•The U.S.-China dispute on 5G necessitates it to reexamine China’s approaches to international standardization in ICT.•China’s three major efforts for ICT standardization (WAPI, TD-SCDMA and 5G) are ...all under techno-nationalism.•China will pursue IPR-based standardization in emerging technologies as it moves from ‘catch-up’ to ‘first-mover’ strategy.
The U.S.-China dispute surrounding 5G motivates further examination on China’s approach to international standardization. While China’s challenges with various standard initiatives to the global standards regime peaked in the 5G dispute have attracted public interests, scholarly approach to the dispute is still limited. We place the dispute in the context of China’s long-standing attempts for international standardization in ICT sectors. With enhanced economic power, China has pursued for pushing indigenous technologies into international standards, which has been a core part of its national science and technology (S&T) policy. This paper examines China’s international standard initiatives from the perspective of techno-nationalism. Our literature review identifies three pillars of techno-nationalism: state empowerment, growth orientation, and global connection. Then we investigate three cases of WAPI, TD-SCDMA and 5G and discuss how the patterns of developing international standards have varied in the framework of techno-nationalism. Over time, China’s international standard initiatives based on techno-nationalism have strengthened global connection and growth orientation, with increasing proximity to techno-nationalism of the Western style. In particular, China’s aspiration for growth orientation was much enhanced with the 5G standard initiative, compared to WAPI or TD-SCDMA, as it aims to be the first mover in the 5G race. Overall, our study suggests that China’s national S&T policy has been moving from the ‘catch-up’ to the ‘first-mover’ strategy, but the transformation continues to take place in the framework of techno-nationalism.
The hydrodeoxygenation of a model compound of lignin-derived bio-oil, guaiacol, which can be obtained from the pyrolysis of biomass to bio-oil, has attracted considerable research attention because ...of its huge potential as a substitute for conventional fuels. In this study, platinum-loaded HY zeolites (Pt/HY) with different Si/Al molar ratios were used as catalysts for the hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol, anisole, veratrole, and phenol to a range of hydrocarbons, such as cyclohexane. The cyclohexane (major product) yield increased with increasing number of acid sites. To produce bio-oil with the maximum level of cyclohexane and alkylated cyclohexanes, which would be suitable as a substitute for conventional transportation fuels, the Si/Al molar ratio should be optimized to balance the Pt particle-induced hydrogenation with acid site-induced methyl group transfer. The fuel properties of real bio-oil derived from the fast pyrolysis of cork oak was improved using the Pt/HY catalyst.
Heart and respiration rates represent important vital signs for the assessment of a person’s health condition. To estimate these vital signs accurately, we propose a multitask Siamese network model ...(MTS) that combines the advantages of the Siamese network and the multitask learning architecture. The MTS model was trained by the images of the cheek including nose and mouth and forehead areas while sharing the same parameters between the Siamese networks, in order to extract the features about the heart and respiratory information. The proposed model was constructed with a small number of parameters and was able to yield a high vital-sign-prediction accuracy, comparable to that obtained from the single-task learning model; furthermore, the proposed model outperformed the conventional multitask learning model. As a result, we can simultaneously predict the heart and respiratory signals with the MTS model, while the number of parameters was reduced by 16 times with the mean average errors of heart and respiration rates being 2.84 and 4.21. Owing to its light weight, it would be advantageous to implement the vital-sign-monitoring model in an edge device such as a mobile phone or small-sized portable devices.
In general, salient object detection (SOD) datasets have ambiguity due to annotation accuracy and human subjectivity in determining saliency. Since this data uncertainty causes inaccurate prediction, ...many techniques tackling data uncertainty have been proposed so far. Previous works estimated data uncertainty in terms of predictive inaccuracy and adjusted the learning contribution so that a given model can focus more on specific data. However, inaccurate predictions can occur due to not only data uncertainty but also model uncertainty in which the model does not fully explain the data. As a result, a region that is inaccurately predicted due to model uncertainty is considered a region with high data uncertainty, resulting in insufficient learning. To solve this problem, we propose a novel uncertainty-aware learning scheme where model uncertainty is decomposed from prediction uncertainty and it is minimized. Also, we propose a refinement method to further improve performance by correcting the prediction result using data uncertainty in the inference step. The proposed uncertainty-aware method excludes data uncertainty from learning step and inference step more effectively, making the model more accurately detect salient object(s). The experimental results prove that the proposed method achieves state-of-the-art performance on several SOD datasets and qualitatively detects salient objects more accurately than the prior arts. The code will be uploaded on Github.
Drug resistance in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is reportedly attributed to the existence of cancer stem cells (CSC), because in most cancers, CSCs still remain after chemotherapy. To overcome ...this limitation, novel therapeutic strategies are required to prevent cancer recurrence and chemotherapy-resistant cancers by targeting cancer stem cells (CSCs). We screened an FDA-approved compound library and found four voltage-gated calcium channel blockers (manidipine, lacidipine, benidipine, and lomerizine) that target ovarian CSCs. Four calcium channel blockers (CCBs) decreased sphere formation, viability, and proliferation, and induced apoptosis in ovarian CSCs. CCBs destroyed stemness and inhibited the AKT and ERK signaling pathway in ovarian CSCs. Among calcium channel subunit genes, three L- and T-type calcium channel genes were overexpressed in ovarian CSCs, and downregulation of calcium channel genes reduced the stem-cell-like properties of ovarian CSCs. Expressions of these three genes are negatively correlated with the survival rate of patient groups. In combination therapy with cisplatin, synergistic effect was shown in inhibiting the viability and proliferation of ovarian CSCs. Moreover, combinatorial usage of manidipine and paclitaxel showed enhanced effect in ovarian CSCs xenograft mouse models. Our results suggested that four CCBs may be potential therapeutic drugs for preventing ovarian cancer recurrence.
Wnt/β-catenin signaling is regulated in a bimodal fashion during cardiogenesis. Signaling is initially required to promote generation of precardiac mesoderm, but subsequently must be repressed for ...cardiac progenitor specification. TMEM88 was discovered recently as a negative regulator during the later phase of cardiac progenitor specification, but how TMEM88 functions was unknown. Based on a C-terminal PDZ-binding motif, TMEM88 was proposed to act by targeting the PDZ domain of Dishevelled, the positive Wnt signaling mediator. However, we discovered that TMEM88 acts downstream of the β-catenin destruction complex and can inhibit Wnt signaling independent of Dishevelled. TMEM88 requires the PDZ-binding motif for trafficking from Golgi to the plasma membrane and is also found in the multivesicular body (MVB) associated with the endocytosed Wnt signalosome. Expression of Tmem88 promotes association of the Wnt signalosome including β-catenin to the MVB, leading to reduced accumulation of nuclear β-catenin and repression of Wnt signaling.
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•Human ESCs with a targeted TMEM88 knockout are impaired for cardiac specification•TMEM88 does not require Dishevelled to inhibit Wnt signaling•TMEM88 is trafficked from Golgi to plasma membrane and then to the MVB•Expression of TMEM88 promotes association of the signalosome to the MVB
Molecular Mechanism of Behavior; Cell Biology; Stem Cells Research
In this paper, we propose a new method for spotting and recognizing continuous human actions using a vision sensor. The method is comprised of depth-MHI-HOG (DMH), action modeling, action spotting, ...and recognition. First, to effectively separate the foreground from background, we propose a method called DMH. It includes a standard structure for segmenting images and extracting features by using depth information, MHI, and HOG. Second, action modeling is performed to model various actions using extracted features. The modeling of actions is performed by creating sequences of actions through k-means clustering; these sequences constitute HMM input. Third, a method of action spotting is proposed to filter meaningless actions from continuous actions and to identify precise start and end points of actions. By employing the spotter model, the proposed method improves action recognition performance. Finally, the proposed method recognizes actions based on start and end points. We evaluate recognition performance by employing the proposed method to obtain and compare probabilities by applying input sequences in action models and the spotter model. Through various experiments, we demonstrate that the proposed method is efficient for recognizing continuous human actions in real environments.
This paper deals with the quadratic stability conditions of fuzzy control systems that relax the existing conditions reported in the previous literatures. Two new conditions are proposed and shown to ...be useful in analyzing and designing fuzzy control systems. The first one employs the S-procedure to utilize information regarding the premise parts of the fuzzy systems. The next one enlarges the class of fuzzy control systems, whose stability is ensured by representing the interactions among the fuzzy subsystems in a single matrix and solving it by linear matrix inequality. The relationships between the suggested stability conditions and the conventional well-known stability conditions reported in the previous literatures are also discussed, and it is shown in a rigorous manner that the second condition of this paper includes the conventional conditions. Finally, some examples and simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the stability conditions.
•Ex-situ catalytic pyrolysis of citrus peels over mesoporous catalysts was tested.•Mesoporous MFI and Al-MCM-41 were applied as mesoporous catalysts.•Citrus peels produced the large amount of ...methanol via the pyrolysis.•Mesoporous MFI produced larger amounts of mono aromatics than Al-MCM-41.
The thermal and ex-situ catalytic pyrolysis of different citrus peels, Citrus paradisi peel, Citrus sinensis peel, Citrus unshiu peel, and Citrus limon peel, were studied by thermogravimetric, evolved gas analysis–mass spectrometry and tandem micro-reactor–gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry analyses. Kinetic analysis revealed more complicated reaction steps and a wider range of activation energies of citrus peels than those of wood powder due to the presence of pectin in the citrus peels. Large amounts of methanol formation from each citrus peel were also recorded by evolved gas analysis–mass spectrometry and fast pyrolysis–gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry analyses at the main decomposition temperature of pectin, between 150 and 250°C. Mesoporous MFI was found to be a more effective catalyst for the production of mono aromatic compounds (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene; 3.06–4.17C%) and light olefins (ethene, propene, butene, and butadiene; 8.13–9.13C%) than Al-MCM-41 (mono aromatic compounds 0.67–0.93C% and light olefins 3.61–4.58C%) because of its higher catalytic activity in deoxygenation and aromatization due to the stronger acidity of mesoporous MFI. The yield of mono aromatic compounds over mesoporous MFI was highest from C. paradisi peel (4.17C%), followed in order by C. sinensis peel (3.83C%), C. unshiu peel (3.61C%), and C. limon peel (3.06C%), due mainly to the different contents and properties of pectin in each citrus peel. The higher activities of mesoporous MFI than Al-MCM-41 were also maintained during the 7 times sequential catalytic pyrolysis of C. paradisi peel, demonstrating the stability of mesoporous MFI catalyst.
Biochar, produced and activated from thermochemical methods, was applied as catalyst for catalytic biorefinery and environmental pollutant removal. In this review, recent advanced studies of biochar ...catalyst were discussed.
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Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant and environment-friendly source for renewable energy production. The value and application of biochar, which is obtained from the thermochemical conversion of biomass, is increasing rapidly because of its high carbon content and porosity. The property of biochar, such as surface area, porosity, and number of functional groups, can be improved by controlling the conditions of biomass conversion, biochar activation, and functionalization methods. The production and activation of biochar as well as its potential use for soil remediation, pollutant adsorption, and biorefinery have been reviewed extensively over recent decades. This paper provides a conceptual approach for biochar production and activation together with its application as a catalyst for biorefineries and the removal of environmental contaminants.
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