143 research outputs found
The All China Federation of Trade Unions: the challenge of labour unrest
Get PDFThis thesis sets out to investigate the possibility that the All China Federation of Trade
Unions is capable of reform in the face of the development of capitalist employment
relations. The thesis is centred on the examination of hitherto under-researched areas of
ACFTU activity by researching the motivations, conditions and actors involved in
three local-level pilot projects: collective bargaining, a trade union rights centre and
enterprise-level trade union elections. The fieldwork is contextualised by historical
summaries of the development of China‟s industrial relations and Party and trade union
responses to labour unrest in both the state and private sectors since the establishment
of the People‟s Republic in 1949. The results of my research demonstrate that it is no
longer appropriate to refer to the ACFTU as a monolithic organisation. Furthermore,
my argument departs from mainstream views of the organisation by locating the
impetus for trade union reform in the challenge of increasingly sophisticated labour
militancy from below, rather than reacting to orders from above. I conclude that while
the pilot projects studied each have their own merits and qualifications, taken as a
whole they prove that the ACFTU is capable of gradual reform from below. In the light
of the improved relations between the ACFTU and the International Trade Union
Confederation, this thesis speaks to this fact and aims to contribute to future
engagements by expanding the knowledge on which dialogue and trade union
exchanges must be based if they are to have any chance of success
TR4 Nuclear Receptor Alters the Prostate Cancer CD133(+) Stem/Progenitor Cell Invasion via Modulating the EZH2-Related Metastasis Gene Expression
No full textThe testicular nuclear receptor 4 (TR4) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily that mediates various biologic functions with key impacts on metabolic disorders and tumor progression. Here, we demonstrate that TR4 may play a positive role in prostate cancer CD133(+) stem/progenitor (S/P) cell invasion. Targeting TR4 with lentiviral silencing RNA significantly suppressed prostate cancer CD133(+) S/P cell invasion both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanism dissection found that TR4 transcriptionally regulates the oncogene EZH2 via binding to its 5' promoter region. The consequences of targeting TR4 to suppress EZH2 expression may then suppress the expression of its downstream key metastasis-related genes, including NOTCH1, TGF beta 1, SLUG, and MMP9. Rescue approaches via adding the EZH2 reversed the TR4-mediated prostate cancer S/P cell invasion. Together, these results suggest that the TR4, EZH2 signaling may play a critical role in the prostate cancer S/P cell invasion and may allow us to develop a better therapy to battle the prostate cancer metastasis. (C) 2015 AACR
The challenge of labour in China: strikes and the changing labour regime in global factories
Get PDFChina has become a global manufacturing centre with its `unlimited' supply of low cost and unorganised peasant workers. The potential of Chinese workers to change this condition has significant meaning for global labour politics. This study offers an ethnographic portrait and a sociological account of the transformation of labour relations and labour politics in China from 2004 to 2008 focusing on workers' strikes, community and organisation. It reveals how wages and working conditions are bargained, fought over, and determined in the global factories. Geographically this study concerns the city of Shenzhen, China's first Special Economic Zone (SEZ), where labour conflict is most prevalent. Historically, it is traced back to the late 1970s to explore how the pattern of labour conflict has changed over time. The author spent one year conducting participant observation based in a grass-roots labour non-governmental organisation (NGO) in an industrial zone from 2005 to 2006. A multi-case method is used to document workers' stories to strive for a higher wage and better working conditions and their relationships with management, NGOs, the trade union and the local state. The author suggests that benefiting from an expanding labour market, an escalating dynamic community, and the skilled and supervisory workers' network, workplace struggle has exerted significant challenges to the state authorities and the global capital. The capital responded to these challenges by work intensification, production rationalization, expansion and relocation. The local state reacted by better enforcement of the labour regulations and steady enhancement of the minimum wage rate, while the central state initiated a new round of labour legislation to better protect workers. The author refers to the changing labour regime in this stage as `contested despotism'. Its potential to give way to a new form of factory regime is dependent on the possibility of effective workplace trade unionism
Study on the sealing integrity of cement sheath during volume fracturing of shale gas of horizontal well
No full textThe effect of low vision rehabilitation on the quality of life and caregiver burden of low vision patients – a randomized trial
No full textAbstract Background The quality of life for low vision patients is a comprehensive concept that involves multiple aspects, including physical, psychological, and social aspects. Visual impairment is an important factor in the decline of patients' quality of life. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact and feasibility of carrying out low vision rehabilitation nursing on the quality of life and nursing burden of low vision patients. Methods Select 18 low vision patients who received treatment at a tertiary ophthalmic hospital in Shantou City and randomly divide them into an experimental group and a control group. The control group received routine low vision health education, while the experimental group received intervention measures based on low vision rehabilitation nursing plans. A questionnaire survey was conducted on two groups of study subjects and their caregivers using the Low Vision Quality of Life Questionnaire, General Self-Efficacy Scale, and Zarit Burden Interview before intervention, at week 4 after intervention, and at week 8 after intervention. The scores of each scale in the experimental group and the control group were statistically analyzed. Result The quality of life and self-efficacy scores of the experimental group patients were higher than those of the control group in the 4th and 8th week after intervention; The caregiver burden of the experimental group patients was lower than that of the control group caregivers in the 4th and 8th weeks after intervention. Conclusion Implement a low vision rehabilitation nursing plan, provide rehabilitation intervention and support to low vision patients, help patients find new ways to adapt to low vision conditions, and improve their quality of life. Low vision rehabilitation nursing interventions not only enable patients to regain the ability to independently complete daily activities, but also improve their self-efficacy, help rebuild confidence, and reduce the caregiving burden on their caregivers
New Method to Analyse the Cement Sheath Integrity During the Volume Fracturing of Shale Gas
No full textAccurate prediction of the hoop stress distribution of the cement sheath and its variation regularities during volume hydraulic fracturing in shale formations is of great significance for maintaining the wellbore integrity of shale gas horizontal wells. A finite element model of casing-cement sheath-formation system (CCFS) coupling between stresses and temperature was established through a staged finite element method based on the elastic anisotropy of shale. With this new model, the effects of operation parameters and formation mechanical property changes on the cement sheath hoop stress during the multi-stage hydraulic fracturing process were analyzed, and the results were compared with the conventional model. The results revealed that the increase of the temperature of the fracturing fluid could reduce the hoop stress of the cement sheath, which decreased gradually with the decreasing elastic modulus of the cement sheath, and eventually changed to compressive stress from tensile stress. The hoop tensile stress of the cement sheath increases first and then tends to decrease with the increasing internal casing pressure, the larger the local formation stress, the smaller the pore pressure and the smaller the hoop tensile stress of the cement sheath it preforms. The findings of this paper are of great guiding significance to the research of the cement sheath stress variations during volume fracturing in shale formations and to the optimization of fracturing design
Mechanisms and Influence of Casing Shear Deformation near the Casing Shoe, Based on MFC Surveys during Multistage Fracturing in Shale Gas Wells in Canada
No full textCasing shear deformation has become a serious problem in the development of shale gas fields, which is believed to be related to fault slipping caused by multistage fracturing, and the evaluation of the reduction of a casing’s inner diameter is key. Although many fault slipping models have been published, most of them have not taken the fluid-solid-heat coupling effect into account, and none of the models could be used to calculate the reduction of a casing’s inner diameter. In this paper, a new 3D finite element model was developed to simulate the progress of fault slipping, taking the fluid-solid-heat coupling effect during fracturing into account. For the purpose of increasing calculation accuracy, the elastoplastic constitutive relations of materials were considered, and the solid-shell elements technique was used. The reduction of the casing’s inner diameter along the axis was calculated and the calculation results were compared with the measurement results of multi-finger caliper (MFC) surveys. A sensitivity analysis was conducted, and the influences of slip distance, casing internal pressure, thickness of production and intermediate casing, and the mechanical parameters of cement sheath on the reduction of a casing’s inner diameter in the deformed segment were analyzed. The numerical analysis results showed that decreasing the slip distance, maintaining high pressure, decreasing the Poisson ratio of cement sheath, and increasing casing thickness were beneficial to protect the integrity of the casing. The numerical simulation results were verified by comparison to the shape of MFC measurement results, and had an accuracy up to 90.17%. Results from this study are expected to provide a better understanding of casing shear deformation, and a prediction method of a casing’s inner diameter after fault slipping in multistage fracturing wells
Optimizing fundamental design of soft magnetic layer to improve the energy conversion efficiency of airport pavement induction heating
No full textA soft magnetic layer can improve the energy conversion efficiency via adjusting the magnetic field distribution during the airport pavement induction heating for ice and snow removal. In this work, electromagnetic simulations were performed to investigate the influence of key material parameters such as the magnetic permeability, thickness and position of soft magnetic layer on the magnetic field distribution in airport pavement during induction heating. The results show that a soft magnetic layer with a thickness of 1 cm can increase the induction heating efficiency of airport pavement by 58.88%, which shows great energy-saving potential. Artificial neural network (ANN) method was adopted to constructed the prediction model of the heat flux within heat generation layer considering the influence of magnetic permeability, thickness and position of soft magnetic layer and the external excitation, which provides application support for the soft magnetic layer design. In addition, mechanical simulations were conducted to analyze the influence of soft magnetic layer on the stress responses within airport pavement structure. It was found that provided the embedment depth of soft magnetic layer is no more than 8 cm, the critical pavement tensile stress can be controlled within 4.5 MPa that ensures the structural safety.This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Project (2020YFB1600102), National Natural Science Foundation of China (51922030; 52208430), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (SBK2021042206), and Shuangchuang Program of Jiangsu Province (JSSCBS20210058)
Analysis of Coupled Wellbore Temperature and Pressure Calculation Model and Influence Factors under Multi-Pressure System in Deep-Water Drilling
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the variation of wellbore temperature and bottom-hole pressure with key factors in the case of coupled temperature and pressure under multi-pressure system during deep-water drilling circulation. According to the law of energy conservation and momentum equation, the coupled temperature and pressure calculation model under multi-pressure system is developed by using the comprehensive convective heat transfer coefficient. The model is discretized and solved by finite difference method and Gauss Seidel iteration respectively. Then the calculation results of this paper are compared and verified with previous research models and field measured data. The results show that when the multi-pressure system is located in the middle formation, the temperature of the annulus corresponding to location of the system is the most affected, and the temperature of the other areas in annulus is hardly affected. However, when the multi-pressure system is located at the bottom hole, the annulus temperature is greatly affected from bottom hole to mudline. In addition, the thermo-physical parameters of the drilling fluid can be changed by overflow and leakage. When only overflow occurs, the annulus temperature increases the most, but the viscosity decreases the most. When only leakage occurs, the annulus temperature decreases the most and the viscosity increases the most. However, when the overflow rate is greater than the leakage rate, the mud density and bottom-hole pressure increase the most, and both increase the least when only leakage occurs. Meanwhile, bottom-hole pressure increases with the increase of pump rate but decreases with the increase of inlet temperature. The research results can provide theoretical guidance for safe drilling in complex formations such as multi-pressure systems
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