Cohesive Devices in Business English Speaking and Listening Discourse

Business speaking and listening is an important course for cultivating business English majors’ interactive skills, playing a key role in future successful business contacts. The author in this paper attempts to explore explicit and implicit cohesive devices in business speaking and listening discourses. It is found that explicit cohesive devices are mainly used when expressing willingness to establish further business relationships while implicit ones in unwillingness to do business. It is hoped that this paper may shed some lights on business English study

On the Cultivation of College English Learners’ Intercultural Competence

Cultural integration, an important part of college English teaching, plays a key role in enhancing students’ English proficiency and overall quality. The author in this paper attempts to explore the cultivation of college English learners’ intercultural competence from the three aspects of relationship between cultural integration and college English teaching, the contents and ways of cultural integration into college English teaching. The author considers that college English learners’ intercultural competence involves both intercultural communicative competence and overall quality including virtues, critical thinking and extensive knowledge

Incentives and Governance of Distributer Networks :

TAN Lihua & Jean RUFFIER (2010), Incentives and Governance of Distributer Networks : The Case of a Foreign-Funded Paint and Coating Materials Enterprise, Chinese Sociology and Anthropology, Spring 2010 issue, New YorkChina, marketing, industry, productive efficiency, jean ruffier

Incentives and Governance of Distributer Networks : The Case of a Foreign-Funded Paint and Coating Materials Enterprise

How a Japanese company managed a distributors network in China. The study describes some changes in firm strategies, how these changes were implemented. The result is a multi-strategies network with different dependance links between distributors and the industrial firm.China, network, anthropology, jean ruffier, productive efficiency, marketing, foreign direct investment

The Role of IS Capabilities in the Development of Multi-Sided Platforms: The Digital Ecosystem Strategy of Alibaba.com

Multi-sided platforms (MSP) are revolutionizing the global competitive landscape in the new networked economy. Yet, although these MSPs are underpinned by information systems (IS), there is currently little research on how the IS capabilities of the platform sponsor can influence, and co-evolve with, the development of the platform over time. The lack of knowledge in this area may account for the difficulties faced by a significant number of platform sponsors in developing their MSPs effectively. Using a case study of Alibaba.com, one of the world’s largest and most commercially successful online MSP, we inductively derive a process theory of MSP development from an IS capability perspective to address this knowledge gap. The process model reveals that the role of IS capabilities in MSP development is evolutionary in nature, and the antecedent IS capabilities, nature, and outcomes of MSP development can be dramatically different in the various stages of development

Direct contact membrane distillation of refining waste stream from precious metal recovery:Chemistry of silica and chromium (III) in membrane scaling

Precious metals, such as platinum group metals (PGMs) with distinct catalytic activity, are widely used as active components in various industrial catalysts. It is, therefore, highly desirable to recover these valuable components from the end-of-life products. We explored treatment of refining wastewater from precious metals recovery using direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). The role of various initial pH of refining wastewater on DCMD performance was assessed. Results suggested that hydrochloride acid (HCl) and high-quality water can be reclaimed from the real refining wastewater by adjusting initial pH. Furthermore, DCMD water flux decline was mainly caused by silica and chromium (III) scaling, which was dependent on initial pH of refining wastewater. Silica scaling was responsible for the decrease of DCMD performance when the initial pH of refining wastewater increased from original 0.03 to 5 and 7. Silica oligomers in the concentrated feed with various initial pH were identified using mass spectra. Dichlorotetraaquochromiun was identified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and ultraviolet and visible absorbance spectra as the main species contributing to the green colour and scaling on the PTFE membrane surface. Our results suggest that DCMD can be used as a promising and feasible solution for resource recovery from acidic refining waste stream.</p

LRBmat: A Novel Gut Microbial Interaction and Individual Heterogeneity Inference Method for Colorectal Cancer

Many diseases are considered to be closely related to the changes in the gut microbial community, including colorectal cancer (CRC), which is one of the most common cancers in the world. The diagnostic classification and etiological analysis of CRC are two critical issues worthy of attention. Many methods adopt gut microbiota to solve it, but few of them simultaneously take into account the complex interactions and individual heterogeneity of gut microbiota, which are two common and important issues in genetics and intestinal microbiology, especially in high-dimensional cases. In this paper, a novel method with a Binary matrix based on Logistic Regression (LRBmat) is proposed to deal with the above problem. The binary matrix can directly weakened or avoided the influence of heterogeneity, and also contain the information about gut microbial interactions with any order. Moreover, LRBmat has a powerful generalization, it can combine with any machine learning method and enhance them. The real data analysis on CRC validates the proposed method, which has the best classification performance compared with the state-of-the-art. Furthermore, the association rules extracted from the binary matrix of the real data align well with the biological properties and existing literatures, which are helpful for the etiological analysis of CRC. The source codes for LRBmat are available at https://github.com/tsnm1/LRBmat

Use of Thread-hanging Microwave Antenna to Assist in Precise Puncture of Lung Nodule and Influencing Factors

Objective To explore a precise method with a microwave antenna for puncture of pulmonary nodules and analyze phenomena that affect the puncture results. Methods Clinical data of 107 cases with solitary malignant pulmonary nodules were collected, and the mean length of pulmonary nodules was 13.6±0.6 mm in CT axial position. A thread-hanging method was used to assist the puncture of pulmonary nodules. The procedure was successful when the needle was not withdrawn and inserted into the central region of the nodule. The success rate and complications of the pulmonary procedure were recorded. The incidence of the following phenomena were also documented: needle coercing, needle slipping, needle tip pushing, pulmonary nodule prolapsing, radial nodule deformation, nodular masking, and radial movement distance of needle tip. Results In all of 107 cases evaluated, the antenna puncture was successful in 101 cases (94.4%) but failed in 6 cases (5.6%). Pneumothorax and pulmonary hemorrhage occurred in 23 (21.5%) and 19 cases (17.8%), respectively. The following phenomena occurred: needle coercing in 9 cases (8.4%), needle slipping in 6 cases (5.6%), needle tip pushing in 19 cases (17.8%), pulmonary nodule prolapsing in 15 cases (14%), radial nodule deformation in 14 cases (13.1%), and nodular masking in 5 cases (4.7%). The mean radial adjusting distance of needle tip was 0.7±0.4 cm. Conclusion The thread-hanging method can assist in the accurate puncture of microwave antenna for pulmonary nodules. We should focus and deal with phenomena that may occur and affect the result of puncture

Evaluation of anti-fatigue property of Porphyridium cruentum in mice

Purpose: To evaluate the potential effects of Porphyridium cruentum (PC) on fatigue induced by forced swimming test in mice. Methods: Mice were randomly divided into normal control group (NC, i.e., untreated non-swimming); model control group (MC, untreated swimming); Spirulina treated group (SP, 800 mg/kg); PC-treated groups (50, 100, and 200 mg/kg), respectively. After intragastric administration for 14 consecutive days, a weight-bearing swimming experiment was conducted for the mice, and the biochemical indicators related to fatigue were examined, including exhaustive swimming time, glucose levels (Glu), hepatic glycogen contents (HG), muscle glycogen contents (MG), glutathione peroxidase activities (GSH-Px), creatine kinase (CK), malondialdehyde (MDA), urea nitrogen levels (SUN), lactate dehydrogenase activities (LDH), lactic acid (LA) as well as superoxide dismutase (SOD). Results: PC significantly prolonged the swimming endurance time compared to MC. After PC treatment, Glu, HG and MG were effectively increased dose-dependently, SUN, LA, LDH and CK levels in serum were significantly reduced. Moreover, PC treatment elevated the bioactivities of two antioxidant enzymes, namely, GSH-Px and SOD, while MDA content decreased when compared to MC group. Conclusion: These results indicate that PC exhibits strong anti-fatigue effect. Thus, PC may be suitable for incorporation in functional food to counter fatigue