A New Model for Globalization in the Film Industry: Lessons from Sino-US Film Co-productions

International co-productions have become a dominant practice in the film industry. Within this emerging trend, China has become a major participant and is using it as an important method to enter the global market. Despite the enhanced globalization of the film industry, many preceding studies consider it as a national industry and investigate it from this context. Therefore, this paper uses the concept of the global value chain in order to understand more effectively the fragmentation of the film value chain. This framework helps examine how filmmakers denationalize the film value chain by collaborating with foreign partners on a global scale. This paper further conducts a case study of the Sino-US co-produced movie, The Great Wall. It was China’s most expensive movie to date, and is frequently cited as the new model for producing a “true” international co-production. This paper finds that with various tools of internationalization, international co-productions can help the Chinese side increase its involvement in all processes, and can lead to the reduction of the national identity in films. Such a process helps attract a more global audience. In addition, this paper provides useful guidelines for policy makers to respond effectively to the increasing globalization in the cultural industries

Human Chefs Cook More Calories: The Impact of Human (vs. Robotic) Food Producer on Calorie Estimation

This research explores how the production mode (human-made vs. robot-made) has an impact on calorie estimation for vice and virtue food. Across 3 studies, we find that healthy food is inferred to have more calories when it is produced by a robot than by a human whereas the effect is reversed for unhealthy food. Unhealthy food produced by a human is estimated to have more calories than the counterpart

Design of Ultra-compact Graphene-based Superscatterers

The energy-momentum dispersion relation is a fundamental property of plasmonic systems. In this paper, we show that the method of dispersion engineering can be used for the design of ultra-compact graphene-based superscatterers. Based on the Bohr model, the dispersion relation of the equivalent planar waveguide is engineered to enhance the scattering cross section of a dielectric cylinder. Bohr conditions with different orders are fulfilled in multiple dispersion curves at the same resonant frequency. Thus the resonance peaks from the first and second order scattering terms are overlapped in the deepsubwavelength scale by delicately tuning the gap thickness between two graphene layers. Using this ultra-compact graphene-based superscatterer, the scattering cross section of the dielectric cylinder can be enhanced by five orders of magnitude.Comment: This paper has been accepted by IEEE Journal of Selected topics in Quantum Electronic

13.4 % Efficiency from All-Small-Molecule Organic Solar Cells Based on a Crystalline Donor with Chlorine and Trialkylsilyl Substitutions

How to simultaneously achieve both high open-circuit voltage (Voc) and high short-circuit current density (Jsc) is a big challenge for realising high power conversion efficiency (PCE) in all-small-molecule organic solar cells (all-SM OSCs). Herein, a novel small molecule (SM)-donor, namely FYSM−SiCl, with trialkylsilyl and chlorine substitutions was designed and synthesized. Compared to the original SM-donor FYSM−H, FYSM−Si with trialkylsilyl substitution showed a decreased crystallinity and lower highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level, while FYSM−SiCl had an improved crystallinity, more ordered packing arrangement, significantly lower HOMO level, and predominant “face-on” orientation. Matched with a SM-acceptor Y6, the FYSM−SiCl-based all-SM OSCs exhibited both high Voc of 0.85 V and high Jsc of 23.7 mA cm−2, which is rare for all-SM OSCs and could be attributed to the low HOMO level of FYSM−SiCl donor and the delicate balance between high crystallinity and suitable blend morphology. As a result, FYSM−SiCl achieved a high PCE of 13.4 % in all-SM OSCs, which was much higher than those of the FYSM−H- (10.9 %) and FYSM−Si-based devices (12.2 %). This work demonstrated a promising method for the design of efficient SM-donors by a side-chain engineering strategy via the introduction of trialkylsilyl and chlorine substitutions

Identification of crucial inflammaging related risk factors in multiple sclerosis

BackgroundMultiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated disease characterized by inflammatory demyelinating lesions in the central nervous system. Studies have shown that the inflammation is vital to both the onset and progression of MS, where aging plays a key role in it. However, the potential mechanisms on how aging-related inflammation (inflammaging) promotes MS have not been fully understood. Therefore, there is an urgent need to integrate the underlying mechanisms between inflammaging and MS, where meaningful prediction models are needed.MethodsFirst, both aging and disease models were developed using machine learning methods, respectively. Then, an integrated inflammaging model was used to identify relative risk factors, by identifying essential “aging-inflammation-disease” triples. Finally, a series of bioinformatics analyses (including network analysis, enrichment analysis, sensitivity analysis, and pan-cancer analysis) were further used to explore the potential mechanisms between inflammaging and MS.ResultsA series of risk factors were identified, such as the protein homeostasis, cellular homeostasis, neurodevelopment and energy metabolism. The inflammaging indices were further validated in different cancer types. Therefore, various risk factors were integrated, and even both the theories of inflammaging and immunosenescence were further confirmed.ConclusionIn conclusion, our study systematically investigated the potential relationships between inflammaging and MS through a series of computational approaches, and could present a novel thought for other aging-related diseases

MicroRNA clusters integrate evolutionary constraints on expression and target affinities : the miR-6/5/4/286/3/309 cluster in Drosophila

This research was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council GRF Grant (14103516), The Chinese University of Hong Kong Direct Grant (4053248), and TUYF Charitable Trust (6903957) (JHLH).A striking feature of microRNAs is that they are often clustered in the genomes of animals. The functional and evolutionary consequences of this clustering remain obscure. Here, we investigated a microRNA cluster miR-6/5/4/286/3/309 that is conserved across drosophilid lineages. Small RNA sequencing revealed expression of this microRNA cluster in Drosophila melanogaster leg discs, and conditional overexpression of the whole cluster resulted in leg appendage shortening. Transgenic overexpression lines expressing different combinations of microRNA cluster members were also constructed. Expression of individual microRNAs from the cluster resulted in a normal wild-type phenotype, but either the expression of several ancient microRNAs together (miR-5/4/286/3/309) or more recently evolved clustered microRNAs (miR-6-1/2/3) can recapitulate the phenotypes generated by the whole-cluster overexpression. Screening of transgenic fly lines revealed down-regulation of leg patterning gene cassettes in generation of the leg-shortening phenotype. Furthermore, cell transfection with different combinations of microRNA cluster members revealed a suite of downstream genes targeted by all cluster members, as well as complements of targets that are unique for distinct microRNAs. Considered together, the microRNA targets and the evolutionary ages of each microRNA in the cluster demonstrates the importance of microRNA clustering, where new members can reinforce and modify the selection forces on both the cluster regulation and the gene regulatory network of existing microRNAs.PostprintPeer reviewe

ZnCuInS/ZnSe/ZnS Quantum Dot-Based Downconversion Light-Emitting Diodes and Their Thermal Effect

The quantum dot-based light-emitting diodes (QD-LEDs) were fabricated using blue GaN chips and red-, yellow-, and green-emitting ZnCuInS/ZnSe/ZnS QDs. The power efficiencies were measured as 14.0 lm/W for red, 47.1 lm/W for yellow, and 62.4 lm/W for green LEDs at 2.6 V. The temperature effect of ZnCuInS/ZnSe/ZnS QDs on these LEDs was investigated using CIE chromaticity coordinates, spectral wavelength, full width at half maximum (FWHM), and power efficiency (PE). The thermal quenching induced by the increased surface temperature of the device was confirmed to be one of the important factors to decrease power efficiencies while the CIE chromaticity coordinates changed little due to the low emission temperature coefficients of 0.022, 0.050, and 0.068 nm/°C for red-, yellow-, and green-emitting ZnCuInS/ZnSe/ZnS QDs. These indicate that ZnCuInS/ZnSe/ZnS QDs are more suitable for downconversion LEDs compared to CdSe QDs