Port Investments on Coastal and Marine Disasters Prevention: An Economic and Policy Investigation

Located along shorelines, seaports are highly vulnerable to coastal and marine natural disasters. Damage caused by disasters can be prevented or alleviated if sufficient investments are made in a timely manner. However, despite a wide range of investment options and well-developed engineering expertise, port investment on disaster prevention remains a challenging task involving great complexities. This paper develops an integrated economic model for the analysis of disaster-prevention investments at a “landlord” port. It simultaneously considers the uncertainty of disaster occurrence and associated return of prevention investments, the information accumulation and related investment timing, and the spillovers (externalities) of investment among stakeholders. Our analysis shows that the timing of port investments depends on the probability of disasters. Immediate investment is optimal for disasters with very high probability, while investment should be postponed if such a probability is very low. Optimal timing for cases of intermediate probability cannot be determined analytically, as it is influenced by other factors such as discount rate, information accumulation and efficiency of investments. Positive externalities between a port and its tenants lead to under-investment, which can be corrected by coordination between stakeholders. However, since there are risks of “over-investment” due to uncertainty, government intervention is only optimal with a good understanding of disaster probability distribution

Meal frequency and incidence of type 2 diabetes: A prospective study

Dietary habits play an important role in the development of obesity and type 2 diabetes. However, evidence on association between diet frequency and type 2 diabetes was limited and inconclusive. We aimed to examine the association between meal frequency and risk of type 2 diabetes. The cohort study used data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study of 8874 community-dwelling people aged over 45 years. Participants were classified as eating 2 meals/d, 3 meals/d and 4 meals/d. Multiple Poisson regression models were used to examine risk of 4-year incident type 2 diabetes among people who ate more or less than 3 meals/d compared with people who ate 3 meals/d. We documented 706 type 2 diabetes cases during follow-up. After adjustment for known risk factors for type 2 diabetes, except for body mass index (BMI), participants who ate 4 meals/d were at a lower risk of type 2 diabetes than those who ate 3 meals/d (RR = 0.73 [0.58, 0.92]). After further adjustment for baseline BMI, the association was slightly attenuated but remained statistically significant (RR = 0.76 [0.60, 0.97]). Subgroup analysis showed that the fully-adjusted RRs of type 2 diabetes for people eating 4 meals/day were 0.66 (0.48, 0.91) and 0.93 (0.65, 1.34) among those had a BMI < 25 and ≥ 25 kg/m2, respectively. Eating 4 meals/day, compared with eating 3 meals/day, was associated with lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes in a Chinese population, particularly in those with a BMI < 25 kg/m2Wang, X., Hu, Y., Qin, L., & Dong, J. (2021). Meal frequency and incidence of type 2 diabetes: A prospective study. British Journal of Nutrition, 1-6. doi:10.1017/S000711452100322

Effects of Magnetic Nanoparticles and External Magnetostatic Field on the Bulk Heterojunction Polymer Solar Cells

The price of energy to separate tightly bound electron-hole pair (or charge-transfer state) and extract freely movable charges from low-mobility materials represents fundamental losses for many low-cost photovoltaic devices. In bulk heterojunction (BHJ) polymer solar cells (PSCs), approximately 50% of the total efficiency lost among all energy loss pathways is due to the photogenerated charge carrier recombination within PSCs and low charge carrier mobility of disordered organic materials. To address these issues, we introduce magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and orientate these MNPS within BHJ composite by an external magnetostatic field. Over 50% enhanced efficiency was observed from BHJ PSCs incorporated with MNPs and an external magnetostatic field alignment when compared to the control BHJ PSCs. The optimization of BHJ thin film morphology, suppression of charge carrier recombination, and enhancement in charge carrier collection result in a greatly increased short-circuit current density and fill factor, as a result, enhanced power conversion efficiency. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep0926

Correlation Between Serum C-Reactive Protein And Cystatin C In Patients With Acute Cerebral Infarction And Carotid Artery Stenosis

To investigate the correlation between serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum cystatin C (Cys-C) levels in patients with acute cerebral infarction and carotid artery stenosis. Methods: From January 2015 to December 2016 admitted to our hospital new acute cerebral infarction parallel neck vascular color Doppler ultrasound examination showed 121 cases of carotid stenosis as the case group; select the same period of hospitalized patients with non-cerebrovascular disease in 50 cases As a control group. Fasting venous blood was collected on the third day after onset of the disease and serum levels of CRP and Cys-C were measured and compared. Results: Serum levels of CRP and Cys-C in case group were significantly higher than those in control group (P &lt;0.05). The correlation between serum CRP and Cys-C was found in any pairwise comparison (r = 0.4732). The level of CRP and Cys-C were closely related to the degree of carotid artery stenosis (P &lt;0.05). Conclusion: The combined detection of serum CRP and Cys-C levels can be used to evaluate the degree of carotid artery stenosis in patients with acute cerebral infarction and provide a reference for the next carotid endarterectomy

Realization of all-optical underdamped stochastic Stirling engine

We experimentally demonstrate a nano-scale stochastic Stirling heat engine operating in the underdamped regime. The setup involves an optically levitated silica particle that is subjected to a power-varying optical trap and periodically coupled to a cold/hot reservoir via switching on/off active feedback cooling. We conduct a systematic investigation of the engine's performance and find that both the output work and efficiency approach their theoretical limits under quasi-static conditions. Furthermore, we examine the dependence of the output work fluctuation on the cycle time and temperature difference between the hot and cold reservoirs. We observe that the distribution has a Gaussian profile in the quasi-static regime, whereas it becomes asymmetric and non-Gaussian as the cycle duration time decreases. This non-Gaussianity is qualitatively attributed to the strong correlation of the particle's position within a cycle in the non-equilibrium regime. Our experiments provide valuable insights into stochastic thermodynamics in the underdamped regime and open up new possibilities for the design of future nano-machines