Strategic public relations management in China

The purpose of this study was to explore the current status of the strategic public relations management in China. This study is the first to apply the generic principles of excellent public relations in China. Surveys and in-depth interviews were used to address five research questions: (1) practitioners’ strategic public relations practice, (2) their relationship with the dominant coalition, (3) communication models in use, (4) proficiency in practicing the managerial and technical roles, and (5) the challenges facing public relations industry were explored as research questions. The study results suggested that public relations was hardly managed in a strategic manner in China. We found that public relations (1) was mostly involved in the technician role and not in organizational policy making, (2) was not a member of the dominant coalitions, did it have convenient reporting lines to senior management, and was considered less valuable than marketing and public affairs by senior management (3) the press agentry model was used the most prominently in China—in agreement with previous literature—whereas two-way symmetrical communications was not practiced frequently, and (5) that the current knowledge in how to manage seems insufficient and the profession may benefit from professional training and formal education

Programmable Software-Defined Testbed for Visible Light UAV Networks: Architecture Design and Implementation

As of Today, There Has Been Increasing Research on Designing Optimization Algorithms and Intelligent Network Control Methods for Visible Light Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Networks to Provide Pervasive and Broadband Connections. for Those Theoretical Analysis based Algorithms, there is an Urgent Need to Have a Visible Light UAV Network Platform that Can Help Evaluate the Proposed Algorithms in Real-World Scenarios. However, to the Best of Our Knowledge, there is Currently No Dedicated High Data Rate and Flexible Visible Light UAV Networking Prototype. to Bridge This Gap, in This Paper, We First Design a Novel Programmable Software-Defined Architecture for Visible Light UAV Networking, Including Control Plane, Network Plane, Signal Processing Chain and Front-Ends Plane, and Ground Facility Plane. We Then Implement a Prototype and Conduct Numerous Experiments to Validate the Feasibility of Visible-Light UAV Networks and Further Evaluate the System Performance Pertaining to Achievable Data Rate and Transmission Distance. the Real-Time Video Streaming Experimental Results Show that Up to 550 Kbps Data Rate and a Maximum Distance of 7 Meters Can Be Achieved

Exploring the Innovation System of the Animation Industry: Case study of a Chinese Company

In the past 10 years, the animation industry has developed rapidly due to new technology and market expansion. Leading firms such as Disney are continuously seeking strategies to expand business towards products and service innovation, whereas Pixar and DreamWorks focus mainly on technology management. Driven by market and government policy, there is a blooming of the animation industry in China. However, most Chinese companies, in shortage of knowledge and experience, are unclear about innovation strategies. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the innovation system of China’s animation industry as a late comer. The literature is covered together with an industry review. To further explore the details, an in-depth case study into a Chinese company is conducted. This company has developed an open innovation system by interacting with industry, university and government; meanwhile, it is penetrating into the character business and service sector, seeking for sustainability. Findings indicate that a combination of internal knowledge management and open innovation is important; government plays a vital role at the early stage of forming the innovation system; innovation is a dynamic process with different configurations at each stage. Discussions are given to address the critical issues of the innovation system in the animation industry, followed by conclusions and recommendations for future research areas

Leicester Public Schools Information and Data Portal: Research and Recommendations

The purpose of this project is to develop a strategy for the creation of a multifaceted portal to help with the organization and dissemination of information about the Leicester public school district. The functionality of this portal is to provide comparative financial, demographic, and academic data to other relative school districts in the area, both for the parents’ and for the city’s reference. It will be an examination into the best practices for creating a portal, both technological and aesthetic recommendations, as well as research into the value the publication of this data would provide for the parents of current and prospective students as well as the district and the greater town. As for a basic overview, this project will examine four comparable Massachusetts districts’ data, Milbury, Abington, Avon, and Uxbridge, and construct some visual representations of comparable statistics. The key areas to be compared are: for financial, the total budget, per pupil expenditure, and Chapter 70 money; for academic, MCAS percentage proficient and advanced, SAT scores, and number of AP tests taken; and for demographic, graduation rate, attendance rate, and dropout rate. The secondary part of the project is a best practices recommendation which will be comprised of two parts: technological tools and aesthetics/usability, which will be supported with a discussion about the value this type of portal would have for a school district

Geometric entangling gates for coupled cavity system in decoherence-free subspaces

We propose a scheme to implement geometric entangling gates for two logical qubits in a coupled cavity system in decoherence-free subspaces. Each logical qubit is encoded with two atoms trapped in a single cavity and the geometric entangling gates are achieved by cavity coupling and controlling the external classical laser fields. Based on the coupled cavity system, the scheme allows the scalability for quantum computing and relaxes the requirement for individually addressing atoms.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Molecular dynamics and machine learning in catalysts

Given the importance of catalysts in the chemical industry, they have been extensively investigated by experimental and numerical methods. With the development of computational algorithms and computer hardware, large-scale simulations have enabled influential studies with more atomic details reflecting microscopic mechanisms. This review provides a comprehensive summary of recent developments in molecular dynamics, including ab initio molecular dynamics and reaction force-field molecular dynamics. Recent research on both approaches to catalyst calculations is reviewed, including growth, dehydrogenation, hydrogenation, oxidation reactions, bias, and recombination of carbon materials that can guide catalyst calculations. Machine learning has attracted increasing interest in recent years, and its combination with the field of catalysts has inspired promising development approaches. Its applications in machine learning potential, catalyst design, performance prediction, structure optimization, and classification have been summarized in detail. This review hopes to shed light and perspective on ML approaches in catalysts

Improving fermentative hydrogen and methane production from an algal bloom through hydrothermal/steam acid pretreatment

Algal blooms can be harvested as renewable biomass waste for gaseous biofuel production. However, the rigid cell structure of raw algae may hinder efficient microbial conversion for production of biohydrogen and biomethane. To improve the energy conversion efficiency, biomass from an algal bloom in Dianchi Lake was subjected to a hydrothermal/steam acid pretreatment prior to sequential dark hydrogen fermentation and anaerobic digestion. Results from X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy suggest that hydrothermal acid pretreatment leads to stronger damage of the amorphous structure (including hemicellulose and amorphous cellulose) due to the acid pretreatment, as evidenced by the higher crystallinity index. Scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that smaller fragments (∼5 mm) and wider cell gaps (∼1 μm) on algal cell surfaces occurred after pretreatment. In comparison to steam acid pretreatment, hydrothermal acid pretreatment resulted in a maximum energy conversion efficiency of 44.1% as well as production of 24.96 mL H2/g total volatile solids (TVS) and 299.88 mL CH4/g TVS

Mendelian randomization analysis identified tumor necrosis factor as being associated with severe COVID-19

Background: Observational studies have shown that anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy may be beneficial for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Nevertheless, because of the methodological restrictions of traditional observational studies, it is a challenge to make causal inferences. This study involved a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis to investigate the causal link between nine TNFs and COVID-19 severity using publicly released genome-wide association study summary statistics.Methods: Summary statistics for nine TNFs (21,758 cases) were obtained from a large-scale genome-wide association study. Correlation data between single-nucleotide polymorphisms and severe COVID-19 (18,152 cases vs. 1,145,546 controls) were collected from the COVID-19 host genetics initiative. The causal estimate was calculated by inverse variance-weighted (IVW), MR–Egger, and weighted median methods. Sensitivity tests were conducted to assess the validity of the causal relationship.Results: Genetically predicted TNF receptor superfamily member 6 (FAS) positively correlated with the severity of COVID-19 (IVW, odds ratio = 1.10, 95% confidence interval = 1.01–1.19, p = 0.026), whereas TNF receptor superfamily member 5 (CD40) was protective against severe COVID-19 (IVW, odds ratio = 0.92, 95% confidence interval = 0.87–0.97, p = 0.002).Conclusion: Genetic evidence from this study supports that the increased expression of FAS is associated with the risk of severe COVID-19 and that CD40 may have a potential protective effect against COVID-19