In order to generate a better understanding of the real estate development industry that eventually (re)shapes our urban landscape, this paper explores the potentially different development ...behaviours and outcomes between insider and outsider developers in creative industry-led urban regeneration. Viewing real estate development as an institutionally loaded process, this paper distils developers' disparities in seeking development inputs, delivering products and securing transactions, which bear major implications for their innovation readiness and competency in urban regeneration. Paintworks in Bristol and Baltic Triangle in Liverpool UK are used as case studies to illustrate how insider and outsider developers forge their unique development logic and products under specific market and institutional contexts.
Taking a spatially sensitive approach to evaluating China's quest of soft power, this paper conducted a media discourse analysis of European countries' perceptions of China's growing international ...influence in general, and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in particular. Preliminary analysis reveals regional diversity in media coverage of the BRI that was partially caused by a country's position as a 'discourse leader', 'discourse responder' or 'discourse follower'. In terms of the contents, this paper noticed a huge discrepancy among the European countries towards the potential impacts of the BRI and China's rise in international affairs, and recorded a shift from a rather positive to a cautious attitude among the European Union's leaders. It is suggested that China's spatially blind approach to using soft power to promote BRI in Europe may be partly to blame for its limited success so far.
This paper provides a critique of the "specialty towns" program, a key constituent of China's current new-style urbanization campaign. It problematizes the contradictory accounts of the program, ...namely, emphasizing "place-based" strengths while simultaneously standardizing forms, functions, and goals with a strong "place-neutral" approach. We argue that three key building blocks are critical for understanding specialty towns: place dependence, embeddedness, and locational advantage. Through multiple-case studies in Zhejiang, evidence has shown that there is a mismatch between national policies and local practices in specialty town development. The latter has its own place-specific logic of development shaped by history, geography, institutions, and agency. In particular, existing small-scale growth settings (e.g., industrial parks, specialized markets) and characteristics of local agency are the main factors affecting local practices. This paper argues that without considering the specificities of places in a broader socioeconomic context, the program may fail to work as effectively as expected in its local implementation.
The effect of the blending of crude oils on fouling propensity was investigated to determine the extent to which compatibility of crude oils influences fouling. In this study, fouling testing was ...performed for a series of crude oil blends with diverse compatibility as measured using a titration method. After testing, fouling deposits were recovered and analyzed. For the studied blends, the results show that compatibility is the driving force for fouling propensity. Asphaltene and inorganic contents also play a significant, but secondary role in the fouling of these samples. Filtration and temperature effects were also evaluated for some of the blends. As expected, temperature decreases fouling propensity, while filtration has a low impact indicating that, for the studied blends, fouling is temperature dependent and not driven by the presence of suspended inorganic particles. A correlation is proposed to describe the fouling propensity based on compatibility measurements of the blends at room temperature. The analysis of the deposits revealed correlations between deposit composition and blend characteristics. In particular, soot formation during fouling seems to be related to micro carbon residue in the blends. It was also found that infrared measurements can be used to estimate the formation of carbonaceous materials in the deposits. The presence of long paraffins in the deposit could have a large impact on fouling propensity and might indicate that the interaction between paraffins and asphaltenes persists even at high temperatures. The results demonstrate that compatibility measurements using titration techniques can be successfully used to minimize fouling by optimizing concentrations of the components of a specific blend.
Considering fracture constraint is an efficient way to describe stress–strain field and fracture toughness more accurately, so it is necessary to realise the relationship with in‐plane and ...out‐of‐plane constraint for different standard specimens. In this paper, three‐dimensional finite element method is applied to study the in‐plane and out‐of‐plane constraint for both cruciform specimen and single edge notched bending specimen made from commercial pure titanium. Crack length and in‐plane loading as the factors affecting in‐plane constraint, and thickness as the factor affecting the out‐of‐plane constraint are used to study the effect on both in‐plane and out‐of‐plane constraint in this paper. From the results, in‐plane and out‐of‐plane constraint are both related to specimen geometries and loading styles. And there exist relationships with in‐plane and out‐of‐plane constraint because of factors for different specimens. Depending on crack length, out‐of‐plane constraint increases with in‐plane constraint. While depending on transverse loading, out‐of‐plane constraint decreases with in‐plane constraint. In addition, when the in‐plane constraint of a specimen is higher, in‐plane constraint increases with out‐of‐plane constraint (thickness). When the in‐plane constraint is lower, in‐plane constraint almost remains unchanged with out‐of‐plane constraint.
This paper examines the policy transfer process and outcomes outside the occidental context. It extends the voluntary transnational policy transfer framework with an evolutionary perspective and a ...scalar understanding of space and power at the subnational level. When the Sino-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), a government-to-government collaboration in promoting industrial development, was studied, it was revealed that two parallel policy transfer networks were developed in the early days of the SIP, which were embedded in different scales of governance and pursuing divergent targets. Their relationship affected the policy transfer outcomes for the SIP, and reveals the important governance and temporal dimensions in transnational policy transfers.
Analyses of I–II mixed mode central cracked plate by finite element method are performed in this paper, and some different phenomena are found. First for I–II mixed mode crack, the distribution of J ...integral along crack tip thickness depends on biaxiality factors because of the existence of vertex (corner) singularity, which is unlike that for mode I or mode II crack. Then J integrals at middle layer keep constant for any cracked plates with different inclined angles β when the biaxiality ratio is equal to 1 or −1, which implies that the inclined angle or the extent of I–II mixed mode has no effect on the J integral for positive or negative equal axial loading conditions. And the decreasing trend of J integral with the inclined angle β for biaxiality ratio λ being between−1 and 1 is just opposite with that for biaxiality ratio λ being larger than 1 and smaller than −1. Finally, proposed h1 (a/W, n, λ, β) of cracked plate with different inclined angles under different biaxial loading are calculated.
The suburbanization process worldwide continues to generate significant urban contradictions. Yet the same process also calls forth planning innovations that seek to redress these development ...challenges. One such in China is the ‘Featured Town’ policy which has been plucked from its origins in Zhejiang province to national policy prominence. Drawing on a combination of secondary data and original interviews, this paper considers the origins and peculiarities of this planning model, its elevation within national policy and its likely prospects across China. Preliminary findings indicate that the Featured Town policy has fallen foul of many of the complications associated with wider dissemination of locally embedded models. The interlock of local government capitalism and intrapreneurial state is the fundamental driver behind this Featured Town ‘fever’.
Effects of three-dimensional (3D) perturbations due to an unstable n = 1 (n is the toroidal mode number) internal kink (IK) on the energetic particles (EPs) are systematically investigated for the ...HL-2M tokamak, utilizing the MARS-F/K code Liu et al., Phys. Plasmas 7, 3681–3690 (2000) and a recently developed test particle tracing module. A high-beta sawteething HL-2M scenario, simulated by the TRANSP code Breslau et al., Transp Computer Software (2018), is chosen for this study. In general, the 3D perturbation associated with an unstable IK is found to affect the EP drift orbit, confinement, and loss in HL-2M. The instability-induced EP loss fraction is found to be typically less than 10%, without counting for the prompt orbit loss associated with the 2D equilibrium field for counter-current particles. The latter reaches about 16% in HL-2M. For co-current EPs, a 100 G 3D magnetic field (inside the plasma) due to the IK does not induce any EP loss assuming a static perturbation. A sawtooth-like time-varying perturbation field, with the peak amplitude reaching 1000 G, can however produce about 30% loss for the co-current EPs in HL-2M. The majority of lost EPs tend to strike the lower divertor region, with a small fraction of particles striking the low-field side mid-plane region of the limiting surface.
Baculoviral inhibitor of apoptosis repeat-containing 5 (BIRC5) is a member of apoptosis inhibition family which suppresses caspase activity. Osteosarcoma tissues have significantly higher BIRC5 and ...lower microRNA-218 (miR-218) level than adjacent tissues, indicating tumor suppressor role of miR-218 in osteosarcoma. Bioinformatics analysis showed satisfactory targeting correlation between miR-218 and 3'-UTR of BIRC5 mRNA. This study, thus, investigated if dysregulation of miR-218 and BIRC5 affected apoptosis of osteosarcoma cells U2OS.
A total of 42 osteosarcoma patients were collected for tumor and adjacent tissues to compare miR-218 and BIRC5 expressions. Dual-luciferase reporter gene assay examined targeted regulation between miR-218 and BIRC5. In vitro cultured U2OS cells were treated with miR-218 mimic and/or si-BIRC5. Caspase-3 activity was measured by spectrometry while flow cytometry was used to test cell apoptosis, plus protein expression assay by Western blot assay.
Compared to adjacent tissues, osteosarcoma tissues had significantly depressed miR-218 expression and elevated BIRC5 expression (p<0.05). miR-21 targeted 3'-UTR of BIRC5 to suppress its expression. The elevation of miR-218 and/or silencing BIRC5 significantly depressed BRIC5-induced inhibition on caspase-5, and facilitated U2OS cell apoptosis (p<0.05).
We observed that miR-218 was significantly down-regulated in osteosarcoma tissues, which had elevated BIRC5 expression. MiR-218 targeted and inhibited BIRC5 expression, weakened caspase-5 inhibition by BIRC5, and facilitated U2OS osteosarcoma cell apoptosis.
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