Articles de revues sur le sujet « Chinese Naval operation »

This article aims to assess how China is using its navy to secure its interests in the Gulf of Aden, and what this means for the European Union. The analysis of how China's naval presence in the Gulf of Aden has evolved since early 2009 suggests that China's increasing interests and involvement in Africa do not necessarily lead to the establishment of Chinese naval bases in or close to the continent. To supply its ships, the Chinese navy may well continue using the commercial-diplomatic model that China has been developing. This model is based on China's close diplomatic relations with countries in the region and the extensive presence of Chinese companies to whom logistical services can be outsourced and who are under a greater degree of state influence than most Western multinationals. One of the consequences of this approach is that although China may not establish overseas military bases, it may be able to keep expanding its naval presence in or around Africa.

It is the key point which establishes a new rescue system for guarantee Chinese naval submarine operational capability. As new rescue vessel and various rescue equipment put into use in succession, and company with the military academies training reform, the author puts forward the construction of the new submarine rescue command simulation training information system based on the HLA(High Level Architecture) in this paper. It introduces the system construction situation, including system functions, constitutes and working principle, and analyses the key technology point. It is also given a virtual scene of submarine rescue command operation based on data driven.

China’s security concept is evolving, and its participation in Africa’s Arab countries’ peacekeeping is transforming itself from aloof bystander to active player, and from multilateralism to both multi- and unilateralism. The establishment of China’s logistics base in Djibouti does not signify a sudden change in China’s African foreign policy; instead, change has been gradual and tangible and began with the evolution of China’s participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations, and engagement in Africa’s infrastructure projects, in parallel with China’s increasing global presence. The base serves as a logistics and support facility for Chinese peacekeepers, as well as a naval facility to support anti-piracy missions off the coast of Somalia as part of an international anti-piracy operation. Moreover, the base helps China to ensure its maritime and commercial interests and safeguard Chinese nationals in West Asia and the African continent. However, the United States and the West are concerned with the geopolitical and geoeconomic implications of China’s logistics base in Djibouti. The geography of Djibouti has led to the rising of geopolitical rivalries between the great powers, which may intensify in the coming years.

Nowadays, the study of the Chinese language is particularly relevant in Russia due to the rapid development of Sino-Russian partnerships and strategic cooperation, as well as Russia’s participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS. Comprehensive military co-operation between the two countries is growing rapidly, which is expressed both in the organization of international military exercises (“East”, “Naval interaction”), International Army Games, and in the exchange of technology and the supply of military and special equipment. In this regard, the profession of a military interpreter of the Chinese language for providing events of this kind is becoming increasingly relevant. We consider the informal level of Chinese language military dis-course– military slang. Due to the high level of cooperation and interaction between China and Russia, as well as the poor knowledge of Chinese military slang and informal vocabulary, further development of the topic will play a significant role in improving the methodology of training spe-cialists, military interpreters, as well as in the military discourse study. A description of the phe-nomenon under consideration will be given, an analysis of a units sample of informal military dis-course will be made and their translation will be provided, and a generalized conclusion will be made and the scope of the research results applied.

The mode of operation of the Black Sea or Turkish straits is again becoming a matter of international discussion following the clash of two globalization projects: the American Greater Black Sea region and the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, as well as Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, which is primarily realized on the ground. Being the Black Sea straits a core object of international agreements between the World War I and the World War II, the Montreux Convention of 1936 secured the Black Sea from major naval clashes and accidents. The Convention, which is more than 85 years old, has the longest regime for regulating the passage of military and civilian ships through the Black Sea straits since 1783 and has reflected the geopolitical reality, in which the Black Sea littoral powers, which have been Türkiye and Russia for 240 years, have noticeable advantages over the navies of non-littoral powers. This provision contradicts the modern American aspirations to open the Black Sea region and the Black Sea - Caspian space for the military-political expansion of the United States and the coalition. The purpose of the article is to determine, on the basis of a discursive analysis, the goal-setting of the main geopolitical actors in relation to the Montreux Convention and to predict the possible transformations of the Black Sea region, which has become the center of a clash of interests of global and regional powers. The research methodology is based on the principles of systemic and interdisciplinary approaches to provide a combination of methods of political linguistics and geopolitical analysis and synthesis. The article examines the discourse of the leading actors of international relations around the Montreux Convention following the special military operation, which makes it possible to identify its transformations between the status quo or denunciation at the level of conceptual discussions. Türkiye traditionally balances between the interests of Russia and the West due to the role of a neutral “gatekeeper” of the straits, technologically applying Article 19 of the Convention, which so far fully meets the interests of Russia; while the USA shows a tendency to revise the Convention or circumvent it legally. Therefore, the Montreux Convention will remain at the center of public and real politics until the end of the formation of a new system of international relations that should ensure the stability of the development of the world for the next political era.

In 1949, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army drove Chiang Kai-shek’s followers from the mainland to the island of Taiwan, but the Chinese Nationalists did not resign themselves to defeat. Enlisting the support of its American allies, the Kuomintang tried to impose a naval blockade on the People’s Republic of China and detained foreign cargo ships on their way to the communists. The Nationalists announced the closure of the ports taken over by the CCP-led military forces, which gradually turned into an economic and military blockade of the entire China coastline. As a result, foreign and Chinese merchant ships that were carrying cargo to the PRC were shelled, destroyed, or detained by Nationalist naval ships. The notorious one was the seizure of the Soviet oil tanker Tuapse in 1954. The author, referring to the prehistory of the Tuapse detention, investigates the Nationalists’ justification of the closure policy, its goals and objectives. The paper reveals also the rules adopted by the government of the ROC Navy's interaction with foreign vessels, and touches upon the extent of the US involvement in maritime operations, using unexplored documents, and comments of senior ROC government officials.

The United States of America’s Naval Forces constantly prepare for operations againstpotential adversaries, most notably the military threat posed by the People’s Republicof China. Chinese developments over the past decades have successfully reduced thetechnological and procedural gap compared with the US Navy in some areas, and insome cases they have already demonstrated certain advantages. In my study, I willexamine the US response to these challenges in the recent past, with regard to theNavy and the Marine Corps.

AbstractUS government reports describe Chinese-conceived “island chains” in the Western Pacific as narrow demarcations for Chinese “counter-intervention” operations to defeat US and allied forces in altercations over contested territorial claims. The sparse scholarship available does little to contest this excessively myopic assertion. Yet, further examination reveals meaningful differences that can greatly enhance an understanding of Chinese views of the “island chains” concept, and with it important aspects of China's efforts to develop as a maritime power. Long before China had a navy or naval strategists worthy of the name, the concept had originated and been developed for decades by previous great powers vying for Asia-Pacific influence. Today, China's own authoritative interpretations are flexible, nuanced and multifaceted – befitting the multiple and sometimes contradictory factors with which Beijing must contend in managing its meteoric maritime rise. These include the growing importance of sea lane security at increasing distances and levels of operational intensity.

The sustained economic development of China with integration into the world economy and the implementation of macro-regional initiatives that go beyond the traditional localization of Chinese national interests have revealed the need to expand the capabilities of the People's Liberation Army of China. Along with the creation of a strong army, China is actively building up its expeditionary potential. Such kind of military potential allows to project power into strategically important zones. The proposed article is devoted to identifying indicators of increasing the ability of the Chinese armed forces to operate outside China's borders in the «New era». The hypothesis of the study is that China is currently entering an era of development of forces capable of operating around the world, providing military protection to China's expanding global economic and political interests. In the article, the authors rely on a systematic approach that allows us to identify and analyze the main structural characteristics of the PLA’s expeditionary potential at three levels: strategic, operational and tactical. The article analyzes military doctrines, concepts of the use of the PLA and the command structure. Special attention is also paid to the peculiarities of Chinese foreign operations and the logistical capabilities of the PLA to project its power in geographical spaces far away from the Chinese territory. The authors conclude that the PLA's expeditionary potential is becoming an increasingly popular means to achieve broad political and economic goals on a global scale. The increase in naval and air power projection facilities with an emphasis on the creation of competent ground units in this plane increases the mobility of the PLA to perform specific tasks. The military-civilian integration makes it possible to fill the lack of delivery vehicles and team sites.

Nasal obstruction frequently has been associated with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). Based on the CT data before and after the operation of the three Chinese patients, 3D numerical models involving the upper airway and the soft palate are established. Computational modeling for inspiration and expiration was performed by using fluid–structure interaction (FSI) method. The airflow characteristics such as velocity and pressure drop, and displacement distribution of soft palate are selected for comparison. The distribution of airflow in the upper airway and the motion changes of the soft palate are analyzed quantitively before and after the surgery. From the results, that the inner connection between the both upper and lower part of the upper airway is very complex due to the individual difference of own unique feature of upper airway. Whether can it treat OSAHS only through nasal surgery, which depends primarily on the improvement of ventilation in upper part of upper airway giving a beneficial effect on the lower part (especially in the velopharyngeal region). The simulation results correspond with the monitoring results of polysomnography (PSG) and the patient's presenting complaint. Moreover, the mechanical parameters obtained by numerical simulation can support the improvement of OSAHS symptoms after surgery, which provides quantitative and referential evidence for further study the role of nasal structure in OSAHS and the treatment effect of nasal surgery on OSAHS.

Nearly every important measure of the US–China competition demonstrates broad-based US primacy but trend lines that favour China. The military aspects of the intensifying competition for hegemony will be borne chiefly by navies operating in the increasingly crowded Indo-Pacific—the great artery of global trade. Primacy will belong to the power that controls the sea. China’s Navy, which is in the late stages of a significant modernization effort, poses an acute challenge to the US. Without vigorous engagement and investment in deterrent capability, the US may lose its regional predominance, presenting grave strategic consequences. This article explains the strategy animating Chinese actions and makes the case for why continued American leadership is benign and beneficial. The hyperbolic assertions regarding the defence balance, familiar to China watchers, are tempered by often overlooked, but important, indicators including comparative order of battle, military logistics capabilities, global basing infrastructure, alliance military power, personnel quality (including per-soldier spending, outfitting and education), stocks of modern military equipment and perhaps most importantly projectable military force.

<p>This article aims to describe the function of US sea power in Yokosuka, Japan against Chinese sea power in China’s Near-Seas Region in 2013-2017. In the past two decades, the increasing of Chinese military power and coercive policy in the South, East, and Yellow China Sea, or the so-called China's Near-seas Region (CNR), have created regional security concern for the United States. The Chinese naval ability to carry out A2/AD operations in this area has eliminated the immunity of US warships that previously could operate freely without any significant threat. In order to confront the threat, the US government issued new policies, strategies and operational concepts where one of the most important elements of military force in charge of carrying it out was its sea power element in the form of surface warship stationed at the Yokosuka naval base. By using the concept of Sea Power and Maritime Warfare, this article concludes that in order to face the threats posed by China on CNR, US surface warships are expected to carry out strategies and operational concepts that are in line with two basic functions of sea power, sea control, and expedition operations albeit with a high risk in the event of war. This article uses a qualitative research method where data is collected through literature studies and interviews.</p><p><strong>Bahasa Indonesia Abstract:</strong> Artikel ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan fungsi kekuatan laut AS yang ditempatkan di Yokosuka Jepang dalam menghadapi kekuatan laut Tiongkok di China’s Near-seas Region pada tahun 2013-2017. Dalam dua dekade terakhir, peningkatan kekuatan militer dan aktivitas koersif Tiongkok di LTS, LTT, dan Laut Kuning, dikenal juga dengan nama China’s Near-seas Region (CNR), telah menciptakan kekhawatiran bagi Amerika Serikat. Kemampuan angkatan laut Tiongkok untuk melakukan operasi A2/AD diwilayah ini telah menghilangkan imunitas kapal-kapal perang AS yang sebelumnya dapat beroperasi secara bebas tanpa adanya ancaman berarti. Untuk menghadapi ancaman tersebut, militer AS mengeluarkan strategi maupun konsep operasional baru dimana salah satu unsur kekuatan militer paling utama yang bertugas menjalankannya adalah unsur kekuatan laut dalam wujud kapal-kapal perang permukaan yang ditempatkan di pangkalan angkatan laut Yokosuka, Jepang. Dengan menggunakan konsep Sea Power dan Maritime Warfare , artikel ini menyimpulkan bahwa guna menghadapi ancaman Tiongkok di CNR, kapal-kapal perang permukaan AS tersebut diharapkan dapat menjalankan srategi dan konsep operasional yang sesuai dengan fungsi dasar kekuatan laut yaitu pengendalian laut dan operasi ekspedisi meskipun dengan resiko yang tinggi jika terjadi perang. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif dimana data dikumpulkan melalui studi literatur dan juga wawancara.</p>

Background Eosinophilic (Eos) and non-eosinophilic (non-Eos) chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) react differently to clinical treatment, with eosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (Eos CRSwNP) being more likely to recur after surgery. Objective To explore the clinical value of the visual analog scale (VAS), nasal endoscopy score (Lund–Kennedy, L–K), computed tomography (CT) score (Lund–Mackay scoring system, L–M), and blood Eos percentage in the differential diagnosis of Eos CRSwNP and non-Eos CRSwNP. Methods Ninety-nine patients with CRSwNP were enrolled in this study and assigned to 2 groups (Eos CRSwNP and non-Eos CRSwNP). The blood Eos percentage and VAS, L–K, and L–M scores in the 2 groups of patients were compared. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was used to assess the usefulness of VAS, L–K, and L–M scores for differentiating Eos CRSwNP and non-Eos CRSwNP. Results There were significantly differences between the Eos CRSwNP group and non-Eos CRSwNP group in the following scores: blood Eos percentage, mean VAS score, olfaction/VAS, general discomfort/L–K, edema score/L–K, olfactory cleft (OC) score via endoscopy, mean L–M score, anteriorethmoid sinus score, posterior ethmoid sinus score, sphenoid sinus score, frontal sinus score, and OC score via CT. An ROC analysis showed that blood Eos percentage had the highest area under the ROC curve (AUC) value (0.749); however, several other scores (olfaction score/VAS, edema score/L–K, and mean L–M score) also had high AUC values. The combination of olfaction score/VAS and blood Eos percentage had the highest clinical convenience score as well as high sensitivity and specificity. A combination of cutoff values for the 2 predictors (blood Eos percentage ≥3.85%, olfaction score/VAS score ≥3) showed a sensitivity of 75.5% and a specificity of 78.0%. Conclusion The olfaction score/VAS score and the blood Eos percentage can be combined to differentiate Eos CRSwNP from non-Eos CRSwNP in a Chinese population.

In this article, I discuss China’s Gray Zone strategy, which involves increasing their naval power and using asymmetric tactics to become a rising maritime power. After examining this strategy, I then discuss the sources of conflict between South Korea and China, as well as our military’s response plan. The article also mentions that although South Korea and China established diplomatic relations in 1992, there are still many unresolved issues between two countries. Especially, issues such as the demarcation of the western sea border, development of the continental shelf, marine scientific research activities, and marine environmental conservation are still unresolved. Meanwhile, China is increasing its naval power and pursuing a Gray Zone strategy at sea using its Coast Guard(CCG) and Maritime Militia(PAFMM). Gray zone refers to the ambiguous middle ground between war and peace, and it refers to an indeterminate intermediate zone that does not belong to a specific area. China is pursuing a strategy that undermines the existing order by using gray zone operations in the maritime gray zones of countries with maritime territorial disputes and un-demarcated maritime boundaries in the East China Sea and South China Sea. By using non-military means, China is pursuing a “fait accompli” strategy through numerical superiority, gradualism, and repetitive activities while preventing the situation from escalating into armed conflict. China uses its Coast Guard and Maritime Militia as the main means of its gray zone strategy, which are essentially China’s second naval force and perform various missions on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army Navy. In Korea, there are many factors that cause conflicts with China in the ocean, such as the undefined Exclusive Economic Zone(EEZ) boundary and illegal fishing by Chinese vessels. China pursues a gray zone strategy to gain an advantageous position in future negotiations with Korea. Therefore, the Korean military must establish the following measures to protect its maritime interests. The response strategy below is based on a correct understanding of the gray zone strategy, which is part of China’s asymmetric strategy. First, in the event of a maritime dispute with China, governance should be established to integrate and operate available assets. Second, a cooperative system should be established to prevent accidental conflicts between Korea and China. Third, a naval forward base in the West Sea should be built to curb China’s eastward movement. Fourth, strategies should be sought to respond in conjunction with allies. Fifth, the military’s countermeasures and tactics for responding to the gray zone strategy should be developed.

The need to protect citizens and investments abroad is placing tremendous pressure on China’s traditional foreign policy strategy and noninterference principle. Instability in most of BRI countries form new security conditions, pushing China to be more flexible in engaging in missions it had previously opposed, including political engagement in intrastate conflicts in the developing world. Following the formula “politics is a big economy”, China starts rethinking its security interests. As a result, China has smoothly adopted the transition strategy from non-intervention into internal affairs to a more proactive non-indifference approach, that Chinese academics are describing as “creative” or “constructive” engagement. Many new elements contribute to this new constructive engagement - conceptual narrative, political support, geopolitical competition, growing capacities and new security conditions. The key point of the article is to analyze China’s strategy in defending national interests overseas, including the rescue and peacekeeping operations, mediation, political envoys, etc. The special focus is done on proactive peacekeeping policy of China and its new role in the security environment. Obviously, in future China will follow implementing the overseas missions, including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, evacuation operations, defense of sea lanes, stabilization operations, peacekeeping and counterterrorism missions. After launching in 2017 its first overseas military base in Djibouti, there is little evidence to predict that in the near future China intends to construct more bases. But nevertheless the geopolitical rivalry with the United States might push China to convert three deep-water ports - Gwadar (Pakistan), Salalah (Oman), and Seychelles ports into naval bases. The degree of the China’s involvement in global security landscape will depend on the level of its responsibility, since Beijing is undergoing through a higher degree of international pressure in order to take more obligations. Responding to overseas security crises through military actions would be mostly shaped by events (case-by-case approach), inspired by political motivations and organized as small-scale and low-intensity missions.

AIM: To assess the changes of anterior chamber angle in patients with shallow anterior chamber after phacoemulsification combined with intraocular lens (IOL) implantation, based on anterior segment swept-source optical coherence tomography (AS-SS-OCT) measurements. METHODS: This was a prospective case control study; sixty eyes of sixty case were scheduled for cataract surgery with normal intraocular pressure (IOP). Based on anterior chamber depth (ACD) and gonioscopy findings, the eyes were divided into two groups: group of shallow anterior chamber and narrow angle (SAC group, 30 eyes); and group of normal anterior chamber group with wide angle (NAC group, 30 eyes). Measurements of ACD, anterior chamber volume (ACV), iris volume (IV), lens vault (LV), angle opening distance (AOD), angle recess area (ARA), trabecular iris space area (TISA), and trabecular iris angle (TIA) were conducted in each group before and 3mo after surgery. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in age, axial length (AL), corneal curvature, corneal diameter, intraocular pressure, and IV between two groups before surgery, except for the LV (P=0.000). ACD and ACV were prominently larger in the NAC group than the SAC group 3mo after operation (3.69±0.38 vs 3.85±0.39 mm, P=0.025; 161.37±19.47 vs 178.26±20.30 mm3, P=0.002). AOD750, ARA750 in nasal and inferior quadrants, TISA750 in all quadrants except temporal, and TIA750 in all quadrants in SAC group were significantly smaller than those in NAC group after operation (all P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Cataract surgery can deepen anterior chamber and increase the width of anterior chamber angle in Chinese subjects, but the angle related parameters including AOD750, ARA750, TISA750, TIA, TISA750, and ACV in patients with shallow anterior chamber and narrow angle do not reach the normal level.

IntroductionPrompt detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic liver diseases is critical for enhancing prognosis. Existing imaging techniques and serum markers fall short of clinical needs. This study aims to establish a non-invasive diagnostic model for early HCC detection in the Chinese population.Methods and analysisThis prospective, multicentre, observational study will enrol 2000 participants, including HCC patients, those with chronic liver diseases (hepatitis, cirrhosis and benign liver space-occupying lesions), and healthy individuals. The study will collect demographic data and blood samples, which will be used to test α-fetoprotein (AFP), des-γ-carboxy-prothrombin (DCP) and circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) methylation. The GAMAD (Gender+Age+Methylation+AFP+DCP) model involving gender, age, ctDNA methylation signature, AFP and DCP will be developed and blindly validated in training and validation sets (1400 and 600 cases, respectively). Primary endpoints include sensitivity, specificity and accuracy (receiver operating characteristic curves; area under the curve value) of GAMAD for HCC and/or high-risk HCC groups. Secondary endpoints involve comparing GAMAD with the established GALAD (Gender+Age+AFP-L3+AFP+DCP) model and each blood index (AFP, DCP and methylation signature) to evaluate: (1) GAMAD’s clinical utility for HCC patients in all stages according to different staging systems; (2) GAMAD’s discrimination ability for patients in various subgroups, including liver cirrhosis (LC) related HCC and LC, hepatitis B virus (HBV) related HCC and HBV, hepatitis C virus (HCV) related HCC and HCV, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) related HCC and NAFLD.Ethics and disseminationThis trial has been approved by the Medical Ethics Committees of the First Hospital of Jilin University (#22K073-001), the Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Naval Medical University (#EHBHKY2023-H0003-P001) and Tianjin Third Central Hospital (#IRB2023-007-01). All participants in the trial will provide written informed consent. Results of this study will be disseminated in peer-reviewed scientific journals and at conferences nationally and internationally.Trial registration numberNCT05626985.

China pays growing attention to security issues as it sees security policy as an integral component of sustainable development. The article analyzes new trends in Chinese foreign and security policy in Africa. China, which adheres to the principle of non-interference in internal affairs of African states, does not participate in armed confrontation, but acts as an influential player in global diplomacy. The article examines the threats posed to China by conflicts and terrorist attacks in which Chinese companies operating on the continent are often targeted. The purpose of the article is to assess the scale of these threats and analyze steps Beijing has taken to protect its citizens and businesses abroad. These policies and measures include China’s participation in peacekeeping operations in Africa and creation of 50 new security programs in accordance with the 2019–2021 China–Africa Action Plan. China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has upgraded its Military Training Center to train international peacekeepers, many of whom are Africans. China trains several hundred African officers annually at schools such as China Military Academy, Dalian Naval Academy, Air Force Aviation Academy, and the PLA National Defense University. The PLA Navy participates in international anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden and the Gulf of Guinea. The authors view China’s expansion of maritime cooperation with Africa through anti-piracy patrols as part of its geopolitical and economic strategy. Peacekeeping missions are often complemented by high-level Chinese mediation efforts: Beijing has taken initiatives to resolve conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, and offered to mediate in the border conflict between Eritrea and Djibouti. 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Abstract The Song dynasty established a standing naval force, which was ignored by some historians since Song lost its defensive wars to the Jin and Mongol forces. This article examines improvements and innovations of Chinese naval operations during Song and pays particular attention to how the state economic reforms and state-centered financial system supported naval development. Song’s population growth and demographic changes also provided manpower for the government to maintain a huge army while establishing a large navy. As the new age of naval and siege warfare emerged, gunpowder weapons and new naval technology became more widespread. The Chinese military adapted to naval warfare during the Southern Song because it was economically and technologically possible. The south’s mastery of riverine warfare created a substantial defensive advantage against the north. Thus, when the Mongols later mastered riverine warfare, they penetrated throughout the south.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the conflicts in the diagnosis and treatment of nasal bone fracture by Chinese otolaryngologists to improve the diagnosis and treatment accuracy of junior otolaryngologists and emergency physicians. Methods: A questionnaire was designed and filled out by otolaryngologists in large general hospitals. The questions included how to choose an auxiliary examination to diagnose nasal bone fracture, whether tamponade is required after closed reduction, the selection of packing materials, the timing of an operation, and the evaluation of postoperative effect. The questionnaire results were divided into 3 groups according to the experience levels of experienced of physicians. Results: A total of 151 otolaryngologists with different levels of experience from 26 provinces in China completed the questionnaire. 90.73% of physicians thought that nasal bone computed tomography was the most important auxiliary examination to diagnose a nasal bone fracture. 52.32% of them compared photos before and after the operation to evaluate postoperative effects. About 53% of physicians thought that 7 to 10 days after reducing local swelling is the optimal time for closed reduction. Conclusions: There is no obvious difference in the diagnosis and treatment of nasal bone fracture among otolaryngologists with different levels of experience in Chinese otolaryngologists with different levels. Most physicians choose nasal bone computed tomography for diagnosis, perform surgery at 7 to 10 days after injury, and compare photos from before and after the operation to evaluate the postoperative effect.

Abstract By examining actions taken to eliminate seaborne bandits, this study argues during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), everyday people and foreigners played important roles in military activities. When Guangdong native Lin Feng (also known as Limahong) roamed the seas from South China to Southeast Asia in the mid-1570s, officials searched far and wide for allies to confront him. Reevaluating this period in Chinese military history from the bottom-up and outside-in shows civil officials and military officers repeatedly found fishers, traders, and sailors, along with outsiders, who were willing to collaborate against the marauders. Historical records from the late Ming and Qing periods consistently presented this cooperation as a Sinocentric and hierarchical ritual-based recruiting. In contrast to this top-down and inside-out perspective, the present research illuminates that during the early modern period, the Chinese government was growing progressively dependent on sea-going peoples to reinforce its maritime operations.

IntroductionThe Chinese Naval ship Peace Ark provided humanitarian medical services to people in eight low-income countries in Africa and Asia during the 2017 “Harmonious Mission’. The expedition lasted 155 days. Our study aimed to analyse the details of the medical services provided including outpatient care, medical patrol, operations, examinations and medications.MethodThe patient demographic data and medical information were extracted from electronic medical records. The diagnoses and procedures aboard were coded by the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). The sociodemographic data of the medical staff aboard were collected via questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and statistical software (SAS, V.9.4) were used to analyse the data.ResultsIn total, 115 Chinese military medical personnel participated in the mission, completing a total of 50 758 outpatient visits, 10 232 medical patrols and 252 operations. The five most frequently used outpatient departments were ophthalmology, general surgery, general internal medicine, orthopaedics and traditional Chinese medicine. The five most common operations were lipoma excision, cataract extraction, skin tissue removal (such as warts and cysts), pterygium transposition and herniorrhaphy.ConclusionsOur study revealed the medical services in demand during the ‘Harmonious Mission—2017’. It is essential to report their experiences so that future ventures can provide medical services more effectively.

AbstractBackgroundThe application of nasolabial perforator flap for nasal reconstruction has been reported previously with satisfactory outcomes, but the outcomes and risk factors of postoperative adverse events have been unclear to plastic surgeons.AimsTo statistically analyze the effectiveness of the nasolabial perforator flap in nasal reconstruction and the risk factor of postoperative complications and re‐operation.Patients/MethodsThis retrospective study evaluated 58 Chinese patients who underwent nasal reconstruction with the nasolabial perforator flap from 2009 to 2021. The esthetic and blood supply outcomes were measured by plastic surgeons on a 5‐point Likert scale. Binary logistic regression was used to determine the risk factors associated with postoperative complications and re‐operation.ResultsThe mean age of the cohort was 66.4 ± 2.0 years. The defect size ranged from 6.5 × 5.5 mm2 to 40 × 70 mm2, and 48.3% of defects covered more than one nasal subunit. Venous congestion occurred in 4.9% of flaps, and the immediate overall postoperative score was 7.72/10. More than one nasal subunit of involvement was the risk factor associated with re‐operation (p = 0.004), but no risk factor was associated with complications.ConclusionsThe nasolabial perforator flap is reliable for nasal reconstruction with good esthetic outcomes and fewer complications. However, a large number of involved subunits may lead to multiple surgeries for flap trimming in easterners.

AimsTo investigate myopic maculopathy in Chinese children with high myopia and its association with choroidal and retinal changes.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included Chinese children aged 4–18 years with high myopia. Myopic maculopathy was classified by fundus photography and retinal thickness (RT) and choroidal thickness (ChT) in the posterior pole were measured by swept-source optical coherence tomography. A receiver operation curve was used to determine the efficacy of fundus factors in classifying myopic maculopathy.ResultsIn total, 579 children aged 12.8±3.2 years with a mean spherical equivalent of −8.44±2.20 D were included. The proportions of tessellated fundus and diffuse chorioretinal atrophy were 43.52% (N=252) and 8.64% (N=50), respectively. Tessellated fundus was associated with a thinner macular ChT (OR=0.968, 95% CI: 0.961 to 0.975, p<0.001) and RT (OR=0.977, 95% CI: 0.959 to 0.996, p=0.016), longer axial length (OR=1.545, 95% CI: 1.198 to 1.991, p=0.001) and older age (OR=1.134, 95% CI: 1.047 to 1.228, p=0.002) and less associated with male children (OR=0.564, 95% CI: 0.348 to 0.914, p=0.020). Only a thinner macular ChT (OR=0.942, 95% CI: 0.926 to 0.959, p<0.001) was independently associated with diffuse chorioretinal atrophy. When using nasal macular ChT for classifying myopic maculopathy, the optimal cut-off value was 129.00 µm (area under the curve (AUC)=0.801) and 83.85 µm (AUC=0.910) for tessellated fundus and diffuse chorioretinal atrophy, respectively.ConclusionA large proportion of highly myopic Chinese children suffer from myopic maculopathy. Nasal macular ChT may serve as a useful index for classifying and assessing paediatric myopic maculopathy.Trial registration numberNCT03666052.

AUSTRALIA – Hospital Infections Bring Costly Loss in Lost Bed Days. CHINA – Novel Mechanism in Chinese Herbs Discovered for Cancer Treatment. CHINA – "Dung of the Devil" Plant Roots Point to New Swine Flu Drugs. CHINA – New Center at Chinese Academy of Sciences Pushes Life Science Innovation. CHINA – A New Function of Insulin Receptor Discovered. JAPAN – Researchers Identify Fat-Causing Protein. SINGAPORE – Operation Conducted Entirely Through the Navel. SINGAPORE – Saliva From Blood-Feeding Bug Could Help Prevent Heart Attacks. SINGAPORE – 17 Projects Awarded Grants by A*STAR. SINGAPORE – Third Medical School for Singapore. SINGAPORE – Singapore's Medical Technology Sector Reports Strong Growth. SINGAPORE – Scientists Unlock Secret to Youthful Skin. SINGAPORE – Singapore Gears Up for Influenza A (H1N1) Vaccines. SINGAPORE – NUS Gets World's Most High-Tech Microscope. SINGAPORE – Waseda University Opens First Overseas Biosciences Research Institute in Singapore. TAIWAN – Taiwan Makes Headway in New Drug Development. TAIWAN – Nutrition Sensor in Plants Pivotal in Understanding Molecular Equilibrium in Human Body. VIETNAM – U.S. Provides Aid to Vietnam for Pandemic Preparedness. EUROPE – Heart Risks Cut Life Span by 10 Years. NORTH AMERICA – Bad Drug Effects in Children from Medicines. NORTH AMERICA – Virus Linked to Prostate Cancer Discovered. NORTH AMERICA – Will H1N1 Mutate into "Superbug"?

Abstract China’s growing influence in the Indian Ocean cannot be gainsaid as the East Asian economic powerhouse engages in a series of activities to secure maritime routes for energy supplies; to guarantee its trade routes; and to exercise increased maritime influence on the sea lines of communication (SLOCs). Since the beginning of the 21st century, Beijing has enhanced its presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) through construction of ports, increased Chinese naval presence, participation in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, construction of a military base in Djibouti, One belt One road initiative and 21st century Maritime Silk Road. While China reassures of its peaceful development, critics contend that Beijing’s military-strategic intentions are aimed at dominance in the Indian Ocean. Countries of the IOR are a home to 2.5 billion people. About 80 percent of the world’s maritime oil trade flows through three chokepoints in the Indian Ocean. Moreover, Indian Ocean is emerging as a pivotal zone due to fast growing economies in the region. Due to its geostrategic significance, the Indian Ocean is expected to play a considerable role in the development of East African littoral states including Kenya. This paper analyzes the growing presence of China in IOR and how Nairobi’s engagement with Beijing could enable Kenya to realize its geostrategic interests in the Indian Ocean. The paper recommends that Kenya needs to have effective strategies to maximize the potential from its exclusive economic zone and secure its national interests as a littoral state.

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate a nomogram that is capable of predicting poor operative visibility during functional endoscopic sinus surgery.MethodTo identify potential risk factors, patients with chronic rhinosinusitis who underwent functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) between January 2019 and December 2022 were selected from our hospital’s electronic medical record system. Data on general patient information, clinical manifestations, clotting-related test indices, Lund-Machay score of sinuses CT scanning, Lund-kennedy score of nasal endoscopies, anesthesia methods, intraoperative blood pressure and heart rate, and Boezaart bleeding score were collected. Minimum absolute convergence and selection operator (LASSO) regression, as well as multivariate logistic regression, were used to determine the risk factors. A nomogram was developed in order to predict poor operating visibility during FESS, and its performance was evaluated utilizing both the training and verification datasets via various measures including receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, area under the curve (AUC), Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test, calibration curve, and decision curve analysis.ResultsOf the 369 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 88 of them exhibited POV during FESS. By deploying LASSO and multivariate logistic regression analyses, six risk factors were identified and used to construct a nomogram for predicting POV during FESS. These factors include prothrombin time (PT), prothrombin activity (PTA), Lund-Mackay score (LMS), Lund-Kennedy score (LKS), anesthetic method, and intraoperative hypertension. The AUC of the training set was found to be 0.820 while that of the verification set was 0.852. The Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test and calibration curve analysis revealed good consistency between predicted and actual probabilities. Also, the decision curve demonstrated that the nomogram had a high degree of clinical usefulness and net benefit.ConclusionThe constructed nomogram has a strong ability to predict the poor intraoperative field in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis, which can help preoperative judgment of high-risk patients and provide evidence for perioperative management and preoperative plan formulation.

'He did what the cipher could not, he rescued himself.' -- Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination (23) On many levels, the new Nine Inch Nails album The Fragile is a gritty meditation about different types of End: the eternal relationship cycle of 'fragility, tension, ordeal, fragmentation' (adapted, with apologies to Wilhelm Reich); fin-de-siècle anxiety; post-millennium foreboding; a spectre of the alien discontinuity that heralds an on-rushing future vastly different from the one envisaged by Enlightenment Project architects. In retrospect, it's easy for this perspective to be dismissed as jargon-filled cyber-crit hyperbole. Cyber-crit has always been at its best too when it invents pre-histories and finds hidden connections between different phenomena (like the work of Greil Marcus and early Mark Dery), and not when it is closer to Chinese Water Torture, name-checking the canon's icons (the 'Deleuze/Guattari' tag-team), texts and key terms. "The organization of sound is interpreted historically, politically, socially ... . It subdues music's ambition, reins it in, restores it to its proper place, reconciles it to its naturally belated fate", comments imagineer Kodwo Eshun (4) on how cyber-crit destroys albums and the innocence of the listening experience. This is how official histories are constructed a priori and freeze-dried according to personal tastes and prior memes: sometimes the most interesting experiments are Darwinian dead-ends that fail to make the canon, or don't register on the radar. Anyone approaching The Fragile must also contend with the music industry's harsh realities. For every 10 000 Goth fans who moshed to the primal 'kill-fuck-dance' rhythms of the hit single "Closer" (heeding its siren-call to fulfil basic physiological needs and build niche-space), maybe 20 noted that the same riff returned with a darker edge in the title track to The Downward Spiral, undermining the glorification of Indulgent hedonism. "The problem with such alternative audiences," notes Disinformation Creative Director Richard Metzger, "is that they are trying to be different -- just like everyone else." According to author Don Webb, "some mature Chaos and Black Magicians reject their earlier Nine Inch Nails-inspired Goth beginnings and are extremely critical towards new adopters because they are uncomfortable with the subculture's growing popularity, which threatens to taint their meticulously constructed 'mysterious' worlds. But by doing so, they are also rejecting their symbolic imprinting and some powerful Keys to unlocking their personal history." It is also difficult to separate Nine Inch Nails from the commercialisation and colossal money-making machine that inevitably ensued on the MTV tour circuit: do we blame Michael Trent Reznor because most of his audience are unlikely to be familiar with 'first-wave' industrial bands including Cabaret Voltaire and the experiments of Genesis P. Orridge in Throbbing Gristle? Do we accuse Reznor of being a plagiarist just because he wears some of his influences -- Dr. Dre, Daft Punk, Atari Teenage Riot, Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979), Tom Waits's Bone Machine (1992), David Bowie's Low (1977) -- on his sleeve? And do we accept no-brain rock critic album reviews who quote lines like 'All the pieces didn't fit/Though I really didn't give a shit' ("Where Is Everybody?") or 'And when I suck you off/Not a drop will go to waste' ("Starfuckers Inc") as representative of his true personality? Reznor evidently has his own thoughts on this subject, but we should let the music speak for itself. The album's epic production and technical complexity turned into a post-modern studio Vision Quest, assisted by producer Alan Moulder, eleventh-hour saviour Bob Ezrin (brought in by Reznor to 'block-out' conceptual and sonic continuity), and a group of assault-technicians. The fruit of these collaborations is an album where Reznor is playing with our organism's time-binding sense, modulating strange emotions through deeply embedded tonal angularities. During his five-year absence, Trent Reznor fought diverse forms of repetitious trauma, from endogenous depression caused by endless touring to the death of his beloved grandmother (who raised him throughout childhood). An end signals a new beginning, a spiral is an open-ended and ever-shifting structure, and so Reznor sought to re-discover the Elder Gods within, a shamanic approach to renewal and secular salvation utilised most effectively by music PR luminary and scientist Howard Bloom. Concerned with healing the human animal through Ordeals that hard-wire the physiological baselines of Love, Hate and Fear, Reznor also focusses on what happens when 'meaning-making' collapses and hope for the future cannot easily be found. He accurately captures the confusion that such dissolution of meaning and decline of social institutions brings to the world -- Francis Fukuyama calls this bifurcation 'The Great Disruption'. For a generation who experienced their late childhood and early adolescence in Reagan's America, Reznor and his influences (Marilyn Manson and Filter) capture the Dark Side of recent history, unleashed at Altamont and mutating into the Apocalyptic style of American politics (evident in the 'Star Wars'/SDI fascination). The personal 'psychotic core' that was crystallised by the collapse of the nuclear family unit and supportive social institutions has returned to haunt us with dystopian fantasies that are played out across Internet streaming media and visceral MTV film-clips. That such cathartic releases are useful -- and even necessary (to those whose lives have been formed by socio-economic 'life conditions') is a point that escapes critics like Roger Scruton, some Christian Evangelists and the New Right. The 'escapist' quality of early 1980s 'Rapture' and 'Cosmocide' (Hal Lindsey) prophecies has yielded strange fruit for the Children of Ezekiel, whom Reznor and Marilyn Manson are unofficial spokes-persons for. From a macro perspective, Reznor's post-human evolutionary nexus lies, like J.G. Ballard's tales, in a mythical near-future built upon past memory-shards. It is the kind of worldview that fuses organic and morphogenetic structures with industrial machines run amok, thus The Fragile is an artefact that captures the subjective contents of the different mind produced by different times. Sonic events are in-synch but out of phase. Samples subtly trigger and then scramble kinaesthetic-visceral and kinaesthetic-tactile memories, suggestive of dissociated affective states or body memories that are incapable of being retrieved (van der Kolk 294). Perhaps this is why after a Century of Identity Confusion some fans find it impossible to listen to a 102-minute album in one sitting. No wonder then that the double album is divided into 'left' and 'right' discs (a reference to split-brain research?). The real-time track-by-track interpretation below is necessarily subjective, and is intended to serve as a provisional listener's guide to the aural ur-text of 1999. The Fragile is full of encrypted tones and garbled frequencies that capture a world where the future is always bleeding into a non-recoverable past. Turbulent wave-forms fight for the listener's attention with prolonged static lulls. This does not make for comfortable or even 'nice' listening. The music's mind is a snapshot, a critical indicator, of the deep structures brewing within the Weltanschauung that could erupt at any moment. "Somewhat Damaged" opens the album's 'Left' disc with an oscillating acoustic strum that anchor's the listener's attention. Offset by pulsing beats and mallet percussion, Reznor builds up sound layers that contrast with lyrical epitaphs like 'Everything that swore it wouldn't change is different now'. Icarus iconography is invoked, but perhaps a more fitting mythopoeic symbol of the journey that lies ahead would be Nietzsche's pursuit of his Ariadne through the labyrinth of life, during which the hero is steadily consumed by his numbing psychosis. Reznor fittingly comments: 'Didn't quite/Fell Apart/Where were you?' If we consider that Reznor has been repeating the same cycle with different variations throughout all of his music to date, retro-fitting each new album into a seamless tapestry, then this track signals that he has begun to finally climb out of self-imposed exile in the Underworld. "The Day the World Went Away" has a tremendously eerie opening, with plucked mandolin effects entering at 0:40. The main slashing guitar riff was interpreted by some critics as Reznor's attempt to parody himself. For some reason, the eerie backdrop and fragmented acoustic guitar strums recalls to my mind civil defence nuclear war films. Reznor, like William S. Burroughs, has some powerful obsessions. The track builds up in intensity, with a 'Chorus of the Damned' singing 'na na nah' over apocalyptic end-times imagery. At 4:22 the track ends with an echo that loops and repeats. "The Frail" signals a shift to mournful introspectiveness with piano: a soundtrack to faded 8 mm films and dying memories. The piano builds up slowly with background echo, holds and segues into ... "The Wretched", beginning with a savage downbeat that recalls earlier material from Pretty Hate Machine. 'The Far Aways/Forget It' intones Reznor -- it's becoming clear that despite some claims to the contrary, there is redemption in this album, but it is one borne out of a relentless move forward, a strive-drive. 'You're finally free/You could be' suggest Reznor studied Existentialism during his psychotherapy visits. This song contains perhaps the ultimate post-relationship line: 'It didn't turn out the way you wanted it to, did it?' It's over, just not the way you wanted; you can always leave the partner you're with, but the ones you have already left will always stain your memories. The lines 'Back at the beginning/Sinking/Spinning' recall the claustrophobic trapped world and 'eternal Now' dislocation of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder victims. At 3:44 a plucked cello riff, filtered, segues into a sludge buzz-saw guitar solo. At 5:18 the cello riff loops and repeats. "We're in This Together Now" uses static as percussion, highlighting the influence of electricity flows instead of traditional rock instrument configurations. At 0:34 vocals enter, at 1:15 Reznor wails 'I'm impossible', showing he is the heir to Roger Waters's self-reflective rock-star angst. 'Until the very end of me, until the very end of you' reverts the traditional marriage vow, whilst 'You're the Queen and I'm the King' quotes David Bowie's "Heroes". Unlike earlier tracks like "Reptile", this track is far more positive about relationships, which have previously resembled toxic-dyads. Reznor signals a delta surge (breaking through barriers at any cost), despite a time-line morphing between present-past-future. At 5:30 synths and piano signal a shift, at 5:49 the outgoing piano riff begins. The film-clip is filled with redemptive water imagery. The soundtrack gradually gets more murky and at 7:05 a subterranean note signals closure. "The Fragile" is even more hopeful and life-affirming (some may even interpret it as devotional), but this love -- representative of the End-Times, alludes to the 'Glamour of Evil' (Nico) in the line 'Fragile/She doesn't see her beauty'. The fusion of synths and atonal guitars beginning at 2:13 summons forth film-clip imagery -- mazes, pageants, bald eagles, found sounds, cloaked figures, ruined statues, enveloping darkness. "Just like You Imagined" opens with Soundscapes worthy of Robert Fripp, doubled by piano and guitar at 0:39. Drums and muffled voices enter at 0:54 -- are we seeing a pattern to Reznor's writing here? Sonic debris guitar enters at 1:08, bringing forth intensities from white noise. This track is full of subtle joys like the 1:23-1:36 solo by David Bowie pianist Mike Garson and guitarist Adrian Belew's outgoing guitar solo at 2:43, shifting back to the underlying soundscapes at 3:07. The sounds are always on the dissipative edge of chaos. "Just like You Imagined" opens with Soundscapes worthy of Robert Fripp, doubled by piano and guitar at 0:39. Drums and muffled voices enter at 0:54 -- are we seeing a pattern to Reznor's writing here? Sonic debris guitar enters at 1:08, bringing forth intensities from white noise. This track is full of subtle joys like the 1:23-1:36 solo by David Bowie pianist Mike Garson and guitarist Adrian Belew's outgoing guitar solo at 2:43, shifting back to the underlying soundscapes at 3:07. The sounds are always on the dissipative edge of chaos. "Pilgrimage" utilises a persistent ostinato and beat, with a driving guitar overlay at 0:18. This is perhaps the most familiar track, using Reznor motifs like the doubling of the riff with acoustic guitars between 1:12-1:20, march cries, and pitch-shift effects on a 3:18 drumbeat/cymbal. Or at least I could claim it was familiar, if it were not that legendary hip-hop producer and 'edge-of-panic' tactilist Dr. Dre helped assemble the final track mix. "No, You Don't" has been interpreted as an attack on Marilyn Manson and Hole's Courntey Love, particularly the 0:47 line 'Got to keep it all on the outside/Because everything is dead on the inside' and the 2:33 final verse 'Just so you know, I did not believe you could sink so low'. The song's structure is familiar: a basic beat at 0:16, guitars building from 0:31 to sneering vocals, a 2:03 counter-riff that merges at 2:19 with vocals and ascending to the final verse and 3:26 final distortion... "La Mer" is the first major surprise, a beautiful and sweeping fusion of piano, keyboard and cello, reminiscent of Symbolist composer Debussy. At 1:07 Denise Milfort whispers, setting the stage for sometime Ministry drummer Bill Reiflin's jazz drumming at 1:22, and a funky 1:32 guitar/bass line. The pulsing synth guitar at 2:04 serves as anchoring percussion for a cinematic electronica mindscape, filtered through new layers of sonic chiaroscuro at 2:51. 3:06 phase shifting, 3:22 layer doubling, 3:37 outgoing solo, 3:50-3:54 more swirling vocal fragments, seguing into a fading cello quartet as shadows creep. David Carson's moody film-clip captures the end more ominously, depicting the beauty of drowning. This track contains the line 'Nothing can stop me now', which appears to be Reznor's personal mantra. This track rivals 'Hurt' and 'A Warm Place' from The Downward Spiral and 'Something I Can Never Have' from Pretty Hate Machine as perhaps the most emotionally revealing and delicate material that Reznor has written. "The Great Below" ends the first disc with more multi-layered textures fusing nostalgia and reverie: a twelve-second cello riff is counter-pointed by a plucked overlay, which builds to a 0:43 washed pulse effect, transformed by six second pulses between 1:04-1:19 and a further effects layer at 1:24. E-bow effects underscore lyrics like 'Currents have their say' (2:33) and 'Washes me away' (2:44), which a 3:33 sitar riff answers. These complexities are further transmuted by seemingly random events -- a 4:06 doubling of the sitar riff which 'glitches' and a 4:32 backbeat echo that drifts for four bars. While Reznor's lyrics suggest that he is unable to control subjective time-states (like The Joker in the Batman: Dark Knight series of Kali-yuga comic-books), the track constructions show that the Key to his hold over the listener is very carefully constructed songs whose spaces resemble Pythagorean mathematical formulas. Misdirecting the audience is the secret of many magicians. "The Way Out Is Through" opens the 'Right' disc with an industrial riff that builds at 0:19 to click-track and rhythm, the equivalent of a weaving spiral. Whispering 'All I've undergone/I will keep on' at 1:24, Reznor is backed at 1:38 by synths and drums coalescing into guitars, which take shape at 1:46 and turn into a torrential electrical current. The models are clearly natural morphogenetic structures. The track twists through inner storms and torments from 2:42 to 2:48, mirrored by vocal shards at 2:59 and soundscapes at 3:45, before piano fades in and out at 4:12. The title references peri-natal theories of development (particularly those of Stanislav Grof), which is the source of much of the album's imagery. "Into the Void" is not the Black Sabbath song of the same name, but a catchy track that uses the same unfolding formula (opening static, cello at 0:18, guitars at 0:31, drums and backbeat at 1:02, trademark industrial vocals and synth at 1:02, verse at 1:23), and would not appear out of place in a Survival Research Laboratories exhibition. At 3:42 Reznor plays with the edge of synth soundscapes, merging vocals at 4:02 and ending the track nicely at 4:44 alone. "Where Is Everybody?" emulates earlier structures, but relies from 2:01 on whirring effects and organic rhythms, including a flurry of eight beat pulses between 2:40-2:46 and a 3:33 spiralling guitar solo. The 4:26 guitar solo is pure Adrian Belew, and is suddenly ended by spluttering static and white noise at 5:13. "The Mark Has Been Made" signals another downshift into introspectiveness with 0:32 ghostly synth shimmers, echoed by cello at 1:04 which is the doubled at 1:55 by guitar. At 2:08 industrial riffs suddenly build up, weaving between 3:28 distorted guitars and the return of the repressed original layer at 4:16. The surprise is a mystery 32 second soundscape at the end with Reznor crooning 'I'm getting closer, all the time' like a zombie devil Elvis. "Please" highlights spacious noise at 0:48, and signals a central album motif at 1:04 with the line 'Time starts slowing down/Sink until I drown'. The psychic mood of the album shifts with the discovery of Imagination as a liberating force against oppression. The synth sound again is remarkably organic for an industrial album. "Starfuckers Inc" is the now infamous sneering attack on rock-stardom, perhaps at Marilyn Manson (at 3:08 Reznor quotes Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain'). Jungle beats and pulsing synths open the track, which features the sound-sculpting talent of Pop Will Eat Itself member Clint Mansell. Beginning at 0:26, Reznor's vocals appear to have been sampled, looped and cut up (apologies to Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs). The lines 'I have arrived and this time you should believe the hype/I listened to everyone now I know everyone was right' is a very savage and funny exposure of Manson's constant references to Friedrich Nietzsche's Herd-mentality: the Herd needs a bogey-man to whip it into submission, and Manson comes dangerous close to fulfilling this potential, thus becoming trapped by a 'Stacked Deck' paradox. The 4:08 lyric line 'Now I belong I'm one of the Chosen Ones/Now I belong I'm one of the Beautiful Ones' highlights the problem of being Elect and becoming intertwined with institutionalised group-think. The album version ditches the closing sample of Gene Simmons screaming "Thankyou and goodnight!" to an enraptured audience on the single from KISS Alive (1975), which was appropriately over-the-top (the alternate quiet version is worth hearing also). "The danger Marilyn Manson faces", notes Don Webb (current High Priest of the Temple of Set), "is that he may end up in twenty years time on the 'Tonight Show' safely singing our favourite songs like a Goth Frank Sinatra, and will have gradually lost his antinomian power. It's much harder to maintain the enigmatic aura of an Evil villain than it is to play the clown with society". Reznor's superior musicianship and sense of irony should keep him from falling into the same trap. "Complication" juggernauts in at 0:57 with screaming vocals and a barrage of white noise at 1:56. It's clear by now that Reznor has read his psychological operations (PSYOP) manuals pertaining to blasting the hell out of his audiences' psyche by any means necessary. Computer blip noise and black light flotation tank memories. Dislocating pauses and time-bends. The aural equivalent of Klein bottles. "Complication" juggernauts in at 0:57 with screaming vocals and a barrage of white noise at 1:56. It's clear by now that Reznor has read his psychological operations (PSYOP) manuals pertaining to blasting the hell out of his audiences' psyche by any means necessary. Computer blip noise and black light flotation tank memories. Dislocating pauses and time-bends. The aural equivalent of Klein bottles. "The Big Come Down" begins with a four-second synth/static intro that is smashed apart by a hard beat at 0:05 and kaleidoscope guitars at 0:16. Critics refer to the song's lyrics in an attempt to project a narcissistic Reznor personality, but don't comment on stylistic tweaks like the AM radio influenced backing vocals at 1:02 and 1:19, or the use of guitars as a percussion layer at 1:51. A further intriguing element is the return of the fly samples at 2:38, an effect heard on previous releases and a possible post-human sub-text. The alien mythos will eventually reign over the banal and empty human. At 3:07 the synths return with static, a further overlay adds more synths at 3:45 as the track spirals to its peak, before dissipating at 3:1 in a mesh of percussion and guitars. "Underneath It All" opens with a riff that signals we have reached the album's climatic turning point, with the recurring theme of fragmenting body-memories returning at 0:23 with the line 'All I can do/I can still feel you', and being echoed by pulsing static at 0:42 as electric percussion. A 'Messiah Complex' appears at 1:34 with the line 'Crucify/After all I've died/After all I've tried/You are still inside', or at least it appears to be that on the surface. This is the kind of line that typical rock critics will quote, but a careful re-reading suggests that Reznor is pointing to the painful nature of remanifesting. Our past shapes us more than we would like to admit particularly our first relationships. "Ripe (With Decay)" is the album's final statement, a complex weaving of passages over a repetitive mesh of guitars, pulsing echoes, back-beats, soundscapes, and a powerful Mike Garson piano solo (2:26). Earlier motifs including fly samples (3:00), mournful funeral violas (3:36) and slowing time effects (4:28) recur throughout the track. Having finally reached the psychotic core, Reznor is not content to let us rest, mixing funk bass riffs (4:46), vocal snatches (5:23) and oscillating guitars (5:39) that drag the listener forever onwards towards the edge of the abyss (5:58). The final sequence begins at 6:22, loses fidelity at 6:28, and ends abruptly at 6:35. At millennium's end there is a common-held perception that the world is in an irreversible state of decay, and that Culture is just a wafer-thin veneer over anarchy. Music like The Fragile suggests that we are still trying to assimilate into popular culture the 'war-on-Self' worldviews unleashed by the nineteenth-century 'Masters of Suspicion' (Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche). This 'assimilation gap' is evident in industrial music, which in the late 1970s was struggling to capture the mood of the Industrial Revolution and Charles Dickens, so the genre is ripe for further exploration of the scarred psyche. What the self-appointed moral guardians of the Herd fail to appreciate is that as the imprint baseline rises (reflective of socio-political realities), the kind of imagery prevalent throughout The Fragile and in films like Strange Days (1995), The Matrix (1999) and eXistenZ (1999) is going to get even darker. The solution is not censorship or repression in the name of pleasing an all-saving surrogate god-figure. No, these things have to be faced and embraced somehow. Such a process can only occur if there is space within for the Sadeian aesthetic that Nine Inch Nails embodies, and not a denial of Dark Eros. "We need a second Renaissance", notes Don Webb, "a rejuvenation of Culture on a significant scale". In other words, a global culture-shift of quantum (aeon or epoch-changing) proportions. The tools required will probably not come just from the over-wordy criticism of Cyber-culture and Cultural Studies or the logical-negative feeding frenzy of most Music Journalism. They will come from a dynamic synthesis of disciplines striving toward a unity of knowledge -- what socio-biologist Edward O. Wilson has described as 'Consilience'. Liberating tools and ideas will be conveyed to a wider public audience unfamiliar with such principles through predominantly science fiction visual imagery and industrial/electronica music. The Fragile serves as an invaluable model for how such artefacts could transmit their dreams and propagate their messages. For the hyper-alert listener, it will be the first step on a new journey. But sadly for the majority, it will be just another hysterical industrial album promoted as selection of the month. References Bester, Alfred. The Stars My Destination. London: Millennium Books, 1999. Eshun, Kodwo. More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction. London: Quartet Books, 1998. Van der Kolk, Bessel A. "Trauma and Memory." Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society. Eds. Bessel A. van der Kolk et al. New York: Guilford Press, 1996. Nine Inch Nails. Downward Spiral. Nothing/Interscope, 1994. ---. The Fragile. Nothing, 1999. ---. Pretty Hate Machine. TVT, 1989. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Alex Burns. "'This Machine Is Obsolete': A Listeners' Guide to Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.8 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/nine.php>. Chicago style: Alex Burns, "'This Machine Is Obsolete': A Listeners' Guide to Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 8 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/nine.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Alex Burns. (1999) 'This machine is obsolete': a listeners' guide to Nine Inch Nails' The fragile. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(8). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/nine.php> ([your date of access]).