36,404 research outputs found
Blockchain application in circular marine plastic debris management
No full textThe threat to the environment and humanity caused by marine plastic debris has aroused global attention. This research aims to explore the feasibility of applying blockchain technology (BCT) in marine plastic debris management. A case study on three pioneer recycling organizations is conducted based on secondary data. The study found that BCT can be applied to solve some of the existing challenges of marine plastic debris management. A digital token system and identity recognition mechanism based on BCT can increase the public awareness for marine plastic debris governance. The derived digital wallets and distributed ledgers can effectively replace paper documents and cash transactions in the traditional recycling chain, and minimize global impact on local economies, thus improve efficiency and safety. Also, the traceability and high transparency of blockchain and the application of smart contracts can effectively build a global recycling network. In addition, the application of BCT can greatly improve the transparency of recycling value chains, and make them more accepting of supervision from society and consumers. This research is one of the first studies on BCT in marine plastic debris management and explores worldwide pioneering companies. In practice, this study can help companies analyse the defects in their own waste disposal models and help practitioners make decisions to adopt BCT. In academia, as one of the early exploratory studies on the application of BCT to the treatment of marine plastic debris, this study provides further empirical reference on BCT based business models and recycling chains, and can guide future research in this field
The game model of blue carbon collaboration along MSR — from the regret theory perspective
No full textOcean pollution and global warming are two pressing environmental problems exacerbated by human economic behavior. Building a blue carbon cooperation platform along the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) to promote sustainable development of countries along the route is of practical value to solving these two problems. Based on the analysis and review of the latest research on blue carbon, cooperative game and MSR, Weber’s law and regret theory are introduced to establish an economic model of blue carbon international cooperation, which proves the economic feasibility of blue carbon cooperation along MSR. The influence of psychological factors on the decision making of blue carbon international cooperation is also discussed. In addition, the measures to promote international cooperation are also discussed according to the current situation of marine blue carbon resources.</p
Critical behavior and long-range ferromagnetic order in perovskite manganite Nd
No full textThe critical behavior of perovskite manganite Nd0.55Sr0.45MnO3 has been investigated based on the static magnetization measurement around the paramagnetic-ferromagnetic transition temperature 273 K. A large critical exponent and a small one have been obtained by calculating the magnetic-field dependence of the magnetic-entropy change and the Widom scaling relation. These critical exponents not only obey the scaling hypothesis, but also corroborate the results obtained from the Kouvel-Fisher method. In comparison with the values given by standard models, these obtained exponents are very close to those expected from the mean-field model ( and ) and its magnetic-coupling type belongs to nearly long-range interaction. We suggest that the A-site spin disorder and localized magnetic phase competition are the main reasons for the actual critical exponents to show a slight deviation from the theoretical model
The study of the correlation between pollutants and their interactions on the incidence of tuberculosis in Changping District based on distribution models
No full textAbstract Background Air pollution as a potential risk factor, mediator or moderator of TB incidence. Most of the studies focused on the provincial and urban areas, while Changping District, as a high incidence area and county of tuberculosis in Beijing, its relationship with pollutants is not clear, so this study aims to investigate the associations of air pollutants and their interactions on the number of new TB cases in Changping District, Beijing, China. Methods Data from Beijing Changping Institute for Tuberculosis Prevention and Treatment on monthly new TB cases from 2014 to 2022. Distributed lag nonlinear models are used to examine the associations of each 10 µg/m3 increase in PM10 and NO2 concentrations, along with extreme exposure episodes, with TB incidence. Results The cumulative relative risk (RR) of increasing pollutant concentrations is positively correlated with lag months for PM10, but the opposite result is observed for NO2. In terms of long and short-term relationships, increased PM10 concentration and extremely low NO2 concentration are associated with long-term hazardous for most subgroups, while extremely high PM10 and NO2 concentrations are associated with short-term hazardous. Conclusion Increased concentrations of PM10 and NO2 having long-term or short-term effects on populations. Therefore, strengthening air quality monitoring and control is of great significance for the prevention of tuberculosis in Beijing
Special issue: Process safety in times of a pandemic
No full textGreen Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Safety and Security Scienc
Distributed human computation framework for linked data co-reference resolution
No full textDistributed Human Computation (DHC) is a technique used to solve computational problems by incorporating the collaborative effort of a large number of humans. It is also a solution to AI-complete problems such as natural language processing. The Semantic Web with its root in AI is envisioned to be a decentralised world-wide information space for sharing machine-readable data with minimal integration costs. There are many research problems in the Semantic Web that are considered as AI-complete problems. An example is co-reference resolution, which involves determining whether different URIs refer to the same entity. This is considered to be a significant hurdle to overcome in the realisation of large-scale Semantic Web applications. In this paper, we propose a framework for building a DHC system on top of the Linked Data Cloud to solve various computational problems. To demonstrate the concept, we are focusing on handling the co-reference resolution in the Semantic Web when integrating distributed datasets. The traditional way to solve this problem is to design machine-learning algorithms. However, they are often computationally expensive, error-prone and do not scale. We designed a DHC system named iamResearcher, which solves the scientific publication author identity co-reference problem when integrating distributed bibliographic datasets. In our system, we aggregated 6 million bibliographic data from various publication repositories. Users can sign up to the system to audit and align their own publications, thus solving the co-reference problem in a distributed manner. The aggregated results are published to the Linked Data Cloud
Intersystem soft handover for converged DVB-H and UMTS networks
No full textDigital video broadcasting for handhelds (DVB-H) is the standard for broadcasting Internet Protocol (IP) data services to mobile portable devices. To provide interactive services for DVB-H, the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) can be used as a terrestrial interaction channel for the unidirectional DVB-H network. The converged DVB-H and UMTS network can be used to address the congestion problems due to the limited multimedia channel accesses of the UMTS network. In the converged network, intersystem soft handover between DVB-H and UMTS is needed for an optimum radio resource allocation, which reduces network operation cost while providing the required quality of service. This paper deals with the intersystem soft handover between DVB-H and UMTS in such a converged network. The converged network structure is presented. A novel soft handover scheme is proposed and evaluated. After considering the network operation cost, the performance tradeoff between the network quality of service and the network operation cost for the intersystem soft handover in the converged network is modeled using a stochastic tree and analyzed using a numerical simulation. The results show that the proposed algorithm is feasible and has the potential to be used for implementation in the real environment
Clinical and Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain characteristics of tuberculosis patients with diabetes mellitus in Changping District, Beijing, China
No full textAbstract Background Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major risk factor for tuberculosis (TB), However, limited research exists on their clinical and strain characteristics. This study aims to investigate the correlation between these factors in TB-DM patients in Changping District. Methods Whole genome sequencing (WGS) and drug susceptibility tests (DST) were performed on culture-positive strains. Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine risk factors and the correlation between lineage, cavities, and hemoptysis in the TB-DM population. The specificity, sensitivity, and confidence intervals for predicting phenotypic drug resistance based on genotypic resistance were calculated. Results Among the 3924 TB patients, 292 had DM, showing a doubling in the proportion of TB patients with DM over seven years. Among the 144 etiologically positive TB-DM cases treated at the Changping Institute for Tuberculosis Prevention and Treatment, 75% (108/144) of the patients exhibited tuberculosis lesions that formed cavities and 12.5% (18/144) with hemoptysis. A statistically significant difference in cavity formation across different age groups was observed (r = -0.198, P < 0.05). Out of the 144 etiologically positive patients, WGS successfully revived 73 MTB strains, with Lineage 2 being predominant. No statistical difference was found between lineages and the presence of cavities or hemoptysis. The DST results showed the highest resistance rates to isoniazid and streptomycin, both at 8.2% (6/73), with approximately one-quarter of the strains resistant to at least one anti-TB drug, and about half (47.1%, 8/17) resistant to first-line drugs. The study demonstrated good specificity but suboptimal sensitivity in predicting phenotypic drug resistance based on genotypic resistance. Conclusions The rising incidence of diabetes in tuberculosis patients within Changping District has intensified the spread of TB, with these patients demonstrating severe illness and high drug resistance. This study aims to develop targeted prevention and management strategies, offering crucial guidance for treating co-infections of TB and DM and controlling disease spread
Beyond interfaces: A usability study of Chinese journal databases
No full textA presentation at the Council on East Asian Libraries (CEAL) annual meeting in Boston, MA on March 21, 2007
Rose Galaida and the Central China Relief Records, 1946: Discovery, Investigation, and Implications
No full textThe materials in the Central China Relief Records (CCRR) collection provide a window to the experiences of Rose Galaida in Hubei. The collection consists of about 100 documents totaling over 300 pages (excluding duplicate copies) and 5 photographs.Peer reviewedPublished in the Journal of East Asian Libraries and available from the journal at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jeal/vol2011/iss153/
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