Stone weirs on Chipei Island, Taiwan--Landesque capital and ecologically unequal exchange

This thesis focuses on the development of stone weirs on Chipei Island. Chipei is one of the offshore islands of the Penghu archipelago in Taiwan. Stone weirs on Chipei Island have been in use for more than three centuries. The islanders developed a social structure based on building and utilizing stone weirs for fishing. Stone weirs are central to the legacies of every family on Chipei. Nowadays, most people still hold shares in stone weirs. The development of stone weirs on Chipei Island is examined from the perspective of historical-political ecology, more specifically drawing on the concepts of landesque capital and ecologically unequal exchange. Three phases were carried out in the use of stone weirs, 1) pre-1940s, stone weir as landesque capital, when the KMT took over 2) from the end of the 1940s to the 1970s ecologically unequal exchange occurred in the stone weirs and Chipei Island 3) from post-1970s, tourist industry became the most important sector that stone weirs become a destination of tourists

Enunciative identity in elementary English as a foreign language

How to improve the skill of speaking English is a major challenge for English learners in Taiwan nowadays. This project focuses on issues of pronunciation as the starting point to examine the problems of learning English, and issues of identity transformation in the language-learning process. Then it addresses the concept of enunciation as a way to facilitate English learners to establish their confidence in, and ownership of, the target language. This project is designed not only for discussing issues of improving the teaching and learning of English pronunciation, but also for explicating how students can gain their own voices and define their subjectivity during their English-learning process

The Anaphase-Promoting Complex Regulates the Abundance of GLR-1 Glutamate Receptors in the Ventral Nerve Cord of C. elegans

AbstractThe anaphase-promoting complex (APC) is a multisubunit E3 ubiquitin ligase that targets key cell cycle regulatory proteins for degradation. Blockade of APC activity causes mitotic arrest [1, 2]. Recent evidence suggests that the APC may have roles outside the cell cycle [3–6]. Several studies indicate that ubiquitin plays an important role in regulating synaptic strength [7–13]. We previously showed that ubiquitin is directly conjugated to GLR-1, a C. elegans non-NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) class glutamate receptor (GluR), resulting in its removal from synapses [13]. By contrast, endocytosis of rodent AMPA GluRs is apparently regulated by ubiquitination of associated scaffolding proteins [12, 14]. Relatively little is known about the E3 ligases that mediate these effects. We examined the effects of perturbing APC function on postmitotic neurons in the nematode C. elegans. Temperature-sensitive mutations in APC subunits increased the abundance of GLR-1 in the ventral nerve cord. Mutations that block clathrin-mediated endocytosis blocked the effects of the APC mutations, suggesting that the APC regulates some aspect of GLR-1 recycling. Overexpression of ubiquitin decreased the density of GLR-1-containing synapses, and APC mutations blunted this effect. APC mutants had locomotion defects consistent with increased synaptic strength. This study defines a novel function for the APC in postmitotic neurons

Forgetful Large Language Models: Lessons Learned from Using LLMs in Robot Programming

Large language models offer new ways of empowering people to program robot applications-namely, code generation via prompting. However, the code generated by LLMs is susceptible to errors. This work reports a preliminary exploration that empirically characterizes common errors produced by LLMs in robot programming. We categorize these errors into two phases: interpretation and execution. In this work, we focus on errors in execution and observe that they are caused by LLMs being "forgetful" of key information provided in user prompts. Based on this observation, we propose prompt engineering tactics designed to reduce errors in execution. We then demonstrate the effectiveness of these tactics with three language models: ChatGPT, Bard, and LLaMA-2. Finally, we discuss lessons learned from using LLMs in robot programming and call for the benchmarking of LLM-powered end-user development of robot applications.Comment: 9 pages ,8 figures, accepted by the AAAI 2023 Fall Symposium Serie

Flexible cash leases in Missouri

Row crop farms in Missouri use various methods of leasing farmland to expand their operations. Leasing farmland allows the operator to benefit from additional acreage without purchasing the ground. Historically, producers have chosen either a fixed cash lease or a crop share lease. Fixed cash leases are simple but don’t share risks and returns between landowner and tenant. Crop share leases divide risk and returns between landowner and tenant but can be complex. More information on cash and crop share leases can be found at AgLease101.org. Flexible cash leases, also called variable or hybrid leases, merge desirable aspects of fixed cash and share leases. They split the risk and return between landowner and tenant in a simpler manner than crop share leases. During low-income years, landowners are guaranteed a base lease payment and tenants pay less in rent than if they had a fixed cash lease. During good years, landowners and tenants both share the benefits of higher yields or prices.Ray Massey (Professor, Agricultural Business and Policy Extension), Drew Kientzy (Research Analyst, Agricultural Business and Policy Extension), Juo-Han Tsay (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Division of Applied Social Sciences)Includes bibliographical reference

Improved hole-injection contact for top-emitting polymeric diodes

In this letter, an efficient hole-injection contact was achieved for the top-emitting polymeric light-emitting diodes (PLEDs). The anode has a structure of metal/molybdenum oxide/ poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). It has been found that hole injection was significantly improved by inserting a thin layer of MoO3 between aluminum and PEDOT:PSS. An ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) was used to investigate the change of work function, and photovoltaic measurement confirmed that the improved hole injection is due to the reduction of barrier height, resulted from the addition of transition metal oxide. PEDOT:PSS layer was found necessary in anode structure to further enhance the hole injection and electroluminance efficiency. A peak power efficiency of 11.42 lm/W was achieved at current density of 1.2 mA/cm2 for the white emission top-emitting PLEDs