Controversial science-based technology public attitude formation and regulation in comparative perspective: The state construction of policy alternatives in Asia

Past studies of the success of regulation and other forms of state and private sector activity in areas of new technologies have argued these are dependent on a number of factors, one of which is the reaction of public opinion to the innovation concerned. Most existing theories of public acceptance of controversial science-based products are based largely on European and North American case studies and are divided between those which focus on public and consumer knowledge of the science involved – the ‘deficit model’ - and those which stress either the need for trust in regulatory and private sector actors involved in new product development and regulation, or the significance of individual cultural norms on attitude formation. This paper examines two cases of the introduction of controversial science in Asia - wastewater recycling in Singapore and nanotechnology regulation in China in order to assess the influence of these factors in each case. Based on this comparative research, it is argued that models of public acceptance of controversial science-based products must also take into account the state’s ability to define the range of public debate as a key overall parameter of public attitude formation.     

Method for the in situ calibration of a passive phosphate sampler in estuarine and marine waters

Passive samplers for phosphate were calibrated in the laboratory over a range of flow velocities (0-27 cm s(-1)) and ionic strengths (0-0.62 mol kg(-1)). The observed sampling rates were between 0.006 and 0.20 L d(-1). An empirical model allowed the estimation of these sampling rates with a precision of 8.5%. Passive flow monitors (PFMs), based on gypsum dissolution rates, were calibrated for the same range of flow velocities and ionic strength. Mass loss rates of the PFMs increased with increasing ionic strength. We demonstrate that this increase is quantitatively accounted for by the increased gypsum solubility at higher ionic strengths. We provide a calculation scheme for these solubilities for an environmentally relevant range of temperatures and salinities. The results imply that co-deployed PFMs can be used for estimating the flow effect on the in situ sampling rates of the phosphate samplers, and we expect that the same may hold for other passive samplers.     

An algorithm for Fast Mining Top-rank-k Frequent Patterns Based on Node-list Data Structure

Frequent pattern mining usually requires much run time and memory usage. In some applications, only the patterns with top frequency rank are needed. Because of the limited pattern numbers, quality of the results is even more important than time and memory consumption. A Frequent Pattern algorithm for mining Top-rank-K patterns, FP_TopK, is proposed. It is based on a Node-list data structure extracted from FTPP-tree. Each node is with one or more triple sets, which contain supports, preorder and postorder transversal orders for candidate pattern generation and top-rank-k frequent pattern mining. FP_ TopK uses the minimal support threshold for pruning strategy to guarantee that each pattern in the top-rank-k table is really frequent and this further improves the efficiency. Experiments are conducted to compare FP_TopK with iNTK and BTK on four datasets. The results show that FP_TopK achieves better performance.     

Oxidation Kinetics of Hexagonal-Shaped Single-Crystal Silicon Whiskers

The oxidation kinetics of hexagonal-shaped Si whiskers at high temperature were studied. Si whiskers were oxidized at 1000°C under a partial oxygen pressure of 0.14 atm. Oxide thickness was measured using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A unique model was developed to describe the oxidation kinetics of hexagonal-shaped fibers. The model takes into account the inward diffusion of oxygen, oxidation reaction at the oxide/Si interface, and the fiber diameter change caused by the molar volume difference between SiO₂ and Si. Comparison of the model with experimental data shows good agreement.     

Effects of polymer matrix and processing on the conductivity of polymer blends

The influence of different hosts, processing conditions and conducting fillers on the percolation threshold (Φ_c) of the resulting conducting blends was investigated. Results indicate that microscopic properties, such as the dipole moments of the side‐groups, and distribution of these groups on the host polymer backbone govern the strength of host–filler interactions, and to a large extent, the value of Φ_c, rather than macroscopic properties such as surface tension. The grade of carbon black used in this experiment was found to be polar in nature and it resulted in lower values of Φ_c with the polar hosts, contrary to published literature. In general, melt blending has been shown to result in higher values of Φ_c when compared to hot pressing alone. In the latter method the conductive filler was found to be isolated at the grain boundaries of the polymer host, resulting in the formation of continuous conducting pathways at low filler concentration. © 2001 Society of Chemical Industry