Guanxi and the organization of Chinese new year festivals in England

This article explores how Chinese diaspora communities use guanxi, a unique Chinese interpretation of personal relationships, in the organization of Chinese New Year (CNY) festivals in England. A case-study approach that incorporated mixed qualitative methods was used to investigate the interactions and interrelationships between the ethnic Chinese communities involved in the organization of CNY festivals in five English cities. The article argues that Chinese diaspora communities use their guanxi to establish collaboration at CNY festivals. However, the process of organizing CNY festivals has also exposed divisions among Chinese communities. The article proposes that guanxi has important implications for the relationships among Chinese diaspora communities in the context of CNY festivals. Although it facilitates collaboration and promotes solidarity among Chinese communities, it may also intensify competition for power. Diaspora festivals in general are a neglected area of research and this article is the first to study the organization of Chinese New Year festivals in detail

New Structured Matrix Methods for Real and Complex Polynomial Root-finding

We combine the known methods for univariate polynomial root-finding and for computations in the Frobenius matrix algebra with our novel techniques to advance numerical solution of a univariate polynomial equation, and in particular numerical approximation of the real roots of a polynomial. Our analysis and experiments show efficiency of the resulting algorithms.Comment: 18 page

The Quantum Interference Computer: an experimental proposal

An experiment is proposed to test the interference aspect of the Quantum Interference Computer approachComment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Antidote application: an educational system for treatment of common toxin overdose

Poisonings account for almost 1% of emergency room visits each year. Time is a critical factor in dealing with a toxicologic emergency. Delay in dispensing the first antidote dose can lead to life-threatening sequelae. Current toxicological resources that support treatment decisions are broad in scope, time-consuming to read, or at times unavailable. Our review of current toxicological resources revealed a gap in their ability to provide expedient calculations and recommendations about appropriate course of treatment. To bridge the gap, we developed the Antidote Application (AA), a computational system that automatically provides patient-specific antidote treatment recommendations and individualized dose calculations. We implemented 27 algorithms that describe FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration) approved use and evidence-based practices found in primary literature for the treatment of common toxin exposure. The AA covers 29 antidotes recommended by Poison Control and toxicology experts, 19 poison classes and 31 poisons, which represent over 200 toxic entities. To the best of our knowledge, the AA is the first educational decision support system in toxicology that provides patient-specific treatment recommendations and drug dose calculations. The AA is publicly available at http://projects.met- hilab.org/antidote/

Short-Baseline Electron Neutrino Oscillation Length After Troitsk

We discuss the implications for short-baseline electron neutrino disappearance in the 3+1 mixing scheme of the recent Troitsk bounds on the mixing of a neutrino with mass between 2 and 100 eV. Considering the Troitsk data in combination with the results of short-baseline nu_e and antinu_e disappearance experiments, which include the reactor and Gallium anomalies, we derive a 2 sigma allowed range for the effective neutrino squared-mass difference between 0.85 and 43 eV^2. The upper bound implies that it is likely that oscillations in distance and/or energy can be observed in radioactive source experiments. It is also favorable for the ICARUS@CERN experiment, in which it is likely that oscillations are not washed-out in the near detector. We discuss also the implications for neutrinoless double-beta decay.Comment: 5 pages. Final version published in Phys.Rev. D87 (2013) 01300

Numerical simulation of solid tumor blood perfusion and drug delivery during the “vascular normalization window” with antiangiogenic therapy

This Article is provided by the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund - Copyright @ 2011 Hindawi PublishingTo investigate the influence of vascular normalization on solid tumor blood perfusion and drug delivery, we used the generated blood vessel network for simulations. Considering the hemodynamic parameters changing after antiangiogenic therapies, the results show that the interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) in tumor tissue domain decreases while the pressure gradient increases during the normalization window. The decreased IFP results in more efficient delivery of conventional drugs to the targeted cancer cells. The outcome of therapies will improve if the antiangiogenic therapies and conventional therapies are carefully scheduled