brownian objects in various active baths without mechanistic understanding, owing to the generic framework of the protocol.ope

Molecular methods for genomic analyses of variant PML-RARA or other RARA-related chromosomal translocations in acute promyelocytic leukemia

TO THE EDITOR: We read an interesting paper by Palta et al. in a recent issue of the Korean Journal of Hematology titled, "ZBTB16-RARA variant of acute promyelocytic leukemia with tuberculosis: a case report and review of literature" [1]. We would like to add some comments to their article and suggest additional molecular methods to confirm variant translocations in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)...

Negative-bias-temperature-instability and hot carrier effects in nanowire junctionless p-channel multigate transistors

Negative-bias-temperature-instability (NBTI) and hot-carrier induced device degradation have been experimentally compared between accumulation mode (AM) p-channel multigate transistors (pMuGFETs) and junctionless (JL) pMuGFET. NBTI degradation is less significant in junctionless pMuGFETs than AM pMuGFETs. The threshold voltage shift is less significant in junctionless transistors than AM transistors. The device simulation shows that the peak of lateral electric field and the impact ionization rate of AM device are larger than those of junctionless devices. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. (doi:10.1063/1.3688245

Acute post-cardiopulmonary bypass left atrial thrombosis after mitral valvuloplasty and left atrial thrombectomy

A patient with mitral stenosis and multiple left atrial thrombi underwent valvuloplasty and thrombectomy. While closing the sternum after completing the cardiopulmonary bypass, a new left atrial thrombus was detected by transesophageal echocardiography. We used heparin for the prevention of new thrombus formation and closed the wound after meticulous bleeding control. Three months later, there was no residual thrombus in the left atrium according to the echocardiographic study