415 research outputs found
The evolutionary trend and impact of global plastic waste trade network
No full textMarine plastic waste, global warming, and ozone holes have become global environmental problems that need to be resolved urgently. With the promulgation of plastic bans in many countries, the global plastic waste trade will undergo tremendous change. In order to explore the future evolutionary trend of the global plastic waste trade network, this paper focuses on the analysis of the import and export of plastic waste from major trading countries around the world. Based on the bilateral trade volume of plastic waste from 1990 to 2019, a global plastic waste trade network is constructed, and the structure and characteristics of the network are studied. The results show that the global plastic waste trade network has shifted its center of gravity, and the import center has gradually shifted from China to Southeast Asia. The global plastic waste trade network presents a sparse state. Moreover, the dependence of related countries on plastic waste trade decreases, whilst the closeness of trade links also decreases. Sudden factors such as plastic waste import bans have a disruptive impact on plastic waste management.</p
Research on the cooperative network game model of marine plastic waste management
No full textMarine plastic waste pollution damages the stability of the marine ecosystem and inhibits the sustainable development of the "blue economy", which has aroused widespread concern worldwide. Nowadays, cooperation on marine plastic waste management is an urgent research topic. A global consensus on management cooperation is emerging, but the economic feasibility of cooperation has not yet to be proven. This paper takes the amount of capital investment, technology level of governance and the amount of marine plastic waste to be treated as variables affecting the cooperative income to construct a cooperative network game model for marine plastic waste management from the perspective of economics. The paper distributes benefits based on the "Myerson value", analyzes the equilibrium conditions of the model and tests the stability of cooperation. In addition, numerical analysis is carried out using actual data from key countries to demonstrate the practical economic feasibility of cooperation in marine plastic waste management. The findings include: (1) The technology level of governance and the amount of marine plastic waste to be treated have a negative impact on the country's choice of cooperative governance strategies and the stability of cooperative alliance, while the amount of capital investment is conductive to it. (2) The size of the alliance has an impact on country's strategic choices and the stability of the alliances. Too small an alliance is not conducive to cooperative alliance building, which gradually becomes more likely as the size of the alliance increases, but it is uncertain the effect of oversized alliance and what size is most appropriate. (3) Cooperation in marine plastic waste management is economically feasible at both the theoretical and practical levels. (4) Encouraging technological innovation to improve the governance level, implementing extended producer responsibility measures to shift the management cost, exerting the positive influence of key countries to promote the stability of the alliance, and establishing a reasonable interest adjustment mechanism to coordinate the interests of all parties are helpful to build a stable and efficient cooperation alliance and improve the economic feasibility of marine plastic waste management cooperation. This paper not only provides theoretical support for the global cooperation of marine plastic waste management, but also proves the feasibility of practice and points out the direction for its practice.</p
The political influence pattern of the “Eurasia central region”based on Syria and Ukraine events
No full textDue to geopolitical factors, Eurasia is at the center of gravity in international relations and has become the core area of the game of great powers. Focusing on the Syrian and Ukrainian issues, we conduct event research by looking for relevant literature and news materials, and organize and analyze the theme of international organization meetings dedicated to solving these two issues. By creating complex networks, we use quantitative data to analyze the geopolitical forces in central Eurasia and reflect the evolution of the political landscape in the region. We have found that: First, Eurasia is still the center of geopolitics in the world, and the status of land-powered countries will rise. Second, the geopolitical structure of the Eurasian center has begun to take shape as a quadrilateral relationship between the United States and its Asia-Pacific allies (Japan and Australia), the European Union, Russia, and China. Third, the political influence of the United States in Eurasia is declining and its hegemonic status is weakening. China’s political influence has gradually increased, and Russia’s geopolitical influence has declined significantly. The study, on the one hand, clarifies the evolution of the political landscape of the region and gives the reader a clear idea of the involvement of geopolitical forces. On the other hand, it provides some guidance for the future development of the Eurasian countries, especially China
The optimal multimodel ensemble of bias-corrected CMIP5 climate models over China
No full textA multimodel ensemble of general circulation models (GCM) is a popular approach to assess hydrological impacts of climate change at local, regional, and global scales. The traditional multimodel ensemble approach has not considered different uncertainties across GCMs, which can be evaluated from the comparisons of simulations against observations. This study developed a comprehensive index to generate an optimal ensemble for two main climate fields (precipitation and temperature) for the studies of hydrological impacts of climate change over China. The index is established on the skill score of each bias-corrected model and different multimodel combinations using the outputs from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). Results show that the optimal ensemble of the nine selected models accurately captures the characteristics of spatial–temporal variabilities of precipitation and temperature over China. We discussed the uncertainty of subset ensembles of ranking models and optimal ensemble based on historical performance. We found that the optimal subset ensemble of nine models has relative smaller uncertainties compared with other subsets. Our proposed framework to postprocess the multimodel ensemble data has a wide range of applications for climate change assessment and impact studies
Molecular basis governing the assembly and biogenesis of 1,2-propanediol utilisation microcompartments
No full textResistance Status of Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti from Alabama and Florida and Analysis Cytochrome P450 Genes Expression Level Compared with Susceptible and Resistant Strains
No full textAedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti can transmit severe human diseases including dengue fever and yellow fever. When they are serious, these diseases can lead to human death and economic burden. Ae. albopictus has already spread from its origin Asia to many continents, including North America. In the United States, this species can be found in Alabama, but the
resistance status remains unknown. Part of my experiment analyzed the resistance status. Ae. albopictus from six locations in Alabama were tested and showed no significant resistance. Two main insecticide classes were used: organophosphates (OPs) and pyrethroids. For OPs, chlorpyrifos, malathion and fenitrothion were used. Malathion had the highest LC50 in these three insecticides ranging from 0.1ppm to 1.2ppm. The resistance status was similar between chlorpyrifos and fenitrothion ranging from 0.003ppm to 0.05ppm and from 0.01ppm to 0.1ppm respectively. For pyrethroids there were five insecticides used: deltamethrin, permethrin, resmethrin, etofenprox, and β-cyfluthrin. Resmethrin had a highest LC50 values ranging from 0.05ppm to 0.4ppm compared with other insecticides followed by permethrin ranging from 0.01ppm to 0.2ppm. In these eight insecticides chlorpyrifos has the highest efficacy while malathion has the last efficacy.
Another part of my experiment was to test the resistance status of field Ae. aegypti in Florida and make comparison with susceptible (S-Lab) and resistant laboratory strains (PR). The result showed that field strains developed resistance to etofenprox, with a resistance ratio of 1400, permethrin had a ratio of 24, and malathion had a ratio of 11. Field strains developed high tolerance to β-cyfluthrin and chlorpyrifos with resistance ratios reaching 9.7 and 7.6. This strain was still
susceptible to fenitrothion with resistance ratio of 0.3. Based on these results, Ae. aegypti in Florida has developed resistance and high tolerance to some insecticides.
Cytochrome P450 genes are important in insecticide resistance. In this experiment the genes CYP4H30 and CYP6CB1 were chosen to analyze their expression level. For CYP4H30, there was no difference among AeFl, susceptible S-Lab, and resistant PR strains. But the expression level in AeFl and resistant PR strains were upregulated in CYP6CB1. The expression ratio of AeFl was 5.6 and that of PR strain was 33.3 compared to susceptible S-Lab strain
Ammonium-assimilating microbiome: A halophilic biosystem rationally optimized by carbon to nitrogen ratios with stable nitrogen conversion and microbial structure
No full textThe contradiction between theoretical metabolism of ammonium assimilation and experiential understanding of conventional biosystems makes the rational optimization of the ammonium-assimilating microbiome through carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratios perplexing. The effect of different C/N ratios on ammonium-assimilating biosystems was investigated in saline wastewater treatment. C/N ratios significantly hindered the nutrient removal efficiency, but ammonium-assimilating biosystems maintained functional stability in nitrogen conversions and microbial communities. With sufficient biomass, higher than 86% ammonium and 73% phosphorus were removed when C/N ratios were higher than 25. Ammonium assimilation dominated the nitrogen metabolism in all biosystems even under relatively low C/N ratios, evidenced by the extremely low abundances of nitrification functional genes. Different C/N ratios did not significantly change the bacterial community structure of ammonium-assimilating biosystems. It is anticipated that the ammonium-assimilating biosystem with advantages of clear metabolic pathway and easy optimization can be applied to nutrient removal and recovery in saline environments.Green 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.Sanitary Engineerin
Immunomodulatory Antibacterial Hydrogel for Wound Infection Management
No full textJing Han,1,2,* Qingxun Meng,1,2,* Taicheng Liu,1,2 Mengru Lv,1,2 Wenxuan Su,1,2 Beibei Liu,1,2 Jiannan Wu1,2 1Department of Oral Implantology, Tianjin Stomatological Hospital, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300041, People’s Republic of China; 2Tianjin Key Laboratory of Oral and Maxillofacial Function Reconstruction, Tianjin, 300041, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jing Han; Jiannan Wu, Department of Oral Implantology, Tianjin Stomatological Hospital, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300041, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Wound healing has always been a focal point in clinical work. Bacterial infections and immune microenvironment disorders can both hinder normal wound healing. Current wound dressings only serve a covering function. Developing wound dressings with antibacterial and immunomodulatory functions is crucial for aiding wound healing. To address this issue, we have developed a hydrogel with antibacterial and immunomodulatory functions for managing infected wounds.Methods: The present study describes a photo-crosslinked antibacterial hydrogel composed of curcumin, silver nanoparticles-loaded reduced graphene oxide, and silk fibroin methacryloyl for the treatment of infected wounds. The study assessed its antibacterial properties and its capacity to induce macrophage M2 polarization through in vitro and in vivo experiments.Results: The hydrogel demonstrates robust antibacterial properties and enhances macrophage M2 polarization in both in vitro and in vivo settings. Moreover, it accelerates the healing of infected wounds in vivo by stimulating collagen deposition and angiogenesis.Conclusion: Overall, this hydrogel shows great potential in managing wound infections. Keywords: infected wound healing, silk fibroin methacryloyl, curcumin, silver nanoparticles-reduced graphene oxide, immunomodulation, antibacteria
Perception of norm clarity and punishment in affecting value-expressive behaviors
No full textThis research examines how impacts of norm perceptions on behaviors may depend on the
driving forces of the behaviors. I propose two types of norm perceptions, norm clarity and
punishment, as two features of tightness of norms. The former concerns whether individuals
perceive there is clear expectation of behavior and the latter concerns individuals’ perceptions of
how severe the social disapproval is for norm violation. Whereas individuals in tighter societies
are expected to display norm adherence, little is known on how individuals’ perceptions of norm
clarity and punishment might affect their decisions in norm adherence for value-expressive
behaviors. Social-focused values concern how individuals relate socially to others. I expect
engagement in behaviors expressing social-focused values to be predicted by perceived norm
clarity and punishment because individuals would be concerned about the perceptions of social
others. Personal-focused values concern individuals’ expression of personal preferences. I expect
the effect of perceived clarity and punishment on engagement in behaviors expressing personalfocused values to be moderated by the extent to which norm adherence would fulfill the
individual’s personal needs. Five studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Studies 1 and 2
found that in Singaporean culture, perceived clarity and punishment predicted engagement in
behaviors expressing social-focused values. However, for behaviors expressing personal-focused
values, there was no effect of perceived punishment, and the predictive effect of perceived clarity
was only apparent for individuals high in need for closure. Study 3 extended the findings to the
cultural context of friendship group. Study 4 suggested that perceptions of the personal and
social focus motivation were insufficient to drive the different influences of norm perceptions on
personal-focused behaviors and social-focused behaviors. Study 5 manipulated the motivation of
a norm to be either personally focused or socially focused and replicated the findings from Studies 1, 2 and 3. The research sheds lights on the motivational mechanism underline the impact of perceived norm clarity and punishment on value-expressive behaviors.Doctor of Philosoph
Provérbios e expressões idiomáticas em português e chinês
No full textDissertação de mestrado em Estudos Interculturais Português/Chinês - Tradução, Formação e Comunicação Empresarial熟语Shúyŭ (Expressões idiomáticas ou idiomatismos) e 谚语Yànyŭ (Provérbios) não são
apenas unidades linguísticas, também sendo maneiras de exprimir com um valor estético e
cultural específico. Provêm da cultura, evoluindo com ela e desempenhando um papel
importante dentro dela. No interior dos 熟语Shúyŭ e 谚语Yànyŭ reflete-se a vitalidade e a
figuralidade de uma língua, e nele convivem as reflexões mais profundas, os valores, crenças
religiosas, regimes sociais, filosofias da vida e um abundante número de outras caraterísticas
culturais. Os 谚语Yànyŭ são a essência da cultura de um povo, congregando as experiências
da vida quotidiana, mostrando as generalidades e particularidades da cultura popular; povos
diferentes criam culturas diferentes que desse modo se vão cristalizando ao longo do processo
histórico.
Em termos dos dois países em causa, a China e Portugal, as suas caraterísticas culturais
também são distintas, e mostram-se em vários aspetos. A língua e a cultura não se podem
separar, e os 熟语Shúyŭ e 谚语Yànyŭ são as unidades linguísticas que melhor podem
apresentar as diferenças e semelhanças de cada língua e cultura. O trabalho parte da visão da
cultura, destina-se à comparação dos 熟语Shúyŭ e 谚语Yànyŭ (Expressões idiomáticas e
Provérbios) em Chinês e Português. A comparação fundamental faz-se ao nível dos conceitos,
com base em tentativas de compreensão, acrescentando-se exemplos para ilustração, numa
perspetica que se funda na ideia de que uma compreensão correta e a procura da equivalência
adequada dos 熟语Shúyŭ e 谚语Yànyŭ precisa de contar com os contextos culturais
específicos.
As indeterminações na definição dos 熟语Shúyŭ e 谚语Yànyŭ, que contêm muitas
contradições, conduzem a dificuldades na procura dos conceitos equivalentes em português,
no entanto, proponho a equivalência do conceito de 熟语Shúyŭ a Expressão Idiomática (ou
Idiomatismo) e de 谚语Yànyŭ a Provérbio, embora não sejam completamente equivalentes,
pelo que neste trabalho se explicam as correspondências e diferenças entre eles. Além da
investigação das caraterísticas culturais presentes nele, o trabalho também se refere à Metaforização, ou conceito metafórico, porque a metáfora é uma figura de retórica que
desempenha um papel predominante em muitas dessas estruturas populares. Com base nela,
podemos analisar as caraterísticas culturais e os processos cognitivos diferentes. Também no
âmbito da metáfora nos idiomatismos e provérbios, tanto no chinês como no português,
apontamos alguns dos objetos diferentes adotados por cada uma das línguas para transmitir a
mesma ideia, o que também funciona como a base da procura de equivalência (tradução).熟语与谚语不仅仅是一种语言，还是一种具有独特魅力的表达方式，来源于文化并跟随
文化的脚步在其中扮演重要的角色，从中折射出的不仅仅是语言的生动性与形象性，更
深层的是一个民族的生存环境、价值观念、宗教信仰、社会制度、生活哲理及其丰富的
文化内涵。谚语的特性在于它是民族文化的精髓，是人民日常生活经验的概括与总结，
反映出一个民族文化的共性与个性。而不同的民族在漫长的历史进程中孕育了独具特色
的文化。
对于中葡两个国家而言，更是各自具有独特的文化特性，这些文化特性在很多方面均有
体现。文化与语言更是密不可分，而熟语与谚语则是能够体现文化差异与共性的一种语
言。文章从文化角度出发，对熟语与谚语在中文与葡语中的异同进行比较，首先在概念
层面上进行比较，并举例说明，指出对于两种语言中某些熟语与谚语的正确理解，则需
要具有特定的文化背景。
由于学术概念上的不明确性，有很多矛盾性的说法，导致在寻求与汉语中熟语与谚语对
等概念的葡语的过程中存在很多问题，但在查阅资料后基本形成自己的观点，将熟语与
Expressão idiomática (ou Idiomatismo)，谚语与Provérbio 进行对等。由于这种对等并不完
全一致，因而在文章中对其一致性与差异性进行说明。除了对其丰富的文化特性进行描
述外，文章中还指出在熟语与谚语中存在的概念隐喻则是反映文化特性的重要修辞手
法，从中能够反映出不同民族对事物的不同认知，因而形成一些利用不同事物说明同样
道理的熟语与谚语，是寻求熟语与谚语对等（翻译）的过程的基础。熟语Shúyŭ (Expressões idiomáticas ou idiomatismos) e 谚语Yànyŭ (Provérbios) are not just
linguistic units, but also ways of expression which have specific charms. They come from the
culture, walking with her and playing an importante role in it, which is reflected from the
inside of 熟语Shúyŭ and 谚语Yànyŭ. 谚语Yànyŭ is not only the vitality and figurality of a
language, the deeper reflections are living environment, thought values, religious beliefs,
social system, pilosoohy of life and its’ abundance of cultural characteristics. The 谚语Yànyŭ
serve as the essence of the culture of a nation, gathering the experiences of everyday life,
showing the generalitiesand particularities of a popular culture, and differente people create
differen cultures that are shown in the historical process.
In terms of the two countries, China and Portugal, their cultural characteristicas are also
diferente, and show up in many respects. Language and culture can not be separated, and 熟语
Shúyŭ and 谚语Yànyŭ are the linguistic units that can present the differences and similarities
of a language. From the vison of culture, the dissertation intends to compare 熟语Shúyŭ and
谚语Yànyŭ (Expressões idiomáticas e Provérbios) between Chinese and Portuguese, the
comparison is the level of fundamental concepts, based in attempts to understand. Choose
examples to illustrations, indicatind that the correct understanding and searching of
equivalence need certain cultural contexts.
Because of indeterminacies of the definitions of 熟语Shúyŭ and 谚语Yànyŭ (Expressões
idiomáticas e Provérbios), which contain many contradictions, leads to problemos in the
search for equivalent concepts, of 熟语Shúyŭ to Expressão Idiomática (ou idiomatismo), 谚
语Yànyŭ to Provérbio, althought they has not been completely equivalent, the essay explain
more the similarities and differences between them. In addition to descriptions of the
abundant cultural features in them, the essay also refers to metaphorization ou metaphorical
concept, because the metaphor is a figure of rhetoric that plays a predominant role in them, on
that basis, can analyze the cultural features, diferente cognitive thoughts. Also because of the
existence of metaphor in 熟语Shúyŭ, Expressões Idiomáticas, 谚语Yànyŭ e Provérbios in
both Chinese and Portuguese, so we find some exemples that use diferent objects to convey
the same idea, which also serves as the basis for seeking equivalence (translation)
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