Internationalization of China’s E-Commerce Higher Education: A Review between 2001 and 2019

The purpose of this chapter is to review the development of China’s higher education in electronic commerce (e-commerce) and explore the requirements of the internationalization of China’s e-commerce higher education. The Benefit-Driving Model (BDM) was adopted to explain the reasons for the internationalization of China’s e-commerce higher education. The literature review spans 20 years from 2001 when the first 13 e-commerce programs were offered from China’s 597 universities. By 2019, 328 e-commerce programs were offered by 831 universities. There is a sustainable growth from 2001 (2.17%, 13 of 597) to 2019 (39.47%, 328 of 831). Currently, six universities offer two e-commerce programs with different majors. Eight universities established specialized e-commerce schools. There are also six jointly founded or cooperative e-commerce programs run in China with overseas universities. This research may be valuable for any international organization interested in collaboration with China’s e-commerce higher education. A limitation is that this research focuses only on bachelors of e-commerce programs. Further research will explore factors for success in jointly founded e-commerce programs with China’s e-commerce educators

NeRF applied to satellite imagery for surface reconstruction

We present Surf-NeRF, a modified implementation of the recently introduced Shadow Neural Radiance Field (S-NeRF) model. This method is able to synthesize novel views from a sparse set of satellite images of a scene, while accounting for the variation in lighting present in the pictures. The trained model can also be used to accurately estimate the surface elevation of the scene, which is often a desirable quantity for satellite observation applications. S-NeRF improves on the standard Neural Radiance Field (NeRF) method by considering the radiance as a function of the albedo and the irradiance. Both these quantities are output by fully connected neural network branches of the model, and the latter is considered as a function of the direct light from the sun and the diffuse color from the sky. The implementations were run on a dataset of satellite images, augmented using a zoom-and-crop technique. A hyperparameter study for NeRF was carried out, leading to intriguing observations on the model's convergence. Finally, both NeRF and S-NeRF were run until 100k epochs in order to fully fit the data and produce their best possible predictions. The code related to this article can be found at https://github.com/fsemerar/surfnerf

Imaging the Centromedian Thalamic Nucleus Using Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping.

The centromedian (CM) nucleus is an intralaminar thalamic nucleus that is considered as a potentially effective target of deep brain stimulation (DBS) and ablative surgeries for the treatment of multiple neurological and psychiatric disorders. However, the structure of CM is invisible on the standard T1- and T2-weighted (T1w and T2w) magnetic resonance images, which hamper it as a direct DBS target for clinical applications. The purpose of the current study is to demonstrate the use of quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) technique to image the CM within the thalamic region. Twelve patients with Parkinson's disease, dystonia, or schizophrenia were included in this study. A 3D multi-echo gradient recalled echo (GRE) sequence was acquired together with T1w and T2w images on a 3-T MR scanner. The QSM image was reconstructed from the GRE phase data. Direct visual inspection of the CM was made on T1w, T2w, and QSM images. Furthermore, the contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs) of the CM to the adjacent posterior part of thalamus on T1w, T2w, and QSM images were compared using the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. QSM dramatically improved the visualization of the CM nucleus. Clear delineation of CM compared to the surroundings was observed on QSM but not on T1w and T2w images. Statistical analysis showed that the CNR on QSM was significantly higher than those on T1w and T2w images. Taken together, our results indicate that QSM is a promising technique for improving the visualization of CM as a direct targeting for DBS surgery

Evaluating the theory of bone mechanoregulation in the physiological loading scenario

In this paper, the theory of bone mechanoregulation under physiological loading was evaluated. The entire right tibiae of wild type (WT, N=5) and parathyroid hormone (PTH, N=5) treated C57BL/6J female mice were scanned using an in vivo μCT imaging system at 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 weeks. The PTH intervention started from week 18 until week 22. Subject-specific finite element (FE) models were created from the μCT images and physiological loading condition was defined in the FE models. The rates of changes in bone mineral content (BMC), bone mineral density (BMD), and bone tissue density (TMD) were quantified over 40 anatomical compartments across the entire mouse tibia. The resulting values were then correlated to the average 1st principal tensile strain (ε1) and the strain energy density (SED) for every compartment at weeks 18, 20, and 22. It was found that: in both groups, ε1 had a minimal effect on the variability of ΔBMC (p>0.01); SED had a significant effect on the variability of ΔBMC only in the WT group (p0.01). These results are the first to reveal the mechanism of bone mechanoregulation in the physiological loading scenario

Effect of Initial Orientation on the Laser-Induced Cycloaddition Reaction of Benzene and Ethylene

The [2 + 2] photocycloaddition reaction of benzene and ethylene was investigated by semiclassical dynamics simulation and complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) ab initio calculations. Following laser excitation of the benzene molecule, two mechanisms were observed depending on the location of the second C of ethylene in relation to the hexagonal prism space defined by the first C and the plane of the benzene ring. Synchronous formation of two bonds was observed when the second C is outside the prism space; an asynchronous mechanism is observed otherwise. Charge transfer was observed only in the asynchronous mechanism; CASSCF calculations suggest that the asynchronous mechanism involves a barrierless path from the Frank-Condon point to a conical intersection, while the synchronous mechanism involves 0.8 eV barrier. These results are consistent with a higher quantum yield observed in the simulations for the asynchronous pathway

Cellular crosstalk of macrophages and therapeutic implications in non-small cell lung cancer revealed by integrative inference of single-cell transcriptomics

Introduction: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) exhibits heterogeneity with diverse immune cell infiltration patterns that can influence tumor cell behavior and immunotherapy. A comprehensive characterization of the tumor microenvironment can guide precision medicine.Methods: Here, we generated a single-cell atlas of 398170 cells from 52 NSCLC patients, and investigated the imprinted genes and cellular crosstalk for macrophages. Subsequently, we evaluated the effect of tumor cells on macrophages and verified the expression of marker genes using co-culture experiments, flow cytometry and RT-qPCR assays.Results: Remarkable macrophage adaptability to NSCLC environment was observed, which contributed to generating tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). We identified 5 distinct functional TAM subtypes, of which the majority were SELENOP-positive macrophages, with high levels of SLC40A1 and CCL13. The TAMs were also involved in mediating CD8+ T cell activity and form intercellular interaction with cancer cells, as indicated by receptor-ligand binding. Indirect coculture of tumor cells SPC-A1 and THP-1 monocytes, produced M2-like TAMs that highly expressed several markers of SELENOP-positive macrophages. The abundance of this type TAMs seemed to be associated with poorer overall survival rates [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.34, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.98-1.83, p = 0.068] based on deconvolution of TCGA-LUAD dataset.Discussion: In summary, we provided a high-resolution molecular resource of TAMs, and displayed the acquired properties in the tumor microenvironment. Dynamic crosstalk between TAMs and tumor cells via multiple ligand-receptor pairs were revealed, emphasizing its role in sustaining the pro-tumoral microenvironment and its implications for cancer therapy

Fixed-Life or Rechargeable Batteries for Deep Brain Stimulation: Preference and Satisfaction Among Patients With Hyperkinetic Movement Disorders

Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an established treatment for hyperkinetic movement disorders. Patients undergoing DBS can choose between the use of a rechargeable or non-rechargeable battery for implanted pulse generators (IPG).Objectives: In this study, we aimed to evaluate patient preferences and satisfaction with rechargeable and non-rechargeable batteries for IPGs after undergoing DBS.Methods: Overall, 100 patients with hyperkinetic movement disorders (dystonia: 79, Tourette syndrome: 21) who had undergone DBS took a self-designed questionnaire to assess their satisfaction and experience with the type of battery they had chosen and the factors influencing their choice.Results: Of the participants, 87% were satisfied with the stimulating effects of the treatment as well as the implanted device; 76% had chosen rechargeable devices (r-IPGs), 71.4% of whom recharged the battery themselves. Economic factors were the main reason for choosing both r-IPG and non-rechargeable IPG (nr-IPG). The questionnaire revealed that 66% of the patients checked their r-IPG battery every week. The mean interval for battery recharge was 4.3 days.Conclusions: The majority of the patients were satisfied with their in-service-IPG, regardless of whether it was a r-IPG or nr-IPG. Affordability was the main factor influencing the choice of IPG. The majority of the patients were confident in recharging the battery of their r-IPG themselves; only 11% of patients experienced difficulties. Understanding the recharge process remains difficult for some patients and increasing the number of training sessions for the device may be helpful