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Sample records for chinese large-scale public

  1. Energy efficiency supervision strategy selection of Chinese large-scale public buildings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jin Zhenxing; Wu Yong; Li Baizhan; Gao Yafeng

    2009-01-01

    This paper discusses energy consumption, building development and building energy consumption in China, and points that energy efficiency management and maintenance of large-scale public buildings is the breakthrough point of building energy saving in China. Three obstacles are lack of basic statistics data, lack of service market for building energy saving, and lack of effective management measures account for the necessity of energy efficiency supervision for large-scale public buildings. And then the paper introduces the supervision aims, the supervision system and the five basic systems' role in the supervision system, and analyzes the working mechanism of the five basic systems. The energy efficiency supervision system of large-scale public buildings takes energy consumption statistics as a data basis, Energy auditing as a technical support, energy consumption ration as a benchmark of energy saving and price increase beyond ration as a price lever, and energy efficiency public-noticing as an amplifier. The supervision system promotes energy efficiency operation and maintenance of large-scale public building, and drives a comprehensive building energy saving in China.

  2. Energy efficiency supervision strategy selection of Chinese large-scale public buildings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jin, Zhenxing; Li, Baizhan; Gao, Yafeng [The Faculty of Urban Construction and Environmental Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing (China); Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region' s Eco-Environment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400045 (China); Wu, Yong [The Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Construction, Beijing 100835 (China)

    2009-06-15

    This paper discusses energy consumption, building development and building energy consumption in China, and points that energy efficiency management and maintenance of large-scale public buildings is the breakthrough point of building energy saving in China. Three obstacles are lack of basic statistics data, lack of service market for building energy saving, and lack of effective management measures account for the necessity of energy efficiency supervision for large-scale public buildings. And then the paper introduces the supervision aims, the supervision system and the five basic systems' role in the supervision system, and analyzes the working mechanism of the five basic systems. The energy efficiency supervision system of large-scale public buildings takes energy consumption statistics as a data basis, Energy auditing as a technical support, energy consumption ration as a benchmark of energy saving and price increase beyond ration as a price lever, and energy efficiency public-noticing as an amplifier. The supervision system promotes energy efficiency operation and maintenance of large-scale public building, and drives a comprehensive building energy saving in China. (author)

  3. Energy efficiency supervision strategy selection of Chinese large-scale public buildings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jin Zhenxing [Faculty of Urban Construction and Environmental Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing (China); Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region' s Eco-Environment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400045 (China)], E-mail: jinzhenxing33@sina.com; Wu Yong [Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Construction, Beijing 100835 (China); Li Baizhan; Gao Yafeng [Faculty of Urban Construction and Environmental Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing (China); Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region' s Eco-Environment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400045 (China)

    2009-06-15

    This paper discusses energy consumption, building development and building energy consumption in China, and points that energy efficiency management and maintenance of large-scale public buildings is the breakthrough point of building energy saving in China. Three obstacles are lack of basic statistics data, lack of service market for building energy saving, and lack of effective management measures account for the necessity of energy efficiency supervision for large-scale public buildings. And then the paper introduces the supervision aims, the supervision system and the five basic systems' role in the supervision system, and analyzes the working mechanism of the five basic systems. The energy efficiency supervision system of large-scale public buildings takes energy consumption statistics as a data basis, Energy auditing as a technical support, energy consumption ration as a benchmark of energy saving and price increase beyond ration as a price lever, and energy efficiency public-noticing as an amplifier. The supervision system promotes energy efficiency operation and maintenance of large-scale public building, and drives a comprehensive building energy saving in China.

  4. Nutrient removal from Chinese coastal waters by large-scale seaweed aquaculture

    KAUST Repository

    Xiao, Xi

    2017-04-21

    China is facing intense coastal eutrophication. Large-scale seaweed aquaculture in China is popular, now accounting for over 2/3\\'s of global production. Here, we estimate the nutrient removal capability of large-scale Chinese seaweed farms to determine its significance in mitigating eutrophication. We combined estimates of yield and nutrient concentration of Chinese seaweed aquaculture to quantify that one hectare of seaweed aquaculture removes the equivalent nutrient inputs entering 17.8 ha for nitrogen and 126.7 ha for phosphorus of Chinese coastal waters, respectively. Chinese seaweed aquaculture annually removes approximately 75,000 t nitrogen and 9,500 t phosphorus. Whereas removal of the total N inputs to Chinese coastal waters requires a seaweed farming area 17 times larger than the extant area, one and a half times more of the seaweed area would be able to remove close to 100% of the P inputs. With the current growth rate of seaweed aquaculture, we project this industry will remove 100% of the current phosphorus inputs to Chinese coastal waters by 2026. Hence, seaweed aquaculture already plays a hitherto unrealized role in mitigating coastal eutrophication, a role that may be greatly expanded with future growth of seaweed aquaculture.

  5. Nutrient removal from Chinese coastal waters by large-scale seaweed aquaculture

    KAUST Repository

    Xiao, Xi; Agusti, Susana; Lin, Fang; Li, Ke; Pan, Yaoru; Yu, Yan; Zheng, Yuhan; Wu, Jiaping; Duarte, Carlos M.

    2017-01-01

    China is facing intense coastal eutrophication. Large-scale seaweed aquaculture in China is popular, now accounting for over 2/3's of global production. Here, we estimate the nutrient removal capability of large-scale Chinese seaweed farms to determine its significance in mitigating eutrophication. We combined estimates of yield and nutrient concentration of Chinese seaweed aquaculture to quantify that one hectare of seaweed aquaculture removes the equivalent nutrient inputs entering 17.8 ha for nitrogen and 126.7 ha for phosphorus of Chinese coastal waters, respectively. Chinese seaweed aquaculture annually removes approximately 75,000 t nitrogen and 9,500 t phosphorus. Whereas removal of the total N inputs to Chinese coastal waters requires a seaweed farming area 17 times larger than the extant area, one and a half times more of the seaweed area would be able to remove close to 100% of the P inputs. With the current growth rate of seaweed aquaculture, we project this industry will remove 100% of the current phosphorus inputs to Chinese coastal waters by 2026. Hence, seaweed aquaculture already plays a hitherto unrealized role in mitigating coastal eutrophication, a role that may be greatly expanded with future growth of seaweed aquaculture.

  6. Validation of the Chinese version of public attitudes toward epilepsy scale in Mainland China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yue, Zongwei; Ma, Chanthia; Lim, Kheng-Seang; Xiao, Bo; Wu, Qian; Shu, Yi; Yue, Zhiping; Wang, Yelan; Feng, Li

    2017-07-01

    Epilepsy is a significant yet seriously underappreciated public health issue in Mainland China. The stigma and discrimination toward people with epilepsy (PWE) and their families are especially severe in China based on cultural misconceptions which cause tremendous psychological, economic and social burdens. It is imperative to formulate a targeted public intervention to eliminate knowledge gaps and correct these misconceptions of epilepsy. However, to date, the essential tools that may drive such an intervention by measuring the public perspective on PWEs is lacking in China. The goal of this study is to test the reliability and validity of a Simplified Chinese version of the "Public Attitude Toward Epilepsy" scale (PATE) in Mainland China which can be used to understand the content and identify the possible sources of stigma to better inform the design and focus of future stigma reduction interventions. The standard procedure of cross-cultural adaptation was used in the translation process. Subjects from different economic and social backgrounds were enrolled by convenience sampling in central China. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to check the underlying factor structure of the items. Furthermore, Cronbach's alpha was utilized to assess internal consistency. 199 respondents were included in the final analysis. Content validity of this Chinese PATE was assessed to be adequate for assessing public attitudes toward epilepsy among the mainland Chinese. Two factors were extracted from the data by exploratory factor analysis; confirmatory factor analysis further confirmed good consistency of theoretical constructs between the original Public Attitudes Toward Epilepsy scale and our Chinese PATE. Our Chinese PATE presented excellent internal consistency (α=0.853-0.909). This version of the Chinese PATE showed acceptable psychometric properties, indicating that it can be implemented in surveying public attitudes toward epilepsy in

  7. Implementing effect of energy efficiency supervision system for government office buildings and large-scale public buildings in China

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhao Jing; Wu Yong; Zhu Neng

    2009-01-01

    The Chinese central government released a document to initiate a task of energy efficiency supervision system construction for government office buildings and large-scale public buildings in 2007, which marks the overall start of existing buildings energy efficiency management in China with the government office buildings and large-scale public buildings as a breakthrough. This paper focused on the implementing effect in the demonstration region all over China for less than one year, firstly introduced the target and path of energy efficiency supervision system, then described the achievements and problems during the implementing process in the first demonstration provinces and cities. A certain data from the energy efficiency public notice in some typical demonstration provinces and cities were analyzed statistically. It can be concluded that different functional buildings have different energy consumption and the average energy consumption of large-scale public buildings is too high in China compared with the common public buildings and residential buildings. The obstacles need to be overcome afterward were summarized and the prospects for the future work were also put forward in the end.

  8. Implementing effect of energy efficiency supervision system for government office buildings and large-scale public buildings in China

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhao Jing [School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072 (China)], E-mail: zhaojing@tju.edu.cn; Wu Yong [Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People' s Republic of China, Beijing 100835 (China); Zhu Neng [School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072 (China)

    2009-06-15

    The Chinese central government released a document to initiate a task of energy efficiency supervision system construction for government office buildings and large-scale public buildings in 2007, which marks the overall start of existing buildings energy efficiency management in China with the government office buildings and large-scale public buildings as a breakthrough. This paper focused on the implementing effect in the demonstration region all over China for less than one year, firstly introduced the target and path of energy efficiency supervision system, then described the achievements and problems during the implementing process in the first demonstration provinces and cities. A certain data from the energy efficiency public notice in some typical demonstration provinces and cities were analyzed statistically. It can be concluded that different functional buildings have different energy consumption and the average energy consumption of large-scale public buildings is too high in China compared with the common public buildings and residential buildings. The obstacles need to be overcome afterward were summarized and the prospects for the future work were also put forward in the end.

  9. Implementing effect of energy efficiency supervision system for government office buildings and large-scale public buildings in China

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhao, Jing; Zhu, Neng [School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072 (China); Wu, Yong [Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People' s Republic of China, Beijing 100835 (China)

    2009-06-15

    The Chinese central government released a document to initiate a task of energy efficiency supervision system construction for government office buildings and large-scale public buildings in 2007, which marks the overall start of existing buildings energy efficiency management in China with the government office buildings and large-scale public buildings as a breakthrough. This paper focused on the implementing effect in the demonstration region all over China for less than one year, firstly introduced the target and path of energy efficiency supervision system, then described the achievements and problems during the implementing process in the first demonstration provinces and cities. A certain data from the energy efficiency public notice in some typical demonstration provinces and cities were analyzed statistically. It can be concluded that different functional buildings have different energy consumption and the average energy consumption of large-scale public buildings is too high in China compared with the common public buildings and residential buildings. The obstacles need to be overcome afterward were summarized and the prospects for the future work were also put forward in the end. (author)

  10. Evaluation of Large-scale Public Sector Reforms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Breidahl, Karen Nielsen; Gjelstrup, Gunnar; Hansen, Hanne Foss

    2017-01-01

    and more delimited policy areas take place. In our analysis we apply four governance perspectives (rational-instrumental, rational-interest based, institutional-cultural and a chaos perspective) in a comparative analysis of the evaluations of two large-scale public sector reforms in Denmark and Norway. We...

  11. A fast approach to generate large-scale topographic maps based on new Chinese vehicle-borne Lidar system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Youmei, Han; Bogang, Yang

    2014-01-01

    Large -scale topographic maps are important basic information for city and regional planning and management. Traditional large- scale mapping methods are mostly based on artificial mapping and photogrammetry. The traditional mapping method is inefficient and limited by the environments. While the photogrammetry methods(such as low-altitude aerial mapping) is an economical and effective way to map wide and regulate range of large scale topographic map but doesn't work well in the small area due to the high cost of manpower and resources. Recent years, the vehicle-borne LIDAR technology has a rapid development, and its application in surveying and mapping is becoming a new topic. The main objective of this investigation is to explore the potential of vehicle-borne LIDAR technology to be used to fast mapping large scale topographic maps based on new Chinese vehicle-borne LIDAR system. It studied how to use the new Chinese vehicle-borne LIDAR system measurement technology to map large scale topographic maps. After the field data capture, it can be mapped in the office based on the LIDAR data (point cloud) by software which programmed by ourselves. In addition, the detailed process and accuracy analysis were proposed by an actual case. The result show that this new technology provides a new fast method to generate large scale topographic maps, which is high efficient and accuracy compared to traditional methods

  12. A cloud-based framework for large-scale traditional Chinese medical record retrieval.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Lijun; Liu, Li; Fu, Xiaodong; Huang, Qingsong; Zhang, Xianwen; Zhang, Yin

    2018-01-01

    Electronic medical records are increasingly common in medical practice. The secondary use of medical records has become increasingly important. It relies on the ability to retrieve the complete information about desired patient populations. How to effectively and accurately retrieve relevant medical records from large- scale medical big data is becoming a big challenge. Therefore, we propose an efficient and robust framework based on cloud for large-scale Traditional Chinese Medical Records (TCMRs) retrieval. We propose a parallel index building method and build a distributed search cluster, the former is used to improve the performance of index building, and the latter is used to provide high concurrent online TCMRs retrieval. Then, a real-time multi-indexing model is proposed to ensure the latest relevant TCMRs are indexed and retrieved in real-time, and a semantics-based query expansion method and a multi- factor ranking model are proposed to improve retrieval quality. Third, we implement a template-based visualization method for displaying medical reports. The proposed parallel indexing method and distributed search cluster can improve the performance of index building and provide high concurrent online TCMRs retrieval. The multi-indexing model can ensure the latest relevant TCMRs are indexed and retrieved in real-time. The semantics expansion method and the multi-factor ranking model can enhance retrieval quality. The template-based visualization method can enhance the availability and universality, where the medical reports are displayed via friendly web interface. In conclusion, compared with the current medical record retrieval systems, our system provides some advantages that are useful in improving the secondary use of large-scale traditional Chinese medical records in cloud environment. The proposed system is more easily integrated with existing clinical systems and be used in various scenarios. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  13. Eight attention points when evaluating large-scale public sector reforms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Morten Balle; Breidahl, Karen Nielsen; Furubo, Jan-Eric

    2017-01-01

    This chapter analyses the challenges related to evaluations of large-scale public sector reforms. It is based on a meta-evaluation of the evaluation of the reform of the Norwegian Labour Market and Welfare Administration (the NAV-reform) in Norway, which entailed both a significant reorganization...... sector reforms. Based on the analysis, eight crucial points of attention when evaluating large-scale public sector reforms are elaborated. We discuss their reasons and argue that other countries will face the same challenges and thus can learn from the experiences of Norway....

  14. Application of plant metabonomics in quality assessment for large-scale production of traditional Chinese medicine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ning, Zhangchi; Lu, Cheng; Zhang, Yuxin; Zhao, Siyu; Liu, Baoqin; Xu, Xuegong; Liu, Yuanyan

    2013-07-01

    The curative effects of traditional Chinese medicines are principally based on the synergic effect of their multi-targeting, multi-ingredient preparations, in contrast to modern pharmacology and drug development that often focus on a single chemical entity. Therefore, the method employing a few markers or pharmacologically active constituents to assess the quality and authenticity of the complex preparations has a number of severe challenges. Metabonomics can provide an effective platform for complex sample analysis. It is also reported to be applied to the quality analysis of the traditional Chinese medicine. Metabonomics enables comprehensive assessment of complex traditional Chinese medicines or herbal remedies and sample classification of diverse biological statuses, origins, or qualities in samples, by means of chemometrics. Identification, processing, and pharmaceutical preparation are the main procedures in the large-scale production of Chinese medicinal preparations. Through complete scans, plants metabonomics addresses some of the shortfalls of single analyses and presents a considerable potential to become a sharp tool for traditional Chinese medicine quality assessment. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  15. Evaluation of Large-Scale Public-Sector Reforms: A Comparative Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breidahl, Karen N.; Gjelstrup, Gunnar; Hansen, Hanne Foss; Hansen, Morten Balle

    2017-01-01

    Research on the evaluation of large-scale public-sector reforms is rare. This article sets out to fill that gap in the evaluation literature and argues that it is of vital importance since the impact of such reforms is considerable and they change the context in which evaluations of other and more delimited policy areas take place. In our…

  16. Relation between metabolic syndrome and body compositions among Chinese adolescents and adults from a large-scale population survey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tao Xu

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Few nationally representative surveys regarding body composition and metabolic syndrome (MetS have been done in a large-scale representative Chinese population to explore the prediction of body composition indicators for MetS. The objective of this study was to examine the relation of body composition and MetS and to determine the optimal cut-off values of body composition indicators that predict MetS in a large representative Chinese sample based on multiple provinces and ethnicities, covering a broad age range from 10 to 80 years old. Methods The subjects came from a large-scale population survey on Chinese physiological constants and health conditions conducted in six provinces. 32,036 subjects completed all blood biochemical testing and body composition measure. Subjects meeting at least 3 of the following 5 criteria qualify as having MetS: elevated blood pressure, lower high density lipoprotein cholesterol level, higher triglyceride level, higher fasting glucose level and abdominal obesity. Results The total prevalence rate of MetS for males (9.29% was lower than for females (11.58%. The prevalence rates were 12.03% for male adults and 15.57% for female adults respectively. The risk of MetS increased 44.6% (OR = 1.446, 95%CI: 1.414–1.521 for males and 53.4% (OR = 1.534, 95%CI: 1.472–1.598 for females with each 5% increase of percentage of body fat. The risk of MetS increased two-fold (OR = 2.020, 95%CI: 1.920–2.125 for males; OR = 2.047, 95%CI: 1.954–2.144 for females respectively with each 5% increase of waist-hip ratio. The risk of MetS increased three-fold (OR = 2.915, 95%CI: 2.742–3.099 for males; OR = 2.950, 95%CI: 2.784–3.127 for females respectively with each 5% increase of Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR. Areas under the receiver operating curve (AUC of most body composition indicators were larger than 0.70 and the sensitivities and the specificities of most cut-off values were larger than 0

  17. Assessing the Accuracy of the Modified Chinese Autism Spectrum Rating Scale and Social Responsiveness Scale for Screening Autism Spectrum Disorder in Chinese Children

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Bingrui Zhou; Hao Zhou; Lijie Wu; Xiaobing Zou; Xuerong Luo; Eric Fombonne; Yi Wang; Weili Yan; Xiu Xu

    2017-01-01

    The reported prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been increasing rapidly in many parts of the world.However,data on its prevalence in China are largely missing.Here,we assessed the suitability of the modified Chinese version of a newly-developed ASD screening tool,the Modified Chinese Autism Spectrum Rating Scales (MC-ASRS) in screening for ASD in Chinese children aged 6-12 years,through comparison with the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) that has been widely used for ASD screening.We recruited the parents/caregivers of 1588 typically-developing children and 190 children with ASD aged 6-12 years to complete the MC-ASRS and SRS,and evaluated the validity of both scales in discriminating children with ASD from those developing typically.The results showed that MC-ASRS performed as well as SRS in sensitivity,specificity,and area-under-the-curve (both >0.95) in receiver operating characteristic analysis,with a fair false-negative rate.These results suggest that MC-ASRS is a promising tool for screening for children with ASD in the general Chinese population.

  18. Testing, development and demonstration of large scale solar district heating systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Furbo, Simon; Fan, Jianhua; Perers, Bengt

    2015-01-01

    In 2013-2014 the project “Testing, development and demonstration of large scale solar district heating systems” was carried out within the Sino-Danish Renewable Energy Development Programme, the so called RED programme jointly developed by the Chinese and Danish governments. In the project Danish...... know how on solar heating plants and solar heating test technology have been transferred from Denmark to China, large solar heating systems have been promoted in China, test capabilities on solar collectors and large scale solar heating systems have been improved in China and Danish-Chinese cooperation...

  19. The Chinese version of the Myocardial Infarction Dimensional Assessment Scale (MIDAS: Mokken scaling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Watson Roger

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Hierarchical scales are very useful in clinical practice due to their ability to discriminate precisely between individuals, and the original English version of the Myocardial Infarction Dimensional Assessment Scale has been shown to contain a hierarchy of items. The purpose of this study was to analyse a Mandarin Chinese translation of the Myocardial Infarction Dimensional Assessment Scale for a hierarchy of items according to the criteria of Mokken scaling. Data from 180 Chinese participants who completed the Chinese translation of the Myocardial Infarction Dimensional Assessment Scale were analysed using the Mokken Scaling Procedure and the 'R' statistical programme using the diagnostics available in these programmes. Correlation between Mandarin Chinese items and a Chinese translation of the Short Form (36 Health Survey was also analysed. Findings Fifteen items from the Mandarin Chinese Myocardial Infarction Dimensional Assessment Scale were retained in a strong and reliable Mokken scale; invariant item ordering was not evident and the Mokken scaled items of the Chinese Myocardial Infarction Dimensional Assessment Scale correlated with the Short Form (36 Health Survey. Conclusions Items from the Mandarin Chinese Myocardial Infarction Dimensional Assessment Scale form a Mokken scale and this offers further insight into how the items of the Myocardial Infarction Dimensional Assessment Scale relate to the measurement of health-related quality of life people with a myocardial infarction.

  20. Public sector pay gap in Serbia during large-scale privatisation, by educational qualification

    OpenAIRE

    Laušev Jelena

    2012-01-01

    The paper explores the effect of large-scale privatization of public sector activities on public-private sector pay differential, for groups of workers according to educational qualification on average and across the pay distribution in Serbia, from 2004 until 2008. The paper finds that both unskilled and skilled men and women in the public sector saw significant improvements in their financial position relative to their private sector counterparts with the progress of the economic tran...

  1. Chinese version of the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale: translation and validation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Lezhi; Liu, Fang; Zhang, Huilin; Wang, Li; Chen, Xiaofang

    2011-01-01

    Postpartum depression is an important public health problem in China. Although 10%-20% of Chinese women having recently given birth are affected by postpartum depression, only 10% receive treatment due to the lack of proper screening. The aims of this study were to translate the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale into Chinese (C-PDSS) and establish the psychometric properties of the C-PDSS. The study was undertaken in three phases, composed of forward and backward translation of the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale into Chinese, examination of content validity, and field testing to establish the reliability, validity, and optimal cutoff score of the C-PDSS along with its sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values. A total sample of 387 mothers within 12 weeks postpartum participated in the study. Each mother was asked to complete the C-PDSS and the Chinese version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and then was interviewed by an experienced researcher using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was .96 for the total C-PDSS, and the overall intraclass correlation was .79. Factor analysis of the scale revealed that it was composed of 7 factors with eigenvalues >1, accounting for 74.25% of the total variance. There was a significantly positive correlation between the C-PDSS and the Chinese version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (r = .66, p confirmatory factor analysis and generalization of the C-PDSS to a different sample in China.

  2. Legal aspects of public participation in the planning/licensing of environmentally related large-scale projects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kurz, A.

    1991-01-01

    A variety of legal problems arise in the planning/licensing of environmentally related large-scale projects associated with the control and evaluation of technical conditions and the ramifications in social and legal policy of the acceptance of, and resistance to, such projects. On the basis of a number of partial studies e.g. of the licensing procedure of a nuclear power plant (Neckar-2 reactor) the author examines the legal aspects of public participation in the administrative procedures of licensing/plans approval. The dichotomy of law and technology is covered, and public participation in administrative procedures is derived legally from the basic constitutional rights and the principle of fair hearing. After an outline of specific administrative procedures, public participation as part of administrative procedures is included in the broad legal framework of licensing/plans approval of environmentally related large-scale projects. The author concludes that public participation, within the framework of the basic decisions established by legislature, is not a tool to be used in deciding basic political conflicts. Instead, public participations in the application of law serves to protect the rights of the individual by ensuring fair proceedings paying attention to the subjective rights of the individual. As it is unable to decide political conflicts, it is also an unsuitable means of establishing of basic societal consensus, or of seeking acceptance of large-scale projects. (orig./HP) [de

  3. Structural problems of public participation in large-scale projects with environmental impact

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bechmann, G.

    1989-01-01

    Four items are discussed showing that the problems involved through participation of the public in large-scale projects with environmental impact cannot be solved satisfactorily without suitable modification of the existing legal framework. The problematic items are: the status of the electric utilities as a quasi public enterprise; informal preliminary negotiations; the penetration of scientific argumentation into administrative decisions; the procedural concept. The paper discusses the fundamental issue of the problem-adequate design of the procedure and develops suggestions for a cooperative participation design. (orig./HSCH) [de

  4. Large-scale fortification of condiments and seasonings as a public health strategy: equity considerations for implementation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zamora, Gerardo; Flores-Urrutia, Mónica Crissel; Mayén, Ana-Lucia

    2016-09-01

    Fortification of staple foods with vitamins and minerals is an effective approach to increase micronutrient intake and improve nutritional status. The specific use of condiments and seasonings as vehicles in large-scale fortification programs is a relatively new public health strategy. This paper underscores equity considerations for the implementation of large-scale fortification of condiments and seasonings as a public health strategy by examining nonexhaustive examples of programmatic experiences and pilot projects in various settings. An overview of conceptual elements in implementation research and equity is presented, followed by an examination of equity considerations for five implementation strategies: (1) enhancing the capabilities of the public sector, (2) improving the performance of implementing agencies, (3) strengthening the capabilities and performance of frontline workers, (3) empowering communities and individuals, and (4) supporting multiple stakeholders engaged in improving health. Finally, specific considerations related to intersectoral action are considered. Large-scale fortification of condiments and seasonings cannot be a standalone strategy and needs to be implemented with concurrent and coordinated public health strategies, which should be informed by a health equity lens. © 2016 New York Academy of Sciences.

  5. Legal aspects of public participation in the planning/licensing of environmentally related large-scale projects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kurz, A.

    1992-02-01

    A variety of legal problems arise in the planning/licensing of environmentally related large-scale projects associated with the control and evaluation of technical conditions and the ramifications in social and legal policy of the acceptance of, and resistance to, such projects. On the basis of a number of partial studies e.g. of the licensing procedure of a nuclear power plant (Neckar-2 reactor), the author examines the legal aspects of public participation in the administrative procedure of licensing/plans approval. The dichotomy of law and technology is covered, and public participation in administrative procedures is derived legally from the basic constitutional rights and the principle of fair hearing. After an outline of specific administrative procedures, public participation as part of administrative procedures is included in the broad legal framework of licensing/plans approval of environmentally related large-scale projects. The author concludes that public participation, within the framework of the basic decisions established by legislature, is not a tool to be used in deciding basic political conflicts. Instead, public participations in the application of law serves to protect the rights of the individual by ensuring fair proceedings paying attention to the subjective rights of the individual. As it is unable to decide political conflicts, it is also an unsuitable means of establishing of basic societal consensus, or of seeking acceptance of large-scale projects. This is reflected also in studies of the legal functions of public participation, according to which the lawfulness of procedures is observed without, however, the legitimacy of the project being achieved. (orig./HP) [de

  6. Public sector pay gap in Serbia during large-scale privatisation, by educational qualification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laušev Jelena

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper explores the effect of large-scale privatization of public sector activities on public-private sector pay differential, for groups of workers according to educational qualification on average and across the pay distribution in Serbia, from 2004 until 2008. The paper finds that both unskilled and skilled men and women in the public sector saw significant improvements in their financial position relative to their private sector counterparts with the progress of the economic transition. The results showed that the size of the public sector pay premium declines both with higher educational level and higher percentile of earnings distribution. This indicates, between and within groups, the inequality-reducing feature of the public sector pay determination.

  7. Large-scale spatial and interspecies differences in trace elements and stable isotopes in marine wild fish from Chinese waters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Wei; Wang, Wen-Xiong

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► A large-scale study on trace element levels in marine wild fish from Chinese waters. ► Spatial variation found for Al, As, Cd, Cr, Fe, Ni, Pb, but not for Ag, Cu, Mo, Se and Zn. ► The Pearl River Estuary contained the highest concentrations of Al, Cr, Ni, and Pb. ► No biomagnification occurred for any of the trace elements studied in marine fish. ► No obvious health risk from the intake of trace elements through fish consumption. - Abstract: We conducted a large scale investigation of twelve trace element levels and stable isotopes (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) in twenty-nine marine wild fish species collected from Chinese coastal waters. Trace element levels varied significantly with species. Clear spatial variations were found for Al, As, Cd, Cr, Fe, Ni, and Pb, whereas Ag, Cu, Mo, Se and Zn did not show much spatial variation. The Pearl River Estuary contained the highest concentrations of Al, Cr, Ni, and Pb, whereas the most southern waters (Haikou) contained the lowest concentrations of Al, Fe, and Pb. There was no correlation between log-transformed trace elements concentrations and δ 15 N values or δ 13 C values, indicating no biomagnification among these trace elements. The calculated hazard quotients (HQ) of 10 elements were less than 1, thus there was no obvious health risk from the intake of trace elements through marine wild fish consumption.

  8. Chinese adaptation and validation of the patellofemoral pain severity scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheung, Roy T H; Ngai, Shirley P C; Lam, Priscillia L; Chiu, Joseph K W; Fung, Eric Y H

    2013-05-01

    This study validated the Patellofemoral Pain Severity Scale translated into Chinese. The Chinese Patellofemoral Pain Severity Scale was translated from the original English version following standard forward and backward translation procedures recommended by the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. The survey was then conducted in clinical settings by a questionnaire comprising the Chinese Patellofemoral Pain Severity Scale, Kujala Scale and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) Osteoarthritis Index. Eighty-four Chinese reading patients with patellofemoral pain were recruited from physical therapy clinics. Internal consistency of the translated instrument was measured by Cronbach alpha. Convergent validity was examined by Spearman rank correlation coefficient (rho) tests by comparing its score with the validated Chinese version of the Kujala Scale and the WOMAC Osteoarthritis Index while the test-retest reliability was evaluated by administering the questionnaires twice. Cronbach alpha values of individual questions and their overall value were above 0.85. Strong association was found between the Chinese Patellofemoral Pain Severity Scale and the Kujala Scale (rho = -0.72, p coefficient = 0.98) was demonstrated. The Chinese translated version of the Patellofemoral Pain Severity Scale is a reliable and valid instrument for patients with patellofemoral pain.

  9. The use of public participation and economic appraisal for public involvement in large-scale hydropower projects: Case study of the Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mirumachi, Naho; Torriti, Jacopo

    2012-01-01

    Gaining public acceptance is one of the main issues with large-scale low-carbon projects such as hydropower development. It has been recommended by the World Commission on Dams that to gain public acceptance, public involvement is necessary in the decision-making process (). As financially-significant actors in the planning and implementation of large-scale hydropower projects in developing country contexts, the paper examines the ways in which public involvement may be influenced by international financial institutions. Using the case study of the Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project in Laos, the paper analyses how public involvement facilitated by the Asian Development Bank had a bearing on procedural and distributional justice. The paper analyses the extent of public participation and the assessment of full social and environmental costs of the project in the Cost-Benefit Analysis conducted during the project appraisal stage. It is argued that while efforts were made to involve the public, there were several factors that influenced procedural and distributional justice: the late contribution of the Asian Development Bank in the project appraisal stage; and the issue of non-market values and discount rate to calculate the full social and environmental costs. - Highlights: ► Public acceptance in large-scale hydropower projects is examined. ► Both procedural and distributional justice are important for public acceptance. ► International Financial Institutions can influence the level of public involvement. ► Public involvement benefits consideration of non-market values and discount rates.

  10. Large-scale spatial and interspecies differences in trace elements and stable isotopes in marine wild fish from Chinese waters

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhang, Wei [Key Laboratory of Marine Bio-resources Sustainable Utilization, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301 (China); Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China); Wang, Wen-Xiong, E-mail: wwang@ust.hk [Division of Life Science, HKUST, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon (Hong Kong)

    2012-05-15

    Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer A large-scale study on trace element levels in marine wild fish from Chinese waters. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Spatial variation found for Al, As, Cd, Cr, Fe, Ni, Pb, but not for Ag, Cu, Mo, Se and Zn. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The Pearl River Estuary contained the highest concentrations of Al, Cr, Ni, and Pb. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer No biomagnification occurred for any of the trace elements studied in marine fish. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer No obvious health risk from the intake of trace elements through fish consumption. - Abstract: We conducted a large scale investigation of twelve trace element levels and stable isotopes ({delta}{sup 13}C and {delta}{sup 15}N) in twenty-nine marine wild fish species collected from Chinese coastal waters. Trace element levels varied significantly with species. Clear spatial variations were found for Al, As, Cd, Cr, Fe, Ni, and Pb, whereas Ag, Cu, Mo, Se and Zn did not show much spatial variation. The Pearl River Estuary contained the highest concentrations of Al, Cr, Ni, and Pb, whereas the most southern waters (Haikou) contained the lowest concentrations of Al, Fe, and Pb. There was no correlation between log-transformed trace elements concentrations and {delta}{sup 15}N values or {delta}{sup 13}C values, indicating no biomagnification among these trace elements. The calculated hazard quotients (HQ) of 10 elements were less than 1, thus there was no obvious health risk from the intake of trace elements through marine wild fish consumption.

  11. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE CHINESE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA) SYSTEM

    OpenAIRE

    SHANSHAN YANG

    2008-01-01

    This article was initiated by findings that public participation in the Chinese Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) system has not been effectively carried out. The article first introduces the research rationale and theoretical basis. It then reviews and analyses public participation in the Chinese EIA system, including its history, legal and institutional requirements and problems. Thirdly it puts forward suggestions for promoting public participation in the Chinese EIA system taking into...

  12. Development of Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scale and tests for its reliability and validity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kai-hong TANG

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective  To develop Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scaleand verify its reliability and validity. Methods  The Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scalewas initiated, organized and compiled based upon open-ended questionnaire survey done in a systematic manner, and previous researches were taken as references. A total of 630 military personnel were chosen by random cluster sampling and tested with the Scale, among them 50 were tested with Social Support Rating Scale(SSRS and Chinese Military Psychosomatic Health Scale(CMPHS simultaneously, and the test was done solely a second time with CMPHS 2 weeks later. The reliability and validity were assessed and verified by exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis. Results  The Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scalecomprised three factors, namely subjective support, objective support and utility of social support. Eighteen items were left in official scale after amendment by factor analysis, and one lying subscale was added. The correlation coefficients between the public factors ranged from 0.477 to 0.589 (P<0.01, and the correlation coefficients between factors and total scale ranged from 0.721 to 0.823 (P<0.01. The test-retest correlation coefficients of total scale and subscales ranged from 0.622 to 0.803 (P<0.01, the Cronbach α coefficients ranged from 0.624 to 0.874, and the split-half correlation coefficients ranged from 0.551 to 0.828. Significant correlation existed between this Scale and two criterion scales, namely SSRS and CMPHS. Conclusion  It is verified that the Chinese Military Personnel Social Support Scalehas excellent reliability and validity, and complying with psychometric standards, it may be used to evaluate the social support level of Chinese military personnel.

  13. Public participation in the licensing of large-scale projects with environmental impact

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-01-01

    As a rule, public participation in licensing and planning procedures for large-scale projects with environmental impact is as controversial as the projects themselves. Against this background, an interdisciplinary examination of several 'cases' of public participation in administrative procedures with varying legal forms is being conducted in a joint research project run by the Department for Applied Systems Analysis (Karlsruher Nuclear Centre) and the Research Institute for Public Administration at the College for Administrative Sciences in Speyer. The actual course of events and the practical experience of the groups involved (authorities, applicants, objectors, experts) are related to the applicable legal arrangements for public participation. The question to be answered is: which expected and unexpected functions do the procedures actually fulfill and which not. Proposals for the amendment of legal policy could be developed upon the foundation of such a diagnosis. The report contains the results of the 'pilot study' on public participation in the licensing of the nuclear power plant GKN-2 in Neckarwestheim and further contributions on the issue of 'public participation', presented within the framework of a research colloquium at the School for Nuclear Technology/Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Centre. (orig.) [de

  14. Microarray Data Processing Techniques for Genome-Scale Network Inference from Large Public Repositories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chockalingam, Sriram; Aluru, Maneesha; Aluru, Srinivas

    2016-09-19

    Pre-processing of microarray data is a well-studied problem. Furthermore, all popular platforms come with their own recommended best practices for differential analysis of genes. However, for genome-scale network inference using microarray data collected from large public repositories, these methods filter out a considerable number of genes. This is primarily due to the effects of aggregating a diverse array of experiments with different technical and biological scenarios. Here we introduce a pre-processing pipeline suitable for inferring genome-scale gene networks from large microarray datasets. We show that partitioning of the available microarray datasets according to biological relevance into tissue- and process-specific categories significantly extends the limits of downstream network construction. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our pre-processing pipeline by inferring genome-scale networks for the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana using two different construction methods and a collection of 11,760 Affymetrix ATH1 microarray chips. Our pre-processing pipeline and the datasets used in this paper are made available at http://alurulab.cc.gatech.edu/microarray-pp.

  15. The chinese nuclear prepare its boosting on a large scale

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jemain, A.

    2004-01-01

    The CNDR (state commission for the development and the reform) defined a long-dated plan for the nuclear energy. In 2020 the chinese reactor will reach a capacity of 36000 M watts. To realize this objective the China had to build two reactors every two years from 2004 to 2020. The chinese nuclear industry and the boost program are analyzed, in particular the choice of the reactor technology. (A.L.B.)

  16. Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Auditing in Large-scale Public Infrastructure Construction: the case of Qinghai-Tibet Railway

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    He, G.; Zhang, L.; Lu, Y.

    2009-01-01

    Large-scale public infrastructure projects have featured in China’s modernization course since the early 1980s. During the early stages of China’s rapid economic development, public attention focused on the economic and social impact of high-profile construction projects. In recent years, however,

  17. Detection of large-scale concentric gravity waves from a Chinese airglow imager network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lai, Chang; Yue, Jia; Xu, Jiyao; Yuan, Wei; Li, Qinzeng; Liu, Xiao

    2018-06-01

    Concentric gravity waves (CGWs) contain a broad spectrum of horizontal wavelengths and periods due to their instantaneous localized sources (e.g., deep convection, volcanic eruptions, or earthquake, etc.). However, it is difficult to observe large-scale gravity waves of >100 km wavelength from the ground for the limited field of view of a single camera and local bad weather. Previously, complete large-scale CGW imagery could only be captured by satellite observations. In the present study, we developed a novel method that uses assembling separate images and applying low-pass filtering to obtain temporal and spatial information about complete large-scale CGWs from a network of all-sky airglow imagers. Coordinated observations from five all-sky airglow imagers in Northern China were assembled and processed to study large-scale CGWs over a wide area (1800 km × 1 400 km), focusing on the same two CGW events as Xu et al. (2015). Our algorithms yielded images of large-scale CGWs by filtering out the small-scale CGWs. The wavelengths, wave speeds, and periods of CGWs were measured from a sequence of consecutive assembled images. Overall, the assembling and low-pass filtering algorithms can expand the airglow imager network to its full capacity regarding the detection of large-scale gravity waves.

  18. The banana [re]public: A study of trans/national popular culture consumption among young Chinese living in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Chow, Y.F.

    2011-01-01

    Public discourses on the Dutch ‘multicultural drama’ have consistently omitted the Chinese. While other ethnic minorities, particularly the younger generations, continue to be framed and visualized in Dutch society as a problem, the young Chinese remain largely invisible, hidden by the dominant

  19. Validating the Orientations to Happiness Scale in a Chinese Sample of University Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Guo-Hai

    2010-01-01

    This paper examined the reliability and validity of the Orientation to Happiness Scale with a sample of Chinese correspondents. Chinese translation of the Orientation to Happiness Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, Temporal Satisfaction with Life Scale, and General Life Satisfaction Scale, were administered to 671 Chinese university students…

  20. Patriotic Rhetoric in Chinese Public Spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pawel Zygadlo

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper begins with the analysis of the socio-cultural phenomenon known as “public space.” This analysis is followed by the reflection on distinctive features of public space in contemporary China. Subsequently, I focus on the use of public space by Chinese authorities for spreading official political and ideological discourse. For this purpose, I analyse the form and content of messages displayed in places of public utility. I conclude by showing what, how and why these are being displayed and widely promoted by the authorities. I argue that public space in China, on the one hand, is “public” in the sense that it is accessible and used by citizens; on the other, it is “arrested by authorities” and used for their socio-political and ideological purposes. Such an arrangement is a statement of the unvocalised agreement between the authorities and citizens that allows the former to avoid major conflicts with the latter and legitimise political power. In return, the latter enjoy a wide range of socio-cultural freedom and are being provided with psychological comfort resulting from identification with a greater endeavour of restoring the glory of the Chinese nation.

  1. Contemporary large-scale international design competitions1 in China. A case study of Baietan, Guangzhou

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zheng Liang

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The importance of contemporary design competitions has been increasingly recognized in fast-growing China in the course of World Trade Organization (WTO integration and globalization. However, scientific and systematic analysis is rare on how international design competitions are introduced, and how they interact and transplant in the Chinese context. The well-known Chinese-Western culture gap and complicated social and political background make this topic more challenging. Herein, the authors focus on how the international design competitions were “translated” into both international and local perspectives with a compara­tive analysis on development of international design competitions between the Chinese and the Finnish model. To fully exemplify the design-completion procedure and the different roles of Chinese stakeholders and their perspectives on design competitions, the authors study the Baietan case, which was chosen due to its specific relationship with the city’s strategic plan, its representativeness in using international design competitions in connection to large-scale urban projects in China and its public access to the relevant documentation. The preliminary findings suggest that Chinese-style design competitions, acting as ‘designed trading zones’, with less-defined competition rules compared to the Finnish model, may foster the settings of local transformation in adopting international urban planning and design knowledge. However, an integrated approach is required to address subsequent implementation.

  2. Validation of the Chinese expanded Euthanasia Attitude Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chong, Alice Ming-Lin; Fok, Shiu-Yeu

    2013-01-01

    This article reports the validation of the Chinese version of an expanded 31-item Euthanasia Attitude Scale. A 4-stage validation process included a pilot survey of 119 college students and a randomized household survey with 618 adults in Hong Kong. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a 4-factor structure of the scale, which can therefore be used to examine attitudes toward general, active, passive, and non-voluntary euthanasia. The scale considers the role effect in decision-making about euthanasia requests and facilitates cross-cultural comparison of attitudes toward euthanasia. The new Chinese scale is more robust than its Western predecessors conceptually and measurement-wise.

  3. Large-scale multimedia modeling applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Droppo, J.G. Jr.; Buck, J.W.; Whelan, G.; Strenge, D.L.; Castleton, K.J.; Gelston, G.M.

    1995-08-01

    Over the past decade, the US Department of Energy (DOE) and other agencies have faced increasing scrutiny for a wide range of environmental issues related to past and current practices. A number of large-scale applications have been undertaken that required analysis of large numbers of potential environmental issues over a wide range of environmental conditions and contaminants. Several of these applications, referred to here as large-scale applications, have addressed long-term public health risks using a holistic approach for assessing impacts from potential waterborne and airborne transport pathways. Multimedia models such as the Multimedia Environmental Pollutant Assessment System (MEPAS) were designed for use in such applications. MEPAS integrates radioactive and hazardous contaminants impact computations for major exposure routes via air, surface water, ground water, and overland flow transport. A number of large-scale applications of MEPAS have been conducted to assess various endpoints for environmental and human health impacts. These applications are described in terms of lessons learned in the development of an effective approach for large-scale applications

  4. Chinese large solar telescopes site survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yu

    2017-04-01

    In order to observe the solar surface with unprecedentedly higher resolution, Chinse solar physics society decided to launch their solar site survey project in 2010 as the first step to look for the best candidate sites for the Chinese next-generation large-aperture solar telescopes, i.e., the 5-8 meter Chinese Giant Solar Telescope, and the 1 meter level coronagraph. We have built two long-term monitoring sites in Daocheng, with altitudes of around 4800 meters above the sea level located in the large Shangri-La mountain area, and we have collected systematic site data since 2014. Clear evidence, including the key parameters of seeing factor, sky brightness and water vapor content, has indicated that the large Shangri-La area owns the potential conditions of excellent seeing level and sufficient amount of clear-sky hours suitable for developing large solar telescopes. We will review the site survey progress and present the preliminary statistical results in this talk.

  5. Adult Chinese as a Second Language Learners' Willingness to Communicate in Chinese: Effects of Cultural, Affective, and Linguistic Variables.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Meihua

    2017-06-01

    The present research explored the effects of cultural, affective, and linguistic variables on adult Chinese as a second language learners' willingness to communicate in Chinese. One hundred and sixty-two Chinese as a second language learners from a Chinese university answered the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scale, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale, Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, Use of Chinese Profile, as well as the Background Questionnaire. The major findings were as follows: (1) the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scales were significantly negatively correlated with Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale but positively correlated with length of stay in China and (2) Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale was a powerful negative predictor for the overall willingness to communicate in Chinese and the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scales, followed by length of stay in China, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, interaction attentiveness, and Chinese proficiency level. Apparently, students' willingness to communicate in Chinese is largely determined by their Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale level and length of stay in China, mediated by other variables such as Chinese proficiency level and intercultural communication sensitivity level.

  6. Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Acceptance of Chronic Health Conditions (Stoma) Scale for Patients With Stoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Siew Hoon; He, Hong-Gu; Chan, Sally Wai Chi

    Formation of a stoma is a common outcome in surgical treatment of colorectal cancer. A higher acceptance of stoma was shown to improve quality of life of patients. No instrument in Chinese is available that can be used to measure the acceptance of stoma among patients with colorectal cancer. The aims of this study were to translate and test the psychometric properties of Chinese version of Acceptance of Chronic Health Conditions (ACHC) (Stoma) scale. A sample of 100 Chinese-speaking patients with stoma was recruited from a public tertiary care hospital in Singapore. The scale was translated into Chinese and reviewed by an expert panel for semantic equivalence and content validity testing. Convergent validity was established by exploring correlations between scores of the Chinese version of the ACHC (Stoma) scale and those of the 5-level version of European Quality of Life Questionnaire-5 Dimensions. Reliability was assessed by internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The newly translated scale had high content validity (content validity index = 94%) and acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .846). The test-retest reliability was satisfactory with an intraclass coefficient of 0.997. A positive correlation was found between both scores on ACHC (Stoma) scale and EQ-5D utility score (r = 0.63, P Stoma) scale demonstrated satisfactory content validity, good convergent validity, and adequate internal consistency and stability. This scale can be used as a convenient screening tool in clinical settings to assess the level of acceptance in Chinese-speaking patients with stoma.

  7. The development and psychometric analysis of the Chinese HIV-Related Fatigue Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Su-Yin; Wu, Hua-Shan; Barroso, Julie

    2016-04-01

    To develop a Chinese version of the human immunodeficiency virus-related Fatigue Scale and examine its reliability and validity. Fatigue is found in more than 70% of people infected with human immunodeficiency virus. However, a scale to assess fatigue in human immunodeficiency virus-positive people has not yet been developed for use in Chinese-speaking countries. A methodologic study involving instrument development and psychometric evaluation was used. The human immunodeficiency virus-related Fatigue Scale was examined through a two-step procedure: (1) translation and back translation and (2) psychometric analysis. A sample of 142 human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients was recruited from the Infectious Disease Outpatient Clinic in central Taiwan. Their fatigue data were analysed with Cronbach's α for internal consistency. Two weeks later, the data of a random sample of 28 patients from the original 142 were analysed for test-retest reliability. The correlation between the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment-Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Chinese version of the human immunodeficiency virus-related Fatigue Scale was analysed for concurrent validity. The Chinese version of the human immunodeficiency virus-related Fatigue Scale scores of human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients with highly active antiretroviral therapy and those without were compared to demonstrate construct validity. The internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the Chinese version of the human immunodeficiency virus-related Fatigue Scale were 0·97 and 0·686, respectively. In regard to concurrent validity, a negative correlation was found between the scores of the Chinese version of the human immunodeficiency virus-related Fatigue Scale and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment-Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Additionally, the Chinese version of the human immunodeficiency virus-related Fatigue Scale could be used to effectively

  8. Teaching Chinese Students: Understanding Their Public Sector Paradigm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conrad, Cynthia; Coleman, Charles

    2011-01-01

    Teaching Chinese students in an American university can be both challenging and rewarding. Cultural and language differences can lead to some superficial confusion and interpretational problems. However, the vast differences in the ways Chinese students view the role of the public sector, as compared to the US, can mean that the instructors and…

  9. Large-scale integration of wind power into the existing Chinese energy system

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Liu, Wen; Lund, Henrik; Mathiesen, Brian Vad

    2011-01-01

    stability, the maximum feasible wind power penetration in the existing Chinese energy system is approximately 26% from both technical and economic points of view. A fuel efficiency decrease occurred when increasing wind power penetration in the system, due to its rigid power supply structure and the task......This paper presents the ability of the existing Chinese energy system to integrate wind power and explores how the Chinese energy system needs to prepare itself in order to integrate more fluctuating renewable energy in the future. With this purpose in mind, a model of the Chinese energy system has...... been constructed by using EnergyPLAN based on the year 2007, which has then been used for investigating three issues. Firstly, the accuracy of the model itself has been examined and then the maximum feasible wind power penetration in the existing energy system has been identified. Finally, barriers...

  10. [Development and validation of the Chinese version of modified body imgae scale in Chinese population].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, X X; Zhu, L; Yu, S J; Xu, T

    2018-02-25

    Objective: To develop the Chinese version of modified body image scale (MBIS) questionnaires, and to validate them in Chinese population. Methods: The original English MBIS questionnaire was translated into Chinese, following the WHO cross-cultural adaptation of health-related quality of life measures. The reliability and validity of the Chinese version of MBIS questionnaires were evaluated in Chinese population, MRKH syndrome patients. Results: Totally 50 patients with MRKH syndrome completed the MBIS and short-form 12-item health survey (SF-12) questionnaires. The Cronbach's alpha of MBIS was 0.741, intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.472-0.815 ( PChinese version of MBIS has high reliability and validity in Chinese population, therefore is suitable for clinic and research.

  11. Psychometric properties of the Chinese-version Quality of Nursing Work Life Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Ya-Wen; Dai, Yu-Tzu; McCreary, Linda L; Yao, Grace; Brooks, Beth A

    2014-09-01

    In this study, we developed and tested the psychometric properties of the Chinese-version Quality of Nursing Work Life Scale along seven subscales: supportive milieu with security and professional recognition, work arrangement and workload, work/home life balance, head nurse's/supervisor's management style, teamwork and communication, nursing staffing and patient care, and milieu of respect and autonomy. An instrument-development procedure with three phases was conducted in seven hospitals in 2010-2011. Phase I comprised translation and the cultural-adaptation process, phase II comprised a pilot study, and phase III comprised a field-testing process. Purposive sampling was used in the pilot study (n = 150) and the large field study (n = 1254). Five new items were added, and 85.7% of the original items were retained in the 41 item Chinese version. Principal component analysis revealed that a model accounted for 56.6% of the variance with acceptable internal consistency, concurrent validity, and discriminant validity. This study gave evidence of reliability and validity of the 41 item Chinese-version Quality of Nursing Work Life Scale. © 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

  12. The Expanded Large Scale Gap Test

    Science.gov (United States)

    1987-03-01

    NSWC TR 86-32 DTIC THE EXPANDED LARGE SCALE GAP TEST BY T. P. LIDDIARD D. PRICE RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT ’ ~MARCH 1987 Ap~proved for public...arises, to reduce the spread in the LSGT 50% gap value.) The worst charges, such as those with the highest or lowest densities, the largest re-pressed...Arlington, VA 22217 PE 62314N INS3A 1 RJ14E31 7R4TBK 11 TITLE (Include Security CIlmsilficatiorn The Expanded Large Scale Gap Test . 12. PEIRSONAL AUTHOR() T

  13. Environmental impact assessment and environmental audit in large-scale public infrastructure construction: the case of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Guizhen; Zhang, Lei; Lu, Yonglong

    2009-09-01

    Large-scale public infrastructure projects have featured in China's modernization course since the early 1980s. During the early stages of China's rapid economic development, public attention focused on the economic and social impact of high-profile construction projects. In recent years, however, we have seen a shift in public concern toward the environmental and ecological effects of such projects, and today governments are required to provide valid environmental impact assessments prior to allowing large-scale construction. The official requirement for the monitoring of environmental conditions has led to an increased number of debates in recent years regarding the effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and Governmental Environmental Audits (GEAs) as environmental safeguards in instances of large-scale construction. Although EIA and GEA are conducted by different institutions and have different goals and enforcement potential, these two practices can be closely related in terms of methodology. This article cites the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway as an instance in which EIA and GEA offer complementary approaches to environmental impact management. This study concludes that the GEA approach can serve as an effective follow-up to the EIA and establishes that the EIA lays a base for conducting future GEAs. The relationship that emerges through a study of the Railway's construction calls for more deliberate institutional arrangements and cooperation if the two practices are to be used in concert to optimal effect.

  14. Large-scale Agricultural Land Acquisitions in West Africa | IDRC ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    This project will examine large-scale agricultural land acquisitions in nine West African countries -Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Benin, Mali, Togo, Senegal, Niger, and Côte d'Ivoire. ... They will use the results to increase public awareness and knowledge about the consequences of large-scale land acquisitions.

  15. PKI security in large-scale healthcare networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mantas, Georgios; Lymberopoulos, Dimitrios; Komninos, Nikos

    2012-06-01

    During the past few years a lot of PKI (Public Key Infrastructures) infrastructures have been proposed for healthcare networks in order to ensure secure communication services and exchange of data among healthcare professionals. However, there is a plethora of challenges in these healthcare PKI infrastructures. Especially, there are a lot of challenges for PKI infrastructures deployed over large-scale healthcare networks. In this paper, we propose a PKI infrastructure to ensure security in a large-scale Internet-based healthcare network connecting a wide spectrum of healthcare units geographically distributed within a wide region. Furthermore, the proposed PKI infrastructure facilitates the trust issues that arise in a large-scale healthcare network including multi-domain PKI infrastructures.

  16. Capabilities of the Large-Scale Sediment Transport Facility

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-04-01

    pump flow meters, sediment trap weigh tanks , and beach profiling lidar. A detailed discussion of the original LSTF features and capabilities can be...ERDC/CHL CHETN-I-88 April 2016 Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. Capabilities of the Large-Scale Sediment Transport...describes the Large-Scale Sediment Transport Facility (LSTF) and recent upgrades to the measurement systems. The purpose of these upgrades was to increase

  17. Rasch validation of the Chinese parent-child interaction scale (CPCIS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ip, Patrick; Tso, Winnie; Rao, Nirmala; Ho, Frederick Ka Wing; Chan, Ko Ling; Fu, King Wa; Li, Sophia Ling; Goh, Winnie; Wong, Wilfred Hing-Sang; Chow, Chun Bong

    2018-03-15

    Proper parent-child interaction is crucial for child development, but an assessment tool in Chinese is currently lacking. This study aimed to develop and validate a parent-reported parent-child interaction scale for Chinese preschool children. The Chinese parent-child interaction scale (CPCIS) was designed by an expert panel based on the literature and clinical observations in the Chinese context. The initial CPCIS had 14 parent-child interactive activity items. Psychometric properties of the CPCIS were examined using the Rasch model and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Convergent validity was investigated by the associations between CPCIS and family income, maternal education level, and children's school readiness. The study recruited 567 Chinese parent-child pairs from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, who completed the CPCIS. Six out of the 14 items in the initial CPCIS were dropped due to suboptimal fit values. The refined 8-item CPCIS was shown to be valid and reliable by Rasch models and CFA. The person separation reliability and Cronbach's α of the CPCIS were 0.81 and 0.82, respectively. The CPCIS scores were positively associated with family's socioeconomic status (η 2  = 0.05, P parent-child interactions in Chinese families.

  18. Development and Validation of a Life Satisfaction Scale for Chinese Elders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lou, W. Q. Vivian; Chi, Iris; Mjelde-Mossey, Lee Ann

    2008-01-01

    This study reports the development and validation of a culturally sensitive, domain-specific measure of life satisfaction for Chinese Elders--The Life Satisfaction Scale-Chinese ("LSS-C"). The "LSS-C" was administered to 1,502 randomly-selected older Chinese persons in three newly developed towns in Mainland China. Confirmatory…

  19. Translation and validation of a chinese version of the parenting sense of competence scale in chinese mothers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ngai, Fei-Wan; Wai-Chi Chan, Sally; Holroyd, Eleanor

    2007-01-01

    Women's sense of competence and satisfaction in the maternal role are essential for positive parenting practices and child development. Measures of maternal role competence and satisfaction are limited in the Chinese population. To translate the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale into Chinese (C-PSOC) and to examine the psychometric properties of the C-PSOC. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a convenience sample of 170 mothers recruited from a postnatal unit. Participants completed the C-PSOC, Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. A randomly selected subsample of 57 mothers participated in the 4-week retest. The C-PSOC demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .85) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = .87). Factor analysis supported the two-factor structure reflecting the efficacy and satisfaction dimensions of the original instrument. The scale discriminated between primiparas and multiparas (t = 2.2, p Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (r = .60, p Scale (r = -.48, p < .01) demonstrated good construct validity. The C-PSOC has satisfactory psychometric properties. It has the potential to be used as a clinical and research instrument for measuring maternal role competence and satisfaction in the Chinese population.

  20. Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Treatment of Reproductive Disorders of Large Animals in Asia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ZH Zuo, TY Zhang, J Chu, Q Zhang, YX Guo, ZQ Shen and C He

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Reproductive diseases have been a great threat in large animal herds. Before induction of western medicines, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM that is based on the use of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage and other forms of therapy has been practiced in China for thousands of years. The foundational text of Chinese medicine dated back to 5th century to 3rd century BCE, humans in China began developing the TCM therapy by maintaining normal homeostasis and body functions. Traditional Chinese medicine prophylaxis is a very different strategy from that of the western medicine, targeting the balance of the diseased animals as compared to the single lesion. Traditional Chinese medicine was also applied to cure ruminant’s reproductive disorders such as infertility, abortion and retained placenta. With the increasing concerns of the antibiotic resistance and drug abuse happened, TCM has acquired re-recognition as compared to western medicines due to eco-friendly consumer-driven developments and less residue in food chains. More importantly, a growing number of active substances or extracts with the reliable efficacy are being identified, meanwhile, the quality control measures are satisfied in the large-scale production already. However, few TCM is recognized to be used internationally as the popular human medication. Even less TCM is prescribed legally to animal industry due to poor understanding TCM philosophy and lack of the right guidelines of the registration. This summary aims to elucidate the TCM application in the treatment of the reproductive disorder in large animals and offer alternative strategies for prophylaxis.

  1. Large scale electrolysers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    B Bello; M Junker

    2006-01-01

    Hydrogen production by water electrolysis represents nearly 4 % of the world hydrogen production. Future development of hydrogen vehicles will require large quantities of hydrogen. Installation of large scale hydrogen production plants will be needed. In this context, development of low cost large scale electrolysers that could use 'clean power' seems necessary. ALPHEA HYDROGEN, an European network and center of expertise on hydrogen and fuel cells, has performed for its members a study in 2005 to evaluate the potential of large scale electrolysers to produce hydrogen in the future. The different electrolysis technologies were compared. Then, a state of art of the electrolysis modules currently available was made. A review of the large scale electrolysis plants that have been installed in the world was also realized. The main projects related to large scale electrolysis were also listed. Economy of large scale electrolysers has been discussed. The influence of energy prices on the hydrogen production cost by large scale electrolysis was evaluated. (authors)

  2. Using the Chinese version of Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale to describe postoperative delirium after hip surgery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhongyong eShi

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Objective: Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale (MDAS assesses severity of delirium. However, whether the MDAS can be used in a Chinese population is unknown. Moreover, the optimal postoperative MDAS cutoff point for describing postoperative delirium in Chinese remains largely to be determined. We therefore performed a pilot study to validate MDAS in the Chinese language and to determine the optimal postoperative MDAS cutoff point for delirium. Methods: Eighty-two patients (80 ± 6 years, 18% male who had hip surgery under general anesthesia were enrolled. The Confusion Assessment Method (CAM and Mini-mental state examination (MMSE were administered in the patients before surgery. The CAM and MDAS were performed in the patients on the first, second, and fourth postoperative day. The reliability and validity of the MDAS were determined. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC curve was used to determine the optimal Chinese version MDAS cutoff point for the identification of delirium. Results: The Chinese version of the MDAS had satisfactory internal consistency (α = 0.910. ROC analysis obtained an average optimal MDAS cutoff point of 7.5 in describing the CAM-defined postoperative delirium with an area under the ROC of 0.990 (95% CI 0.977-1.000, P < 0.001. Conclusions: The Chinese version of MDAS had good reliability and validity. The patients whose postoperative Chinese version of MDAS cutoff point was 7.5 would likely have postoperative delirium. These results have established a system for a future larger scale study.

  3. Complexity analysis on public transport networks of 97 large- and medium-sized cities in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, Zhanwei; Zhang, Zhuo; Wang, Hongfei; Ma, Li

    2018-04-01

    The traffic situation in Chinese urban areas is continuing to deteriorate. To make a better planning and designing of the public transport system, it is necessary to make profound research on the structure of urban public transport networks (PTNs). We investigate 97 large- and medium-sized cities’ PTNs in China, construct three types of network models — bus stop network, bus transit network and bus line network, then analyze the structural characteristics of them. It is revealed that bus stop network is small-world and scale-free, bus transit network and bus line network are both small-world. Betweenness centrality of each city’s PTN shows similar distribution pattern, although these networks’ size is various. When classifying cities according to the characteristics of PTNs or economic development level, the results are similar. It means that the development of cities’ economy and transport network has a strong correlation, PTN expands in a certain model with the development of economy.

  4. How International Large-Scale Skills Assessments Engage with National Actors: Mobilising Networks through Policy, Media and Public Knowledge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamilton, Mary

    2017-01-01

    This paper examines how international, large-scale skills assessments (ILSAs) engage with the broader societies they seek to serve and improve. It looks particularly at the discursive work that is done by different interest groups and the media through which the findings become part of public conversations and are translated into usable form in…

  5. From segregation to pensions for all? Chinese elites’ search to establish a nationwide public pension system

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stepan, M.

    2013-01-01

    This paper is dealing with the establishment of a public pension system in China that has the potential to extent its coverage to the large majority of the Chinese population and constitutes a break with the legacy of selective, work-unit based pension system that neglected the rural population at

  6. The Chinese in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mérove Gijsberts; Willem Huijnk; Ria Vogels

    2011-01-01

    Original title: Chinese Nederlanders This report presents the first national picture of the position of the Chinese community in the Netherlands. A large-scale survey was conducted among persons of Chinese origin living in the Netherlands, with the aim of answering questions on a wide range of

  7. Government regulation and associated innovations in building energy-efficiency supervisory systems for large-scale public buildings in a market economy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dai Xuezhi; Wu Yong; Di Yanqiang; Li Qiaoyan

    2009-01-01

    The supervision of energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings is the main embodiment for government implementation of Public Administration in the fields of resource saving and environmental protection. Aimed at improving the current situation of lack of government administration in building energy efficiency, this paper proposes the concept of 'change and redesign of governmental supervision in building energy efficiency', repositioning the role of government supervision. Based on this theory and other related theories in regulation economic and modern management, this paper analyzes and researches the action and function of all level governments in execution of the supervisory system of building energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings. This paper also defines the importance of government supervision in energy-efficiency system. Finally, this paper analyzes and researches the interaction mechanism between government and owners of different type buildings, government and energy-efficiency service institution with gambling as main features. This paper also presents some measurements to achieve a common benefit community in implementation of building energy-efficiency supervisory system.

  8. Government regulation and associated innovations in building energy-efficiency supervisory systems for large-scale public buildings in a market economy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dai Xuezhi [China Academy of Building Research, Beijing 100013 (China)], E-mail: daixz9999@126.com; Wu Yong [Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People' s Republic of China, Beijing 100835 (China); Di Yanqiang [China Academy of Building Research, Beijing 100013 (China); Li Qiaoyan [Department of Building, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore (Singapore)

    2009-06-15

    The supervision of energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings is the main embodiment for government implementation of Public Administration in the fields of resource saving and environmental protection. Aimed at improving the current situation of lack of government administration in building energy efficiency, this paper proposes the concept of 'change and redesign of governmental supervision in building energy efficiency', repositioning the role of government supervision. Based on this theory and other related theories in regulation economic and modern management, this paper analyzes and researches the action and function of all level governments in execution of the supervisory system of building energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings. This paper also defines the importance of government supervision in energy-efficiency system. Finally, this paper analyzes and researches the interaction mechanism between government and owners of different type buildings, government and energy-efficiency service institution with gambling as main features. This paper also presents some measurements to achieve a common benefit community in implementation of building energy-efficiency supervisory system.

  9. Government regulation and associated innovations in building energy-efficiency supervisory systems for large-scale public buildings in a market economy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dai, Xuezhi; Di, Yanqiang [China Academy of Building Research, Beijing 100013 (China); Wu, Yong [Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People' s Republic of China, Beijing 100835 (China); Li, Qiaoyan [Department of Building, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore (Singapore)

    2009-06-15

    The supervision of energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings is the main embodiment for government implementation of Public Administration in the fields of resource saving and environmental protection. Aimed at improving the current situation of lack of government administration in building energy efficiency, this paper proposes the concept of 'change and redesign of governmental supervision in building energy efficiency', repositioning the role of government supervision. Based on this theory and other related theories in regulation economic and modern management, this paper analyzes and researches the action and function of all level governments in execution of the supervisory system of building energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings. This paper also defines the importance of government supervision in energy-efficiency system. Finally, this paper analyzes and researches the interaction mechanism between government and owners of different type buildings, government and energy-efficiency service institution with gambling as main features. This paper also presents some measurements to achieve a common benefit community in implementation of building energy-efficiency supervisory system. (author)

  10. Assessment and Implications of Social Withdrawal Subtypes in Young Chinese Children: The Chinese Version of the Child Social Preference Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yan; Zhu, Jing-Jing; Coplan, Robert J; Gao, Zhu-Qing; Xu, Pin; Li, Linhui; Zhang, Huimin

    2016-01-01

    The authors' goals were to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Child Social Preference Scale (CSPS; R. J. Coplan, K. Prakash, K. O'Neil, & M. Armer, 2004) and examine the links between both shyness and unsociability and indices of socioemotional functioning in young Chinese children. Participants included of two samples recruited from kindergarten classes in two public schools in Shanghai, China. Both samples included children 3-5 years old (Sample 1: n = 350, Mage = 4.72 years, SD = 0.58 years; Sample 2: n = 129, Mage = 4.40 years, SD = 0.58 years). In both samples, mothers rated children's social withdrawal using the newly created Chinese version of the CSPS, and in Sample 2, teachers also provided ratings of socioemotional functioning. Consistent with previous findings from other cultures, results from factor analyses suggested a 2-factor model for the CSPS (shyness and unsociability) among young children in China. In contrast to findings from North America, child shyness and unsociability were associated with socioemotional difficulties in kindergarten. Some gender differences were also noted. Results are discussed in terms of the assessment and implications of social withdrawal in early childhood in China.

  11. Building large collections of Chinese and English medical terms from semi-structured and encyclopedia websites.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Yan; Wang, Yining; Sun, Jian-Tao; Zhang, Jianwen; Tsujii, Junichi; Chang, Eric

    2013-01-01

    To build large collections of medical terms from semi-structured information sources (e.g. tables, lists, etc.) and encyclopedia sites on the web. The terms are classified into the three semantic categories, Medical Problems, Medications, and Medical Tests, which were used in i2b2 challenge tasks. We developed two systems, one for Chinese and another for English terms. The two systems share the same methodology and use the same software with minimum language dependent parts. We produced large collections of terms by exploiting billions of semi-structured information sources and encyclopedia sites on the Web. The standard performance metric of recall (R) is extended to three different types of Recall to take the surface variability of terms into consideration. They are Surface Recall (R(S)), Object Recall (R(O)), and Surface Head recall (R(H)). We use two test sets for Chinese. For English, we use a collection of terms in the 2010 i2b2 text. Two collections of terms, one for English and the other for Chinese, have been created. The terms in these collections are classified as either of Medical Problems, Medications, or Medical Tests in the i2b2 challenge tasks. The English collection contains 49,249 (Problems), 89,591 (Medications) and 25,107 (Tests) terms, while the Chinese one contains 66,780 (Problems), 101,025 (Medications), and 15,032 (Tests) terms. The proposed method of constructing a large collection of medical terms is both efficient and effective, and, most of all, independent of language. The collections will be made publicly available.

  12. Development of the Chinese version of Meaning in Life Scale for cancer patients and psychometric evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xia, Hao-Zhi; Gao, Lei; Wang, Yang; Song, Hui; Shi, Bao-Xin

    2017-11-01

    To develop a Meaning in Life Scale for cancer patients in Chinese version and to test the validity and reliability. Meaning in life is a protective factor of psychological well-being and is negatively related to depression and demoralisation among cancer patients. The existing scales measuring meaning in life are mostly designed in English and there is no scale designed for Chinese cancer patients based on Chinese cultural background. Process of instrument development and psychometric evaluation were used. Items were generated from literature review and a focus group interview. Delphi technique was used to test the content validity. Item analysis and exploratory factor analysis were performed with data from 251 cancer patients. The internal consistency of the scale was tested by Cronbach's alpha. A 25-item Meaning in Life Scale in Chinese version with five domains was developed. The five factors explained 62·686% of the variance. The Cronbach's alpha for the total scale was 0·897. The Meaning in Life Scale in Chinese version has acceptable internal consistency reliability and good content validity and acceptable construct validity. The content of the scale reflected the attitudes of cancer patients towards meaning in life based on Chinese cultural background. The Chinese version of Meaning in Life Scale for Cancer Patients appears to be a new scale to assess meaning in life among Chinese cancer patients exactly and the concept of meaning in life presented in this scale provides new ideas of meaning intervention in routine clinical practice. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. Chinese version of the Perceived Stress Scale-10: A psychometric study in Chinese university students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Wei; Bian, Qian; Wang, Wenzheng; Wu, Xiaoling; Wang, Zhen; Zhao, Min

    2017-01-01

    Chinese university students often suffer from acute stress, which can affect their mental health. We measured and evaluated perceived stress in this population using the Simplified Chinese version of the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (SCPSS-10). The SCPSS-10, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) were conducted in 1096 university students. Two weeks later, 129 participants were re-tested using the SCPSS-10. Exploratory factor analysis yielded two factors with Eigen values of 4.76 and 1.48, accounting for 62.41% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated good fit of this two-factor model. The internal consistency reliability, as measured by Cronbach's α, was 0.85. The test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.7. The SCPSS-10 exhibited high correlation with the PHQ-9 and GAD-7, indicating an acceptable concurrent validity. The SCPSS-10 exhibited satisfactory psychometric properties in Chinese university students.

  14. Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children: psychometric testing of the Chinese version.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ho Cheung William; Chung, Oi Kwan Joyce; Ho, Ka Yan

    2010-11-01

    This paper is a report of psychometric testing of the Chinese version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children. The availability of a valid and reliable instrument that accurately detects depressive symptoms in children is crucial before any psychological intervention can be appropriately planned and evaluated. There is no such an instrument for Chinese children. A test-retest, within-subjects design was used. A total of 313 primary school students between the ages of 8 and 12 years were invited to participate in the study in 2009. Participants were asked to respond to the Chinese version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children, short form of the State Anxiety Scale for Children and Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale. The internal consistency, content validity and construct validity and test-retest reliability of the Chinese version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children were assessed. The newly-translated scale demonstrated adequate internal consistency, good content validity and appropriate convergent and discriminant validity. Confirmatory factor analysis added further evidence of the construct validity of the scale. Results suggest that the newly-translated scale can be used as a self-report assessment tool in detecting depressive symptoms of Chinese children aged between 8 and 12 years. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  15. Validation of the Chinese Expanded Euthanasia Attitude Scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chong, Alice Ming-Lin; Fok, Shiu-Yeu

    2013-01-01

    This article reports the validation of the Chinese version of an expanded 31-item Euthanasia Attitude Scale. A 4-stage validation process included a pilot survey of 119 college students and a randomized household survey with 618 adults in Hong Kong. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a 4-factor structure of the scale, which can therefore be…

  16. Managing Risk and Uncertainty in Large-Scale University Research Projects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Sharlissa; Shangraw, R. F., Jr.

    2011-01-01

    Both publicly and privately funded research projects managed by universities are growing in size and scope. Complex, large-scale projects (over $50 million) pose new management challenges and risks for universities. This paper explores the relationship between project success and a variety of factors in large-scale university projects. First, we…

  17. Validation of the Chinese Version of the Sense of Self (SOS) Scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Ronnel B.; Ganotice, Fraide A., Jr.; Watkins, David A.

    2012-01-01

    This study explored the cross-cultural applicability of the Sense of Self (SOS) Scale in the Hong Kong Chinese cultural context. The SOS Scale is a 26-item questionnaire designed to measure students' sense of purpose, self-reliance, and self-concept in school. Six hundred ninety-seven Hong Kong Chinese high school students participated in the…

  18. Exhaustion and Emotional Demands in China:A Large-Scale Investigation across Occupations

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Kelly Z.Peng

    2017-01-01

    As the Chinese economy moves toward a market-based model,employees are likely to face more emotional demands and exhaustion at work.However,there are some unique aspects to the emotional demands of work in the Chinese cultural context.We investigate emotional demands and exhaustion in China with a large-scale sample across the six major occupations identified by the Holland classification system.Results show that incumbents of social and enterprising jobs face higher emotional demands.Unexpectedly,exhaustion differs significantly between conventional and other types of jobs.Building on the Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) model,job crafting and the cultural context,we propose that the nonlinear relationship of emotional demands and exhaustion exists only when emotional intelligence is low.Our study may inform practitioners and policy makers in Chinese enterprises about emotional demands and exhaustion for various occupations and the importance of selection and training programs in emotional intelligence.

  19. Liver diseases: A major, neglected global public health problem requiring urgent actions and large-scale screening.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marcellin, Patrick; Kutala, Blaise K

    2018-02-01

    CLDs represent an important, and certainly underestimated, global public health problem. CLDs are highly prevalent and silent, related to different, sometimes associated causes. The distribution of the causes of these diseases is slowly changing, and within the next decade, the proportion of virus-induced CLDs will certainly decrease significantly while the proportion of NASH will increase. There is an urgent need for effective global actions including education, prevention and early diagnosis to manage and treat CLDs, thus preventing cirrhosis-related morbidity and mortality. Our role is to increase the awareness of the public, healthcare professionals and public health authorities to encourage active policies for early management that will decrease the short- and long-term public health burden of these diseases. Because necroinflammation is the key mechanism in the progression of CLDs, it should be detected early. Thus, large-scale screening for CLDs is needed. ALT levels are an easy and inexpensive marker of liver necroinflammation and could be the first-line tool in this process. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  20. An empirical analysis of overlap publication in Chinese language and English research manuscripts.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joseph D Tucker

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: There are a number of sound justifications for publishing nearly identical information in Chinese and English medical journals, assuming several conditions are met. Although overlap publication is perceived as undesirable and ethically questionable in Europe and North America, it may serve an important function in some regions where English is not the native tongue. There is no empirical data on the nature and degree of overlap publication in English and Chinese language journals. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A random sample of 100 English manuscripts from Chinese institutions was selected from PubMed. Key words and institutions were searched in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, a comprehensive Chinese language research database. Unacknowledged overlap was a priori defined according to International Committee of Medical Journal Editor (ICMJE guidelines following examination by two individuals. 19% (95% CI 11-27 of English manuscripts from Chinese institutions were found to have substantial overlap with Chinese published work based on full text examination. None of the manuscripts met all of the criteria established by the ICMJE for an acknowledged overlap publication. Individual-level, journal-level, and institutional factors seem to influence overlap publication. Manuscripts associated with an institution outside of China and with more than one institution were significantly less likely to have substantial overlap (p<0.05. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Overlap publication was common in this context, but instances of standard ICMJE notations to acknowledge this practice were rare. This research did not cite the identified overlap manuscripts with the hope that these empirical data will inform journal policy changes and structural initiatives to promote clearer policies and manuscripts.

  1. Development and validation of the Chinese version of dry eye related quality of life scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Bang; Liu, Xiao-Jing; Sun, Yue-Qian Fiona; Su, Jia-Zeng; Zhao, Yang; Xie, Zheng; Yu, Guang-Yan

    2017-07-17

    To develop the Chinese version of quality of life scale for dry eye patients based on the Impact of Dry Eye on Everyday Life (IDEEL) questionnaire and to assess the reliability and validity of the developed scale. The original IDEEL was adapted cross-culturally to Chinese language and further developed following standard procedures. A total of 100 Chinese patients diagnosed with dry eye syndrome were included to investigate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of scale. Psychometric tests included internal consistency (Cronbach's ɑ coefficients), construct validity (exploratory factor analysis), and known-groups validity (the analysis of variance). The Chinese version of Dry Eye Related Quality of Life (CDERQOL) Scale contains 45 items classified into 5 domains. Good to excellent internal consistency reliability was demonstrated for all 5 domains (Cronbach's ɑ coefficients range from 0.716 to 0.913). Construct validity assessment indicated a consistent factorial structure of the CDERQOL scale with hypothesized construct, with the exception of "Dry Eye Symptom-Bother" domain. All domain scores were detected with significant difference across three severity groups of dry eye patients (P dry eye syndrome among Chinese population, and could be used as a supplementary diagnostic and treatment-effectiveness measure.

  2. Development and validation of the Acculturative Stress Scale for Chinese College Students in the United States (ASSCS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bai, Jieru

    2016-04-01

    Chinese students are the biggest ethnic group of international students in the United States. This study aims to develop a reliable and valid scale to accurately measure their acculturative stress. A 72-item pool was sent online to Chinese students and a five-factor scale of 32 items was generated by exploratory factor analysis. The five factors included language insufficiency, social isolation, perceived discrimination, academic pressure, and guilt toward family. The Acculturative Stress Scale for Chinese Students demonstrated high reliability and initial validity by predicting depression and life satisfaction. It was the first Chinese scale of acculturative stress developed and validated among a Chinese student sample in the United States. In the future, the scale can be used as a diagnostic tool by mental health professionals and a self-assessment tool by Chinese students. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved.

  3. Psychometric Evaluation of the Chinese Version of the Patient Perceptions of Empowerment Scale (PPES)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Sieh-Hwa

    2014-01-01

    Objectives. To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Patient Perceptions of Empowerment Scale (PPES) and to perform a cross-cultural validity assessment. Methods. In this cross-sectional survey, 554 inpatients in three general hospitals in northern Taiwan were recruited. Principal component analysis was used to examine the factor structure of the scale. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on the measurement model of the Chinese version of the PPES. Results. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the presence of a second-order four-factor model (information, decision, individual, and self-management) of the Chinese version of the PPES when used with a Taiwanese inpatient population. The results indicate that the 11-item, second-order, four-factor Chinese version of the PPES provided best goodness-of-fit for the data in this study. Conclusion. The 11-item four-factor Chinese version of the PPES is a self-completion scale. This study demonstrated that the Chinese version of the PPES is a reliable and valid self-report instrument for the assessment of patient perceptions of empowerment in clinical practice. Further adaptation and evaluation of the scale will hopefully stimulate further studies on PPES in the fields of psychometrics in Taiwan. PMID:24971354

  4. Psychometric Evaluation of the Chinese Version of the Patient Perceptions of Empowerment Scale (PPES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mei-Yu Yeh

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Objectives. To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Patient Perceptions of Empowerment Scale (PPES and to perform a cross-cultural validity assessment. Methods. In this cross-sectional survey, 554 inpatients in three general hospitals in northern Taiwan were recruited. Principal component analysis was used to examine the factor structure of the scale. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on the measurement model of the Chinese version of the PPES. Results. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the presence of a second-order four-factor model (information, decision, individual, and self-management of the Chinese version of the PPES when used with a Taiwanese inpatient population. The results indicate that the 11-item, second-order, four-factor Chinese version of the PPES provided best goodness-of-fit for the data in this study. Conclusion. The 11-item four-factor Chinese version of the PPES is a self-completion scale. This study demonstrated that the Chinese version of the PPES is a reliable and valid self-report instrument for the assessment of patient perceptions of empowerment in clinical practice. Further adaptation and evaluation of the scale will hopefully stimulate further studies on PPES in the fields of psychometrics in Taiwan.

  5. Evaluating the Chinese Revised Controlling Behaviors Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tiwari, Agnes; Fong, Daniel Yee Tak; Chan, Ko Ling; Yan, Elsie Chau Wai; Lam, Gloria Ling Lee; Tang, Debbie Hoi Ming; Graham-Kevan, Nicola

    2015-01-01

    The present study evaluated the utility of the Chinese version of the Revised Controlling Behaviors Scale (C-CBS-R) as a measure of controlling behaviors in violent Chinese intimate relationships. Using a mixed-methods approach, in-depth, individual interviews were conducted with 200 Chinese women survivors to elicit qualitative data about their personal experiences of control in intimate relationships. The use of controlling behaviors was also assessed using the C-CBS-R. Interview accounts suggested that the experiences of 91 of the women were consistent with the description of coercive control according to Dutton and Goodman's conceptualization of coercion. Using the split-half validation procedure, a receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis was conducted with the first half of the sample. The area under the curve (AUC) for using the C-CBS-R to identify high control was .99, and the cutoff score of 1.145 maximized both sensitivity and specificity. Applying the cutoff score to the second half gave a sensitivity of 96% and a specificity of 95%. Overall, the C-CBS-R has demonstrated utility as a measure of controlling behaviors with a cutoff score for distinguishing high from low levels of control in violent Chinese intimate relationships. © The Author(s) 2014.

  6. Validation of the Cultural Influence on Helping Scale among Chinese Adolescents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Law, Ben M. F.; Shek, Daniel T. L.

    2011-01-01

    The influence of culture on adolescent prosocial behavior is a neglected aspect in existing studies. Objectives: This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the Cultural Influence on Helping Scale (CIHS) among Chinese adolescents. CIHS is an instrument that assesses Chinese cultural influence on helping other people. Method: The CIHS was…

  7. The revising of the Tangney Self-Control Scale for Chinese students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Unger, Alexander; Bi, Chongzeng; Xiao, Ying-Ying; Ybarra, Oscar

    2016-06-01

    Recent studies have characterized self-control as a vital psychological variable that helps explain various problems. Tangney's Self-Control Scale (SCS) is a self-report measurement to assess individual differences in traits of self-control. It has gained popularity in social and psychological science research. In China, there are a few Chinese-version scales measuring general self-control, which can be applied to college students. The purposes of the present study were to evaluate: (a) the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of Tangney's SCS using confirmatory factor analysis, and (b) whether higher scores on the scale correlated with positive outcomes in China. The final sample in this study consisted of 371 Chinese college students aged 17-23 years. The Full SCS and Brief SCS were both found to have a reasonable fitness, which also had satisfactory internal consistencies and a high correlation. Higher scores on the SCS correlated with higher self-esteem, extraversion, better harmony in interpersonal relationships and an appropriate anger expression, less impulsiveness, and state and trait anger. The test-retest reliability was confirmed in two additional samples. Tangney's SCS could be used in China. © 2016 The Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

  8. Climatic and Catchment-Scale Predictors of Chinese Stream Insect Richness Differ between Taxonomic Groups.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jonathan D Tonkin

    Full Text Available Little work has been done on large-scale patterns of stream insect richness in China. We explored the influence of climatic and catchment-scale factors on stream insect (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera; EPT richness across mid-latitude China. We assessed the predictive ability of climatic, catchment land cover and physical structure variables on genus richness of EPT, both individually and combined, in 80 mid-latitude Chinese streams, spanning a 3899-m altitudinal gradient. We performed analyses using boosted regression trees and explored the nature of their influence on richness patterns. The relative importance of climate, land cover, and physical factors on stream insect richness varied considerably between the three orders, and while important for Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera, latitude did not improve model fit for any of the groups. EPT richness was linked with areas comprising high forest cover, elevation and slope, large catchments and low temperatures. Ephemeroptera favoured areas with high forest cover, medium-to-large catchment sizes, high temperature seasonality, and low potential evapotranspiration. Plecoptera richness was linked with low temperature seasonality and annual mean, and high slope, elevation and warm-season rainfall. Finally, Trichoptera favoured high elevation areas, with high forest cover, and low mean annual temperature, seasonality and aridity. Our findings highlight the variable role that catchment land cover, physical properties and climatic influences have on stream insect richness. This is one of the first studies of its kind in Chinese streams, thus we set the scene for more in-depth assessments of stream insect richness across broader spatial scales in China, but stress the importance of improving data availability and consistency through time.

  9. Climatic and Catchment-Scale Predictors of Chinese Stream Insect Richness Differ between Taxonomic Groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tonkin, Jonathan D.; Shah, Deep Narayan; Kuemmerlen, Mathias; Li, Fengqing; Cai, Qinghua; Haase, Peter; Jähnig, Sonja C.

    2015-01-01

    Little work has been done on large-scale patterns of stream insect richness in China. We explored the influence of climatic and catchment-scale factors on stream insect (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera; EPT) richness across mid-latitude China. We assessed the predictive ability of climatic, catchment land cover and physical structure variables on genus richness of EPT, both individually and combined, in 80 mid-latitude Chinese streams, spanning a 3899-m altitudinal gradient. We performed analyses using boosted regression trees and explored the nature of their influence on richness patterns. The relative importance of climate, land cover, and physical factors on stream insect richness varied considerably between the three orders, and while important for Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera, latitude did not improve model fit for any of the groups. EPT richness was linked with areas comprising high forest cover, elevation and slope, large catchments and low temperatures. Ephemeroptera favoured areas with high forest cover, medium-to-large catchment sizes, high temperature seasonality, and low potential evapotranspiration. Plecoptera richness was linked with low temperature seasonality and annual mean, and high slope, elevation and warm-season rainfall. Finally, Trichoptera favoured high elevation areas, with high forest cover, and low mean annual temperature, seasonality and aridity. Our findings highlight the variable role that catchment land cover, physical properties and climatic influences have on stream insect richness. This is one of the first studies of its kind in Chinese streams, thus we set the scene for more in-depth assessments of stream insect richness across broader spatial scales in China, but stress the importance of improving data availability and consistency through time. PMID:25909190

  10. Validation of two scales for measuring participation and perceived stigma in Chinese community-based rehabilitation programs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Eva Yin-Han; Lam, Gigi

    2018-05-29

    The World Health Organization has asserted the importance of enhancing participation of people with disabilities within the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework. Participation is regarded as a vital outcome in community-based rehabilitation. The actualization of the right to participate is limited by social stigma and discrimination. To date, there is no validated instrument for use in Chinese communities to measure participation restriction or self-perceived stigma. This study aimed to translate and validate the Participation Scale and the Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue (EMIC) Stigma Scale for use in Chinese communities with people with physical disabilities. The Chinese versions of the Participation Scale and the EMIC stigma scale were administered to 264 adults with physical disabilities. The two scales were examined separately. The reliability analysis was studied in conjunction with the construct validity. Reliability analysis was conducted to assess the internal consistency and item-total correlation. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to investigate the latent patterns of relationships among variables. A Rasch model analysis was conducted to test the dimensionality, internal validity, item hierarchy, and scoring category structure of the two scales. Both the Participation Scale and the EMIC stigma scale were confirmed to have good internal consistency and high item-total correlation. Exploratory factor analysis revealed the factor structure of the two scales, which demonstrated the fitting of a pattern of variables within the studied construct. The Participation Scale was found to be multidimensional, whereas the EMIC stigma scale was confirmed to be unidimensional. The item hierarchies of the Participation Scale and the EMIC stigma scale were discussed and were regarded as compatible with the cultural characteristics of Chinese communities. The Chinese versions of the Participation Scale and the EMIC

  11. Psychometric evaluation of the Nursing Stress Scale (NSS) among Chinese nurses in Taiwan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Mei-Hua; Holzemer, William L; Faucett, Julia

    2007-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to translate the Nursing Stress Scale (NSS) into Chinese and test its reliability and validity among Chinese nurses in Taiwan. Potential participants were asked to self-administer a Chinese version of the NSS. The agreement estimation was used to determine the equivalence of the meaning between the Chinese and original English versions and was rated by five bilingual nurses as 92% accurate for the 34 items. The test-retest reliability for the NSS at 2 weeks was .71 (p = .022, n=10). Internal consistency reliability and factor analysis were tested with 770 nurses from 65 inpatient units at a medical center in Taiwan. The internal consistency of the Chinese version of the NSS for an overall coefficient alpha is .91 for the total scale, and ranges from .67 to .79 for the subscales. The Chinese version of the NSS explains 53.77% of the variance in work stressors among Chinese nurses in Taiwan. Overall, the Chinese version of the NSS is internally consistent but may not be stable over 2 weeks. There was adequate evidence of the reliability and validity of the NSS-Chinese as an instrument appropriate to measure work stress among Chinese nurses. The translated NSS could be a useful tool for examining the frequency and major sources of stress experienced by Chinese nurses in hospital settings, and for the development of appropriate interventions for stress reduction.

  12. A Chain Perspective on Large-scale Number Systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Grijpink, J.H.A.M.

    2012-01-01

    As large-scale number systems gain significance in social and economic life (electronic communication, remote electronic authentication), the correct functioning and the integrity of public number systems take on crucial importance. They are needed to uniquely indicate people, objects or phenomena

  13. Cross-Cultural Validation of Stages of Exercise Change Scale among Chinese College Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keating, Xiaofen D.; Guan, Jianmin; Huang, Yong; Deng, Mingying; Wu, Yifeng; Qu, Shuhua

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of the study was to test the cross-cultural concurrent validity of the stages of exercise change scale (SECS) in Chinese college students. The original SECS was translated into Chinese (C-SECS). Students from four Chinese universities (N = 1843) participated in the study. The leisure-time exercise (LTE) questionnaire was used to…

  14. Confirmatory factor analysis and sample invariance of the Chinese version of Somatosensory Amplification Scale (ChSAS) among Chinese adolescents

    OpenAIRE

    Tam, B. K.; Wong, W. S.

    2011-01-01

    Objective: This paper aimed to evaluate the factor structure of the Chinese version of Somatosensory Amplification Scale (ChSAS) in a sample of Chinese adolescents across different grade levels using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Methods: A total of 1991 Chinese adolescents completed the ChSAS. CFA assessed the fit of the one-factor model to the entire sample. Factorial invariance of the ChSAS was also examined across grade levels using multigroup CFA. Results: Results of CFA confirmed ...

  15. Psychometric Properties of the Positivity Scale among Chinese Adults and Early Adolescents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lili Tian

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available We conducted two studies to explore the psychometric properties of the Positivity Scale (P Scale among Chinese adults and early adolescents, using a sample of 552 adults (Study 1 and a sample of 888 early adolescents (i.e., middle school students (Study 2. First, item analyses and factor analyses were conducted to investigate the one-factor structure of the P Scale. Second, internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, and external evidences of validity were evaluated to examine its reliability and validity. Last, we used multi-group confirmatory factor analysis to test measurement invariance across gender. The two studies both provided evidence for its reliability and validity among Chinese adults and early adolescents. For the test of measurement invariance across gender, full scalar invariance was established among early adolescents; partial scalar invariance was supported among adults. Taken together, the results provided preliminary support in the Chinese context for the P Scale as a valid measure to assess the general disposition toward viewing life and experiences in a positive manner. The potential applications for future research and professional practice are discussed.

  16. Assessing the Capacity of the US Health Care System to Use Additional Mechanical Ventilators During a Large-Scale Public Health Emergency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ajao, Adebola; Nystrom, Scott V; Koonin, Lisa M; Patel, Anita; Howell, David R; Baccam, Prasith; Lant, Tim; Malatino, Eileen; Chamberlin, Margaret; Meltzer, Martin I

    2015-12-01

    A large-scale public health emergency, such as a severe influenza pandemic, can generate large numbers of critically ill patients in a short time. We modeled the number of mechanical ventilators that could be used in addition to the number of hospital-based ventilators currently in use. We identified key components of the health care system needed to deliver ventilation therapy, quantified the maximum number of additional ventilators that each key component could support at various capacity levels (ie, conventional, contingency, and crisis), and determined the constraining key component at each capacity level. Our study results showed that US hospitals could absorb between 26,200 and 56,300 additional ventilators at the peak of a national influenza pandemic outbreak with robust pre-pandemic planning. The current US health care system may have limited capacity to use additional mechanical ventilators during a large-scale public health emergency. Emergency planners need to understand their health care systems' capability to absorb additional resources and expand care. This methodology could be adapted by emergency planners to determine stockpiling goals for critical resources or to identify alternatives to manage overwhelming critical care need.

  17. The (in)effectiveness of Global Land Policies on Large-Scale Land Acquisition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Verhoog, S.M.

    2014-01-01

    Due to current crises, large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) is becoming a topic of growing concern. Public data from the ‘Land Matrix Global Observatory’ project (Land Matrix 2014a) demonstrates that since 2000, 1,664 large-scale land transactions in low- and middle-income countries were reported,

  18. Problems of large-scale vertically-integrated aquaculture

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Webber, H H; Riordan, P F

    1976-01-01

    The problems of vertically-integrated aquaculture are outlined; they are concerned with: species limitations (in the market, biological and technological); site selection, feed, manpower needs, and legal, institutional and financial requirements. The gaps in understanding of, and the constraints limiting, large-scale aquaculture are listed. Future action is recommended with respect to: types and diversity of species to be cultivated, marketing, biotechnology (seed supply, disease control, water quality and concerted effort), siting, feed, manpower, legal and institutional aids (granting of water rights, grants, tax breaks, duty-free imports, etc.), and adequate financing. The last of hard data based on experience suggests that large-scale vertically-integrated aquaculture is a high risk enterprise, and with the high capital investment required, banks and funding institutions are wary of supporting it. Investment in pilot projects is suggested to demonstrate that large-scale aquaculture can be a fully functional and successful business. Construction and operation of such pilot farms is judged to be in the interests of both the public and private sector.

  19. Participation of the public in the licensing of large-scale projects with environmental impact - theoretical framework and project conceptual outline

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bechmann, G.; Gloede, F.

    1989-01-01

    The paper discusses the dimensions and environmental impacts of large-scale projects, and public participation as an element of institutionalized problem management. The legal protection functions, the administrative and socio-political functions are subsumed under a concept of function which defines a function as a synthesis of a variety of possibilities, so that different 'achievements' are expected from public participation, depending on the reference system chosen for comparison. The paper explains the purpose of the examination of public participation and its functions, the design of analytical procedure which covers the three main stages of 'input, legal procedure, output', and instruments and aspects such as interdisciplinarity, representativity, comparison, relation between empirical research and the principles of the law. (HSCH) [de

  20. THE CHALLENGE OF GLOBALIZATION FOR LARGE CHINESE FIRMS

    OpenAIRE

    Peter Nolan; Jin Zhang

    2002-01-01

    As China joins the World Trade Organization, the author questions whether China’s large firms will be able to compete on the global level playing field. Over the past two decades, Chinese large enterprises have undertaken extensive evolutionary change but, at the same time, the world’s leading firms have undergone a revolutionary transformation. Based on analysis of firms with the aerospace, oil and petrochemical industry, the authors conclude that China’s leading firms face critical challeng...

  1. Paranormal beliefs and religiosity: Chinese version of the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shiah, Yung-Jong; Tam, Wai-Cheong Carl; Wu, Ming-Hsun; Chang, Frances

    2010-10-01

    This paper reports an initial study investigating the relations of paranormal beliefs with religiosity in a Chinese sample, as well as the development of a Chinese version of the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale and a test of its psychometric properties with 310 college students (5.5% Christians, 21.3% Buddhists, 61% believers in traditional Chinese religions, and 12% atheists). The reliability and validity of the Chinese version were satisfactory. In general, traditional Chinese religious believers had higher scores on paranormal belief than did Christians and atheists, and the mean total score of the Chinese participants was higher than previously reported in a Western sample. It was concluded that the greater involvement of practitioners of traditional Chinese religions in activities emphasizing paranormal experiences might contribute to their greater paranormal belief, especially as compared to the minority Christian group. The results are consistent with the idea that Christianity may offer the least support for paranormal belief.

  2. The Personal Influence Model and "Gao Guanxi" in Taiwan Chinese Public Relations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Yi-Hui

    2000-01-01

    Attempts to develop a contemporary Chinese philosophy of public relations based on the premises that (1) public relations in China must achieve status and recognition as a legitimate profession; and (2) a sound philosophical cornerstone is essential to achieve professionalism. (NH)

  3. Large-scale solar purchasing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-01-01

    The principal objective of the project was to participate in the definition of a new IEA task concerning solar procurement (''the Task'') and to assess whether involvement in the task would be in the interest of the UK active solar heating industry. The project also aimed to assess the importance of large scale solar purchasing to UK active solar heating market development and to evaluate the level of interest in large scale solar purchasing amongst potential large scale purchasers (in particular housing associations and housing developers). A further aim of the project was to consider means of stimulating large scale active solar heating purchasing activity within the UK. (author)

  4. Data management strategies for multinational large-scale systems biology projects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wruck, Wasco; Peuker, Martin; Regenbrecht, Christian R A

    2014-01-01

    Good accessibility of publicly funded research data is essential to secure an open scientific system and eventually becomes mandatory [Wellcome Trust will Penalise Scientists Who Don't Embrace Open Access. The Guardian 2012]. By the use of high-throughput methods in many research areas from physics to systems biology, large data collections are increasingly important as raw material for research. Here, we present strategies worked out by international and national institutions targeting open access to publicly funded research data via incentives or obligations to share data. Funding organizations such as the British Wellcome Trust therefore have developed data sharing policies and request commitment to data management and sharing in grant applications. Increased citation rates are a profound argument for sharing publication data. Pre-publication sharing might be rewarded by a data citation credit system via digital object identifiers (DOIs) which have initially been in use for data objects. Besides policies and incentives, good practice in data management is indispensable. However, appropriate systems for data management of large-scale projects for example in systems biology are hard to find. Here, we give an overview of a selection of open-source data management systems proved to be employed successfully in large-scale projects.

  5. Investigating the effectiveness of response strategies for vulnerabilities to corruption in the chinese public construction sector.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shan, Ming; Chan, Albert P C; Le, Yun; Hu, Yi

    2015-06-01

    Response strategy is a key for preventing widespread corruption vulnerabilities in the public construction sector. Although several studies have been devoted to this area, the effectiveness of response strategies has seldom been evaluated in China. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the effectiveness of response strategies for corruption vulnerabilities through a survey in the Chinese public construction sector. Survey data obtained from selected experts involved in the Chinese public construction sector were analyzed by factor analysis and partial least squares-structural equation modeling. Analysis results showed that four response strategies of leadership, rules and regulations, training, and sanctions, only achieved an acceptable level in preventing corruption vulnerabilities in the Chinese public construction sector. This study contributes to knowledge by improving the understanding of the effectiveness of response strategies for corruption vulnerabilities in the public construction sector of developing countries.

  6. Validation of the Chinese version 10-item Perceived Efficacy in Patient-Physician Interactions scale in patients with osteoarthritis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhao HW

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Huiwen Zhao,1 Wen Luo,1 Rose C Maly,2 Jun Liu,1 Junyi Lee,1 Yaning Cui1 1Joint Department, The 2nd Ward of Joint Surgery, Tianjin Hospital, Tianjin, the People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Family Medicine David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA Objectives: This study aimed to assess the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the 10-item Perceived Efficacy in Patient–Physician Interaction (PEPPI-10 scale in hospitalized patients with severe knee osteoarthritis in the People’s Republic of China. Methods: Between January and March 2015, the Chinese versions of PEPPI, self-efficacy for exercise scale, osteoporosis self-efficacy scale, and modified fall efficacy scale were applied to assess 110 severe knee osteoarthritis patients who were hospitalized in the second ward of the department of arthroplasty surgery of Tianjin Hospital. Results: The Chinese version of the PEPPI-10 scale had a high coefficient of internal consistency (Cronbach’s α coefficient, 0.907. The score of the Chinese version of PEPPI was weakly correlated with the scores of the Chinese versions of self-efficacy for exercise scale, osteoporosis self-efficacy scale, and modified fall efficacy scale. Conclusion: The Chinese version of the PEPPI-10 scale exhibits sufficient internal consistency and convergent validity in hospitalized patients with severe knee osteoarthritis in the People’s Republic of China. Keywords: assessment of osteoarthritis, patient–physician communication, self-efficacy, instrument validation

  7. Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety

    OpenAIRE

    ,; ,; ,; ,; ,; ,; ,; ,; ,; ABDEL-KHALEK, Ahmed M; ,

    2016-01-01

    Background Death anxiety is regarded as a risk and maintaining factor of psychopathology. While the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety (ASDA) is a brief, commonly used assessment, such a tool is lacking in Chinese clinical practice. Aim The current study was conducted to develop a Chinese version of the ASDA, i.e., the ASDA(C), using a multistage back-translation technique, and examine the psychometric properties of the scale. Methods A total of 1372 participants from hospitals and universities lo...

  8. Chinese Medical Question Answer Matching Using End-to-End Character-Level Multi-Scale CNNs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sheng Zhang

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper focuses mainly on the problem of Chinese medical question answer matching, which is arguably more challenging than open-domain question answer matching in English due to the combination of its domain-restricted nature and the language-specific features of Chinese. We present an end-to-end character-level multi-scale convolutional neural framework in which character embeddings instead of word embeddings are used to avoid Chinese word segmentation in text preprocessing, and multi-scale convolutional neural networks (CNNs are then introduced to extract contextual information from either question or answer sentences over different scales. The proposed framework can be trained with minimal human supervision and does not require any handcrafted features, rule-based patterns, or external resources. To validate our framework, we create a new text corpus, named cMedQA, by harvesting questions and answers from an online Chinese health and wellness community. The experimental results on the cMedQA dataset show that our framework significantly outperforms several strong baselines, and achieves an improvement of top-1 accuracy by up to 19%.

  9. ‘Walled’ activism: transnational social movements and the politics of Chinese cyber-public space

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nyiri, P.D.; Zhang, J.

    2014-01-01

    This article examines China's cyber-activism in relation to the politics of making a transnational, Chinese public sphere in both the virtual world and real-life locations. By conceptualising Chinese cyber-activism as 'walled' activism, this article describes an invisible yet effective 'wall'

  10. Validation of the Parenting and Family Adjustment Scales to Measure Parenting Skills and Family Adjustment in Chinese Parents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Mingchun; Morawska, Alina; Filus, Ania

    2017-01-01

    This study validated a parent-report measure of the Parenting and Family Adjustment Scales in a Chinese cultural context through investigating 650 Chinese parents. The results provided evidence for satisfactory reliability and validity of Parenting and Family Adjustment Scales in a Chinese context, which is thus promising to be used for Chinese…

  11. Chinese version of the Optimism and Pessimism Scale: Psychometric properties in mainland China and development of a short form.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xia, Jie; Wu, Daxing; Zhang, Jibiao; Xu, Yuanchao; Xu, Yunxuan

    2016-06-01

    This study aimed to validate the Chinese version of the Optimism and Pessimism Scale in a sample of 730 adult Chinese individuals. Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the bidimensionality of the scale with two factors, optimism and pessimism. The total scale and optimism and pessimism factors demonstrated satisfactory reliability and validity. Population-based normative data and mean values for gender, age, and education were determined. Furthermore, we developed a 20-item short form of the Chinese version of the Optimism and Pessimism Scale with structural validity comparable to the full form. In summary, the Chinese version of the Optimism and Pessimism Scale is an appropriate and practical tool for epidemiological research in mainland China. © The Author(s) 2014.

  12. An Analysis of the Service Management Patterns of Overseas Chinese Affairs Public Diplomacy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fengchun Lin

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Due to China’s economic and cultural rise, the interaction between China and Chinese new high-tech immigrants, most of whom are overseas students and skilled migrants, is being increasingly strengthened. Since the new immigrants owning “portable skills” have the ability to communicate cross-culturally and master advanced technology and management techniques, they play an important role in implementing the strategy of reinvigorating China through human resource development. In this cross-border interaction, the common interests between Chinese new immigrants of high technology and China can be a basis of the institutionalization of overseas Chinese affairs public diplomacy. Based on the transnational practices of new high-tech immigrants and the convergence of interests, and combined with the status of immigration management system, this paper proposes a service management pattern for overseas Chinese affairs public diplomacy: first, to establish a linkage mechanism with new overseas high-tech immigrants relying on the network technology; second, to attract highly skilled immigrants to develop a think tank; last, to create an insurance mechanism for talents improving the level of administrative services.

  13. Evaluating public participation in Chinese EIA. An integrated Public Participation Index and its application to the case of the New Beijing Airport

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brombal, Daniele [Department of Asian and North African Studies, University Ca' Foscari Venice (Italy); Moriggi, Angela [Department of Asian and North African Studies, University Ca' Foscari Venice (Italy); Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca' Foscari Venice (Italy); Marcomini, Antonio, E-mail: marcom@unive.it [Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca' Foscari Venice (Italy)

    2017-01-15

    In recent years, China's government authorities have devoted increasing attention to the role of public participation processes in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The capacity of these processes to influence decision-making remains widely debated. This paper aims at appraising the institutional rationale informing the implementation of public participation in China's EIA, benchmarking it against three conceptualisations: (1) Normative, based on objectives of empowerment and democratisation; (2) Substantive, where participation is pursued mainly to improve quality of decisions; (3) Instrumental, seeking participation as an instrument to legitimise decision-making processes. The appraisal is carried out by means of a new integrated index (Public Participation Index, PPI), which is applied to a case study representative of latest advancements in EIA public participation practices in China, namely the “New Beijing Airport Project”. Located 46 km south of downtown Beijing, the project was approved in 2014 and it is currently under construction. Results of the PPI application to this case study indicate that, despite progress made in recent years, the implementation of public participation in Chinese EIA still largely responds to an instrumental rationale, with limited capacity for the public to affect decisions. - Highlights: • In recent years China has strengthened EIA public participation (PP) legislation. • Despite progress, implementation of PP remains informed by an instrumental rationale. • A large gap exists between principles enunciated in regulations and implementation. • The Public Participation Index can be used to monitor China's EIA PP development.

  14. Evaluating public participation in Chinese EIA. An integrated Public Participation Index and its application to the case of the New Beijing Airport

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brombal, Daniele; Moriggi, Angela; Marcomini, Antonio

    2017-01-01

    In recent years, China's government authorities have devoted increasing attention to the role of public participation processes in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The capacity of these processes to influence decision-making remains widely debated. This paper aims at appraising the institutional rationale informing the implementation of public participation in China's EIA, benchmarking it against three conceptualisations: (1) Normative, based on objectives of empowerment and democratisation; (2) Substantive, where participation is pursued mainly to improve quality of decisions; (3) Instrumental, seeking participation as an instrument to legitimise decision-making processes. The appraisal is carried out by means of a new integrated index (Public Participation Index, PPI), which is applied to a case study representative of latest advancements in EIA public participation practices in China, namely the “New Beijing Airport Project”. Located 46 km south of downtown Beijing, the project was approved in 2014 and it is currently under construction. Results of the PPI application to this case study indicate that, despite progress made in recent years, the implementation of public participation in Chinese EIA still largely responds to an instrumental rationale, with limited capacity for the public to affect decisions. - Highlights: • In recent years China has strengthened EIA public participation (PP) legislation. • Despite progress, implementation of PP remains informed by an instrumental rationale. • A large gap exists between principles enunciated in regulations and implementation. • The Public Participation Index can be used to monitor China's EIA PP development.

  15. Large-scale Health Information Database and Privacy Protection*1

    OpenAIRE

    YAMAMOTO, Ryuichi

    2016-01-01

    Japan was once progressive in the digitalization of healthcare fields but unfortunately has fallen behind in terms of the secondary use of data for public interest. There has recently been a trend to establish large-scale health databases in the nation, and a conflict between data use for public interest and privacy protection has surfaced as this trend has progressed. Databases for health insurance claims or for specific health checkups and guidance services were created according to the law...

  16. PKI security in large-scale healthcare networks

    OpenAIRE

    Mantas, G.; Lymberopoulos, D.; Komninos, N.

    2012-01-01

    During the past few years a lot of PKI (Public Key Infrastructures) infrastructures have been proposed for healthcare networks in order to ensure secure communication services and exchange of data among healthcare professionals. However, there is a plethora of challenges in these healthcare PKI infrastructures. Especially, there are a lot of challenges for PKI infrastructures deployed over large-scale healthcare networks. In this paper, we propose a PKI infrastructure to ensure security in a ...

  17. Validation of the Self-Regulation Scale in Chinese Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Ying; Bullock, Amanda; Liu, Junsheng; Fu, Rui; Coplan, Robert J.; Cheah, Charissa S. L.

    2016-01-01

    Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Self-Regulation Scale (C-SRS) were examined in a sample of 1,458 third- to eighth-grade students in China. Children completed self-reports of self-regulation, loneliness, depression, and self-esteem, and teachers rated children's school adjustment. Results showed a stable three-factor model…

  18. Chinese-adapted youth attitude to noise scale: Evaluation of validity and reliability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaofang Zhu

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Noise exposure is central to hearing impairment, especially for adolescents. Chinese youth frequently and consciously expose themselves to loud noise, often for many hours. Hence, a Chinese-adapted evaluative scale to measure youth′s attitude toward noise could rigorously evaluate data validity and reliability. After authenticating the youth attitude to noise scale (YANS originally developed by Olsen and Erlandsson, we purposively sampled and surveyed 642 freshmen at Capital Medical University in Beijing, China. To establish validity, we conducted confirmatory factor analysis according to Olsen′s classification. To establish reliability, we calculated Cronbach′s alpha coefficient and split-half coefficient. We used Bland-Altman analysis to calculate the agreement limits between test and retest. Among 642 students, 550 (85.67% participated in statistical analysis (399 females [72.55%] vs. 151 males [27.45%]. Confirmatory factorial analysis sorted 19 items into four main subcategories (F1-F4 in terms of factor load, yielding a correlation coefficient between factors <0.40. The Cronbach′s alpha coefficient (0.70 was within the desirable range, confirming the reliability of Chinese-adapted YANS. The split-half coefficient was 0.53. Furthermore, the paired t-test reported a mean difference of 0.002 (P = 0.9601. Notably, the mean overall YANS score (3.46 was similar to YANS testing in Belgium (3.10, but higher than Sweden (2.10 and Brazil (2.80. The Chinese version of the YANS questionnaire is valid, reliable, and adaptable to Chinese adolescents. Analysis of the adapted YANS showed that a significant number of Chinese youth display a poor attitude and behavior toward noise. Therefore, Chinese YANS can play a pivotal role in programs that focus on increasing youth awareness of noise and hearing health.

  19. Crowdsourcing the General Public for Large Scale Molecular Pathology Studies in Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Candido Dos Reis, Francisco J; Lynn, Stuart; Ali, H Raza; Eccles, Diana; Hanby, Andrew; Provenzano, Elena; Caldas, Carlos; Howat, William J; McDuffus, Leigh-Anne; Liu, Bin; Daley, Frances; Coulson, Penny; Vyas, Rupesh J; Harris, Leslie M; Owens, Joanna M; Carton, Amy F M; McQuillan, Janette P; Paterson, Andy M; Hirji, Zohra; Christie, Sarah K; Holmes, Amber R; Schmidt, Marjanka K; Garcia-Closas, Montserrat; Easton, Douglas F; Bolla, Manjeet K; Wang, Qin; Benitez, Javier; Milne, Roger L; Mannermaa, Arto; Couch, Fergus; Devilee, Peter; Tollenaar, Robert A E M; Seynaeve, Caroline; Cox, Angela; Cross, Simon S; Blows, Fiona M; Sanders, Joyce; de Groot, Renate; Figueroa, Jonine; Sherman, Mark; Hooning, Maartje; Brenner, Hermann; Holleczek, Bernd; Stegmaier, Christa; Lintott, Chris; Pharoah, Paul D P

    2015-07-01

    Citizen science, scientific research conducted by non-specialists, has the potential to facilitate biomedical research using available large-scale data, however validating the results is challenging. The Cell Slider is a citizen science project that intends to share images from tumors with the general public, enabling them to score tumor markers independently through an internet-based interface. From October 2012 to June 2014, 98,293 Citizen Scientists accessed the Cell Slider web page and scored 180,172 sub-images derived from images of 12,326 tissue microarray cores labeled for estrogen receptor (ER). We evaluated the accuracy of Citizen Scientist's ER classification, and the association between ER status and prognosis by comparing their test performance against trained pathologists. The area under ROC curve was 0.95 (95% CI 0.94 to 0.96) for cancer cell identification and 0.97 (95% CI 0.96 to 0.97) for ER status. ER positive tumors scored by Citizen Scientists were associated with survival in a similar way to that scored by trained pathologists. Survival probability at 15 years were 0.78 (95% CI 0.76 to 0.80) for ER-positive and 0.72 (95% CI 0.68 to 0.77) for ER-negative tumors based on Citizen Scientists classification. Based on pathologist classification, survival probability was 0.79 (95% CI 0.77 to 0.81) for ER-positive and 0.71 (95% CI 0.67 to 0.74) for ER-negative tumors. The hazard ratio for death was 0.26 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.37) at diagnosis and became greater than one after 6.5 years of follow-up for ER scored by Citizen Scientists, and 0.24 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.33) at diagnosis increasing thereafter to one after 6.7 (95% CI 4.1 to 10.9) years of follow-up for ER scored by pathologists. Crowdsourcing of the general public to classify cancer pathology data for research is viable, engages the public and provides accurate ER data. Crowdsourced classification of research data may offer a valid solution to problems of throughput requiring human input.

  20. Validation of the Beliefs against Volunteering Scale among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

    Science.gov (United States)

    Law, Ben M. F.; Shek, Daniel T. L.

    2011-01-01

    Participation in volunteer service is an indicator of quality of life. This study attempts to validate the Beliefs Against Volunteering Scale (BAV), an assessment of the negative beliefs about volunteerism among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. The BAV was administered to 5,946 Chinese adolescents. The BAV and its subscales were found to be…

  1. Development and Validation of the Elder Learning Barriers Scale Among Older Chinese Adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Renfeng; De Donder, Liesbeth; De Backer, Free; He, Tao; Van Regenmortel, Sofie; Li, Shihua; Lombaerts, Koen

    2017-12-01

    This study describes the development and validation of the Elder Learning Barriers (ELB) scale, which seeks to identify the obstacles that affect the level of educational participation of older adults. The process of item pool design and scale development is presented, as well as the testing and scale refinement procedure. The data were collected from a sample of 579 older Chinese adults (aged over 55) in the Xi'an region of China. After randomly splitting the sample for cross-validation purposes, the construct validity of the ELB scale was confirmed containing five dimensions: dispositional, informational, physical, situational, and institutional barriers. Furthermore, developmental differences in factor structure have been examined among older age groups. The results indicated that the scale demonstrated good reliability and validity. We conclude in general that the ELB scale appears to be a valuable instrument for examining the learning barriers that older Chinese citizens experience for participating in organized educational activities.

  2. Energy transfers in large-scale and small-scale dynamos

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samtaney, Ravi; Kumar, Rohit; Verma, Mahendra

    2015-11-01

    We present the energy transfers, mainly energy fluxes and shell-to-shell energy transfers in small-scale dynamo (SSD) and large-scale dynamo (LSD) using numerical simulations of MHD turbulence for Pm = 20 (SSD) and for Pm = 0.2 on 10243 grid. For SSD, we demonstrate that the magnetic energy growth is caused by nonlocal energy transfers from the large-scale or forcing-scale velocity field to small-scale magnetic field. The peak of these energy transfers move towards lower wavenumbers as dynamo evolves, which is the reason for the growth of the magnetic fields at the large scales. The energy transfers U2U (velocity to velocity) and B2B (magnetic to magnetic) are forward and local. For LSD, we show that the magnetic energy growth takes place via energy transfers from large-scale velocity field to large-scale magnetic field. We observe forward U2U and B2B energy flux, similar to SSD.

  3. Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties of the Work-Family Balance Scale in an Urban Chinese Sample

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Huiping; Yip, Paul S. F.; Chi, Peilian; Chan, Kinsun; Cheung, Yee Tak; Zhang, Xiulan

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore the factor structure of the Work-Family Balance Scale (WFBS) and examine its reliability and validity in use in the urban Chinese population. The scale was validated using a sample of 605 urban Chinese residents from 7 cities. Exploratory factor analysis identified two factors: work-family conflict and…

  4. Wind and Photovoltaic Large-Scale Regional Models for hourly production evaluation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Marinelli, Mattia; Maule, Petr; Hahmann, Andrea N.

    2015-01-01

    This work presents two large-scale regional models used for the evaluation of normalized power output from wind turbines and photovoltaic power plants on a European regional scale. The models give an estimate of renewable production on a regional scale with 1 h resolution, starting from a mesosca...... of the transmission system, especially regarding the cross-border power flows. The tuning of these regional models is done using historical meteorological data acquired on a per-country basis and using publicly available data of installed capacity.......This work presents two large-scale regional models used for the evaluation of normalized power output from wind turbines and photovoltaic power plants on a European regional scale. The models give an estimate of renewable production on a regional scale with 1 h resolution, starting from a mesoscale...

  5. Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, Qi; Zhang, Shengyu; Lin, Xiang; Ban, Chunxia; Yang, Haibo; Liu, Zhengwen; Wang, Jingrong; Wang, Tao; Xiao, Shifu; Abdel-Khalek, Ahmed M; Li, Xia

    2016-06-25

    Death anxiety is regarded as a risk and maintaining factor of psychopathology. While the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety (ASDA) is a brief, commonly used assessment, such a tool is lacking in Chinese clinical practice. The current study was conducted to develop a Chinese version of the ASDA, i.e., the ASDA(C), using a multistage back-translation technique, and examine the psychometric properties of the scale. A total of 1372 participants from hospitals and universities located in three geographic areas of China were recruited for this study. To calculate the criterion-related validity of the ASDA(C) compared to the Chinese version of the longer-form Multidimensional Orientation toward Dying and Death Inventory (MODDI-F/chin), 49 undergraduates were randomly assigned to complete both questionnaires. Of the total participants, 56 were randomly assigned to retake the ASDA(C) in order to estimate the one-week, test-retest reliability of the ASDA(C). The overall Cronbach's alpha was 0.91 for the whole scale. The one-week, test-retest reliability was 0.96. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed three factors, "fear of dead people and tombs," "fear of lethal disease," and "fear of postmortem events," accounted for 57.09% of the total variance. Factor structure for the three-factor model was sound. The correlation between the total scores on the ASDA(C) and the MODDI-F/chin was 0.54, indicating acceptable concurrent validity. ASDA(C) has adequate psychometrics and properties that make it a reliable and valid scale to assess death anxiety in Mandarin-speaking Chinese.

  6. Computational models of consumer confidence from large-scale online attention data: crowd-sourcing econometrics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Xianlei; Bollen, Johan

    2015-01-01

    Economies are instances of complex socio-technical systems that are shaped by the interactions of large numbers of individuals. The individual behavior and decision-making of consumer agents is determined by complex psychological dynamics that include their own assessment of present and future economic conditions as well as those of others, potentially leading to feedback loops that affect the macroscopic state of the economic system. We propose that the large-scale interactions of a nation's citizens with its online resources can reveal the complex dynamics of their collective psychology, including their assessment of future system states. Here we introduce a behavioral index of Chinese Consumer Confidence (C3I) that computationally relates large-scale online search behavior recorded by Google Trends data to the macroscopic variable of consumer confidence. Our results indicate that such computational indices may reveal the components and complex dynamics of consumer psychology as a collective socio-economic phenomenon, potentially leading to improved and more refined economic forecasting.

  7. Computational models of consumer confidence from large-scale online attention data: crowd-sourcing econometrics.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xianlei Dong

    Full Text Available Economies are instances of complex socio-technical systems that are shaped by the interactions of large numbers of individuals. The individual behavior and decision-making of consumer agents is determined by complex psychological dynamics that include their own assessment of present and future economic conditions as well as those of others, potentially leading to feedback loops that affect the macroscopic state of the economic system. We propose that the large-scale interactions of a nation's citizens with its online resources can reveal the complex dynamics of their collective psychology, including their assessment of future system states. Here we introduce a behavioral index of Chinese Consumer Confidence (C3I that computationally relates large-scale online search behavior recorded by Google Trends data to the macroscopic variable of consumer confidence. Our results indicate that such computational indices may reveal the components and complex dynamics of consumer psychology as a collective socio-economic phenomenon, potentially leading to improved and more refined economic forecasting.

  8. Chinese vinegar and its solid-state fermentation process

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Liu Dengru,; Yang Zhu, Yang; Beeftink, H.H.; Ooijkaas, L.P.; Rinzema, A.; Jian Chen,; Tramper, J.

    2004-01-01

    China uses solid-state fermentation (SSF) processes on a large scale for products such as vinegar, Chinese distilled spirit, soy sauce, Furu, and other national foods that are consumed around the world. In this article, the typical SSF process is discussed, with a focus on Chinese vinegars,

  9. The Phoenix series large scale LNG pool fire experiments.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Simpson, Richard B.; Jensen, Richard Pearson; Demosthenous, Byron; Luketa, Anay Josephine; Ricks, Allen Joseph; Hightower, Marion Michael; Blanchat, Thomas K.; Helmick, Paul H.; Tieszen, Sheldon Robert; Deola, Regina Anne; Mercier, Jeffrey Alan; Suo-Anttila, Jill Marie; Miller, Timothy J.

    2010-12-01

    The increasing demand for natural gas could increase the number and frequency of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tanker deliveries to ports across the United States. Because of the increasing number of shipments and the number of possible new facilities, concerns about the potential safety of the public and property from an accidental, and even more importantly intentional spills, have increased. While improvements have been made over the past decade in assessing hazards from LNG spills, the existing experimental data is much smaller in size and scale than many postulated large accidental and intentional spills. Since the physics and hazards from a fire change with fire size, there are concerns about the adequacy of current hazard prediction techniques for large LNG spills and fires. To address these concerns, Congress funded the Department of Energy (DOE) in 2008 to conduct a series of laboratory and large-scale LNG pool fire experiments at Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This report presents the test data and results of both sets of fire experiments. A series of five reduced-scale (gas burner) tests (yielding 27 sets of data) were conducted in 2007 and 2008 at Sandia's Thermal Test Complex (TTC) to assess flame height to fire diameter ratios as a function of nondimensional heat release rates for extrapolation to large-scale LNG fires. The large-scale LNG pool fire experiments were conducted in a 120 m diameter pond specially designed and constructed in Sandia's Area III large-scale test complex. Two fire tests of LNG spills of 21 and 81 m in diameter were conducted in 2009 to improve the understanding of flame height, smoke production, and burn rate and therefore the physics and hazards of large LNG spills and fires.

  10. Side effects of problem-solving strategies in large-scale nutrition science: towards a diversification of health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Penders, Bart; Vos, Rein; Horstman, Klasien

    2009-11-01

    Solving complex problems in large-scale research programmes requires cooperation and division of labour. Simultaneously, large-scale problem solving also gives rise to unintended side effects. Based upon 5 years of researching two large-scale nutrigenomic research programmes, we argue that problems are fragmented in order to be solved. These sub-problems are given priority for practical reasons and in the process of solving them, various changes are introduced in each sub-problem. Combined with additional diversity as a result of interdisciplinarity, this makes reassembling the original and overall goal of the research programme less likely. In the case of nutrigenomics and health, this produces a diversification of health. As a result, the public health goal of contemporary nutrition science is not reached in the large-scale research programmes we studied. Large-scale research programmes are very successful in producing scientific publications and new knowledge; however, in reaching their political goals they often are less successful.

  11. Scaling in the distribution of intertrade durations of Chinese stocks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Zhi-Qiang; Chen, Wei; Zhou, Wei-Xing

    2008-10-01

    The distribution of intertrade durations, defined as the waiting times between two consecutive transactions, is investigated based upon the limit order book data of 23 liquid Chinese stocks listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in the whole year 2003. A scaling pattern is observed in the distributions of intertrade durations, where the empirical density functions of the normalized intertrade durations of all 23 stocks collapse onto a single curve. The scaling pattern is also observed in the intertrade duration distributions for filled and partially filled trades and in the conditional distributions. The ensemble distributions for all stocks are modeled by the Weibull and the Tsallis q-exponential distributions. Maximum likelihood estimation shows that the Weibull distribution outperforms the q-exponential for not-too-large intertrade durations which account for more than 98.5% of the data. Alternatively, nonlinear least-squares estimation selects the q-exponential as a better model, in which the optimization is conducted on the distance between empirical and theoretical values of the logarithmic probability densities. The distribution of intertrade durations is Weibull followed by a power-law tail with an asymptotic tail exponent close to 3.

  12. Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Resilience Scale in Wenchuan earthquake survivors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lei, Ming; Li, Chao; Xiao, Xiao; Qiu, Jiang; Dai, Yan; Zhang, Qinglin

    2012-07-01

    Resilience refers to the ability to effectively cope and positively adapt after adversity or trauma. This study investigated the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Resilience Scale (RS) for college students with Wenchuan earthquake exposure. A total of 888 Chinese college students with Wenchuan earthquake exposure completed a set of scales, including the RS, the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Self-rating Scale, the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale, the Zung Self-rating Anxiety Scale, and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Short Scale for Chinese. The internal consistency and concurrent validity were investigated. Sex and regional differences were also examined. The results of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis showed that the 4-factor structure was suitable for both Chinese samples 1 and 2. The Cronbach α coefficient was .94 (P split-half reliability coefficient was .92 (P disorder (r = -0.21; P < .01), depression (r = -0.45; P < .01), anxiety(r = -0.34; P < .01), and neuroticism (r = -0.23; P < .01), and correlated positively with extraversion (r = 0.23; P < .01). Men showed higher resilience scores than women, and people living in the high earthquake-exposure areas reported higher level of resilience than those from low earthquake-exposure areas. The Chinese version of the RS was demonstrated to be a reliable and valid measurement in assessing resilience for Wenchuan earthquake survivors. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. A Chinese version of the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales: psychometric properties in recent-onset and chronic psychosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chien, Wai-Tong; Lee, Isabella Yuet-Ming; Wang, Li-Qun

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to test the reliability, validity, and factor structure of a Chinese version of the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scale (PSYRATS) in 198 and 202 adult patients with recent-onset and chronic psychosis, respectively. The PSYRATS has been translated into different language versions and has been validated for clinical and research use mainly in chronic psychotic patients but not in recent-onset psychosis patients or in Chinese populations. The psychometric analysis of the translated Chinese version included assessment of its content validity, semantic equivalence, interrater and test-retest reliability, reproducibility, sensitivity to changes in psychotic symptoms, internal consistency, concurrent validity (compared to a valid psychotic symptom scale), and factor structure. The Chinese version demonstrated very satisfactory content validity as rated by an expert panel, good semantic equivalence with the original version, and high interrater and test-retest (at 2-week interval) reliability. It also indicated very good reproducibility of and sensitivity to changes in psychotic symptoms in line with the symptom severity measured with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). The scale consisted of four factors for the hallucination subscale and two factors for the delusion subscale, explaining about 80% of the total variance of the construct, indicating satisfactory correlations between the hallucination and delusion factors themselves, between items, factors, subscales, and overall scale, and between factors and relevant item and subscale scores of the PANSS. The Chinese version of the PSYRATS is a reliable and valid instrument to measure symptom severity in Chinese psychotic patients complementary to other existing measures mainly in English language.

  14. Large-scale data analytics

    CERN Document Server

    Gkoulalas-Divanis, Aris

    2014-01-01

    Provides cutting-edge research in large-scale data analytics from diverse scientific areas Surveys varied subject areas and reports on individual results of research in the field Shares many tips and insights into large-scale data analytics from authors and editors with long-term experience and specialization in the field

  15. Social functioning in Chinese college students with and without schizotypal personality traits: an exploratory study of the Chinese version of the First Episode Social Functioning Scale.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi Wang

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVES: The First Episode Social Functioning Scale (FESFS was designed to measure social functioning of young individuals with schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to validate a Chinese version of the FESFS in a sample of young Chinese adults. METHOD: The FESFS was translated to Chinese prior to being administered to 1576 college students. The factor structure, reliability, and validity of the scale were examined. RESULTS: Two items were deleted after item analysis and the internal consistency of the whole scale was .89. A six-factor structure was derived by exploratory factor analysis. The factors were interpersonal, family and friends, school, living skills, intimacy, and balance. Estimates of the structural equation model supported this structure, with Goodness of Fit Chi-Square χ(2 = 1097.53 (p<0.0001, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA = 0.058, and the comparative fit index (CFI = 0.93. Scale validity was supported by significant correlations between social functioning factors scores and schizophrenia personality questionnaire (SPQ scores. Individuals with schizotypal personality features presented poorer social functioning than those without schizotypal personality features. CONCLUSIONS: The Chinese revised version of the FESFS was found to have good psychometric properties and could be used in the future to examine social functioning in Chinese college students.

  16. Government management and implementation of national real-time energy monitoring system for China large-scale public building

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Na Wei; Wu Yong; Song Yan; Dong Zhongcheng

    2009-01-01

    The supervision of energy efficiency in government office buildings and large-scale public buildings (GOBLPB) is the main embodiment for government implementation of Public Administration in the fields of resource saving and environmental protection. It is significant for China government to achieve the target: reducing building energy consumption by 11 million ton standard coal before 2010. In the framework of a national demonstration project concerning the energy management system, Shenzhen Municipality has been selected for the implementation of the system. A data acquisition system and a methodology concerning the energy consumption of the GOBLPB have been developed. This paper summarizes the various features of the system incorporated into identifying the building consumes and energy saving potential. This paper also defines the methods to achieve the real-time monitoring and diagnosis: the meters installed at each building, the data transmitted through internet to a center server, the analysis and unification at the center server and the publication through web. Furthermore, this paper introduces the plans to implement the system and to extend countrywide. Finally, this paper presents some measurements to achieve a common benefit community in implementation of building energy efficiency supervisory system on GOBLPB in its construction, reconstruction or operation stages.

  17. Development of a Body Image Concern Scale using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in Chinese university students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    He W

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Wenxin He, Qiming Zheng, Yutian Ji, Chanchan Shen, Qisha Zhu, Wei Wang Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry, School of Public Health, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China Background: The body dysmorphic disorder is prevalent in general population and in psychiatric, dermatological, and plastic-surgery patients, but there lacks a structure-validated, comprehensive self-report measure of body image concerns, which is established through both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Methods: We have composed a 34-item matrix targeting the body image concerns and trialed it in 328 male and 365 female Chinese university students. Answers to the matrix dealt with treatments including exploratory factor analyses, reserve of qualified items, and confirmatory factor analyses of latent structures. Results: Six latent factors, namely the Social Avoidance, Appearance Dissatisfaction, Preoccupation with Reassurance, Perceived Distress/Discrimination, Defect Hiding, and Embarrassment in Public, were identified. The factors and their respective items have composed a 24-item questionnaire named as the Body Image Concern Scale. Each factor earned a satisfactory internal reliability, and the intercorrelations between these factors were in a median level. Women scored significantly higher than men did on the Appearance Dissatisfaction, Preoccupation with Reassurance, and Defect Hiding. Conclusion: The Body Image Concern Scale has displayed its structure validation and gender preponderance in Chinese university students. Keywords: body dysmorphic disorder, body image, factor analysis, questionnaire development

  18. The Chinese Lexicon Project: A megastudy of lexical decision performance for 25,000+ traditional Chinese two-character compound words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tse, Chi-Shing; Yap, Melvin J; Chan, Yuen-Lai; Sze, Wei Ping; Shaoul, Cyrus; Lin, Dan

    2017-08-01

    Using a megastudy approach, we developed a database of lexical variables and lexical decision reaction times and accuracy rates for more than 25,000 traditional Chinese two-character compound words. Each word was responded to by about 33 native Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong. This resource provides a valuable adjunct to influential mega-databases, such as the Chinese single-character, English, French, and Dutch Lexicon Projects. Three analyses were conducted to illustrate the potential uses of the database. First, we compared the proportion of variance in lexical decision performance accounted for by six word frequency measures and established that the best predictor was Cai and Brysbaert's (PLoS One, 5, e10729, 2010) contextual diversity subtitle frequency. Second, we ran virtual replications of three previously published lexical decision experiments and found convergence between the original experiments and the present megastudy. Finally, we conducted item-level regression analyses to examine the effects of theoretically important lexical variables in our normative data. This is the first publicly available large-scale repository of behavioral responses pertaining to Chinese two-character compound word processing, which should be of substantial interest to psychologists, linguists, and other researchers.

  19. Two Great Transfers of Word Emotive Overtones In Modern Chinese

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diao Yanbin

    2008-10-01

    Full Text Available Since 1949, modern Chinese language has, in the course of its development in Mainland China, twice witnessed large-scale transfers in its word emotive overtones. The first began in 1949 and went on all the way till the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1977. Derogation manifested itself in that period, during which the derogatory words enjoyed their greatest number, widest usages and highest frequency in the history of the Chinese language. The second began from the Reform and Opening Up Policy in 1978 and lasted untill now. De-derogation has manifested itself in this period, during which the derogatory words have had the smallest number, least usages and lowest frequency in the history of the Chinese language. The two large-scale transfers result from their specific social backgrounds and the development of the Chinese language itself.

  20. Large-scale grid management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Langdal, Bjoern Inge; Eggen, Arnt Ove

    2003-01-01

    The network companies in the Norwegian electricity industry now have to establish a large-scale network management, a concept essentially characterized by (1) broader focus (Broad Band, Multi Utility,...) and (2) bigger units with large networks and more customers. Research done by SINTEF Energy Research shows so far that the approaches within large-scale network management may be structured according to three main challenges: centralization, decentralization and out sourcing. The article is part of a planned series

  1. Scale-invariant properties of public-debt growth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petersen, A. M.; Podobnik, B.; Horvatic, D.; Stanley, H. E.

    2010-05-01

    Public debt is one of the important economic variables that quantitatively describes a nation's economy. Because bankruptcy is a risk faced even by institutions as large as governments (e.g., Iceland), national debt should be strictly controlled with respect to national wealth. Also, the problem of eliminating extreme poverty in the world is closely connected to the study of extremely poor debtor nations. We analyze the time evolution of national public debt and find "convergence": initially less-indebted countries increase their debt more quickly than initially more-indebted countries. We also analyze the public debt-to-GDP ratio {\\cal R} , a proxy for default risk, and approximate the probability density function P({\\cal R}) with a Gamma distribution, which can be used to establish thresholds for sustainable debt. We also observe "convergence" in {\\cal R} : countries with initially small {\\cal R} increase their {\\cal R} more quickly than countries with initially large {\\cal R} . The scaling relationships for debt and {\\cal R} have practical applications, e.g. the Maastricht Treaty requires members of the European Monetary Union to maintain {\\cal R} < 0.6 .

  2. Cross-Culture Validation of the HIV/AIDS Stress Scale: The Development of a Revised Chinese Version.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niu, Lu; Qiu, Yangyang; Luo, Dan; Chen, Xi; Wang, Min; Pakenham, Kenneth I; Zhang, Xixing; Huang, Zhulin; Xiao, Shuiyuan

    2016-01-01

    Being HIV-infected is a stressful experience for many individuals. To assess HIV-related stress in the Chinese context, a measure with satisfied psychometric properties is yet underdeveloped. This study aimed to examine the psychometric characteristics of a simplified Chinese version of the HIV/AIDS Stress Scale (SS-HIV) among people living with HIV/AIDS in central China. A total of 667 people living with HIV (92% were male) were recruited from March 1st 2014 to August 31th 2015 by consecutive sampling. A standard questionnaire package containing the Chinese HIV/AIDS Stress Scale (CSS-HIV), the Chinese Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and the Chinese Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) were administered to all participants, and 38 of the participants were selected randomly to be re-tested in four weeks after the initial testing. Our data supported that a revised 17-item CSS-HIV had adequate psychometric properties. It consisted of 3 factors: emotional stress (6 items), social stress (6 items) and instrumental stress (5 items). The overall Cronbach's α was 0.906, and the test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.832. The revised CSS-HIV was significantly correlated with the number of HIV-related symptoms, as well as scores on the PHQ-9 and GAD-7, indicating acceptable concurrent validity. The 17-item Chinese version of the SS-HIV has potential research and clinical utility in identifying important stressors among the Chinese HIV-infected population and in understanding the effects of stress on adjustment to HIV.

  3. Development and Validation of Chinese Health Literacy Scale for Low Salt Consumption-Hong Kong Population (CHLSalt-HK.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P H Chau

    Full Text Available Globally, sodium intake far exceeds the level recommended by the World Health Organization. Assessing health literacy related to salt consumption among older adults could guide the development of interventions that target their knowledge gaps, misconceptions, or poor dietary practices. This study aimed to develop and validate the Chinese Health Literacy Scale for Low Salt Consumption-Hong Kong population (CHLSalt-HK. Based on previous studies on salt intake and nutrition label reading in other countries, we developed similar questions that were appropriate for the Chinese population in Hong Kong. The questions covered the following eight broad areas: functional literacy (term recognition and nutrition label reading, knowledge of the salt content of foods, knowledge of the diseases related to high salt intake, knowledge of international standards, myths about salt intake, attitudes toward salt intake, salty food consumption practices, and nutrition label reading practices. Eight professionals, including doctors, nurses, and dietitians, provided feedback on the scale. The psychometric properties of the scale were assessed based on data collected from a convenience sample of 603 Chinese elderly adults recruited from Elderly Health Centres in Hong Kong. The 49-item CHLSalt-HK had a possible score range of 0 to 98, with a higher score indicating higher health literacy related to salt intake. The CHLSalt-HK had acceptable content validity; the item-level Content Validity Index ranged from 0.857 to 1.000, and the scale-level Content Validity Index was 0.994. Additionally, it had good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of 0.799 and good test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.846. The mean CHLSalt-HK score among those who were aware of the public education slogan about nutrition labels and sodium intake was higher by 3.928 points (95% confidence interval: 1.742 to 6.115 than that among those who were not aware of the slogan

  4. Energy-efficiency supervision systems for energy management in large public buildings: Necessary choice for China

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Feng Yanping; Wu Yong; Liu Changbin

    2009-01-01

    Buildings are important contributors to total energy consumption accounting for around 30% of all energy consumed in China. Of this, around two-fifths are consumed within urban homes, one-fifth within public buildings, and two-fifths within rural area. Government office buildings and large-scale public buildings are the dominant energy consumers in cities but their consumption can be largely cut back through improving efficiency. At present, energy management in the large public sector is a particular priority in China. Firstly, this paper discusses how the large public building is defined, and then energy performance in large public buildings is studied. The paper also describes barriers to improving energy efficiency of large public buildings in China and examines the energy-efficiency policies and programs adopted in United States and European Union. The energy-efficiency supervision (EES) systems developed to improve operation and maintenance practices and promote energy efficiency in large public sector are described. The benefits of the EES systems are finally summarized.

  5. Energy-efficiency supervision systems for energy management in large public buildings. Necessary choice for China

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yan-ping, Feng [Beijing Jiaotong University, School of Economics and Management, Jiaoda Donglu18, 5-803, Beijing 100044 (China); Yong, Wu [Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Beijing 100835 (China); Chang-bin, Liu [Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing 100044 (China)

    2009-06-15

    Buildings are important contributors to total energy consumption accounting for around 30% of all energy consumed in China. Of this, around two-fifths are consumed within urban homes, one-fifth within public buildings, and two-fifths within rural area. Government office buildings and large-scale public buildings are the dominant energy consumers in cities but their consumption can be largely cut back through improving efficiency. At present, energy management in the large public sector is a particular priority in China. Firstly, this paper discusses how the large public building is defined, and then energy performance in large public buildings is studied. The paper also describes barriers to improving energy efficiency of large public buildings in China and examines the energy-efficiency policies and programs adopted in United States and European Union. The energy-efficiency supervision (EES) systems developed to improve operation and maintenance practices and promote energy efficiency in large public sector are described. The benefits of the EES systems are finally summarized. (author)

  6. Energy-efficiency supervision systems for energy management in large public buildings: Necessary choice for China

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Feng Yanping [Beijing Jiaotong University, School of Economics and Management, Jiaoda Donglu18, 5-803, Beijing 100044 (China)], E-mail: fengyanping10@sohu.com; Wu Yong [Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Beijing 100835 (China); Liu Changbin [Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing 100044 (China)

    2009-06-15

    Buildings are important contributors to total energy consumption accounting for around 30% of all energy consumed in China. Of this, around two-fifths are consumed within urban homes, one-fifth within public buildings, and two-fifths within rural area. Government office buildings and large-scale public buildings are the dominant energy consumers in cities but their consumption can be largely cut back through improving efficiency. At present, energy management in the large public sector is a particular priority in China. Firstly, this paper discusses how the large public building is defined, and then energy performance in large public buildings is studied. The paper also describes barriers to improving energy efficiency of large public buildings in China and examines the energy-efficiency policies and programs adopted in United States and European Union. The energy-efficiency supervision (EES) systems developed to improve operation and maintenance practices and promote energy efficiency in large public sector are described. The benefits of the EES systems are finally summarized.

  7. Ethics of large-scale change

    OpenAIRE

    Arler, Finn

    2006-01-01

      The subject of this paper is long-term large-scale changes in human society. Some very significant examples of large-scale change are presented: human population growth, human appropriation of land and primary production, the human use of fossil fuels, and climate change. The question is posed, which kind of attitude is appropriate when dealing with large-scale changes like these from an ethical point of view. Three kinds of approaches are discussed: Aldo Leopold's mountain thinking, th...

  8. The use of Career Growth Scale in Chinese nurses: Validity and reliability

    OpenAIRE

    Jingying Liu; Jipeng Yang; Yanhui Liu; Yang Yang; Hongfu Zhang

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: To test the validity and reliability of a modified Career Growth Scale (CGS) to assess nurse career growth. Method: A cross-sectional design was used to analyze the use of the CGS to survey 600 full-time registered nurses from Grade A hospitals in Tianjin. Results: A modified scale we called Career Growth of Nurse Scale (CGNS) is acceptable, valid, and reliable for the evaluation of nurse career growth in Chinese hospitals. This scale measured three main factors (career goal, c...

  9. Assessing cancer-specific anxiety in Chinese men with prostate cancer: psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the Memorial Anxiety Scale for Prostate Cancer (MAX-PC).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Qingmei; Jiang, Ping; Zhang, Zijun; Luo, Jie; Dai, Yun; Zheng, Li; Wang, Wei

    2017-12-01

    The Memorial Anxiety Scale for Prostate Cancer (MAX-PC) was developed to identify and assess cancer-specific anxiety among men with prostate cancer (PCa); however, there is no Chinese version. The aim of our study was to translate the English version of MAX-PC into Chinese and evaluate the psychometric properties of it. The study cohort comprised 254 participants. Internal consistency including the Cronbach's alpha coefficient and item-total correlations were used to measure the reliability of the scale. Factor structure was analyzed by exploratory factor analysis and concurrent validity by comparing MAX-PC scores with anxiety subscale scores of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Divergent validity was assessed by correlating MAX-PC with HADS depression subscale, while discriminant ability by comparing differences in MAX-PC scores between different patient groups. The Chinese version of MAX-PC demonstrated good reliability; the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the total and three subscales (prostate cancer anxiety, PSA anxiety, and fear of recurrence) being 0.94, 0.93, 0.82, and 0.85, respectively. Exploratory factor analysis supported the three-factor structure of the scale established in the original version. Despite the somewhat underperformed divergent validity, the scale demonstrated good concurrent validity with a strong correlation with the HADS anxiety subscale (r = 0.71, p anxiety in Chinese PCa patients.

  10. The Functional Living Index-Cancer is a reliable and valid instrument in Chinese cancer patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fong, Daniel Y T; Lee, Alvina H K; Tung, Stewart Y; Wong, Janet Y H; Chan, Y M; Goh, Cynthia R; Cheung, Y B

    2014-02-01

    To evaluate the linguistic and psychometric properties of the Functional Living Index-Cancer (FLIC) in assessing the quality of life of Chinese cancer patients. The English FLIC was translated into Traditional Chinese by the standard forward-backward procedure. After cognitive debriefing, a Traditional Chinese FLIC was administered to 500 cancer patients in a major public hospital in Hong Kong. Of which, 200 were invited to complete the questionnaire in 2 weeks. To identify a scale structure appropriate to Chinese, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed on two randomly split halves of the sample. We identified five scales of the Traditional Chinese FLIC which assess the physical, psychological, hardship, nausea and social aspects. These five scales and the overall scale demonstrated satisfactory fit and had the alpha coefficient ranged from 0.68 to 0.92. The intra-class correlation coefficient ranged from 0.67 to 0.88. In addition, all FLIC scales were negatively associated with the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status and, also except for the psychological scale, had lower scores in patients who were treated by chemotherapy. The Traditional Chinese FLIC is an appropriate health indicator for Chinese cancer patients.

  11. Nutrient budgets for large Chinese estuaries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. M. Liu

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Chinese rivers deliver about 5–10% of global freshwater input and 15–20% of the global continental sediment to the world ocean. We report the riverine fluxes and concentrations of major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and silicon in the rivers of the contiguous landmass of China and Korea in the northeast Asia. The rivers are generally enriched with dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN and depleted in dissolved inorganic phosphate (PO43− with very high DIN: PO43− concentration ratios. DIN, phosphorus, and silicon levels and loads in rivers are mainly affected by agriculture activities and urbanization, anthropogenic activities and adsorption on particulates, and rock types, climate and physical denudation intensity, respectively. Nutrient transports by rivers in the summer are 3–4 times higher than those in the winter with the exception of NH4+. The flux of NH4+ is rather constant throughout the year due to the anthropogenic sources such as the sewer discharge. As nutrient composition has changed in the rivers, ecosystems in estuaries and coastal sea have also changed in recent decades. Among the changes, a shift of limiting nutrients from phosphorus to nitrogen for phytoplankton production with urbanization is noticeable and in some areas silicon becomes the limiting nutrient for diatom productivity. A simple steady-state mass-balance box model was employed to assess nutrient budgets in the estuaries. The major Chinese estuaries export <15% of nitrogen, <6% of phosphorus required for phytoplankton production and ~4% of silicon required for diatom growth in the Chinese Seas (Bohai, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, South China Sea. This suggests that land-derived nutrients are largely confined to the immediate estuaries, and ecosystem in the coastal sea beyond the estuaries is mainly supported by other nutrient sources such as regeneration, open ocean and

  12. The Basic Empathy Scale: A Chinese Validation of a Measure of Empathy in Adolescents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geng, Yaoguo; Xia, Dan; Qin, Beibei

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Basic Empathy Scale (BES). The Chinese version of BES was administered to a sample (n = 1,524) aged 9-18 and 65 males with conduct disorder aged 13-18. The result of confirmatory factor analysis showed a two-factor structure with four items deleted…

  13. A confirmatory factor analysis of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students in a Chinese sample.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meng, Lina; Jin, Yi

    2017-02-01

    Educational institutions play an important role in encouraging students' engagement with course work. Educators are finding instruments to measure students' engagement in order to develop strategies to improve it. Little is known about the factor structure of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students among Chinese nursing students. The aim of this research was to examine the factor structure of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students via confirmatory factor analysis. The study used a cross-sectional design. A sample of 480 students from a nursing school in one Chinese university completed the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students. Factor analysis was used to analyze the resulting data. The overall results of internal consistency reliability and confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence supporting the reliability and three-factor structure of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students. The total internal consistency reliability coefficients were 0.91. Model comparison tests indicated that an oblique factors model that permitted correlations between pairs of error terms fitted the data better than other first-order models. In addition, due to the three strongly intercorrelated factors, a second-order model was found to fit the data well, providing support for the factorial structure of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students. The findings of confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence supporting the reliability and three-factor structure of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students when evaluated with a Chinese nursing student sample in this study. Thus, it is appropriate to use The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students in for assessing the engagement among Chinese nursing students. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the Stigma Scale: examining the complex experience of stigma and its relationship with self-esteem and depression among people living with mental illness in Hong Kong.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ho, Andy H Y; Potash, Jordan S; Fong, Ted C T; Ho, Vania F L; Chen, Eric Y H; Lau, Robert H W; Au Yeung, Friendly S W; Ho, Rainbow T H

    2015-01-01

    Stigma of mental illness is a global public health concern, but there lacks a standardized and cross-culturally validated instrument for assessing the complex experience of stigma among people living with mental illness (PLMI) in the Chinese context. This study examines the psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the Stigma Scale (CSS), and explores the relationships between stigma, self-esteem and depression. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a community sample of 114 Chinese PLMI in Hong Kong. Participants completed the CSS, the Chinese Self-Stigma of Mental Illness Scale, the Chinese Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Chinese Patient Health Questionnaire-9. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify the underlying factors of the CSS; concurrent validity assessment was performed via correlation analysis. The original 28-item three-factor structure of the Stigma Scale was found to be a poor fit to the data, whereas a revised 14-item three-factor model provided a good fit with all 14 items loaded significantly onto the original factors: discrimination, disclosure and positive aspects of mental illness. The revised model also displayed moderate to good internal consistency and good construct validity. Further findings revealed that the total stigma scale score and all three of its subscale scores correlated negatively with self-esteem; but only total stigma, discrimination and disclosure correlated positively with depression. The CSS is a short and user-friendly self-administrated questionnaire that proves valuable for understanding the multifaceted stigma experiences among PLMI as well as their impact on psychiatric recovery and community integration in Chinese communities. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Servant leadership and affective commitment in the Chinese public sector: the mediating role of perceived organizational support.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Yingying; Miao, Qing

    2014-10-01

    This study examined a possible mediating mechanism between servant leadership and the affective commitment in Chinese employees. Servant leadership, perceived organizational support, and affective commitment was assessed among 239 full-time employees in the Chinese public sector in three rounds of surveys. Servant leadership influenced affective commitment through perceived organizational support. The effect of servant leadership exists in Chinese culture as well as Western cultures.

  16. The Structure of the Chinese Material Value Scale: An Eastern Cultural View

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiangqun Liao

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated the structure of the Chinese Material Value Scale (MVS. A two-factor structure, rather than the original three-factor structure, was proposed for China by means of confirmatory factor analysis. Direct evidence showed that the dimensions of success and happiness could be merged together. Both explicit and implicit methods were used to examine the relationship between success and happiness based on possession. In particular, as an implicit method, the dot-probe paradigm recording participants’ response time supported the idea that the two-factors could be merged together. The results also showed that for Chinese people, success to an extent means happiness, while the converse is not necessarily true. Chinese are much more concerned about social evaluation than their own feelings, and this cultural characteristic is reflected in our findings.

  17. Validation of the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking Scale in Chinese college students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaoxiao Hu

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Using college student samples, two studies were conducted to validate the Chinese version of the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking (DOSPERT Scale. The results replicated important findings reported by Weber et al. (2002 in the Chinese culture. Risk-taking and risk perception were domain-specific, whereas perceived-risk attitudes were relatively stable across domains, supporting the risk-return model of risk taking. Results of both exploratory factor analysis (EFA and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA showed that the ethical, recreational, health/safety, and gambling domains were preserved in the Chinese version of DOSPERT and that the items from social and investment domains formed one factor. This result may be explained by Weber and Hsee's (1998 cushion hypothesis. Other possible reasons for this cross-cultural difference in the factor structure were also discussed.

  18. Political consultation and large-scale research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bechmann, G.; Folkers, H.

    1977-01-01

    Large-scale research and policy consulting have an intermediary position between sociological sub-systems. While large-scale research coordinates science, policy, and production, policy consulting coordinates science, policy and political spheres. In this very position, large-scale research and policy consulting lack of institutional guarantees and rational back-ground guarantee which are characteristic for their sociological environment. This large-scale research can neither deal with the production of innovative goods under consideration of rentability, nor can it hope for full recognition by the basis-oriented scientific community. Policy consulting knows neither the competence assignment of the political system to make decisions nor can it judge succesfully by the critical standards of the established social science, at least as far as the present situation is concerned. This intermediary position of large-scale research and policy consulting has, in three points, a consequence supporting the thesis which states that this is a new form of institutionalization of science: These are: 1) external control, 2) the organization form, 3) the theoretical conception of large-scale research and policy consulting. (orig.) [de

  19. New progresses of Chinese art casting

    OpenAIRE

    Tan Derui

    2007-01-01

    The Chinese art casting with 5 000 years history has been rapidly developed in recent ten years. This benefits from the great development of Chinese economy, the large-scale urban construction and transformation, the increasing demands for the cultural work of art, the loose religious environment and the expanding international market. The Art Casting Technical Committee of China Foundry Association has been established for 10 years. Almost 90 art casting enterprises joined in the organizatio...

  20. A large-scale survey of genetic copy number variations among Han Chinese residing in Taiwan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wu Jer-Yuarn

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Copy number variations (CNVs have recently been recognized as important structural variations in the human genome. CNVs can affect gene expression and thus may contribute to phenotypic differences. The copy number inferring tool (CNIT is an effective hidden Markov model-based algorithm for estimating allele-specific copy number and predicting chromosomal alterations from single nucleotide polymorphism microarrays. The CNIT algorithm, which was constructed using data from 270 HapMap multi-ethnic individuals, was applied to identify CNVs from 300 unrelated Han Chinese individuals in Taiwan. Results Using stringent selection criteria, 230 regions with variable copy numbers were identified in the Han Chinese population; 133 (57.83% had been reported previously, 64 displayed greater than 1% CNV allele frequency. The average size of the CNV regions was 322 kb (ranging from 1.48 kb to 5.68 Mb and covered a total of 2.47% of the human genome. A total of 196 of the CNV regions were simple deletions and 27 were simple amplifications. There were 449 genes and 5 microRNAs within these CNV regions; some of these genes are known to be associated with diseases. Conclusion The identified CNVs are characteristic of the Han Chinese population and should be considered when genetic studies are conducted. The CNV distribution in the human genome is still poorly characterized, and there is much diversity among different ethnic populations.

  1. Psychometric properties of the Chinese Internet Gaming Disorder Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sigerson, Leif; Li, Angel Y-L; Cheung, Mike W-L; Luk, Jeremy W; Cheng, Cecilia

    2017-11-01

    To develop a consensus on the definition and measurement of Internet gaming disorder (IGD), several recent studies have used the DSM-5's proposed criteria for IGD as the basis in scale construction. This study contributes to this emerging consensus by developing and validating a new Chinese Internet Gaming Disorder Scale (C-IGDS) based on the DSM-5 criteria. A representative sample of Hong Kong community adults (n=502, 50% men, mean age=37.1, age range=18-60) was recruited for a telephone survey with random digit dialing. Various statistical techniques were used to assess the psychometric properties of the C-IGDS. The C-IGDS had good reliability (Cronbach's α=0.91) and structural validity (CFA model fit: RMSEA=0.027, CFI=0.991, TLI=0.988) in our sample. Moderate to moderately strong correlations with depressive symptoms (r=0.617, pgaming hours (r=0.412, p<0.001) supported the criterion validity of the C-IGDS. In addition, the C-IGDS exhibited strict measurement invariance for sex and at least strong measurement invariance for age. In addition to providing the first Chinese scale for measuring IGD based on the DSM-5's proposed criteria, this study provides empirical support for the validity of these diagnostic criteria as the basis for a universal measure of IGD. Most important, this study is the first to reveal the criteria's measurement invariance, thereby indicating their suitability for use with diverse demographic groups. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Decentralized Large-Scale Power Balancing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Halvgaard, Rasmus; Jørgensen, John Bagterp; Poulsen, Niels Kjølstad

    2013-01-01

    problem is formulated as a centralized large-scale optimization problem but is then decomposed into smaller subproblems that are solved locally by each unit connected to an aggregator. For large-scale systems the method is faster than solving the full problem and can be distributed to include an arbitrary...

  3. Differences between child and adult large-scale functional brain networks for reading tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Xin; Gao, Yue; Di, Qiqi; Hu, Jiali; Lu, Chunming; Nan, Yun; Booth, James R; Liu, Li

    2018-02-01

    Reading is an important high-level cognitive function of the human brain, requiring interaction among multiple brain regions. Revealing differences between children's large-scale functional brain networks for reading tasks and those of adults helps us to understand how the functional network changes over reading development. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 17 adults (19-28 years old) and 16 children (11-13 years old), and graph theoretical analyses to investigate age-related changes in large-scale functional networks during rhyming and meaning judgment tasks on pairs of visually presented Chinese characters. We found that: (1) adults had stronger inter-regional connectivity and nodal degree in occipital regions, while children had stronger inter-regional connectivity in temporal regions, suggesting that adults rely more on visual orthographic processing whereas children rely more on auditory phonological processing during reading. (2) Only adults showed between-task differences in inter-regional connectivity and nodal degree, whereas children showed no task differences, suggesting the topological organization of adults' reading network is more specialized. (3) Children showed greater inter-regional connectivity and nodal degree than adults in multiple subcortical regions; the hubs in children were more distributed in subcortical regions while the hubs in adults were more distributed in cortical regions. These findings suggest that reading development is manifested by a shift from reliance on subcortical to cortical regions. Taken together, our study suggests that Chinese reading development is supported by developmental changes in brain connectivity properties, and some of these changes may be domain-general while others may be specific to the reading domain. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Automating large-scale reactor systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kisner, R.A.

    1985-01-01

    This paper conveys a philosophy for developing automated large-scale control systems that behave in an integrated, intelligent, flexible manner. Methods for operating large-scale systems under varying degrees of equipment degradation are discussed, and a design approach that separates the effort into phases is suggested. 5 refs., 1 fig

  5. The Chinese initial public offering market : underpricing, duration to listing and hot issue cycles

    OpenAIRE

    Guo, Haifeng

    2017-01-01

    This thesis conducts three empirical studies on the Chinese A-share initial public offering (IPO) market, specifically, underpricing and short-run underperformance, duration from offering to listing and hot and cold issuing cycles. Before the empirical analysis, the literature is reviewed associated with these three topics. In addition, this thesis presents an overview of the Chinese IPO market which is found to undergo an experiment period from 1984 to 1990, a transition period from 1991 to ...

  6. The ageing males' symptoms scale for Chinese men: reliability,validation and applicability of the Chinese version.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kong, X-b; Guan, H-t; Li, H-g; Zhou, Y; Xiong, C-l

    2014-11-01

    In this study, the ageing males' symptoms (AMS) scale was translated into Chinese following methodological recommendations for linguistic and cultural adaptation. This study aimed to confirm the reliability, validation and applicability of the simplified Chinese version of the scale (CN-AMS) in older Chinese men, a free health screening for men older than 40 years was conducted. All participants completed a health questionnaire, which consisted of personal health information, AMS scale, the generic quality of life (QoL) instrument SF36 and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The fasting blood samples of participants were collected on the day of completing the health questionnaire. Serum total testosterone (TT), albumin and sex hormone-binding globulin levels were measured and the level of free testosterone was calculated (calculated free testosterone, CFT). A total of 244 men (mean age: 52 ± 7.3 years, range: 40-79 years) were involved in the investigation and provided informed consent before their participation. The reliability of CN-AMS was analysed as internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha was 0.91) as well as a 4-week-interval test-retest stability (Pearson's correlation was 0.83) and found to be good. The validation of CN-AMS was analysed as the internal structure analysis (Pearson's correlation between total score and each item score r = 0.48-0.75), total-domain-correlation (among the three domains r = 0.47-0.68, p < 0.01; domains with the total score r = 0.81-0.88, p < 0.01), and cross-validation with other scales (with SF36 r = -0.59, p < 0.01; with BDI r = 0.50, p < 0.01). Androgen deficiency (AD) was defined as the presence of three sexual symptoms (decreased frequency of morning erections, sexual thoughts and erectile dysfunction) in combination with TT < 11 nmol/L and CFT < 220 pmol/L, and the sensitivity and specificity for CN-AMS was 68.8 and 6.8% respectively. The CN-AMS had sufficient sensitivity in

  7. Scale and causes of lead contamination in Chinese tea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Han Wenyan; Zhao Fangjie; Shi Yuanzhi; Ma Lifeng; Ruan Jianyun

    2006-01-01

    We investigated the scale and causes of Pb contamination in Chinese tea. Lead concentrations in 1225 tea samples collected nationally between 1999 and 2001 varied from -1 dry weight (DW), with 32% of the samples exceeding the national maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of 2.0 mg kg -1 DW and a significant difference between tea types. There was an increasing trend in tea Pb concentration from 1989 to 2000. Proximity to highway and surface dust contamination were found to cause elevated Pb concentrations in tea leaves. Furthermore, Pb concentration in tea leaves correlated significantly and positively with soil extractable Pb, and negatively with soil pH, suggesting that root uptake of Pb from soils also contributed to Pb accumulation in tea. Potential contributions to human Pb intake from drinking tea were small at the median or national MPC Pb values, but considerable at the highest concentration found in the study. - 32% of Chinese tea samples exceeded the national maximum permissible concentration for Pb

  8. Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Chinese Comfort, Afford, Respect, and Expect scale of caring nurse-patient interaction competence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Hui-Chun; Hsieh, Tsung-Cheng; Chen, Yueh-Chih; Chang, Shu-Chuan; Hsu, Wen-Lin

    2017-11-29

    To investigate the construct validity and reliability of the Chinese Comfort, Afford, Respect, and Expect scale, which can be used to determine clinical nurses' competence. The results can also serve to promote nursing competence and improve patient satisfaction. Nurse-patient interaction is critical for improving nursing care quality. However, to date, no relevant validated instrument has been proposed for assessing caring nurse-patient interaction competence in clinical practice. This study adapted and validated the Chinese version of the caring nurse-patient interaction scale. A cross-cultural adaptation and validation study. A psychometric analysis of the four major constructs of the Chinese Comfort, Afford, Respect, and Expect scale was conducted on a sample of 356 nurses from a medical centre in China. Item analysis and exploratory factor analysis were adopted to extract the main components, both the internal consistency and correlation coefficients were used to examine reliability and a confirmatory factor analysis was adopted to verify the construct validity. The goodness-of-fit results of the model were strong. The standardised factor loadings of the Chinese Comfort, Afford, Respect, and Expect scale ranged from 0.73-0.95, indicating that the validity and reliability of this instrument were favourable. Moreover, the 12 extracted items explained 95.9% of the measured content of the Chinese Comfort, Afford, Respect, and Expect scale. The results serve as empirical evidence regarding the validity and reliability of the Chinese Comfort, Afford, Respect, and Expect scale. Hospital nurses increasingly demand help from patients and their family members in identifying health problems and assisting with medical decision-making. Therefore, enhancing nurses' competence in nurse-patient interactions is crucial for nursing and hospital managers to improve nursing care quality. The Chinese caring nurse-patient interaction scale can serve as an effective tool for nursing

  9. Tracking the current rise of chinese pharmaceutical bionanotechnology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lenoir, Tim; Herron, Patrick

    2009-10-14

    THE CONTEXT AND PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: Over the last decade China has emerged as a major producer of scientific publications, currently ranking second behind the US. During that time Chinese strategic policy initiatives have placed indigenous innovation at the heart of its economy while focusing internal R&D investments and the attraction of foreign investment in nanotechnology as one of their four top areas. China's scientific research publication and nanotechnology research publication production has reached a rank of second in the world, behind only the US. Despite these impressive gains, some scholars argue that the quality of Chinese nanotech research is inferior to US research quality due to lower overall times cited rates, suggesting that the US is still the world leader. We combine citation analysis, text mining, mapping, and data visualization to gauge the development and application of nanotechnology in China, particularly in biopharmananotechnology, and to measure the impact of Chinese policy on nanotechnology research production. Our text mining-based methods provide results that counter existing claims about Chinese nanotechnology research quality. Due in large part to its strategic innovation policy, China's output of nanotechnology publications is on pace to surpass US production in or around 2012.A closer look at Chinese nanotechnology research literature reveals a large increase in research activity in China's biopharmananotechnology research since the implementation in January, 2006 of China's Medium & Long Term Scientific and Technological Development Plan Guidelines for the period 2006-2020 ("MLP"). Since the implementation of the MLP, China has enjoyed a great deal of success producing bionano research findings while attracting a great deal of foreign investment from pharmaceutical corporations setting up advanced drug discovery operations. Given the combination of current scientific production growth as well as economic growth, a relatively low

  10. Belief in reciprocity in a Chinese sample.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhen; Zhang, Jianxin

    2012-08-01

    Belief in reciprocity refers to a personally internalized faith in the reciprocity norm: that people will return positive and negative interactions or favors in kind. The current study aims to examine the relationship between belief in reciprocity and altruism among a Chinese sample. The Personal Norm of Reciprocity Scale, Trait Forgiveness Scale, Prosocial Tendency Measure, and Altruism Scale were used to assess extent of belief in reciprocity, forgiveness, and prosocial motivation, respectively, among 204 Chinese undergraduates. The results indicated that belief in reciprocity was a partially negative, but not neutral, reciprocity norm for Chinese people. Specifically, belief in reciprocity was positively related to negative reciprocity, but not significantly related to positive reciprocity. Moreover, belief in reciprocity was negatively related to both prosocial tendency and altruistic motivation. The results also indicated that forgiveness largely mediated the effect of belief in reciprocity on altruism. Finally, the implications and limitations of the current study were discussed.

  11. Selecting Large Portfolios of Social Projects in Public Organizations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Igor Litvinchev

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available We address the portfolio selection of social projects in public organizations considering interdependencies (synergies affecting project funds requirements and tasks. A mixed integer linear programming model is proposed incorporating the most relevant aspects of the problem found in the literature. The model supports both complete (all or nothing and partial (a certain amount from a given interval of funding resource allocation policies. Numerical results for large-scale problem instances are presented.

  12. Natural-Annotation-based Unsupervised Construction of Korean-Chinese Domain Dictionary

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Wuying; Wang, Lin

    2018-03-01

    The large-scale bilingual parallel resource is significant to statistical learning and deep learning in natural language processing. This paper addresses the automatic construction issue of the Korean-Chinese domain dictionary, and presents a novel unsupervised construction method based on the natural annotation in the raw corpus. We firstly extract all Korean-Chinese word pairs from Korean texts according to natural annotations, secondly transform the traditional Chinese characters into the simplified ones, and finally distill out a bilingual domain dictionary after retrieving the simplified Chinese words in an extra Chinese domain dictionary. The experimental results show that our method can automatically build multiple Korean-Chinese domain dictionaries efficiently.

  13. The Software Reliability of Large Scale Integration Circuit and Very Large Scale Integration Circuit

    OpenAIRE

    Artem Ganiyev; Jan Vitasek

    2010-01-01

    This article describes evaluation method of faultless function of large scale integration circuits (LSI) and very large scale integration circuits (VLSI). In the article there is a comparative analysis of factors which determine faultless of integrated circuits, analysis of already existing methods and model of faultless function evaluation of LSI and VLSI. The main part describes a proposed algorithm and program for analysis of fault rate in LSI and VLSI circuits.

  14. The reliability, validity, sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of the Chinese version of the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Chia-Wei; Chu, Hsin; Tsai, Chia-Fen; Yang, Hui-Ling; Tsai, Jui-Chen; Chung, Min-Huey; Liao, Yuan-Mei; Chi, Mei-Ju; Chou, Kuei-Ru

    2015-11-01

    The purpose of this study was to translate the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale into Chinese and to evaluate the psychometric properties (reliability and validity) and the diagnostic properties (sensitivity, specificity and predictive values) of the Chinese version of the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale. The accurate detection of early dementia requires screening tools with favourable cross-cultural linguistic and appropriate sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values, particularly for Chinese-speaking populations. This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study. Overall, 130 participants suspected to have cognitive impairment were enrolled in the study. A test-retest for determining reliability was scheduled four weeks after the initial test. Content validity was determined by five experts, whereas construct validity was established by using contrasted group technique. The participants' clinical diagnoses were used as the standard in calculating the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value. The study revealed that the Chinese version of the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale exhibited a test-retest reliability of 0.90, an internal consistency reliability of 0.71, an inter-rater reliability (kappa value) of 0.88 and a content validity index of 0.97. Both the patients and healthy contrast group exhibited significant differences in their cognitive ability. The optimal cut-off points for the Chinese version of the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale in the test for mild cognitive impairment and dementia were 24 and 22, respectively; moreover, for these two conditions, the sensitivities of the scale were 0.79 and 0.76, the specificities were 0.91 and 0.81, the areas under the curve were 0.85 and 0.78, the positive predictive values were 0.99 and 0.83 and the negative predictive values were 0.96 and 0.91 respectively. The Chinese version of the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale

  15. Unpacking the Paradox of Chinese Science Learners: Insights from Research into Asian Chinese School Students' Attitudes towards Learning Science, Science Learning Strategies, and Scientific Epistemological Views

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, May Hung May; Wan, Zhi Hong

    2016-01-01

    Chinese students' excellent science performance in large-scale international comparisons contradicts the stereotype of the Chinese non-productive classroom learning environment and learners. Most of the existing explanations of this paradox are provided from the perspective of teaching and learning in a general sense, but little work can be found…

  16. Large-Scale Isolation of Microsatellites from Chinese Mitten Crab Eriocheir sinensis via a Solexa Genomic Survey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qun Wang

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Microsatellites are simple sequence repeats with a high degree of polymorphism in the genome; they are used as DNA markers in many molecular genetic studies. Using traditional methods such as the magnetic beads enrichment method, only a few microsatellite markers have been isolated from the Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis, as the crab genome sequence information is unavailable. Here, we have identified a large number of microsatellites from the Chinese mitten crab by taking advantage of Solexa genomic surveying. A total of 141,737 SSR (simple sequence repeats motifs were identified via analysis of 883 Mb of the crab genomic DNA information, including mono-, di-, tri-, tetra-, penta- and hexa-nucleotide repeat motifs. The number of di-nucleotide repeat motifs was 82,979, making this the most abundant type of repeat motif (58.54%; the second most abundant were the tri-nucleotide repeats (42,657, 30.11%. Among di-nucleotide repeats, the most frequent repeats were AC motifs, accounting for 67.55% of the total number. AGG motifs were the most frequent (59.32% of the tri-nucleotide motifs. A total of 15,125 microsatellite loci had a flanking sequence suitable for setting the primer of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR. To verify the identified SSRs, a subset of 100 primer pairs was randomly selected for PCR. Eighty two primer sets (82% produced strong PCR products matching expected sizes, and 78% were polymorphic. In an analysis of 30 wild individuals from the Yangtze River with 20 primer sets, the number of alleles per locus ranged from 2–14 and the mean allelic richness was 7.4. No linkage disequilibrium was found between any pair of loci, indicating that the markers were independent. The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium test showed significant deviation in four of the 20 microsatellite loci after sequential Bonferroni corrections. This method is cost- and time-effective in comparison to traditional approaches for the isolation of microsatellites.

  17. Phylogenetic distribution of large-scale genome patchiness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hackenberg Michael

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The phylogenetic distribution of large-scale genome structure (i.e. mosaic compositional patchiness has been explored mainly by analytical ultracentrifugation of bulk DNA. However, with the availability of large, good-quality chromosome sequences, and the recently developed computational methods to directly analyze patchiness on the genome sequence, an evolutionary comparative analysis can be carried out at the sequence level. Results The local variations in the scaling exponent of the Detrended Fluctuation Analysis are used here to analyze large-scale genome structure and directly uncover the characteristic scales present in genome sequences. Furthermore, through shuffling experiments of selected genome regions, computationally-identified, isochore-like regions were identified as the biological source for the uncovered large-scale genome structure. The phylogenetic distribution of short- and large-scale patchiness was determined in the best-sequenced genome assemblies from eleven eukaryotic genomes: mammals (Homo sapiens, Pan troglodytes, Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus, and Canis familiaris, birds (Gallus gallus, fishes (Danio rerio, invertebrates (Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans, plants (Arabidopsis thaliana and yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We found large-scale patchiness of genome structure, associated with in silico determined, isochore-like regions, throughout this wide phylogenetic range. Conclusion Large-scale genome structure is detected by directly analyzing DNA sequences in a wide range of eukaryotic chromosome sequences, from human to yeast. In all these genomes, large-scale patchiness can be associated with the isochore-like regions, as directly detected in silico at the sequence level.

  18. Managing large-scale models: DBS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1981-05-01

    A set of fundamental management tools for developing and operating a large scale model and data base system is presented. Based on experience in operating and developing a large scale computerized system, the only reasonable way to gain strong management control of such a system is to implement appropriate controls and procedures. Chapter I discusses the purpose of the book. Chapter II classifies a broad range of generic management problems into three groups: documentation, operations, and maintenance. First, system problems are identified then solutions for gaining management control are disucssed. Chapters III, IV, and V present practical methods for dealing with these problems. These methods were developed for managing SEAS but have general application for large scale models and data bases

  19. Assessing the capacity of the healthcare system to use additional mechanical ventilators during a large-scale public health emergency (PHE)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ajao, Adebola; Nystrom, Scott V.; Koonin, Lisa M.; Patel, Anita; Howell, David R.; Baccam, Prasith; Lant, Tim; Malatino, Eileen; Chamberlin, Margaret; Meltzer, Martin I.

    2015-01-01

    A large-scale Public Health Emergency (PHE), like a severe influenza pandemic can generate large numbers of critically ill patients in a short time. We modeled the number of mechanical ventilators that could be used in addition to the number of hospital-based ventilators currently in use. We identified key components of the healthcare system needed to deliver ventilation therapy, quantified the maximum number of additional ventilators that each key component could support at various capacity levels (i.e. conventional, contingency and crisis) and determined the constraining key component at each capacity level. Our study results showed that U.S. hospitals could absorb between 26,200 and 56,300 additional ventilators at the peak of a national influenza pandemic outbreak with robust pre-pandemic planning. This methodology could be adapted by emergency planners to determine stockpiling goals for critical resources or identify alternatives to manage overwhelming critical care need. PMID:26450633

  20. Large Scale Self-Organizing Information Distribution System

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Low, Steven

    2005-01-01

    This project investigates issues in "large-scale" networks. Here "large-scale" refers to networks with large number of high capacity nodes and transmission links, and shared by a large number of users...

  1. New progresses of Chinese art casting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tan Derui

    2007-05-01

    Full Text Available The Chinese art casting with 5 000 years history has been rapidly developed in recent ten years. This benefits from the great development of Chinese economy, the large-scale urban construction and transformation, the increasing demands for the cultural work of art, the loose religious environment and the expanding international market. The Art Casting Technical Committee of China Foundry Association has been established for 10 years. Almost 90 art casting enterprises joined in the organization, not including nearly thousand enterprises of foreign capital and massive domestic workshop type. It is estimated that the scale and the output of art castings in mainland China have situated the world front row.

  2. Emotional labour strategies as mediators of the relationship between public service motivation and job satisfaction in Chinese teachers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Mingjun; Wang, Zhenhong

    2016-06-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teachers' public service motivation (PSM) and their job satisfaction levels and to investigate the mediating effects of surface acting (SA) and deep acting (DA) on that relationship. The teacher PSM scale, as well as emotional labour strategies and intrinsic satisfaction (IS) and extrinsic satisfaction (ES) scales, were administered to 317 primary and middle school teachers. Results indicated that PSM among Chinese teachers was significantly and positively related to both IS and ES. Furthermore, structural equation modelling analysis showed that SA and DA played mediating roles in the PSM-IS and PSM-ES relationships, respectively. These findings provide a new perspective that explains the mechanism underlying the association between PSM among teachers and their job satisfaction levels. Finally, the possible explanations and implications are discussed. © 2014 International Union of Psychological Science.

  3. Cross-sectional fluctuation scaling in the high-frequency illiquidity of Chinese stocks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cai, Qing; Gao, Xing-Lu; Zhou, Wei-Xing; Stanley, H. Eugene

    2018-03-01

    Taylor's law of temporal and ensemble fluctuation scaling has been ubiquitously observed in diverse complex systems including financial markets. Stock illiquidity is an important nonadditive financial quantity, which is found to comply with Taylor's temporal fluctuation scaling law. In this paper, we perform the cross-sectional analysis of the 1 min high-frequency illiquidity time series of Chinese stocks and unveil the presence of Taylor's law of ensemble fluctuation scaling. The estimated daily Taylor scaling exponent fluctuates around 1.442. We find that Taylor's scaling exponents of stock illiquidity do not relate to the ensemble mean and ensemble variety of returns. Our analysis uncovers a new scaling law of financial markets and might stimulate further investigations for a better understanding of financial markets' dynamics.

  4. Large scale structure and baryogenesis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kirilova, D.P.; Chizhov, M.V.

    2001-08-01

    We discuss a possible connection between the large scale structure formation and the baryogenesis in the universe. An update review of the observational indications for the presence of a very large scale 120h -1 Mpc in the distribution of the visible matter of the universe is provided. The possibility to generate a periodic distribution with the characteristic scale 120h -1 Mpc through a mechanism producing quasi-periodic baryon density perturbations during inflationary stage, is discussed. The evolution of the baryon charge density distribution is explored in the framework of a low temperature boson condensate baryogenesis scenario. Both the observed very large scale of a the visible matter distribution in the universe and the observed baryon asymmetry value could naturally appear as a result of the evolution of a complex scalar field condensate, formed at the inflationary stage. Moreover, for some model's parameters a natural separation of matter superclusters from antimatter ones can be achieved. (author)

  5. Automatic management software for large-scale cluster system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weng Yunjian; Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing; Sun Gongxing

    2007-01-01

    At present, the large-scale cluster system faces to the difficult management. For example the manager has large work load. It needs to cost much time on the management and the maintenance of large-scale cluster system. The nodes in large-scale cluster system are very easy to be chaotic. Thousands of nodes are put in big rooms so that some managers are very easy to make the confusion with machines. How do effectively carry on accurate management under the large-scale cluster system? The article introduces ELFms in the large-scale cluster system. Furthermore, it is proposed to realize the large-scale cluster system automatic management. (authors)

  6. Pilot study of large-scale production of mutant pigs by ENU mutagenesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hai, Tang; Cao, Chunwei; Shang, Haitao; Guo, Weiwei; Mu, Yanshuang; Yang, Shulin; Zhang, Ying; Zheng, Qiantao; Zhang, Tao; Wang, Xianlong; Liu, Yu; Kong, Qingran; Li, Kui; Wang, Dayu; Qi, Meng; Hong, Qianlong; Zhang, Rui; Wang, Xiupeng; Jia, Qitao; Wang, Xiao; Qin, Guosong; Li, Yongshun; Luo, Ailing; Jin, Weiwu; Yao, Jing; Huang, Jiaojiao; Zhang, Hongyong; Li, Menghua; Xie, Xiangmo; Zheng, Xuejuan; Guo, Kenan; Wang, Qinghua; Zhang, Shibin; Li, Liang; Xie, Fei; Zhang, Yu; Weng, Xiaogang; Yin, Zhi; Hu, Kui; Cong, Yimei; Zheng, Peng; Zou, Hailong; Xin, Leilei; Xia, Jihan; Ruan, Jinxue; Li, Hegang; Zhao, Weiming; Yuan, Jing; Liu, Zizhan; Gu, Weiwang; Li, Ming; Wang, Yong; Wang, Hongmei; Yang, Shiming; Liu, Zhonghua; Wei, Hong; Zhao, Jianguo; Zhou, Qi; Meng, Anming

    2017-06-22

    N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) mutagenesis is a powerful tool to generate mutants on a large scale efficiently, and to discover genes with novel functions at the whole-genome level in Caenorhabditis elegans, flies, zebrafish and mice, but it has never been tried in large model animals. We describe a successful systematic three-generation ENU mutagenesis screening in pigs with the establishment of the Chinese Swine Mutagenesis Consortium. A total of 6,770 G1 and 6,800 G3 pigs were screened, 36 dominant and 91 recessive novel pig families with various phenotypes were established. The causative mutations in 10 mutant families were further mapped. As examples, the mutation of SOX10 (R109W) in pig causes inner ear malfunctions and mimics human Mondini dysplasia, and upregulated expression of FBXO32 is associated with congenital splay legs. This study demonstrates the feasibility of artificial random mutagenesis in pigs and opens an avenue for generating a reservoir of mutants for agricultural production and biomedical research.

  7. Scaling in public transport networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. von Ferber

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available We analyse the statistical properties of public transport networks. These networks are defined by a set of public transport routes (bus lines and the stations serviced by these. For larger networks these appear to possess a scale-free structure, as it is demonstrated e.g. by the Zipf law distribution of the number of routes servicing a given station or for the distribution of the number of stations which can be visited from a chosen one without changing the means of transport. Moreover, a rather particular feature of the public transport network is that many routes service common subsets of stations. We discuss the possibility of new scaling laws that govern intrinsic properties of such subsets.

  8. Large Scale Landslide Database System Established for the Reservoirs in Southern Taiwan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsai, Tsai-Tsung; Tsai, Kuang-Jung; Shieh, Chjeng-Lun

    2017-04-01

    Typhoon Morakot seriously attack southern Taiwan awaken the public awareness of large scale landslide disasters. Large scale landslide disasters produce large quantity of sediment due to negative effects on the operating functions of reservoirs. In order to reduce the risk of these disasters within the study area, the establishment of a database for hazard mitigation / disaster prevention is necessary. Real time data and numerous archives of engineering data, environment information, photo, and video, will not only help people make appropriate decisions, but also bring the biggest concern for people to process and value added. The study tried to define some basic data formats / standards from collected various types of data about these reservoirs and then provide a management platform based on these formats / standards. Meanwhile, in order to satisfy the practicality and convenience, the large scale landslide disasters database system is built both provide and receive information abilities, which user can use this large scale landslide disasters database system on different type of devices. IT technology progressed extreme quick, the most modern system might be out of date anytime. In order to provide long term service, the system reserved the possibility of user define data format /standard and user define system structure. The system established by this study was based on HTML5 standard language, and use the responsive web design technology. This will make user can easily handle and develop this large scale landslide disasters database system.

  9. Social Anxiety among Chinese People.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Qianqian; Chang, Weining C

    2015-01-01

    The experience of social anxiety has largely been investigated among Western populations; much less is known about social anxiety in other cultures. Unlike the Western culture, the Chinese emphasize interdependence and harmony with social others. In addition, it is unclear if Western constructed instruments adequately capture culturally conditioned conceptualizations and manifestations of social anxiety that might be specific to the Chinese. The present study employed a sequence of qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine the assessment of social anxiety among the Chinese people. Interviews and focus group discussions with Chinese participants revealed that some items containing the experience of social anxiety among the Chinese are not present in existing Western measures. Factor analysis was employed to examine the factor structure of the more comprehensive scale. This approach revealed an "other concerned anxiety" factor that appears to be specific to the Chinese. Subsequent analysis found that the new factor-other concerned anxiety-functioned the same as other social anxiety factors in their association with risk factors of social anxiety, such as attachment, parenting, behavioral inhibition/activation, and attitude toward group. The implications of these findings for a more culturally sensitive assessment tool of social anxiety among the Chinese were discussed.

  10. Development and validation of the Chinese Version of Indiana Job Satisfaction Scale (CV-IJSS) for people with mental illness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsang, Hector W H; Wong, Alvin

    2005-06-01

    Job satisfaction has been increasingly regarded as an important outcome of vocational rehabilitation programs among people with mental illness. Chinese measures of job satisfaction for individuals with mental illness are however extremely scarce. The aim of this study was to translate the 32-item Indiana Job Satisfaction Scale to Chinese. By means of the expert panel method, the culturally relevant 28-item Chinese Version of Indiana Job Satisfaction Scale (CV-IJSS) was then finalized. A validation study among a group of 125 individuals with mental illness showed that the scale had acceptable psychometric properties. Coefficient alpha of the total score was 0.81 with subscales ranging from 0.63 to 0.87. Test re-test reliability as measured by ICC was 0.77 for the total score and ranged from 0.54 to 0.72 for the subscales. Factorial analysis yielded a four factor solution (general satisfaction, job ambiguity and stress, advancement and security, and job recognition) accounting for 44% of the total variance. The factor solution had similarities as well as differences when compared with the Indiana Job Satisfaction Scale. The differences are discussed in the light of cultural differences. Relationship between scores of CV-IJSS and work performance, quality of life and self-esteem was positive in general which may act as evidence to its concurrent validity. The Chinese Version of Indiana Job Satisfaction Scale is ready for use by rehabilitation professionals to assess vocational rehabilitation outcome for individuals with mental illness in Hong Kong and other Chinese societies. Directions for further studies are suggested.

  11. Large scale network-centric distributed systems

    CERN Document Server

    Sarbazi-Azad, Hamid

    2014-01-01

    A highly accessible reference offering a broad range of topics and insights on large scale network-centric distributed systems Evolving from the fields of high-performance computing and networking, large scale network-centric distributed systems continues to grow as one of the most important topics in computing and communication and many interdisciplinary areas. Dealing with both wired and wireless networks, this book focuses on the design and performance issues of such systems. Large Scale Network-Centric Distributed Systems provides in-depth coverage ranging from ground-level hardware issu

  12. Large-Scale Outflows in Seyfert Galaxies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colbert, E. J. M.; Baum, S. A.

    1995-12-01

    \\catcode`\\@=11 \\ialign{m @th#1hfil ##hfil \\crcr#2\\crcr\\sim\\crcr}}} \\catcode`\\@=12 Highly collimated outflows extend out to Mpc scales in many radio-loud active galaxies. In Seyfert galaxies, which are radio-quiet, the outflows extend out to kpc scales and do not appear to be as highly collimated. In order to study the nature of large-scale (>~1 kpc) outflows in Seyferts, we have conducted optical, radio and X-ray surveys of a distance-limited sample of 22 edge-on Seyfert galaxies. Results of the optical emission-line imaging and spectroscopic survey imply that large-scale outflows are present in >~{{1} /{4}} of all Seyferts. The radio (VLA) and X-ray (ROSAT) surveys show that large-scale radio and X-ray emission is present at about the same frequency. Kinetic luminosities of the outflows in Seyferts are comparable to those in starburst-driven superwinds. Large-scale radio sources in Seyferts appear diffuse, but do not resemble radio halos found in some edge-on starburst galaxies (e.g. M82). We discuss the feasibility of the outflows being powered by the active nucleus (e.g. a jet) or a circumnuclear starburst.

  13. Re-thinking china's densified biomass fuel policies: Large or small scale?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shan, Ming; Li, Dingkai; Jiang, Yi; Yang, Xudong

    2016-01-01

    Current policies and strategies related to the utilization of densified biomass fuel (DBF) in China are mainly focused on medium- or large-scale manufacturing modes, which cannot provide feasible solutions to solve the household energy problems in China's rural areas. To simplify commercial processes related to the collection of DBF feedstock and the production and utilization of fuel, a novel village-scale DBF approach is proposed. Pilot demonstration projects have shown the feasibility and flexibility of this new approach in realizing sustainable development in rural China. Effective utilization of DBF in rural China will lead to gains for global, regional, and local energy savings, environmental protection, sustainable development, and related social benefits. It could also benefit other developing countries for better utilization of biomass as a viable household energy source. This proposal therefore delivers the possibility of reciprocal gains, and as such deserves the attention of policy makers and various stakeholders. - Highlights: •A field survey of Chinese densified biomass fuel (DBF) development is conducted. •The current situation and problems related to China's DBF industry are analyzed. •A novel and viable village-scale DBF utilization mode is proposed. •Further actions are suggested to boost the utilization of DBF in rural China.

  14. How Large-Scale Research Facilities Connect to Global Research

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lauto, Giancarlo; Valentin, Finn

    2013-01-01

    Policies for large-scale research facilities (LSRFs) often highlight their spillovers to industrial innovation and their contribution to the external connectivity of the regional innovation system hosting them. Arguably, the particular institutional features of LSRFs are conducive for collaborative...... research. However, based on data on publications produced in 2006–2009 at the Neutron Science Directorate of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee (United States), we find that internationalization of its collaborative research is restrained by coordination costs similar to those characterizing other...

  15. Radiations: large scale monitoring in Japan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Linton, M.; Khalatbari, A.

    2011-01-01

    As the consequences of radioactive leaks on their health are a matter of concern for Japanese people, a large scale epidemiological study has been launched by the Fukushima medical university. It concerns the two millions inhabitants of the Fukushima Prefecture. On the national level and with the support of public funds, medical care and follow-up, as well as systematic controls are foreseen, notably to check the thyroid of 360.000 young people less than 18 year old and of 20.000 pregnant women in the Fukushima Prefecture. Some measurements have already been performed on young children. Despite the sometimes rather low measures, and because they know that some parts of the area are at least as much contaminated as it was the case around Chernobyl, some people are reluctant to go back home

  16. Large-scale Health Information Database and Privacy Protection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamamoto, Ryuichi

    2016-09-01

    Japan was once progressive in the digitalization of healthcare fields but unfortunately has fallen behind in terms of the secondary use of data for public interest. There has recently been a trend to establish large-scale health databases in the nation, and a conflict between data use for public interest and privacy protection has surfaced as this trend has progressed. Databases for health insurance claims or for specific health checkups and guidance services were created according to the law that aims to ensure healthcare for the elderly; however, there is no mention in the act about using these databases for public interest in general. Thus, an initiative for such use must proceed carefully and attentively. The PMDA projects that collect a large amount of medical record information from large hospitals and the health database development project that the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) is working on will soon begin to operate according to a general consensus; however, the validity of this consensus can be questioned if issues of anonymity arise. The likelihood that researchers conducting a study for public interest would intentionally invade the privacy of their subjects is slim. However, patients could develop a sense of distrust about their data being used since legal requirements are ambiguous. Nevertheless, without using patients' medical records for public interest, progress in medicine will grind to a halt. Proper legislation that is clear for both researchers and patients will therefore be highly desirable. A revision of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information is currently in progress. In reality, however, privacy is not something that laws alone can protect; it will also require guidelines and self-discipline. We now live in an information capitalization age. I will introduce the trends in legal reform regarding healthcare information and discuss some basics to help people properly face the issue of health big data and privacy

  17. Cost-Effective Large-Scale Occupancy-Abundance Monitoring of Invasive Brushtail Possums (Trichosurus Vulpecula on New Zealand's Public Conservation Land.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew M Gormley

    Full Text Available There is interest in large-scale and unbiased monitoring of biodiversity status and trend, but there are few published examples of such monitoring being implemented. The New Zealand Department of Conservation is implementing a monitoring program that involves sampling selected biota at the vertices of an 8-km grid superimposed over the 8.6 million hectares of public conservation land that it manages. The introduced brushtail possum (Trichosurus Vulpecula is a major threat to some biota and is one taxon that they wish to monitor and report on. A pilot study revealed that the traditional method of monitoring possums using leg-hold traps set for two nights, termed the Trap Catch Index, was a constraint on the cost and logistical feasibility of the monitoring program. A phased implementation of the monitoring program was therefore conducted to collect data for evaluating the trade-off between possum occupancy-abundance estimates and the costs of sampling for one night rather than two nights. Reducing trapping effort from two nights to one night along four trap-lines reduced the estimated costs of monitoring by 5.8% due to savings in labour, food and allowances; it had a negligible effect on estimated national possum occupancy but resulted in slightly higher and less precise estimates of relative possum abundance. Monitoring possums for one night rather than two nights would provide an annual saving of NZ$72,400, with 271 fewer field days required for sampling. Possums occupied 60% (95% credible interval; 53-68 of sampling locations on New Zealand's public conservation land, with a mean relative abundance (Trap Catch Index of 2.7% (2.0-3.5. Possum occupancy and abundance were higher in forest than in non-forest habitats. Our case study illustrates the need to evaluate relationships between sampling design, cost, and occupancy-abundance estimates when designing and implementing large-scale occupancy-abundance monitoring programs.

  18. SCALE INTERACTION IN A MIXING LAYER. THE ROLE OF THE LARGE-SCALE GRADIENTS

    KAUST Repository

    Fiscaletti, Daniele

    2015-08-23

    The interaction between scales is investigated in a turbulent mixing layer. The large-scale amplitude modulation of the small scales already observed in other works depends on the crosswise location. Large-scale positive fluctuations correlate with a stronger activity of the small scales on the low speed-side of the mixing layer, and a reduced activity on the high speed-side. However, from physical considerations we would expect the scales to interact in a qualitatively similar way within the flow and across different turbulent flows. Therefore, instead of the large-scale fluctuations, the large-scale gradients modulation of the small scales has been additionally investigated.

  19. Dissecting the large-scale galactic conformity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seo, Seongu

    2018-01-01

    Galactic conformity is an observed phenomenon that galaxies located in the same region have similar properties such as star formation rate, color, gas fraction, and so on. The conformity was first observed among galaxies within in the same halos (“one-halo conformity”). The one-halo conformity can be readily explained by mutual interactions among galaxies within a halo. Recent observations however further witnessed a puzzling connection among galaxies with no direct interaction. In particular, galaxies located within a sphere of ~5 Mpc radius tend to show similarities, even though the galaxies do not share common halos with each other ("two-halo conformity" or “large-scale conformity”). Using a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation, Illustris, we investigate the physical origin of the two-halo conformity and put forward two scenarios. First, back-splash galaxies are likely responsible for the large-scale conformity. They have evolved into red galaxies due to ram-pressure stripping in a given galaxy cluster and happen to reside now within a ~5 Mpc sphere. Second, galaxies in strong tidal field induced by large-scale structure also seem to give rise to the large-scale conformity. The strong tides suppress star formation in the galaxies. We discuss the importance of the large-scale conformity in the context of galaxy evolution.

  20. Validation of the Temporal Satisfaction with Life Scale in a Sample of Chinese University Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ye, Shengquan

    2007-01-01

    The study aims at validating the Temporal Satisfaction With Life Scale (TSWLS; Pavot et al., 1998, "The Temporal Satisfaction With Life Scale", Journal of Personality Assessment 70, pp. 340-354) in a non-western context. Data from 646 Chinese university students (330 females and 316 males) supported the three-factor structure of the…

  1. Large-scale perspective as a challenge

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Plomp, M.G.A.

    2012-01-01

    1. Scale forms a challenge for chain researchers: when exactly is something ‘large-scale’? What are the underlying factors (e.g. number of parties, data, objects in the chain, complexity) that determine this? It appears to be a continuum between small- and large-scale, where positioning on that

  2. Algorithm 896: LSA: Algorithms for Large-Scale Optimization

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Lukšan, Ladislav; Matonoha, Ctirad; Vlček, Jan

    2009-01-01

    Roč. 36, č. 3 (2009), 16-1-16-29 ISSN 0098-3500 R&D Pro jects: GA AV ČR IAA1030405; GA ČR GP201/06/P397 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10300504 Keywords : algorithms * design * large-scale optimization * large-scale nonsmooth optimization * large-scale nonlinear least squares * large-scale nonlinear minimax * large-scale systems of nonlinear equations * sparse pro blems * partially separable pro blems * limited-memory methods * discrete Newton methods * quasi-Newton methods * primal interior-point methods Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics, Operational Research Impact factor: 1.904, year: 2009

  3. Scale interactions in a mixing layer – the role of the large-scale gradients

    KAUST Repository

    Fiscaletti, D.

    2016-02-15

    © 2016 Cambridge University Press. The interaction between the large and the small scales of turbulence is investigated in a mixing layer, at a Reynolds number based on the Taylor microscale of , via direct numerical simulations. The analysis is performed in physical space, and the local vorticity root-mean-square (r.m.s.) is taken as a measure of the small-scale activity. It is found that positive large-scale velocity fluctuations correspond to large vorticity r.m.s. on the low-speed side of the mixing layer, whereas, they correspond to low vorticity r.m.s. on the high-speed side. The relationship between large and small scales thus depends on position if the vorticity r.m.s. is correlated with the large-scale velocity fluctuations. On the contrary, the correlation coefficient is nearly constant throughout the mixing layer and close to unity if the vorticity r.m.s. is correlated with the large-scale velocity gradients. Therefore, the small-scale activity appears closely related to large-scale gradients, while the correlation between the small-scale activity and the large-scale velocity fluctuations is shown to reflect a property of the large scales. Furthermore, the vorticity from unfiltered (small scales) and from low pass filtered (large scales) velocity fields tend to be aligned when examined within vortical tubes. These results provide evidence for the so-called \\'scale invariance\\' (Meneveau & Katz, Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech., vol. 32, 2000, pp. 1-32), and suggest that some of the large-scale characteristics are not lost at the small scales, at least at the Reynolds number achieved in the present simulation.

  4. Psychometric properties of the AIR Self-Determination Scale: the Chinese version (AIR SDS-C) for Chinese people with intellectual disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, P K S; Wong, D F K; Zhuang, X Y; Liu, Y

    2017-03-01

    The construct of self-determination has received considerable attention in the international field of intellectual disabilities (ID). Recently, there has been a rapid development of this construct in Chinese societies including Hong Kong. However, there is no locally validated instrument to measure self-determination in people with ID. This article explains the validation process of the AIR Self-Determination Scale - Chinese version (AIR SDS-C) adapted from the 24-item AIR Self-Determination Scale, developed by Wolman and his colleagues, which is used in school setting. People with mild/moderate ID aged 15 years or above were recruited from special schools and social services units in different regions of Hong Kong. Factor analysis and reliability tests were conducted. Data for a total of 356 participants were used for the analysis. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to test the factorial construct, and Mplus 7.0 was used for the analysis. The factor structure proposed in the original English version was supported by the data, and all factor loadings were between 0.42 and 0.76. The whole scale achieved good reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.88 and ω = 0.90). The AIR SDS-C appears to be a valid and reliable scale. This study examined adult groups as well as student groups. The application of the scale can thus be extended to a wider population. The implications for theory building and practice are discussed. © 2016 MENCAP and International Association of the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  5. Large-scale matrix-handling subroutines 'ATLAS'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tsunematsu, Toshihide; Takeda, Tatsuoki; Fujita, Keiichi; Matsuura, Toshihiko; Tahara, Nobuo

    1978-03-01

    Subroutine package ''ATLAS'' has been developed for handling large-scale matrices. The package is composed of four kinds of subroutines, i.e., basic arithmetic routines, routines for solving linear simultaneous equations and for solving general eigenvalue problems and utility routines. The subroutines are useful in large scale plasma-fluid simulations. (auth.)

  6. Large-scale solar heat

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tolonen, J.; Konttinen, P.; Lund, P. [Helsinki Univ. of Technology, Otaniemi (Finland). Dept. of Engineering Physics and Mathematics

    1998-12-31

    In this project a large domestic solar heating system was built and a solar district heating system was modelled and simulated. Objectives were to improve the performance and reduce costs of a large-scale solar heating system. As a result of the project the benefit/cost ratio can be increased by 40 % through dimensioning and optimising the system at the designing stage. (orig.)

  7. Towards large-scale plasma-assisted synthesis of nanowires

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cvelbar, U.

    2011-05-01

    Large quantities of nanomaterials, e.g. nanowires (NWs), are needed to overcome the high market price of nanomaterials and make nanotechnology widely available for general public use and applications to numerous devices. Therefore, there is an enormous need for new methods or routes for synthesis of those nanostructures. Here plasma technologies for synthesis of NWs, nanotubes, nanoparticles or other nanostructures might play a key role in the near future. This paper presents a three-dimensional problem of large-scale synthesis connected with the time, quantity and quality of nanostructures. Herein, four different plasma methods for NW synthesis are presented in contrast to other methods, e.g. thermal processes, chemical vapour deposition or wet chemical processes. The pros and cons are discussed in detail for the case of two metal oxides: iron oxide and zinc oxide NWs, which are important for many applications.

  8. Social Anxiety among Chinese People

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qianqian Fan

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The experience of social anxiety has largely been investigated among Western populations; much less is known about social anxiety in other cultures. Unlike the Western culture, the Chinese emphasize interdependence and harmony with social others. In addition, it is unclear if Western constructed instruments adequately capture culturally conditioned conceptualizations and manifestations of social anxiety that might be specific to the Chinese. The present study employed a sequence of qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine the assessment of social anxiety among the Chinese people. Interviews and focus group discussions with Chinese participants revealed that some items containing the experience of social anxiety among the Chinese are not present in existing Western measures. Factor analysis was employed to examine the factor structure of the more comprehensive scale. This approach revealed an “other concerned anxiety” factor that appears to be specific to the Chinese. Subsequent analysis found that the new factor—other concerned anxiety—functioned the same as other social anxiety factors in their association with risk factors of social anxiety, such as attachment, parenting, behavioral inhibition/activation, and attitude toward group. The implications of these findings for a more culturally sensitive assessment tool of social anxiety among the Chinese were discussed.

  9. Social Anxiety among Chinese People

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Qianqian; Chang, Weining C.

    2015-01-01

    The experience of social anxiety has largely been investigated among Western populations; much less is known about social anxiety in other cultures. Unlike the Western culture, the Chinese emphasize interdependence and harmony with social others. In addition, it is unclear if Western constructed instruments adequately capture culturally conditioned conceptualizations and manifestations of social anxiety that might be specific to the Chinese. The present study employed a sequence of qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine the assessment of social anxiety among the Chinese people. Interviews and focus group discussions with Chinese participants revealed that some items containing the experience of social anxiety among the Chinese are not present in existing Western measures. Factor analysis was employed to examine the factor structure of the more comprehensive scale. This approach revealed an “other concerned anxiety” factor that appears to be specific to the Chinese. Subsequent analysis found that the new factor—other concerned anxiety—functioned the same as other social anxiety factors in their association with risk factors of social anxiety, such as attachment, parenting, behavioral inhibition/activation, and attitude toward group. The implications of these findings for a more culturally sensitive assessment tool of social anxiety among the Chinese were discussed. PMID:26380367

  10. Parameter estimation in large-scale systems biology models: a parallel and self-adaptive cooperative strategy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Penas, David R; González, Patricia; Egea, Jose A; Doallo, Ramón; Banga, Julio R

    2017-01-21

    The development of large-scale kinetic models is one of the current key issues in computational systems biology and bioinformatics. Here we consider the problem of parameter estimation in nonlinear dynamic models. Global optimization methods can be used to solve this type of problems but the associated computational cost is very large. Moreover, many of these methods need the tuning of a number of adjustable search parameters, requiring a number of initial exploratory runs and therefore further increasing the computation times. Here we present a novel parallel method, self-adaptive cooperative enhanced scatter search (saCeSS), to accelerate the solution of this class of problems. The method is based on the scatter search optimization metaheuristic and incorporates several key new mechanisms: (i) asynchronous cooperation between parallel processes, (ii) coarse and fine-grained parallelism, and (iii) self-tuning strategies. The performance and robustness of saCeSS is illustrated by solving a set of challenging parameter estimation problems, including medium and large-scale kinetic models of the bacterium E. coli, bakerés yeast S. cerevisiae, the vinegar fly D. melanogaster, Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, and a generic signal transduction network. The results consistently show that saCeSS is a robust and efficient method, allowing very significant reduction of computation times with respect to several previous state of the art methods (from days to minutes, in several cases) even when only a small number of processors is used. The new parallel cooperative method presented here allows the solution of medium and large scale parameter estimation problems in reasonable computation times and with small hardware requirements. Further, the method includes self-tuning mechanisms which facilitate its use by non-experts. We believe that this new method can play a key role in the development of large-scale and even whole-cell dynamic models.

  11. Probes of large-scale structure in the Universe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suto, Yasushi; Gorski, K.; Juszkiewicz, R.; Silk, J.

    1988-01-01

    Recent progress in observational techniques has made it possible to confront quantitatively various models for the large-scale structure of the Universe with detailed observational data. We develop a general formalism to show that the gravitational instability theory for the origin of large-scale structure is now capable of critically confronting observational results on cosmic microwave background radiation angular anisotropies, large-scale bulk motions and large-scale clumpiness in the galaxy counts. (author)

  12. Testing the psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the level of expressed emotion scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chien, Wai Tong; Chan, Zenobia Chung-Yee; Chan, Sally Wai-Chi

    2014-01-01

    This study tested the psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the level of expressed emotion scale in Hong Kong Chinese patients with severe mental illness and their family caregivers. First, the semantic equivalence with the original English version and test-retest reliability at 2-week interval of the Chinese version was examined. After that, the reproducibility, construct validity, and internal consistency of the Chinese version were tested. The Chinese version indicated good semantic equivalence with the English version (kappa values = 0.76-0.95 and ICC = 0.81-0.92), test-retest reliability (r = 0.89-0.95, P Chinese version had substantial loadings on one of the four factors identified (intrusiveness/hostility, attitude towards patient, tolerance, and emotional involvement), accounting for 71.8% of the total variance of expressed emotion. In confirmatory factor analysis, the identified four-factor model showed the best fit based on all fit indices (χ (2)/df = 1.93, P = 0.75; AGFI = 0.96; TLI = 1.02; RMSEA = 0.031; WRMR = 0.78) to the collected data. The four-factor Chinese version also indicated a good concurrent validity with significant correlations with family functioning (r = -0.54) and family burden (r = 0.49) and a satisfactory reproducibility over six months (intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.90). The mean scores of the overall and subscale of the Chinese version in patients with unipolar disorder were higher than in other illness groups (schizophrenia, psychotic disorders, and bipolar disorder; P Chinese version demonstrates sound psychometric properties to measure families' expressed emotion in Chinese patients with severe mental illness, which are found varied across countries.

  13. Large-scale grid management; Storskala Nettforvaltning

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Langdal, Bjoern Inge; Eggen, Arnt Ove

    2003-07-01

    The network companies in the Norwegian electricity industry now have to establish a large-scale network management, a concept essentially characterized by (1) broader focus (Broad Band, Multi Utility,...) and (2) bigger units with large networks and more customers. Research done by SINTEF Energy Research shows so far that the approaches within large-scale network management may be structured according to three main challenges: centralization, decentralization and out sourcing. The article is part of a planned series.

  14. Japanese large-scale interferometers

    CERN Document Server

    Kuroda, K; Miyoki, S; Ishizuka, H; Taylor, C T; Yamamoto, K; Miyakawa, O; Fujimoto, M K; Kawamura, S; Takahashi, R; Yamazaki, T; Arai, K; Tatsumi, D; Ueda, A; Fukushima, M; Sato, S; Shintomi, T; Yamamoto, A; Suzuki, T; Saitô, Y; Haruyama, T; Sato, N; Higashi, Y; Uchiyama, T; Tomaru, T; Tsubono, K; Ando, M; Takamori, A; Numata, K; Ueda, K I; Yoneda, H; Nakagawa, K; Musha, M; Mio, N; Moriwaki, S; Somiya, K; Araya, A; Kanda, N; Telada, S; Sasaki, M; Tagoshi, H; Nakamura, T; Tanaka, T; Ohara, K

    2002-01-01

    The objective of the TAMA 300 interferometer was to develop advanced technologies for kilometre scale interferometers and to observe gravitational wave events in nearby galaxies. It was designed as a power-recycled Fabry-Perot-Michelson interferometer and was intended as a step towards a final interferometer in Japan. The present successful status of TAMA is presented. TAMA forms a basis for LCGT (large-scale cryogenic gravitational wave telescope), a 3 km scale cryogenic interferometer to be built in the Kamioka mine in Japan, implementing cryogenic mirror techniques. The plan of LCGT is schematically described along with its associated R and D.

  15. The Political Ecology of Chinese Large Dams in Cambodia: Implications, Challenges and Lessons Learnt from the Kamchay Dam

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giuseppina Siciliano

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Given the opportunities offered by foreign investment in energy infrastructure mostly by Chinese firms, the Government of Cambodia is giving high priority to developing hydropower resources for reducing energy poverty and powering economic growth. Using a “Political ecology of the Asian drivers” framework, this paper assesses China’s involvement in the development of large dams’ in Cambodia and its impacts on the access of natural resources such as water and energy by dam builders, local communities and the government. This analysis is based on 61 interviews and 10 focus group discussions with affected communities, institutional actors, Chinese dam builders and financiers in relation to the first large Chinese dam built in Cambodia: the Kamchay dam. Based on the results of the analysis this paper makes recommendations on how to improve the planning, implementation and governance of future large dams in Cambodia.

  16. What Will the Neighbors Think? Building Large-Scale Science Projects Around the World

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, Craig; Mrotzek, Christian; Toge, Nobu; Sarno, Doug

    2007-01-01

    Public participation is an essential ingredient for turning the International Linear Collider into a reality. Wherever the proposed particle accelerator is sited in the world, its neighbors -- in any country -- will have something to say about hosting a 35-kilometer-long collider in their backyards. When it comes to building large-scale physics projects, almost every laboratory has a story to tell. Three case studies from Japan, Germany and the US will be presented to examine how community relations are handled in different parts of the world. How do particle physics laboratories interact with their local communities? How do neighbors react to building large-scale projects in each region? How can the lessons learned from past experiences help in building the next big project? These and other questions will be discussed to engage the audience in an active dialogue about how a large-scale project like the ILC can be a good neighbor.

  17. Public sector employment, relative deprivation and happiness in adult urban Chinese employees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Anning

    2013-09-01

    The decline in perceived happiness within economic prosperity in Chinese society calls for further examination. In this research, we investigate the effect of employment in public sector work units on perceived happiness through the mediation of economic and social status relative deprivations. In the reform era of China, work unit is still an important mechanism maintaining social inequality, and those working in government/Communist Party agencies and public institutions have advantages of getting access to high wage, comprehensive welfare and the manipulation of administrative public power. Such economic and social status advantages are expected to reduce their relative deprivation and further promote their perceived happiness. Using a nationwide survey data conducted in 2006, we find working in public sector can significantly reduce the odds of experiencing economic relative deprivation, which is further contributive to the improvement of subjective wellbeing.

  18. Large scale model testing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brumovsky, M.; Filip, R.; Polachova, H.; Stepanek, S.

    1989-01-01

    Fracture mechanics and fatigue calculations for WWER reactor pressure vessels were checked by large scale model testing performed using large testing machine ZZ 8000 (with a maximum load of 80 MN) at the SKODA WORKS. The results are described from testing the material resistance to fracture (non-ductile). The testing included the base materials and welded joints. The rated specimen thickness was 150 mm with defects of a depth between 15 and 100 mm. The results are also presented of nozzles of 850 mm inner diameter in a scale of 1:3; static, cyclic, and dynamic tests were performed without and with surface defects (15, 30 and 45 mm deep). During cyclic tests the crack growth rate in the elastic-plastic region was also determined. (author). 6 figs., 2 tabs., 5 refs

  19. Why small-scale cannabis growers stay small: five mechanisms that prevent small-scale growers from going large scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammersvik, Eirik; Sandberg, Sveinung; Pedersen, Willy

    2012-11-01

    Over the past 15-20 years, domestic cultivation of cannabis has been established in a number of European countries. New techniques have made such cultivation easier; however, the bulk of growers remain small-scale. In this study, we explore the factors that prevent small-scale growers from increasing their production. The study is based on 1 year of ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews conducted with 45 Norwegian cannabis growers, 10 of whom were growing on a large-scale and 35 on a small-scale. The study identifies five mechanisms that prevent small-scale indoor growers from going large-scale. First, large-scale operations involve a number of people, large sums of money, a high work-load and a high risk of detection, and thus demand a higher level of organizational skills than for small growing operations. Second, financial assets are needed to start a large 'grow-site'. Housing rent, electricity, equipment and nutrients are expensive. Third, to be able to sell large quantities of cannabis, growers need access to an illegal distribution network and knowledge of how to act according to black market norms and structures. Fourth, large-scale operations require advanced horticultural skills to maximize yield and quality, which demands greater skills and knowledge than does small-scale cultivation. Fifth, small-scale growers are often embedded in the 'cannabis culture', which emphasizes anti-commercialism, anti-violence and ecological and community values. Hence, starting up large-scale production will imply having to renegotiate or abandon these values. Going from small- to large-scale cannabis production is a demanding task-ideologically, technically, economically and personally. The many obstacles that small-scale growers face and the lack of interest and motivation for going large-scale suggest that the risk of a 'slippery slope' from small-scale to large-scale growing is limited. Possible political implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright

  20. Distributed large-scale dimensional metrology new insights

    CERN Document Server

    Franceschini, Fiorenzo; Maisano, Domenico

    2011-01-01

    Focuses on the latest insights into and challenges of distributed large scale dimensional metrology Enables practitioners to study distributed large scale dimensional metrology independently Includes specific examples of the development of new system prototypes

  1. HiQuant: Rapid Postquantification Analysis of Large-Scale MS-Generated Proteomics Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bryan, Kenneth; Jarboui, Mohamed-Ali; Raso, Cinzia; Bernal-Llinares, Manuel; McCann, Brendan; Rauch, Jens; Boldt, Karsten; Lynn, David J

    2016-06-03

    Recent advances in mass-spectrometry-based proteomics are now facilitating ambitious large-scale investigations of the spatial and temporal dynamics of the proteome; however, the increasing size and complexity of these data sets is overwhelming current downstream computational methods, specifically those that support the postquantification analysis pipeline. Here we present HiQuant, a novel application that enables the design and execution of a postquantification workflow, including common data-processing steps, such as assay normalization and grouping, and experimental replicate quality control and statistical analysis. HiQuant also enables the interpretation of results generated from large-scale data sets by supporting interactive heatmap analysis and also the direct export to Cytoscape and Gephi, two leading network analysis platforms. HiQuant may be run via a user-friendly graphical interface and also supports complete one-touch automation via a command-line mode. We evaluate HiQuant's performance by analyzing a large-scale, complex interactome mapping data set and demonstrate a 200-fold improvement in the execution time over current methods. We also demonstrate HiQuant's general utility by analyzing proteome-wide quantification data generated from both a large-scale public tyrosine kinase siRNA knock-down study and an in-house investigation into the temporal dynamics of the KSR1 and KSR2 interactomes. Download HiQuant, sample data sets, and supporting documentation at http://hiquant.primesdb.eu .

  2. Testing the Psychometric Properties of a Chinese Version of the Level of Expressed Emotion Scale

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wai Tong Chien

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This study tested the psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the level of expressed emotion scale in Hong Kong Chinese patients with severe mental illness and their family caregivers. First, the semantic equivalence with the original English version and test-retest reliability at 2-week interval of the Chinese version was examined. After that, the reproducibility, construct validity, and internal consistency of the Chinese version were tested. The Chinese version indicated good semantic equivalence with the English version (kappa values = 0.76–0.95 and ICC = 0.81–0.92, test-retest reliability (r = 0.89–0.95, P<0.01, and internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.86–0.92. Among 262 patients with severe mental illness and their caregivers, the 50-item Chinese version had substantial loadings on one of the four factors identified (intrusiveness/hostility, attitude towards patient, tolerance, and emotional involvement, accounting for 71.8% of the total variance of expressed emotion. In confirmatory factor analysis, the identified four-factor model showed the best fit based on all fit indices (χ2/df = 1.93, P=0.75; AGFI = 0.96; TLI = 1.02; RMSEA = 0.031; WRMR = 0.78 to the collected data. The four-factor Chinese version also indicated a good concurrent validity with significant correlations with family functioning (r = −0.54 and family burden (r = 0.49 and a satisfactory reproducibility over six months (intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.90. The mean scores of the overall and subscale of the Chinese version in patients with unipolar disorder were higher than in other illness groups (schizophrenia, psychotic disorders, and bipolar disorder; P<0.01. The Chinese version demonstrates sound psychometric properties to measure families’ expressed emotion in Chinese patients with severe mental illness, which are found varied across countries.

  3. Large-Scale Survey of Chinese Precollege Students' Epistemological Beliefs about Physics: A Progression or a Regression?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Ping; Ding, Lin

    2013-01-01

    This paper reports a cross-grade comparative study of Chinese precollege students' epistemological beliefs about physics by using the Colorado Learning Attitudes Survey about Sciences (CLASS). Our students of interest are middle and high schoolers taking traditional lecture-based physics as a mandatory science course each year from the 8th grade…

  4. Large-Scale Astrophysical Visualization on Smartphones

    Science.gov (United States)

    Becciani, U.; Massimino, P.; Costa, A.; Gheller, C.; Grillo, A.; Krokos, M.; Petta, C.

    2011-07-01

    Nowadays digital sky surveys and long-duration, high-resolution numerical simulations using high performance computing and grid systems produce multidimensional astrophysical datasets in the order of several Petabytes. Sharing visualizations of such datasets within communities and collaborating research groups is of paramount importance for disseminating results and advancing astrophysical research. Moreover educational and public outreach programs can benefit greatly from novel ways of presenting these datasets by promoting understanding of complex astrophysical processes, e.g., formation of stars and galaxies. We have previously developed VisIVO Server, a grid-enabled platform for high-performance large-scale astrophysical visualization. This article reviews the latest developments on VisIVO Web, a custom designed web portal wrapped around VisIVO Server, then introduces VisIVO Smartphone, a gateway connecting VisIVO Web and data repositories for mobile astrophysical visualization. We discuss current work and summarize future developments.

  5. SCALE INTERACTION IN A MIXING LAYER. THE ROLE OF THE LARGE-SCALE GRADIENTS

    KAUST Repository

    Fiscaletti, Daniele; Attili, Antonio; Bisetti, Fabrizio; Elsinga, Gerrit E.

    2015-01-01

    from physical considerations we would expect the scales to interact in a qualitatively similar way within the flow and across different turbulent flows. Therefore, instead of the large-scale fluctuations, the large-scale gradients modulation of the small scales has been additionally investigated.

  6. U.S.-Based Short-Term Public Health Cultural Immersion Experience for Chinese Undergraduate Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Powell, Dorothy Lewis; Biederman, Donna J.

    2017-01-01

    A U.S. and Chinese university developed a short-term student exchange program in public/community health. The program--which consisted of lectures, seminars, field trips, cross-cultural experiences, and a synthesis excursion--resulted in high levels of program satisfaction, increased intrapersonal awareness, and skill acquisition. Program content…

  7. Fortification of Indonesian unbranded vegetable oil: public-private initiative, from pilot to large scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soekirman; Soekarjo, Damayanti; Martianto, Drajat; Laillou, Arnaud; Moench-Pfanner, Regina

    2012-12-01

    Despite improved economic conditions, vitamin A deficiency remains a public health problem in Indonesia. This paper aims to describe the development of the Indonesian unbranded cooking oil fortification program and to discuss lessons learned to date and future steps necessary for implementation of mandatory, large-scale oil fortification with vitamin A. An historic overview of the steps involved in developing the Indonesian unbranded cooking oil fortification program is given, followed by a discussion of lessons learned and next steps needed. Indonesia's low-income groups generally consume unbranded vegetable oil, with an average consumption of approximately 25 g/day. Unbranded oil constitutes approximately 70% of the total oil traded in the country. In 2007-10, a pilot project to fortify unbranded vegetable oil was carried out in Makassar, and an effectiveness study found that the project significantly improved the serum retinol concentrations of schoolchildren. In 2010, the pilot was expanded to two provinces (West Java and North Sumatra) involving the biggest two national refineries. In 2011, a draft national standard for fortified oil was developed, which is currently under review by the National Standard Body and is expected to be mandated nationally in 2013 as announced officially by the Government of Indonesia in national and international meetings. Indonesia is a leading world supplier of cooking oil. With stakeholder support, the groundwork has been laid and efforts are moving forward to implement mandatory fortification. This project could encourage Indonesian industry to fortify more edible oils for export, thus expanding their market potential and potentially reducing vitamin A deficiency in the region.

  8. Large-scale Health Information Database and Privacy Protection*1

    Science.gov (United States)

    YAMAMOTO, Ryuichi

    2016-01-01

    Japan was once progressive in the digitalization of healthcare fields but unfortunately has fallen behind in terms of the secondary use of data for public interest. There has recently been a trend to establish large-scale health databases in the nation, and a conflict between data use for public interest and privacy protection has surfaced as this trend has progressed. Databases for health insurance claims or for specific health checkups and guidance services were created according to the law that aims to ensure healthcare for the elderly; however, there is no mention in the act about using these databases for public interest in general. Thus, an initiative for such use must proceed carefully and attentively. The PMDA*2 projects that collect a large amount of medical record information from large hospitals and the health database development project that the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) is working on will soon begin to operate according to a general consensus; however, the validity of this consensus can be questioned if issues of anonymity arise. The likelihood that researchers conducting a study for public interest would intentionally invade the privacy of their subjects is slim. However, patients could develop a sense of distrust about their data being used since legal requirements are ambiguous. Nevertheless, without using patients’ medical records for public interest, progress in medicine will grind to a halt. Proper legislation that is clear for both researchers and patients will therefore be highly desirable. A revision of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information is currently in progress. In reality, however, privacy is not something that laws alone can protect; it will also require guidelines and self-discipline. We now live in an information capitalization age. I will introduce the trends in legal reform regarding healthcare information and discuss some basics to help people properly face the issue of health big data and privacy

  9. Trends in large-scale testing of reactor structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blejwas, T.E.

    2003-01-01

    Large-scale tests of reactor structures have been conducted at Sandia National Laboratories since the late 1970s. This paper describes a number of different large-scale impact tests, pressurization tests of models of containment structures, and thermal-pressure tests of models of reactor pressure vessels. The advantages of large-scale testing are evident, but cost, in particular limits its use. As computer models have grown in size, such as number of degrees of freedom, the advent of computer graphics has made possible very realistic representation of results - results that may not accurately represent reality. A necessary condition to avoiding this pitfall is the validation of the analytical methods and underlying physical representations. Ironically, the immensely larger computer models sometimes increase the need for large-scale testing, because the modeling is applied to increasing more complex structural systems and/or more complex physical phenomena. Unfortunately, the cost of large-scale tests is a disadvantage that will likely severely limit similar testing in the future. International collaborations may provide the best mechanism for funding future programs with large-scale tests. (author)

  10. Measuring Public Leadership: Developing Scales for Four Key Public Leadership Roles

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tummers, Lars; Knies, Eva|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/313875421

    2016-01-01

    This article on public leadership contributes to the literature by (1) focusing on the ‘public’ aspect of leadership and (2) developing quantitative scales for measuring four public leadership roles. These roles all refer to the extent to which public leaders actively support their employees in

  11. Short Form of Weinstein Noise Sensitivity Scale (NSS-SF): Reliability, Validity and Gender Invariance among Chinese Individuals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhong, Tao; Chung, Pak-Kwong; Liu, Jing Dong

    2018-02-01

    Independent from noise exposure, noise sensitivity plays a pivotal role in people's noise annoyance perception and concomitant health deteriorations. The present study empirically investigated the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Weinstein Noise Sensitivity Scale-Short Form (CNSS-SF), the widely used inventory measuring individual differences in noise perception. In total, 373 Chinese participants (age = 21.41 ± 3.36) completed the online, anonymous questionnaire package. Examination of the CNSS-SF's reliability (internal consistency), factorial validity through validation and cross-validation, nomological validity and measurement invariance across gender groups were undertaken. The Cronbach alpha coefficients and composite reliabilities indicated sufficient reliability of the CNSS-SF. Two confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), in two randomly partitioned groups of participants, substantiated the factorial validity of the scale. The nomological validity of the scale was also corroborated by the significant positive association of its score with the trait anxiety score. Measurement invariance of the CNSS-SF was also found across genders via multi-group CFA. Though not without limitations, findings from the present research provide promising evidence for the utility of the scale in measuring noise sensitivity among the Chinese population. The availability of the CNSS-SF can promote research related to environmental noise and health in China, as well as facilitate cross-cultural comparisons. Copyright © 2018 The Editorial Board of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences. Published by China CDC. All rights reserved.

  12. Validation of the Chinese version of functional assessment of anorexia-cachexia therapy (FAACT) scale for measuring quality of life in cancer patients with cachexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Ting; Yang, Kaixiang; Thapa, Sudip; Fu, Qiang; Jiang, Yongsheng; Yu, Shiying

    2017-04-01

    The assessment of quality of life (QOL) is an important part of cachexia management for cancer patients. Functional assessment of anorexia-cachexia therapy (FAACT), a specific QOL instrument for cachexia patients, has not been validated in Chinese population. The aim of this study was to validate the FAACT scale in Chinese cancer patients for its future use. Eligible cancer patients were included in our study. Patients' demographic and clinical characteristics were collected from the electronic medical records. Patients were asked to complete the Chinese version of FAACT scale and the MD Anderson symptom inventory (MDASI), and then the reliability and validity were analyzed. A total of 285 patients were enrolled in our study, data of 241 patients were evaluated. Coefficients of Cronbach's alpha, test-retest and split-half analyses were all greater than 0.8, which indicated an excellent reliability for FAACT scale. In item-subscale correlation analysis and factor analysis, good construct validity for FAACT scale was found. The correlation between FAACT and MDASI interference subscale showed reasonable criterion-related validity, and for further clinical validation, the FAACT scale showed excellent discriminative validity for distinguishing patients in different cachexia status and in different performance status. The Chinese version of FAACT scale has good reliability and validity and is suitable for measuring QOL of cachexia patients in Chinese population.

  13. Innovation Processes in Large-Scale Public Foodservice-Case Findings from the Implementation of Organic Foods in a Danish County

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mikkelsen, Bent Egberg; Nielsen, Thorkild; Kristensen, Niels Heine

    2005-01-01

    is the idea that the large-scale foodservice such as hospital food service should adopt a buy organic policy due to their large buying volume. But whereas implementation of organic foods has developed quite unproblematically in smaller institutions such as kindergartens and nurseries, introduction of organic...... foods into large-scale foodservice such as that taking place in hospitals and larger homes for the elderly, has proven to be quite difficult. The very complex planning, procurement and processing procedures used in such facilities are among reasons for this. Against this background an evaluation...

  14. Large Scale Computations in Air Pollution Modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zlatev, Z.; Brandt, J.; Builtjes, P. J. H.

    Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Large Scale Computations in Air Pollution Modelling, Sofia, Bulgaria, 6-10 July 1998......Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Large Scale Computations in Air Pollution Modelling, Sofia, Bulgaria, 6-10 July 1998...

  15. Large-Scale 3D Printing: The Way Forward

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jassmi, Hamad Al; Najjar, Fady Al; Ismail Mourad, Abdel-Hamid

    2018-03-01

    Research on small-scale 3D printing has rapidly evolved, where numerous industrial products have been tested and successfully applied. Nonetheless, research on large-scale 3D printing, directed to large-scale applications such as construction and automotive manufacturing, yet demands a great a great deal of efforts. Large-scale 3D printing is considered an interdisciplinary topic and requires establishing a blended knowledge base from numerous research fields including structural engineering, materials science, mechatronics, software engineering, artificial intelligence and architectural engineering. This review article summarizes key topics of relevance to new research trends on large-scale 3D printing, particularly pertaining (1) technological solutions of additive construction (i.e. the 3D printers themselves), (2) materials science challenges, and (3) new design opportunities.

  16. Prevalence and correlates of problematic smartphone use in a large random sample of Chinese undergraduates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Long, Jiang; Liu, Tie-Qiao; Liao, Yan-Hui; Qi, Chang; He, Hao-Yu; Chen, Shu-Bao; Billieux, Joël

    2016-11-17

    Smartphones are becoming a daily necessity for most undergraduates in Mainland China. Because the present scenario of problematic smartphone use (PSU) is largely unexplored, in the current study we aimed to estimate the prevalence of PSU and to screen suitable predictors for PSU among Chinese undergraduates in the framework of the stress-coping theory. A sample of 1062 undergraduate smartphone users was recruited by means of the stratified cluster random sampling strategy between April and May 2015. The Problematic Cellular Phone Use Questionnaire was used to identify PSU. We evaluated five candidate risk factors for PSU by using logistic regression analysis while controlling for demographic characteristics and specific features of smartphone use. The prevalence of PSU among Chinese undergraduates was estimated to be 21.3%. The risk factors for PSU were majoring in the humanities, high monthly income from the family (≥1500 RMB), serious emotional symptoms, high perceived stress, and perfectionism-related factors (high doubts about actions, high parental expectations). PSU among undergraduates appears to be ubiquitous and thus constitutes a public health issue in Mainland China. Although further longitudinal studies are required to test whether PSU is a transient phenomenon or a chronic and progressive condition, our study successfully identified socio-demographic and psychological risk factors for PSU. These results, obtained from a random and thus representative sample of undergraduates, opens up new avenues in terms of prevention and regulation policies.

  17. Measuring engagement at work: validation of the Chinese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fong, Ted Chun-tat; Ng, Siu-man

    2012-09-01

    Work engagement is a positive work-related state of fulfillment characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. Previous studies have operationalized the construct through development of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Apart from the original three-factor 17-item version of the instrument (UWES-17), there exists a nine-item shortened revised version (UWES-9). The current study explored the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale in terms of factorial validity, scale reliability, descriptive statistics, and construct validity. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in 2009 among 992 workers from over 30 elderly service units in Hong Kong. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed a better fit for the three-factor model of the UWES-9 than the UWES-17 and the one-factor model of the UWES-9. The three factors showed acceptable internal consistency and strong correlations with factors in the original versions. Engagement was negatively associated with perceived stress and burnout while positively with age and holistic care climate. The UWES-9 demonstrates adequate psychometric properties, supporting its use in future research in the Chinese context.

  18. Growth Limits in Large Scale Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Knudsen, Thomas Phillip

    limitations. The rising complexity of network management with the convergence of communications platforms is shown as problematic for both automatic management feasibility and for manpower resource management. In the fourth step the scope is extended to include the present society with the DDN project as its......The Subject of large scale networks is approached from the perspective of the network planner. An analysis of the long term planning problems is presented with the main focus on the changing requirements for large scale networks and the potential problems in meeting these requirements. The problems...... the fundamental technological resources in network technologies are analysed for scalability. Here several technological limits to continued growth are presented. The third step involves a survey of major problems in managing large scale networks given the growth of user requirements and the technological...

  19. Accelerating sustainability in large-scale facilities

    CERN Multimedia

    Marina Giampietro

    2011-01-01

    Scientific research centres and large-scale facilities are intrinsically energy intensive, but how can big science improve its energy management and eventually contribute to the environmental cause with new cleantech? CERN’s commitment to providing tangible answers to these questions was sealed in the first workshop on energy management for large scale scientific infrastructures held in Lund, Sweden, on the 13-14 October.   Participants at the energy management for large scale scientific infrastructures workshop. The workshop, co-organised with the European Spallation Source (ESS) and  the European Association of National Research Facilities (ERF), tackled a recognised need for addressing energy issues in relation with science and technology policies. It brought together more than 150 representatives of Research Infrastrutures (RIs) and energy experts from Europe and North America. “Without compromising our scientific projects, we can ...

  20. Open TG-GATEs: a large-scale toxicogenomics database

    Science.gov (United States)

    Igarashi, Yoshinobu; Nakatsu, Noriyuki; Yamashita, Tomoya; Ono, Atsushi; Ohno, Yasuo; Urushidani, Tetsuro; Yamada, Hiroshi

    2015-01-01

    Toxicogenomics focuses on assessing the safety of compounds using gene expression profiles. Gene expression signatures from large toxicogenomics databases are expected to perform better than small databases in identifying biomarkers for the prediction and evaluation of drug safety based on a compound's toxicological mechanisms in animal target organs. Over the past 10 years, the Japanese Toxicogenomics Project consortium (TGP) has been developing a large-scale toxicogenomics database consisting of data from 170 compounds (mostly drugs) with the aim of improving and enhancing drug safety assessment. Most of the data generated by the project (e.g. gene expression, pathology, lot number) are freely available to the public via Open TG-GATEs (Toxicogenomics Project-Genomics Assisted Toxicity Evaluation System). Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of the database, including both gene expression data and metadata, with a description of experimental conditions and procedures used to generate the database. Open TG-GATEs is available from http://toxico.nibio.go.jp/english/index.html. PMID:25313160

  1. Large scale reflood test

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hirano, Kemmei; Murao, Yoshio

    1980-01-01

    The large-scale reflood test with a view to ensuring the safety of light water reactors was started in fiscal 1976 based on the special account act for power source development promotion measures by the entrustment from the Science and Technology Agency. Thereafter, to establish the safety of PWRs in loss-of-coolant accidents by joint international efforts, the Japan-West Germany-U.S. research cooperation program was started in April, 1980. Thereupon, the large-scale reflood test is now included in this program. It consists of two tests using a cylindrical core testing apparatus for examining the overall system effect and a plate core testing apparatus for testing individual effects. Each apparatus is composed of the mock-ups of pressure vessel, primary loop, containment vessel and ECCS. The testing method, the test results and the research cooperation program are described. (J.P.N.)

  2. 78 FR 70076 - Large Scale Networking (LSN)-Middleware and Grid Interagency Coordination (MAGIC) Team

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-11-22

    ... projects. The MAGIC Team reports to the Large Scale Networking (LSN) Coordinating Group (CG). Public... Coordination (MAGIC) Team AGENCY: The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD... MAGIC Team meetings are held on the first Wednesday of each month, 2:00-4:00 p.m., at the National...

  3. Challenge of material recycling at large public events

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pivnenko, Kostyantyn; Edjabou, Maklawe Essonanawe; Boldrin, Alessio

    2017-01-01

    infrastructure. Sound waste management is one of the challenges. Some preliminary results presented here, concern waste material flows at a large public event, illustrated on the example of Roskilde Festival (Denmark). Roskilde Festival is a large annual event, which attracts more than 120,000 participants......Large public events such as festivals, sports events or national celebrations tend to attract a considerable number of people. While some of the events are important sources of entertainment for the participants, such gatherings create a challenge to organize and maintain a functioning...... recycling at the festival have been implemented, our preliminary results suggest that there is currently large potential to recover additional materials for recycling and improve sustainability at large public events....

  4. Large Scale Cosmological Anomalies and Inhomogeneous Dark Energy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leandros Perivolaropoulos

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available A wide range of large scale observations hint towards possible modifications on the standard cosmological model which is based on a homogeneous and isotropic universe with a small cosmological constant and matter. These observations, also known as “cosmic anomalies” include unexpected Cosmic Microwave Background perturbations on large angular scales, large dipolar peculiar velocity flows of galaxies (“bulk flows”, the measurement of inhomogenous values of the fine structure constant on cosmological scales (“alpha dipole” and other effects. The presence of the observational anomalies could either be a large statistical fluctuation in the context of ΛCDM or it could indicate a non-trivial departure from the cosmological principle on Hubble scales. Such a departure is very much constrained by cosmological observations for matter. For dark energy however there are no significant observational constraints for Hubble scale inhomogeneities. In this brief review I discuss some of the theoretical models that can naturally lead to inhomogeneous dark energy, their observational constraints and their potential to explain the large scale cosmic anomalies.

  5. Large-scale patterns in Rayleigh-Benard convection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hardenberg, J. von; Parodi, A.; Passoni, G.; Provenzale, A.; Spiegel, E.A.

    2008-01-01

    Rayleigh-Benard convection at large Rayleigh number is characterized by the presence of intense, vertically moving plumes. Both laboratory and numerical experiments reveal that the rising and descending plumes aggregate into separate clusters so as to produce large-scale updrafts and downdrafts. The horizontal scales of the aggregates reported so far have been comparable to the horizontal extent of the containers, but it has not been clear whether that represents a limitation imposed by domain size. In this work, we present numerical simulations of convection at sufficiently large aspect ratio to ascertain whether there is an intrinsic saturation scale for the clustering process when that ratio is large enough. From a series of simulations of Rayleigh-Benard convection with Rayleigh numbers between 10 5 and 10 8 and with aspect ratios up to 12π, we conclude that the clustering process has a finite horizontal saturation scale with at most a weak dependence on Rayleigh number in the range studied

  6. Rogue AP Detection in the Wireless LAN for Large Scale Deployment

    OpenAIRE

    Sang-Eon Kim; Byung-Soo Chang; Sang Hong Lee; Dae Young Kim

    2006-01-01

    The wireless LAN standard, also known as WiFi, has begun to use commercial purposes. This paper describes access network architecture of wireless LAN for large scale deployment to provide public service. A metro Ethernet and digital subscriber line access network can be used for wireless LAN with access point. In this network architecture, access point plays interface between wireless node and network infrastructure. It is important to maintain access point without any failure and problems to...

  7. Architecture for large-scale automatic web accessibility evaluation based on the UWEM methodology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ulltveit-Moe, Nils; Olsen, Morten Goodwin; Pillai, Anand B.

    2008-01-01

    The European Internet Accessibility project (EIAO) has developed an Observatory for performing large scale automatic web accessibility evaluations of public sector web sites in Europe. The architecture includes a distributed web crawler that crawls web sites for links until either a given budget...... of web pages have been identified or the web site has been crawled exhaustively. Subsequently, a uniform random subset of the crawled web pages is sampled and sent for accessibility evaluation and the evaluation results are stored in a Resource Description Format (RDF) database that is later loaded...... challenges that the project faced and the solutions developed towards building a system capable of regular large-scale accessibility evaluations with sufficient capacity and stability. It also outlines some possible future architectural improvements....

  8. Evaluation of using the Chinese version of the Spirituality Index of Well-Being (SIWB) scale in Taiwanese elders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Yi-Hui; Salman, Ali

    2016-11-01

    Spirituality and spiritual well-being have emerged as important indicators for one's quality of life and health outcomes. Nursing as a profession is concerned with a holistic approach to improve health and overall well-being. To evaluate the outcomes of holistic nursing interventions, using valid and reliable instruments to assess spiritual well-being becomes necessary. There is a lack of instruments for measuring spiritual well-being in Chinese populations. Little has been known about the feasibility of using the Spirituality Index of Well-Being (SIWB) in Taiwanese elders. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the uses of the translated Chinese version of the Spirituality Index of Well-Being (SIWB-C) with Taiwanese elders. A total of 150 individual who were 65 years old or older and living in southern Taiwan were recruited from a public community center. A four-step procedure was used to translate the English version of the SIWB to the traditional Chinese language. Internal consistency, factor analysis, and correlation coefficient were conducted to evaluate the reliability and validity of the SIWB-C. The SIWB-C demonstrated a high internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha .95. The construct validity of SIWB-C was supported by factor analysis and by significant correlations with its subscales and the CES-D scale. The psychometric analysis indicates that the SIWB-C is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring spiritual well-being. This instrument provides a feasible and valid approach for assessing Taiwanese elders' spiritual well-being in the future. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Assessment of Problem Gambling in a Chinese Context: The Chinese G-MAP

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel T. L. Shek

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available There is a severe lack of instruments to assess problem gambling in Chinese people. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Maroondah Assessment Profile for Problem Gambling (Chinese G-MAP, based on the responses of eight problem gamblers and 125 pathological gamblers seeking help from a problem gambling treatment center. Reliability analyses showed that the G-MAP and its related domains and scales were generally internally consistent. There are also several lines of evidence suggesting that the Chinese G-MAP and the various domains are valid: (a the various G-MAP domain and scale measures were significantly correlated among themselves, (b the G-MAP measures were significantly correlated with pathological gambling behavior assessed by the 4th Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV, and (c the G-MAP total scale and domain measures were able to discriminate problem gamblers and pathological gamblers. The present study suggests that the Chinese G-MAP possesses acceptable psychometric properties that can be used in research and practice settings.

  10. Automated Determination of Bone Age in a Modern Chinese Population

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Shao-Yan; Liu, Gang; Ma, Chen-Guo; Han, Yi-San; Shen, Xun-Zhang; Xu, Rui-Long; Thodberg, Hans Henrik

    2013-01-01

    Rationale and Objective. Large studies have previously been performed to set up a Chinese bone age reference, but it has been difficult to compare the maturation of Chinese children with populations elsewhere due to the potential variability between raters in different parts of the world. We re-analysed the radiographs from a large study of normal Chinese children using an automated bone age rating method to establish a Chinese bone age reference, and to compare the tempo of maturation in the Chinese with other populations. Materials and Methods. X-rays from 2883 boys and 3143 girls aged 2–20 years from five Chinese cities, taken in 2005, were evaluated using the BoneXpert automated method. Results. Chinese children reached full maturity at the same age as previously studied Asian children from Los Angeles, but 0.6 years earlier than Caucasian children in Los Angeles. The Greulich-Pyle bone age method was adapted to the Chinese population creating a new bone age scale BX-China05. The standard deviation between BX-China05 and chronologic age was 1.01 years in boys aged 8–14, and 1.08 years in girls aged 7–12. Conclusion. By eliminating rater variability, the automated method provides a reliable and efficient standard for bone age determination in China

  11. Psychometric properties of the Chinese translation of the proactive personality scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Le; Shi, Junqi

    2009-08-01

    The purpose of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Chinese translation of the Proactive Personality Scale. Four samples were surveyed. In Sample 1 and Sample 2, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis results confirmed the unidimensional structure of the 10-item abbreviated version of the scale. In Sample 2, Proactive Personality scores were found to be positively correlated with the personality factors of Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness, and Agreeableness, and negatively correlated with Neuroticism. In Sample 3, Proactive Personality was found to be positively related to self-efficacy and political skill. In Sample 4, demographics controlled, Proactive Personality explained significant incremental variance in the employees' self-rated career satisfaction and job performance as rated by immediate supervisors.

  12. Adaptation of Chinese and English versions of the Ankylosing Spondylitis quality of life (ASQoL) scale for use in Singapore.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leung, Ying Ying; Lee, Weixian; Lui, Nai Lee; Rouse, Matthew; McKenna, Stephen P; Thumboo, Julian

    2017-08-17

    To cross-culturally adapt and validate the Singapore Chinese and Singapore English versions of the Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life (ASQoL) scales. Translation of the ASQoL into Singapore Chinese and English was performed by professional and lay translation panels. Field-testing for face and content validity was performed by interviewing ten Chinese speaking and ten English speaking axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA) patients. AxSpA patients (either Chinese or English speaking) were invited to take part in validation surveys. The Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), Bath Indices, and other measures of disease activity were used as comparator scales for convergent validity. A separate sample of AxSpA patients were invited to participate in a test-retest postal study, with 2 weeks between administrations. The cross-sectional study included 183 patients (77% males, 82% English speaking), with a mean (SD) age of 39.4 (13.7) years. The ASQoL had excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.88), and correlated moderately with all the comparator scales. The ASQoL was able to distinguish between patients grouped by disease activity and perceived general health. The ASQoL fulfilled the Rasch model analysis for fit, reliability and unidimensionality requirements. No significant differential item functioning was noted for gender, age below or above 50 years, and language of administration. Test-retest reliability was good (r = 0.81). The ASQoL was adapted into Singapore Chinese and English language versions, and shown to be culturally relevant, valid and reliable when used with combined samples of AxSpA patients who speak either Chinese or English.

  13. Manufacturing test of large scale hollow capsule and long length cladding in the large scale oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) martensitic steel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Narita, Takeshi; Ukai, Shigeharu; Kaito, Takeji; Ohtsuka, Satoshi; Fujiwara, Masayuki

    2004-04-01

    Mass production capability of oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) martensitic steel cladding (9Cr) has being evaluated in the Phase II of the Feasibility Studies on Commercialized Fast Reactor Cycle System. The cost for manufacturing mother tube (raw materials powder production, mechanical alloying (MA) by ball mill, canning, hot extrusion, and machining) is a dominant factor in the total cost for manufacturing ODS ferritic steel cladding. In this study, the large-sale 9Cr-ODS martensitic steel mother tube which is made with a large-scale hollow capsule, and long length claddings were manufactured, and the applicability of these processes was evaluated. Following results were obtained in this study. (1) Manufacturing the large scale mother tube in the dimension of 32 mm OD, 21 mm ID, and 2 m length has been successfully carried out using large scale hollow capsule. This mother tube has a high degree of accuracy in size. (2) The chemical composition and the micro structure of the manufactured mother tube are similar to the existing mother tube manufactured by a small scale can. And the remarkable difference between the bottom and top sides in the manufactured mother tube has not been observed. (3) The long length cladding has been successfully manufactured from the large scale mother tube which was made using a large scale hollow capsule. (4) For reducing the manufacturing cost of the ODS steel claddings, manufacturing process of the mother tubes using a large scale hollow capsules is promising. (author)

  14. Amplification of large-scale magnetic field in nonhelical magnetohydrodynamics

    KAUST Repository

    Kumar, Rohit

    2017-08-11

    It is typically assumed that the kinetic and magnetic helicities play a crucial role in the growth of large-scale dynamo. In this paper, we demonstrate that helicity is not essential for the amplification of large-scale magnetic field. For this purpose, we perform nonhelical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation, and show that the large-scale magnetic field can grow in nonhelical MHD when random external forcing is employed at scale 1/10 the box size. The energy fluxes and shell-to-shell transfer rates computed using the numerical data show that the large-scale magnetic energy grows due to the energy transfers from the velocity field at the forcing scales.

  15. Scaling of theory-of-mind understandings in Chinese children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wellman, Henry M; Fang, Fuxi; Liu, David; Zhu, Liqi; Liu, Guoxiong

    2006-12-01

    Prior research demonstrates that understanding of theory of mind develops at different paces in children raised in different cultures. Are these differences simply differences in timing, or do they represent different patterns of cultural learning? That is, to what extent are sequences of theory-of-mind understanding universal, and to what extent are they culture-specific? We addressed these questions by using a theory-of-mind scale to examine performance of 140 Chinese children living in Beijing and to compare their performance with that of 135 English-speaking children living in the United States and Australia. Results reveal a common sequence of understanding, as well as sociocultural differences in children's developing theories of mind.

  16. Cross-Cultural Validation of the High Blood Pressure Health Literacy Scale in a Chinese Community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Qinghua; Huang, Feifei; Liu, Zaoling; Zhang, Na; Mahapatra, Tanmay; Tang, Weiming; Lei, Yang; Dai, Yali; Tang, Songyuan; Zhang, Jingping

    2016-01-01

    Considering the importance of health literacy (HL) for the maximum yield from the hypertension control programs, development of a reliable and valid instrument of hypertension-related HL is critical. This study aimed to translate and validate the High Blood Pressure-Health Literacy Scale (HBP-HLS) into Chinese (C-HBP-HLS) and evaluate its psychometric properties in Chinese context. Between June 2013 and January 2014, a cross-sectional study was conducted among recruited hypertensive patients belonging to the Han and Kazakh-Chinese communities in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China. A pilot sample (n = 242) was selected for the exploratory factor analysis of the translated and modified instrument. Another sample (n = 308) was recruited for the confirmatory factor analysis. C-HBP-HLS consisted of five dimensions (Print Health Literacy, Medication Label, Understanding Ability, Newest Vital Sign Test, and Avoiding Food Allergy) containing 15 items, accounting for 77.7% of the total variance. The 5-factor model demonstrated a good overall fit. The scale-level content validity index was 0.85. Cronbach's alpha of the overall scale was 0.78 and test-retest reliability was 0.96. Education level had a strong positive correlation with the scores for items Q1, Q2, and Q3(r = 0.481, 0.492, 0.475, respectively). Health Literacy scores among Kazakh patients were significantly lower than Han (7.13±7.90 vs. 30.10±13.42, Z = -14.573, P<0.001). C-HBP-HLS demonstrated suitable factor structure and robust psychometric properties for measuring health literacy level among hypertensive patients in China.

  17. Hydrometeorological variability on a large french catchment and its relation to large-scale circulation across temporal scales

    Science.gov (United States)

    Massei, Nicolas; Dieppois, Bastien; Fritier, Nicolas; Laignel, Benoit; Debret, Maxime; Lavers, David; Hannah, David

    2015-04-01

    In the present context of global changes, considerable efforts have been deployed by the hydrological scientific community to improve our understanding of the impacts of climate fluctuations on water resources. Both observational and modeling studies have been extensively employed to characterize hydrological changes and trends, assess the impact of climate variability or provide future scenarios of water resources. In the aim of a better understanding of hydrological changes, it is of crucial importance to determine how and to what extent trends and long-term oscillations detectable in hydrological variables are linked to global climate oscillations. In this work, we develop an approach associating large-scale/local-scale correlation, enmpirical statistical downscaling and wavelet multiresolution decomposition of monthly precipitation and streamflow over the Seine river watershed, and the North Atlantic sea level pressure (SLP) in order to gain additional insights on the atmospheric patterns associated with the regional hydrology. We hypothesized that: i) atmospheric patterns may change according to the different temporal wavelengths defining the variability of the signals; and ii) definition of those hydrological/circulation relationships for each temporal wavelength may improve the determination of large-scale predictors of local variations. The results showed that the large-scale/local-scale links were not necessarily constant according to time-scale (i.e. for the different frequencies characterizing the signals), resulting in changing spatial patterns across scales. This was then taken into account by developing an empirical statistical downscaling (ESD) modeling approach which integrated discrete wavelet multiresolution analysis for reconstructing local hydrometeorological processes (predictand : precipitation and streamflow on the Seine river catchment) based on a large-scale predictor (SLP over the Euro-Atlantic sector) on a monthly time-step. This approach

  18. Superconducting materials for large scale applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dew-Hughes, D.

    1975-01-01

    Applications of superconductors capable of carrying large current densities in large-scale electrical devices are examined. Discussions are included on critical current density, superconducting materials available, and future prospects for improved superconducting materials. (JRD)

  19. Innovation-driven efficient development of the Longwangmiao Fm large-scale sulfur gas reservoir in Moxi block, Sichuan Basin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xinhua Ma

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The Lower Cambrian Longwangmiao Fm gas reservoir in Moxi block of the Anyue Gas field, Sichuan Basin, is the largest single-sandbody integrated carbonate gas reservoir proved so far in China. Notwithstanding this reservoir's advantages like large-scale reserves and high single-well productivity, there are multiple complicated factors restricting its efficient development, such as a median content of hydrogen sulfide, low porosity and strong heterogeneity of fracture–cave formation, various modes of gas–water occurrences, and close relation between overpressure and stress sensitivity. Up till now, since only a few Cambrian large-scale carbonate gas reservoirs have ever been developed in the world, there still exists some blind spots especially about its exploration and production rules. Besides, as for large-scale sulfur gas reservoirs, the exploration and construction is costly, and production test in the early evaluation stage is severely limited, all of which will bring about great challenges in productivity construction and high potential risks. In this regard, combining with Chinese strategic demand of strengthening clean energy supply security, the PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gas Field Company has carried out researches and field tests for the purpose of providing high-production wells, optimizing development design, rapidly constructing high-quality productivity and upgrading HSE security in the Longwangmiao Fm gas reservoir in Moxi block. Through the innovations of technology and management mode within 3 years, this gas reservoir has been built into a modern large-scale gas field with high quality, high efficiency and high benefit, and its annual capacity is now up to over 100 × 108 m3, with a desirable production capacity and development indexes gained as originally anticipated. It has become a new model of large-scale gas reservoirs with efficient development, providing a reference for other types of gas reservoirs in China.

  20. Large-scale influences in near-wall turbulence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hutchins, Nicholas; Marusic, Ivan

    2007-03-15

    Hot-wire data acquired in a high Reynolds number facility are used to illustrate the need for adequate scale separation when considering the coherent structure in wall-bounded turbulence. It is found that a large-scale motion in the log region becomes increasingly comparable in energy to the near-wall cycle as the Reynolds number increases. Through decomposition of fluctuating velocity signals, it is shown that this large-scale motion has a distinct modulating influence on the small-scale energy (akin to amplitude modulation). Reassessment of DNS data, in light of these results, shows similar trends, with the rate and intensity of production due to the near-wall cycle subject to a modulating influence from the largest-scale motions.

  1. Large-scale HTS bulks for magnetic application

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Werfel, Frank N.; Floegel-Delor, Uta; Riedel, Thomas; Goebel, Bernd; Rothfeld, Rolf; Schirrmeister, Peter; Wippich, Dieter

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: ► ATZ Company has constructed about 130 HTS magnet systems. ► Multi-seeded YBCO bulks joint the way for large-scale application. ► Levitation platforms demonstrate “superconductivity” to a great public audience (100 years anniversary). ► HTS magnetic bearings show forces up to 1 t. ► Modular HTS maglev vacuum cryostats are tested for train demonstrators in Brazil, China and Germany. -- Abstract: ATZ Company has constructed about 130 HTS magnet systems using high-Tc bulk magnets. A key feature in scaling-up is the fabrication of YBCO melts textured multi-seeded large bulks with three to eight seeds. Except of levitation, magnetization, trapped field and hysteresis, we review system engineering parameters of HTS magnetic linear and rotational bearings like compactness, cryogenics, power density, efficiency and robust construction. We examine mobile compact YBCO bulk magnet platforms cooled with LN 2 and Stirling cryo-cooler for demonstrator use. Compact cryostats for Maglev train operation contain 24 pieces of 3-seed bulks and can levitate 2500–3000 N at 10 mm above a permanent magnet (PM) track. The effective magnetic distance of the thermally insulated bulks is 2 mm only; the stored 2.5 l LN 2 allows more than 24 h operation without refilling. 34 HTS Maglev vacuum cryostats are manufactured tested and operate in Germany, China and Brazil. The magnetic levitation load to weight ratio is more than 15, and by group assembling the HTS cryostats under vehicles up to 5 t total loads levitated above a magnetic track is achieved

  2. Large-scale HTS bulks for magnetic application

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Werfel, Frank N., E-mail: werfel@t-online.de [Adelwitz Technologiezentrum GmbH (ATZ), Rittergut Adelwitz 16, 04886 Arzberg-Adelwitz (Germany); Floegel-Delor, Uta; Riedel, Thomas; Goebel, Bernd; Rothfeld, Rolf; Schirrmeister, Peter; Wippich, Dieter [Adelwitz Technologiezentrum GmbH (ATZ), Rittergut Adelwitz 16, 04886 Arzberg-Adelwitz (Germany)

    2013-01-15

    Highlights: ► ATZ Company has constructed about 130 HTS magnet systems. ► Multi-seeded YBCO bulks joint the way for large-scale application. ► Levitation platforms demonstrate “superconductivity” to a great public audience (100 years anniversary). ► HTS magnetic bearings show forces up to 1 t. ► Modular HTS maglev vacuum cryostats are tested for train demonstrators in Brazil, China and Germany. -- Abstract: ATZ Company has constructed about 130 HTS magnet systems using high-Tc bulk magnets. A key feature in scaling-up is the fabrication of YBCO melts textured multi-seeded large bulks with three to eight seeds. Except of levitation, magnetization, trapped field and hysteresis, we review system engineering parameters of HTS magnetic linear and rotational bearings like compactness, cryogenics, power density, efficiency and robust construction. We examine mobile compact YBCO bulk magnet platforms cooled with LN{sub 2} and Stirling cryo-cooler for demonstrator use. Compact cryostats for Maglev train operation contain 24 pieces of 3-seed bulks and can levitate 2500–3000 N at 10 mm above a permanent magnet (PM) track. The effective magnetic distance of the thermally insulated bulks is 2 mm only; the stored 2.5 l LN{sub 2} allows more than 24 h operation without refilling. 34 HTS Maglev vacuum cryostats are manufactured tested and operate in Germany, China and Brazil. The magnetic levitation load to weight ratio is more than 15, and by group assembling the HTS cryostats under vehicles up to 5 t total loads levitated above a magnetic track is achieved.

  3. Large-scale biophysical evaluation of protein PEGylation effects

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vernet, Erik; Popa, Gina; Pozdnyakova, Irina

    2016-01-01

    PEGylation is the most widely used method to chemically modify protein biopharmaceuticals, but surprisingly limited public data is available on the biophysical effects of protein PEGylation. Here we report the first large-scale study, with site-specific mono-PEGylation of 15 different proteins...... of PEGylation on the thermal stability of a protein based on data generated by circular dichroism (CD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), or differential scanning fluorimetry (DSF). In addition, DSF was validated as a fast and inexpensive screening method for thermal unfolding studies of PEGylated...... proteins. Multivariate data analysis revealed clear trends in biophysical properties upon PEGylation for a subset of proteins, although no universal trends were found. Taken together, these findings are important in the consideration of biophysical methods and evaluation of second...

  4. The role of NGO in nuclear public communication and the practices of the Chinese Nuclear Society

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shen, L., E-mail: shenlx@cnnc.com.cn [Chinese Nuclear Society, Beijing (China)

    2014-07-01

    'Full text:' Public acceptance is becoming an outstanding issue in China's nuclear power development. All the related stakeholders have been working hard to improve their work on public communication. This paper started with a general view of the nuclear power in China and then presented the situation on nuclear public acceptance, the related laws and regulations in China. After that, the paper discussed the four advantages of NGOs such as nuclear societies in this course. The paper presented more on the practices of Chinese Nuclear Society in public communication and nuclear science popularization.It is concluded with some suggestions for public communication. (author)

  5. The role of NGO in nuclear public communication and the practices of the Chinese Nuclear Society

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shen, L.

    2014-01-01

    'Full text:' Public acceptance is becoming an outstanding issue in China's nuclear power development. All the related stakeholders have been working hard to improve their work on public communication. This paper started with a general view of the nuclear power in China and then presented the situation on nuclear public acceptance, the related laws and regulations in China. After that, the paper discussed the four advantages of NGOs such as nuclear societies in this course. The paper presented more on the practices of Chinese Nuclear Society in public communication and nuclear science popularization.It is concluded with some suggestions for public communication. (author)

  6. Measuring the expressed emotion in Chinese family caregivers of persons with dementia: Validation of a Chinese version of the Family Attitude Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Doris S F; Kwok, Timothy; Choy, Jacky; Kavanagh, David J

    2016-03-01

    Expressed emotion (EE) captures the affective quality of the relationship between family caregivers and their care recipients and is known to increase the risk of poor health outcomes for caregiving dyads. Little is known about expressed emotion in the context of caregiving for persons with dementia, especially in non-Western cultures. The Family Attitude Scale (FAS) is a psychometrically sound self-reporting measure for EE. Its use in the examination of caregiving for patients with dementia has not yet been explored. This study was performed to examine the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the FAS (FAS-C) in Chinese caregivers of relatives with dementia, and its validity in predicting severe depressive symptoms among the caregivers. The FAS was translated into Chinese using Brislin's model. Two expert panels evaluated the semantic equivalence and content validity of this Chinese version (FAS-C), respectively. A total of 123 Chinese primary caregivers of relatives with dementia were recruited from three elderly community care centers in Hong Kong. The FAS-C was administered with the Chinese versions of the 5-item Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5), the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) and the Revised Memory and Behavioral Problem Checklist (RMBPC). The FAS-C had excellent semantic equivalence with the original version and a content validity index of 0.92. Exploratory factor analysis identified a three-factor structure for the FAS-C (hostile acts, criticism and distancing). Cronbach's alpha of the FAS-C was 0.92. Pearson's correlation indicated that there were significant associations between a higher score on the FAS-C and greater caregiver burden (r=0.66, p47 with a sensitivity of 0.720 (95% CI=0.506-0.879) and specificity of 0.742 (95% CI=0.643-0.826). The FAS-C is a reliable and valid measure to assess the affective quality of the relationship between Chinese caregivers and their relatives with dementia. It also has acceptable predictability in

  7. Emerging large-scale solar heating applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wong, W.P.; McClung, J.L.

    2009-01-01

    Currently the market for solar heating applications in Canada is dominated by outdoor swimming pool heating, make-up air pre-heating and domestic water heating in homes, commercial and institutional buildings. All of these involve relatively small systems, except for a few air pre-heating systems on very large buildings. Together these applications make up well over 90% of the solar thermal collectors installed in Canada during 2007. These three applications, along with the recent re-emergence of large-scale concentrated solar thermal for generating electricity, also dominate the world markets. This paper examines some emerging markets for large scale solar heating applications, with a focus on the Canadian climate and market. (author)

  8. Emerging large-scale solar heating applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wong, W.P.; McClung, J.L. [Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC Canada), Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)

    2009-07-01

    Currently the market for solar heating applications in Canada is dominated by outdoor swimming pool heating, make-up air pre-heating and domestic water heating in homes, commercial and institutional buildings. All of these involve relatively small systems, except for a few air pre-heating systems on very large buildings. Together these applications make up well over 90% of the solar thermal collectors installed in Canada during 2007. These three applications, along with the recent re-emergence of large-scale concentrated solar thermal for generating electricity, also dominate the world markets. This paper examines some emerging markets for large scale solar heating applications, with a focus on the Canadian climate and market. (author)

  9. Extending the utility of the Depression Anxiety Stress scale by examining its psychometric properties in Chinese settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Raymond C K; Xu, Ting; Huang, Jia; Wang, Yi; Zhao, Qing; Shum, David H K; O'Gorman, John; Potangaroa, Regan

    2012-12-30

    The Depression Anxiety Stress scale (DASS) is a widely used instrument for assessing mental health status, but the construct validity of the Chinese version of the test has not been demonstrated. The current study recruited three independent samples of Chinese participants to examine its reliability, factor structure, and utility in differentiating groups expected to show high and low scores on the scales. The first sample comprised 605 undergraduate student volunteers from Beijing, the second sample comprised 138 residents from the Sichuan Province who had experienced the 2008 earthquake there, and the third sample comprised 86 Beijing residents. Cronbach's alpha values in excess of 0.80 were found for all samples and all scales. Confirmatory factor analysis with the student sample supported a three-factor latent structure for the DASS (depression, anxiety, and stress). Substantially higher scores on all scales were found for the Sichuan earthquake sample compared with the Beijing resident's sample. Implications of these findings for the assessment of mental status using the DASS in China are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Large-Scale Participation: A Case Study of a Participatory Approach to Developing a New Public Library

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dalsgaard, Peter; Eriksson, Eva

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, we present a case study of a participatory project that focuses on interaction in large-scale design, namely, the development of the new Urban Mediaspace Aarhus. This project, which has been under way for ten years, embodies a series of issues that arise when participatory design...

  11. Large-scale regions of antimatter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grobov, A. V.; Rubin, S. G.

    2015-01-01

    Amodified mechanism of the formation of large-scale antimatter regions is proposed. Antimatter appears owing to fluctuations of a complex scalar field that carries a baryon charge in the inflation era

  12. Large-scale regions of antimatter

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grobov, A. V., E-mail: alexey.grobov@gmail.com; Rubin, S. G., E-mail: sgrubin@mephi.ru [National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Russian Federation)

    2015-07-15

    Amodified mechanism of the formation of large-scale antimatter regions is proposed. Antimatter appears owing to fluctuations of a complex scalar field that carries a baryon charge in the inflation era.

  13. Measuring social desirability across language and sex: A comparison of Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale factor structures in English and Mandarin Chinese in Malaysia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurz, A Solomon; Drescher, Christopher F; Chin, Eu Gene; Johnson, Laura R

    2016-06-01

    Malaysia is a Southeast Asian country in which multiple languages are prominently spoken, including English and Mandarin Chinese. As psychological science continues to develop within Malaysia, there is a need for psychometrically sound instruments that measure psychological phenomena in multiple languages. For example, assessment tools for measuring social desirability could be a useful addition in psychological assessments and research studies in a Malaysian context. This study examined the psychometric performance of the English and Mandarin Chinese versions of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale when used in Malaysia. Two hundred and eighty-three students (64% female; 83% Chinese, 9% Indian) from two college campuses completed the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale in their language of choice (i.e., English or Mandarin Chinese). Proposed factor structures were compared with confirmatory factor analysis, and multiple indicators-multiple causes models were used to examine measurement invariance across language and sex. Factor analyses supported a two-factor structure (i.e., Attribution and Denial) for the measure. Invariance tests revealed the scale was invariant by sex, indicating that social desirability can be interpreted similarly across sex. The scale was partially invariant by language version, with some non-invariance observed within the Denial factor. Non-invariance may be related to differences in the English and Mandarin Chinese languages, as well as cultural differences. Directions for further research include examining the measurement of social desirability in other contexts where both English and Mandarin Chinese are spoken (i.e., China) and further examining the causes of non-invariance on specific items. © 2016 The Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

  14. Large-Scale Analysis of Art Proportions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Karl Kristoffer

    2014-01-01

    While literature often tries to impute mathematical constants into art, this large-scale study (11 databases of paintings and photos, around 200.000 items) shows a different truth. The analysis, consisting of the width/height proportions, shows a value of rarely if ever one (square) and with majo......While literature often tries to impute mathematical constants into art, this large-scale study (11 databases of paintings and photos, around 200.000 items) shows a different truth. The analysis, consisting of the width/height proportions, shows a value of rarely if ever one (square...

  15. Evaluation of the Recognition of Stroke in the Emergency Room (ROSIER scale in Chinese patients in Hong Kong.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hui-lin Jiang

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to determine the performance of the Recognition Of Stroke In the Emergency Room (ROSIER scale in risk-stratifying Chinese patients with suspected stroke in Hong Kong. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study in an urban academic emergency department (ED over a 7-month period. Patients over 18 years of age with suspected stroke were recruited between June 2011 and December 2011. ROSIER scale assessment was performed in the ED triage area. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the impacts of diagnostic variables, including ROSIER scale, past history and ED characteristics. FINDINGS: 715 suspected stroke patients were recruited for assessment, of whom 371 (52% had acute cerebrovascular disease (302 ischaemic strokes, 24 transient ischaemic attacks (TIA, 45 intracerebral haemorrhages, and 344 (48% had other illnesses i.e. stroke mimics. Common stroke mimics were spinal neuropathy, dementia, labyrinthitis and sepsis. The suggested cut-off score of>0 for the ROSIER scale for stroke diagnosis gave a sensitivity of 87% (95%CI 83-90, a specificity of 41% (95%CI 36-47, a positive predictive value of 62% (95%CI 57-66, and a negative predictive value of 75% (95%CI 68-81, and the AUC was 0.723. The overall accuracy at cut off>0 was 65% i.e. (323+141/715. INTERPRETATION: The ROSIER scale was not as effective at differentiating acute stroke from stroke mimics in Chinese patients in Hong Kong as it was in the original studies, primarily due to a much lower specificity. If the ROSIER scale is to be clinically useful in Chinese suspected stroke patients, it requires further refinement.

  16. Assessing outcomes of large-scale public health interventions in the absence of baseline data using a mixture of Cox and binomial regressions

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Background Large-scale public health interventions with rapid scale-up are increasingly being implemented worldwide. Such implementation allows for a large target population to be reached in a short period of time. But when the time comes to investigate the effectiveness of these interventions, the rapid scale-up creates several methodological challenges, such as the lack of baseline data and the absence of control groups. One example of such an intervention is Avahan, the India HIV/AIDS initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. One question of interest is the effect of Avahan on condom use by female sex workers with their clients. By retrospectively reconstructing condom use and sex work history from survey data, it is possible to estimate how condom use rates evolve over time. However formal inference about how this rate changes at a given point in calendar time remains challenging. Methods We propose a new statistical procedure based on a mixture of binomial regression and Cox regression. We compare this new method to an existing approach based on generalized estimating equations through simulations and application to Indian data. Results Both methods are unbiased, but the proposed method is more powerful than the existing method, especially when initial condom use is high. When applied to the Indian data, the new method mostly agrees with the existing method, but seems to have corrected some implausible results of the latter in a few districts. We also show how the new method can be used to analyze the data of all districts combined. Conclusions The use of both methods can be recommended for exploratory data analysis. However for formal statistical inference, the new method has better power. PMID:24397563

  17. Multiple scales in metapopulations of public goods producers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bauer, Marianne; Frey, Erwin

    2018-04-01

    Multiple scales in metapopulations can give rise to paradoxical behavior: in a conceptual model for a public goods game, the species associated with a fitness cost due to the public good production can be stabilized in the well-mixed limit due to the mere existence of these scales. The scales in this model involve a length scale corresponding to separate patches, coupled by mobility, and separate time scales for reproduction and interaction with a local environment. Contrary to the well-mixed high mobility limit, we find that for low mobilities, the interaction rate progressively stabilizes this species due to stochastic effects, and that the formation of spatial patterns is not crucial for this stabilization.

  18. Assessing shyness in Chinese older adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chou, Kee-Lee

    2005-09-01

    The Shyness Scale (SS) is a brief instrument for assessing shyness as a personality trait. The psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the SS were investigated in a random sample of 192 Macau Chinese older adults. The Chinese version of the SS possesses high internal consistency and exhibited satisfactory short-term test-retest reliability. The Chinese version of the SS exhibited acceptable convergent validity with other negative measures of psychological well-being including negative emotional states (assessed by the Negative Affect Scale), loneliness (assessed by the UCLA Loneliness Scale), and state anxiety and trait anxiety (assessed by STAI). The divergent validity of the Chinese version of the SS was demonstrated by the negative but significant association between the SS and self esteem (assessed by Rosenberg Self Esteem Inventory).

  19. May I have the next dance? Chinese gay men exploring selves and practices through the tradition of dance in public spaces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miège, Pierre

    2017-11-07

    This study explores the way in which some Chinese gay men negotiate dance performances in parks and other public spaces in an attempt to invent and experiment with 'possible selves'. In most circumstances, these same men conceal their sexual orientation for fear of stigma and discrimination, experiencing in the process something of a 'divided self'. Little attention has been given to understanding the way such individuals negotiate and construct same-sex experiences, especially through the negotiation of specific and restricted social interactions and performances. Based on participant observation with a group of dancers practising in a Chinese public park, this paper analyses how these men explore same-sex relations and lifestyles through the circumscribed performance of collective public dance.

  20. Large scale and big data processing and management

    CERN Document Server

    Sakr, Sherif

    2014-01-01

    Large Scale and Big Data: Processing and Management provides readers with a central source of reference on the data management techniques currently available for large-scale data processing. Presenting chapters written by leading researchers, academics, and practitioners, it addresses the fundamental challenges associated with Big Data processing tools and techniques across a range of computing environments.The book begins by discussing the basic concepts and tools of large-scale Big Data processing and cloud computing. It also provides an overview of different programming models and cloud-bas

  1. Chinese dietary composition and element ingestion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhu Hongda

    1990-01-01

    Based on the dietary composition and results of some nutrients obtained from the second Nationwide Nutrition Survey in 1982, as well as recently published element contents in various Chinese food, the resultant dietary intake of 19 kinds of elements and 17 radionuclides for Chinese public (mainly for male adults) were estimated. This estimation might be used as basis for development of Chinese Reference Man and estimation of the public background exposure

  2. New insights in symptom assessment: the Chinese Versions of the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale Short Form (MSAS-SF) and the Condensed MSAS (CMSAS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lam, Wendy Wing Tak; Law, Chi Ching; Fu, Yiu Tung; Wong, Kam Hung; Chang, Victor T; Fielding, Richard

    2008-12-01

    There are very few symptom assessment instruments in Chinese. We present the validity and reliability of the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale Short Form (MSAS-SF) and the Condensed Form MSAS (CMSAS) in Chinese cancer patients. The Chinese version of the 32-item MSAS-SF, a self-report measure for assessing symptom distress and frequency in cancer patients, was administered to 256 Chinese patients with colorectal cancer at a clinical oncology outpatient unit. Highly prevalent symptoms included worrying (59%), dry mouth (54%), lack of energy (54%), feeling sad (48%), feeling irritable (48%), and pain (41%). Both the MSAS-SF and CMSAS demonstrated good validity and reliability. For the MSAS-SF subscales, Cronbach alphas ranged from 0.84 to 0.91, and for CMSAS subscales, from 0.79 to 0.87. Moderate-to-high correlations of MSAS-SF and CMSAS subscales with appropriate European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 subscales (0.42-0.71, PsRosenberg Self-Esteem and Optimism Scale (0.22, Pscales--the Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ) and the Life Orientation Scale. Construct validity of both MSAS versions was demonstrated by effective differentiation between clinically distinct patient groups (Karnofsky scores or =80% [P4 [Pscales (0.31-0.64, P<0.001). The average time to complete the MSAS-SF was six minutes. The Chinese versions of the MSAS-SF and CMSAS are valid and practical measures. Further validation is needed for Chinese patients with other cancer types and with other symptom instruments.

  3. A Conceptual Framework for Allocation of Federally Stockpiled Ventilators During Large-Scale Public Health Emergencies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaza, Stephanie; Koonin, Lisa M; Ajao, Adebola; Nystrom, Scott V; Branson, Richard; Patel, Anita; Bray, Bruce; Iademarco, Michael F

    2016-01-01

    Some types of public health emergencies could result in large numbers of patients with respiratory failure who need mechanical ventilation. Federal public health planning has included needs assessment and stockpiling of ventilators. However, additional federal guidance is needed to assist states in further allocating federally supplied ventilators to individual hospitals to ensure that ventilators are shipped to facilities where they can best be used during an emergency. A major consideration in planning is a hospital's ability to absorb additional ventilators, based on available space and staff expertise. A simple pro rata plan that does not take these factors into account might result in suboptimal use or unused scarce resources. This article proposes a conceptual framework that identifies the steps in planning and an important gap in federal guidance regarding the distribution of stockpiled mechanical ventilators during an emergency.

  4. Large scale cluster computing workshop

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dane Skow; Alan Silverman

    2002-01-01

    Recent revolutions in computer hardware and software technologies have paved the way for the large-scale deployment of clusters of commodity computers to address problems heretofore the domain of tightly coupled SMP processors. Near term projects within High Energy Physics and other computing communities will deploy clusters of scale 1000s of processors and be used by 100s to 1000s of independent users. This will expand the reach in both dimensions by an order of magnitude from the current successful production facilities. The goals of this workshop were: (1) to determine what tools exist which can scale up to the cluster sizes foreseen for the next generation of HENP experiments (several thousand nodes) and by implication to identify areas where some investment of money or effort is likely to be needed. (2) To compare and record experimences gained with such tools. (3) To produce a practical guide to all stages of planning, installing, building and operating a large computing cluster in HENP. (4) To identify and connect groups with similar interest within HENP and the larger clustering community

  5. Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Perceived Stress Scale in policewomen.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhen Wang

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10 is one of most widely used instruments to measure a global level of perceived stress in a range of clinical and research settings. This study was conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the Simplified Chinese version of the PSS-10 in policewomen. METHODOLOGY: A total of 240 policewomen were recruited in this study. The Simplified Chinese versions of the PSS-10, the Beck Depression Inventory Revised (BDI-II, and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI were administered to all participants, and 36 of the participants were re-tested two weeks after the initial testing. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The overall Cronbach's alpha was 0.86, and the test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.68. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA yielded 2 factors with eigenvalues of 4.76 and 1.48, accounting for 62.41% of variance. Factor 1 consisted of 6 items representing "negative feelings"; whereas Factor 2 consisted of 4 items representing "positive feelings". The item loadings ranged from 0.72 to 0.83. The Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA indicated a very good fit of this two-factor model to this sample. The PSS-10 significantly correlated with both BDI-II and BAI, indicating an acceptable concurrent validity. CONCLUSIONS: The Simplified Chinese version of the PSS-10 demonstrated adequate psychometric properties for evaluating stress levels. The results support its use among the Chinese population.

  6. Large-scale survey of Chinese precollege students’ epistemological beliefs about physics: A progression or a regression?

    OpenAIRE

    Ping Zhang; Lin Ding

    2013-01-01

    This paper reports a cross-grade comparative study of Chinese precollege students’ epistemological beliefs about physics by using the Colorado Learning Attitudes Survey about Sciences (CLASS). Our students of interest are middle and high schoolers taking traditional lecture-based physics as a mandatory science course each year from the 8th grade to the 12th grade in China. The original CLASS was translated into Mandarin through a rigorous transadaption process, and then it was administered as...

  7. Large-Scale Agriculture and Outgrower Schemes in Ethiopia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wendimu, Mengistu Assefa

    , the impact of large-scale agriculture and outgrower schemes on productivity, household welfare and wages in developing countries is highly contentious. Chapter 1 of this thesis provides an introduction to the study, while also reviewing the key debate in the contemporary land ‘grabbing’ and historical large...... sugarcane outgrower scheme on household income and asset stocks. Chapter 5 examines the wages and working conditions in ‘formal’ large-scale and ‘informal’ small-scale irrigated agriculture. The results in Chapter 2 show that moisture stress, the use of untested planting materials, and conflict over land...... commands a higher wage than ‘formal’ large-scale agriculture, while rather different wage determination mechanisms exist in the two sectors. Human capital characteristics (education and experience) partly explain the differences in wages within the formal sector, but play no significant role...

  8. Economically viable large-scale hydrogen liquefaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cardella, U.; Decker, L.; Klein, H.

    2017-02-01

    The liquid hydrogen demand, particularly driven by clean energy applications, will rise in the near future. As industrial large scale liquefiers will play a major role within the hydrogen supply chain, production capacity will have to increase by a multiple of today’s typical sizes. The main goal is to reduce the total cost of ownership for these plants by increasing energy efficiency with innovative and simple process designs, optimized in capital expenditure. New concepts must ensure a manageable plant complexity and flexible operability. In the phase of process development and selection, a dimensioning of key equipment for large scale liquefiers, such as turbines and compressors as well as heat exchangers, must be performed iteratively to ensure technological feasibility and maturity. Further critical aspects related to hydrogen liquefaction, e.g. fluid properties, ortho-para hydrogen conversion, and coldbox configuration, must be analysed in detail. This paper provides an overview on the approach, challenges and preliminary results in the development of efficient as well as economically viable concepts for large-scale hydrogen liquefaction.

  9. Large scale chromatographic separations using continuous displacement chromatography (CDC)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Taniguchi, V.T.; Doty, A.W.; Byers, C.H.

    1988-01-01

    A process for large scale chromatographic separations using a continuous chromatography technique is described. The process combines the advantages of large scale batch fixed column displacement chromatography with conventional analytical or elution continuous annular chromatography (CAC) to enable large scale displacement chromatography to be performed on a continuous basis (CDC). Such large scale, continuous displacement chromatography separations have not been reported in the literature. The process is demonstrated with the ion exchange separation of a binary lanthanide (Nd/Pr) mixture. The process is, however, applicable to any displacement chromatography separation that can be performed using conventional batch, fixed column chromatography

  10. Large-scale immigration and political response: popular reaction in California.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, W A

    1998-03-01

    Over the past 3 years, the level of political debate has grown over the nature and extent of the recent large-scale immigration to the US in general, and to California in particular. California's Proposition 187 to deny welfare benefits to illegal immigrants brought national attention to the immigration debate, and no doubt influenced recent decisions to significantly change the US's welfare program. The author studied the vote on Proposition 187 in the November 1994 California election to better understand the nature of reaction to large-scale immigration and recent arguments about anti-immigrant sentiment and nativism. The only counties which voted against the proposition were Sonoma, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Yolo, Alameda, and Santa Clara, as well as the population of San Francisco. The vote generated political responses from across the border as well as within California. Statements from Mexican and other Central American governments reflected their concern over the possibility of returning populations, for whom there are neither jobs nor public services in their countries of origin. Findings are presented from a spatial analysis of the vote by census tracts in Los Angeles County.

  11. Special educaction and rewiews in the municipality of large scale Sobral (CE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Paula Lima Barbosa Cardoso

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available This article aims to discuss and analyze the participation of students with disabilities in public schools of the city of Sobral-CE in the assessment scale developed in that context. It follows a case study, a qualitative approach, conducted within the Department of Education and two municipal schools; the highest and lowest IDEB results (2009. The data collection instruments: analysis of documents, interviews and observation, and content analysis. The theoretical framework discusses the large-scale evaluation in the brazilian context in conjunction with the literature on the evaluation of teaching for students with disabilities. We describe the landscape of education in general sobralense and also data on special education. The research results discussed two cases of large-scale evaluation that occurred in that municipality: municipal evaluation and Proof Brazil. Regarding the first, the subjects affirms the participation of students with disabilities through a mechanism that prevents these results affect other students, are called "children of the shore." In Proof Brazil, the subjects again reported the participation of these students in national testing. It's criticizing the appropriateness of that instrument to assess this particular student body, suggesting the need of developping more "relevant" ones. Finally, it appears that the large-scale evaluation calls into question the process of schooling experienced by pupils with disabilities in Sobral-CE, showing the challenges and difficulties of the actions of school inclusion proposals in that context.

  12. Large Scale Processes and Extreme Floods in Brazil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ribeiro Lima, C. H.; AghaKouchak, A.; Lall, U.

    2016-12-01

    Persistent large scale anomalies in the atmospheric circulation and ocean state have been associated with heavy rainfall and extreme floods in water basins of different sizes across the world. Such studies have emerged in the last years as a new tool to improve the traditional, stationary based approach in flood frequency analysis and flood prediction. Here we seek to advance previous studies by evaluating the dominance of large scale processes (e.g. atmospheric rivers/moisture transport) over local processes (e.g. local convection) in producing floods. We consider flood-prone regions in Brazil as case studies and the role of large scale climate processes in generating extreme floods in such regions is explored by means of observed streamflow, reanalysis data and machine learning methods. The dynamics of the large scale atmospheric circulation in the days prior to the flood events are evaluated based on the vertically integrated moisture flux and its divergence field, which are interpreted in a low-dimensional space as obtained by machine learning techniques, particularly supervised kernel principal component analysis. In such reduced dimensional space, clusters are obtained in order to better understand the role of regional moisture recycling or teleconnected moisture in producing floods of a given magnitude. The convective available potential energy (CAPE) is also used as a measure of local convection activities. We investigate for individual sites the exceedance probability in which large scale atmospheric fluxes dominate the flood process. Finally, we analyze regional patterns of floods and how the scaling law of floods with drainage area responds to changes in the climate forcing mechanisms (e.g. local vs large scale).

  13. Computing in Large-Scale Dynamic Systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pruteanu, A.S.

    2013-01-01

    Software applications developed for large-scale systems have always been difficult to de- velop due to problems caused by the large number of computing devices involved. Above a certain network size (roughly one hundred), necessary services such as code updating, topol- ogy discovery and data

  14. Fires in large scale ventilation systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gregory, W.S.; Martin, R.A.; White, B.W.; Nichols, B.D.; Smith, P.R.; Leslie, I.H.; Fenton, D.L.; Gunaji, M.V.; Blythe, J.P.

    1991-01-01

    This paper summarizes the experience gained simulating fires in large scale ventilation systems patterned after ventilation systems found in nuclear fuel cycle facilities. The series of experiments discussed included: (1) combustion aerosol loading of 0.61x0.61 m HEPA filters with the combustion products of two organic fuels, polystyrene and polymethylemethacrylate; (2) gas dynamic and heat transport through a large scale ventilation system consisting of a 0.61x0.61 m duct 90 m in length, with dampers, HEPA filters, blowers, etc.; (3) gas dynamic and simultaneous transport of heat and solid particulate (consisting of glass beads with a mean aerodynamic diameter of 10μ) through the large scale ventilation system; and (4) the transport of heat and soot, generated by kerosene pool fires, through the large scale ventilation system. The FIRAC computer code, designed to predict fire-induced transients in nuclear fuel cycle facility ventilation systems, was used to predict the results of experiments (2) through (4). In general, the results of the predictions were satisfactory. The code predictions for the gas dynamics, heat transport, and particulate transport and deposition were within 10% of the experimentally measured values. However, the code was less successful in predicting the amount of soot generation from kerosene pool fires, probably due to the fire module of the code being a one-dimensional zone model. The experiments revealed a complicated three-dimensional combustion pattern within the fire room of the ventilation system. Further refinement of the fire module within FIRAC is needed. (orig.)

  15. Chinese women's experiences, emotions and expectations of breast-feeding in public: a qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Ya; Ouyang, Yan-Qiong; Redding, Sharon R

    2018-06-01

    To explore Chinese mothers' experiences, emotions and expectations of breast-feeding in public places. Exploratory qualitative study. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants and face-to-face interviews were conducted. Themes were identified by content analysis. Two different geographical communities in Wuhan, Hubei Province, central China, March-May 2016. A total of twenty-seven mothers aged 23-33 years, who had one child under 3 years of age and had experience of breast-feeding in public places. Seven themes emerged from the interviews: struggling to balance infant's needs and personal feelings; embarrassed or natural emotion regarding breast-feeding in public places; effect of cultural and social norms; internalized concerns going beyond actual social reaction; measures to make breast-feeding in public places easier; desire for more public facilities; and expecting emotional support from society members. More positive social support, favourable policies and necessary facilities were desired to enable mothers to breast-feed in an appropriate public location. Women expected increased public acceptance of breast-feeding practices and support from government health officials to ensure women's success in breast-feeding in public settings.

  16. Which factors are effective for farmers’ biogas use?–Evidence from a large-scale survey in China

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Qu, W.; Tu, Q.; Bluemling, B.

    2013-01-01

    The Chinese government since 1995 has carried out programs for the construction of household biogas digesters in the Chinese countryside. Despite the large governmental spending in the building of household biogas digesters, only 12.16% of the households suitable to produce and use biogas, have

  17. Public appraisal of government efforts and participation intent in medico-ethical policymaking in Japan: a large scale national survey concerning brain death and organ transplant

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sato, Hajime; Akabayashi, Akira; Kai, Ichiro

    2005-01-01

    Background Public satisfaction with policy process influences the legitimacy and acceptance of policies, and conditions the future political process, especially when contending ethical value judgments are involved. On the other hand, public involvement is required if effective policy is to be developed and accepted. Methods Using the data from a large-scale national opinion survey, this study evaluates public appraisal of past government efforts to legalize organ transplant from brain-dead bodies in Japan, and examines the public's intent to participate in future policy. Results A relatively large percentage of people became aware of the issue when government actions were initiated, and many increasingly formed their own opinions on the policy in question. However, a significant number (43.3%) remained unaware of any legislative efforts, and only 26.3% of those who were aware provided positive appraisals of the policymaking process. Furthermore, a majority of respondents (61.8%) indicated unwillingness to participate in future policy discussions of bioethical issues. Multivariate analysis revealed the following factors are associated with positive appraisals of policy development: greater age; earlier opinion formation; and familiarity with donor cards. Factors associated with likelihood of future participation in policy discussion include younger age, earlier attention to the issue, and knowledge of past government efforts. Those unwilling to participate cited as their reasons that experts are more knowledgeable and that the issues are too complex. Conclusions Results of an opinion survey in Japan were presented, and a set of factors statistically associated with them were discussed. Further efforts to improve policy making process on bioethical issues are desirable. PMID:15661080

  18. Psychometric Evaluation of a Chinese Version of the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) in School Age Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koo, Malcolm; Norman, Cameron D.; Chang, Hsiao-Mei

    2012-01-01

    The eight-item eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) is a previously validated scale developed to assess consumers' combined knowledge, comfort, and perceived skills at finding, evaluating, and applying electronic health information to health problems. In the present study, a Chinese version of the eHEALS was developed and its psychometric properties…

  19. Large-scale Complex IT Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Sommerville, Ian; Cliff, Dave; Calinescu, Radu; Keen, Justin; Kelly, Tim; Kwiatkowska, Marta; McDermid, John; Paige, Richard

    2011-01-01

    This paper explores the issues around the construction of large-scale complex systems which are built as 'systems of systems' and suggests that there are fundamental reasons, derived from the inherent complexity in these systems, why our current software engineering methods and techniques cannot be scaled up to cope with the engineering challenges of constructing such systems. It then goes on to propose a research and education agenda for software engineering that identifies the major challen...

  20. Large-scale complex IT systems

    OpenAIRE

    Sommerville, Ian; Cliff, Dave; Calinescu, Radu; Keen, Justin; Kelly, Tim; Kwiatkowska, Marta; McDermid, John; Paige, Richard

    2012-01-01

    12 pages, 2 figures This paper explores the issues around the construction of large-scale complex systems which are built as 'systems of systems' and suggests that there are fundamental reasons, derived from the inherent complexity in these systems, why our current software engineering methods and techniques cannot be scaled up to cope with the engineering challenges of constructing such systems. It then goes on to propose a research and education agenda for software engineering that ident...

  1. First Mile Challenges for Large-Scale IoT

    KAUST Repository

    Bader, Ahmed; Elsawy, Hesham; Gharbieh, Mohammad; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Adinoyi, Abdulkareem; Alshaalan, Furaih

    2017-01-01

    The Internet of Things is large-scale by nature. This is not only manifested by the large number of connected devices, but also by the sheer scale of spatial traffic intensity that must be accommodated, primarily in the uplink direction. To that end

  2. [Recent advances of synthetic biology for production of functional ingredients in Chinese materia medica].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Su, Xin-Yao; Xue, Jian-Ping; Wang, Cai-Xia

    2016-11-01

    The functional ingredients in Chinese materia medica are the main active substance for traditional Chinese medicine and most of them are secondary metabolites derivatives. Until now,the main method to obtain those functional ingredients is through direct extraction from the Chinese materia medica. However, the income is very low because of the high extraction costs and the decreased medicinal plants. Synthetic biology technology, as a new and microbial approach, can be able to carry out large-scale production of functional ingredients and greatly ease the shortage of traditional Chinese medicine ingredients. This review mainly focused on the recent advances in synthetic biology for the functional ingredients production. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

  3. Prospects for large scale electricity storage in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Krog Ekman, Claus; Jensen, Søren Højgaard

    2010-01-01

    In a future power systems with additional wind power capacity there will be an increased need for large scale power management as well as reliable balancing and reserve capabilities. Different technologies for large scale electricity storage provide solutions to the different challenges arising w...

  4. Pecinan as an inspiration The contribution of Chinese Indonesian architecture to an urban environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wiwi Tjiook

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Since the abrogation of Presidential Instruction Number 14/1967 which banned Chinese customs celebrations and religion in public, there has been a revival in Chinese festivals, language, art, media, culture and not in the least in the field of architecture and urban planning. With increasing interest in heritage and the support of the Indonesian government for heritage cities programmes, several promising initiatives involving Chinese architecture have been launched in cities both large and small. A brief glance of the history of Chinese Indonesian architecture is given, as well as some recent initiatives in selected cities plus a discussion of the importance of public space in accommodating Chinese festivals. Study of old maps and photographs prompts reflections on the characteristics and development of Pecinan during the colonial era and of their later history. The analysis in this article and examples of recent developments in the cities discussed can be used as an inspiration in the revitalization of Pecinan, thereby contributing in an attractive and livable urban environment.

  5. Caught you: threats to confidentiality due to the public release of large-scale genetic data sets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wjst, Matthias

    2010-12-29

    Large-scale genetic data sets are frequently shared with other research groups and even released on the Internet to allow for secondary analysis. Study participants are usually not informed about such data sharing because data sets are assumed to be anonymous after stripping off personal identifiers. The assumption of anonymity of genetic data sets, however, is tenuous because genetic data are intrinsically self-identifying. Two types of re-identification are possible: the "Netflix" type and the "profiling" type. The "Netflix" type needs another small genetic data set, usually with less than 100 SNPs but including a personal identifier. This second data set might originate from another clinical examination, a study of leftover samples or forensic testing. When merged to the primary, unidentified set it will re-identify all samples of that individual. Even with no second data set at hand, a "profiling" strategy can be developed to extract as much information as possible from a sample collection. Starting with the identification of ethnic subgroups along with predictions of body characteristics and diseases, the asthma kids case as a real-life example is used to illustrate that approach. Depending on the degree of supplemental information, there is a good chance that at least a few individuals can be identified from an anonymized data set. Any re-identification, however, may potentially harm study participants because it will release individual genetic disease risks to the public.

  6. Caught you: threats to confidentiality due to the public release of large-scale genetic data sets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wjst Matthias

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Large-scale genetic data sets are frequently shared with other research groups and even released on the Internet to allow for secondary analysis. Study participants are usually not informed about such data sharing because data sets are assumed to be anonymous after stripping off personal identifiers. Discussion The assumption of anonymity of genetic data sets, however, is tenuous because genetic data are intrinsically self-identifying. Two types of re-identification are possible: the "Netflix" type and the "profiling" type. The "Netflix" type needs another small genetic data set, usually with less than 100 SNPs but including a personal identifier. This second data set might originate from another clinical examination, a study of leftover samples or forensic testing. When merged to the primary, unidentified set it will re-identify all samples of that individual. Even with no second data set at hand, a "profiling" strategy can be developed to extract as much information as possible from a sample collection. Starting with the identification of ethnic subgroups along with predictions of body characteristics and diseases, the asthma kids case as a real-life example is used to illustrate that approach. Summary Depending on the degree of supplemental information, there is a good chance that at least a few individuals can be identified from an anonymized data set. Any re-identification, however, may potentially harm study participants because it will release individual genetic disease risks to the public.

  7. Rogue AP Detection in the Wireless LAN for Large Scale Deployment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sang-Eon Kim

    2006-10-01

    Full Text Available The wireless LAN standard, also known as WiFi, has begun to use commercial purposes. This paper describes access network architecture of wireless LAN for large scale deployment to provide public service. A metro Ethernet and digital subscriber line access network can be used for wireless LAN with access point. In this network architecture, access point plays interface between wireless node and network infrastructure. It is important to maintain access point without any failure and problems to public users. This paper proposes definition of rogue access point and classifies based on functional problem to access the Internet. After that, rogue access point detection scheme is described based on classification over the wireless LAN. The rogue access point detector can greatly improve the network availability to network service provider of wireless LAN.

  8. Evolution of scaling emergence in large-scale spatial epidemic spreading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Lin; Li, Xiang; Zhang, Yi-Qing; Zhang, Yan; Zhang, Kan

    2011-01-01

    Zipf's law and Heaps' law are two representatives of the scaling concepts, which play a significant role in the study of complexity science. The coexistence of the Zipf's law and the Heaps' law motivates different understandings on the dependence between these two scalings, which has still hardly been clarified. In this article, we observe an evolution process of the scalings: the Zipf's law and the Heaps' law are naturally shaped to coexist at the initial time, while the crossover comes with the emergence of their inconsistency at the larger time before reaching a stable state, where the Heaps' law still exists with the disappearance of strict Zipf's law. Such findings are illustrated with a scenario of large-scale spatial epidemic spreading, and the empirical results of pandemic disease support a universal analysis of the relation between the two laws regardless of the biological details of disease. Employing the United States domestic air transportation and demographic data to construct a metapopulation model for simulating the pandemic spread at the U.S. country level, we uncover that the broad heterogeneity of the infrastructure plays a key role in the evolution of scaling emergence. The analyses of large-scale spatial epidemic spreading help understand the temporal evolution of scalings, indicating the coexistence of the Zipf's law and the Heaps' law depends on the collective dynamics of epidemic processes, and the heterogeneity of epidemic spread indicates the significance of performing targeted containment strategies at the early time of a pandemic disease.

  9. Large-Scale Structure and Hyperuniformity of Amorphous Ices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martelli, Fausto; Torquato, Salvatore; Giovambattista, Nicolas; Car, Roberto

    2017-09-01

    We investigate the large-scale structure of amorphous ices and transitions between their different forms by quantifying their large-scale density fluctuations. Specifically, we simulate the isothermal compression of low-density amorphous ice (LDA) and hexagonal ice to produce high-density amorphous ice (HDA). Both HDA and LDA are nearly hyperuniform; i.e., they are characterized by an anomalous suppression of large-scale density fluctuations. By contrast, in correspondence with the nonequilibrium phase transitions to HDA, the presence of structural heterogeneities strongly suppresses the hyperuniformity and the system becomes hyposurficial (devoid of "surface-area fluctuations"). Our investigation challenges the largely accepted "frozen-liquid" picture, which views glasses as structurally arrested liquids. Beyond implications for water, our findings enrich our understanding of pressure-induced structural transformations in glasses.

  10. Chinese character recognition based on Gabor feature extraction and CNN

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiong, Yudian; Lu, Tongwei; Jiang, Yongyuan

    2018-03-01

    As an important application in the field of text line recognition and office automation, Chinese character recognition has become an important subject of pattern recognition. However, due to the large number of Chinese characters and the complexity of its structure, there is a great difficulty in the Chinese character recognition. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes a method of printed Chinese character recognition based on Gabor feature extraction and Convolution Neural Network(CNN). The main steps are preprocessing, feature extraction, training classification. First, the gray-scale Chinese character image is binarized and normalized to reduce the redundancy of the image data. Second, each image is convoluted with Gabor filter with different orientations, and the feature map of the eight orientations of Chinese characters is extracted. Third, the feature map through Gabor filters and the original image are convoluted with learning kernels, and the results of the convolution is the input of pooling layer. Finally, the feature vector is used to classify and recognition. In addition, the generalization capacity of the network is improved by Dropout technology. The experimental results show that this method can effectively extract the characteristics of Chinese characters and recognize Chinese characters.

  11. EU-Great! European guide and recommendations for the combined funding of large-scale RDI initiatives

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heide, M.J.L. de; Butter, M.

    2016-01-01

    This report results from the H2020 project entitled “EU-GREAT!”.1 Objective of the report is to assess how to finance the set-up and / or continuation of what is defined as Large-scale RDI initiatives (LSIs, see Box 1). The report analyses the potential use of different public and private funding

  12. Double inflation: A possible resolution of the large-scale structure problem

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Turner, M.S.; Villumsen, J.V.; Vittorio, N.; Silk, J.; Juszkiewicz, R.

    1986-11-01

    A model is presented for the large-scale structure of the universe in which two successive inflationary phases resulted in large small-scale and small large-scale density fluctuations. This bimodal density fluctuation spectrum in an Ω = 1 universe dominated by hot dark matter leads to large-scale structure of the galaxy distribution that is consistent with recent observational results. In particular, large, nearly empty voids and significant large-scale peculiar velocity fields are produced over scales of ∼100 Mpc, while the small-scale structure over ≤ 10 Mpc resembles that in a low density universe, as observed. Detailed analytical calculations and numerical simulations are given of the spatial and velocity correlations. 38 refs., 6 figs

  13. Large-scale fracture mechancis testing -- requirements and possibilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brumovsky, M.

    1993-01-01

    Application of fracture mechanics to very important and/or complicated structures, like reactor pressure vessels, brings also some questions about the reliability and precision of such calculations. These problems become more pronounced in cases of elastic-plastic conditions of loading and/or in parts with non-homogeneous materials (base metal and austenitic cladding, property gradient changes through material thickness) or with non-homogeneous stress fields (nozzles, bolt threads, residual stresses etc.). For such special cases some verification by large-scale testing is necessary and valuable. This paper discusses problems connected with planning of such experiments with respect to their limitations, requirements to a good transfer of received results to an actual vessel. At the same time, an analysis of possibilities of small-scale model experiments is also shown, mostly in connection with application of results between standard, small-scale and large-scale experiments. Experience from 30 years of large-scale testing in SKODA is used as an example to support this analysis. 1 fig

  14. Ethics of large-scale change

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arler, Finn

    2006-01-01

    , which kind of attitude is appropriate when dealing with large-scale changes like these from an ethical point of view. Three kinds of approaches are discussed: Aldo Leopold's mountain thinking, the neoclassical economists' approach, and finally the so-called Concentric Circle Theories approach...

  15. Geospatial Augmented Reality for the interactive exploitation of large-scale walkable orthoimage maps in museums

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wüest, Robert; Nebiker, Stephan

    2018-05-01

    In this paper we present an app framework for augmenting large-scale walkable maps and orthoimages in museums or public spaces using standard smartphones and tablets. We first introduce a novel approach for using huge orthoimage mosaic floor prints covering several hundred square meters as natural Augmented Reality (AR) markers. We then present a new app architecture and subsequent tests in the Swissarena of the Swiss National Transport Museum in Lucerne demonstrating the capabilities of accurately tracking and augmenting different map topics, including dynamic 3d data such as live air traffic. The resulting prototype was tested with everyday visitors of the museum to get feedback on the usability of the AR app and to identify pitfalls when using AR in the context of a potentially crowded museum. The prototype is to be rolled out to the public after successful testing and optimization of the app. We were able to show that AR apps on standard smartphone devices can dramatically enhance the interactive use of large-scale maps for different purposes such as education or serious gaming in a museum context.

  16. [Dendrochronology of Chinese pine in Mulan-Weichang, Hebei Province: a primary study].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cui, Ming-xing; He, Xing-yuan; Chen, Wei; Chen, Zhen-ju; Zhou, Chang-hong; Wu, Tao

    2008-11-01

    Dendroclimatic methods were used to investigate the relationships between the growth of Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) and the climatic parameters in Mulan-Weichang of Hebei Province. The results showed that Chinese pine presented high sensitivity to climatic changes, and its earlywood width showed the highest sensitivity. There was a significant negative correlation between the tree-ring width chronology of Chinese pine and the air temperature in May-June. The precipitation and relative humidity in June had strong positive effects on the growth of earlywood, the precipitation from September to next September had significant positive effects on Chinese pine growth, and the relative humidity in winter more strongly affected the growth of latewood than of earlywood. There was a definite correlation between the tree-ring width chronology of Chinese pine and the large scale climate fluctuation. From 1951 to 2006, the increase of air temperature in study area was significant, and the sensitivity of Chinese pine to the variations of local temperature and precipitation decreased, presenting an inverse transforming trend with increasing temperature. Greater differences were observed between the reconstructed and observed data of mean temperature in May - June in a century scale, suggesting that the tree-ring growth of Chinese pine in study area had a greater fluctuation of sensitivity to the variation of climatic factors.

  17. Differences Across Levels in the Language of Agency and Ability in Rating Scales for Large-Scale Second Language Writing Assessments

    OpenAIRE

    Anderson Salena Sampson

    2017-01-01

    While large-scale language and writing assessments benefit from a wealth of literature on the reliability and validity of specific tests and rating procedures, there is comparatively less literature that explores the specific language of second language writing rubrics. This paper provides an analysis of the language of performance descriptors for the public versions of the TOEFL and IELTS writing assessment rubrics, with a focus on linguistic agency encoded by agentive verbs and language of ...

  18. Exploring the potential of open big data from ticketing websites to characterize travel patterns within the Chinese high-speed rail system.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sheng Wei

    Full Text Available Big data have contributed to deepen our understanding in regards to many human systems, particularly human mobility patterns and the structure and functioning of transportation systems. Resonating the recent call for 'open big data,' big data from various sources on a range of scales have become increasingly accessible to the public. However, open big data relevant to travelers within public transit tools remain scarce, hindering any further in-depth study on human mobility patterns. Here, we explore ticketing-website derived data that are publically available but have been largely neglected. We demonstrate the power, potential and limitations of this open big data, using the Chinese high-speed rail (HSR system as an example. Using an application programming interface, we automatically collected the data on the remaining tickets (RTD for scheduled trains at the last second before departure in order to retrieve information on unused transit capacity, occupancy rate of trains, and passenger flux at stations. We show that this information is highly useful in characterizing the spatiotemporal patterns of traveling behaviors on the Chinese HSR, such as weekend traveling behavior, imbalanced commuting behavior, and station functionality. Our work facilitates the understanding of human traveling patterns along the Chinese HSR, and the functionality of the largest HSR system in the world. We expect our work to attract attention regarding this unique open big data source for the study of analogous transportation systems.

  19. An examination of the wording effect in the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale among culturally Chinese people.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Chia-Huei

    2008-10-01

    Previous psychometric studies of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; 1965) have shown that items with positive and negative words tend to form 2 factors instead of a single factor for global self-esteem. Recent studies using confirmatory factor analysis have indicated that there is an additional method effect behind negatively worded items. However, researchers conducted these studies using Western participants. Because J. L. Farh and B. S. Cheng (1997) suggested that culturally Chinese people tend to exhibit a modesty bias in self-evaluation, especially on positively worded items, researchers may infer that a wording effect of positively worded items would be evident for culturally Chinese people. The author examined the wording effect in the RSES for culturally Chinese people by comparing different confirmatory factor models. The author analyzed data from 2 independent samples of students at the National Taiwan University (ns = 393, 441) and a national sample of juniors recruited from 140 universities and colleges in Taiwan in 2004 (n = 28,862). Results showed that in addition to a global factor for self-esteem, method effects of positively and negatively worded items should also be specified for a model fitting culturally Chinese people.

  20. Comparison Between Overtopping Discharge in Small and Large Scale Models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Helgason, Einar; Burcharth, Hans F.

    2006-01-01

    The present paper presents overtopping measurements from small scale model test performed at the Haudraulic & Coastal Engineering Laboratory, Aalborg University, Denmark and large scale model tests performed at the Largde Wave Channel,Hannover, Germany. Comparison between results obtained from...... small and large scale model tests show no clear evidence of scale effects for overtopping above a threshold value. In the large scale model no overtopping was measured for waveheights below Hs = 0.5m as the water sunk into the voids between the stones on the crest. For low overtopping scale effects...

  1. The impact of environmental pollution on public health expenditure: dynamic panel analysis based on Chinese provincial data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hao, Yu; Liu, Shuang; Lu, Zhi-Nan; Huang, Junbing; Zhao, Mingyuan

    2018-05-01

    In recent years, along with rapid economic growth, China's environmental problems have become increasingly prominent. At the same time, the level of China's pollution has been growing rapidly, which has caused huge damages to the residents' health. In this regard, the public health expenditure ballooned as the environmental quality deteriorated in China. In this study, the effect of environmental pollution on residents' health expenditure is empirically investigated by employing the first-order difference generalized method of moments (GMM) method to control for potential endogeneity. Using a panel data of Chinese provinces for the period of 1998-2015, this study found that the environmental pollution (represented by SO 2 and soot emissions) would indeed lead to the increase in the medical expenses of Chinese residents. At the current stage of economic development, an increase in SO 2 and soot emissions per capita would push up the public health expenditure per capita significantly. The estimation results are quite robust for different types of regression specifications and different combinations of control variables. Some social and economic variables such as public services and education may also have remarkable influences on residential medical expenses through different channels.

  2. Needs, opportunities, and options for large scale systems research

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Thompson, G.L.

    1984-10-01

    The Office of Energy Research was recently asked to perform a study of Large Scale Systems in order to facilitate the development of a true large systems theory. It was decided to ask experts in the fields of electrical engineering, chemical engineering and manufacturing/operations research for their ideas concerning large scale systems research. The author was asked to distribute a questionnaire among these experts to find out their opinions concerning recent accomplishments and future research directions in large scale systems research. He was also requested to convene a conference which included three experts in each area as panel members to discuss the general area of large scale systems research. The conference was held on March 26--27, 1984 in Pittsburgh with nine panel members, and 15 other attendees. The present report is a summary of the ideas presented and the recommendations proposed by the attendees.

  3. Large-scale structure of the Universe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doroshkevich, A.G.

    1978-01-01

    The problems, discussed at the ''Large-scale Structure of the Universe'' symposium are considered on a popular level. Described are the cell structure of galaxy distribution in the Universe, principles of mathematical galaxy distribution modelling. The images of cell structures, obtained after reprocessing with the computer are given. Discussed are three hypothesis - vortical, entropic, adiabatic, suggesting various processes of galaxy and galaxy clusters origin. A considerable advantage of the adiabatic hypothesis is recognized. The relict radiation, as a method of direct studying the processes taking place in the Universe is considered. The large-scale peculiarities and small-scale fluctuations of the relict radiation temperature enable one to estimate the turbance properties at the pre-galaxy stage. The discussion of problems, pertaining to studying the hot gas, contained in galaxy clusters, the interactions within galaxy clusters and with the inter-galaxy medium, is recognized to be a notable contribution into the development of theoretical and observational cosmology

  4. Seismic safety in conducting large-scale blasts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mashukov, I. V.; Chaplygin, V. V.; Domanov, V. P.; Semin, A. A.; Klimkin, M. A.

    2017-09-01

    In mining enterprises to prepare hard rocks for excavation a drilling and blasting method is used. With the approach of mining operations to settlements the negative effect of large-scale blasts increases. To assess the level of seismic impact of large-scale blasts the scientific staff of Siberian State Industrial University carried out expertise for coal mines and iron ore enterprises. Determination of the magnitude of surface seismic vibrations caused by mass explosions was performed using seismic receivers, an analog-digital converter with recording on a laptop. The registration results of surface seismic vibrations during production of more than 280 large-scale blasts at 17 mining enterprises in 22 settlements are presented. The maximum velocity values of the Earth’s surface vibrations are determined. The safety evaluation of seismic effect was carried out according to the permissible value of vibration velocity. For cases with exceedance of permissible values recommendations were developed to reduce the level of seismic impact.

  5. Image-based Exploration of Large-Scale Pathline Fields

    KAUST Repository

    Nagoor, Omniah H.

    2014-05-27

    While real-time applications are nowadays routinely used in visualizing large nu- merical simulations and volumes, handling these large-scale datasets requires high-end graphics clusters or supercomputers to process and visualize them. However, not all users have access to powerful clusters. Therefore, it is challenging to come up with a visualization approach that provides insight to large-scale datasets on a single com- puter. Explorable images (EI) is one of the methods that allows users to handle large data on a single workstation. Although it is a view-dependent method, it combines both exploration and modification of visual aspects without re-accessing the original huge data. In this thesis, we propose a novel image-based method that applies the concept of EI in visualizing large flow-field pathlines data. The goal of our work is to provide an optimized image-based method, which scales well with the dataset size. Our approach is based on constructing a per-pixel linked list data structure in which each pixel contains a list of pathlines segments. With this view-dependent method it is possible to filter, color-code and explore large-scale flow data in real-time. In addition, optimization techniques such as early-ray termination and deferred shading are applied, which further improves the performance and scalability of our approach.

  6. Measuring the preference towards patient-centred communication with the Chinese-revised Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale: A cross-sectional study among physicians and patients in clinical settings in Shanghai, China

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wang, J. (Jie); Zou, R. (Runyu); Fu, H. (Hua); Qian, H. (Haihong); Yan, Y. (Yueren); Wang, F. (Fan)

    2017-01-01

    textabstractObjectives To adapt the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS), to a Chinese context, and explore the preference towards patient-centred communication among physicians and patients with the Chinese-revised Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (CR-PPOS). Design A cross-sectional

  7. [Analysis on difference of richness of traditional Chinese medicine resources in Chongqing based on grid technology].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xiao-Bo; Qu, Xian-You; Li, Meng; Wang, Hui; Jing, Zhi-Xian; Liu, Xiang; Zhang, Zhi-Wei; Guo, Lan-Ping; Huang, Lu-Qi

    2017-11-01

    After the end of the national and local medicine resources census work, a large number of Chinese medicine resources and distribution of data will be summarized. The species richness between the regions is a valid indicator for objective reflection of inter-regional resources of Chinese medicine. Due to the large difference in the size of the county area, the assessment of the intercropping of the resources of the traditional Chinese medicine by the county as a statistical unit will lead to the deviation of the regional abundance statistics. Based on the rule grid or grid statistical methods, the size of the statistical unit due to different can be reduced, the differences in the richness of traditional Chinese medicine resources are caused. Taking Chongqing as an example, based on the existing survey data, the difference of richness of traditional Chinese medicine resources under different grid scale were compared and analyzed. The results showed that the 30 km grid could be selected and the richness of Chinese medicine resources in Chongqing could reflect the objective situation of intercropping resources richness in traditional Chinese medicine better. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

  8. Wind energy development in China (WED) — The Danish-Chinese collaboration project

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Xu, Zhao; Rosenberg, H.; Sørensen, Poul Ejnar

    2009-01-01

    This paper reports the large scale bilateral development program- the Danish-Chinese wind energy development program (WED). The paper starts with overview of electric energy production and consumption in the two counties with special focus on wind energy status. Next, the detailed objectives...

  9. Faith-Based HIV Care and Prevention in Chinese Immigrant Communities: Rhetoric or Reality?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, Ezer; Chin, John J.; Behar, Elana

    2012-01-01

    Ethnic churches attended by first generation Chinese immigrants are uniquely positioned to address emerging HIV prevention and care needs within the Chinese community at-large. Efforts to develop faith-based HIV programs necessitate identifying how HIV intersects with the sinicization of Christianity within Chinese churches. This paper will review the process of contextualizing HIV within theological and cultural frameworks that are meaningful for ethnic Chinese church leaders and members. The authors specifically propose two points of integration between public health and ecclesial functions: (1) HIV stigma-mitigation initiatives as informed by Christo-centric teachings of compassion and justice, and (2) HIV prevention and care reframed as social responsibility and informed by the Christian tradition of evangelism. Systems and practices that hinder and promote the involvement of Chinese churches in HIV prevention, care, and stigma-reduction will be discussed. PMID:23483037

  10. A compact to revitalise large-scale irrigation systems: A ‘theory of change’ approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bruce A. Lankford

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available In countries with transitional economies such as those found in South Asia, large-scale irrigation systems (LSIS with a history of public ownership account for about 115 million ha (Mha or approximately 45% of their total area under irrigation. In terms of the global area of irrigation (320 Mha for all countries, LSIS are estimated at 130 Mha or 40% of irrigated land. These systems can potentially deliver significant local, regional and global benefits in terms of food, water and energy security, employment, economic growth and ecosystem services. For example, primary crop production is conservatively valued at about US$355 billion. However, efforts to enhance these benefits and reform the sector have been costly and outcomes have been underwhelming and short-lived. We propose the application of a 'theory of change' (ToC as a foundation for promoting transformational change in large-scale irrigation centred upon a 'global irrigation compact' that promotes new forms of leadership, partnership and ownership (LPO. The compact argues that LSIS can change by switching away from the current channelling of aid finances controlled by government irrigation agencies. Instead it is for irrigators, closely partnered by private, public and NGO advisory and regulatory services, to develop strong leadership models and to find new compensatory partnerships with cities and other river basin neighbours. The paper summarises key assumptions for change in the LSIS sector including the need to initially test this change via a handful of volunteer systems. Our other key purpose is to demonstrate a ToC template by which large-scale irrigation policy can be better elaborated and discussed.

  11. Homogenization of Large-Scale Movement Models in Ecology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garlick, M.J.; Powell, J.A.; Hooten, M.B.; McFarlane, L.R.

    2011-01-01

    A difficulty in using diffusion models to predict large scale animal population dispersal is that individuals move differently based on local information (as opposed to gradients) in differing habitat types. This can be accommodated by using ecological diffusion. However, real environments are often spatially complex, limiting application of a direct approach. Homogenization for partial differential equations has long been applied to Fickian diffusion (in which average individual movement is organized along gradients of habitat and population density). We derive a homogenization procedure for ecological diffusion and apply it to a simple model for chronic wasting disease in mule deer. Homogenization allows us to determine the impact of small scale (10-100 m) habitat variability on large scale (10-100 km) movement. The procedure generates asymptotic equations for solutions on the large scale with parameters defined by small-scale variation. The simplicity of this homogenization procedure is striking when compared to the multi-dimensional homogenization procedure for Fickian diffusion,and the method will be equally straightforward for more complex models. ?? 2010 Society for Mathematical Biology.

  12. The role of large-scale, extratropical dynamics in climate change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shepherd, T.G. [ed.

    1994-02-01

    The climate modeling community has focused recently on improving our understanding of certain processes, such as cloud feedbacks and ocean circulation, that are deemed critical to climate-change prediction. Although attention to such processes is warranted, emphasis on these areas has diminished a general appreciation of the role played by the large-scale dynamics of the extratropical atmosphere. Lack of interest in extratropical dynamics may reflect the assumption that these dynamical processes are a non-problem as far as climate modeling is concerned, since general circulation models (GCMs) calculate motions on this scale from first principles. Nevertheless, serious shortcomings in our ability to understand and simulate large-scale dynamics exist. Partly due to a paucity of standard GCM diagnostic calculations of large-scale motions and their transports of heat, momentum, potential vorticity, and moisture, a comprehensive understanding of the role of large-scale dynamics in GCM climate simulations has not been developed. Uncertainties remain in our understanding and simulation of large-scale extratropical dynamics and their interaction with other climatic processes, such as cloud feedbacks, large-scale ocean circulation, moist convection, air-sea interaction and land-surface processes. To address some of these issues, the 17th Stanstead Seminar was convened at Bishop`s University in Lennoxville, Quebec. The purpose of the Seminar was to promote discussion of the role of large-scale extratropical dynamics in global climate change. Abstracts of the talks are included in this volume. On the basis of these talks, several key issues emerged concerning large-scale extratropical dynamics and their climatic role. Individual records are indexed separately for the database.

  13. The role of large-scale, extratropical dynamics in climate change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shepherd, T.G.

    1994-02-01

    The climate modeling community has focused recently on improving our understanding of certain processes, such as cloud feedbacks and ocean circulation, that are deemed critical to climate-change prediction. Although attention to such processes is warranted, emphasis on these areas has diminished a general appreciation of the role played by the large-scale dynamics of the extratropical atmosphere. Lack of interest in extratropical dynamics may reflect the assumption that these dynamical processes are a non-problem as far as climate modeling is concerned, since general circulation models (GCMs) calculate motions on this scale from first principles. Nevertheless, serious shortcomings in our ability to understand and simulate large-scale dynamics exist. Partly due to a paucity of standard GCM diagnostic calculations of large-scale motions and their transports of heat, momentum, potential vorticity, and moisture, a comprehensive understanding of the role of large-scale dynamics in GCM climate simulations has not been developed. Uncertainties remain in our understanding and simulation of large-scale extratropical dynamics and their interaction with other climatic processes, such as cloud feedbacks, large-scale ocean circulation, moist convection, air-sea interaction and land-surface processes. To address some of these issues, the 17th Stanstead Seminar was convened at Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec. The purpose of the Seminar was to promote discussion of the role of large-scale extratropical dynamics in global climate change. Abstracts of the talks are included in this volume. On the basis of these talks, several key issues emerged concerning large-scale extratropical dynamics and their climatic role. Individual records are indexed separately for the database

  14. Status: Large-scale subatmospheric cryogenic systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peterson, T.

    1989-01-01

    In the late 1960's and early 1970's an interest in testing and operating RF cavities at 1.8K motivated the development and construction of four large (300 Watt) 1.8K refrigeration systems. in the past decade, development of successful superconducting RF cavities and interest in obtaining higher magnetic fields with the improved Niobium-Titanium superconductors has once again created interest in large-scale 1.8K refrigeration systems. The L'Air Liquide plant for Tore Supra is a recently commissioned 300 Watt 1.8K system which incorporates new technology, cold compressors, to obtain the low vapor pressure for low temperature cooling. CEBAF proposes to use cold compressors to obtain 5KW at 2.0K. Magnetic refrigerators of 10 Watt capacity or higher at 1.8K are now being developed. The state of the art of large-scale refrigeration in the range under 4K will be reviewed. 28 refs., 4 figs., 7 tabs

  15. Large-scale weakly supervised object localization via latent category learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chong Wang; Kaiqi Huang; Weiqiang Ren; Junge Zhang; Maybank, Steve

    2015-04-01

    Localizing objects in cluttered backgrounds is challenging under large-scale weakly supervised conditions. Due to the cluttered image condition, objects usually have large ambiguity with backgrounds. Besides, there is also a lack of effective algorithm for large-scale weakly supervised localization in cluttered backgrounds. However, backgrounds contain useful latent information, e.g., the sky in the aeroplane class. If this latent information can be learned, object-background ambiguity can be largely reduced and background can be suppressed effectively. In this paper, we propose the latent category learning (LCL) in large-scale cluttered conditions. LCL is an unsupervised learning method which requires only image-level class labels. First, we use the latent semantic analysis with semantic object representation to learn the latent categories, which represent objects, object parts or backgrounds. Second, to determine which category contains the target object, we propose a category selection strategy by evaluating each category's discrimination. Finally, we propose the online LCL for use in large-scale conditions. Evaluation on the challenging PASCAL Visual Object Class (VOC) 2007 and the large-scale imagenet large-scale visual recognition challenge 2013 detection data sets shows that the method can improve the annotation precision by 10% over previous methods. More importantly, we achieve the detection precision which outperforms previous results by a large margin and can be competitive to the supervised deformable part model 5.0 baseline on both data sets.

  16. Large-scale networks in engineering and life sciences

    CERN Document Server

    Findeisen, Rolf; Flockerzi, Dietrich; Reichl, Udo; Sundmacher, Kai

    2014-01-01

    This edited volume provides insights into and tools for the modeling, analysis, optimization, and control of large-scale networks in the life sciences and in engineering. Large-scale systems are often the result of networked interactions between a large number of subsystems, and their analysis and control are becoming increasingly important. The chapters of this book present the basic concepts and theoretical foundations of network theory and discuss its applications in different scientific areas such as biochemical reactions, chemical production processes, systems biology, electrical circuits, and mobile agents. The aim is to identify common concepts, to understand the underlying mathematical ideas, and to inspire discussions across the borders of the various disciplines.  The book originates from the interdisciplinary summer school “Large Scale Networks in Engineering and Life Sciences” hosted by the International Max Planck Research School Magdeburg, September 26-30, 2011, and will therefore be of int...

  17. GRAPHICS-IMAGE MIXED METHOD FOR LARGE-SCALE BUILDINGS RENDERING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Zhou

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Urban 3D model data is huge and unstructured, LOD and Out-of-core algorithm are usually used to reduce the amount of data that drawn in each frame to improve the rendering efficiency. When the scene is large enough, even the complex optimization algorithm is difficult to achieve better results. Based on the traditional study, a novel idea was developed. We propose a graphics and image mixed method for large-scale buildings rendering. Firstly, the view field is divided into several regions, the graphics-image mixed method used to render the scene on both screen and FBO, then blending the FBO with scree. The algorithm is tested on the huge CityGML model data in the urban areas of New York which contained 188195 public building models, and compared with the Cesium platform. The experiment result shows the system was running smoothly. The experimental results confirm that the algorithm can achieve more massive building scene roaming under the same hardware conditions, and can rendering the scene without vision loss.

  18. An Novel Architecture of Large-scale Communication in IOT

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Wubin; Deng, Su; Huang, Hongbin

    2018-03-01

    In recent years, many scholars have done a great deal of research on the development of Internet of Things and networked physical systems. However, few people have made the detailed visualization of the large-scale communications architecture in the IOT. In fact, the non-uniform technology between IPv6 and access points has led to a lack of broad principles of large-scale communications architectures. Therefore, this paper presents the Uni-IPv6 Access and Information Exchange Method (UAIEM), a new architecture and algorithm that addresses large-scale communications in the IOT.

  19. A Polar Rover for Large-Scale Scientific Surveys: Design, Implementation and Field Test Results

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuqing He

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Exploration of polar regions is of great importance to scientific research. Unfortunately, due to the harsh environment, most of the regions on the Antarctic continent are still unreachable for humankind. Therefore, in 2011, the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE launched a project to design a rover to conduct large-scale scientific surveys on the Antarctic. The main challenges for the rover are twofold: one is the mobility, i.e., how to make a rover that could survive the harsh environment and safely move on the uneven, icy and snowy terrain; the other is the autonomy, in that the robot should be able to move at a relatively high speed with little or no human intervention so that it can explore a large region in a limit time interval under the communication constraints. In this paper, the corresponding techniques, especially the polar rover's design and autonomous navigation algorithms, are introduced in detail. Subsequently, an experimental report of the fields tests on the Antarctic is given to show some preliminary evaluation of the rover. Finally, experiences and existing challenging problems are summarized.

  20. Benefits of transactive memory systems in large-scale development

    OpenAIRE

    Aivars, Sablis

    2016-01-01

    Context. Large-scale software development projects are those consisting of a large number of teams, maybe even spread across multiple locations, and working on large and complex software tasks. That means that neither a team member individually nor an entire team holds all the knowledge about the software being developed and teams have to communicate and coordinate their knowledge. Therefore, teams and team members in large-scale software development projects must acquire and manage expertise...

  1. Factor Structure of a Multidimensional Gender Identity Scale in a Sample of Chinese Elementary School Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lu Yu

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This study examined the factor structure of a scale based on the four-dimensional gender identity model (Egan and Perry, 2001 in 726 Chinese elementary school students. Exploratory factor analyses suggested a three-factor model, two of which corresponded to “Felt Pressure” and “Intergroup Bias” in the original model. The third factor “Gender Compatibility” appeared to be a combination of “Gender Typicality” and “Gender Contentment” in the original model. Follow-up confirmatory factor analysis (CFA indicated that, relative to the initial four-factor structure, the three-factor model fits the current Chinese sample better. These results are discussed in light of cross-cultural similarities and differences in development of gender identity.

  2. Study of a large scale neutron measurement channel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Amarouayache, Anissa; Ben Hadid, Hayet.

    1982-12-01

    A large scale measurement channel allows the processing of the signal coming from an unique neutronic sensor, during three different running modes: impulses, fluctuations and current. The study described in this note includes three parts: - A theoretical study of the large scale channel and its brief description are given. The results obtained till now in that domain are presented. - The fluctuation mode is thoroughly studied and the improvements to be done are defined. The study of a fluctuation linear channel with an automatic commutation of scales is described and the results of the tests are given. In this large scale channel, the method of data processing is analogical. - To become independent of the problems generated by the use of a an analogical processing of the fluctuation signal, a digital method of data processing is tested. The validity of that method is improved. The results obtained on a test system realized according to this method are given and a preliminary plan for further research is defined [fr

  3. Psychometric properties of the Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) in Chinese adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mak, Kwok-Kei; Lai, Ching-Man; Ko, Chih-Hung; Chou, Chien; Kim, Dong-Il; Watanabe, Hiroko; Ho, Roger C M

    2014-10-01

    The Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) was developed to assess Internet addiction in Chinese populations, but its psychometric properties in adolescents have not been examined. This study aimed to evaluate the factor structure and psychometric properties of CIAS-R in Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. 860 Grade 7 to 13 students (38 % boys) completed the CIAS-R, the Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT), and the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA) in a survey. The prevalence of Internet addiction as assessed by CIAS-R was 18 %. High internal consistency and inter-item correlations were reported for the CIAS-R. Results from the confirmatory factor analysis suggested a four-factor structure of Compulsive Use and Withdrawal, Tolerance, Interpersonal and Health-related Problems, and Time Management Problems. Moreover, results of hierarchical multiple regression supported the incremental validity of the CIAS-R to predict mental health outcomes beyond the effects of demographic differences and self-reported time spent online. The CIAS is a reliable and valid measure of internet addiction problems in Hong Kong adolescents. Future study is warranted to validate the cutoffs of the CIAS-R for identification of adolescents with Internet use problems who may have mental health needs.

  4. Preference of Chinese general public and healthcare providers for a good death.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haishan, Huang; Hongjuan, Liu; Tieying, Zeng; Xuemei, Pu

    2015-03-01

    The aim of this study is to find and compare the current situation between common people and healthcare providers' preferences for a good death in the context of Chinese culture. A cross-sectional anonymous questionnaire survey covering 190 ordinary Chinese people and 323 healthcare providers was conducted. An inventory of the good death was translated and the subjects were surveyed about their attitude toward it. Permission to conduct the study was granted by department chiefs, nurse managers and the participants themselves. The participants were informed that they took part on a voluntary and anonymous basis, that they could withdraw at any time, that they had the right to ignore questions they did not wish to answer, and that whatever they chose to do would not jeopardize their employment conditions. The attributes that were perceived as important by major respondents for a good death were maintaining hope and pleasure, good relationship with medical staff, good relationship with family, independence, environment comfort, being respected as an individual, preparation for death, physical and psychological comfort, dying in a favorite place, and not being a burden to others. And some relatively less important characteristics were life completion, receiving enough treatment, natural death, controlling over the future, unawareness of death, pride and beauty, feeling that one's life is worth living, and religious and spiritual comfort. We also found that healthcare providers were more likely than general out-patients to perceive "physical and psychological comfort," "dying in a favorite place," "good relationship with medical staff," and "natural death" as important for a good death. This study offers healthcare providers in China a fundamental understanding of the normal expectations of the general public for a good death. It is believed that these findings in our study are valuable to improve palliative care in China. We compared the attitudes of Chinese and

  5. Measuring social impacts of breast carcinoma treatment in Chinese women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fielding, Richard; Lam, Wendy W T

    2004-06-15

    There is no existing instrument that is suitable for measuring the social impact of breast carcinoma (BC) and its treatment among women of Southern Chinese descent. In the current study, the authors assessed the validity of the Chinese Social Adjustment Scale, which was designed to address the need for such an instrument. Five dimensions of social concern were identified in a previous study of Cantonese-speaking Chinese women with BC; these dimensions were family and other relationships, intimacy, private self-image, and public self-image. The authors designed 40 items to address perceptions of change in these areas. These items were administered to a group of 226 women who had received treatment for BC, and factor analysis subsequently was performed to determine construct characteristics. The resulting draft instrument then was administered, along with other measures for the assessment of basic psychometric properties, to a second group of 367 women who recently had undergone surgery for BC. Factor analysis optimally identified 5 factors (corresponding to 33 items): 1) Relationships with Family (10 items, accounting for 22% of variance); 2) Self-Image (7 items, accounting for 15% of variance); 3) Relationships with Friends (7 items, accounting for 8% of variance); 4) Social Enjoyment (4 items, accounting for 6% of variance); and 5) Attractiveness and Sexuality (5 items, accounting for 5% of variance). Subscales were reliable (alpha = 0.63-0.93) and exhibited convergent validity in positive correlations with related measures and divergent validity in appropriate inverse or nonsignificant correlations with other measures. Criterion validity was good, and sensitivity was acceptable. Patterns of change on the scales were consistent with reports in the literature. Self-administration resulted in improved sensitivity. The 33-item Chinese Social Adjustment Scale validly, reliably, and sensitively measures the social impact of BC on Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong Chinese

  6. Psychological well-being of older Chinese immigrants living in Australia: a comparison with older Caucasians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Xiaoping; Bryant, Christina; Boldero, Jennifer; Dow, Briony

    2016-10-01

    Few current studies explore psychological well-being among older Chinese immigrants in Australia. The study addressed this gap and provided preliminary data on psychological well-being among this group. Four indicators, namely depression, anxiety, loneliness, and quality of life, were used to present a comprehensive picture of psychological well-being. Participants were two groups of community-dwelling older people, specifically 59 Chinese immigrants and 60 Australian-born people (median age=77 and 73, respectively). Data were collected through standardized interviews. The Geriatric Depression Scale, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the de Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale and the WHO Quality of Life questionnaire were used to measure depression, anxiety, loneliness, and quality of life, respectively. Chinese participants' median quality of life score was higher than the scale mid-point, indicating relatively high levels of quality of life. However, 10% exhibited symptoms of depression, 6% had symptoms of anxiety, and 49% felt lonely. Compared to Australian participants, Chinese participants reported poorer quality of life and higher levels of loneliness. Importantly, the difference in quality of life remained when the impact of socio-demographic factors was controlled for. This study was the first to use multiple indicators to explore psychological well-being among older Chinese immigrants in Australia. Its results suggest that their psychological well-being might be worse than that of Australian-born people when using loneliness and quality of life as indicators. In particular, loneliness is a common psychological problem among this group, and there is a need for public awareness of this problem.

  7. Numbers, scale and symbols: the public understanding of nanotechnology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Batt, Carl A.; Waldron, Anna M.; Broadwater, Natalie

    2008-10-01

    Nanotechnology will be an increasing part of the everyday lives of most people in the world. There is a general recognition that few people understand the implications of the technology, the technology itself or even the definition of the word. This lack of understanding stems from a lack of knowledge about science in general but more specifically difficulty in grasping the size scale and symbolism of nanotechnology. A potential key to informing the general public is establishing the ability to comprehend the scale of nanotechnology. Transitioning from the macro to the nanoscale seems to require an ability to comprehend scales of one-billion. Scaling is a skill not common in most individuals and tests of their ability to extrapolate size based upon scaling a common object demonstrates that most individuals cannot scale to the extent needed to make the transition to nanoscale. Symbolism is another important vehicle to providing the general public with a basis to understand the concepts of nanotechnology. With increasing age, individuals are able to draw representations of atomic scale objects, but these tend to be iconic and the different representations not easily translated. Ball and stick models are most recognized by the public, which provides an opportunity to present not only useful symbolism but also a reference point for the atomic scale.

  8. Numbers, scale and symbols: the public understanding of nanotechnology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Batt, Carl A.; Waldron, Anna M.; Broadwater, Natalie

    2008-01-01

    Nanotechnology will be an increasing part of the everyday lives of most people in the world. There is a general recognition that few people understand the implications of the technology, the technology itself or even the definition of the word. This lack of understanding stems from a lack of knowledge about science in general but more specifically difficulty in grasping the size scale and symbolism of nanotechnology. A potential key to informing the general public is establishing the ability to comprehend the scale of nanotechnology. Transitioning from the macro to the nanoscale seems to require an ability to comprehend scales of one-billion. Scaling is a skill not common in most individuals and tests of their ability to extrapolate size based upon scaling a common object demonstrates that most individuals cannot scale to the extent needed to make the transition to nanoscale. Symbolism is another important vehicle to providing the general public with a basis to understand the concepts of nanotechnology. With increasing age, individuals are able to draw representations of atomic scale objects, but these tend to be iconic and the different representations not easily translated. Ball and stick models are most recognized by the public, which provides an opportunity to present not only useful symbolism but also a reference point for the atomic scale.

  9. Energy efficiency improving opportunities in a large Chinese shoe-making enterprise

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ming Yang

    2010-01-01

    Energy consumption and energy intensity reduction opportunities are quite different from one enterprise to another. It is necessary to understand how much energy is used at individual enterprise, where the most energy is consumed and what the best opportunities are to invest in energy efficiency. Auditing energy efficiency was recently undertaken in one of the top 1000 largest Chinese enterprises. The objectives of this paper are to fill a gap in the literature of auditing energy efficiency for a Chinese manufacturing enterprise and to share the audited energy efficiency results. This paper concludes that if the enterprise invests USD 1.9 million to improve energy efficiency, the investment will be recovered in about 18 months. The net present value of the investment would be about USD 9.8 million at a discount rate of 12%. The investment will reduce a large amount of energy consumption at the enterprise based on its figures in 2008, including 15% of electricity, 40% of fuel oil, and 54% of diesel. Carbon reduction is also very cost-effective. Investment of one dollar in the enterprise will help cut carbon emission by 7.95 kg per year and generate $5.3 net revenue in the economic lifetime of the invested technology.

  10. Chinese Version of Psychometric Evaluation of Self-Reflection and Insight Scale on Taiwanese Nursing Students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Shu-Yueh; Lai, Chen-Chun; Chang, Hui-Mei; Hsu, Hui-Chen; Pai, Hsiang-Chu

    2016-12-01

    Self-reflection (also known as reflection) is an internal process that is difficult to perceive or assess. An instrument that is able to measure self-reflection may serve as a resource for educators to assess the learning process of students and to tailor education approaches to student needs. The aim of this study was to translate the Self-Reflection and Insight Scale (SRIS) into Chinese and evaluate its psychometric properties for use with Taiwanese nursing students. For this cross-sectional study, nursing students were recruited from two nursing schools in southern Taiwan in two phases: Phase 1, which included 361 fourth-year students, and Phase 2, which included 703 fifth-year students. Data were collected in December 2012 and May 2013 using the Chinese version of the SRIS (SRIS-C), Taiwan Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory, and the Perceived Identity as a Nurse Questionnaire, which was developed by the author. In Phase 1, exploratory factor analysis was used to explore the factor structure of the SRIS-C in the fourth-year student participants. In Phase 2, confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine the fitness of the model for the fifth-year student participants. Eight items were deleted from the original SRIS to create the SRIS-C. Thus, the Chinese-version measure had 12 items and two factors (self-reflection and insight) that fit the data well. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the total scale and its two subscales were .79, .87, and .83, respectively. The 3-week test-retest reliability was .74. SRIS-C scores correlated significantly with scores on the Taiwan Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory and the Perceived Identity as a Nurse Questionnaire, indicating good convergent validity for the SRIS-C. The current study showed that the SRIS-C has sound psychometric properties. This instrument provides nurse educators with information that may be used to evaluate the self-reflection and insight of students and to develop interventions to

  11. Measuring Chinese psychological well-being with Western developed instruments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Jie; Norvilitis, Jill M

    2002-12-01

    We explored the possibility of applying 4 psychological scales developed and commonly used in the West to Chinese culture. The participants, 273 Chinese and 302 Americans, completed measures of self-esteem (Self-Esteem Scale; Rosenberg, 1965), depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale; Radloff, 1977), social support (Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support; Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988), and suicidal ideation (Scale for Suicide Ideation; Beck, Kovacs, & Weissman, 1979). All scales were found to be reliable and valid cross culturally. Comparative analyses suggest that gender differences on all 4 scales are smaller among the Chinese than the Americans. Americans were more likely to score higher on the socially desirable scales (self-esteem and social support) and lower on the socially undesirable scale (suicidal ideation). However, no cultural differences were found in this study on the measure of depression. Results suggest that, with a few considerations or potential modifications, the current measures could be used in Chinese culture.

  12. Spatiotemporal property and predictability of large-scale human mobility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Hai-Tao; Zhu, Tao; Fu, Dongfei; Xu, Bowen; Han, Xiao-Pu; Chen, Duxin

    2018-04-01

    Spatiotemporal characteristics of human mobility emerging from complexity on individual scale have been extensively studied due to the application potential on human behavior prediction and recommendation, and control of epidemic spreading. We collect and investigate a comprehensive data set of human activities on large geographical scales, including both websites browse and mobile towers visit. Numerical results show that the degree of activity decays as a power law, indicating that human behaviors are reminiscent of scale-free random walks known as Lévy flight. More significantly, this study suggests that human activities on large geographical scales have specific non-Markovian characteristics, such as a two-segment power-law distribution of dwelling time and a high possibility for prediction. Furthermore, a scale-free featured mobility model with two essential ingredients, i.e., preferential return and exploration, and a Gaussian distribution assumption on the exploration tendency parameter is proposed, which outperforms existing human mobility models under scenarios of large geographical scales.

  13. An abbreviated Faecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale for Chinese-speaking population with colorectal cancer after surgery: cultural adaptation and item reduction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsu, L-F; Hung, C-L; Kuo, L-J; Tsai, P-S

    2017-09-01

    No instrument is available to assess the impact of faecal incontinence (FI) of quality of life for Chinese-speaking population. The purpose of the study was to adapt the Faecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale (FIQL) for patients with colorectal cancer, assess the factor structure and reduce the items for brevity. A sample of 120 participants were enrolled. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent and contrasted-groups validity were assessed. Construct validity was analysed using an exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). The internal consistency (Cronbach's α of the total scale and four subscales = 0.98 and 0.97, 0.96, 0.92, 0.82 respectively), test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients ≥.98 for all scales with p < .001) and significant correlations of all scales with selected subscales of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey and the Wexner scale suggested satisfactory reliability and validity. The severe FI group (with a Wexner score ≥9) scored significantly lower on the scale than the less severe FI group (with a Wexner score <9) did (p < .001). The CFA supported a two-factor structure and demonstrated an excellent model fit of the 15-item abbreviated version of the FIQL-Chinese. The FIQL-Chinese has satisfactory validity and reliability and the abbreviated version may be more practical and applicable. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  14. Psychometric properties of the Brunel Mood Scale in Chinese adolescents and adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Chun-Qing; Si, Gangyan; Chung, Pak-Kwong; Du, Mengmeng; Terry, Peter C

    2014-01-01

    Building on the work of Terry and colleagues (Terry, P. C., Lane, A. M., Lane, H. J., & Keohane, L. (1999). Development and validation of a mood measure for adolescents. Journal of Sports Sciences, 17, 861-872; Terry, P. C., Lane, A. M., & Fogarty, G. J. (2003). Construct validity of the Profile of Mood States-Adolescents for use with adults. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 4, 125-139.), the present study examined the validity and internal consistency reliability of the Chinese version of the Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS-C) among 2,548 participants, comprising adolescent athletes (n = 520), adult athletes (n = 434), adolescent students (n = 673), and adult students (n = 921). Both adolescent and adult athletes completed the BRUMS-C before, during, or after regular training and both adolescent and adult students completed the BRUMS-C in a classroom setting. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) provided support for the factorial validity of a 23-item six-factor model, with one item removed from the hypothesised measurement model. Internal consistency reliabilities were satisfactory for all subscales across each of the four samples. Criterion validity was supported with strong relationships between the BRUMS-C, abbreviated POMS, and Chinese Affect Scale consistent with theoretical predictions. Multi-sample CFAs showed the BRUMS-C to be invariant at the configural, metric, strong, and structural levels for all samples. Furthermore, latent mean difference analyses showed that athletes reported significantly higher levels of fatigue than students while maintaining almost the same levels of vigour, and adolescent students reported significantly higher levels of depressed mood than the other three samples.

  15. Large-scale computing with Quantum Espresso

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Giannozzi, P.; Cavazzoni, C.

    2009-01-01

    This paper gives a short introduction to Quantum Espresso: a distribution of software for atomistic simulations in condensed-matter physics, chemical physics, materials science, and to its usage in large-scale parallel computing.

  16. Relationships between Organizations and Publics: Development of a Multi-Dimensional Organization-Public Relationship Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruning, Stephen D.; Ledingham, John A.

    1999-01-01

    Attempts to design a multiple-item, multiple-dimension organization/public relationship scale. Finds that organizations and key publics have three types of relationships: professional, personal, and community. Provides an instrument that can be used to measure the influence that perceptions of the organization/public relationship have on consumer…

  17. Palmprint and Palmvein Recognition Based on DCNN and A New Large-Scale Contactless Palmvein Dataset

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lin Zhang

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Among the members of biometric identifiers, the palmprint and the palmvein have received significant attention due to their stability, uniqueness, and non-intrusiveness. In this paper, we investigate the problem of palmprint/palmvein recognition and propose a Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN based scheme, namely P a l m R CNN (short for palmprint/palmvein recognition using CNNs. The effectiveness and efficiency of P a l m R CNN have been verified through extensive experiments conducted on benchmark datasets. In addition, though substantial effort has been devoted to palmvein recognition, it is still quite difficult for the researchers to know the potential discriminating capability of the contactless palmvein. One of the root reasons is that a large-scale and publicly available dataset comprising high-quality, contactless palmvein images is still lacking. To this end, a user-friendly acquisition device for collecting high quality contactless palmvein images is at first designed and developed in this work. Then, a large-scale palmvein image dataset is established, comprising 12,000 images acquired from 600 different palms in two separate collection sessions. The collected dataset now is publicly available.

  18. Prevalence of potentially traumatic events, depression, alcohol use, and social network supports among Chinese migrants: an epidemiological study in Guangzhou, China

    OpenAIRE

    Hall, Brian J.; Chen, Wen; Wu, Yan; Zhou, Fangjing; Latkin, Carl

    2014-01-01

    Background: Addressing the health needs of Chinese migrants is a critical public health concern. Epidemiological studies are needed to establish the prevalence of potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and common mental disorders among Chinese migrants and identify protective community and social resources.Method: Utilizing random household sampling, we are in the process of recruiting a representative sample of Chinese adults (N=1,000) in two districts home to a large number of internal migrant...

  19. [Diagnosing Low Health and Wood Borer Attacked Trees of Chinese Arborvitae by Using Thermography].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Fei; Wu, De-jun; Zhai, Guo-feng; Zang, Li-peng

    2015-12-01

    Water and energy metabolism of plants is very important actions in their lives. Although the studies about these actions by using thermography were often reported, seldom were found in detecting the health status of forest trees. In this study, we increase the measurement accuracy and comparability of thermo-images by creating the difference indices. Based on it, we exam the water and energy status in stem of Chinese arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco) by detecting the variance of far infrared spectrum between sap-wood and heart-wood of the cross-section of felling trees and the cores from an increment borer using thermography. The results indicate that the sap rate between sapwood and heartwood is different as the variance of the vigor of forest trees. Meanwhile, the image temperature of scale leaves from Chinese arborvitae trees with different vigor is also dissimilar. The far infrared spectrum more responds the sap status not the wood percentage in comparing to the area rate between sapwood and heartwood. The image temperature rate can be used in early determining the health status of Chinese arborvitae trees. The wood borers such as Phloeosinus aubei Perris and Semanotus bifasciatus Motschulsky are the pests which usually attack the low health trees, dying trees, wilted trees, felled trees and new cultivated trees. This measuring technique may be an important index to diagnose the health and vigor status after a large number of measurements for Chinese arborvitae trees. Therefore, there is potential to be an important index to check the tree vigor and pest damage status by using this technique. It will be a key in the tending and management of ecological and public Chinese arborvitae forest.

  20. VESPA: Very large-scale Evolutionary and Selective Pressure Analyses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew E. Webb

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Background Large-scale molecular evolutionary analyses of protein coding sequences requires a number of preparatory inter-related steps from finding gene families, to generating alignments and phylogenetic trees and assessing selective pressure variation. Each phase of these analyses can represent significant challenges, particularly when working with entire proteomes (all protein coding sequences in a genome from a large number of species. Methods We present VESPA, software capable of automating a selective pressure analysis using codeML in addition to the preparatory analyses and summary statistics. VESPA is written in python and Perl and is designed to run within a UNIX environment. Results We have benchmarked VESPA and our results show that the method is consistent, performs well on both large scale and smaller scale datasets, and produces results in line with previously published datasets. Discussion Large-scale gene family identification, sequence alignment, and phylogeny reconstruction are all important aspects of large-scale molecular evolutionary analyses. VESPA provides flexible software for simplifying these processes along with downstream selective pressure variation analyses. The software automatically interprets results from codeML and produces simplified summary files to assist the user in better understanding the results. VESPA may be found at the following website: http://www.mol-evol.org/VESPA.

  1. Development, reliability and validity of the psychosocial adaptation scale for Parkinson's disease in Chinese population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Tingting; Yin, Anchun; Sun, Xiaohong; Liu, Qigui; Song, Guirong; Li, Lianhong

    2015-01-01

    To develop psychosocial adaptation scale for Parkinson's disease (PD) in Chinese population and evaluate its reliability and validity. The items were designed by literature review, expert consultation and semi-structured interview. The methods of corrected item-total correlation, discrimination analysis and exploratory factor analysis were used for items selection. 427 valid scales from PD patients were collected in the study to test the reliability and validity. The scale incorporated six dimensions: anxiety, self-esteem, attitude, self-acceptance, self-efficacy and social support, a total of 32 items. The scale possessed good internal consistency. The test-retest correlation coefficient was 0.99 and average content validation rate was 0.97. The Hoehn and Yahr stage were correlated with total score of the scale. The psychosocial adaptation scale in this study showed good reliability and validity, it can be used as a reliable and valid instrument to evaluate the psychosocial adaptation of PD objectively and effectively.

  2. Crowdsourcing the General Public for Large Scale Molecular Pathology Studies in Cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francisco J. Candido dos Reis

    2015-07-01

    Interpretation: Crowdsourcing of the general public to classify cancer pathology data for research is viable, engages the public and provides accurate ER data. Crowdsourced classification of research data may offer a valid solution to problems of throughput requiring human input.

  3. The Association Between Social Capital and Depression Among Chinese Older Adults Living in Public Housing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Tat Leong; Hall, Brian J; Canham, Sarah L; Lam, Agnes Iok Fong

    2016-10-01

    Social capital is a critical resource for physical and mental health among older adults, but few studies have investigated this relationship in Chinese populations, and specifically among those with low socioeconomic status. This study examined the association between depression and cognitive social capital (reciprocity and trust) and structural social capital (social participation) in a community sample of older adults living in public housing in Macau (SAR), China (N = 366). Multivariable linear regressions estimated the associations between dimensions of social capital and depression, while adjusting for potential confounders. Significant inverse associations were found between reciprocity and trust and depression. No association was found between social participation and depression. Poor self-reported health was a robust correlate of depression in all models tested. Future studies are needed to evaluate whether enhancing social capital may reduce depression among Chinese older adults living in poverty.

  4. Validation of the Chinese SAD PERSONS Scale to predict repeated self-harm in emergency attendees in Taiwan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Chia-Yi; Huang, Hui-Chun; Wu, Shu-I; Sun, Fang-Ju; Huang, Chiu-Ron; Liu, Shen-Ing

    2014-02-17

    Past and repeated self-harm are long-term risks to completed suicide. A brief rating scale to assess repetition risk of self-harm is important for high-risk identification and early interventions in suicide prevention. The study aimed to examine the validity of the Chinese SAD PERSONS Scale (CSPS) and to evaluate its feasibility in clinical settings. One hundred and forty-seven patients with self-harm were recruited from the Emergency Department and assessed at baseline and the sixth month. The controls, 284 people without self-harm from the Family Medicine Department in the same hospital were recruited and assessed concurrently. The psychometric properties of the CSPS were examined using baseline and follow-up measurements that assessed a variety of suicide risk factors. Clinical feasibility and applicability of the CSPS were further evaluated by a group of general nurses who used case vignette approach in CSPS risk assessment in clinical settings. An open-ended question inquiring their opinions of scale adaptation to hospital inpatient assessment for suicide risks were also analyzed using content analysis. The CSPS was significantly correlated with other scales measuring depression, hopelessness and suicide ideation. A cut-off point of the scale was at 4/5 in predicting 6-month self-harm repetition with the sensitivity and specificity being 65.4% and 58.1%, respectively. Based on the areas under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curves, the predictive validity of the scale showed a better performance than the other scales. Fifty-four nurses, evaluating the scale using case vignette found it a useful tool to raise the awareness of suicide risk and a considerable tool to be adopted into nursing care. The Chinese SAD PERSONS Scale is a brief instrument with acceptable psychometric properties for self-harm prediction. However, cautions should be paid to level of therapeutic relationships during assessment, staff workload and adequate training for wider clinical

  5. Validation of the Pain Resilience Scale in Chinese-speaking patients with temporomandibular disorders pain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, S L; Wang, J H; Ji, P

    2018-03-01

    To validate the Pain Resilience Scale (PRS) for use in Chinese patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) pain. According to international guidelines, the original PRS was first translated and cross-culturally adapted to formulate the Chinese version of PRS (PRS-C). A total of 152 patients with TMD pain were recruited to complete series of questionnaires. Reliability of the PRS-C was investigated using internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Validity of the PRS-C was calculated using cross-cultural validity and convergent validity. Cross-cultural validity was evaluated by examining the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). And convergent validity was examined through correlating the PRS-C scores with scores of 2 commonly used pain-related measures (the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale [CD-RISC] and the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia for Temporomandibular Disorders [TSK-TMD]). The PRS-C had a high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.92) and good test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.81). The CFA supported a 2-factor model for the PRS-C with acceptable fit to the data. The fit indices were chi-square/DF = 2.21, GFI = 0.91, TLI = 0.97, CFI = 0.98 and RMSEA = 0.08. As regards convergent validity, the PRS-C evidenced moderate-to-good relationships with the CD-RISC and the TSK-TMD. The PRS-C shows good psychometric properties and could be considered as a reliable and valid measure to evaluate pain-related resilience in patients with TMD pain. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. The applicability of the decisional conflict scale in nursing home placement decision among Chinese family caregivers: A mixed methods approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu-Ping Chang

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to 1 examine relationships between uncertainty, perceived information, personal values, social support, and filial obligation among Chinese family caregivers faced with nursing home placement of an older adult family member with dementia; and 2 describe the applicability of the Decisional Conflict Scale in nursing home placement decision making among Chinese family caregivers through the integration of quantitative and qualitative data. We used a mixed-methods approach. Quantitative data analysis consisted of descriptive and correlational statistics. We utilized a thematic analysis for the qualitative data. Data transformation and data comparison techniques were used to combine qualitative and quantitative data. Thirty Chinese family caregivers living in Taiwan caring for an older adult with dementia participated in this study. We found a significant association among the quantitative findings, which indicated that perceived information, personal values, social support, and filial obligation, and nursing home placement decisional conflict. Mixed-method data analysis additionally revealed that conflicting differences existed between the traditional role of Chinese family collective decision making and the contemporary role of single family member surrogate decision making. Although the Decisional Conflict Scale can be utilized when exploring nursing home placement for an older adult with dementia among Chinese family caregivers, applicability issues existed regarding cultural beliefs and values related to filial piety and family collectivism. Findings strongly support the need for researchers to consider cultural beliefs and values when selecting tools that assess health-related decision making across cultures. Further research is needed to explore the role culture plays in nursing home decision making.

  7. RESTRUCTURING OF THE LARGE-SCALE SPRINKLERS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paweł Kozaczyk

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available One of the best ways for agriculture to become independent from shortages of precipitation is irrigation. In the seventies and eighties of the last century a number of large-scale sprinklers in Wielkopolska was built. At the end of 1970’s in the Poznan province 67 sprinklers with a total area of 6400 ha were installed. The average size of the sprinkler reached 95 ha. In 1989 there were 98 sprinklers, and the area which was armed with them was more than 10 130 ha. The study was conducted on 7 large sprinklers with the area ranging from 230 to 520 hectares in 1986÷1998. After the introduction of the market economy in the early 90’s and ownership changes in agriculture, large-scale sprinklers have gone under a significant or total devastation. Land on the State Farms of the State Agricultural Property Agency has leased or sold and the new owners used the existing sprinklers to a very small extent. This involved a change in crop structure, demand structure and an increase in operating costs. There has also been a threefold increase in electricity prices. Operation of large-scale irrigation encountered all kinds of barriers in practice and limitations of system solutions, supply difficulties, high levels of equipment failure which is not inclined to rational use of available sprinklers. An effect of a vision of the local area was to show the current status of the remaining irrigation infrastructure. The adopted scheme for the restructuring of Polish agriculture was not the best solution, causing massive destruction of assets previously invested in the sprinkler system.

  8. Large-scale synthesis of YSZ nanopowder by Pechini method

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Administrator

    structure and chemical purity of 99⋅1% by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy on a large scale. Keywords. Sol–gel; yttria-stabilized zirconia; large scale; nanopowder; Pechini method. 1. Introduction. Zirconia has attracted the attention of many scientists because of its tremendous thermal, mechanical ...

  9. Drivers and barriers for municipal retrofitting activities – Evidence from a large-scale survey of German local authorities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Polzin, Friedemann|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/413317404; Nolden, Colin; von Flotow, Paschen

    2018-01-01

    Local authorities are key actors for implementing innovative energy efficiency technologies (retrofitting) to reduce end-use energy demand and consequently reduce negative effects of high energy use such as climate change and public budget deficits. This paper reports the results of a large-scale

  10. A Brief Introduction to Chinese Biological Biological

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2005-01-01

    Chinese Biological Abstracts sponsored by the Library, the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, the Biological Documentation and Information Network, all of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, commenced publication in 1987 and was initiated to provide access to the Chinese information in the field of biology.

  11. A Brief Introduction to Chinese Biological Abstracts

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2005-01-01

    Chinese Biological Abstracts sponsored by the Library, the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, the Biological Documentation and Information Network, all of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, commenced publication in 1987 and was initiated to provide access to the Chinese information in the field of biology.

  12. Geospatial Optimization of Siting Large-Scale Solar Projects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Macknick, Jordan [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Quinby, Ted [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Caulfield, Emmet [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Gerritsen, Margot [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Diffendorfer, Jay [U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, CO (United States); Haines, Seth [U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, CO (United States)

    2014-03-01

    Recent policy and economic conditions have encouraged a renewed interest in developing large-scale solar projects in the U.S. Southwest. However, siting large-scale solar projects is complex. In addition to the quality of the solar resource, solar developers must take into consideration many environmental, social, and economic factors when evaluating a potential site. This report describes a proof-of-concept, Web-based Geographical Information Systems (GIS) tool that evaluates multiple user-defined criteria in an optimization algorithm to inform discussions and decisions regarding the locations of utility-scale solar projects. Existing siting recommendations for large-scale solar projects from governmental and non-governmental organizations are not consistent with each other, are often not transparent in methods, and do not take into consideration the differing priorities of stakeholders. The siting assistance GIS tool we have developed improves upon the existing siting guidelines by being user-driven, transparent, interactive, capable of incorporating multiple criteria, and flexible. This work provides the foundation for a dynamic siting assistance tool that can greatly facilitate siting decisions among multiple stakeholders.

  13. Environmental risk assessment of airborne emission from chinese coal-fired power plants with public health detriment criteria

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    He Huimin; Pan Ziqiang; Zhang Yongxing; Xia Yihua

    1997-01-01

    On the basis of investigation of types of dust removers and their efficiency in Chinese coal-fired power plants, human health detriment of airborne non-radioactive and radioactive emissions from the power plants is assessed with public health detriment assessment method. The results show that the risk is primarily from airborne non-radioactive emission

  14. Exploratory investigation of obesity risk and prevention in Chinese Americans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liou, Doreen; Bauer, Kathleen D

    2007-01-01

    To examine the beliefs and attitudes related to obesity risk and its prevention in Chinese Americans via in-depth, qualitative interviews using the guiding tenets of Health Belief Model, Theory of Planned Behavior, and social ecological models. A qualitative study using tenets of the Health Belief Model, the Theory of Planned Behavior, and social ecological models. The New York City metropolitan area. Forty young Chinese American adults (24 females; 16 males) were interviewed. Obesity risk and prevention. Common themes were identified, coded, and compared using NVivo computer software. Poor dietary habits and sedentary lifestyles were seen as major weight gain contributors. Obesity was seen predominantly as a non-Asian phenomenon, although 60% of the participants felt susceptible to obesity. Physical and social environmental factors were the overriding themes generated as to the causes of weight gain among young adult Chinese Americans. Physical factors included the powerful effect of media-generated advertisements and a plethora of inexpensive fast and convenience foods emphasizing large portion sizes of low nutrient density. The social environment encourages the consumption of large quantities of these foods. Traditional Chinese cuisine was seen as providing more healthful alternatives, but increasing acculturation to American lifestyle results in less traditional food consumption. Some traditional Chinese beliefs regarding the desirability of a slightly heavy physique can encourage overeating. Nutrition educators need to be public policy advocates for environments providing tasty, low cost, healthful foods. Young adult Chinese Americans seek knowledge and skills for making convenient healthful food selections in the midst of a culture that advocates and provides an abundance of unhealthy choices.

  15. Frequency and co-prescription pattern of Chinese herbal products for hypertension in Taiwan: a Cohort study

    OpenAIRE

    Yang, Pei-Rung; Shih, Wei-Tai; Chu, Yen-Hua; Chen, Pau-Chung; Wu, Ching-Yuan

    2015-01-01

    Background Chinese herbal products (CHPs) have been frequently used among patients with chronic diseases including hypertension; however, the co-prescription pattern of herbal formulae and single herbs remain uncharacterized. Thus, this large-scale pharmacoepidemiological study evaluated the frequency and co-prescription pattern of CHPs for treating hypertension in Taiwan from 2003 to 2009. Methods The database of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) outpatient claims was obtained from the Nati...

  16. Large-scale motions in the universe: a review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burstein, D.

    1990-01-01

    The expansion of the universe can be retarded in localised regions within the universe both by the presence of gravity and by non-gravitational motions generated in the post-recombination universe. The motions of galaxies thus generated are called 'peculiar motions', and the amplitudes, size scales and coherence of these peculiar motions are among the most direct records of the structure of the universe. As such, measurements of these properties of the present-day universe provide some of the severest tests of cosmological theories. This is a review of the current evidence for large-scale motions of galaxies out to a distance of ∼5000 km s -1 (in an expanding universe, distance is proportional to radial velocity). 'Large-scale' in this context refers to motions that are correlated over size scales larger than the typical sizes of groups of galaxies, up to and including the size of the volume surveyed. To orient the reader into this relatively new field of study, a short modern history is given together with an explanation of the terminology. Careful consideration is given to the data used to measure the distances, and hence the peculiar motions, of galaxies. The evidence for large-scale motions is presented in a graphical fashion, using only the most reliable data for galaxies spanning a wide range in optical properties and over the complete range of galactic environments. The kinds of systematic errors that can affect this analysis are discussed, and the reliability of these motions is assessed. The predictions of two models of large-scale motion are compared to the observations, and special emphasis is placed on those motions in which our own Galaxy directly partakes. (author)

  17. State of the Art in Large-Scale Soil Moisture Monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ochsner, Tyson E.; Cosh, Michael Harold; Cuenca, Richard H.; Dorigo, Wouter; Draper, Clara S.; Hagimoto, Yutaka; Kerr, Yan H.; Larson, Kristine M.; Njoku, Eni Gerald; Small, Eric E.; hide

    2013-01-01

    Soil moisture is an essential climate variable influencing land atmosphere interactions, an essential hydrologic variable impacting rainfall runoff processes, an essential ecological variable regulating net ecosystem exchange, and an essential agricultural variable constraining food security. Large-scale soil moisture monitoring has advanced in recent years creating opportunities to transform scientific understanding of soil moisture and related processes. These advances are being driven by researchers from a broad range of disciplines, but this complicates collaboration and communication. For some applications, the science required to utilize large-scale soil moisture data is poorly developed. In this review, we describe the state of the art in large-scale soil moisture monitoring and identify some critical needs for research to optimize the use of increasingly available soil moisture data. We review representative examples of 1) emerging in situ and proximal sensing techniques, 2) dedicated soil moisture remote sensing missions, 3) soil moisture monitoring networks, and 4) applications of large-scale soil moisture measurements. Significant near-term progress seems possible in the use of large-scale soil moisture data for drought monitoring. Assimilation of soil moisture data for meteorological or hydrologic forecasting also shows promise, but significant challenges related to model structures and model errors remain. Little progress has been made yet in the use of large-scale soil moisture observations within the context of ecological or agricultural modeling. Opportunities abound to advance the science and practice of large-scale soil moisture monitoring for the sake of improved Earth system monitoring, modeling, and forecasting.

  18. Willingness to Communicate in English: A Model in the Chinese EFL Classroom Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Jian-E; Woodrow, Lindy

    2010-01-01

    This study involves a large-scale investigation of willingness to communicate (WTC) in Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classrooms. A hypothesized model integrating WTC in English, communication confidence, motivation, learner beliefs, and classroom environment was tested using structural equation modeling. Validation of the…

  19. A route to explosive large-scale magnetic reconnection in a super-ion-scale current sheet

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. G. Tanaka

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available How to trigger magnetic reconnection is one of the most interesting and important problems in space plasma physics. Recently, electron temperature anisotropy (αeo=Te⊥/Te|| at the center of a current sheet and non-local effect of the lower-hybrid drift instability (LHDI that develops at the current sheet edges have attracted attention in this context. In addition to these effects, here we also study the effects of ion temperature anisotropy (αio=Ti⊥/Ti||. Electron anisotropy effects are known to be helpless in a current sheet whose thickness is of ion-scale. In this range of current sheet thickness, the LHDI effects are shown to weaken substantially with a small increase in thickness and the obtained saturation level is too low for a large-scale reconnection to be achieved. Then we investigate whether introduction of electron and ion temperature anisotropies in the initial stage would couple with the LHDI effects to revive quick triggering of large-scale reconnection in a super-ion-scale current sheet. The results are as follows. (1 The initial electron temperature anisotropy is consumed very quickly when a number of minuscule magnetic islands (each lateral length is 1.5~3 times the ion inertial length form. These minuscule islands do not coalesce into a large-scale island to enable large-scale reconnection. (2 The subsequent LHDI effects disturb the current sheet filled with the small islands. This makes the triggering time scale to be accelerated substantially but does not enhance the saturation level of reconnected flux. (3 When the ion temperature anisotropy is added, it survives through the small island formation stage and makes even quicker triggering to happen when the LHDI effects set-in. Furthermore the saturation level is seen to be elevated by a factor of ~2 and large-scale reconnection is achieved only in this case. Comparison with two-dimensional simulations that exclude the LHDI effects confirms that the saturation level

  20. Large-scale Labeled Datasets to Fuel Earth Science Deep Learning Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maskey, M.; Ramachandran, R.; Miller, J.

    2017-12-01

    Deep learning has revolutionized computer vision and natural language processing with various algorithms scaled using high-performance computing. However, generic large-scale labeled datasets such as the ImageNet are the fuel that drives the impressive accuracy of deep learning results. Large-scale labeled datasets already exist in domains such as medical science, but creating them in the Earth science domain is a challenge. While there are ways to apply deep learning using limited labeled datasets, there is a need in the Earth sciences for creating large-scale labeled datasets for benchmarking and scaling deep learning applications. At the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, we are using deep learning for a variety of Earth science applications where we have encountered the need for large-scale labeled datasets. We will discuss our approaches for creating such datasets and why these datasets are just as valuable as deep learning algorithms. We will also describe successful usage of these large-scale labeled datasets with our deep learning based applications.

  1. PubChemQC Project: A Large-Scale First-Principles Electronic Structure Database for Data-Driven Chemistry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakata, Maho; Shimazaki, Tomomi

    2017-06-26

    Large-scale molecular databases play an essential role in the investigation of various subjects such as the development of organic materials, in silico drug design, and data-driven studies with machine learning. We have developed a large-scale quantum chemistry database based on first-principles methods. Our database currently contains the ground-state electronic structures of 3 million molecules based on density functional theory (DFT) at the B3LYP/6-31G* level, and we successively calculated 10 low-lying excited states of over 2 million molecules via time-dependent DFT with the B3LYP functional and the 6-31+G* basis set. To select the molecules calculated in our project, we referred to the PubChem Project, which was used as the source of the molecular structures in short strings using the InChI and SMILES representations. Accordingly, we have named our quantum chemistry database project "PubChemQC" ( http://pubchemqc.riken.jp/ ) and placed it in the public domain. In this paper, we show the fundamental features of the PubChemQC database and discuss the techniques used to construct the data set for large-scale quantum chemistry calculations. We also present a machine learning approach to predict the electronic structure of molecules as an example to demonstrate the suitability of the large-scale quantum chemistry database.

  2. Large-scale structure observables in general relativity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jeong, Donghui; Schmidt, Fabian

    2015-01-01

    We review recent studies that rigorously define several key observables of the large-scale structure of the Universe in a general relativistic context. Specifically, we consider (i) redshift perturbation of cosmic clock events; (ii) distortion of cosmic rulers, including weak lensing shear and magnification; and (iii) observed number density of tracers of the large-scale structure. We provide covariant and gauge-invariant expressions of these observables. Our expressions are given for a linearly perturbed flat Friedmann–Robertson–Walker metric including scalar, vector, and tensor metric perturbations. While we restrict ourselves to linear order in perturbation theory, the approach can be straightforwardly generalized to higher order. (paper)

  3. Fatigue Analysis of Large-scale Wind turbine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhu Yongli

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper does research on top flange fatigue damage of large-scale wind turbine generator. It establishes finite element model of top flange connection system with finite element analysis software MSC. Marc/Mentat, analyzes its fatigue strain, implements load simulation of flange fatigue working condition with Bladed software, acquires flange fatigue load spectrum with rain-flow counting method, finally, it realizes fatigue analysis of top flange with fatigue analysis software MSC. Fatigue and Palmgren-Miner linear cumulative damage theory. The analysis result indicates that its result provides new thinking for flange fatigue analysis of large-scale wind turbine generator, and possesses some practical engineering value.

  4. Real-time simulation of large-scale floods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Q.; Qin, Y.; Li, G. D.; Liu, Z.; Cheng, D. J.; Zhao, Y. H.

    2016-08-01

    According to the complex real-time water situation, the real-time simulation of large-scale floods is very important for flood prevention practice. Model robustness and running efficiency are two critical factors in successful real-time flood simulation. This paper proposed a robust, two-dimensional, shallow water model based on the unstructured Godunov- type finite volume method. A robust wet/dry front method is used to enhance the numerical stability. An adaptive method is proposed to improve the running efficiency. The proposed model is used for large-scale flood simulation on real topography. Results compared to those of MIKE21 show the strong performance of the proposed model.

  5. Large-scale numerical simulations of plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hamaguchi, Satoshi

    2004-01-01

    The recent trend of large scales simulations of fusion plasma and processing plasmas is briefly summarized. Many advanced simulation techniques have been developed for fusion plasmas and some of these techniques are now applied to analyses of processing plasmas. (author)

  6. Nearly incompressible fluids: Hydrodynamics and large scale inhomogeneity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hunana, P.; Zank, G. P.; Shaikh, D.

    2006-01-01

    A system of hydrodynamic equations in the presence of large-scale inhomogeneities for a high plasma beta solar wind is derived. The theory is derived under the assumption of low turbulent Mach number and is developed for the flows where the usual incompressible description is not satisfactory and a full compressible treatment is too complex for any analytical studies. When the effects of compressibility are incorporated only weakly, a new description, referred to as 'nearly incompressible hydrodynamics', is obtained. The nearly incompressible theory, was originally applied to homogeneous flows. However, large-scale gradients in density, pressure, temperature, etc., are typical in the solar wind and it was unclear how inhomogeneities would affect the usual incompressible and nearly incompressible descriptions. In the homogeneous case, the lowest order expansion of the fully compressible equations leads to the usual incompressible equations, followed at higher orders by the nearly incompressible equations, as introduced by Zank and Matthaeus. With this work we show that the inclusion of large-scale inhomogeneities (in this case time-independent and radially symmetric background solar wind) modifies the leading-order incompressible description of solar wind flow. We find, for example, that the divergence of velocity fluctuations is nonsolenoidal and that density fluctuations can be described to leading order as a passive scalar. Locally (for small lengthscales), this system of equations converges to the usual incompressible equations and we therefore use the term 'locally incompressible' to describe the equations. This term should be distinguished from the term 'nearly incompressible', which is reserved for higher-order corrections. Furthermore, we find that density fluctuations scale with Mach number linearly, in contrast to the original homogeneous nearly incompressible theory, in which density fluctuations scale with the square of Mach number. Inhomogeneous nearly

  7. Performance Health Monitoring of Large-Scale Systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rajamony, Ram [IBM Research, Austin, TX (United States)

    2014-11-20

    This report details the progress made on the ASCR funded project Performance Health Monitoring for Large Scale Systems. A large-­scale application may not achieve its full performance potential due to degraded performance of even a single subsystem. Detecting performance faults, isolating them, and taking remedial action is critical for the scale of systems on the horizon. PHM aims to develop techniques and tools that can be used to identify and mitigate such performance problems. We accomplish this through two main aspects. The PHM framework encompasses diagnostics, system monitoring, fault isolation, and performance evaluation capabilities that indicates when a performance fault has been detected, either due to an anomaly present in the system itself or due to contention for shared resources between concurrently executing jobs. Software components called the PHM Control system then build upon the capabilities provided by the PHM framework to mitigate degradation caused by performance problems.

  8. Chinese newspaper coverage of genetically modified organisms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Du Li

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Debates persist around the world over the development and use of genetically modified organisms (GMO. News media has been shown to both reflect and influence public perceptions of health and science related debates, as well as policy development. To better understand the news coverage of GMOs in China, we analyzed the content of articles in two Chinese newspapers that relate to the development and promotion of genetically modified technologies and GMOs. Methods Searching in the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Core Newspaper Database (CNKI-CND, we collected 77 articles, including news reports, comments and notes, published between January 2002 and August 2011 in two of the major Chinese newspapers: People’s Daily and Guangming Daily. We examined articles for perspectives that were discussed and/or mentioned regarding GMOs, the risks and benefits of GMOs, and the tone of news articles. Results The newspaper articles reported on 29 different kinds of GMOs. Compared with the possible risks, the benefits of GMOs were much more frequently discussed in the articles. 48.1% of articles were largely supportive of the GM technology research and development programs and the adoption of GM cottons, while 51.9% of articles were neutral on the subject of GMOs. Risks associated with GMOs were mentioned in the newspaper articles, but none of the articles expressed negative tones in regards to GMOs. Conclusion This study demonstrates that the Chinese print media is largely supportive of GMOs. It also indicates that the print media describes the Chinese government as actively pursuing national GMO research and development programs and the promotion of GM cotton usage. So far, discussion of the risks associated with GMOs is minimal in the news reports. The media, scientists, and the government should work together to ensure that science communication is accurate and balanced.

  9. Chinese newspaper coverage of genetically modified organisms

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    Background Debates persist around the world over the development and use of genetically modified organisms (GMO). News media has been shown to both reflect and influence public perceptions of health and science related debates, as well as policy development. To better understand the news coverage of GMOs in China, we analyzed the content of articles in two Chinese newspapers that relate to the development and promotion of genetically modified technologies and GMOs. Methods Searching in the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Core Newspaper Database (CNKI-CND), we collected 77 articles, including news reports, comments and notes, published between January 2002 and August 2011 in two of the major Chinese newspapers: People’s Daily and Guangming Daily. We examined articles for perspectives that were discussed and/or mentioned regarding GMOs, the risks and benefits of GMOs, and the tone of news articles. Results The newspaper articles reported on 29 different kinds of GMOs. Compared with the possible risks, the benefits of GMOs were much more frequently discussed in the articles. 48.1% of articles were largely supportive of the GM technology research and development programs and the adoption of GM cottons, while 51.9% of articles were neutral on the subject of GMOs. Risks associated with GMOs were mentioned in the newspaper articles, but none of the articles expressed negative tones in regards to GMOs. Conclusion This study demonstrates that the Chinese print media is largely supportive of GMOs. It also indicates that the print media describes the Chinese government as actively pursuing national GMO research and development programs and the promotion of GM cotton usage. So far, discussion of the risks associated with GMOs is minimal in the news reports. The media, scientists, and the government should work together to ensure that science communication is accurate and balanced. PMID:22551150

  10. Chinese newspaper coverage of genetically modified organisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, Li; Rachul, Christen

    2012-06-08

    Debates persist around the world over the development and use of genetically modified organisms (GMO). News media has been shown to both reflect and influence public perceptions of health and science related debates, as well as policy development. To better understand the news coverage of GMOs in China, we analyzed the content of articles in two Chinese newspapers that relate to the development and promotion of genetically modified technologies and GMOs. Searching in the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Core Newspaper Database (CNKI-CND), we collected 77 articles, including news reports, comments and notes, published between January 2002 and August 2011 in two of the major Chinese newspapers: People's Daily and Guangming Daily. We examined articles for perspectives that were discussed and/or mentioned regarding GMOs, the risks and benefits of GMOs, and the tone of news articles. The newspaper articles reported on 29 different kinds of GMOs. Compared with the possible risks, the benefits of GMOs were much more frequently discussed in the articles. 48.1% of articles were largely supportive of the GM technology research and development programs and the adoption of GM cottons, while 51.9% of articles were neutral on the subject of GMOs. Risks associated with GMOs were mentioned in the newspaper articles, but none of the articles expressed negative tones in regards to GMOs. This study demonstrates that the Chinese print media is largely supportive of GMOs. It also indicates that the print media describes the Chinese government as actively pursuing national GMO research and development programs and the promotion of GM cotton usage. So far, discussion of the risks associated with GMOs is minimal in the news reports. The media, scientists, and the government should work together to ensure that science communication is accurate and balanced.

  11. A novel RUNX2 missense mutation predicted to disrupt DNA binding causes cleidocranial dysplasia in a large Chinese family with hyperplastic nails

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Xiaoqin

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD is a dominantly inherited disease characterized by hypoplastic or absent clavicles, large fontanels, dental dysplasia, and delayed skeletal development. The purpose of this study is to investigate the genetic basis of Chinese family with CCD. Methods Here, a large Chinese family with CCD and hyperplastic nails was recruited. The clinical features displayed a significant intrafamilial variation. We sequenced the coding region of the RUNX2 gene for the mutation and phenotype analysis. Results The family carries a c.T407C (p.L136P mutation in the DNA- and CBFβ-binding Runt domain of RUNX2. Based on the crystal structure, we predict this novel missense mutation is likely to disrupt DNA binding by RUNX2, and at least locally affect the Runt domain structure. Conclusion A novel missense mutation was identified in a large Chinese family with CCD with hyperplastic nails. This report further extends the mutation spectrum and clinical features of CCD. The identification of this mutation will facilitate prenatal diagnosis and preimplantation genetic diagnosis.

  12. A Large-Scale Study of Surrogate Physicality and Gesturing on Human–Surrogate Interactions in a Public Space

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kangsoo Kim

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Technological human surrogates, including robotic and virtual humans, have been popularly used in various scenarios, including training, education, and entertainment. Prior research has investigated the effects of the surrogate’s physicality and gesturing in human perceptions and social influence of the surrogate. However, those studies have been carried out in research laboratories, where the participants were aware that it was an experiment, and the participant demographics are typically relatively narrow—e.g., college students. In this paper, we describe and share results from a large-scale exploratory user study involving 7,685 people in a public space, where they were unaware of the experimental nature of the setting, to investigate the effects of surrogate physicality and gesturing on their behavior during human–surrogate interactions. We evaluate human behaviors using several variables, such as proactivity and reactivity, and proximity. We have identified several interesting phenomena that could lead to hypotheses developed as part of future hypothesis-based studies. Based on the measurements of the variables, we believe people are more likely to be engaged in a human–surrogate interaction when the surrogate is physically present, but movements and gesturing with its body parts have not shown the expected benefits for the interaction engagement. Regarding the demographics of the people in the study, we found higher overall engagement for females than males, and higher reactivity for younger than older people. We discuss implications for practitioners aiming to design a technological surrogate that will directly interact with real humans.

  13. Item response modeling: a psychometric assessment of the children's fruit, vegetable, water, and physical activity self-efficacy scales among Chinese children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jing-Jing; Chen, Tzu-An; Baranowski, Tom; Lau, Patrick W C

    2017-09-16

    This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of four self-efficacy scales (i.e., self-efficacy for fruit (FSE), vegetable (VSE), and water (WSE) intakes, and physical activity (PASE)) and to investigate their differences in item functioning across sex, age, and body weight status groups using item response modeling (IRM) and differential item functioning (DIF). Four self-efficacy scales were administrated to 763 Hong Kong Chinese children (55.2% boys) aged 8-13 years. Classical test theory (CTT) was used to examine the reliability and factorial validity of scales. IRM was conducted and DIF analyses were performed to assess the characteristics of item parameter estimates on the basis of children's sex, age and body weight status. All self-efficacy scales demonstrated adequate to excellent internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's α: 0.79-0.91). One FSE misfit item and one PASE misfit item were detected. Small DIF were found for all the scale items across children's age groups. Items with medium to large DIF were detected in different sex and body weight status groups, which will require modification. A Wright map revealed that items covered the range of the distribution of participants' self-efficacy for each scale except VSE. Several self-efficacy scales' items functioned differently by children's sex and body weight status. Additional research is required to modify the four self-efficacy scales to minimize these moderating influences for application.

  14. Learning from large scale neural simulations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Serban, Maria

    2017-01-01

    Large-scale neural simulations have the marks of a distinct methodology which can be fruitfully deployed to advance scientific understanding of the human brain. Computer simulation studies can be used to produce surrogate observational data for better conceptual models and new how...

  15. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children 4th edition-Chinese version index scores in Taiwanese children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Pinchen; Cheng, Chung-Ping; Chang, Chen-Lin; Liu, Tai-Ling; Hsu, Hsiu-Yi; Yen, Cheng-Fang

    2013-02-01

    The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children 4th edition-Chinese version (WISC-IV-Chinese) has been in clinical use in Taiwan since 2007. Research is needed to determine how the WISC-IV, modified from its earlier version, will affect its interpretation in clinical practice in a Mandarin-speaking context. We attempted to use WISC-IV-Chinese scores to identify the cognitive strengths and weaknesses in 334 Taiwanese children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Comparison of cognitive profiles of WISC-IV-Chinese scores between subtypes of ADHD was also performed. The results indicated that the four-factor model of the WISC-IV-Chinese fitted well for Taiwanese children with ADHD. The profiles showed that performance in the index score of the Processing Speed Index was the weakness domain for the Taiwanese children with ADHD, as confirmed by two different kinds of analytic methods. Cognitive profile analysis of ADHD subtypes revealed children with inattentive subtypes to have a greater weakness in processing speed performance. The implications of the profiles of the index scores on the WISC-IV-Chinese version for Taiwanese children with ADHD were explored. © 2013 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2013 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.

  16. Size matters: the ethical, legal, and social issues surrounding large-scale genetic biobank initiatives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Klaus Lindgaard Hoeyer

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available During the past ten years the complex ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI typically surrounding large-scale genetic biobank research initiatives have been intensely debated in academic circles. In many ways genetic epidemiology has undergone a set of changes resembling what in physics has been called a transition into Big Science. This article outlines consequences of this transition and suggests that the change in scale implies challenges to the roles of scientists and public alike. An overview of key issues is presented, and it is argued that biobanks represent not just scientific endeavors with purely epistemic objectives, but also political projects with social implications. As such, they demand clever maneuvering among social interests to succeed.

  17. Phenomenology of two-dimensional stably stratified turbulence under large-scale forcing

    KAUST Repository

    Kumar, Abhishek; Verma, Mahendra K.; Sukhatme, Jai

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, we characterise the scaling of energy spectra, and the interscale transfer of energy and enstrophy, for strongly, moderately and weakly stably stratified two-dimensional (2D) turbulence, restricted in a vertical plane, under large-scale random forcing. In the strongly stratified case, a large-scale vertically sheared horizontal flow (VSHF) coexists with small scale turbulence. The VSHF consists of internal gravity waves and the turbulent flow has a kinetic energy (KE) spectrum that follows an approximate k−3 scaling with zero KE flux and a robust positive enstrophy flux. The spectrum of the turbulent potential energy (PE) also approximately follows a k−3 power-law and its flux is directed to small scales. For moderate stratification, there is no VSHF and the KE of the turbulent flow exhibits Bolgiano–Obukhov scaling that transitions from a shallow k−11/5 form at large scales, to a steeper approximate k−3 scaling at small scales. The entire range of scales shows a strong forward enstrophy flux, and interestingly, large (small) scales show an inverse (forward) KE flux. The PE flux in this regime is directed to small scales, and the PE spectrum is characterised by an approximate k−1.64 scaling. Finally, for weak stratification, KE is transferred upscale and its spectrum closely follows a k−2.5 scaling, while PE exhibits a forward transfer and its spectrum shows an approximate k−1.6 power-law. For all stratification strengths, the total energy always flows from large to small scales and almost all the spectral indicies are well explained by accounting for the scale-dependent nature of the corresponding flux.

  18. Phenomenology of two-dimensional stably stratified turbulence under large-scale forcing

    KAUST Repository

    Kumar, Abhishek

    2017-01-11

    In this paper, we characterise the scaling of energy spectra, and the interscale transfer of energy and enstrophy, for strongly, moderately and weakly stably stratified two-dimensional (2D) turbulence, restricted in a vertical plane, under large-scale random forcing. In the strongly stratified case, a large-scale vertically sheared horizontal flow (VSHF) coexists with small scale turbulence. The VSHF consists of internal gravity waves and the turbulent flow has a kinetic energy (KE) spectrum that follows an approximate k−3 scaling with zero KE flux and a robust positive enstrophy flux. The spectrum of the turbulent potential energy (PE) also approximately follows a k−3 power-law and its flux is directed to small scales. For moderate stratification, there is no VSHF and the KE of the turbulent flow exhibits Bolgiano–Obukhov scaling that transitions from a shallow k−11/5 form at large scales, to a steeper approximate k−3 scaling at small scales. The entire range of scales shows a strong forward enstrophy flux, and interestingly, large (small) scales show an inverse (forward) KE flux. The PE flux in this regime is directed to small scales, and the PE spectrum is characterised by an approximate k−1.64 scaling. Finally, for weak stratification, KE is transferred upscale and its spectrum closely follows a k−2.5 scaling, while PE exhibits a forward transfer and its spectrum shows an approximate k−1.6 power-law. For all stratification strengths, the total energy always flows from large to small scales and almost all the spectral indicies are well explained by accounting for the scale-dependent nature of the corresponding flux.

  19. Exploring the large-scale structure of Taylor–Couette turbulence through Large-Eddy Simulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ostilla-Mónico, Rodolfo; Zhu, Xiaojue; Verzicco, Roberto

    2018-04-01

    Large eddy simulations (LES) of Taylor-Couette (TC) flow, the flow between two co-axial and independently rotating cylinders are performed in an attempt to explore the large-scale axially-pinned structures seen in experiments and simulations. Both static and dynamic LES models are used. The Reynolds number is kept fixed at Re = 3.4 · 104, and the radius ratio η = ri /ro is set to η = 0.909, limiting the effects of curvature and resulting in frictional Reynolds numbers of around Re τ ≈ 500. Four rotation ratios from Rot = ‑0.0909 to Rot = 0.3 are simulated. First, the LES of TC is benchmarked for different rotation ratios. Both the Smagorinsky model with a constant of cs = 0.1 and the dynamic model are found to produce reasonable results for no mean rotation and cyclonic rotation, but deviations increase for increasing rotation. This is attributed to the increasing anisotropic character of the fluctuations. Second, “over-damped” LES, i.e. LES with a large Smagorinsky constant is performed and is shown to reproduce some features of the large-scale structures, even when the near-wall region is not adequately modeled. This shows the potential for using over-damped LES for fast explorations of the parameter space where large-scale structures are found.

  20. Data for generation of all Tables and Figures for CTEP publication in 2015 pertaining to large-scale diesel gensets tested

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — particulate and gaseous emissions and particle optical properties for emissions from large-scale diesel gensets with and without aftermarket PM controls. This...

  1. The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). An unprecedented view of galaxies and large-scale structure at 0.5 < z < 1.2

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guzzo, L.; Scodeggio, M.; Garilli, B.; Granett, B. R.; Fritz, A.; Abbas, U.; Adami, C.; Arnouts, S.; Bel, J.; Bolzonella, M.; Bottini, D.; Branchini, E.; Cappi, A.; Coupon, J.; Cucciati, O.; Davidzon, I.; De Lucia, G.; de la Torre, S.; Franzetti, P.; Fumana, M.; Hudelot, P.; Ilbert, O.; Iovino, A.; Krywult, J.; Le Brun, V.; Le Fèvre, O.; Maccagni, D.; Małek, K.; Marulli, F.; McCracken, H. J.; Paioro, L.; Peacock, J. A.; Polletta, M.; Pollo, A.; Schlagenhaufer, H.; Tasca, L. A. M.; Tojeiro, R.; Vergani, D.; Zamorani, G.; Zanichelli, A.; Burden, A.; Di Porto, C.; Marchetti, A.; Marinoni, C.; Mellier, Y.; Moscardini, L.; Nichol, R. C.; Percival, W. J.; Phleps, S.; Wolk, M.

    2014-06-01

    We describe the construction and general features of VIPERS, the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey. This ESO Large Programme is using the Very Large Telescope with the aim of building a spectroscopic sample of ~ 100 000 galaxies with iABcontamination is found to be only 3.2%, endorsing the quality of the star-galaxy separation process and fully confirming the original estimates based on the VVDS data, which also indicate a galaxy incompleteness from this process of only 1.4%. Using a set of 1215 repeated observations, we estimate an rms redshift error σz/ (1 + z) = 4.7 × 10-4 and calibrate the internal spectral quality grading. Benefiting from the combination of size and detailed sampling of this dataset, we conclude by presenting a map showing in unprecedented detail the large-scale distribution of galaxies between 5 and 8 billion years ago. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Cerro Paranal, Chile, using the Very Large Telescope under programmes 182.A-0886 and partly 070.A-9007. Also based on observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/DAPNIA, at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii. This work is based in part on data products produced at TERAPIX and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre as part of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey, a collaborative project of NRC and CNRS. The VIPERS website is http://www.vipers.inaf.it/

  2. Herth hope index: psychometric testing of the Chinese version.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Keung Sum; Li, Ho Cheung William; Chan, Sally Wai-Chi; Lopez, Violeta

    2012-09-01

    This article is a report on psychometric testing of the Chinese version of the herth hope index. The availability of a valid and reliable instrument that accurately measures the level of hope in patients with heart failure is crucial before any hope-enhancing interventions can be appropriately planned and evaluated. There is no such instrument for Chinese people. A test-retest, within-subjects design was used. A purposive sample of 120 Hong Kong Chinese patients with heart failure between the ages of 60 and 80 years admitted to two medical wards was recruited during an 8-month period in 2009. Participants were asked to respond to the Chinese version of the herth hope index, Hamilton depression rating scale and Rosenberg's self-esteem scale. The internal consistency, content validity and construct validity and test-retest reliability of the Chinese version of the herth hope index were assessed. The newly translated scale demonstrated adequate internal consistency, good content validity and appropriate convergent and discriminant validity. Confirmatory factor analysis added further evidence of the construct validity of the scale. Results suggest that the newly translated scale can be used as a self-report assessment tool in assessing the level of hope in Hong Kong Chinese patients with heart failure. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  3. Large-scale preparation of hollow graphitic carbon nanospheres

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Feng, Jun; Li, Fu; Bai, Yu-Jun; Han, Fu-Dong; Qi, Yong-Xin; Lun, Ning; Lu, Xi-Feng

    2013-01-01

    Hollow graphitic carbon nanospheres (HGCNSs) were synthesized on large scale by a simple reaction between glucose and Mg at 550 °C in an autoclave. Characterization by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy demonstrates the formation of HGCNSs with an average diameter of 10 nm or so and a wall thickness of a few graphenes. The HGCNSs exhibit a reversible capacity of 391 mAh g −1 after 60 cycles when used as anode materials for Li-ion batteries. -- Graphical abstract: Hollow graphitic carbon nanospheres could be prepared on large scale by the simple reaction between glucose and Mg at 550 °C, which exhibit superior electrochemical performance to graphite. Highlights: ► Hollow graphitic carbon nanospheres (HGCNSs) were prepared on large scale at 550 °C ► The preparation is simple, effective and eco-friendly. ► The in situ yielded MgO nanocrystals promote the graphitization. ► The HGCNSs exhibit superior electrochemical performance to graphite.

  4. Accelerating large-scale phase-field simulations with GPU

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaoming Shi

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available A new package for accelerating large-scale phase-field simulations was developed by using GPU based on the semi-implicit Fourier method. The package can solve a variety of equilibrium equations with different inhomogeneity including long-range elastic, magnetostatic, and electrostatic interactions. Through using specific algorithm in Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA, Fourier spectral iterative perturbation method was integrated in GPU package. The Allen-Cahn equation, Cahn-Hilliard equation, and phase-field model with long-range interaction were solved based on the algorithm running on GPU respectively to test the performance of the package. From the comparison of the calculation results between the solver executed in single CPU and the one on GPU, it was found that the speed on GPU is enormously elevated to 50 times faster. The present study therefore contributes to the acceleration of large-scale phase-field simulations and provides guidance for experiments to design large-scale functional devices.

  5. First Mile Challenges for Large-Scale IoT

    KAUST Repository

    Bader, Ahmed

    2017-03-16

    The Internet of Things is large-scale by nature. This is not only manifested by the large number of connected devices, but also by the sheer scale of spatial traffic intensity that must be accommodated, primarily in the uplink direction. To that end, cellular networks are indeed a strong first mile candidate to accommodate the data tsunami to be generated by the IoT. However, IoT devices are required in the cellular paradigm to undergo random access procedures as a precursor to resource allocation. Such procedures impose a major bottleneck that hinders cellular networks\\' ability to support large-scale IoT. In this article, we shed light on the random access dilemma and present a case study based on experimental data as well as system-level simulations. Accordingly, a case is built for the latent need to revisit random access procedures. A call for action is motivated by listing a few potential remedies and recommendations.

  6. The German and European laws and regulations providing for participation of the public in vertically staged procedures for the licensing of large-scale projects with an impact on the environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hellmann, U.

    1992-01-01

    Participation of the public in licensing procedures for large-scale projects has been an item of discussion since the sixties in the legal sciences and on the political level. The introduction of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) as a legal requirement in EC law and its implementation in practice was the occasion to once again investigate the principle of participation of the public in the current legal framework. The study in hand reviews the legal provisions found in administrative law, constitutional law and European Community law governing the right of participation of the public and also takes a look at the situation in practice. The results show both the legal status and conditions of enforcement as prevailing after the coming into force in 1989 of the Act on Performance of an EIA, as well as inadequacies and deficits in the current legal framework. (orig.) [de

  7. Reliability analysis of the Chinese version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Leukemia (FACT-Leu) scale based on multivariate generalizability theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meng, Qiong; Yang, Zheng; Wu, Yang; Xiao, Yuanyuan; Gu, Xuezhong; Zhang, Meixia; Wan, Chonghua; Li, Xiaosong

    2017-05-04

    The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Leukemia (FACT-Leu) scale, a leukemia-specific instrument for determining the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with leukemia, had been developed and validated, but there have been no reports on the development of a simplified Chinese version of this scale. This is a new exploration to analyze the reliability of the HRQOL measurement using multivariate generalizability theory (MGT). This study aimed to develop a Chinese version of the FACT-Leu scale and evaluate its reliability using MGT to provide evidence to support the revision and improvement of this scale. The Chinese version of the FACT-Leu scale was developed by four steps: forward translation, backward translation, cultural adaptation and pilot-testing. The HRQOL was measured for eligible inpatients with leukemia using this scale to provide data. A single-facet multivariate Generalizability Study (G-study) design was demonstrated to estimate the variance-covariance components and then several Decision Studies (D-studies) with varying numbers of items were analyzed to obtain reliability coefficients and to understand how much the measurement reliability could be vary as the number of items in MGT changes. One-hundred and one eligible inpatients diagnosed with leukemia were recruited and completed the HRQOL measurement at the time of admission to the hospital. In the G-study, the variation component of the patient-item interaction was largest while the variation component of the item was the smallest for the four of five domains, except for the leukemia-specific (LEUS) domain. In the D-study, at the level of domain, the generalizability coefficients (G) and the indexes of dependability (Ф) for four of the five domains were approximately equal to or greater than 0.80 except for the Emotional Well-being (EWB) domain (>0.70 but number of items were obtained: one is a 37-item version while the other is a 45-item version. The Chinese version of the FACT

  8. Psychometric Properties of Multi-Dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support in Chinese Parents of Children with Cerebral Palsy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yongli Wang

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The Multi-dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS is one of the most extensively used instruments to assess social support. The purpose of this research was to test the reliability, factorial validity, concurrent validity and measurement invariance across gender groups of the MSPSS in Chinese parents of children with cerebral palsy. A total of 487 participants aged 21–55 years were recruited to complete the Chinese MSPSS and Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF. Composite reliability was calculated as the internal consistency of the Chinese MSPSS and a (multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA was conducted to test the factorial validity and measurement invariance across gender. And Pearson correlations were calculated to test the relationships between MSPSS and PSI-SF. The Chinese MSPSS had satisfactory internal reliability with composite reliability values of more than 0.7. The CFA indicated that the original three-factor model was replicated in this specific population. Importantly, the results of the multi-group CFA demonstrated that configural, metric, and scalar invariance across gender groups was supported. In addition, all the three subscales of MSPSS were significant related with PSI-SF. These findings suggest that the Chinese MSPSS is a reliable and valid tool for assessing social support and can generally be utilized across sex in the parents of children with cerebral palsy.

  9. Thermal power generation projects ``Large Scale Solar Heating``; EU-Thermie-Projekte ``Large Scale Solar Heating``

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kuebler, R.; Fisch, M.N. [Steinbeis-Transferzentrum Energie-, Gebaeude- und Solartechnik, Stuttgart (Germany)

    1998-12-31

    The aim of this project is the preparation of the ``Large-Scale Solar Heating`` programme for an Europe-wide development of subject technology. The following demonstration programme was judged well by the experts but was not immediately (1996) accepted for financial subsidies. In November 1997 the EU-commission provided 1,5 million ECU which allowed the realisation of an updated project proposal. By mid 1997 a small project was approved, that had been requested under the lead of Chalmes Industriteteknik (CIT) in Sweden and is mainly carried out for the transfer of technology. (orig.) [Deutsch] Ziel dieses Vorhabens ist die Vorbereitung eines Schwerpunktprogramms `Large Scale Solar Heating`, mit dem die Technologie europaweit weiterentwickelt werden sollte. Das daraus entwickelte Demonstrationsprogramm wurde von den Gutachtern positiv bewertet, konnte jedoch nicht auf Anhieb (1996) in die Foerderung aufgenommen werden. Im November 1997 wurden von der EU-Kommission dann kurzfristig noch 1,5 Mio ECU an Foerderung bewilligt, mit denen ein aktualisierter Projektvorschlag realisiert werden kann. Bereits Mitte 1997 wurde ein kleineres Vorhaben bewilligt, das unter Federfuehrung von Chalmers Industriteknik (CIT) in Schweden beantragt worden war und das vor allem dem Technologietransfer dient. (orig.)

  10. Large-scale retrieval for medical image analytics: A comprehensive review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Zhongyu; Zhang, Xiaofan; Müller, Henning; Zhang, Shaoting

    2018-01-01

    Over the past decades, medical image analytics was greatly facilitated by the explosion of digital imaging techniques, where huge amounts of medical images were produced with ever-increasing quality and diversity. However, conventional methods for analyzing medical images have achieved limited success, as they are not capable to tackle the huge amount of image data. In this paper, we review state-of-the-art approaches for large-scale medical image analysis, which are mainly based on recent advances in computer vision, machine learning and information retrieval. Specifically, we first present the general pipeline of large-scale retrieval, summarize the challenges/opportunities of medical image analytics on a large-scale. Then, we provide a comprehensive review of algorithms and techniques relevant to major processes in the pipeline, including feature representation, feature indexing, searching, etc. On the basis of existing work, we introduce the evaluation protocols and multiple applications of large-scale medical image retrieval, with a variety of exploratory and diagnostic scenarios. Finally, we discuss future directions of large-scale retrieval, which can further improve the performance of medical image analysis. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Measuring Engagement at Work: Validation of the Chinese Version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale

    OpenAIRE

    Ng, Sm; Fong, TCt

    2011-01-01

    Background: Work engagement is a positive work-related state of fulfillment characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. Previous studies have operationalized the construct through development of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Apart from the original three-factor 17-item version of the instrument (UWES-17), there exists a nine-item shortened revised version (UWES-9). Purpose: The current study explored the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Utrecht Work Engagemen...

  12. Measuring Engagement at Work: Validation of the Chinese Version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale

    OpenAIRE

    Fong, Ted Chun-tat; Ng, Siu-man

    2011-01-01

    Background Work engagement is a positive work-related state of fulfillment characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. Previous studies have operationalized the construct through development of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Apart from the original three-factor 17-item version of the instrument (UWES-17), there exists a nine-item shortened revised version (UWES-9). Purpose The current study explored the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement ...

  13. Photorealistic large-scale urban city model reconstruction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poullis, Charalambos; You, Suya

    2009-01-01

    The rapid and efficient creation of virtual environments has become a crucial part of virtual reality applications. In particular, civil and defense applications often require and employ detailed models of operations areas for training, simulations of different scenarios, planning for natural or man-made events, monitoring, surveillance, games, and films. A realistic representation of the large-scale environments is therefore imperative for the success of such applications since it increases the immersive experience of its users and helps reduce the difference between physical and virtual reality. However, the task of creating such large-scale virtual environments still remains a time-consuming and manual work. In this work, we propose a novel method for the rapid reconstruction of photorealistic large-scale virtual environments. First, a novel, extendible, parameterized geometric primitive is presented for the automatic building identification and reconstruction of building structures. In addition, buildings with complex roofs containing complex linear and nonlinear surfaces are reconstructed interactively using a linear polygonal and a nonlinear primitive, respectively. Second, we present a rendering pipeline for the composition of photorealistic textures, which unlike existing techniques, can recover missing or occluded texture information by integrating multiple information captured from different optical sensors (ground, aerial, and satellite).

  14. Prototype Vector Machine for Large Scale Semi-Supervised Learning

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhang, Kai; Kwok, James T.; Parvin, Bahram

    2009-04-29

    Practicaldataminingrarelyfalls exactlyinto the supervisedlearning scenario. Rather, the growing amount of unlabeled data poses a big challenge to large-scale semi-supervised learning (SSL). We note that the computationalintensivenessofgraph-based SSLarises largely from the manifold or graph regularization, which in turn lead to large models that are dificult to handle. To alleviate this, we proposed the prototype vector machine (PVM), a highlyscalable,graph-based algorithm for large-scale SSL. Our key innovation is the use of"prototypes vectors" for effcient approximation on both the graph-based regularizer and model representation. The choice of prototypes are grounded upon two important criteria: they not only perform effective low-rank approximation of the kernel matrix, but also span a model suffering the minimum information loss compared with the complete model. We demonstrate encouraging performance and appealing scaling properties of the PVM on a number of machine learning benchmark data sets.

  15. Assessment of Perceived Parental Psychological Control in Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shek, Daniel T. L.

    2006-01-01

    Objective: There is no validated self-report measure of parental psychological control in the Chinese culture. The reliability and validity of the Chinese Paternal Psychological Control Scale (CPPCS) and Chinese Maternal Psychological Control Scale (CMPCS) were examined. Method: A total of 3,017 Chinese secondary school students responded to the…

  16. Development, reliability and validity of the psychosocial adaptation scale for Parkinson’s disease in Chinese population

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Tingting; Yin, Anchun; Sun, Xiaohong; Liu, Qigui; Song, Guirong; Li, Lianhong

    2015-01-01

    Objective: To develop psychosocial adaptation scale for Parkinson’s disease (PD) in Chinese population and evaluate its reliability and validity. Methods: The items were designed by literature review, expert consultation and semi-structured interview. The methods of corrected item-total correlation, discrimination analysis and exploratory factor analysis were used for items selection. 427 valid scales from PD patients were collected in the study to test the reliability and validity. Results: The scale incorporated six dimensions: anxiety, self-esteem, attitude, self-acceptance, self-efficacy and social support, a total of 32 items. The scale possessed good internal consistency. The test-retest correlation coefficient was 0.99 and average content validation rate was 0.97. The Hoehn and Yahr stage were correlated with total score of the scale. Conclusions: The psychosocial adaptation scale in this study showed good reliability and validity, it can be used as a reliable and valid instrument to evaluate the psychosocial adaptation of PD objectively and effectively. PMID:26770638

  17. Assessment of the severity of dementia: validity and reliability of the Chinese (Cantonese) version of the Hierarchic Dementia Scale (CV-HDS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poon, Vickie Wan-kei; Lam, Linda Chiu-wa; Wong, Samuel Yeung-shan

    2008-09-01

    With the rapid growth of the older population, early detection of cognitive deficits is crucial in slowing down functional deterioration of the elderly persons. To examine the validity and reliability of the Chinese (Cantonese) version of the Hierarchic Dementia Scale (CV-HDS) for Chinese older persons in Hong Kong. The HDS was translated into Cantonese Chinese. The content and cultural validity were evaluated by six expert panel members. Sixty-two participants with diagnosis of dementia were recruited for evaluation. Inter-rater reliability, test-retest reliability, internal consistency and concurrent validity were examined. The CV-HDS demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties. inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability were high (alpha=0.89 and alpha=0.94 respectively). High value of Cronbach's alpha (alpha=0.94) demonstrated good internal consistency. The concurrent validity of CV-HDS, through correlation with its scores with that of the Chinese version of Mini Mental Status Examination, was established (ranged from r=0.58 to r=0.78, pCantonese speaking Chinese people with dementia. It facilitates treatment planning to optimize the effects of functional training and rehabilitation.

  18. Survey and research for the enhancement of large-scale technology development 2. How large-scale technology development should be in the future; Ogata gijutsu kaihatsu suishin no tame no chosa kenkyu. 2. Kongo no ogata gijutsu kaihatsu no arikata

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1981-03-01

    A survey is conducted over the subject matter by holding interviews with people, employed with the entrusted businesses participating in the large-scale industrial technology development system, who are engaged in the development of industrial technologies, and with people of experience or academic background involved in the project enhancement effort. Needs of improvement are pointed out that the competition principle based for example on parallel development be introduced; that research-on-research be practiced for effective task institution; midway evaluation be substantiated since prior evaluation is difficult; efforts be made to organize new industries utilizing the fruits of large-scale industrial technology for the creation of markets, not to induce economic conflicts; that transfer of technologies be enhanced from the private sector to public sector. Studies are made about the review of research conducting systems; utilization of the power of private sector research and development efforts; enlightening about industrial proprietorship; and the diffusion of large-scale project systems. In this connection, problems are pointed out, requests are submitted, and remedial measures and suggestions are presented. (NEDO)

  19. The development and validation of a Chinese version of the Illness Attitude Scales: an investigation of university students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Danyan; Zhang, Yinxi; Yu, Enyan; Tan, Yunfei; Tong, Zhou; Zhou, You; Chen, Wanzhen; Chai, Hao; Wang, Wei

    2014-08-01

    The Illness Attitude Scales (IAS) are considered as one of the most suitable instruments to screen hypochondriasis. Whether it has cross-cultural validity in China remains to be determined. In Chinese university students (141 women and 141 men), we have administered the IAS, the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ), and the Plutchik-van Praag Depression Inventory (PVP). For the first time in Chinese culture, we have identified a four-factor structure of the IAS: patho-thanatophobia, symptom effect, treatment seeking, and hypochondriacal belief. Women scored significantly higher on IAS patho-thanatophobia and treatment seeking, on ZKPQ neuroticism-anxiety and activity, and on PVP than men did. The neuroticism-anxiety was significantly correlated with patho-thanatophobia and symptom effect, and PVP was positively correlated with symptom effect in women. Neuroticism-anxiety was significantly correlated with patho-thanatophobia, and impulsive sensation seeking and activity were significantly correlated with symptom effect in men. In Chinese students, we have found a stable four-factor IAS structure.

  20. Cross-cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Simplified Chinese Version of the Knee Outcome Survey Activities of Daily Living Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Zhen-Yu; Wang, Wei; Nian, Xin-Wen; Zhang, Xiao-Xi; Huang, Zhi-Ping; Cui, Jin; Xu, Wei-Dong

    2016-10-01

    To perform a cross-cultural adaptation and translation of the original version of the Activities of Daily Living Scale of the Knee Outcome Survey into Simplified Chinese and validate of the Simplified Chinese version. The original version was translated and cross-culturally adapted into Simplified Chinese according to the guidelines and the recommendations of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Outcome Committee. A total of 213 patients (96 male, 117 female) were selected to participate in our investigation. The inclusion criteria were as follows: 18 years of age and older, able to speak Chinese Mandarin and read Simplified Chinese, and referred to physical therapy for evaluation and treatment for a knee disorder. The exclusion criteria were as follows: patients who had disorders or impairments involving both knees, patients who had other conditions that could affect lower extremity function, patients with physical therapy related to the knee in the previous 1 month, and patients with psychological problems. Each participant was asked to complete the Knee Outcome Survey Activities of Daily Living Scale (KOS-ADLS), International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Form, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index, and Short Form 36 forms and to provide baseline demographic data. Each participant completed the KOS-ADLS twice on 2 nonconsecutive days for reliability evaluation. A portion of the participants (n = 161) finished the KOS-ADLS a third time 4 weeks after physical treatment to test responsiveness. The original version of the KOS-ADLS was well adapted and translated into Simplified Chinese. Simplified Chinese of KOS-ADLS was shown to have good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.855 to 0.929), great test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.935 to 0.961), high construct validity as we hypothesized (significant correlations with Short Form 36 subscales, Western Ontario and Mc

  1. Accelerating Relevance Vector Machine for Large-Scale Data on Spark

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liu Fang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Relevance vector machine (RVM is a machine learning algorithm based on a sparse Bayesian framework, which performs well when running classification and regression tasks on small-scale datasets. However, RVM also has certain drawbacks which restricts its practical applications such as (1 slow training process, (2 poor performance on training large-scale datasets. In order to solve these problem, we propose Discrete AdaBoost RVM (DAB-RVM which incorporate ensemble learning in RVM at first. This method performs well with large-scale low-dimensional datasets. However, as the number of features increases, the training time of DAB-RVM increases as well. To avoid this phenomenon, we utilize the sufficient training samples of large-scale datasets and propose all features boosting RVM (AFB-RVM, which modifies the way of obtaining weak classifiers. In our experiments we study the differences between various boosting techniques with RVM, demonstrating the performance of the proposed approaches on Spark. As a result of this paper, two proposed approaches on Spark for different types of large-scale datasets are available.

  2. Bayesian hierarchical model for large-scale covariance matrix estimation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Dongxiao; Hero, Alfred O

    2007-12-01

    Many bioinformatics problems implicitly depend on estimating large-scale covariance matrix. The traditional approaches tend to give rise to high variance and low accuracy due to "overfitting." We cast the large-scale covariance matrix estimation problem into the Bayesian hierarchical model framework, and introduce dependency between covariance parameters. We demonstrate the advantages of our approaches over the traditional approaches using simulations and OMICS data analysis.

  3. Findings and Challenges in Fine-Resolution Large-Scale Hydrological Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Her, Y. G.

    2017-12-01

    Fine-resolution large-scale (FL) modeling can provide the overall picture of the hydrological cycle and transport while taking into account unique local conditions in the simulation. It can also help develop water resources management plans consistent across spatial scales by describing the spatial consequences of decisions and hydrological events extensively. FL modeling is expected to be common in the near future as global-scale remotely sensed data are emerging, and computing resources have been advanced rapidly. There are several spatially distributed models available for hydrological analyses. Some of them rely on numerical methods such as finite difference/element methods (FDM/FEM), which require excessive computing resources (implicit scheme) to manipulate large matrices or small simulation time intervals (explicit scheme) to maintain the stability of the solution, to describe two-dimensional overland processes. Others make unrealistic assumptions such as constant overland flow velocity to reduce the computational loads of the simulation. Thus, simulation efficiency often comes at the expense of precision and reliability in FL modeling. Here, we introduce a new FL continuous hydrological model and its application to four watersheds in different landscapes and sizes from 3.5 km2 to 2,800 km2 at the spatial resolution of 30 m on an hourly basis. The model provided acceptable accuracy statistics in reproducing hydrological observations made in the watersheds. The modeling outputs including the maps of simulated travel time, runoff depth, soil water content, and groundwater recharge, were animated, visualizing the dynamics of hydrological processes occurring in the watersheds during and between storm events. Findings and challenges were discussed in the context of modeling efficiency, accuracy, and reproducibility, which we found can be improved by employing advanced computing techniques and hydrological understandings, by using remotely sensed hydrological

  4. A preliminary investigation on the topology of Chinese climate networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ge-Li, Wang; Tsonis, Anastasios A

    2009-01-01

    Complex networks have been studied across many fields of science in recent years. In this paper, we give a brief introduction of networks, then follow the original works by Tsonis et al (2004, 2006) starting with data of the surface temperature from 160 Chinese weather observations to investigate the topology of Chinese climate networks. Results show that the Chinese climate network exhibits a characteristic of regular, almost fully connected networks, which means that most nodes in this case have the same number of links, and so-called super nodes with a very large number of links do not exist there. In other words, though former results show that nodes in the extratropical region provide a property of scale-free networks, they still have other different local fine structures inside. We also detect the community of the Chinese climate network by using a Bayesian technique; the effective number of communities of the Chinese climate network is about four in this network. More importantly, this technique approaches results in divisions which have connections with physics and dynamics; the division into communities may highlight the aspects of the dynamics of climate variability. (geophysics, astronomy and astrophysics)

  5. Burmese Attitude toward Chinese: Portrayal of the Chinese in Contemporary Cultural and Media Works

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Min Zin

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper argues that since at least the mid 1980s, there has been an observable negative attitude among the people of Burma against the Chinese. Such sentiment is not just transient public opinion, but an attitude. The author measures it by studying contemporary cultural and media works as found in legally published expressions, so as to exclude any material rejected by the regime’s censors. The causes of such sentiment are various: massive Chinese migration and purchases of real estate (especially in Upper Burma, Chinese money that is inflating the cost of everything, and cultural “intrusion.” The sentiment extends to the military, as well: the article examines a dozen memoirs of former military generals and finds that Burma’s generals do not trust the Chinese, a legacy of China’s interference in Burma’s civil war until the 1980s. The public outcry over the Myitsone dam issue, however, was the most significant expression of such sentiment since 1969, when anti-Chinese riots broke out in Burma. The relaxation of media restrictions under the new government has allowed this expression to gather steam and spread throughout the country, especially in private weekly journals that are becoming more outspoken and daring in pushing the boundaries of the state’s restrictions.

  6. Creating Large Scale Database Servers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Becla, Jacek

    2001-01-01

    The BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is designed to perform a high precision investigation of the decays of the B-meson produced from electron-positron interactions. The experiment, started in May 1999, will generate approximately 300TB/year of data for 10 years. All of the data will reside in Objectivity databases accessible via the Advanced Multi-threaded Server (AMS). To date, over 70TB of data have been placed in Objectivity/DB, making it one of the largest databases in the world. Providing access to such a large quantity of data through a database server is a daunting task. A full-scale testbed environment had to be developed to tune various software parameters and a fundamental change had to occur in the AMS architecture to allow it to scale past several hundred terabytes of data. Additionally, several protocol extensions had to be implemented to provide practical access to large quantities of data. This paper will describe the design of the database and the changes that we needed to make in the AMS for scalability reasons and how the lessons we learned would be applicable to virtually any kind of database server seeking to operate in the Petabyte region

  7. Creating Large Scale Database Servers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Becla, Jacek

    2001-12-14

    The BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is designed to perform a high precision investigation of the decays of the B-meson produced from electron-positron interactions. The experiment, started in May 1999, will generate approximately 300TB/year of data for 10 years. All of the data will reside in Objectivity databases accessible via the Advanced Multi-threaded Server (AMS). To date, over 70TB of data have been placed in Objectivity/DB, making it one of the largest databases in the world. Providing access to such a large quantity of data through a database server is a daunting task. A full-scale testbed environment had to be developed to tune various software parameters and a fundamental change had to occur in the AMS architecture to allow it to scale past several hundred terabytes of data. Additionally, several protocol extensions had to be implemented to provide practical access to large quantities of data. This paper will describe the design of the database and the changes that we needed to make in the AMS for scalability reasons and how the lessons we learned would be applicable to virtually any kind of database server seeking to operate in the Petabyte region.

  8. Large-scale pool fires

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steinhaus Thomas

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available A review of research into the burning behavior of large pool fires and fuel spill fires is presented. The features which distinguish such fires from smaller pool fires are mainly associated with the fire dynamics at low source Froude numbers and the radiative interaction with the fire source. In hydrocarbon fires, higher soot levels at increased diameters result in radiation blockage effects around the perimeter of large fire plumes; this yields lower emissive powers and a drastic reduction in the radiative loss fraction; whilst there are simplifying factors with these phenomena, arising from the fact that soot yield can saturate, there are other complications deriving from the intermittency of the behavior, with luminous regions of efficient combustion appearing randomly in the outer surface of the fire according the turbulent fluctuations in the fire plume. Knowledge of the fluid flow instabilities, which lead to the formation of large eddies, is also key to understanding the behavior of large-scale fires. Here modeling tools can be effectively exploited in order to investigate the fluid flow phenomena, including RANS- and LES-based computational fluid dynamics codes. The latter are well-suited to representation of the turbulent motions, but a number of challenges remain with their practical application. Massively-parallel computational resources are likely to be necessary in order to be able to adequately address the complex coupled phenomena to the level of detail that is necessary.

  9. Decentralised stabilising controllers for a class of large-scale linear ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    subsystems resulting from a new aggregation-decomposition technique. The method has been illustrated through a numerical example of a large-scale linear system consisting of three subsystems each of the fourth order. Keywords. Decentralised stabilisation; large-scale linear systems; optimal feedback control; algebraic ...

  10. Large Scale Survey Data in Career Development Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diemer, Matthew A.

    2008-01-01

    Large scale survey datasets have been underutilized but offer numerous advantages for career development scholars, as they contain numerous career development constructs with large and diverse samples that are followed longitudinally. Constructs such as work salience, vocational expectations, educational expectations, work satisfaction, and…

  11. Adolescent Linkage to Care After a Large-scale Transfer From a Hospital-based HIV Clinic to the Public Sector in South Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramirez-Avila, Lynn; Regan, Susan; Cloete, Christie; Crankshaw, Tamaryn; Rabideau, Dustin J; Freedberg, Kenneth A; Parker, Robert A; Walensky, Rochelle P; Losina, Elena; Bassett, Ingrid V

    2017-03-01

    HIV clinics formerly supported by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief are transferring patients to public-sector clinics. We evaluated adolescent linkage to care after a large-scale transfer from a President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief-subsidized pediatric HIV clinic in Durban, South Africa. All adolescents (11-18 years) in care at a pediatric state-subsidized, hospital-based clinic (HBC) were transferred, from May to June 2012, to government sites [primary health care (PHC) clinic; community health center (CHC); and HBCs] or private clinics. Caregivers were surveyed 7-8 months after transfer to assess their adolescents' linkage to care and their reports were validated by clinic record audits in a subset of randomly selected clinics. Of the 309 (91%) caregivers reached, only 5 (2%) reported that their adolescent did not link. Of the 304 adolescents who linked, 105 (35%) were referred to a PHC, 73 (24%) to a CHC and 106 (35%) to a HBC. A total of 146 (48%) linked adolescents attended a different clinic than that assigned. Thirty-five (20%) of the 178 who linked and were assigned to a PHC or CHC ultimately attended a HBC. Based on clinic validation, the estimated transfer success was 88% (95% confidence interval: 77%-97%). The large majority of adolescents successfully transferred to a new HIV clinic, although nearly half attended a clinic other than that assigned.

  12. Similitude and scaling of large structural elements: Case study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Shehadeh

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Scaled down models are widely used for experimental investigations of large structures due to the limitation in the capacities of testing facilities along with the expenses of the experimentation. The modeling accuracy depends upon the model material properties, fabrication accuracy and loading techniques. In the present work the Buckingham π theorem is used to develop the relations (i.e. geometry, loading and properties between the model and a large structural element as that is present in the huge existing petroleum oil drilling rigs. The model is to be designed, loaded and treated according to a set of similitude requirements that relate the model to the large structural element. Three independent scale factors which represent three fundamental dimensions, namely mass, length and time need to be selected for designing the scaled down model. Numerical prediction of the stress distribution within the model and its elastic deformation under steady loading is to be made. The results are compared with those obtained from the full scale structure numerical computations. The effect of scaled down model size and material on the accuracy of the modeling technique is thoroughly examined.

  13. Neighborhood Discriminant Hashing for Large-Scale Image Retrieval.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Jinhui; Li, Zechao; Wang, Meng; Zhao, Ruizhen

    2015-09-01

    With the proliferation of large-scale community-contributed images, hashing-based approximate nearest neighbor search in huge databases has aroused considerable interest from the fields of computer vision and multimedia in recent years because of its computational and memory efficiency. In this paper, we propose a novel hashing method named neighborhood discriminant hashing (NDH) (for short) to implement approximate similarity search. Different from the previous work, we propose to learn a discriminant hashing function by exploiting local discriminative information, i.e., the labels of a sample can be inherited from the neighbor samples it selects. The hashing function is expected to be orthogonal to avoid redundancy in the learned hashing bits as much as possible, while an information theoretic regularization is jointly exploited using maximum entropy principle. As a consequence, the learned hashing function is compact and nonredundant among bits, while each bit is highly informative. Extensive experiments are carried out on four publicly available data sets and the comparison results demonstrate the outperforming performance of the proposed NDH method over state-of-the-art hashing techniques.

  14. Large-scale preparation of hollow graphitic carbon nanospheres

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Feng, Jun; Li, Fu [Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061 (China); Bai, Yu-Jun, E-mail: byj97@126.com [Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061 (China); State Key laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan 250100 (China); Han, Fu-Dong; Qi, Yong-Xin; Lun, Ning [Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061 (China); Lu, Xi-Feng [Lunan Institute of Coal Chemical Engineering, Jining 272000 (China)

    2013-01-15

    Hollow graphitic carbon nanospheres (HGCNSs) were synthesized on large scale by a simple reaction between glucose and Mg at 550 Degree-Sign C in an autoclave. Characterization by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy demonstrates the formation of HGCNSs with an average diameter of 10 nm or so and a wall thickness of a few graphenes. The HGCNSs exhibit a reversible capacity of 391 mAh g{sup -1} after 60 cycles when used as anode materials for Li-ion batteries. -- Graphical abstract: Hollow graphitic carbon nanospheres could be prepared on large scale by the simple reaction between glucose and Mg at 550 Degree-Sign C, which exhibit superior electrochemical performance to graphite. Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Hollow graphitic carbon nanospheres (HGCNSs) were prepared on large scale at 550 Degree-Sign C Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The preparation is simple, effective and eco-friendly. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The in situ yielded MgO nanocrystals promote the graphitization. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The HGCNSs exhibit superior electrochemical performance to graphite.

  15. Large-scale impact cratering on the terrestrial planets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grieve, R.A.F.

    1982-01-01

    The crater densities on the earth and moon form the basis for a standard flux-time curve that can be used in dating unsampled planetary surfaces and constraining the temporal history of endogenic geologic processes. Abundant evidence is seen not only that impact cratering was an important surface process in planetary history but also that large imapact events produced effects that were crucial in scale. By way of example, it is noted that the formation of multiring basins on the early moon was as important in defining the planetary tectonic framework as plate tectonics is on the earth. Evidence from several planets suggests that the effects of very-large-scale impacts go beyond the simple formation of an impact structure and serve to localize increased endogenic activity over an extended period of geologic time. Even though no longer occurring with the frequency and magnitude of early solar system history, it is noted that large scale impact events continue to affect the local geology of the planets. 92 references

  16. Why are large cities faster? Universal scaling and self-similarity in urban organization and dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bettencourt, L. M. A.; Lobo, J.; West, G. B.

    2008-06-01

    Cities have existed since the beginning of civilization and have always been intimately connected with humanity's cultural and technological development. Much about the human and social dynamics that takes place is cities is intuitively recognizable across time, space and culture; yet we still do not have a clear cut answer as to why cities exist or to what factors are critical to make them thrive or collapse. Here, we construct an extensive quantitative characterization of the variation of many urban indicators with city size, using large data sets for American, European and Chinese cities. We show that social and economic quantities, characterizing the creation of wealth and new ideas, show increasing returns to population scale, which appear quantitatively as a power law of city size with an exponent β≃ 1.15 > 1. Concurrently, quantities characterizing material infrastructure typically show economies of scale, namely β≃ 0.8 exponential growth, which inexorably lead to crises of urban organization. To avoid them we show that growth may proceed in cycles, separated by major urban adaptations, with the unintended consequence that the duration of such cycles decreases with larger urban population size and is now estimated to be shorter than a human lifetime.

  17. Optical interconnect for large-scale systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dress, William

    2013-02-01

    This paper presents a switchless, optical interconnect module that serves as a node in a network of identical distribution modules for large-scale systems. Thousands to millions of hosts or endpoints may be interconnected by a network of such modules, avoiding the need for multi-level switches. Several common network topologies are reviewed and their scaling properties assessed. The concept of message-flow routing is discussed in conjunction with the unique properties enabled by the optical distribution module where it is shown how top-down software control (global routing tables, spanning-tree algorithms) may be avoided.

  18. The public health disaster trust scale: validation of a brief measure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eisenman, David P; Williams, Malcolm V; Glik, Deborah; Long, Anna; Plough, Alonzo L; Ong, Michael

    2012-01-01

    Trust contributes to community resilience by the critical influence it has on the community's responses to public health recommendations before, during, and after disasters. However, trust in public health is a multifactorial concept that has rarely been defined and measured empirically in public health jurisdictional risk assessment surveys. Measuring trust helps public health departments identify and ameliorate a threat to effective risk communications and increase resilience. Such a measure should be brief to be incorporated into assessments conducted by public health departments. We report on a brief scale of public health disaster-related trust, its psychometric properties, and its validity. On the basis of a literature review, our conceptual model of public health disaster-related trust and previously conducted focus groups, we postulated that public health disaster-related trust includes 4 major domains: competency, honesty, fairness, and confidentiality. A random-digit-dialed telephone survey of the Los Angeles county population, conducted in 2004-2005 in 6 languages. Two thousand five hundred eighty-eight adults aged 18 years and older including oversamples of African Americans and Asian Americans. Trust was measured by 4 items scored on a 4-point Likert scale. A summary score from 4 to 16 was constructed. Scores ranged from 4 to 16 and were normally distributed with a mean of 8.5 (SD 2.7). Cronbach α = 0.79. As hypothesized, scores were lower among racial/ethnic minority populations than whites. Also, trust was associated with lower likelihood of following public health recommendations in a hypothetical disaster and lower likelihood of household disaster preparedness. The Public Health Disaster Trust scale may facilitate identifying communities where trust is low and prioritizing them for inclusion in community partnership building efforts under Function 2 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Preparedness Capability 1. The

  19. Chinese implicit leadership theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ling, W; Chia, R C; Fang, L

    2000-12-01

    In a 1st attempt to identify an implicit theory of leadership among Chinese people, the authors developed the Chinese Implicit Leadership Scale (CILS) in Study 1. In Study 2, they administered the CILS to 622 Chinese participants from 5 occupation groups, to explore differences in perceptions of leadership. Factor analysis yielded 4 factors of leadership: Personal Morality, Goal Efficiency, Interpersonal Competence, and Versatility. Social groups differing in age, gender, education level, and occupation rated these factors. Results showed no significant gender differences, and the underlying cause for social group differences was education level. All groups gave the highest ratings to Interpersonal Competence, reflecting the enormous importance of this factor, which is consistent with Chinese collectivist values.

  20. [Four properties law of nature data of Chinese materia medica in "Chinese herbal medicine (CHM)"].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Xue-Mei; Lin, Duan-Yi; Lai, Xin-Mei; Chen, Mei-Mei; Huang, Lu-Qi

    2013-05-01

    In order to provide theoretical clues and data support for the use of Chinese medicine clinical drug, experimental study of Chinese materia medica and development of new resources of Chinese materia medica, the four properties as the core, the relationships of property, flavor, channel tropism and toxicity in nature data of Chinese materia medica were analyzed. The spearman rank correlation method was employed to analyze 8 356 Chinese drugs with characteristic of four properties from " Chinese Herbal Medicine" based on data level coding. It was discovered that four properties showed significant positive correlations with tastes of "pungent and sweet" , channels of "spleen" , "stomach" , "kidney" and "toxicity" , but also showed significant negative correlations with tastes of "bitter" and "light" and six channels such as "large intestine" , "heart", "bladder" , "gallbladder" , "small intestine" and "lung" (in descending order of correlation ) (P <0. 01). It was indicated that the more hot the Chinese medicine nature, the more possible it contained "toxicity" , tastes of "pungent" and "sweet" , and the more possible it was belong to channels of "spleen" , "stomach" and "kidney". As well, the more cold the Chinese medicine nature, the more possible it contained tastes of "bitter" and "light", and the more possible it was belong to six channels such as "large intestine", etc.

  1. Anti-foot-and-mouth disease virus effects of Chinese herbal kombucha in vivo.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fu, Naifang; Wu, Juncai; Lv, Lv; He, Jijun; Jiang, Shengjun

    2015-01-01

    The foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) is sensitive to acids and can be inactivated by exposure to low pH conditions. Spraying animals at risk of infection with suspensions of acid-forming microorganisms has been identified as a potential strategy for preventing FMD. Kombucha is one of the most strongly acid-forming symbiotic probiotics and could thus be an effective agent with which to implement this strategy. Moreover, certain Chinese herbal extracts are known to have broad-spectrum antiviral effects. Chinese herbal kombucha can be prepared by fermenting Chinese herbal extracts with a kombucha culture. Previous studies demonstrated that Chinese herbal kombucha prepared in this way efficiently inhibits FMDV replication in vitro. To assess the inhibitory effects of Chinese herbal kombucha against FMDV in vitro, swine challenged by intramuscular injection with 1000 SID50 of swine FMDV serotype O strain O/China/99 after treatment with Chinese herbal kombucha were partially protected against infection, as demonstrated by a lack of clinical symptoms and qRT-PCR analysis. In a large scale field trial, spraying cattle in an FMD outbreak zone with kombucha protected against infection. Chinese herbal kombucha may be a useful probiotic agent for managing FMD outbreaks.

  2. [A large-scale accident in Alpine terrain].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wildner, M; Paal, P

    2015-02-01

    Due to the geographical conditions, large-scale accidents amounting to mass casualty incidents (MCI) in Alpine terrain regularly present rescue teams with huge challenges. Using an example incident, specific conditions and typical problems associated with such a situation are presented. The first rescue team members to arrive have the elementary tasks of qualified triage and communication to the control room, which is required to dispatch the necessary additional support. Only with a clear "concept", to which all have to adhere, can the subsequent chaos phase be limited. In this respect, a time factor confounded by adverse weather conditions or darkness represents enormous pressure. Additional hazards are frostbite and hypothermia. If priorities can be established in terms of urgency, then treatment and procedure algorithms have proven successful. For evacuation of causalities, a helicopter should be strived for. Due to the low density of hospitals in Alpine regions, it is often necessary to distribute the patients over a wide area. Rescue operations in Alpine terrain have to be performed according to the particular conditions and require rescue teams to have specific knowledge and expertise. The possibility of a large-scale accident should be considered when planning events. With respect to optimization of rescue measures, regular training and exercises are rational, as is the analysis of previous large-scale Alpine accidents.

  3. Innovation Processes in Large-Scale Public Foodservice-Case Findings from the Implementation of Organic Foods in a Danish County

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mikkelsen, Bent Egberg; Nielsen, Thorkild; Kristensen, Niels Heine

    2005-01-01

    was carried out of the change process related implementation of organic foods in large-scale foodservice facilities in Greater Copenhagen county in order to study the effects of such a change. Based on the findings, a set of guidelines has been developed for the successful implementation of organic foods...

  4. Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the Subjective Happiness Scale: evidence from the Hong Kong FAMILY Cohort.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nan, Hairong; Ni, Michael Y; Lee, Paul H; Tam, Wilson W S; Lam, Tai Hing; Leung, Gabriel M; McDowell, Ian

    2014-08-01

    With China's rapid economic growth in the past few decades, there is currently an emerging focus on happiness. Cross-cultural validity studies have indicated that the four-item Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) has high internal consistency and stable reliability. However, the psychometric characteristics of the SHS in broader Chinese community samples are unknown. We evaluated the factor structure and psychometric properties of the SHS in the Hong Kong general population. The Chinese SHS was derived using forward-backward translation. Of the Cantonese-speaking participants aged ≥15 years, 2,635 were randomly selected from the random sample component of the FAMILY Cohort, a territory-wide cohort study in Hong Kong. In addition to the SHS, a single-item overall happiness scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the Family Adaptation, Partnership, Growth, Affection, Resolve (APGAR) scale, and the Medical Outcomes Study 12-item short-form version 2 (SF-12) mental and physical health scales were administered. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a single factor with high loadings for the four SHS items. Multiple group analyses indicated factor invariance across sex and age groups. Cronbach's alpha was 0.82, and 2-week test-retest reliability (n = 191) was 0.70. The SHS correlated significantly with single-item overall happiness (Spearman's rho [ρ] = 0.57), Family APGAR (ρ = 0.26), PHQ-9 (ρ = -0.34), and mental health-related quality of life (ρ = 0.40) but showed a lower correlation with physical health (ρ = 0.15). A regression model that included the PHQ-9 and Family APGAR scores explained 37% of the variance in SF-12 mental health scores; adding the SHS raised the variance explained to 41 %. Our results support the reliability and validity of the SHS as a relevant component in the measurement battery for mental well-being in a Chinese general population.

  5. Hierarchical Cantor set in the large scale structure with torus geometry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Murdzek, R. [Physics Department, ' Al. I. Cuza' University, Blvd. Carol I, Nr. 11, Iassy 700506 (Romania)], E-mail: rmurdzek@yahoo.com

    2008-12-15

    The formation of large scale structures is considered within a model with string on toroidal space-time. Firstly, the space-time geometry is presented. In this geometry, the Universe is represented by a string describing a torus surface. Thereafter, the large scale structure of the Universe is derived from the string oscillations. The results are in agreement with the cellular structure of the large scale distribution and with the theory of a Cantorian space-time.

  6. How do people in different places experience different levels of air pollution? Using worldwide Chinese as a lens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Bin; Song, Yimeng; Kwan, Mei-Po; Huang, Bo; Xu, Bing

    2018-07-01

    Air pollution, being especially severe in the fast-growing developing world, continues to post a threat to public health. Yet, few studies are capable of quantifying well how different groups of people in different places experience different levels of air pollution at the global scale. In this paper, we use worldwide Chinese as a lens to quantify the spatiotemporal variations and geographic differences in PM 2.5 exposures using unprecedented mobile phone big data and air pollution records. The results show that Chinese in South and East Asia suffer relatively serious PM 2.5 exposures, where the Chinese in China have the highest PM 2.5 exposures (52.8 μg/m 3 /year), which is fourfold higher than the exposures in the United States (10.7 μg/m 3 /year). Overall, the Chinese in Asian cities (35.5 μg/m 3 /year) experienced the most serious PM 2.5 exposures when compared with the Chinese in the cities of other continents. These results, partly presented as a spatiotemporally explicit map of PM 2.5 exposures for worldwide Chinese, help researchers and governments to consider how to address the effects of air pollution on public health with respect to different population groups and geographic locations. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  7. Mismatch Negativity in Han Chinese Patients with Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiong, Yanbing; Ll, Xianbin; Zhao, Lei; Wang, Chuanyue

    2017-10-25

    Previous meta-analysis revealed that mismatch negativity(MMN) amplitude decreased in patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy controls (Cohen's d, d about 1), leading to the possibility of mismatch negativity being used as a biomarker for schizophrenia. However, it is unknown whether MMN is reliably changed in Chinese patients. It is necessary to carry out a meta-analysis on MMN of Han Chinese patients with schizophrenia. To investigate whether MMN could be used as a biomarker for Han Chinese patients with schizophrenia. A literature search was conducted to identify clinical trials on MMN in Han Chinese schizophrenia patients published before May 8, 2017, by searching the Chinese language databases CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP Data and PubMed. The effects of MMN deficits were evaluated for MMN amplitude by calculating standard mean difference (SMDs) between schizophrenia patient groups and healthy control groups. A total of 11 studies were included in the analysis. The total quality of all the studies were more than 6 as evaluated by Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Meta-analysis of data from these studies had a pooled sample of 432 patients with schizophrenia and 392 healthy controls. There exists significant MMN deficit in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls (Cohen's d =1.004). When studies were excluded due to heterogeneity, the pooled effect size of the MMN differences between the patient group and healthy controls dropped to 0.79 (Cohen's d =0.79). Subgroup analysis showed that MMN amplitude deficits of schizophrenia over three years had the pooled effect size of 0.95, and less than three years had the pooled effect size of 0.77. Publication bias conducted via Egger regression test ( t = 1.83; p = 0.101), suggested that there was no publication bias. The effect size of MMN amplitude between Chinese patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls is consistent with other meta-analyses published on this topic, suggesting that Han Chinese

  8. Disclosure Control using Partially Synthetic Data for Large-Scale Health Surveys, with Applications to CanCORS

    OpenAIRE

    Loong, Bronwyn; Zaslavsky, Alan M.; He, Yulei; Harrington, David P.

    2013-01-01

    Statistical agencies have begun to partially synthesize public-use data for major surveys to protect the confidentiality of respondents’ identities and sensitive attributes, by replacing high disclosure risk and sensitive variables with multiple imputations. To date, there are few applications of synthetic data techniques to large-scale healthcare survey data. Here, we describe partial synthesis of survey data collected by CanCORS, a comprehensive observational study of the experiences, treat...

  9. Impacts of large-scale offshore wind farm integration on power systems through VSC-HVDC

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Liu, Hongzhi; Chen, Zhe

    2013-01-01

    The potential of offshore wind energy has been commonly recognized and explored globally. Many countries have implemented and planned offshore wind farms to meet their increasing electricity demands and public environmental appeals, especially in Europe. With relatively less space limitation......, an offshore wind farm could have a capacity rating to hundreds of MWs or even GWs that is large enough to compete with conventional power plants. Thus the impacts of a large offshore wind farm on power system operation and security should be thoroughly studied and understood. This paper investigates...... the impacts of integrating a large-scale offshore wind farm into the transmission system of a power grid through VSC-HVDC connection. The concerns are focused on steady-state voltage stability, dynamic voltage stability and transient angle stability. Simulation results based on an exemplary power system...

  10. Large-scale Motion of Solar Filaments

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    tribpo

    Large-scale Motion of Solar Filaments. Pavel Ambrož, Astronomical Institute of the Acad. Sci. of the Czech Republic, CZ-25165. Ondrejov, The Czech Republic. e-mail: pambroz@asu.cas.cz. Alfred Schroll, Kanzelhöehe Solar Observatory of the University of Graz, A-9521 Treffen,. Austria. e-mail: schroll@solobskh.ac.at.

  11. Sensitivity analysis for large-scale problems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noor, Ahmed K.; Whitworth, Sandra L.

    1987-01-01

    The development of efficient techniques for calculating sensitivity derivatives is studied. The objective is to present a computational procedure for calculating sensitivity derivatives as part of performing structural reanalysis for large-scale problems. The scope is limited to framed type structures. Both linear static analysis and free-vibration eigenvalue problems are considered.

  12. Prevalence and Correlates of Suspected Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Chinese Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peige Song

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD has become a serious public health problem worldwide; however, the availability of information on the prevalence of NAFLD in the general pediatric population is still limited. The primary aim of this study was to reveal the prevalence and correlates of suspected NAFLD in Chinese children at the national level. Data from the China Health and Nutrition Surveys (CHNS was used. Weight, height, waist circumference (WC, blood pressure (BP were measured for children aged 7–18 years. Blood samples were collected and analyzed. Children were classified as having suspected NAFLD if common causes of liver disease were excluded, and serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT values were above the established thresholds (>22.1 IU/L for girls and >25.8 IU/L for boys. A percentage of 9.03% (75 out of 831 of Chinese children was found to have suspected NAFLD. Overweight and obesity according to BMI percentiles, abdominal obesity, hyperuricemia (uric acid (UA > 327 μmol/L, and elevated total cholesterol (TC were all detected as the correlates of childhood suspected NAFLD when adjusting for other factors. Our study revealed the prevalence of suspected NAFLD in general Chinese children at the national level for the first time. Our findings indicate that suspected NAFLD in children is associated with increasing childhood morbidities, further studies are needed to better understand the prevalence of childhood NAFLD and its correlates, and large-scale programs should be launched to screen NAFLD in the pediatric population in China.

  13. Topology Optimization of Large Scale Stokes Flow Problems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aage, Niels; Poulsen, Thomas Harpsøe; Gersborg-Hansen, Allan

    2008-01-01

    This note considers topology optimization of large scale 2D and 3D Stokes flow problems using parallel computations. We solve problems with up to 1.125.000 elements in 2D and 128.000 elements in 3D on a shared memory computer consisting of Sun UltraSparc IV CPUs.......This note considers topology optimization of large scale 2D and 3D Stokes flow problems using parallel computations. We solve problems with up to 1.125.000 elements in 2D and 128.000 elements in 3D on a shared memory computer consisting of Sun UltraSparc IV CPUs....

  14. Selected Translated Abstracts of Chinese-Language Climate Change Publications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cushman, R.M.; Burtis, M.D.

    1999-05-01

    This report contains English-translated abstracts of important Chinese-language literature concerning global climate change for the years 1995-1998. This body of literature includes the topics of adaptation, ancient climate change, climate variation, the East Asia monsoon, historical climate change, impacts, modeling, and radiation and trace-gas emissions. In addition to the biological citations and abstracts translated into English, this report presents the original citations and abstracts in Chinese. Author and title indexes are included to assist the reader in locating abstracts of particular interest.

  15. The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harrington, Kathleen; Marriage, Tobias; Ali, Aamir; Appel, John; Bennett, Charles; Boone, Fletcher; Brewer, Michael; Chan, Manwei; Chuss, David T.; Colazo, Felipe; hide

    2016-01-01

    The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) is a four telescope array designed to characterize relic primordial gravitational waves from inflation and the optical depth to reionization through a measurement of the polarized cosmic microwave background (CMB) on the largest angular scales. The frequencies of the four CLASS telescopes, one at 38 GHz, two at 93 GHz, and one dichroic system at 145217 GHz, are chosen to avoid spectral regions of high atmospheric emission and span the minimum of the polarized Galactic foregrounds: synchrotron emission at lower frequencies and dust emission at higher frequencies. Low-noise transition edge sensor detectors and a rapid front-end polarization modulator provide a unique combination of high sensitivity, stability, and control of systematics. The CLASS site, at 5200 m in the Chilean Atacama desert, allows for daily mapping of up to 70% of the sky and enables the characterization of CMB polarization at the largest angular scales. Using this combination of a broad frequency range, large sky coverage, control over systematics, and high sensitivity, CLASS will observe the reionization and recombination peaks of the CMB E- and B-mode power spectra. CLASS will make a cosmic variance limited measurement of the optical depth to reionization and will measure or place upper limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, down to a level of 0.01 (95% C.L.).

  16. Prehospital Acute Stroke Severity Scale to Predict Large Artery Occlusion: Design and Comparison With Other Scales.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hastrup, Sidsel; Damgaard, Dorte; Johnsen, Søren Paaske; Andersen, Grethe

    2016-07-01

    We designed and validated a simple prehospital stroke scale to identify emergent large vessel occlusion (ELVO) in patients with acute ischemic stroke and compared the scale to other published scales for prediction of ELVO. A national historical test cohort of 3127 patients with information on intracranial vessel status (angiography) before reperfusion therapy was identified. National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) items with the highest predictive value of occlusion of a large intracranial artery were identified, and the most optimal combination meeting predefined criteria to ensure usefulness in the prehospital phase was determined. The predictive performance of Prehospital Acute Stroke Severity (PASS) scale was compared with other published scales for ELVO. The PASS scale was composed of 3 NIHSS scores: level of consciousness (month/age), gaze palsy/deviation, and arm weakness. In derivation of PASS 2/3 of the test cohort was used and showed accuracy (area under the curve) of 0.76 for detecting large arterial occlusion. Optimal cut point ≥2 abnormal scores showed: sensitivity=0.66 (95% CI, 0.62-0.69), specificity=0.83 (0.81-0.85), and area under the curve=0.74 (0.72-0.76). Validation on 1/3 of the test cohort showed similar performance. Patients with a large artery occlusion on angiography with PASS ≥2 had a median NIHSS score of 17 (interquartile range=6) as opposed to PASS <2 with a median NIHSS score of 6 (interquartile range=5). The PASS scale showed equal performance although more simple when compared with other scales predicting ELVO. The PASS scale is simple and has promising accuracy for prediction of ELVO in the field. © 2016 American Heart Association, Inc.

  17. Large-scale Exploration of Neuronal Morphologies Using Deep Learning and Augmented Reality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Zhongyu; Butler, Erik; Li, Kang; Lu, Aidong; Ji, Shuiwang; Zhang, Shaoting

    2018-02-12

    Recently released large-scale neuron morphological data has greatly facilitated the research in neuroinformatics. However, the sheer volume and complexity of these data pose significant challenges for efficient and accurate neuron exploration. In this paper, we propose an effective retrieval framework to address these problems, based on frontier techniques of deep learning and binary coding. For the first time, we develop a deep learning based feature representation method for the neuron morphological data, where the 3D neurons are first projected into binary images and then learned features using an unsupervised deep neural network, i.e., stacked convolutional autoencoders (SCAEs). The deep features are subsequently fused with the hand-crafted features for more accurate representation. Considering the exhaustive search is usually very time-consuming in large-scale databases, we employ a novel binary coding method to compress feature vectors into short binary codes. Our framework is validated on a public data set including 58,000 neurons, showing promising retrieval precision and efficiency compared with state-of-the-art methods. In addition, we develop a novel neuron visualization program based on the techniques of augmented reality (AR), which can help users take a deep exploration of neuron morphologies in an interactive and immersive manner.

  18. The ABCs of Chinese Pop: Wang Leehom and the Marketing of a Global Chinese Celebrity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Grace Wang

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available How did singer Wang Leehom, a Chinese American raised in the suburbs of New York, end up becoming one of the industry heavyweights of Mandopop (Mandarin-language pop music? This essay uses Wang as a case study to investigate how discourses of race, market, and belonging are reworked in global contexts. Drawing on Sau-ling Wong’s theoretical insights on transnational processes of race, citizenship, and belonging, it argues that Wang capitalizes on a fluid dynamic of sameness and difference to appeal to a heterogeneous Chinese-speaking audience that stretches across China to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and the greater Chinese diaspora. Through an examination of the racial and national contexts that frame Wang’s participation in Mandopop, this essay analyzes the particular calibrations of Chineseness that emerge from the singer’s music and public image and the imperfect translation of identities such as Chinese American, Chinese diasporic, and Chinese across diverse linguistic and national communities.

  19. Analysis using large-scale ringing data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baillie, S. R.

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available Birds are highly mobile organisms and there is increasing evidence that studies at large spatial scales are needed if we are to properly understand their population dynamics. While classical metapopulation models have rarely proved useful for birds, more general metapopulation ideas involving collections of populations interacting within spatially structured landscapes are highly relevant (Harrison, 1994. There is increasing interest in understanding patterns of synchrony, or lack of synchrony, between populations and the environmental and dispersal mechanisms that bring about these patterns (Paradis et al., 2000. To investigate these processes we need to measure abundance, demographic rates and dispersal at large spatial scales, in addition to gathering data on relevant environmental variables. There is an increasing realisation that conservation needs to address rapid declines of common and widespread species (they will not remain so if such trends continue as well as the management of small populations that are at risk of extinction. While the knowledge needed to support the management of small populations can often be obtained from intensive studies in a few restricted areas, conservation of widespread species often requires information on population trends and processes measured at regional, national and continental scales (Baillie, 2001. While management prescriptions for widespread populations may initially be developed from a small number of local studies or experiments, there is an increasing need to understand how such results will scale up when applied across wider areas. There is also a vital role for monitoring at large spatial scales both in identifying such population declines and in assessing population recovery. Gathering data on avian abundance and demography at large spatial scales usually relies on the efforts of large numbers of skilled volunteers. Volunteer studies based on ringing (for example Constant Effort Sites [CES

  20. The Role of Remote Sensing for Understanding Large-Scale Rubber Concession Expansion in Southern Laos

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mutlu Özdoğan

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Increasing global demand for natural rubber began in the mid-2000s and led to large-scale expansion of plantations in Laos until rubber latex prices declined greatly beginning in 2011. The expansion of rubber did not, however, occur uniformly across the country. While the north and central Laos experienced mostly local and smallholder plantations, rubber expansion in the south was dominated by transnational companies from Vietnam, China and Thailand through large-scale land concessions, often causing conflicts with local communities. In this study we use satellite remote sensing to identify and map the expansion of large-scale rubber plantations in Champasak Province—the first area in southern Laos to host large-scale rubber development—and document the biophysical impacts on the local landscape, which of course is linked to social impacts on local people. Our study demonstrates that the expansion of rubber in the province was rapid and did not always conform to approved concession area locations. The mono-culture nature of rubber plantations also had the effect of homogenizing the landscape, eclipsing the changes caused by local populations. We argue that by providing a relatively inexpensive way to track the expansion of rubber plantations over space and time, remote sensing has the potential to provide advocates and other civil society groups with data that might otherwise remain limited to the restricted domains of state regulation and private sector reporting. However, we also caution that while remote sensing has the potential to provide strong public evidence about plantation expansion, access to and control of this information ultimately determines its value.

  1. Differences Across Levels in the Language of Agency and Ability in Rating Scales for Large-Scale Second Language Writing Assessments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anderson Salena Sampson

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available While large-scale language and writing assessments benefit from a wealth of literature on the reliability and validity of specific tests and rating procedures, there is comparatively less literature that explores the specific language of second language writing rubrics. This paper provides an analysis of the language of performance descriptors for the public versions of the TOEFL and IELTS writing assessment rubrics, with a focus on linguistic agency encoded by agentive verbs and language of ability encoded by modal verbs can and cannot. While the IELTS rubrics feature more agentive verbs than the TOEFL rubrics, both pairs of rubrics feature uneven syntax across the band or score descriptors with either more agentive verbs for the highest scores, more nominalization for the lowest scores, or language of ability exclusively in the lowest scores. These patterns mirror similar patterns in the language of college-level classroom-based writing rubrics, but they differ from patterns seen in performance descriptors for some large-scale admissions tests. It is argued that the lack of syntactic congruity across performance descriptors in the IELTS and TOEFL rubrics may reflect a bias in how actual student performances at different levels are characterized.

  2. Fast Simulation of Large-Scale Floods Based on GPU Parallel Computing

    OpenAIRE

    Qiang Liu; Yi Qin; Guodong Li

    2018-01-01

    Computing speed is a significant issue of large-scale flood simulations for real-time response to disaster prevention and mitigation. Even today, most of the large-scale flood simulations are generally run on supercomputers due to the massive amounts of data and computations necessary. In this work, a two-dimensional shallow water model based on an unstructured Godunov-type finite volume scheme was proposed for flood simulation. To realize a fast simulation of large-scale floods on a personal...

  3. Preliminary psychometric properties of the chinese version of the work-related quality of life scale-2 in the nursing profession.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Shike; Chaiear, Naesinee; Khiewyoo, Jiraporn; Wu, Bin; Johns, Nutjaree Pratheepawanit

    2013-03-01

    As quality of work-life (QWL) among nurses affects both patient care and institutional standards, assessment regarding QWL for the profession is important. Work-related Quality of Life Scale (WRQOLS) is a reliable QWL assessment tool for the nursing profession. To develop a Chinese version of the WRQOLS-2 and to examine its psychometric properties as an instrument to assess QWL for the nursing profession in China. Forward and back translating procedures were used to develop the Chinese version of WRQOLS-2. Six nursing experts participated in content validity evaluation and 352 registered nurses (RNs) participated in the tests. After a two-week interval, 70 of the RNs were retested. Structural validity was examined by principal components analysis and the Cronbach's alphas calculated. The respective independent sample t-test and intra-class correlation coefficient were used to analyze known-group validity and test-retest reliability. One item was rephrased for adaptation to Chinese organizational cultures. The content validity index of the scale was 0.98. Principal components analysis resulted in a seven-factor model, accounting for 62% of total variance, with Cronbach's alphas for subscales ranging from 0.71 to 0.88. Known-group validity was established in the assessment results of the participants in permanent employment vs. contract employment (t = 2.895, p < 0.01). Good test-retest reliability was observed (r = 0.88, p < 0.01). The translated Chinese version of the WRQOLS-2 has sufficient validity and reliability so that it can be used to evaluate the QWL among nurses in mainland China.

  4. Parallel clustering algorithm for large-scale biological data sets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Minchao; Zhang, Wu; Ding, Wang; Dai, Dongbo; Zhang, Huiran; Xie, Hao; Chen, Luonan; Guo, Yike; Xie, Jiang

    2014-01-01

    Recent explosion of biological data brings a great challenge for the traditional clustering algorithms. With increasing scale of data sets, much larger memory and longer runtime are required for the cluster identification problems. The affinity propagation algorithm outperforms many other classical clustering algorithms and is widely applied into the biological researches. However, the time and space complexity become a great bottleneck when handling the large-scale data sets. Moreover, the similarity matrix, whose constructing procedure takes long runtime, is required before running the affinity propagation algorithm, since the algorithm clusters data sets based on the similarities between data pairs. Two types of parallel architectures are proposed in this paper to accelerate the similarity matrix constructing procedure and the affinity propagation algorithm. The memory-shared architecture is used to construct the similarity matrix, and the distributed system is taken for the affinity propagation algorithm, because of its large memory size and great computing capacity. An appropriate way of data partition and reduction is designed in our method, in order to minimize the global communication cost among processes. A speedup of 100 is gained with 128 cores. The runtime is reduced from serval hours to a few seconds, which indicates that parallel algorithm is capable of handling large-scale data sets effectively. The parallel affinity propagation also achieves a good performance when clustering large-scale gene data (microarray) and detecting families in large protein superfamilies.

  5. Motives for online gaming questionnaire: Its psychometric properties and correlation with Internet gaming disorder symptoms among Chinese people.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Anise M S; Lai, Mark H C; Yu, Shu; Lau, Joseph T F; Lei, Man-Wai

    2017-03-01

    Background and aims Internet gaming disorder (IGD) imposes a potential public health threat worldwide. Gaming motives are potentially salient factors of IGD, but research on Chinese gaming motives is scarce. This study empirically evaluated the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Motives for Online Gaming Questionnaire (C-MOGQ), the first inventory that measures seven different gaming motives applicable to all type of online games. We also investigated the associations between various gaming motives and IGD symptoms among Chinese gamers. Methods Three hundred and eighty-three Chinese adult online gamers (Mean age = 23.7 years) voluntarily completed our online, anonymous survey in December 2015. Results The confirmatory factor analysis results supported a bi-factor model with a general factor subsuming all C-MOGQ items (General Motivation) and seven uncorrelated domain-specific factors (Escape, Coping, Fantasy, Skill Development, Recreation, Competition, and Social). High internal consistencies of the overall scale and subscales were observed. The criterion-related validity of this Chinese version was also supported by the positive correlations of C-MOGQ scale scores with psychological need satisfaction and time spent gaming. Furthermore, we found that high General Motivation (coupled with high Escape motive and low Skill Development motive) was associated with more IGD symptoms reported by our Chinese participants. Discussion and conclusions Our findings demonstrated the utility of C-MOGQ in measuring gaming motives of Chinese online gamers, and we recommend the consideration of both its total score and subscale scores in future studies.

  6. Motives for online gaming questionnaire: Its psychometric properties and correlation with Internet gaming disorder symptoms among Chinese people

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Anise M. S.; Lai, Mark H. C.; Yu, Shu; Lau, Joseph T. F.; Lei, Man-wai

    2017-01-01

    Background and aims Internet gaming disorder (IGD) imposes a potential public health threat worldwide. Gaming motives are potentially salient factors of IGD, but research on Chinese gaming motives is scarce. This study empirically evaluated the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Motives for Online Gaming Questionnaire (C-MOGQ), the first inventory that measures seven different gaming motives applicable to all type of online games. We also investigated the associations between various gaming motives and IGD symptoms among Chinese gamers. Methods Three hundred and eighty-three Chinese adult online gamers (Mean age = 23.7 years) voluntarily completed our online, anonymous survey in December 2015. Results The confirmatory factor analysis results supported a bi-factor model with a general factor subsuming all C-MOGQ items (General Motivation) and seven uncorrelated domain-specific factors (Escape, Coping, Fantasy, Skill Development, Recreation, Competition, and Social). High internal consistencies of the overall scale and subscales were observed. The criterion-related validity of this Chinese version was also supported by the positive correlations of C-MOGQ scale scores with psychological need satisfaction and time spent gaming. Furthermore, we found that high General Motivation (coupled with high Escape motive and low Skill Development motive) was associated with more IGD symptoms reported by our Chinese participants. Discussion and conclusions Our findings demonstrated the utility of C-MOGQ in measuring gaming motives of Chinese online gamers, and we recommend the consideration of both its total score and subscale scores in future studies. PMID:28264590

  7. Validation of a Chinese version of the stress overload scale-short and its use as a screening tool for mental health status.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duan, Wenjie; Mu, Wenlong

    2018-02-01

    Although stress emerges when environmental demands exceed personal resources, existing measurement methods for stress focus only on one aspect. The newly-developed Short Stress Overload Scale (SOS-S) assesses the extent of stress by assessing both event load (i.e., environmental demands) and personal vulnerability (i.e., personal resources). The present study was designed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of Stress Overload Scale-Short (SOS-SC), and further examine its roles in screening mental health status. A total of 1364 participants were recruited from communities and colleges for scale validation. Reliabilities were good throughout the subsamples (ω > 0.80). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated the acceptable goodness-of-fit for the two-factor correlated model (Sample 1: 560 community residents). Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis confirmed measurement invariance across community residents (Sample 1) and college students (Sample 2 and Sample 3). Criterion validity and convergent validity were established (Sample 2: 554 college students). Latent moderated structural equations demonstrated that the relationship between SOS-SC and depression is moderated by social support (Sample 2), further validating the SOS-SC. In addition, the SOS-SC effectively screened individuals in a population at different levels of mental health status (i.e., "at risk" vs. "at low risk" for depression symptoms and/or wellbeing). The SOS-SC exhibits acceptable psychometric properties in the Chinese context. That said, the two aspects of stress can be differentiated by the Chinese context, therefore, the SOS-SC can be used to measure stress and screen mental health status among the Chinese population, and monitor and evaluate health-promoting interventions.

  8. Clinical characteristics and disease predictors of a large Chinese cohort of patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dongping Chen

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD is a relentlessly progressing form of chronic kidney disease for which there is no cure. The aim of this study was to characterize Chinese patients with ADPKD and to identify the factors which predict cyst growth and renal functional deterioration. METHODS: To analyze disease predicting factors we performed a prospective longitudinal observational study in a cohort of 541 Chinese patients with ADPKD and an eGFR ≥ 30 ml/min/1.73 m(2. Patients were followed clinically and radiologically with sequential abdominal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI. Clinical characteristics and laboratory data were related to changes in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR and total kidney volume (TKV. A linear regression model was developed to analyze the factors which determine eGFR and TKV changes. RESULTS: The age range of this unselected cohort ranged from 4 to 77 years. Median follow-up time was 14.3 ± 10.6 months. Although inter-individual differences in eGFR and TKV were large, there was a consistent link between these two parameters. Baseline log10-transformed TKV and urinary protein/creatinine ratio were identified as the major predictors for a faster eGFR decline and were associated with a higher TKV growth rate. Interestingly, a lower thrombocyte count correlated significantly with lower eGFR (r = 0.222 and higher TKV (r = 0.134. CONCLUSIONS: This large cohort of Chinese patients with ADPKD provides unique epidemiological data for comparison with other cohorts of different ethnicity. In Chinese patients we identified a lower thrombocyte count as a significant predictor of disease progression. These results are important for the design of future clinical trials to retard polycystic kidney disease progression.

  9. Will the Internet Form the Public Sphere in China?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Zhan

    2004-04-01

    Full Text Available The Western perspective in examining the political impact of the Internet concentrates on whether this new medium will revitalize the public sphere so as to further representative democracy to ideal form of participatory democracy. This paper examines the political impact of the Internet on China, a large developing country that lacks sophisticated representative democratic politics. It analyzes the revolutionary changes that the Internet has brought to the Chinese Internet users and the government's regulations on the new medium. It asks whether the Internet will form the Habermasian public sphere in China and concludes that the Internet enhances the Chinese netter's political participation, but it needs long-term research to decide to what extent the Internet will improve democracy in China.

  10. MELAS and Kearns–Sayre overlap syndrome due to the mtDNA m. A3243G mutation and large-scale mtDNA deletions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nian Yu

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper reported an unusual manifestation of a 19-year-old Chinese male patient presented with a complex phenotype of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes (MELAS syndrome and Kearns–Sayre syndrome (KSS. He was admitted to our hospital with the chief complaint of “acute fever, headache and slow reaction for 21 days”. He was initially misdiagnosed as “viral encephalitis”. This Chinese man with significant past medical history of intolerating fatigue presented paroxysmal neurobehavioral attacks that started about 10 years ago. During this span, 3 or 4 attack clusters were described during which several attacks occurred over a few days. The further examination found that the hallmark signs of this patient included progressive myoclonus epilepsy, cerebellar ataxia, hearing loss, myopathic weakness, ophthalmoparesis, pigmentary retinopathy and bifascicular heart block (Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome. By young age the disease progression is characterized by the addition of migraine, vomiting, and stroke-like episodes, symptoms of MELAS expression, which indicated completion of the MELAS/KSS overlap syndrome. The m. A3243G mitochondrial DNA mutation and single large-scale mtDNA deletions were found in this patient. This mutation has been reported with MELAS, KSS, myopathy, deafness and mental disorder with cognitive impairment. This is the first description with a MELAS/KSS syndrome in Chinese.

  11. The Measurement of Stressful Events in Chinese College Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Hong; Lin, Chong-De; Bray, Melissa A.; Kehle, Thomas J.

    2005-01-01

    The "Chinese College Stress Scale" was developed to ascertain stress in university students. Results suggested that the psychometric properties of the "Chinese College Stress Scale" were satisfactory. Overall, student stress was primarily related to academic, personal, and negative life events. Approximately 8% of Chinese…

  12. Adaptive visualization for large-scale graph

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakamura, Hiroko; Shinano, Yuji; Ohzahata, Satoshi

    2010-01-01

    We propose an adoptive visualization technique for representing a large-scale hierarchical dataset within limited display space. A hierarchical dataset has nodes and links showing the parent-child relationship between the nodes. These nodes and links are described using graphics primitives. When the number of these primitives is large, it is difficult to recognize the structure of the hierarchical data because many primitives are overlapped within a limited region. To overcome this difficulty, we propose an adaptive visualization technique for hierarchical datasets. The proposed technique selects an appropriate graph style according to the nodal density in each area. (author)

  13. Stabilization Algorithms for Large-Scale Problems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Toke Koldborg

    2006-01-01

    The focus of the project is on stabilization of large-scale inverse problems where structured models and iterative algorithms are necessary for computing approximate solutions. For this purpose, we study various iterative Krylov methods and their abilities to produce regularized solutions. Some......-curve. This heuristic is implemented as a part of a larger algorithm which is developed in collaboration with G. Rodriguez and P. C. Hansen. Last, but not least, a large part of the project has, in different ways, revolved around the object-oriented Matlab toolbox MOORe Tools developed by PhD Michael Jacobsen. New...

  14. Ensuring Adequate Health and Safety Information for Decision Makers during Large-Scale Chemical Releases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petropoulos, Z.; Clavin, C.; Zuckerman, B.

    2015-12-01

    The 2014 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol (MCHM) spill in the Elk River of West Virginia highlighted existing gaps in emergency planning for, and response to, large-scale chemical releases in the United States. The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act requires that facilities with hazardous substances provide Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs), which contain health and safety information on the hazardous substances. The MSDS produced by Eastman Chemical Company, the manufacturer of MCHM, listed "no data available" for various human toxicity subcategories, such as reproductive toxicity and carcinogenicity. As a result of incomplete toxicity data, the public and media received conflicting messages on the safety of the contaminated water from government officials, industry, and the public health community. Two days after the governor lifted the ban on water use, the health department partially retracted the ban by warning pregnant women to continue avoiding the contaminated water, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deemed safe three weeks later. The response in West Virginia represents a failure in risk communication and calls to question if government officials have sufficient information to support evidence-based decisions during future incidents. Research capabilities, like the National Science Foundation RAPID funding, can provide a solution to some of the data gaps, such as information on environmental fate in the case of the MCHM spill. In order to inform policy discussions on this issue, a methodology for assessing the outcomes of RAPID and similar National Institutes of Health grants in the context of emergency response is employed to examine the efficacy of research-based capabilities in enhancing public health decision making capacity. The results of this assessment highlight potential roles rapid scientific research can fill in ensuring adequate health and safety data is readily available for decision makers during large-scale

  15. Design study on sodium cooled large-scale reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murakami, Tsutomu; Hishida, Masahiko; Kisohara, Naoyuki

    2004-07-01

    In Phase 1 of the 'Feasibility Studies on Commercialized Fast Reactor Cycle Systems (F/S)', an advanced loop type reactor has been selected as a promising concept of sodium-cooled large-scale reactor, which has a possibility to fulfill the design requirements of the F/S. In Phase 2, design improvement for further cost reduction of establishment of the plant concept has been performed. This report summarizes the results of the design study on the sodium-cooled large-scale reactor performed in JFY2003, which is the third year of Phase 2. In the JFY2003 design study, critical subjects related to safety, structural integrity and thermal hydraulics which found in the last fiscal year has been examined and the plant concept has been modified. Furthermore, fundamental specifications of main systems and components have been set and economy has been evaluated. In addition, as the interim evaluation of the candidate concept of the FBR fuel cycle is to be conducted, cost effectiveness and achievability for the development goal were evaluated and the data of the three large-scale reactor candidate concepts were prepared. As a results of this study, the plant concept of the sodium-cooled large-scale reactor has been constructed, which has a prospect to satisfy the economic goal (construction cost: less than 200,000 yens/kWe, etc.) and has a prospect to solve the critical subjects. From now on, reflecting the results of elemental experiments, the preliminary conceptual design of this plant will be preceded toward the selection for narrowing down candidate concepts at the end of Phase 2. (author)

  16. Design study on sodium-cooled large-scale reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shimakawa, Yoshio; Nibe, Nobuaki; Hori, Toru

    2002-05-01

    In Phase 1 of the 'Feasibility Study on Commercialized Fast Reactor Cycle Systems (F/S)', an advanced loop type reactor has been selected as a promising concept of sodium-cooled large-scale reactor, which has a possibility to fulfill the design requirements of the F/S. In Phase 2 of the F/S, it is planed to precede a preliminary conceptual design of a sodium-cooled large-scale reactor based on the design of the advanced loop type reactor. Through the design study, it is intended to construct such a plant concept that can show its attraction and competitiveness as a commercialized reactor. This report summarizes the results of the design study on the sodium-cooled large-scale reactor performed in JFY2001, which is the first year of Phase 2. In the JFY2001 design study, a plant concept has been constructed based on the design of the advanced loop type reactor, and fundamental specifications of main systems and components have been set. Furthermore, critical subjects related to safety, structural integrity, thermal hydraulics, operability, maintainability and economy have been examined and evaluated. As a result of this study, the plant concept of the sodium-cooled large-scale reactor has been constructed, which has a prospect to satisfy the economic goal (construction cost: less than 200,000yens/kWe, etc.) and has a prospect to solve the critical subjects. From now on, reflecting the results of elemental experiments, the preliminary conceptual design of this plant will be preceded toward the selection for narrowing down candidate concepts at the end of Phase 2. (author)

  17. Large scale CMB anomalies from thawing cosmic strings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ringeval, Christophe [Centre for Cosmology, Particle Physics and Phenomenology, Institute of Mathematics and Physics, Louvain University, 2 Chemin du Cyclotron, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium); Yamauchi, Daisuke; Yokoyama, Jun' ichi [Research Center for the Early Universe (RESCEU), Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan); Bouchet, François R., E-mail: christophe.ringeval@uclouvain.be, E-mail: yamauchi@resceu.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp, E-mail: yokoyama@resceu.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp, E-mail: bouchet@iap.fr [Institut d' Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095-CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 98bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris (France)

    2016-02-01

    Cosmic strings formed during inflation are expected to be either diluted over super-Hubble distances, i.e., invisible today, or to have crossed our past light cone very recently. We discuss the latter situation in which a few strings imprint their signature in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Anisotropies after recombination. Being almost frozen in the Hubble flow, these strings are quasi static and evade almost all of the previously derived constraints on their tension while being able to source large scale anisotropies in the CMB sky. Using a local variance estimator on thousand of numerically simulated Nambu-Goto all sky maps, we compute the expected signal and show that it can mimic a dipole modulation at large angular scales while being negligible at small angles. Interestingly, such a scenario generically produces one cold spot from the thawing of a cosmic string loop. Mixed with anisotropies of inflationary origin, we find that a few strings of tension GU = O(1) × 10{sup −6} match the amplitude of the dipole modulation reported in the Planck satellite measurements and could be at the origin of other large scale anomalies.

  18. Large scale laboratory diffusion experiments in clay rocks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garcia-Gutierrez, M.; Missana, T.; Mingarro, M.; Martin, P.L.; Cormenzana, J.L.

    2005-01-01

    Full text of publication follows: Clay formations are potential host rocks for high-level radioactive waste repositories. In clay materials the radionuclide diffusion is the main transport mechanism. Thus, the understanding of the diffusion processes and the determination of diffusion parameters in conditions as similar as possible to the real ones, are critical for the performance assessment of deep geological repository. Diffusion coefficients are mainly measured in the laboratory using small samples, after a preparation to fit into the diffusion cell. In addition, a few field tests are usually performed for confirming laboratory results, and analyse scale effects. In field or 'in situ' tests the experimental set-up usually includes the injection of a tracer diluted in reconstituted formation water into a packed off section of a borehole. Both experimental systems may produce artefacts in the determination of diffusion coefficients. In laboratory the preparation of the sample can generate structural change mainly if the consolidated clay have a layered fabric, and in field test the introduction of water could modify the properties of the saturated clay in the first few centimeters, just where radionuclide diffusion is expected to take place. In this work, a large scale laboratory diffusion experiment is proposed, using a large cylindrical sample of consolidated clay that can overcome the above mentioned problems. The tracers used were mixed with clay obtained by drilling a central hole, re-compacted into the hole at approximately the same density as the consolidated block and finally sealed. Neither additional treatment of the sample nor external monitoring are needed. After the experimental time needed for diffusion to take place (estimated by scoping calculations) the block was sampled to obtain a 3D distribution of the tracer concentration and the results were modelled. An additional advantage of the proposed configuration is that it could be used in 'in situ

  19. Professional Learning Communities and the Diffusion of Pedagogical Innovation in the Chinese Education System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sargent, Tanja Carmel

    2015-01-01

    Pedagogical innovations have been diffusing unevenly through the Chinese education system as a result of the implementation of the New Curriculum Reforms. Drawing on large-scale linked teacher and principal survey data from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families, this article investigates the extent to which interlocking teacher networks, which…

  20. Exploiting multi-scale parallelism for large scale numerical modelling of laser wakefield accelerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fonseca, R A; Vieira, J; Silva, L O; Fiuza, F; Davidson, A; Tsung, F S; Mori, W B

    2013-01-01

    A new generation of laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA), supported by the extreme accelerating fields generated in the interaction of PW-Class lasers and underdense targets, promises the production of high quality electron beams in short distances for multiple applications. Achieving this goal will rely heavily on numerical modelling to further understand the underlying physics and identify optimal regimes, but large scale modelling of these scenarios is computationally heavy and requires the efficient use of state-of-the-art petascale supercomputing systems. We discuss the main difficulties involved in running these simulations and the new developments implemented in the OSIRIS framework to address these issues, ranging from multi-dimensional dynamic load balancing and hybrid distributed/shared memory parallelism to the vectorization of the PIC algorithm. We present the results of the OASCR Joule Metric program on the issue of large scale modelling of LWFA, demonstrating speedups of over 1 order of magnitude on the same hardware. Finally, scalability to over ∼10 6 cores and sustained performance over ∼2 P Flops is demonstrated, opening the way for large scale modelling of LWFA scenarios. (paper)

  1. Best Practices in the Evaluation of Large-scale STEM-focused Events: A Review of Recent Literature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shebby, S.; Cobb, W. H.; Buxner, S.; Shipp, S. S.

    2015-12-01

    Each year, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sponsors a variety of educational events to share information with educators, students, and the general public. Intended outcomes of these events include increased interest in and awareness of the mission and goals of NASA. Events range in size from relatively small family science nights at a local school to large-scale mission and celestial event celebrations involving thousands of members of the general public. To support community members in designing event evaluations, the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Planetary Science Forum sponsored the creation of a Best Practices Guide. The guide was generated by reviewing published large-scale event evaluation reports; however, the best practices described within are pertinent for all event organizers and evaluators regardless of event size. Each source included in the guide identified numerous challenges to conducting their event evaluation. These included difficulty in identifying extant instruments or items, collecting representative data, and disaggregating data to inform different evaluation questions. Overall, the guide demonstrates that evaluations of the large-scale events are generally done at a very basic level, with the types of data collected limited to observable demographic information and participant reactions collected via online survey. In addition to these findings, this presentation will describe evaluation best practices that will help practitioners move beyond these basic indicators and examine how to make the evaluation process an integral—and valuable—element of event planning, ultimately informing event outcomes and impacts. It will provide detailed information on five recommendations presented in the guide: 1) consider evaluation methodology, including data analysis, in advance; 2) design data collection instruments well in advance of the event; 3) collect data at different times and from multiple sources; 4) use

  2. Balancing modern Power System with large scale of wind power

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Basit, Abdul; Altin, Müfit; Hansen, Anca Daniela

    2014-01-01

    Power system operators must ensure robust, secure and reliable power system operation even with a large scale integration of wind power. Electricity generated from the intermittent wind in large propor-tion may impact on the control of power system balance and thus deviations in the power system...... frequency in small or islanded power systems or tie line power flows in interconnected power systems. Therefore, the large scale integration of wind power into the power system strongly concerns the secure and stable grid operation. To ensure the stable power system operation, the evolving power system has...... to be analysed with improved analytical tools and techniques. This paper proposes techniques for the active power balance control in future power systems with the large scale wind power integration, where power balancing model provides the hour-ahead dispatch plan with reduced planning horizon and the real time...

  3. A Glimpse of Chinese-Malay Literature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cendrawaty Tjong

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available Chinese-Malay literature begans in the end of 19th century. The beginning of this period was known from the works depicted Classical-Malay literature. In the development, due to the booming of publication houses and newspaper agencies, this school of literature flourished. The origin of this period was closely related to Chinese-descendants, background and history. The long history, the big numbers of works and the miscellaneous contents of the works were the characteristics of this period. Chinese-Malay literature period was the period highlighted with typical Chinese-Indonesian society.  

  4. Large-scale educational telecommunications systems for the US: An analysis of educational needs and technological opportunities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morgan, R. P.; Singh, J. P.; Rothenberg, D.; Robinson, B. E.

    1975-01-01

    The needs to be served, the subsectors in which the system might be used, the technology employed, and the prospects for future utilization of an educational telecommunications delivery system are described and analyzed. Educational subsectors are analyzed with emphasis on the current status and trends within each subsector. Issues which affect future development, and prospects for future use of media, technology, and large-scale electronic delivery within each subsector are included. Information on technology utilization is presented. Educational telecommunications services are identified and grouped into categories: public television and radio, instructional television, computer aided instruction, computer resource sharing, and information resource sharing. Technology based services, their current utilization, and factors which affect future development are stressed. The role of communications satellites in providing these services is discussed. Efforts to analyze and estimate future utilization of large-scale educational telecommunications are summarized. Factors which affect future utilization are identified. Conclusions are presented.

  5. Large-Scale Graph Processing Using Apache Giraph

    KAUST Repository

    Sakr, Sherif

    2017-01-07

    This book takes its reader on a journey through Apache Giraph, a popular distributed graph processing platform designed to bring the power of big data processing to graph data. Designed as a step-by-step self-study guide for everyone interested in large-scale graph processing, it describes the fundamental abstractions of the system, its programming models and various techniques for using the system to process graph data at scale, including the implementation of several popular and advanced graph analytics algorithms.

  6. Large-Scale Graph Processing Using Apache Giraph

    KAUST Repository

    Sakr, Sherif; Orakzai, Faisal Moeen; Abdelaziz, Ibrahim; Khayyat, Zuhair

    2017-01-01

    This book takes its reader on a journey through Apache Giraph, a popular distributed graph processing platform designed to bring the power of big data processing to graph data. Designed as a step-by-step self-study guide for everyone interested in large-scale graph processing, it describes the fundamental abstractions of the system, its programming models and various techniques for using the system to process graph data at scale, including the implementation of several popular and advanced graph analytics algorithms.

  7. An interactive display system for large-scale 3D models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zijian; Sun, Kun; Tao, Wenbing; Liu, Liman

    2018-04-01

    With the improvement of 3D reconstruction theory and the rapid development of computer hardware technology, the reconstructed 3D models are enlarging in scale and increasing in complexity. Models with tens of thousands of 3D points or triangular meshes are common in practical applications. Due to storage and computing power limitation, it is difficult to achieve real-time display and interaction with large scale 3D models for some common 3D display software, such as MeshLab. In this paper, we propose a display system for large-scale 3D scene models. We construct the LOD (Levels of Detail) model of the reconstructed 3D scene in advance, and then use an out-of-core view-dependent multi-resolution rendering scheme to realize the real-time display of the large-scale 3D model. With the proposed method, our display system is able to render in real time while roaming in the reconstructed scene and 3D camera poses can also be displayed. Furthermore, the memory consumption can be significantly decreased via internal and external memory exchange mechanism, so that it is possible to display a large scale reconstructed scene with over millions of 3D points or triangular meshes in a regular PC with only 4GB RAM.

  8. Large-scale hydrology in Europe : observed patterns and model performance

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gudmundsson, Lukas

    2011-06-15

    In a changing climate, terrestrial water storages are of great interest as water availability impacts key aspects of ecosystem functioning. Thus, a better understanding of the variations of wet and dry periods will contribute to fully grasp processes of the earth system such as nutrient cycling and vegetation dynamics. Currently, river runoff from small, nearly natural, catchments is one of the few variables of the terrestrial water balance that is regularly monitored with detailed spatial and temporal coverage on large scales. River runoff, therefore, provides a foundation to approach European hydrology with respect to observed patterns on large scales, with regard to the ability of models to capture these.The analysis of observed river flow from small catchments, focused on the identification and description of spatial patterns of simultaneous temporal variations of runoff. These are dominated by large-scale variations of climatic variables but also altered by catchment processes. It was shown that time series of annual low, mean and high flows follow the same atmospheric drivers. The observation that high flows are more closely coupled to large scale atmospheric drivers than low flows, indicates the increasing influence of catchment properties on runoff under dry conditions. Further, it was shown that the low-frequency variability of European runoff is dominated by two opposing centres of simultaneous variations, such that dry years in the north are accompanied by wet years in the south.Large-scale hydrological models are simplified representations of our current perception of the terrestrial water balance on large scales. Quantification of the models strengths and weaknesses is the prerequisite for a reliable interpretation of simulation results. Model evaluations may also enable to detect shortcomings with model assumptions and thus enable a refinement of the current perception of hydrological systems. The ability of a multi model ensemble of nine large-scale

  9. Chinese herbal prescriptions for osteoarthritis in Taiwan: analysis of national health insurance dataset

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Background Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has been commonly used for treating osteoarthritis in Asia for centuries. This study aimed to conduct a large-scale pharmaco-epidemiologic study and evaluate the frequency and patterns of CHM used in treating osteoarthritis in Taiwan. Methods A complete database (total 22,520,776 beneficiaries) of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) outpatient claims offered by the National Health Insurance program in Taiwan for the year 2002 was employed for this research. Patients with osteoarthritis were identified according to the diagnostic code of the International Classification of Disease among claimed visiting files. Corresponding prescription files were analyzed, and an association rule was applied to evaluate the co-prescription of CHM for treating osteoarthritis. Results There were 20,059 subjects who visited TCM clinics for osteoarthritis and received a total of 32,050 CHM prescriptions. Subjects between 40 and 49 years of age comprised the largest number of those treated (19.2%), followed by 50-59 years (18.8%) and 60-69 years group (18.2%). In addition, female subjects used CHMs for osteoarthritis more frequently than male subjects (female: male = 1.89: l). There was an average of 5.2 items prescribed in the form of either an individual Chinese herb or formula in a single CHM prescription for osteoarthritis. Du-zhong (Eucommia bark) was the most commonly prescribed Chinese single herb, while Du-huo-ji-sheng-tang was the most commonly prescribed Chinese herbal formula for osteoarthritis. According to the association rule, the most commonly prescribed formula was Du-huo-ji-sheng-tang plus Shen-tong-zhu-yu-tang, and the most commonly prescribed triple-drug combination was Du-huo-ji-sheng-tang, Gu-sui-pu (Drynaria fortune (Kunze) J. Sm.), and Xu-Duan (Himalaya teasel). Nevertheless, further clinical trials are needed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of these CHMs for treating osteoarthritis. Conclusions This study

  10. Prevalence of suicidal behaviour and associated factors in a large sample of Chinese adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, X C; Chen, H; Liu, Z Z; Wang, J Y; Jia, C X

    2017-10-12

    Suicidal behaviour is prevalent among adolescents and is a significant predictor of future suicide attempts (SAs) and suicide death. Data on the prevalence and epidemiological characteristics of suicidal behaviour in Chinese adolescents are limited. This study was aimed to examine the prevalence, characteristics and risk factors of suicidal behaviour, including suicidal thought (ST), suicide plan (SP) and SA, in a large sample of Chinese adolescents. This report represents the first wave data of an ongoing longitudinal study, Shandong Adolescent Behavior and Health Cohort. Participants included 11 831 adolescent students from three counties of Shandong, China. The mean age of participants was 15.0 (s.d. = 1.5) and 51% were boys. In November-December 2015, participants completed a structured adolescent health questionnaire, including ST, SP and SA, characteristics of most recent SA, demographics, substance use, hopelessness, impulsivity and internalising and externalising behavioural problems. The lifetime and last-year prevalence rates were 17.6 and 10.7% for ST in males, 23.5 and 14.7% for ST in females, 8.9 and 2.9% for SP in males, 10.7 and 3.8% for SP in females, 3.4 and 1.3% for SA in males, and 4.6 and 1.8% for SA in females, respectively. The mean age of first SA was 12-13 years. Stabbing/cutting was the most common method to attempt suicide. Approximately 24% of male attempters and 16% of female attempters were medically treated. More than 70% of attempters had no preparatory action. Female gender, smoking, drinking, internalising and externalising problems, hopelessness, suicidal history of friends and acquaintances, poor family economic status and poor parental relationship were all significantly associated with increased risk of suicidal behaviour. Suicidal behaviour in Chinese adolescents is prevalent but less than that previously reported in Western peers. While females are more likely to attempt suicide, males are more likely to use lethal methods

  11. Recurrent TERT promoter mutations identified in a large-scale study of multiple tumor types are associated with increased TERT expression and telomerase activation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Dong-Sheng; Wang, Zhaohui; He, Xu-Jun; Diplas, Bill H.; Yang, Rui; Killela, Patrick J.; Liang, Junbo; Meng, Qun; Ye, Zai-Yuan; Wang, Wei; Jiang, Xiao-Ting; Xu, Li; He, Xiang-Lei; Zhao, Zhong-Sheng; Xu, Wen-Juan; Wang, Hui-Ju; Ma, Ying-Yu; Xia, Ying-Jie; Li, Li; Zhang, Ru-Xuan; Jin, Tao; Zhao, Zhong-Kuo; Xu, Ji; Yu, Sheng; Wu, Fang; Wang, Si-Zhen; Jiao, Yu-Chen; Yan, Hai; Tao, Hou-Quan

    2015-01-01

    Background Several somatic mutation hotspots were recently identified in the TERT promoter region in human cancers. Large scale studies of these mutations in multiple tumor types are limited, in particular in Asian populations. This study aimed to: analyze TERT promoter mutations in multiple tumor types in a large Chinese patient cohort, investigate novel tumor types and assess the functional significance of the mutations. Methods TERT promoter mutation status was assessed by Sanger sequencing for 13 different tumor types and 799 tumor tissues from Chinese cancer patients. Thymic epithelial tumors, gastrointestinal leiomyoma, and gastric schwannoma were included, for which the TERT promoter has not been previously sequenced. Functional studies included TERT expression by RT-qPCR, telomerase activity by the TRAP assay, and promoter activity by the luciferase reporter assay. Results TERT promoter mutations were highly frequent in glioblastoma (83.9%), urothelial carcinoma (64.5%), oligodendroglioma (70.0%), medulloblastoma (33.3%), and hepatocellular carcinoma (31.4%). C228T and C250T were the most common mutations. In urothelial carcinoma, several novel rare mutations were identified. TERT promoter mutations were absent in GIST, thymic epithelial tumors, gastrointestinal leiomyoma, gastric schwannoma, cholangiocarcinoma, gastric and pancreatic cancer. TERT promoter mutations highly correlated with upregulated TERT mRNA expression and telomerase activity in adult gliomas. These mutations differentially enhanced the transcriptional activity of the TERT core promoter. Conclusions TERT promoter mutations are frequent in multiple tumor types and have similar distributions in Chinese cancer patients. The functional significance of these mutations reflect the importance to telomere maintenance and hence tumorigenesis, making them potential therapeutic targets. PMID:25843513

  12. Application of transcriptomics in Chinese herbal medicine studies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hsin-Yi Lo

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Transcriptomics using DNA microarray has become a practical and popular tool for herbal medicine study because of high throughput, sensitivity, accuracy, specificity, and reproducibility. Therefore, this article focuses on the overview of DNA microarray technology and the application of DNA microarray in Chinese herbal medicine study. To understand the number and the objectives of articles utilizing DNA microarray for herbal medicine study, we surveyed 297 frequently used Chinese medicinal herbs listed in Pharmacopoeia Commission of People’s Republic of China. We classified these medicinal herbs into 109 families and then applied PudMed search using “microarray” and individual herbal family as keywords. Although thousands of papers applying DNA microarray in Chinese herbal studies have been published since 1998, most of the articles focus on the elucidation of mechanisms of certain biological effects of herbs. Construction of the bioactivity database containing large-scaled gene expression profiles of quality control herbs can be applied in the future to analyze the biological events induced by herbs, predict the therapeutic potential of herbs, evaluate the safety of herbs, and identify the drug candidate of herbs. Moreover, the linkage of systems biology tools, such as functional genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, pharmacogenomics and toxicogenomics, will become a new translational platform between Western medicine and Chinese herbal medicine.

  13. Large-scale perturbations from the waterfall field in hybrid inflation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fonseca, José; Wands, David; Sasaki, Misao

    2010-01-01

    We estimate large-scale curvature perturbations from isocurvature fluctuations in the waterfall field during hybrid inflation, in addition to the usual inflaton field perturbations. The tachyonic instability at the end of inflation leads to an explosive growth of super-Hubble scale perturbations, but they retain the steep blue spectrum characteristic of vacuum fluctuations in a massive field during inflation. The power spectrum thus peaks around the Hubble-horizon scale at the end of inflation. We extend the usual δN formalism to include the essential role of these small fluctuations when estimating the large-scale curvature perturbation. The resulting curvature perturbation due to fluctuations in the waterfall field is second-order and the spectrum is expected to be of order 10 −54 on cosmological scales

  14. Psychometric characteristics of a public-domain self-report measure of vocational interests: the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pozzebon, Julie A; Visser, Beth A; Ashton, Michael C; Lee, Kibeom; Goldberg, Lewis R

    2010-03-01

    We investigated the psychometric properties of the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales (ORVIS), a brief public-domain alternative to commercial inventories, in a large community sample and in a college sample. In both samples, we examined the factor structure, scale intercorrelations, and personality correlates of the ORVIS, and in the community sample, we also examined the correlations of the ORVIS scales with cognitive abilities and with the scales of a longer, proprietary interest survey. In both samples, all 8 scales-Leadership, Organization, Altruism, Creativity, Analysis, Producing, Adventuring, and Erudition-showed wide variation in scores, high internal-consistency reliabilities, and a pattern of high convergent and low discriminant correlations with the scales of the proprietary interest survey. Overall, the results support the construct validity of the scales, which are recommended for use in research on vocational interests and other individual differences.

  15. Decoupling local mechanics from large-scale structure in modular metamaterials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Nan; Silverberg, Jesse L.

    2017-04-01

    A defining feature of mechanical metamaterials is that their properties are determined by the organization of internal structure instead of the raw fabrication materials. This shift of attention to engineering internal degrees of freedom has coaxed relatively simple materials into exhibiting a wide range of remarkable mechanical properties. For practical applications to be realized, however, this nascent understanding of metamaterial design must be translated into a capacity for engineering large-scale structures with prescribed mechanical functionality. Thus, the challenge is to systematically map desired functionality of large-scale structures backward into a design scheme while using finite parameter domains. Such “inverse design” is often complicated by the deep coupling between large-scale structure and local mechanical function, which limits the available design space. Here, we introduce a design strategy for constructing 1D, 2D, and 3D mechanical metamaterials inspired by modular origami and kirigami. Our approach is to assemble a number of modules into a voxelized large-scale structure, where the module’s design has a greater number of mechanical design parameters than the number of constraints imposed by bulk assembly. This inequality allows each voxel in the bulk structure to be uniquely assigned mechanical properties independent from its ability to connect and deform with its neighbors. In studying specific examples of large-scale metamaterial structures we show that a decoupling of global structure from local mechanical function allows for a variety of mechanically and topologically complex designs.

  16. The origin of large scale cosmic structure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, B.J.T.; Palmer, P.L.

    1985-01-01

    The paper concerns the origin of large scale cosmic structure. The evolution of density perturbations, the nonlinear regime (Zel'dovich's solution and others), the Gott and Rees clustering hierarchy, the spectrum of condensations, and biassed galaxy formation, are all discussed. (UK)

  17. Local Geographic Variation of Public Services Inequality: Does the Neighborhood Scale Matter?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Chunzhu; Cabrera-Barona, Pablo; Blaschke, Thomas

    2016-01-01

    This study aims to explore the effect of the neighborhood scale when estimating public services inequality based on the aggregation of social, environmental, and health-related indicators. Inequality analyses were carried out at three neighborhood scales: the original census blocks and two aggregated neighborhood units generated by the spatial “k”luster analysis by the tree edge removal (SKATER) algorithm and the self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm. Then, we combined a set of health-related public services indicators with the geographically weighted principal components analyses (GWPCA) and the principal components analyses (PCA) to measure the public services inequality across all multi-scale neighborhood units. Finally, a statistical test was applied to evaluate the scale effects in inequality measurements by combining all available field survey data. We chose Quito as the case study area. All of the aggregated neighborhood units performed better than the original census blocks in terms of the social indicators extracted from a field survey. The SKATER and SOM algorithms can help to define the neighborhoods in inequality analyses. Moreover, GWPCA performs better than PCA in multivariate spatial inequality estimation. Understanding the scale effects is essential to sustain a social neighborhood organization, which, in turn, positively affects social determinants of public health and public quality of life. PMID:27706072

  18. A practical process for light-water detritiation at large scales

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Boniface, H.A. [Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Chalk River, ON (Canada); Robinson, J., E-mail: jr@tyne-engineering.com [Tyne Engineering, Burlington, ON (Canada); Gnanapragasam, N.V.; Castillo, I.; Suppiah, S. [Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Chalk River, ON (Canada)

    2014-07-01

    AECL and Tyne Engineering have recently completed a preliminary engineering design for a modest-scale tritium removal plant for light water, intended for installation at AECL's Chalk River Laboratories (CRL). This plant design was based on the Combined Electrolysis and Catalytic Exchange (CECE) technology developed at CRL over many years and demonstrated there and elsewhere. The general features and capabilities of this design have been reported as well as the versatility of the design for separating any pair of the three hydrogen isotopes. The same CECE technology could be applied directly to very large-scale wastewater detritiation, such as the case at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. However, since the CECE process scales linearly with throughput, the required capital and operating costs are substantial for such large-scale applications. This paper discusses some options for reducing the costs of very large-scale detritiation. Options include: Reducing tritium removal effectiveness; Energy recovery; Improving the tolerance of impurities; Use of less expensive or more efficient equipment. A brief comparison with alternative processes is also presented. (author)

  19. OffshoreDC DC grids for integration of large scale wind power

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zeni, Lorenzo; Endegnanew, Atsede Gualu; Stamatiou, Georgios

    The present report summarizes the main findings of the Nordic Energy Research project “DC grids for large scale integration of offshore wind power – OffshoreDC”. The project is been funded by Nordic Energy Research through the TFI programme and was active between 2011 and 2016. The overall...... objective of the project was to drive the development of the VSC based HVDC technology for future large scale offshore grids, supporting a standardised and commercial development of the technology, and improving the opportunities for the technology to support power system integration of large scale offshore...

  20. Low-Complexity Transmit Antenna Selection and Beamforming for Large-Scale MIMO Communications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kun Qian

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Transmit antenna selection plays an important role in large-scale multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO communications, but optimal large-scale MIMO antenna selection is a technical challenge. Exhaustive search is often employed in antenna selection, but it cannot be efficiently implemented in large-scale MIMO communication systems due to its prohibitive high computation complexity. This paper proposes a low-complexity interactive multiple-parameter optimization method for joint transmit antenna selection and beamforming in large-scale MIMO communication systems. The objective is to jointly maximize the channel outrage capacity and signal-to-noise (SNR performance and minimize the mean square error in transmit antenna selection and minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR beamforming without exhaustive search. The effectiveness of all the proposed methods is verified by extensive simulation results. It is shown that the required antenna selection processing time of the proposed method does not increase along with the increase of selected antennas, but the computation complexity of conventional exhaustive search method will significantly increase when large-scale antennas are employed in the system. This is particularly useful in antenna selection for large-scale MIMO communication systems.