275 research outputs found
Comparative Study on the Early Stage of Skid Resistance Development between Polyurethane-Bound Porous Mixture and Asphalt Mixture
No full textPolyurethane-bound porous mixture (PPM) is a new type of pavement material that has shown some potential for overcoming common asphalt mixtures mechanical failures. However, little research has been done on its skid resistance performance. This work presents a comparative study of the skid resistance development between PPM and asphalt mixtures at their early stage. In this study, the three mixtures were bonded by three type binders. The three type binders were polyurethane, 70# virgin bitumen, and styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) modified asphalt. In order to distinguished the three type mixtures, we named them PPM, BAM, and SAM respectively. A Taber abraser was used to test the polishing property of binders. A third-scale model mobile loading simulator (MMLS3) was used to simulate the traffic loadings on mixtures, and a British pendulum tester was used to measure the skid resistance of the three types of mixtures in the loading process. The binder polishing test results show a good linear relationship between the binder's mass loss and the polishing cycle. The slope of the fitting line of the two parameters was defined as binder coefficient (BC) to characterize the polishing property of the binder. The mixture test results show that the skid resistance development trend of three mixtures is similar, as it first increases, then decreases, then finally flattens. However, the British pendulum number peak value and stable value of PPM are lower than that of SAM. The order of the number of loading times of peak (NLTP) of the three mixtures is SAM>PPM>BAM. Another good linear relationship is found between BC and NLTP, and the R2 of the fitting model is 0.85, which indicates that the polishing property of binder is effective for predicting the moment of occurrence of the mixture skid resistance peak.Accepted Author ManuscriptUrban Studie
The role of clustering in rural industrialization: A Case Study of the Footwear Industry in Wenzhou
No full text"Wenzhou used to be one of the poorest regions in eastern China. With limited arable land, poor road access to major cities, and little support from the upper level governments, this region seemed to lack all the conditions necessary for economic growth. However, over the past several decades Wenzhou has developed the most dynamic private sector in China, and has accordingly achieved one of the fastest growth rates. In particular, the footwear industry in Wenzhou has grown from a negligible market share to the largest in China. Here, we report a survey of 140 Wenzhou-based footwear enterprises of various scales, and use this information to examine the driving forces behind the dramatic rural industrial growth seen in this region. Our results show that clustering deepens the division of labor in the production process and makes it possible for small entrepreneurial firms to enter the industry by focusing on a narrowly defined stage of production. Therefore, Wenzhou represents an example of how clustering plays a significant role in helping fledgling rural industries overcome the growth constraints of capital and technology in the incipient stage of industrialization." from Authors' AbstractCluster analysis, Industrialization, Finance, Economic development, Nonfarm economy,
Efficient channel equalization for MIMO underwater acoustic communications
No full textLinear minimum mean-squared error (LMMSE)-based channel equalization is widely used in multi-input multioutput (MIMO) underwater acoustic communications (UAC). The practical challenge of LMMSE based schemes is the necessity of matrix inversion which generally imposes heavy computational burden on the receiver. To obtain the LMMSE filters efficiently, we exploit the conjugate gradient method and the diagonalization properties of circulant matrices. The proposed scheme is based on fast Fourier transform operations and can be implemented in parallel, which makes it a promising candidate for real-time MIMO underwater acoustic communications. Both numerical and SPACE'08 experimental examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.</p
Electrosynthesis of chlorine from seawater-like solution through single-atom catalysts
No full textThe chlor-alkali process plays an essential and irreplaceable role in the modern chemical industry due to the wide-ranging applications of chlorine gas. However, the large overpotential and low selectivity of current chlorine evolution reaction (CER) electrocatalysts result in significant energy consumption during chlorine production. Herein, we report a highly active oxygen-coordinated ruthenium single-atom catalyst for the electrosynthesis of chlorine in seawater-like solutions. As a result, the as-prepared single-atom catalyst with Ru-O4 moiety (Ru-O4 SAM) exhibits an overpotential of only ~30 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in an acidic medium (pH = 1) containing 1 M NaCl. Impressively, the flow cell equipped with Ru-O4 SAM electrode displays excellent stability and Cl2 selectivity over 1000 h continuous electrocatalysis at a high current density of 1000 mA cm−2. Operando characterizations and computational analysis reveal that compared with the benchmark RuO2 electrode, chloride ions preferentially adsorb directly onto the surface of Ru atoms on Ru-O4 SAM, thereby leading to a reduction in Gibbs free-energy barrier and an improvement in Cl2 selectivity during CER. This finding not only offers fundamental insights into the mechanisms of electrocatalysis but also provides a promising avenue for the electrochemical synthesis of chlorine from seawater electrocatalysis.Full Tex
Analysis of the interaction of TIP60β and PIN1 with the ets family transcription factor ETV6
No full textThe ETV6 gene is involved in many chromosomal translocations forming different fusion genes in both myeloid and lymphoid leukemias as well as in some solid tumors. ETV6 is a member of the ets family of transcription factors and has been shown to be a transcriptional repressor. There is also evidence that ETV6 is a tumor suppressor gene in certain leukemias. ETV6 interacts with TIP60β and PIN1. TIP60 (HIV-1 Tat interacting protein, 60 kDa), a member of the MYST family of histone acetyltransferases, is a transcriptional co-activator or co-repressor depending on the interacting transcription factor. PIN1, an important peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerase, is the only known enzyme to specifically isomerize phosphorylated serine or threonine - proline bonds. This isomerization reaction changes the conformation of the protein substrate and is a central signaling mechanism controlling normal cell proliferation and malignant transformation. In this work the interactions between ETV6 and TIP60β and between ETV6 and PIN1 were analyzed in detail.
Using the yeast two hybrid system the TIP60β interacting domain of ETV6 was mapped to the C terminal half of the central domain of ETV6. The interaction between full length ETV6 and TIP60β was shown to be dependent on an intact acetyltransferase activity (HAT) of TIP60β. Interestingly, the HAT deficient TIP60β mutant is still able to interact with the C terminal half of the ETV6 central domain. These results imply a complicated mechanism of ETV6-TIP60β interaction which might involve acetylation of ETV6 by TIP60β and a subsequent conformational change of ETV6. In transient co-transfection experiments using fluorescently tagged proteins ETV6 and TIP60β were co-localized in the nucleus. Reporter gene assays demonstrated that TIP60β is a corepressor of ETV6. This co-repressor activity of TIP60β was especially noticable when a reporter plasmid based on the ETV6-responsive stromelysin-1 promoter was used. TIP60β corepressor activity was dependent on an intact TIP60 acetyl- transferase domain. TIP60β did not exhibit corepessor activity for a serine to alanine mutant at position 257 of ETV6. This result could be caused by a lack of interaction between ETV6(S257A) and TIP60β which might be due to a requirement for a phosphorylation / isomerization dependent conformational change of ETV6 in this region for TIP60β interaction. The expression of GFP-ETV6 had no discernible effect on the proportion of cells in the different phases of the cell cycle as compared to the expression of GFP or YFP. The expression of a TIP60β-YFP construct led to a marked reduction of the proportion of cells in the S/G2/M phase of the cell cycle. Coexpression of both GFP-ETV6 and TIP60β-YFP restored the normal distribution of cycling cells.
Similar studies were performed to analyze the interaction between ETV6 and PIN1. The PIN1 interaction domain of ETV6 was mapped to the pointed domain and to the C-terminal half of the central region of ETV6 in the yeast two hybrid system. In both regions, PIN1 consensus binding sites containing a serine/threoine – proline sequence are present. It could be shown that both the WW domain and the PPIase domain of PIN1 participate in the interaction.
Co-localization of ETV6 and PIN1 was seen in the nucleus of transiently transfected cells. On a functional level, co-expression of PIN1 with ETV6 markedly reduced the repressor activity of ETV6 when ETV6 was fused to a heterologous DNA binding domain (GAL4DBD). When the stromelysin-1 promoter based reporter gene system was used, co-expression of PIN1 not only relieved ETV6 mediated repression but actually turned ETV6 from a transcriptional repressor to a transcriptional activator. A serine to alanine mutant at position 106 of ETV6 was completely unresponsive to PIN1 coexpression which indicates that S106 of ETV6 is the main site of PIN1 interaction. These findings show that ETV6 activity can be regulated in very decisive ways by interaction with PIN1. It could be that this regulation of ETV6 through PIN1 is a result of ETV6 peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerization and hence a conformational change of ETV6. Expression of YFP-PIN1 led to a slight increase in the proportion of cells in the S/G2/M phase. Like for TIP60β, coexpression of GFP-ETV6 led to a restoration of the distribution of cycling cells
A back-propagation neural network for mineralogical mapping from AVIRIS data
No full textImaging spectrometers have the potential to identify surface mineralogy based on the unique absorption features in pixel spectra. A back-propagation neural network (BPN) is introduced to classify Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) of the Cuprite mining district (Nevada) data into mineral maps. The results are compared with the traditional acquired surface mineralogy maps from spectral angle mapping (SAM). There is no misclassification for the training set in the case of BPN; however 17 percent misclassification occurs in SAM. The validation accuracy of the SAM is 69 percent, whereas BPN results in 86 per cent accuracy. The calibration accuracy of the BPN is higher than that of the SAM, suggesting that the training process of BPN is better than that of the SAM. The high classification accuracy obtained with the BPN can be explained by: (1)its ability to deal with complex relationships (e.g., 40 dimensions) and (2) the nature of the dataset, the minerals are highly concentrated and they are mostly represented by pure pixels. This paper demonstrates that BPN has superior classification ability when applied to imaging spectrometer data.Remote SensingImaging Science & Photographic TechnologySCI(E)EI29ARTICLE197-1102
Rock spider
No full textA customer walks in and closes the door. As he leaves, he hands a wad of cash to the
man standing by the door. That is the reality of eight-year-old Sam, who chose the life
of a prostitute to escape starvation and to save his sick older brother. Interspersed
throughout his day, are the moments his mind checks out and he imagines himself
with his older brother, fishing at a pond. His only friend is a regular customer who
doesn’t touch him the way the others does, promising to take Sam away from the
brothel. When Sam tries to rebel against the system set up by his pimp, it results in a
thrashing that left him with bruises. At his lowest point, having resigned to his fate,
his friend, an undercover police, comes bursting through the doors to save him. For a
brief moment of hesitation, Sam wonders if leaving with his police friend would be
better than the only life he has ever known. Putting aside his fears, Sam decides to
trust his friend; because leaving is the only way he could find and save his brother.Bachelor of Fine Art
Post-Brexit Britain from the satirical gaze of Sam Byers' "Perfidious Albion"
No full text2016 marks a decisive turning point in Europe’s recent history. On June of that same year, a referendum was
called to decide whether the country should remain or leave the European Union. Although many analysts, commentators
and even colleagues in the EU saw this as a bizarre move, the results unearthed the polarization that has historically underlain
the country and the unresolved divide between two clearly unreconciled positionings. The re-emergence of a discourse,
epitomized by Nigel Farage’s UKIP deeply permeated some sectors of the British society and brought back a movement that
longed for reinstating the country’s imperial past and its most self-isolationist claims. It is this context of political turmoil
and growing racial tension that writers like Jonathan Coe or Sam Byers tackle in novels such as Middle England (2018) and
Perfidious Albion (2018), respectively. Focusing particularly on Byers’ work, his satirical approach to Brexit enables him
to build up a society in which readers witness the rise of media totalitarianism and the control of dissenting voices through
an intricate network of hi-tech corporations. Bearing all this in mind, the aim of this paper will be, first, to explore the ways
Perfidious Albion satirizes the ideological foundations of populism on which Brexit was sustained and, secondly, to delve
into the apparatus of rhetorical devices the author draws on in order to address his criticism.2016 representa un punto de inflexión decisivo en la historia europea más reciente. En junio de ese mismo año,
se convocó un referéndum que decidiría si Gran Bretaña permanecería o abandonaría la Unión Europea. Aunque muchos
analistas, comentaristas y socios de la Union consideraron que los resultados de la votación demostraron la polarización
de la sociedad británica y la división entre dos posturas que, a día de hoy, siguen siendo irreconciliables. El resurgimiento
de un discurso, representado por el UKIP de Nigel Farage permeó muchos sectores de la población y reestableció un
movimiento cuyo objetivo principal era reinstaurar el pasado imperial del país y su vena más aislacionista. Es este contexto
tan turbulento el que tratan novelas como Middle England (2018) de Jonathan Coe y Perfidious Albion (2018) de Sam Byers,
respectivamente. Si nos centramos más concretamente en la segunda, su visión satírica del Brexit le permite recrear una
sociedad en la que somos testigos de la tiranía mediática y el control que se ejerce sobre aquellas voces que difieren a través
de una compleja red de empresas tecnológicas. Habida cuenta de estas cuestiones, el objetivo de este trabajo es, en primer
lugar, abordar los fundamentos ideológicos del populismo en los que se asentó el Brexit, y, en segundo, explorar el aparato
de estrategias retóricas que el autor utiliza para construir su sátiraAgencia Estatal de Investigació
The Reproducibility of Lists of Differentially Expressed Genes in Microarray Studies
No full textReproducibility is a fundamental requirement in scientific experiments and clinical contexts. Recent publications raise concerns about the reliability of microarray technology because of the apparent lack of agreement between lists of differentially expressed genes (DEGs). In this study we demonstrate that (1) such discordance may stem from ranking and selecting DEGs solely by statistical significance (P) derived from widely used simple t-tests; (2) when fold change (FC) is used as the ranking criterion, the lists become much more reproducible, especially when fewer genes are selected; and (3) the instability of short DEG lists based on P cutoffs is an expected mathematical consequence of the high variability of the t-values. We recommend the use of FC ranking plus a non-stringent P cutoff as a baseline practice in order to generate more reproducible DEG lists. The FC criterion enhances reproducibility while the P criterion balances sensitivity and specificity
HyperHamlet – intricacies of data selection
No full textHyperHamlet is a database of allusions to and quotations from Shakespeare's Hamlet, which is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation as a joint venture between the Departments of English and German Philology, and the Image & Media Lab at the University of Basel. The compilation of a corpus, whose aim is to document the "Shakespeare phenomenon", is intricate on more than one level: the desired transdisciplinary approach between linguistics, literary and cultural studies entails data selection from a vast variety of sources; the pragmatic nature of intertextual traces, i.e. their dependence on and subordination to new contexts, further adds to formal heterogeneity. This is not only a challenge for annotation, but also for data selection. As the recognition of intertextual traces is more often than not based on intuition, this paper analyses the criteria which underlie intuition so that it can be operationalised for scholarly corpus compilation. An analogue to the pragmatic model of ostensive-inferential communication with its three constitutive parts of speaker's meaning, sentence meaning and hearer's meaning has been used for analytical heuristics. Authorial intent - in a concrete as well as in an abstract historical sense - origin and specific encyclopaedic knowledge have been found to be the basic assumptions underlying data selection, while quantitative factors provide supporting evidence
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