A New Perspective of Translation Criticism: Descriptive Translation Studies

Descriptive translation studies (DTS) provides a new approach to translation studies which developed in the 1970s in the western world. This approach not only broadens the horizon of translation studies, but also shifts its focus to target language and target-oriented culture. This thesis, based on a general description of DTS and its developments and characteristics, chooses the article “The translation of Hong Lou Meng into English: A descriptive Study” as its model and tries to discuss how are the ways of description revealed in this article. Key words: descriptive translation studies, objects of description, ways of description Résumé: La traduction descriptive émergeant dans les années 70 du 20e siècle ouvre une nouvelle perspective pour l’étude de la traduction. Elle élargit non seulement le domaine d’étude de la traduction, mais aussi centre la recherche sur la langue et culture cible. L’article présente d’abord sommairement la théorie de la traduction descriptive, son développement et ses caractéristiques, et puis prend comme exemple l’essai intitulé « L’itinéraire inoubliable – étude descriptive sur le travail de traduction anglaise du « Rêve dans le pavillon rouge » pour examiner comment le moyen descriptif se traduit dans cet essai. Mots-clés: étude de la traduction descriptive, objet de description, manière de description 摘要：西方 20世紀 70年代發展起來的描寫翻譯為譯學研究提供了一個新的視角，它不僅拓寬了翻譯研究的範圍，而且將研究的焦點轉向以目的語及其文化為研究中心。本文在概述描寫譯學理論及其發展，特徵基礎上，選取 “難忘的歷程 ——《紅樓夢》英譯事業的描寫性研究 ”這篇論文，談談描寫方式在該論文中是如何體現出來的。關鍵詞：描寫翻譯研究；描寫對象；描寫方

EWOM EFFECTS ON FACEBOOK

The rapid growth of Facebook has become an important channel of eWOM. Facebook users can openly illustrate their attitudes toward products to their friends, either by casually clicking a like or deliberately writing a comment on advertisements. This study explored how friends’ involvement in advertisements and tie strength affected Facebook users’ product attitudes, intentions to purchase, and intentions to click. Moreover, we investigated how product type moderates fWOM (eWOM on Facebook) effects. This study recruited 384 respondents to participate in a 2 (friends’ involvement in advertisements: high/low, between-subject) × 2 (tie strength: strong/weak, between-subject) × 2 (product type: search/experience, within-subject) experimental design. The results showed that friends’ involvement in advertisements positively influenced users’ intentions to click. Tie strength of Facebook friends also positively affected users’ product attitudes, intentions to purchase, and intentions to click. Lastly, product type moderated the effects of tie strength of Facebook friends on users’ product attitudes and intentions to click; however, it did not moderate the effects of friends’ involvement in advertisements on their attitudes and intentions

On Khintchine exponents and Lyapunov exponents of continued fractions

Assume that $x\in [0,1)$ admits its continued fraction expansion $x=[a_1(x), a_2(x),...]$. The Khintchine exponent $\gamma(x)$ of $x$ is defined by $\gamma(x):=\lim\limits_{n\to \infty}\frac{1}{n}\sum_{j=1}^n \log a_j(x)$ when the limit exists. Khintchine spectrum $\dim E_\xi$ is fully studied, where $E_{\xi}:=\{x\in [0,1):\gamma(x)=\xi\} (\xi \geq 0)$ and $\dim$ denotes the Hausdorff dimension. In particular, we prove the remarkable fact that the Khintchine spectrum $\dim E_{\xi}$, as function of $\xi \in [0, +\infty)$, is neither concave nor convex. This is a new phenomenon from the usual point of view of multifractal analysis. Fast Khintchine exponents defined by $\gamma^{\phi}(x):=\lim\limits_{n\to\infty}\frac{1}{\phi(n)} \sum_{j=1}^n \log a_j(x)$ are also studied, where $\phi (n)$ tends to the infinity faster than $n$ does. Under some regular conditions on $\phi$, it is proved that the fast Khintchine spectrum $\dim (\{x\in [0,1]: \gamma^{\phi}(x)= \xi \})$ is a constant function. Our method also works for other spectra like the Lyapunov spectrum and the fast Lyapunov spectrum.Comment: 37 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Ergodic Theory and Dyanmical System

Prognostic value of vitamin D in patients with pneumonia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose: To investigate the prognostic role of vitamin D in pneumonia patients  through meta-analysis.Methods: PubMed and Embase were systematically searched for relevant studies that assessed the impact of vitamin D on the risk of adverse outcomes among patients with pneumonia. Risk ratios (RR) with 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) were pooled using meta-analysis. Q-test and I2 statistics were used to evaluate between-study heterogeneity.Results: Six studies were finally included in the meta-analysis. The results of meta-analysis of these studies indicated that low vitamin D status was associated with higher risk of mortality among pneumonia patients (RR = 2.59, 95 % CI = 1.32-5.08; p = 0.005). Results from meta-analysis of studies with adjusted estimates suggest that low vitamin D status was independently associated with higher risk of mortality among pneumonia patients (RR = 3.15, 95 % CI 1.54-6.44, p = 0.002). There was no significant risk of bias in the meta-analysis.Conclusion: This study demonstrates that low vitamin D level is associated with a higher risk of adverse outcomes in patients with pneumonia.Keywords: Pneumonia, Vitamin D, Prognosis, Meta-analysis, Systematic revie

Novel 5, 6-Dihydropyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinolines as Scaffolds for Synthesis of Lamellarin Analogues

As core skeletons of lamellarins: 5,6-Dihydropyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinolines are one of the important alkaloids that exhibit significant biological activities, in this study, an efficient synthetic route was described for two novel compounds, 5,6-dihydropyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinolines I and II. Compound I was synthesized from isovanillin with 28.3% overall yield by a six-step reaction while II from 2-(3, 4-dimethoxyphenyl) ethanamine was with 61.6% overall yield by a three-step reaction. And the structures of these two compounds were confirmed by means of IR spectrum, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, MS, HRMS, and melting point measurements