世界一流科技社团发展现状国际比较——基于实践动态的视角

 以世界一流科技社团2019年9月-2020年6月的新闻数据，分析总结了世界一流科技社团的实践动态及发展规律。研究发现：（1）国内科技社团强调党建引领，制度优势体现出强大的凝聚力；（2）国外科技社团更加善于聚合公共资源，并将产生的新知识转化为可供应用的产品和服务，推进科技与经济、创新链与产业链的融合；（3）国外科技社团善于通过多种形式发声，充分发挥决策者智库咨询的作用；（4）全球科技治理的实质性活动由国际化大型科技社团主导。中国科技社团需要重视决策咨询智库建设、为政府重大决策制定提供技术支撑；完善学术交流平台、创造有利于科技工作者的良好生态；为科技经济融合贡献智慧，推动互惠共享的国际科技交流合作。     

山西锦生润票号衰败考论

锦生润票号诞生在光绪二十九年,恰逢山西票号鼎盛时代,然而,也是山西票号"危机四伏"、衰败初露端倪的时期.锦生润票号于民国六年冬月主动"收歇",自有特别的"个案"的原因:锦生润不是完全意义上的山西票号,与经营了百年之久的其它票号不能简单地相提并论,仅仅是晚清山西商人开设"账局"的发展和延续,或者是"账局"与专业化汇兑的"票号"的有机结合的"蓝本",属于一种新类型的票号.锦生润票号的衰败及其原因,也是票号发展历史阶段的一个极其重要的组成部分.     

Multifunctional artificial nacre via biomimetic matrix-directed mineralization

Natural nacre, one of the most studied biological structural materials with delicate hierarchical structures and extraordinary performance, has inspired the design and fabrication of artificial structural ceramics with high fracture toughness. However, to meet the diverse requirements of different applications, future structural materials must be multifunctional with superior mechanical properties, such as strength, hardness, and toughness. Herein, based on the matrix-directed mineralization method for producing biomimetic structural materials, we introduce nanoparticles with different inherent functions into the platelets of artificial nacre via the co-mineralization of aragonite and the nanoparticles. Besides their enhanced mechanical properties, the obtained artificial nacre materials also exhibit different functions depending on the type of the nanoparticles. To extend the versatility of this strategy, the effects of nanoparticles of different sizes and zeta potentials on mineralization are also analyzed. This universal strategy can be applied to the fabrication of other types of functionalized biomimetic structural ceramics that have potential applications in various fields, such as biomedical science.     

Molecular function of the novel α7β2 nicotinic receptor

The α7 nicotinic receptor is a promising drug target for neurological and inflammatory disorders. Although it is the homomeric member of the family, a novel α7β2 heteromeric receptor has been discovered. To decipher the functional contribution of the β2 subunit, we generated heteromeric receptors with fixed stoichiometry by two different approaches comprising concatenated and unlinked subunits. Receptors containing up to three β2 subunits are functional. As the number of β2 subunits increases in the pentameric arrangement, the durations of channel openings and activation episodes increase progressively probably due to decreased desensitization. The prolonged activation episodes conform the kinetic signature of α7β2 and may have an impact on neuronal excitability. For activation of α7β2 receptors, an α7/α7 binding-site interface is required, thus indicating that the three β2 subunits are located consecutively in the pentameric arrangement. α7-positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) are emerging as novel therapeutic drugs. The presence of β2 in the pentamer affects neither type II PAM potentiation nor activation by an allosteric agonist whereas it impairs type I PAM potentiation. This first single-channel study provides fundamental basis required to decipher the role and function of the novel α7β2 receptor and opens doors to develop selective therapeutic drugs.     

Macropinocytosis,mTORC1 and cellular growth control

The growth and proliferation of metazoan cells are driven by cellular nutrient status and by extracellular growth factors. Growth factor receptors on cell surfaces initiate biochemical signals that increase anabolic metabolism and macropinocytosis, an actin-dependent endocytic process in which relatively large volumes of extracellular solutes and nutrients are internalized and delivered efficiently into lysosomes. Macropinocytosis is prominent in many kinds of cancer cells, and supports the growth of cells transformed by oncogenic K-Ras. Growth factor receptor signaling and the overall metabolic status of the cell are coordinated in the cytoplasm by the mechanistic target-of-rapamycin complex-1 (mTORC1), which positively regulates protein synthesis and negatively regulates molecular salvage pathways such as autophagy. mTORC1 is activated by two distinct Ras-related small GTPases, Rag and Rheb, which associate with lysosomal membranes inside the cell. Rag recruits mTORC1 to the lysosomal surface where Rheb directly binds to and activates mTORC1. Rag is activated by both lysosomal luminal and cytosolic amino acids; Rheb activation requires phosphoinositide 3-kinase, Akt, and the tuberous sclerosis complex-1/2. Signals for activation of Rag and Rheb converge at the lysosomal membrane, and several lines of evidence support the idea that growth factor-dependent endocytosis facilitates amino acid transfer into the lysosome leading to the activation of Rag. This review summarizes evidence that growth factor-stimulated macropinocytosis is essential for amino acid-dependent activation of mTORC1, and that increased solute accumulation by macropinocytosis in transformed cells supports unchecked cell growth.     

Comparison of Travel Mode Choice Between Taxi and Subway Regarding Traveling Convenience

In this study, we investigate travel mode choice behavior between taxi and subway with an emphasis on the influence of traveling convenience. In the first stage, we examine the Origin-Destination(OD) points of Beijing taxi trips and compare these locations with the respective nearest subway station. Statistics reveal several interesting conclusions. First, for approximately 24.89% of all trips, no convenient subway connections exist between the OD pairs. As such, a taxi becomes the only viable choice. Second, for 80.23% of the remaining 75.11%of trips(equivalent to 60.26% of all trips), access distance from either the origin or the destination to the nearest subway station is greater than 500 meters. This phenomenon indicates that walking distance plays an important role in travel mode choice. In the second stage, we examine groups of taxi trips with similar travel distances and travel times to reveal common features. We establish a preference rule in terms of travel distance and travel time.This determines whether an individual driver will take a taxi or the subway, using a pairwise comparison-based preference regression model. Tests indicate that more than 95% of taxi trips can be correctly predicted by this preference rule. This conclusion reveals that traveling convenience dominates the travel model choice between taxi and subway. All these findings shed light on the factors that influence travel mode choice behavior.     

A Method to Visualize the Skeleton Industrial Structure with Input-Output Analysis and Its Application in China,Japan and USA

The paper established a double filtering method (DFM) to visualize the skeleton industrial structure (SIS) of one economy and find its evolution rule. Different with the previous researches, this method is from a new view of industrial conjunctions combined by leading sectors to depict the industrial structure. It was proved that the leading sector selected by DFM must be key sector selected by Hirschman-Rasmussen method. Applied DFM to input-output tables of China, Japan and USA and MFA to Japan and USA, the results analysis showed that DFM could overtake the two main shortcomings of minimum flow analysis (MFA), scratch SIS of each economy with its own characteristics, visualize the general evolution rules of the industrial structure with crisscrossed conjunctions among leading sectors.     

The Documentary Real: Thinking Documentary Aesthetics

In this article we consider the growing interest in recent years in the use of documentary strategies in the wold of contemporary art, film and performing arts and explore some of the central epistemological assumptions underpinning the persistent idea that the documentary should be equated with ‘non-fiction’. Following Stella Bruzzi we argue that if documentary theory maintains objectivity as the primary measure of value, it will inevitably and continuously arrive at the conclusion that the documentary genre is fundamentally flawed. Instead, we propose to move beyond the ‘realist epistemology’ of documentary theory and focus on the ‘documentary real’, i.e. the specific performativity of the reality constructed in and by the documentary genre. In the last paragraphs, we introduce the various articles that address the “documentary real” in this special issue.