159,031 research outputs found
City, Amenities, and Welfare
No full textThis chapter reviews the mechanisms through which amenities alter patterns of mobility and spatial distribution of population, and summarizes the role of amenities in urban development and on the inequality of labor welfare. The theoretical frameworks in the literature have gradually relaxed the assumption of frictionless spatial equilibrium, and papers can be categorized based on the endogeneity or exogeneity of amenities and the spatial scale of the research. A simple benchmark model and its extensions are used to illustrate how changes in amenities affect endogenous variables such as wages and rents, and drive the spatial sorting of labor. In this process, the endogenous amenities themselves are also subject to changes in the structure of the local labor force and the size of the regional population. Empirical evidence indicates that high levels of endogenous amenity can enhance the overall welfare of labor, but, under different conditions, they may amplify or diminish the inequality of welfare among heterogeneous labor groups, leading to uncertain changes in overall welfare that need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, amenities are a powerful tool for the government to regulate disparities in labor welfare. Additionally, the presence of amenities is a key factor leading to an inefficient spatial sorting of labor, which can be improved upon through specific policies
Nitric oxide mediates the neuroproliferative effect of Neuropeptide Y
No full textNeuropeptide Y (NPY) is widely expressed in both the central and peripheral nervous system and has an important role in the regulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis by mediating the proliferation of neural precursor cells in both health and disease. The mechanisms underlying this neuroproliferative effect of NPY, however, are unknown. The aim of this project was to investigate these cellular pathways and the possible involvement of nitric oxide (NO) in NPY-mediated neuroproliferation using postnatal rat hippocampal cultures in vitro. NPY was found to have a purely proliferative effect on hippocampal neural precursor cells. The role of NO was explored by inhibiting the NO synthesising enzyme, nitric oxide synthase (NOS), which abolished the proliferative effect of NPY and supported the involvement of NO in NPY-mediated proliferation. Pharmacological analyses using subtype-selective inhibitors suggested that the neuronal isoform of NOS is the sole NOS subtype involved, which was expressed by both nestin+ precursors and class III ?-tubulin+ neurons, the cell types previously shown to be responsive to NPY. The involvement of NO was further verified through loading hippocampal cells with an NO indicator, diaminofluorescein diacetate, where an increase in NO/N2O3 production was observed in nestin+ precursors and class III ?-tubulin+ neurons in response to NPY treatment. The downstream signalling pathways coupling NPY-mediated NO synthesis to cell proliferation were identified, through the use of selective pharmacological agonists and antagonists, as soluble guanylate cyclase, cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) and the extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) 1/2. By assessing levels of NPY-mediated ERK 1/2 phosphorylation in response to NOS inhibition, it was found that ERK 1/2 activation was mediated only via NOS/NO mechanisms. This proliferative cGMP-PKG-ERK 1/2 signalling cascade appears to be mediated by intracellularly released NO, while on the other hand, the addition of extracellular NO through the application of NO donors exerted an inhibitory effect on neural precursor cell proliferation. In addition to demonstrating the dual nature of NO, this is the first time that the signalling mechanisms underlying the proliferative effect of NPY on neural precursor cells have been described. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the proliferation of neural precursor cells will ultimately be beneficial by allowing the development of novel therapeutic interventions for promoting hippocampal neurogenesis.To analyse the role of NO in the NPY-mediated neuroproliferation of hippocampal cells in three-dimensional (3D) cultures, Laponite, a novel synthetic silica hydrogel, was used. Culture medium-based Laponite hydrogels were developed before cell viability within the hydrogels were assessed by culturing hippocampal monolayers under gel cover. Hydrogel cover, however, resulted in cell behaviour reminiscent of preservation/fixation as monolayers showed no spatial or morphological changes over time, with one possible explanation being the high gel osmolarity. Although attempts at cell seeding showed more positive results, with cells adhering to a low heavy metal content variation of the hydrogel, determination of cell viability remained a problem due to prominent dye-gel binding. Although the rheological properties of Laponite make its use attractive, the biocompatibility of the hydrogels with hippocampal cells still require further optimisation if they are to be used as cell culture matrices
SaccpaNet : a separable atrous convolution-based cascade pyramid attention network to estimate body landmarks using cross-modal knowledge transfer for under-blanket sleep posture classification
No full text202509 bchyVersion of RecordRGCOthersThis work was supported in part by General Research Fund (GRF) from the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong under Grants PolyU15223822, and in part by the Research Institute for Smart Ageing of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University under Grants P0039001. Andy Yiu-Chau Tam and Ye-Jiao Mao are co-first authors. Duo Wai-Chi Wong and James Chung-Wai Cheung contributed equally to this work. (Corresponding author: Duo Wai-Chi Wong, James Chung-Wai Cheung) Andy Yiu-Chau Tam and James Chung-Wai Cheung are with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China, and Research Institute of Smart Ageing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China ([email protected]; [email protected]).Early releaseC
A Review of silicon carbide development in MEMS applications
No full textDue to its desirable material properties, Silicon Carbide (SiC) hasbecome an alternative material to replace Si for MicroelectromechanicalSystems (MEMS) applications in harsh environments. To promote SiC MEMSdevelopment towards future cost-effective products, main technology areas inmaterial deposition and processes have attracted significant interest. Thedevelopments in these areas have contributed to the rapid emergence of SiCMEMS prototypes. In this paper, we give an overview of the importantdevelopments in SiC material formation and fabrication processes in recentyears. Some of the most interesting state-of-the-art SiC MEMS devices arereviewed. This highlights the major progresses in SiC MEMS developed thusfar. This paper also looks into the prospect of SiC MEMS drawing attention topotential issues
Datascapes o los paisajes visuales de la globalización: Googlegrams de Joan Fontcuberta y Technophobia de Gordon Cheung
No full text[es] Este artículo explora los collages de Gordon Cheung y Joan Fontcuberta para debatir lo que Arjun Appadurai ha identificado como los paisajes mediáticos, étnicos, ideológicos y financieros de la globalización. El argumento principal se centra en cómo sus obras exploran los medios tecnológicos en el campo de la cultura sin abandonar la función política del arte, entendida aquí como crítica reflexiva. La obra de Cheung es interpretada desde los espacios neoliberales contemporáneos urbanos, según los teorizan David Harvey y Marc Augé. Obras como Technophobia, de Cheung, evocan, por un lado, los “no-lugares” de la sobremodernidad, y la omnipresencia del capitalismo financiero neoliberal, por otro. Los collages foto-mediáticos de Fontcuberta son analizados desde las controversias que los binomios verdad/ objetividad/ referencialidad vs falacia/ manipulación/ construcción aún despiertan en el fotoperiodismo y el documentalismo en la era de la reproducción digital. La función política de estos collages es rescatada como una forma no sólo de evitar la banalización de la cultura de masas, de la reprodución ad infinitum de imágenes, y de la muerte de la originalidad, la autoría, y la primacía de la copia, el recorte, la imitación y el ensamble de materiales reciclados, sino también como una forma de estimular una reflexividad crítica política y social. [en] This paper looks into the collages of Gordon Cheung and Joan Fontcuberta to discuss what Arjun Appadurai has identified as the ethno-/finance-/media-/and ideological-scapes of modernity and globalization. On the main, the argument focuses on how their work explores the technological media in the field of culture without abandoning the political function of art, understood here as a critical reflexivity. Cheung’s work is interpreted from the perspective of its representation of contemporary neoliberal spaces, as theorised by David Harvey and Marc Augé. Works like Cheung’s Technophobia evoke, on the one hand, Augé’s “non-places”, and, on the other, the omnipresence of neoliberal financial or speculative capitalism. The photo-media collages of Fontcuberta are analized in terms of the controversies that the binaries truth/ objectivity/ referentiality vs fallacy/ manipulation/ construction still ignite in documentary photojournalism in the age of digital reproduction. The political function of these collages is valued not only as a way to avoid the banalization of mass culture, of the infinite reproduction of images, and the dearth of originality, authorship, and the primacy of the copy, the fragment, the reproduction and the assemblage of recycled materials, but also as a means to stimulate a certain critical reflexivity on current social and political issues
Cheung, S.-C, Kwan, P.-S., Kong Y.-C. Bencao yanjiu rumen (An Introduction to Pen-ts'ao Study)
No full textMétailié Georges. Cheung, S.-C, Kwan, P.-S., Kong Y.-C. Bencao yanjiu rumen (An Introduction to Pen-ts'ao Study). In: Journal d'agriculture traditionnelle et de botanique appliquée, 31ᵉ année, bulletin n°3-4, Juillet-décembre 1984. pp. 266-267
sj-pdf-2-gsj-10.1177_21925682211066824 – Supplemental Material for Timely Revisit of Proprioceptive Deficits in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
No full textSupplemental Material, sj-pdf-2-gsj-10.1177_21925682211066824 for Timely Revisit of Proprioceptive Deficits in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis by Kenney K. L. Lau, Karlen K. P. Law, Kenny Y. H. Kwan, Jason P. Y. Cheung, Kenneth M. C. Cheung and Arnold Y. L. Wong in Global Spine Journal</p
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