726 research outputs found
Ecosystem services and ecological restoration in the Northern Shaanxi Loess Plateau, China, in relation to climate fluctuation and investments in natural capital
No full textAccurately identifying the spatiotemporal variations and driving factors of ecosystem services (ES) in ecological restoration is important for ecosystem management and the sustainability of nature conservation strategies. As the Green for Grain project proceeds, food provision, water regulation and climate regulation services in the Northern Shaanxi Loess Plateau (NSLP) are changing and have caused broad attention. In this study, the dynamic pattern of the normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI) and the main drivers of grain production (GP), water yield (WY) and net primary production (NPP) in the NSLP from 2000-2013 are identified by incorporating multiple data and methods, in order to provide a better understanding of how and why ES change during ecological restoration. WY was simulated by hydrological modeling, and NPP was estimated with the Carnegie Ames Stanford Approach (CASA) model. The results show that vegetation restoration continued from 2000-2013, but fluctuated because of the comprehensive influence of climate and human activity. GP and NPP both exhibited significantly increasing trends, while changes in WY occurred in two stages: decline (2000-2006) and growth (2007-2013). Spatially, significantly increasing trends in NPP and WY were detected in 52.73% and 24.76% of the region, respectively, in areas that correspond with the Green for Grain project and high precipitation growth. Correlation and partial correlation analyses show that there were different dominant factors (i.e., natural vs. anthropogenic) driving ES change in the NSLP from 2000-2013. The change in WY was mainly driven by precipitation, while the improvements in GP and NPP can be attributed to investments in natural capital (i.e., chemical fertilizer, agricultural machinery power and afforestation). We also found that vegetation restoration can produce positive effects on NPP, but negative effects on WY by using response analyses of WY or NPP change to NDVI change, demonstrating that additional research on the role of water in vegetation restoration is needed. Our results provide support for ES management and the sustainable development of ecological restoration in the NSLP
Multiple influences of land transfer in the integration of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in China
No full textLand transfers are an important approach to Chinese farmland management and intensive crop production as well as a primary government strategy to promote Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region development; these transfers are expected not only to generate social, economic, and ecological benefits but also to further Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei's regional development by means of more efficient and sustainable resource use. However, together with the challenges associated with this process, several contradictions and problems have arisen that are now critical political and social concerns. Therefore, a modern demonstration zone of sustainable agriculture in Yi County, Hebei Province, China, was selected as a case study for emergy-based performance and sustainability evaluation of the associated social, economic, and ecological benefits before and after land transfer. The results suggest that land transfers have induced fundamental changes to land use, which improved performance in terms of resource use and sustainability indicators (based on the emergy approach) and have produced ecological, economic, and social benefits mainly based on the increased link to the surrounding larger scale economic system via the increased demand for labor and services from outside. Therefore, the emergy results, while highlighting the achieved or potential benefits, also indicate that local improvements cannot be fully achieved if the entire supply chain of goods and resources is not suitably improved as well and that the local system is heavily affected by the larger-scale functioning of the economy as a whole, such that all links across scales need to be monitored and carefully addressed
Design and fabrication of 4H-SiC detectors towards single photon counting
No full textThis thesis covers initiative works and innovative improvements in designing, fabricating and calibrating the world's first 4H-SiC single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). In comparison to previous SiC APDs, the SiC SPADs have completely different targets. Major improvements are made in almost all aspects from wafer structure design, mask design, to characterizations. The robust and radiation-hard SiC SPADs, which are designed to replace the bulky PMTs and fragile Si SPADs, target at ultra high sensitive UV detection, towards the ultimate sensitivity--quantum limit. SiC SPADs can be widely used in missile and aircraft alarm system, none-line-of-sight (NLOS) and quantum communications, UV 3-D imaging, downhole exploration, as well as many NASA applications, such as low-earth orbit fluorescence observations.
The following areas are discussed in details in this thesis: wafer structure and mask design, a new bevel and MJTE edge termination technology for SiC SPADs, as well as improvements for an ultra low dark current, high quantum efficiency, and low dark count rate and high single photon detection efficiency. Future work is also proposed for further improving SiC SPADs.
The milestones in this thesis work include, the world's first SiC SPAD fabricated in 2004; the world's largest SiC SPAD (260µmx260µm) in 2004; a single photon counting measurement system with passive quenching circuit in 2004; a SiC SPAD with the highest gain (109) in 2005; a SiC SPAD with the lowest dark current ([less than]4fA at 50% of breakdown voltage and [less than]26fA at 95% of breakdown voltage) in 2007; the world's first SiC SAM SPAD with thick absorption layer, high quantum efficiency (~58%), and a significantly lower dark count rate than the first SiC SPAD in 2007; a new bevel edge termination technology; and a new p-type metal recipe leading to a low 10-4~ low 10-5Ωcm2 specific contact resistance for p-type 4H-SiC with minimum consumption of SiC ([less than]1500Å) in 2007.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical references (p. 188-191)
Interweaving In-Betweens through Self-Translation: Taiwanese Indigenous Sinophone Poetry by Adaw Palaf
No full textHumanities: 2nd Place (The Ohio State University Edward F. Hayes Advanced Research
Forum)Mandarin, as a dominant language, serves as the primary medium for Taiwanese indigenous poets, yet they grapple with the inability to fully express themselves in the language of the “Other.” Employing self-translation as a framework, I analyzed two poems by Adaw Palaf, a Taiwanese Amis poet. The concept of the original text in self-translation is fluid and the original text might not exist (Bassnett 20). Bilingual writers may choose to create in a second language, making translation integral to the creative process (Elin-Maria 178). This study investigates the translation techniques employed by Adaw and the effect of interpreting his poems as self-translations.
In “The first day of mi-ilisin,” Adaw uses Sinophone transliteration for some culturally significant terms representing Amis collective memory. He cleverly assigns positive connotations to those words in Chinese. Via indigenizing Sinophone writing, Adaw renegotiates a space for indigenous identity. In addition to Romanized Amis and Mandarin, Adaw also uses Japanese, English, and Taiwanese Southern Min in his poem “The Butthole says: We are Aboriginals! ──To the warriors of Yami, in front of the Legislative Yuan.” The linguistic hybridity not only reflects the long colonizing history Taiwanese indigenous groups have endured, but also illustrates their resilience in inhabiting different colonial linguistic environments. He cleverly uses puns and language play to articulate his deep dissatisfaction with the government. By distorting standard linguistic conventions, Adaw transforms from a passive colonized subject into an active interpreter who mediates between different cultural and linguistic systems.
Adaw’s literary approach of bringing the target audience to the source language and culture can be interpreted as foreignization. This visibility of translation establishes Adaw as both a Sinophone writer and a creative translator, facilitating “abusive fidelity” by resisting fluency and highlighting linguistic and cultural differences (Chiu 167). Employing foreignization allows Adaw to establish connections of in-betweens inherent in his methods, themes, and their impact on readers. By weaving unfamiliar linguistic elements into familiar Chinese, Adaw prompts Han Chinese readers to experience the “in-between,” fostering exploration and appreciation of Amis culture and contributing to the formation of their Taiwanese identity. This study also demonstrates that self-translation extends beyond mere linguistic conversion between two languages; rather, the languages of the colonizers serve as Adaw’s linguistic repertoires, enabling the creation of a creative and powerful translation.A three-year embargo was granted for this item
Emotion categorization perception in schizophrenia in conversations with different social contexts
No full textObjective: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the boundaries between the happy and angry emotions of schizophrenia would be influenced by social context and the difference in emotion categorization boundaries between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Method: Eighteen patients with schizophrenia and 16 healthy controls were given a forced-choice emotion identification task in which they were required to listen to a series of conversations with different social contexts. The stimuli were linear morphed facial expressions between 'happy' and 'angry' emotions. For each type of social context, the shift point was used as the parameter to estimate when the subjects began to perceive the morphed facial expression as angry. The response slope was used to estimate how abruptly this change in perception occurred. Results: There was no significant difference in the schizophrenia group in the shift point of emotion categorization perception for four categories of conversations occurring in different social contexts. Compared with the healthy controls, the schizophrenia group demonstrated a steeper response slope at the shift point regardless of the conversation type. Conclusion: The patients with schizophrenia were less discriminative in their categorization of emotion perception in conversations with different social contexts. The schizophrenia patients, however, were more alert to angry facial expressions in the process of facial expressions morphing from happy to angry, independent of the social context.Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the boundaries between the happy and angry emotions of schizophrenia would be influenced by social context and the difference in emotion categorization boundaries between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Method: Eighteen patients with schizophrenia and 16 healthy controls were given a forced-choice emotion identification task in which they were required to listen to a series of conversations with different social contexts. The stimuli were linear morphed facial expressions between 'happy' and 'angry' emotions. For each type of social context, the shift point was used as the parameter to estimate when the subjects began to perceive the morphed facial expression as angry. The response slope was used to estimate how abruptly this change in perception occurred. Results: There was no significant difference in the schizophrenia group in the shift point of emotion categorization perception for four categories of conversations occurring in different social contexts. Compared with the healthy controls, the schizophrenia group demonstrated a steeper response slope at the shift point regardless of the conversation type. Conclusion: The patients with schizophrenia were less discriminative in their categorization of emotion perception in conversations with different social contexts. The schizophrenia patients, however, were more alert to angry facial expressions in the process of facial expressions morphing from happy to angry, independent of the social context
Gerenhua xiezuo: una scrittura individualistica?: Chen Ran, Hai Nan, Hong Ying, Lin Bai, Xu Kun, Xu Xiaobin e la letteratura femminile cinese degli anni '90
No full textNegli anni '90 un fenomeno nuovo ha definitivamente preso piede nel mondo
letterario cinese: il pluralismo. Viene a crearsi una situazione complessa nella quale
diversi elementi, come la progressiva apertura economica della Cina, l'influsso di
esperienze e teorie letterarie occidentali, una rapida urbanizzazione si combinano e
danno vita a svariate interpretazioni artistiche.
Il contesto pluralistico degli anni '90 è stato terreno fertile per la nascita e la
maturazione di nuova tendenza letteraria tutta al femminile. Alcune scrittrici, nate in
genere tra la fine degli anni '50 e i primi anni '60, rappresentano ques'originale
tendenza: Chen Ran (nata a Pechino nel 1962), Lin Bai (nata nella provincia del
Guangxi nel 1958), Hai Nan (nata nella provincia dello Yunnan in 1962) e Xu Xiaobin
(nata a Pechino nel 1953). Esse incarnano il nucleo della cosiddetta Scrittura
Individualistica (gerenhua xiezuo). Tuttavia, sulla base di alcune analogie esistenti,
anche altre scrittrici possono venire loro affiancate, cioè Hong Ying (nata nel 1962 a
Chongqing) and Xu Kun (nata nel 1965 nella provincia del Liaoning). Tutte queste
scrittrici hanno raggiunto il successo negli anni '90, con la sola eccezione di Xu Xiaobin
la cui notorietà è iniziata a metà degli anni '80.
La produzione letteraria di queste scrittrici è ricca e spazia dalla narrativa (con
duanpian xìaoshuo, zhongpian xiaoshuo e romanzi), alla saggistica (sanwen and suibi),
fino alla poesia.
Bisogna sottolineare che nessuna di queste scrittrici ritiene di condividere alcuno
scopo letterario o poetico con le altre, non ci sono propositi comuni o ideali condivisi.
Tuttavia esistono forti analogie tra loro a più livelli, come, ad esempio, nello stile e nei
contenuti della loro narrativa.
La critica letteraria cinese ha coniato diverse definizioni per questa tendenza
letteraria. Una di queste categorie è Scrittura del Privato {sirenhua xiezuo), che mette in
evidenza la propensione delle scrittrici per tematiche narrative autoreferenziali: tendono
ad investigare la vita privata delle donne e ad analizzare il proprio mondo intcriore
smembrandolo e ricostruendolo come in un gioco ad incastro.
Ci sono poi definizioni più generiche del fenomeno, come Letteratura Femminile
(nuxing wenxue) o Letteratura Femminile degli anni '90 (jiushìniandai nùxing wenxue).
Queste mettono a fuoco due aspetti fondamentali: l'appartenenza delle autrici al
"secondo sesso" ed il loro aver svelato il mondo privato femminile anche in maniera
estrema.
Un'ulteriore categoria è Letteratura Minore o Letteratura Marginale {feizhuliu
wenxué), che si riferisce all'apparente noncuranza verso le grandi questioni sociali e la
predilezione per le problematiche dell'individuo. Le opere di queste scrittrici sono
considerate marginali anche perché spesso trattano tematiche generalmente ritenute
tabù.
Scrittura Individualistica (gerenhua xiezuo) risulta essere la definizione che le
scrittrici sono più propense ad accettare. Non ingabbia le loro opere, si limita ad
indicare la loro originalità e la loro appartenenza esclusiva all'autrice.
La novità di questo fenomeno letterario risiede principalmente in due aspetti. In
primo luogo una forte affermazione dell'individualismo che accomuna tutte le scrittrici
e che è in netta contrapposizione con la tradizione culturale cinese, in cui la cultura e
l'ideologia dovevano essere monolitiche ed unitarie. Il secondo aspetto è costituito dalla
piena maturazione delle scrittrici della coscienza di sé e del proprio genere. La Scrittura
Individualistica rappresenta il passaggio definitivo delle donne dall'essere l'oggetto
della narrazione ad agire come soggetto.
Questo lavoro si divide sostanzialmente in tre parti: l'analisi critica del fenomeno
letterario, le interviste a Chen Ran, Hai Nan, Xu Xiaobin ed al critico Chen Xiaoming e
la traduzione di cinque racconti delle scrittrici.
In the 1990's a new phenomenon definitively broke into the Chinese literary
world: pluralism. This refers to a complex situation where different elements, such as
the increasing economic opening of China, the influence of Western literary experiences
and theories as well as a rapid commercialization and urbanization, mix together and
give way to manifold artistic interpretations.
The pluralistic context of the 1990's has been fertile soil for the flourishing and
blooming of a new and fresh literary tendency run by women. Some women writers,
most born either late in the 1950's or at the very beginning of the 1960's, represent this
original trend: Chen Ran (born in Peking in 1962), Hai Nan (born in Yunnan Province
in 1962), Lin Bai (born in Guangxi Province in 1958), and Xu Xiaobin (born in Peking
in 1953). They embody the core of the so-called 'Individualized' Writing (gerenhua
xiezuo). However, other women writers can be placed, on the basis of some existing
analogies, side by side with them, that is, Hong Ying (born in 1962 in Chongqing) and
Xu Kun (born in 1965 in Liaoning Province). All these writers have come to success in
the 1990's, the only exception being Xu Xiaobin, who had already gained notoriety in
the mid-eighties.
The literary production of these women writers is plentiful, ranging from fiction
(including both duanpian xiaoshuo, zhongpian xiaoshuo and novels), to non-fiction
(sanwen and suibi), as well as to poetry.
It should be emphasized that none of these writers considers herself as sharing any
literary or poetical aim with the others, since there are no mutual purposes or common
ideals. Yet, there are strong analogies among them on different levels, with reference to
typology, style, and contents of narration.
Chinese literary critics have given different names to this new trend in literature.
One of their definitions is Private Writing {sirenhua xiezuo), most likely because it
stresses writers' inclination to 'self-referring' narrative topics: they tend to investigate
women's private lives and to analyze their inner worlds by breaking it into bits and
reassembling it again like a jigsaw puzzle.
Then there are general and indefinite categories, such as Women's Literature
(niixing wenxue) or Women's Literature of the Nineties (jiushiniandai nuxing wenxue).
However, they focus on two key-aspects: all these writers belong to the 'second sex'
and, above all, reached the great achievement of disclosing women's inner world and
private life to the highest degree.
A further categorization is Minor Literature or Not Main-stream Literature
(feizhuliu wenxue), since it neglects the major social questions and concentrates on the
trifling matters of the individual. The works by these women writers are considered to
be marginal also because they deal with topics generally seen as taboos.
'Individualized' Writing (gerenhua xiezuo) is likely to be the definition that
women writers are more inclined to accept. It allows less rigid boundaries to their
works, simply pointing out their originality and their belonging exclusively to the
author.
The novelty behind 'Individualized' Writing is basically related to two main
features. First of all novelty is to be found in a strong assertion of individualism, shared
by all the writers, in sharp contraposition with Chinese cultural tradition, in which
culture and ideology had to be monolithic and unitary. In the second place, it is related
to the full ripening of women writers' consciousness of their own gender.
'Individualized' Writing represents women's definitive shift from being the object of
narration to acting as its subject.
This work is divided in three main sections: the critical analysis of the literary
phenomenon, the interviews to Chen Ran, Hai Nan, Xu Xiaobin and to Professor Chen
Xiaoming, the translation into Italian of five stories by the writers
Determination of the mixing potential V between the bipolaron and the itinerant electron and possible two-component interaction superconductivity based on a low N(E-F) for doped fullerenes
No full textA mixing potential V=0.23 eV was obtained in the normal state within the negative U Anderson-lattice model (two-component model) if the additional spectral weight in the band gap observed on K3C60 is attributed to the additional bipolaron state. The superconducting transition temperature T-c, penetration depth lambda, coherent length xi, thermodynamic critical field H-c, specific heat jump Delta C/T-c and isotope effect exponent cu can be well reproduced within the same model based on a low density of states at the Fermi level, N(E-F)approximate to 3 states/eV C-60 spin, which is another general observation when using photoemission spectroscopy, with a mixing potential V=0.075-0.12 eV. The smaller discrepancy in V seems to support the two-component interaction superconductivity for doped fullerenes. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:A1997XM25500008&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701Physics, AppliedSCI(E)EI1ARTICLE3-4209-21827
PubMed-Scale Event Extraction for Post-Translational Modifications, Epigenetics and Protein Structural Relations
No full textRecent efforts in biomolecular event extraction have mainly focused on core event types involving genes and proteins, such as gene expression, protein-protein interactions, and protein catabolism. The BioNLP’11 Shared Task extended the event extraction approach to sub-protein events and relations in the Epigenetics and Post-translational Modifications (EPI) and Protein Relations (REL) tasks. In this study, we apply the Turku Event Extraction System, the best-performing system for these tasks, to all PubMed abstracts and all available PMC full-text articles, extracting 1.4M EPI events and 2.2M REL relations from 21M abstracts and 372K articles. We introduce several entity normalization algorithms for genes, proteins, protein complexes and protein components, aiming to uniquely identify these biological entities. This normalization effort allows direct mapping of the extracted events and relations with posttranslational modifications from UniProt, epigenetics from PubMeth, functional domains from InterPro and macromolecular structures from PDB. The extraction of such detailed protein information provides a unique text mining dataset, offering the opportunity to further deepen the information provided by existing PubMed-scale event extraction efforts. The methods and data introduced in this study are freely available from bionlp.utu.f
It is worth pondering whether a carbon tax is suitable for China's agricultural-related sectors
No full textStudying the characteristics, trends, and evolution of carbon emissions in agricultural related sectors is of great significance for rational formulation of carbon emission reduction policies. However, as an important carbon emission reduction policy, carbon tax has been controversial over whether or not it should be levied on China. Based on this consideration, this paper takes China's agricultural related sectors as an example and analyzes the degree of carbon tax on macro-environment, macroeconomy, and agricultural sectors during the period 2020-2050 by constructing a 3EAD-CGE (economy-energy-environmental-agricultural-dynamics Computable General Equilibrium) model. The results show that: (1) carbon tax has a time effect, specifically, the short-term effect is better than the long-term. (2) If the incremental rate of carbon tax is carried out alone, it will exert a great influence on the macroeconomy as well as on most of the agricultural related sectors. (3) If a carbon tax is introduced at the same time as indirect taxes are cut (proportionally), the policy will exert a negative impact on agriculture-related sectors that are subsidized. However, the policy will have a positive impact on those nonsubsidized sectors. Finally, based on the results, we put forward some suggestions that are more suitable for the introduction of a carbon tax in China's agricultural-related sectors
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