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Research suggests one determinant of alcohol consumption may be physical pain, but there is no empirical evidence that pain has a causal effect on drinking. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to test experimental pain as a determinant of several alcohol consumption proxies: self-reported urge to drink, intention to consume alcohol, and alcohol demand. This study also was designed to test negative affect as a mediator of the effects of pain on alcohol use proxies. We hypothesized that participants randomized to experimental pain induction (vs. no pain) would report greater urge, intention, and alcohol demand, and that these effects would be mediated by increased negative affect. Participants were healthy undergraduates who were moderate-heavy drinkers (N = 61). Experimental pain was induced using a novel capsaicin-heat model intended to approximate key features of clinical pain. Results indicated that participants in the pain condition subsequently endorsed greater urge and intention to drink. Furthermore, these effects were mediated by pain-induced negative affect. We observed no effect of pain on alcohol demand. This is the first study to demonstrate a causal effect of acute pain on urge and intention to drink. Given the close association between alcohol consumption, urge and intention to drink, these findings suggest that pain may influence alcohol consumption, which can have implications for individuals with co-occurring pain and alcohol use disorder (AUD). Specifically, individuals with co-occurring pain and AUD may drink to alleviate pain-related negative affect. Therefore, improving pain-coping skills may enhance pain-management abilities, subsequently reducing coping-motivated drinking. (PsycINFO Database Record

High atomic number and high-energy (HZE) particles in deep space are of low abundance but substantially contribute to the biological effects of space radiation. Shielding is so far the most effective way to partially protect astronauts from these highly penetrating particles. However, simulated calculations and measurements have predicted that secondary particles resulting from the shielding of cosmic rays produce a significant fraction of the total dose and dose equivalent. In this study, we investigated the biological effects of secondary radiation with two cell types, and with cells exposed in different phases of the cell cycle, by comparing the biological effects of a 200 MeV/u iron beam with a shielded beam in which the energy of the iron ion beam was decreased from 500 MeV/u to 200 MeV/u with PMMA, polyethylene (PE), or aluminum. We found that beam shielding resulted in increased induction of 53BP1 foci and micronuclei in a cell-type-dependent manner compared with the unshielded 200 MeV/u Fe ion beam. These findings provide experimental proof that the biological effects of secondary particles resulting from the interaction between HZE particles and shielding materials should be considered in shielding design.

Software testing is indispensable for all software development. As all mature engineering disciplines need to have systematic testing methodologies, software testing is a very important subject of software engineering. In software development practice, testing accounts for as much as 50% of total development efforts. Testing can be manual, automated, or a combination of both. Manual testing is the process of executing the application and manually interacting with the application, specifying inputs and observing outputs. Manually testing the software is inefficient and costly. It is imperative to reduce the cost and improve the effectiveness of software testing by automating the testing process, which contains many testing related activities using various techniques and methods. In order to automate the process, we have to have some ways to generate oracles from the specification, and generate test cases to test the target software against the oracles to decide their correctness. Today we still don't have a full-scale system that has achieved this goal. In general, significant amount of human intervention is still needed in testing. The degree of automation remains at the automated test script level. This paper therefore provides a timely summary and enhancement of agent theory in software testing ,which motivates recent efforts in adapting concepts and methodologies for agent oriented software testing to complex system which has not previously done. Agent technologies facilitate the automated software testing by virtue of their high level decomposition, independency and parallel activation. Usage of agent based regression testing reduces the complexity involved in prioritizing the test cases.With the ability of agents to act autonomously, monitoring code changes and generating test cases for the changed version of the code can be done dynamically. Agent-oriented software testing (AOST) is a nascent but active field of research . A comprehensive methodology that plays an essential role in software testing must be robust but easy-to use. Moreover, it should provide a roadmap to guide engineers in creating agent-based systems. The agent based regression testing (ABRT) proposed here is to offer a definition for encompassing to cover the regression testing phenomena based on agents, yet sufficiently tight that it can rule out complex systems that are clearly not agent based.

SummaryStudies investigated the patient‐care (in‐hospital) and outside‐the‐hospital energy consumptions for delivering the hemodialysis (HD) service. A life cycle inventory methodology was used for this patient‐based analysis for two hospitals located in Wichita, Kansas. It was found that, for both hospitals, the actual HD machines consumed approximately 3.5 kilowatt‐hours (kWh) of electrical energy per HD, only 8% to 16% of the total energy used for delivering the HD service (in hospital). This increases to 9.6 to 28.9 kWh of hospital billable energy for the whole system of HD machine, auxiliaries, and dialysis water treatment. Converting these hospital direct electrical energy values to natural resource energy (nre) then adding the cradle‐to‐gate natural resource energy for the manufacturing and supply chain of all the HD consumables, the total is 78 to 149 kWh nre/HD. The nre measures all the direct fuel burned to generate energy and is thus directly related to emissions to the air, water, and land and is a direct secondary impact on public health from HD. The ratio of outside‐the‐hospital energy to direct hospital HD electrical energy consumption is 4:1 to 7:1, so a broader base exists for improvement than just the hospital.

A hybrid bioelectric battery designed for pacemaker feeding was developed and implanted in 15 dogs for a period of 18 or more months. The smooth platinum cathode, set on an intra-cavitary pacing lead, is located in the bloodstream of the right auricle. The anode of pure (99.9 percent) Domal magnesium is placed in the subcutaneous tissue, which is then consumed by a uniform corrosion process. The theoretical consumption for a current output of 200 muA was evaluated according to Faraday's law at 7 g in 9 years; however, the real consumption, taking into account the corrosion phenomenon, is estimated at 14 g in 9 years. This histological tolerance to the magnesium is excellent. The fundamental characteristic of this platinum-magnesium battery is the great reproducibility of the output parameters (voltage, power) and the excellent stability with time, for any chosen platinum surface or load resistance. For an output current of 200 muA, the battery provides an available output power of 100 muW at a reproducible and stable voltage of 0.5 v. This stability is demonstrated in a long-term study on 15 beagles.

Following the Paris Agreement, green and low-carbon development has entered into a new stage. China’s international responsibility to combat climate change is consistent with the inherent sustainable development needs of the country. In this paper, the reasonability of China’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) is examined and the fact that lowcarbon development can lead to modernization is demonstrated based on data analysis of energy economics from developed countries. Considering the fact that such an energy revolution forms the basis for China’s low-carbon transition, a roadmap of the China’s energy utilization is presented. Based on research results from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the three historical stages of China’s energy structure reform are analyzed. Promoting a low-carbon transition through an energy revolution is a long-term and arduous process that requires a genuine transformation of development outlook and patterns. By empirically analyzing situations at home and abroad, a conclusion is made that economic development and a lowcarbon transition can be achieved simultaneously; specifically, low-carbon development fosters new points of economic growth and gives rise to different development paths.

In the backdrop of the ‘dual carbon goal’, which aims to promote sustainable development of China, adoption of new energy vehicles (NEVs) is an important measure to help improve the environment, so it is of great significance to investigate the purchase intention of NEVs. Previous studies have established that subsidies and various product attributes could affect consumers’ purchase intention toward NEVs. As government subsidies have been on the decline in recent years, product attributes of NEVs need to be given more attention. However, there have been limited studies that quantitatively analyze the impact of product attributes of NEVs on purchase intention. Therefore, to fill this gap and help further expand the NEV market, this study investigated consumers’ adoption of NEVs empirically from the perception of product attributes. A questionnaire survey and structural equation model (SEM) were used for data collection and analysis. The results indicate that (1) both the functional and symbolic attributes of NEVs had a significant positive impact on consumers’ purchase intention; (2) both the functional and symbolic attributes of NEVs had a significant positive impact on consumers’ purchase intention through consumers’ perceived value; and (3) citizens’ environmental awareness positively moderated the relationship between products attributes and purchase intention. According to the results, to meet consumers’ needs of daily driving and self-image expression, new energy vehicle enterprises need to focus on improving the products in both functional and symbolic aspects by using various marketing strategies.