Search

Mobile communication towers represent a relatively new but growing contributor to the total radio-leakage associated with planet Earth. We investigate the overall power contribution of mobile communication towers to the Earth's radio leakage budget, as seen from a selection of different nearby stellar systems. We created a model of this leakage using publicly available data of mobile tower locations. The model grids the surface of the planet into small, computationally manageable regions, assuming a simple integrated transmission pattern for the mobile antennas. In this model, these mobile tower regions rise and set as the Earth rotates. In this way, a dynamic power spectrum of the Earth was determined, summed over all cellular frequency bands. We calculated this dynamic power spectrum from three different viewing points – HD 95735, Barnard's star, and Alpha Centauri A. Our preliminary results demonstrate that the peak power leaking into space from mobile towers is ∼4GW. This is associated with Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile tower technology emanating from the East Coast of China as viewed from HD 95735. We demonstrate that the mobile tower leakage is periodic, direction dependent, and could not currently be detected by a nearby civilization located within 10 light-years of the Earth, using instrumentation with a sensitivity similar to the Green Bank Telescope. We plan to extend our model to include more powerful 5G mobile systems, radar installations, ground based up-links (including the Deep Space Network), and various types of satellite services, including low-Earth orbit constellations, such as Starlink and OneWeb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a common perception that Chinese students are proficient test takers, but less adept at critical thinking. There is conflicting evidence to support this claim. In this article, the author first briefly traces the development of critical and independent thinking in Chinese history and outlines the situation in Chinese education today. Secondly, he presents his personal experience of encouraging the development of Futures-oriented and critical thinking in a Chinese tertiary education setting, via the creation and teaching of China's first extended Critical Futures Studies courses. The criticality component of the program was modified specifically for the Chinese context. An ethnographic approach is taken in the latter part of this article as the author shares details of that curriculum, as well as successes and shortcomings gleaned from the experience. The purpose of this sharing is to assist other Critical Futures Studies educators in setting up Critical Futures Studies courses in China, or in similar environments where Futures thinking and critical thinking have not been emphasized within the culture and/or educational curricula. The article also posits suggestions on how to develop such programs and related critical thinking processes in broader school curricula. Finally, the author reflects upon his/her role as a critical futurist in China, using Inayatullah's (2018) Causal Layered Analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection is one of the difficulties and key points in clinical research. Joint puncture is a commonly used method in the preoperative diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection, because it is simple and easy to spread. In recent years, synovial fluid examinations have been gradually used in clinical diagnosis, but there remain many disputed issues. OBJECTIVE: To summarize latest research progress of synovial fluid analysis in the diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection in and outside China. METHODS: Publications in English and Chinese from 2008 to 2018 were searched by the first author for studies regarding joint puncture in the diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection from the electronic databases of PubMed, Web of Science, and CNKI using the following keywords: periprosthetic joint infection, prosthetic joint infection,synovial fluid, joint puncture, and articular puncture. Five hundred and eighty-four articles were identified by the literature search. By reading the literature title, abstract and full text, 52 studies were included in our review paper. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1) Preoperative joint puncture is an indispensable part of the diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection.(2) Until now, there is no single test that can diagnose periprosthetic joint infection alone; however, combining several examination methods can improve diagnostic accuracy.(3) Joint puncture under ultrasonic guidance has several advantages over fluoroscopy and standard methods.(4) Although several new methods have certain advantages in the diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection, conventional testing of blood culture bottles and leukocyte counts still have an irreplaceable role in the diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, ancient villages in China have attracted widespread attention from domestic and foreign experts and scholars. The people began to understand the important art, history, scientific value and profound cultural connotation of traditional architecture, and the importance of protecting ancient villages has become increasingly prominent. Taking Qinglinkou in Erlangmiao Town, Jiangyou City as a case, the methods and contents for the protection of ancient villages were studied, and the key elements of conservation and priorities of planning and protection of ancient villages were explored, with a view to providing experience for the current protection of ancient villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Guizhou Province, karst areas and springs are widely distributed, and hydrogeological conditions are complex in mining areas. Usually there are many hydrogeological units in a mining area, and the hydrogeological conditions are very different from that of most northern mining areas in China. In view of the uniqueness of mining areas in Guizhou Province, taking Zhijin area of Zhina mining area as an example, the planning characteristics of mining areas and characteristics of groundwater environment in Guizhou Province were analyzed firstly, and then the characteristics and key considerations of groundwater environmental impact assessment in mining areas of Guizhou Province were studied. For example, when the height of water flowing fractured zone, impact radius, and the amount of water resources affected are calculated, it is necessary to analyze and evaluate as many typical mines as possible. The impact on springs as the sources of residents' drinking water should be analyzed one by one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering gratitude as a virtue, rather than a positive emotion, requires measures different from those more commonly used and which conflate gratitude with appreciation. We here describe those measures, explaining why they are appropriate to the study of gratitude as a virtue. We then discuss how each measure was coded for this special issue, the manner of recruitment of our participants across the seven research sites (Brazil, Guatemala, the United States, Russia, Turkey, China, and South Korea), the overall hypotheses, and the analytic strategies used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How is a city's international visibility historically formed? Applying a novel approach based on the Google Books N-gram corpus, we conducted the first empirical study to examine the pattern of and factors shaping the accumulation of international visibility by 294 major Chinese cities between the years of 1700 and 2000. We analyse the usage frequency of city names in Google English-language books to capture the international visibility of these major Chinese cities, and the appearance of these city names in the New York Times to capture media quotation over a definable number of years. Further, we performed the Granger causality test to see if media coverage helps to predict international visibility. The findings of this study demonstrate that the global fame of cities in mainland China is influenced by their exposure in media communications with the rest of the world. However, this media effect is not statistically significant for several former colonial cities, which are more likely to attain global fame through economic exchange in the global market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emissions trading scheme has recently become an important emissions reduction mechanism in China. The initial quota allocation is one of the key points in its design, which includes the initial quota allocation criterion and allocation method. In this paper, we analyze the regional macroeconomic impacts of emissions trading in China under different quota allocation criteria and allocation methods using a multiregional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The results show that the Ability-to-Pay criterion is better than the other criteria, as it can lead to fewer macroeconomic costs and welfare losses; narrow the economic gap between the eastern, central and western regions; and guide investment into the western regions. Comparing free allocation and auction, it is determined that free allocation leads to lower macroeconomic costs, while auction is better at adjusting the industrial structure. This indicates that a hybrid allocation method is preferable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of the errors and difficulties suffered by the Chinese speakers who learn Spanish as a Foreign Language is not only based on the classification of phonetic, phonologic or grammar mistakes. There is another relevant research path which is directly related to the linguistic parameters of error analysis and the origin of these errors. We hereby talk about the difficulties that appear because of using a concrete teaching method. The present article is the result of the analysis of these difficulties on the students who belong to the Changchun Normal University, in Peoples' Republic of China. Its results reflect that the teaching methods applied in this context cause errors and communicative problems in the apprentices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Review of source apportionment literature using high-time resolved VOC since 2015. • 54% published papers lacked details in the quantitative effectiveness evaluation of QC measures. • US EPA PMF v5.0 was the most commonly used approach for VOC source analyses. • Photochemical losses, factor resolution, and identification influenced apportionment. • Vehicle emissions and fuel evaporation are the primary contributors to ambient VOC. Highly time-resolved data for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can now be monitored. Source analyses of such high time-resolved concentrations provides key information for controlling VOC emissions. This work reviewed the literature on VOCs source analyses published from 2015 to 2021, and assesses the state-of-the-art and the existing issues with these studies. Gas chromatography system and direct-inlet mass spectrometry are the main monitoring tools. Quality control (QC) of the monitoring process is critical prior to analysis. QC includes inspection and replacement of instrument consumables, calibration curve corrections, and reviewing the data. Approximately 54% published papers lacked details on the quantitative evaluation of the effectiveness of QC measures. Among the reviewed works, the number of monitored species varied from 5 to 119, and fraction of papers with more than 90 monitored species increased yearly. US EPA PMF v5.0 was the most commonly used (∼86%) for VOC source analyses. However, conventional source apportionment directly uses the measured VOCs and may be problematic given the impacts of dispersion and photochemical losses, uncertainty setting of VOCs data, factor resolution, and factor identification. Excluding species with high-reactivity or estimation of corrected concentrations were often applied to reduce the influence of photochemical reactions on the results. However, most reports did not specify the selection criteria or the specific error fraction values in the uncertainty estimation. Model diagnostic indexes were used in 99% of the reports for PMF analysis to determine the factor resolution. Due to lack of known local source profiles, factor identification was mainly achieved using marker species and characteristic species ratios. However, multiple sources had high-collinearity and the same species were often used to identify different sources. Vehicle emissions and fuel evaporation were the primary contributors to VOCs around the world. Contribution of coal combustion in China was substantially higher than in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autism is a developmental disability that has gained increasing attention during the past several decades in China. The two case studies presented in this article examined the perspectives of two school leaders on educating students with autism in China. Two school principals, one from a public school and one from a private school, were interviewed during this study using 10 open-ended questions. Responses generated the following areas of discussion: teacher recruitment and training, curriculum and teaching methodology, parental involvement, and factors that contribute to success and present challenges. This study provides the readers with an update from the perspectives of two school leaders on the school system in China for children with disabilities, particularly for students with autism. Implications of the study and further suggestions for future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A contingent valuation survey (willingness-to-pay study) was conducted in 2004 to measure household demand for typhoid vaccines in a rural township in China with approximately 54,000 people living in 141 villages. The results showed that travel distance to vaccination sites and vaccination price affected the private demand for typhoid fever vaccinations. The number and location of vaccination outposts are thus important decision variables for a new vaccination campaign that is under consideration. This article develops and applies an optimization model for planning vaccination programs. The model determines what price to charge, how many vaccination outposts to use, where to locate them, and what capacities they need. The model uses demand information from the contingent valuation survey and cost information from similar vaccination campaigns in China and assumes that costs must be covered by user fees. The model determined that the number of outposts to use for maximizing coverage was fourteen, which would make average one-way travel distance for users about 0.6 km. The optimal vaccination price was USD 1.25, and about 87 percent of the population would be vaccinated. A suboptimal solution of the model showed that only 6 outposts instead of 14 would probably vaccinate about 83 percent of the population, and the price could be reduced to USD 0.83. The model is easy to use and solve and can be applied to different size regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and postoperative morbidity of percutaneous no-scalpel vasectomy (NSV) via one puncture in China. Materials and Methods: A total of 150 men visiting outpatient clinic of the surgery department of urology, Huashan Hospital and its Baoshan branch of Fudan University, opted for percutaneous NSV with local anesthesia. The clinical data of 150 who underwent modified NSV (MNSV) were retrospectively compared with those of 120 patients who underwent standard NSV (SNSV). The results and follow-up were recorded. Results: The reviewed average operative time was 9.8 min (range 8 to 20 min). Average incisional length was 5 mm (range 4 to 8 mm). Patients reported complete recovery in an average of 8.5 days (range 4 to 14 days). The complication rates were extremely low with this modified technique. Only one case of late healed incision was observed (0.67%). Conclusion: Percutaneous NSV via one puncture was proved to be a painless and effective form of permanent contraception with an extremely low complication rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recently active mental disorders are associated with substantial disability, but there is little research on residual disability once symptoms have subsided. The aim of this study is to estimate the degree to which recent disability might be due to recent or past history of mental disorders using a quantile regressions (QR) model that makes it possible to study the full range of disability. Data were from cross-sectional surveys of Chinese living in Beijing and Shanghai, China (n=1628). The World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule and the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview were used to assess recent disability and common mental disorders, respectively. Recently active mental disorders are found to be associated with elevated levels of disability, especially for current substance use disorder. Anxiety disorders stand out with high levels of disability. Individuals at the higher disability levels show large variations in their disability levels. These epidemiological estimates from China add to the evidence based on the global burden of neuropsychiatric disorders, quantifying the hypothesized influence of recently active and past disorders with the novel QR approach. In future studies, we hope to complete more detailed studies of the causal role of mental disorders in the development of disability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A practical method to determine the zone of two contact points and the transfer of wheel-rail forces between two rails in a turnout is presented in this paper. The method is based on a wheel-rail elastic penetration assumption and used to study a turnout system for a 200 km/h high-speed railway in China. Rail profiles in a number of key sections in the turnout are identified first, and profiles in other sections are then obtained by interpolation between key sections. The track is modelled as flexible with rails and sleepers represented by beams and the interaction between the vehicle and turnout is simulated for cases of the vehicle passing the turnout. Results are mainly presented for two-point contact positions and the characteristics of the wheel-rail forces transference. It is found that the heights of the switch and crossing rail top have significant effects on the wheel-rail contact forces. Finally, the optimised top height for the crossing rails is proposed to reduce the system dynamic force in the turnout system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cohort Consortium Vitamin D Pooling Project of Rarer Cancers (VDPP), a consortium of 10 prospective cohort studies from the United States, Finland, and China, was formed to examine the associations between circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations and the risk of rarer cancers. Cases (total n = 5,491) included incident primary endometrial (n = 830), kidney (n = 775), ovarian (n = 516), pancreatic (n = 952), and upper gastrointestinal tract (n = 1,065) cancers and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (n = 1,353) diagnosed in the participating cohorts. At least 1 control was matched to each case on age, date of blood collection (1974–2006), sex, and race/ethnicity (n = 6,714). Covariate data were obtained from each cohort in a standardized manner. The majority of the serum or plasma samples were assayed in a central laboratory using a direct, competitive chemiluminescence immunoassay on the DiaSorin LIAISON platform (DiaSorin, Inc., Stillwater, Minnesota). Masked quality control samples included serum standards from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. Conditional logistic regression analyses were conducted using clinically defined cutpoints, with 50–<75 nmol/L as the reference category. Meta-analyses were also conducted using inverse-variance weights in random-effects models. This consortium approach permits estimation of the association between 25(OH)D and several rarer cancers with high accuracy and precision across a wide range of 25(OH)D concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the past several decades, a series of new methods have been developed in China for the diagnosis of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). These methods are theoretically consistent with Office International des Epizooties standards for FMD diagnosis and include: antigen-capture ELISA and colloid-gold test strip for viral antigen typing, liquid-phase blocking ELISA (LPBE) for detection of antibodies against O and Asia 1 FMDV, and an indirect ELISA for detection of antibodies against the non-structural protein (NSP) 3ABC (3ABC-I-ELISA). Several molecular diagnostic methods have also been developed for detection of fragments of the FMDV genome within viral samples, such as multiplex RT–PCR, typing RT–PCR and real-time RT–PCR. In China, FMD vaccines are compulsorily used in all livestock. In such a situation, monitoring of the immune status of animal herds and disease surveillance become very important. Liquid-phase blocking ELISA is routinely used in China for monitoring the immune status, and 3ABC-I-ELISA is feasible for large-scale serological surveys based on differentiation of FMDV-infected animals from vaccinated animals. Combined use of 3ABC-ELISA and mRT–PCR is described for survey of FMD virus-prevalent herds and virus carriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During China’s Cultural Revolution, a large proportion of urban youth were forced to go to the countryside as a result of the state’s “send-down” policy. Past research has been ambivalent about the long-term social consequences for the Chinese youth who experienced send-down. Some scholars have suggested that the send-down experience may have yielded beneficial effects. To test this claim, we analyze data from the Survey of Family Life in Urban China, which we conducted in three large cities in 1999. Questions available in this data set allow us to ascertain the send-down experience of both the respondent and a sibling and educational attainment at the times of send-down and return. Our analyses of the new data show that the send-down experience does not seem to have benefited the affected Chinese youth. Differences in social outcomes between those who experienced send-down and those who did not are either non-existent or spurious due to other social processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

With constant deepening of the reform and opening-up, national economic system has changed from planned economy to market economy, and rural survey and statistics remain in a difficult transition period. In this period, China needs transforming original statistical mode according to market economic system. All levels of government should report and submit a lot and increasing statistical information. Besides, in this period, townships, villages and counties are faced with old and new conflicts. These conflicts perplex implementation of rural statistics and survey and development of rural statistical undertaking, and also cause researches and thinking of reform of rural statistical and survey methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate warming and subsequent climate extremes have a wide impact on ecosystems and economic society. Scientifically quantitative assessment on climate change risks is an urgent issue attracted the attention of academics and decision-makers. In this paper, the theory of climate change risks was sorted out based on the three component elements of hazard, vulnerability, and exposure. Moreover, the idiomatic assessment methods and their applicability were systematically summarized. Comprehensive analysis found that the impacts of climate change generally showed a negative trend that was more harm than benefit, and further warming would aggravate the risk over China which was manifested to be more prominent in some sensitive sectors and key regions to climate change. Accessible management of the climate change risk should be engaged in effectively improving the methods of comprehensive identification, strengthening the mechanism and quantitative assessment, recognizing the temporal and spatial variation of components related to climate change risk, and reducing the uncertainty of climate change projection. • Theoretical framework of climate change risk was formed based on hazard, vulnerability, and exposure. • Assessment methods of climate change risk and their applicability were systematically summarized. • Climate change risk levels were analyzed in sensitive sectors and key regions over China. • In China, impacts of climate change were more harm than benefit while more warming was very likely to aggravate the risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]