HOUSTON Arik Armstead Womens Jersey , Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The University of Houston, Texas said on Thursday that it has launched a new Institute for Data Science.

The university said in a news release that Andrea Prosperetti, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and was recruited to the university in 2016, is the head of the institute.

"Houston is a natural location for a focus on data science, with its strengths in energy and health care and its substantial technology and software industries," said Prosperetti, who is named Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and serves as director of the Center for Advanced Computing and Data Systems of the university.

Paula Myrick Short, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, said planning began about 18 months ago and intensified after Prosperetti was selected to lead the venture.

"The whole world is evolving around predictive analytics," Short said. "We have to respond to that. We have just skimmed the surface of what is possible for the economy, for education."

The Institute's initial work will span four areas of application: cyber and physical security, drug development and discovery, sustainable communities and infrastructure, and accessible and personalized healthcare.

BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade volume rose 15.9 percent year on year to 22.52 trillion yuan (3.39 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first ten months of this year, official data showed Wednesday.

Exports increased 11.7 percent to 12.41 trillion yuan, while imports surged 21.5 percent to 10.11 trillion yuan, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said.

The trade surplus shrank 17.8 percent to 2.3 trillion yuan in the same period.

"China's imports and exports witnessed rapid growth in the first ten months," the GAC said in a statement.

Trade with traditional markets saw fast growth, with exports to the European Union, the United States and Japan up by 16.2 percent, 17.2 percent and 14.2 percent, respectively.

Both the trade volume and the share of private enterprises increased, as their combined volume rose 17.1 percent and accounted for 38.4 percent of the total, larger than the share for the same period of last year.

In October, China's foreign trade rose 10.2 percent to 2.24 trillion yuan, with exports up 6.1 percent and imports up 15.9 percent. The trade surplus shrank 20.3 percent to 254.47 billion yuan.

Exports of machinery, electronics and labor-intensive products continued to expand in the first ten months, while the volume of steel exports dropped 30.4 percent year on year to 64.49 million tonnes.

BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- In an emotional Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) All-Star game, former Lakers guard Sun Yue became the MVP and helped the North edged the South 118-102.

Sun scored a team-high 28 points, Hudson added 24 points and 7 assists for the North. Gibson finished with a game-high 32 points, Yi Jianlian contributed 18 points and 9 rebounds to the South, his All-star teammates, Wang Zhizhi, grabbed 15 points and 7 rebounds. Tonight's game was all about saying good-bye to Wang, who is reported to retire after this season.

"It's a pity that Wang missed some shots, he intended to give more chances to the youth. I wanna share this award with him. This may be his last All-star game, he taught us so many things that we can benefit from for the rest of our lives," Sun said.

After years of domination in CBA, Wang Zhizhi became the first Chinese player in NBA, playing for Dallas Mavericks. He returned to CBA in 2006-2007 season, and helped Bayi Rockets grabbed its eighth Championship. In the national team, his contribution was always indispensible.

Sun's Beijing teammate, Stephon Marbury, missed the game due to knee injury.

Zhejiang guard Wang Zirui became the technique champion with 26.7 seconds. He Tianju from Beijing, who collected 16 points in the game, took the three-point title. Johnson of Zhejiang claimed the Slam King with a game-high 96 points in total.

Many arguments have been made both for and against pharmaceutical outsourcing in the pursuit of achieving some sort of competitive advantage. By allowing outside firms to concentrate on specific tasks, many pharmaceutical firms feel they can increase not only their performance, but deliver a better product in the end. Too much outsourcing may have some negative effects as well. Too much outsourcing may reduce organizational innovation within the company; it may shift certain knowledge to supplier organizations which may reduce the overall activity of the larger company. However, pharmaceutical companies for years have worked hand in hand with a pharmaceutical consultant to develop a safer and more effective product.

Pharmaceutical companies all over the world are increasingly turning to outsourcing in an attempt to increase their overall productivity and competitiveness. Large pharmaceutical firms are turning to smaller more specific firms to help them break through to the next level of improvement and innovation. In order to meet the ever evolving market demands of the 21st century large pharmaceutical companies are being forced to improve the way they operate, based on innovation and efficiency. Outsourcing for these large companies can have many advantages, but there are many barriers in the process.

One of these barriers to the global conflagration of outsourcing efficiency is that most outsourcing services are very specific to only one or two jobs. Usually these smaller companies have very limited capabilities which means the larger companies have to look to more and more outsourcing firms to fulfill their outsourcing needs. This makes the manufacturing process even more confusing not to mention costly. Because of this fragmented market it can be difficult fo.