Studies Show Mu Us Desert Advances More Than 120m a Year

The southern fringe of the Mu Us Desert in Inner Mongolia has migratedsome200km southward over thepast1,600 years, with an average deserti-fication speed of 125 meters a year. The discovery was made by aresearch group led by Prof. LiChengsen from the CAS Instituteof Botany in Beijing during itsstudy of the ruins of the ancientcity of Tongwan in what is nowShaanxi Province. The researcherspublished their report in a recenti ss u e o f t he J ou r n a l o fPalaeogeography. The city of To…     

关于电子政务信息的计量分析与网络环境下的政务决策

The activities of the government can be described as reporting the feelings of the people (receiving infor-mation), making policies (processing information) and issuing government orders (sending out information). This is a typical course of information processing. If we can successively trail and scientifically measure this information course, we will be able to appraise the performance of the government in a scientific way. The development of government informatiza-tion and e-government is providing such a kind of appraisement for the government. The paper mainly discusses the possi-bilities of informetric analysis of the e-government. Methods for such analysis are also described.     

Resource Satellites Receiving Station Functions Well

At a meeting held recentlyunder the auspices of theCAS Bureau of High-techResearch and Development, a panelof experts affirmed the achievementsscored by the Beijing Receiving Sta-tion for Chinas Resource Satellites.The panel concludes that the per-formance of the Station is sound,reliable and compatible with the cur-rent international development trendof related technology.The Beijing station was estab-lished on the framework of a Miyun-based data-receiving outpost of theRemote-sensing …     

Friendship Tied with the Milky Way

<正>"The MPG-CAS Partner Group led by Prof.HAN Jinlin from the Nationa Astronomical Observatories of China(CAS)has achieved great success in the determination of the magnetic fields o the Milky Way.The basis of this success was a cryogenic receiver with a polarim eter that was installed in China at the25m Nanshan Radio Telescope of the Urumqi Observatory.The receiver was a copy of a system installed in the 100m Effelsberg radio telescope of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn,Germany.A very lively exchange of researchers at all levels took place.On     

Knowledge and MNC's entry mode choice——A different framework from transaction cost

The literature suggests that protection of knowledge from the threat for opportunism is a primary mover for the choice of entry mode.However,the knowledge construct is oversimplified in the literature on entry mode.The combination of different types of knowledge held by a firm reduces the risk of misappropriation and the threat of opportunism is often unimportant in entry mode decisions.Based on these discussions,a new conceptual knowledgebased model of entry mode choice is devoloped.In this model,the kn...     

The Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2002

The year 2002 saw the suc-cessful convocation of the16th National Congress ofthe Communist Party of China, atwhich the important thought ofThree Represents was made thelong-term guiding concept for ourParty in the future. The congresscalled for building a well-off societyin an all-round way and for acceler-ating the countrys socialist modern-ization drive. Moreover, a new ses-sion of the Partys leadership wassatisfactorily elected at the congress.The same year saw the ChineseAcademy of Sc…     

Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research

The Tibetan Plateau (Qinghai-Xizang Plateau)is a unique geological-geographical unit onEarth, an ideal region for studies into the for-mation and evolution of the lithosphere and the dy-namic mechanism of the earth crust. The uplifting of thePlateau exerts profound influence upon the evolutionand differentiation of the natural environment of theplateau itself, its adjacent regions and the NorthernHemisphere. As a unique natural geographical unit, thePlateau holds a special status in the wh…     

A Decade of Hard Work Leads to the Fourth Generation of Catalysts

After a decade-long arduouswork, CAS scientists suc-ceeded in developing thefourth generation of high-perfor-mance catalysts.The research breakthroughwas achieved by a research teamheaded by Prof. Liu Hanfan withthe CAS Institute of Chemistry. Thiswork includes a new method con-cerning the preparation of a nano-metallic colloid protected by poly-mers and demystification of the se-cret to raise the working efficacy ofmetal nanoclusters used as a catalyst.The success lays down a solid foun-d…     

The Annual Report for World Sustainable Development 2015 Summary

<正>The Annual Report for World Sustainable Development2015 is the first academic report in the field of sustainabihty from a worldwide lens.The report has been compiled by a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences named the"Sustainable Development Research Group"headed by Prof.NIU Wenyuan,a founder of sustainability science in China,who works as the Editor-in-Chief of the Report.     

情报科学中的符号语言学

The paper argues that the theory that opens out the nature of subject indexing process is required, if the process consists of a tremor of steps and elements and it is a range of interpretations, too. The paper points out that Peirce' s semiotics is the theory by which we may study and understand the lmture of interpretation in subject indexing pro-cess. In recent years, there is a great interest in semiofcs in library and information science field. The paper discusses some basic issues of semiotics and its use in information science.     

工程共同体中的“岗位”和“岗位人”——工程共同体研究之五

在以企业为主要表现形式的工程活动共同体中,作为其成员的个体各自占据一定的岗位而发挥其作用,每个个体都是＂本位人＂和＂岗位人＂的统一。文章着重分析了作为＂个体＂的个人和作为＂集体＂的工程共同体的动态关系。个体通过招聘过程而在工程共同体中＂出场＂,然后是在工作岗位起作用的＂在场＂和离开工程共同体的＂退场＂。文章最后部分运用中国哲学的阴阳理论对人性问题和本位人和岗位人的相互关系进行了简要分析。     

Projects as communicating systems: Creating a culture of innovation and performance

Although often downplayed and instrumental, there is evidence that communication in projects is essential in achieving value creation. Our main interest in this paper is on temporary continuity, a situation where the temporary becomes a permanent condition in social systems. The question that we have address is: What characterizes project communication in a situation with temporary continuity?We argue for the need to transform communication processes into communication capabilities. In a situation with temporary continuity, there is a need to connect to a large number of value-creating processes, and communicating capabilities need to be a part of a communication system, where the aim is to bind together value-creating processes and communication capabilities. We construct a viable system consisting of five sub-systems. To become a viable system, projects in the form of temporary continuity, must handle the potential conflict between a culture of performance and a culture of innovation. This involves developing social mechanisms for coordination and interaction, with a focus on developing communication capabilities, in parallel with focusing on all of the five value-creation processes.     

Website usage metrics: A re-assessment of session data

Metrics derived from user visits or sessions provide a means of evaluating Websites and an important insight into online information seeking behaviour, the most important of them being the duration of sessions and the number of pages viewed in a session, a possible busyness indicator. However, the identification of session (termed often ‘sessionization’) is fraught with difficulty in that there is no way of determining from a transactional log file that a user has ended their session. No one logs out. Instead a session delimiter has to be applied and this is typically done on the basis of a standard period of inactivity. To date researchers have discussed the issue of a time out delimiter in terms of a single value and if a page view time exceeds the cut-off value the session is deemed to have ended. This approach assumes that page view time is a single distribution and that the cut-off value is one point on that distribution. The authors however argue that page time distribution is composed of a number of quite separate view time distributions because of the marked differences in view times between pages (abstract, contents page, full text). This implies that a number of timeout delimiters should be applied. Employing data from a study of the OhioLINK digital journal library, the authors demonstrate how the setting of a time out delimiter impacts on the estimate of page view time and the number of estimated session. Furthermore, they also show how a number of timeout delimiters might apply and they argue that this gives a better and more robust estimate of the number of sessions, session time and page view time compared to an application of a single timeout delimiter.     

Lipoprotein(a) in Children of Asian Indian Descendants and Their Caucasian Neighbors: The Slovak Lipid Community Study

To elucidate a higher rate of premature cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Asian Indian descendants (Roma) in Slovakia, we investigated frequency distribution, correlates and relationship of lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] to family CVD risk factors in Roma children and their Caucasian neighbors. The study sample consisted of 607 healthy children aged 7–18 years (55% Roma, 48% male) as part of the biracial (Roma–Caucasian) Slovak Lipid Community Study. Overall, frequency distribution data of Lp(a) were highly skewed to low concentrations, with markedly higher Lp(a) levels in Roma than in Caucasian children (median and range, mg/dL: 14.5; 0–159.2 vs 6.2; 0–112.3, P < 0.001), regardless of age and gender. Lp(a) was positively correlated with apo B (0.159, P = 0.004) in Roma, and LDL cholesterol (0.170, P = 0.005) in Caucasian children. In addition, daily income of the family was negatively related with Lp(a) in Roma (−0.134, P = 0.036) while positively in Caucasians (0.136, P = 0.047). For both race groups, no significant association was found between Lp(a) and age, body mass index, mean arterial pressure, smoking, and physical activity. Also, no significant relationships were examined between serum Lp(a) levels >30 mg/dL in children and family CVD risk factors, except for diabetes mellitus in parents of Caucasian origin (OR 4.46; 95%CI: 1.23–16.20). In a multivariate analysis, daily income, LDL cholesterol or apo B explained ~7% of the variance of Lp(a). This study suggests a significantly higher serum Lp(a) levels in Roma than in Caucasian children and a small effect, in general, of relevant CVD risk factors on the variation of Lp(a) levels in childhood.     

Robust self-triggered MPC with fast convergence for constrained linear systems

In this paper, a robust self-triggered model predictive control (MPC) scheme is proposed for linear discrete-time systems subject to additive disturbances, state and control constraints. To reduce the amount of computation on controller sides, MPC optimization problems are only solved at certain sampling instants which are determined by a novel self-triggering mechanism. The main idea of the self-triggering mechanism is to choose inter-sampling times by guaranteeing a fast decrease in optimal costs. It implies a fast convergence of system states to a compact set where it is ultimately bounded and a reduction of computation times to stabilize the system. Once the state enters a terminal region, the system can be stabilized to a robust invariant set by a state feedback controller. Robust constraint satisfaction is ensured by utilizing the worst-case set-valued predictions of future states in such a way that recursive feasibility is guaranteed for all possible realisations of disturbances. In the case where a priority is given to reducing communication costs rather than improvement in control performance in a neighborhood of the origin, a feedback control law based on nominal state predictions is designed in the terminal region to avoid frequent feedback. Performances of the closed-loop system are demonstrated by a simulation example.     

Study of the Concentration of Trace Elements Fe,Zn, Cu,Se and Their Correlation in Maternal Serum,Cord Serum and Colostrums

A study of iron, zinc, copper and selenium concentration levels was carried out in three compartments namely, maternal serum (MS), colostrums and cord blood serum (CS) of healthy Indian mothers (n = 42) who delivered healthy normal neonates without any congenital anomalies at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre hospital, Mumbai. Fe, Zn, Cu in maternal serum, cord blood and colostrums were estimated by flame atomic absorption spectrometry while Se was determined by graphite furnace absorption spectrometry. It was seen that there was a significant difference in the level of trace elements in the three compartments. The average levels of Fe in the three compartments were 1,132 ± 519, 2,312 ± 789 and 1,183 ± 602 μg/L while Zn was 514 ± 149, 819 ± 224 and 7,148 ± 2,316 μg/L respectively. Mean Cu values were 1,614 ± 295, 301 ± 77 and 392 ± 174 μg/L respectively while Se values were 70 ± 15, 36 ± 10 and 23 ± 8 μg/L respectively. The results indicated a positive correlation of Fe and Zn concentrations in MS versus CS which were (r = 0.386), (r = 0.572) respectively and Fe levels in MS and colostrums (r = 0.235). A few inter element correlations were found within compartments. Zn and Se showed a negative correlation in both MS (r = −0.489) and colostrums (r = −0.258) while a positive inter correlation of Fe and Zn was seen in MS (r = 0.44) and in CS (r = 0.54). This study gave us an overview of the serum and colostrum values of mother and neonates in Indian population, data of which are scarce.     

Lipoprotein (a): a Unique Independent Risk Factor for Coronary Artery Disease

The current epidemic affecting Indians is coronary artery disease (CAD), and is currently one of the most common causes of mortality and morbidity in developed and developing countries. The higher rate of CAD in Indians, as compared to people of other ethnic origin, may indicate a possible genetic susceptibility. Hence, Lp(a), an independent genetic risk marker for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease assumes great importance. Lp(a), an atherogenic lipoprotein, contains a cholesterol rich LDL particle, one molecule of apolipoprotein B-100 and a unique protein, apolipoprotein (a) which distinguishes it from LDL. Apo(a) is highly polymorphic and an inverse relationship between Lp(a) concentration and apo(a) isoform size has been observed. This is genetically controlled suggesting a functional diversity among the apo(a) isoforms. The LPA gene codes for apo(a) whose genetic heterogeneity is due to variations in its number of kringles. The exact pathogenic mechanism of Lp(a) is still not completely elucidated, but the structural homology of Lp(a) with LDL and plasmin is possibly responsible for its acting as a link between atherosclerosis and thrombosis. Upper limits of normal Lp(a) levels have not been defined for the Indian population. A cut off limit of 20 mg/dL has been suggested while for the Caucasian population it is 30 mg/dL. Though a variety of assays are available for its measurement, standardization of the analytical method is highly complicated as a majority of the methods are affected by the heterogeneity in apo(a) size. No therapeutic drug selectively targets Lp(a) but recently, new modifiers of apo(a) synthesis are being considered.     

Structuring fragmented knowledge: a case study

When the need to record and track the point of view of different actors in organizational processes becomes a key point for decision makers, a common representation of knowledge from different perspectives and a map of the situation and the decision and action needs could be useful. A methodology that easily and transparently integrates different ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ tools in a common knowledge structuring approach is proposed to deal with complexities and uncertainties in a socio-technical contest. The purpose of this paper is to show the potentialities of this methodology in a real case, in terms of organizational knowledge acquisition and structuring in a multi-actor public context, a university faculty, in relation to a radical change.     

A case study of distributed information retrieval architectures to index one terabyte of text

The increasing number of documents to be indexed in many environments (Web, intranets, digital libraries) and the limitations of a single centralised index (lack of scalability, server overloading and failures), lead to the use of distributed information retrieval systems to efficiently search and locate the desired information. This work is a case study of different architectures for a distributed information retrieval system, in order to provide a guide to approximate the optimal architecture with a specific set of resources. We analyse the effectiveness of a distributed, replicated and clustered architecture simulating a variable number of workstations (from 1 up to 4096). A collection of approximately 94 million documents and 1 terabyte (TB) of text is used to test the performance of the different architectures. In a purely distributed information retrieval system, the brokers become the bottleneck due to the high number of local answer sets to be sorted. In a replicated system, the network is the bottleneck due to the high number of query servers and the continuous data interchange with the brokers. Finally, we demonstrate that a clustered system will outperform a replicated system if a high number of query servers is used, essentially due to the reduction of the network load. However a change in the distribution of the users’ queries could reduce the performance of a clustered system.     

Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST) is a meridian reflecting Schmidt telescope with a clear aperture of four meters,a focal length of 20 meters and a field of view of five degrees.By using active optics technique to control its reflecting corrector,