The mixed economy in China: through rhetorical perspective

Mixed economies gradually emerge in many countries. China is no exception. China's traditional planned economy system is limited to state-owned enterprises, which are undergoing reform. In the private sector, the market system has begun to play a dominant role. The coexistence of the planned system and the market system, as well as governmental intervention and regulated policies, constitute China's mixed economy. In this thesis, I try to evaluate Deng Xiaoping's speeches through rhetorical analysis in order to justify China's economic policies. In addition, I illustrate some historical and cultural factors that would affect Chinese ideas towards the market economy

Modelling and performance analysis of vaneless counter rotating turbine in gas turbine engines

The objective of this article is to develop a method for 1+1/2 type vaneless counter rotating turbine (VCRT) modelling in gas turbine engines and to analyse the influence of the VCRT on a turbofan engine. By studying the off-design features of the VCRT, a new method to describe the VCRT characteristic map was established. The new turbine maps were integrated into the gas turbine performance simulation model based on component maps. The throttle performance of a low bypass counter rotating turbofan engine was simulated and the results were validated with engine test data. The validation results show that the new method improves the accuracy of the VCRT engine performance simulation. The influence of the VCRT on the engine steady state performance was illuminated by comparing the performance of a VCRT engine with that of a conventional engine. Under low engine load conditions, the insufficient work capacity of the VCRT low pressure turbine was detected due to the decrease of both its efficiency and pressure ratio. Consequently, the VCRT engine’s turbine inlet temperature, fan rotating speed, mass flow rate and engine thrust decreased while its specific fuel consumption increased compared to that of a conventional engine

X-ray fluorescence induced by standing waves in the grazing-incidence and grazing-exit modes: study of the Mg--Co--Zr system

We present the characterization of Mg-Co-Zr tri-layer stacks by using x-ray fluorescence induced by x-ray standing waves, both in the grazing incidence (GI) and grazing exit (GE) modes. The introduction of a slit in the direction of the detector improves the angular resolution by a factor 2 and significantly the sensitivity of the technique for the chemical characterization of the buried interfaces. By observing the intensity variations of the Mg Kalpha and Co Lalpha characteristic emissions as a function of the incident (GI mode) or detection (GE mode) angle, we show that the interfaces of the Si/[Mg/Co/Zr] x30 multilayer are abrupt, whereas in the Si/[Mg/Zr/Co] x30 multilayer a strong intermixing occurs at the Co-on-Zr interfaces. The explanation of this opposite behaviour of the Co-on-Zr and Zr-on-Co interfacesis given by the calculation of the mixing enthalpies of the Co-Mg, Co-Zr and Mg-Zr systems, which shows that the Co-Zr system presents anegative value and the two others positive values. Together with the difference of the surface free energies of Zr and Co, this leads us to consider the Mg/Zr/Co system as aMg/Co x Zr y bi-layer stack, with x/y estimated around 3.5.Comment: Published in Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 22, 1419 (2015)http://scripts.iucr.org/cgi-bin/paper?S160057751501623

Attention Performance Measured by Attention Network Test Is Correlated with Global and Regional Efficiency of Structural Brain Networks

Functional neuroimaging studies have indicated the involvement of separate brain areas in three distinct attention systems: alerting, orienting and executive control (EC). However, the structural correlates underlying attention remains unexplored. Here, we utilized graph theory to examine the neuroanatomical substrates of the three attention systems measured by attention network test (ANT) in 65 healthy subjects. White matter connectivity, assessed with DTI deterministic tractography was modeled as a structural network comprising 90 nodes defined by the Automated Anatomical Labeling (AAL) template. Linear regression analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between topological parameters and the three attentional effects. We found a significant positive correlation between EC function and global efficiency of the whole brain network. At the regional level, node-specific correlations were discovered between regional efficiency and all three ANT components, including dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus, thalamus and parahippocampal gyrus for EC, thalamus and inferior parietal gyrus for alerting, and paracentral lobule and inferior occipital gyrus for orienting. Our findings highlight the fundamental architecture of interregional structural connectivity involved in attention and could provide new insights into the anatomical basis underlying human behavior

Quantitative trait locus mapping and candidate gene analysis for salt tolerance at bud stage in rice

Soil salinization has a serious influence on rice yield and quality. How to enhance salt tolerance in rice is a topical issue. In this study, 120 recombinant inbred line populations were generated through nonstop multi-generation selfing using a male indica rice variety Huazhan (Oryza sativa L. subsp. indica cv. ‘HZ’) and a female variety of Nekken2 (Oryza sativa L. subsp. japonica cv. ‘Nekken2’) as the parents. Germination under 80 mM NaCl conditions was measured and analyzed, and quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping was completed using a genetic map. A total of 16 salt-tolerance QTL ranges were detected at bud stage in rice, which were situated on chromosomes 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. The maximum limit of detection was 4.69. Moreover, the qST12.3 was narrowed to a 192 kb region on chromosome 12 using map-based cloning strategy. Statistical analysis of the expression levels of these candidate genes under different NaCl concentrations by qRT-PCR revealed that qST12.3 (LOC_Os12g25200) was significantly down-regulated with increasing NaCl concentration, and the expression level of the chlorine-transporter-encoding gene LOC_Os12g25200 in HZ was significantly higher than that of Nekken2 under 0 mM NaCl. Sequencing analysis of LOC_Os12g25200 promoter region indicated that the gene expression difference between parents may be due to eight base differences in the promoter region. Through QTL mining and analysis, a plurality of candidate genes related to salt tolerance in rice was obtained, and the results showed that LOC_Os12g25200 might negatively regulate salt tolerance in rice. The results provide the basis for further screening and cultivation of salt-tolerant rice varieties and have laid the foundation for elucidating further molecular regulation mechanisms of salt tolerance in rice

A compendium of genetic regulatory effects across pig tissues

The Farm Animal Genotype-Tissue Expression (FarmGTEx) project has been established to develop a public resource of genetic regulatory variants in livestock, which is essential for linking genetic polymorphisms to variation in phenotypes, helping fundamental biological discovery and exploitation in animal breeding and human biomedicine. Here we show results from the pilot phase of PigGTEx by processing 5,457 RNA-sequencing and 1,602 whole-genome sequencing samples passing quality control from pigs. We build a pig genotype imputation panel and associate millions of genetic variants with five types of transcriptomic phenotypes in 34 tissues. We evaluate tissue specificity of regulatory effects and elucidate molecular mechanisms of their action using multi-omics data. Leveraging this resource, we decipher regulatory mechanisms underlying 207 pig complex phenotypes and demonstrate the similarity of pigs to humans in gene expression and the genetic regulation behind complex phenotypes, supporting the importance of pigs as a human biomedical model.</p

Attribute-enhanced metric learning for face retrieval

Abstract Metric learning is a significant factor for media retrieval. In this paper, we propose an attribute label enhanced metric learning model to assist face image retrieval. Different from general cross-media retrieval, in the proposed model, the information of attribute labels are embedded in a hypergraph metric learning framework for face image retrieval tasks. The attribute labels serve to build a hypergraph, in which each image is abstracted as a vertex and is contained in several hyperedges. The learned hypergraph combines the attribute label to reform the topology of image similarity relationship. With the mined correlation among multiple facial attributes, the reformed metrics incorporates the semantic information in the general image similarity measure. We apply the metric learning strategy to both similarity face retrieval and interactive face retrieval. The proposed metric learning model effectively narrows down the semantic gap between human and machine face perception. The learned distance metric not only increases the precision of similarity retrieval but also speeds up the convergence distinctively in interactive face retrieval

Predictions of stress distribution and material flow in coining process for bi-material commemorative coin

Bi-material commemorative coins have the characteristics of weight reduction, beauty and corrosion resistance. However, due to different characteristics of bi-materials, defects such as stress concentration, drop of inner core and micro-cracks often occur at interface of materials in usage. Engineers usually employ multiple mold trials to check the bonding state of two material regions, judge the stress concentration area and modify the process to avoid micro-crack sprout. Based on the professional metal forming software Deform 3D, stress distribution and material flow in coining processes for single and bi- material commemorative coins are studied. Numerical examples demonstrate that there are three typical stages over the whole process whether the coin is single or bi- material. And stress concentrations appear at the corners of upper/lower dies and the material interface in case of bi-material. The former concentration lead to sprout of micro-cracks along the shear bands and the latter triggers cracks at the interface. In addition, two materials with different hardness are adopted in the core and ring, respectively, to investigate the mutual interaction behavior at interface. Numerical findings indicate that large strains occur at the edge and the interface in case of bi-material with soft core. These imply that deep adhesion happens at the interface in case of that soft material is in the core. It suggests that hard material in the inner core and soft one in the outer ring may cause falling of the core

Cooperative Effect of Li Content and Equal-Channel Angular Pressing on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Al-Mg-Li Alloy

This paper investigated the cooperative effects of Li addition and warm Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) on improving the mechanical properties of an Al-Mg-Li alloy for further weight reduction. The results showed that more Li addition could obviously refine the grains of the as-cast alloy and reduce its density value to only 2.37 g/cm3 when Li content reached 2.5% (about 12.6% lighter than commercial Al alloys). It also had a pronounced influence on the precipitations in the Al-5.5Mg-xLi-0.1Zr alloy, i.e., the number density and size of Al2MgLi and δ’-Al3Li phases. The yield strength of the as-cast alloy was increased with increasing Li, but the elongation deteriorated due to primary network intergranular Al2MgLi and more δ’ particles in the high Li-containing alloy. The warm multi-pass ECAP process was found to simultaneously improve the strength and ductility of the Al-Mg-Li alloys, and greatly alleviate the detrimental effect of Li addition on the elongation, thereby making the ultrafine-grained (UFG) alloys, a good combination of lightweight and high performance, very attractive for aerospace applications for much higher specific strength than both Al matrix composites and Mg alloys