26729 research outputs found
Sort by
Public land sales and the political cycle in China
Get PDFThis study analyzed the influence of the political cycle on public land transfer. In this paper, the Party Congress is taken as a political cycle, and we construct a model to discuss the relationship between public land sales and the political cycle. The empirical analysis is based on the land transfer panel data of prefecture-level cities from 2002 to 2018. The main results show that the land transfer area and land transfer income show a downward trend in the early stage of the Party Congress, while the land transfer area and land transfer income show an upward trend after the Party Congress. We believe that the political cycle has a significant impact on the supply of public land. The reason is that the political uncertainty in the early stage of the Party Congress is very high, and the impact of the land transfer on tax revenue and economic growth lags behind. Officials reduce the valuation of future income and thus reduce land transfer. As political uncertainty abated after the party congress, local officials joined the promotion race, offering land to attract investment and boost economic growth
Exosomes in the diagnosis and treatment of renal cell cancer
Get PDFRenal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most prevalent type of kidney cancer originating from renal tubular epithelial cells, with clear cell RCC comprising approximately 80% of cases. The primary treatment modalities for RCC are surgery and targeted therapy, albeit with suboptimal efficacies. Despite progress in RCC research, significant challenges persist, including advanced distant metastasis, delayed diagnosis, and drug resistance. Growing evidence suggests that extracellular vesicles (EVs) play a pivotal role in multiple aspects of RCC, including tumorigenesis, metastasis, immune evasion, and drug response. These membrane-bound vesicles are released into the extracellular environment by nearly all cell types and are capable of transferring various bioactive molecules, including RNA, DNA, proteins, and lipids, aiding intercellular communication. The molecular cargo carried by EVs renders them an attractive resource for biomarker identification, while their multifarious role in the RCC offers opportunities for diagnosis and targeted interventions, including EV-based therapies. As the most versatile type of EVs, exosomes have attracted much attention as nanocarriers of biologicals, with multi-range signaling effects. Despite the growing interest in exosomes, there is currently no widely accepted consensus on their subtypes and properties. The emerging heterogeneity of exosomes presents both methodological challenges and exciting opportunities for diagnostic and clinical interventions. This article reviews the characteristics and functions of exosomes, with a particular reference to the recent advances in their application to the diagnosis and treatment of RCC
Cracks in the unity of theory and practice: the London Filmmakers Co-op in the 1970s
No full textIt is difficult to think of an artform more thoroughly theorised by its practicioners during the Twentieth Century than the avant-garde film. Stretching from Eisenstein and Vertov, through Jean Epstein, Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Gregory Markopolous, Peter Kubelka, Hollis Frampton etc, filmmakers wrote discourse to accompany their largely non-discursive works, often in explicit defiance of their mainstream counterpart of the narrative feature film, against which many grew increasingly hostile.
This paper will explore how this oppositional embattlement reached its apotheosis (or nadir) in the writings produced by the London Filmmakers Co-op in the 1970s, particularly the work of Malcolm LeGrice and Peter Gidal. The LFMC had been formed in the mid-60s, but it wasn't until the early 1970s that the filmmakers began their prodigious theoretical output. Their writing was borne of the same post-1968 Althusser-infused Brechtianism which informed Screen theory. However, they rejected as "illusionism" even Godard, in favour of their films' purported "materialism." They did so through the cultivation of a doctrine which was essentially a politicisation of the axioms of American structural film, a doctrine which was in fact, this paper will argue, signally incapable of doing justice to their aesthetically important films
A collaborative inquiry into integrating Artificial Intelligence into curriculum design: an institutional autoethnography
No full textThis study aims to explore the experiences of higher education faculty in redesigning an undergraduate program to incorporate Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and social robots such as ChatGPT4 and Dall-E. The study examines how faculty integrate A.I. into the curriculum while navigating issues of academic integrity and assessment, and how this impacts graduate employability. The study proposes the concept of "technocapital" as a way to measure the impact of A.I. on students' digital literacy and media and information literacy. The study also examines the emerging concept of computational literacy in relation to A.I. The study presents an autoethnography that explores the institutional texts, policies, and ruling relations that impact program design and reaccreditation. Ultimately, the study seeks to provide insights and recommendations for institutions looking to incorporate A.I. into their curricula while addressing issues of academic integrity, assessment, and graduate employability
Policy experimentation within flood risk management: transition pathways in Austria
Get PDFFlood risk management (FRM) is facing various challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity losses. Traditional structural FRM measures are now not always feasible as responses to these challenges. One answer might be the use of policy experiments to promote innovation. This paper aims to assess and to explain why innovations in FRM are rarely implemented. We analysed seven innovative strategies across Austria that combine several different approaches. Each is concerned with risk reduction systems designed to save space, time and possible rising costs. The research used 76 qualitative standardised semi-structured interviews with key FRM experts conducted between 2012 and 2021 in order to examine transition pathways through time. The results show that there exist numerous drivers and barriers to debating, designing and implementing FRM innovations. The capture of transition pathways nevertheless shows the system shift from a more traditional understanding towards a transformative path, which created new understandings of the role of the different actors in FRM as well as new institutional settings. However, these policy experiments were still led by the relevant public administrations as they are the main funders, the principal actors in the planning and implementation phases in the realisation of many of these innovations
The state of research in green marketing: a bibliometric review from 2005 to 2022
Get PDFGreen products are composed of renewable resources and aim to minimize waste by maximizing resource efficiency. Some examples of green products are recycled paper, herbal products, and energy-saving bulbs, which are easily recycled and benefit the environment by reducing waste during manufacturing. Consumers and organizations are becoming more environmentally conscious. Consumer adoption of green products, environmental activism, and stringent regulations can significantly reduce environmental degradation. The main focus of this paper is to consolidate findings on green marketing through a bibliometric study of articles published from 2011 to 23 May 2022 and present the results in a meaningful manner. In this study, we used VOSviewer software to map crucial current trends. It was observed that the key words sustainable, ethical, green, ecological, and eco-friendly marketing have received considerable attention in green marketing during the last decade
Trackman 4: Within and between-session reliability and inter-relationships of launch monitor metrics during indoor testing in high-level golfers
Get PDFThe aims of the present study were to: 1) investigate the within and between-session reliability of the Trackman 4 launch monitor system, and 2) determine the inter-relationships of some of these commonly used metrics. Golfers attended two test sessions at an indoor golf academy and performed 10 shots using their own driver. Results showed excellent within and between-session reliability for CHS (ICC = 0.99; SEM = 1.64-1.67 mph), ball speed (ICC = 0.97-0.99; SEM = 2.46-4.42 mph) and carry distance (ICC = 0.91-0.97; SEM = 7.80-14.21 mph). In contrast, spin rate showed the worst reliability (ICC = 0.02-0.60; SEM = 240.93-454.62 º/s) and also exhibited significant differences between test sessions (g = -0.41; p < 0.05), as did smash factor (g = 0.47; p < 0.05) and dynamic loft (g = -0.21; p < 0.05). Near perfect associations were evident in both test sessions between CHS and ball speed (r = 0.98-0.99), CHS and carry distance (r = 0.94-0.95), ball speed and carry distance (r = 0.97-0.98), and launch angle and dynamic loft (r = 0.98-0.99). Collectively, CHS, ball speed and carry distance serve as the most consistently reliable metrics making them excellent choices for practitioners working with golfers
A transdisciplinary exploration of interpretability and trust of advanced software with the Australian Proptech community of practice
Get PDFThis research explores the notion of interpretability and trust of advanced software in the context of the Australian Proptech community of practice. It does so through a transdisciplinary qualitative and reflexive research methodology that embeds findings with a creative artefact: an ethnographic novel.
This research was catalysed by a practice paradigm that Humphreys (2009) refers to as “epistemic opacity”. The paradigm can be understood as the pairing of these two predicaments:
1. Brewer’s (2016) predicament of knowledge that rhetorically asks: How do we process information when the volume of information available surpasses our processing power?
Where the solution to the first predicament requires advanced software, it presupposes the second predicament:
2. That which Humphrey’s (2009) refers to as the anthropocentric predicament: How do we, as humans, understand computationally based scientific methods that transcend our own abilities? Or in simpler terms, how can we trust that which, even with radical transparency, we cannot understand?
There is an empirical link between trust and adoption (Bedué and Fritzsche, 2022; also, Chen and Park, 2021) and so mistrust can lead to a lack of adoption and scepticism from users, impacting the success of Proptech solutions but in its most perverse form, epistemic opacity can enable the manipulation and exploitation of a user base itself. This research explores interpretability as a notion that may remediate epistemic opacity and bridge the gap of trust over privileged knowledge between the user and the creators of these solutions.
As a practitioner-researcher in this context, I have explored, through interviews and reflexive journaling, the Australian Proptech community of practice as both a hub of influence for implementing interpretability in future development pathways but also as a source of social learning. I have adapted Scholz and Steiner’s Architecture of Knowledge (2015) as a framework for integrating various ethnographic research methods with my own practical experience to create new knowledge. This research is for practitioners in the Australian Proptech community of practice who are engaged with ideation, development, distribution and implementation of advanced software.
The process of fictionalising the findings of this research, within the methodology, has been a deliberate choice to support practitioners and a hope that the findings and insights from research participants are not limited to this thesis nor the academic reader. Rather, by presenting findings to a general audience within a fictionalised ethnographic novel, Uptown, it is my hope to present a realist version of history, using figurative techniques (White, 2004).
UpTown is seeking to subvert an objective ontology entirely, in favour of abstracted realism and integrated knowledge, creating a new (fictional) reality that is grounded in the outcome and theorisation of ethnographic fieldwork. I do this, not to shirk a responsibility to truth telling but to access a new and different truth through literary techniques - and a truth that will also help readers create a truth for themselves and continue a conversation within the Australian Proptech community of practice
When food fights back: Cebid primate strategies of larval paper wasp predation and the high‐energy yield of high‐risk foraging.
Get PDFOptimal foraging theory predicts that well-defended potential foods should be exploited only when energy pay-offs are great. Although stinging hymenopteran nests are both well-defended and predated by primates, their larvae's energy yields rarely have been calculated, and predation-linked foraging behaviours by primates infrequently documented. Based on 58 opportunistic observations of primates raiding wasp nests for larvae, we calculated energetic yields of low- and high-risk wasp nest predation for Cebus albifrons, Saimiri collinsi, S. sciureus and Sapajus apella, and tested predictions derived from optimal foraging theory. We recorded how nests were processed and by which age-sex classes, eaten nest fragment sizes, number of occupied and empty cells, and nest occupancy patterns (percent larvae/pupae, eggs, empty cells). Basal metabolic rate (BMR) calculations showed energetic yields from 15 min foraging on low-risk nests (Polybia quadricincta) would meet energy needed to sustain adult female and male C. albifrons BMR for 4.9 and 4.5 h, respectively; yields from high-risk (Chartergus artifex) nests for 6.5 and 6.2 h; Mischocyttarus sp. nest yields (low risk, but mimetically resembling other wasps) would meet S. collinsi BMR for 2.9 h (female) and 2.3 h (male), and 2.6 and 2.1 h, for the slightly larger S. sciureus, respectively. The Chartergus energetic-yield value is nearly 20% of a 36 g chocolate bar (741 kJ). Our data provide quantitative support for the common assertion that wasp larvae and pupae are high-yield foods for primates. As predicted by optimal foraging, energetic yield is sufficient to offset the risk and pain of being stung
Early photographic work exhibited in 'Real Families', The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
No full textEarly photographic work from Billingham's series 'Ray's a Laugh' was exhibited in 'Real Families', The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK, curated by Prof Susan Golombok (6th October 2023 - 7th January 2024).
'Real Families' was a collaboration between the Fitzwilliam Museum and the University of Cambridge Centre for Family Research (CFR). The focus of the exhibition was on the past 50 years, a period of significant change in how families are
created and structured. Historical works were woven into the exhibition to examine what is universal, and what is genuinely new, about the family.
What is a family? And how is family experienced? These questions were explored through artists’ eyes, and were at the heart of the exhibition which included painting, photography, sculpture, video, and material culture associated with representations of family life. The curator Susan Golombok is Professor Emerita of Family Research, and former Director of the Centre for Family Research, at the University of Cambridge.There was a fully illustrated catalogue to the exhibition