The Dilemmas of Self-Assertion: Chinese Political Constitutionalism in a Globalized World

Political constitutionalism emerged on the Chinese academic scene in the mid-2000s as a countermovement to the rights-based, court-centred and textual mainstream in Chinese constitutional scholarship. On the surface, it has launched a biting and sophisticated critique of academic and institutional ‘Westernization’ and reasserted a sense of Chinese constitutional particularity. However, contrary to its intellectual self-representation as a genuinely Chinese phenomenon, this paper argues that the movement’s academic formation, methodological agenda, and theoretical vocabulary are inseparable from global ideological trends and draw heavily on European and American precedents. Consequently, the movement is troubled by a set of performative contradictions. These include the contradiction between its transnational genealogy and nationalist agenda; its pluralist theoretical make-up and anti-pluralist political rhetoric; as well as its putatively value-neutral sociological methodology and the politically selective application of said methodology. These antinomies, I argue, speak to the recurring dilemmas of ‘national’ self-assertion in a globalized world

A Fifteen-Letter Pyramid

In Word Ways, way back when in May 1970, Kickshaws introduced the problem of a 1-2-3-4-5 Pyramid Word. This is a word having a letter pattern such that there is one of one letter, two of a second letter, etc., up to five of a fifth letter

All Words Are Interesting

The scientific method requires that any profound experimental result be verified by duplication. This should be by an independent competent unprejudiced researcher. I qualify

Four Will Get You Five

Have you ever noticed that many four-letter words can be changed to five-letter words by inserting a letter in the middle of the word? For example, BUST can yield BURST; CAGE gives CADGE; and LIER offers LIFER, LINER, LITER, and LIVER

A Comparative Study of University Students’ Perceptions Towards Parental Involvement According to Their Demographics at Myanmar Institute of Theology in Yangon, Myanmar

The major purpose of this study was to investigate the amount of parental involvement from the perspectives of today’s university students including the examination of several variables (gender, ethnic background, parents’ annual income, parents’ education background, and location) to determine if different amount of parental involvement exists according to the students’ demographics at Liberal Arts program in Myanmar Institute of Theology, Yangon, Myanmar. A questionnaire was utilized as the primary research instrument. A total of 212 university freshmen studying at Liberal Arts program in academic year of (2016-2017) were selected as the participants in this study. The study found that university students at Liberal Arts program received “moderate involvement” from their parents during their university experiences. In addition, significant differences in university students’ perceptions towards parental involvement were witnessed according to their gender and parents’ annual income, even though there were no significant differences in university students’ perceptions towards parental involvement according to their ethnic background, parents’ education background, and location.

Proliferating dendritic cell progenitors in human blood

Romani, N., Gruner, S., Brang, D., Kampgen, E., Lenz, A., Trockenbacher, B., Konwalinka, G., Fritsch, P.O., Steinman, R.M., and Schuler, G. Proliferating dendritic cell progenitors in human blood. J. Exp. Med. 180:83-93, 1994https://digitalcommons.rockefeller.edu/historical-scientific-reports/1039/thumbnail.jp

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TEACHERS’ SELF-EFFICACY FOR TEACHING IN PRIMARY EDUCATION ACCORDING TO GENDER, YEARS OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND AT SIX CHURCH-BASED PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN NORTHERN SHAN STATE, MYANMAR

The purpose of this quantitative, comparative study was to determine if there were significant differences in teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching in primary education (in terms of efficacy for student engagement, instructional strategies and classroom management), according to their gender, years of teaching experience and educational background, at six purposively chosen church-based primary schools in Northern Shan State, Myanmar. The study was conducted on 127 teachers who were teaching at the target schools during the academic year 2020-2021. The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES, short form, Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) was used to measure the levels of self-efficacy for teaching in primary education including the three subscales (efficacy for student engagement, instructional strategies and classroom management). A total of 99 out of 127 (77%) teachers completed the questionnaire. After the data collection was done, descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) and a statistical hypothesis testing (multiple analysis of variance, MANOVA) were carried out to address the research objectives and hypotheses of this study. The findings from this study revealed that there were no significant differences in teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching in primary education (in terms of efficacy for student engagement, instructional strategies and classroom management), according to their gender, years of teaching experience and educational background

Proliferating dendritic cell progenitors in human blood

CD34+cells in human cord blood and marrow are known to give rise to dendritic cells (DC), as well as to other myeloid lineages. CD34+cells are rare in adult blood, however, making it difficult to use CD34 + ceils to ascertain if DC progenitors are present in the circulation and if blood can be a starting point to obtain large numbers of these immunostimulatory antigenpresenting cells for clinical studies. A systematic search for DC progenitors was therefore carried out in several contexts. In each case, we looked initially for the distinctive proliferating aggregates that were described previously in mice. In cord blood, it was only necessary to deplete erythroid progenitors, and add granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) together with tumor necrosis factor (TNF), to observe many aggregates and the production of typical DC progeny. In adult blood from patients receiving CSFs after chemotherapy for malignancy, GMCSF and TNF likewise generated characteristic DCs from HLA-DR negative precursors. However, in adult blood from healthy donors, the above approaches only generated small DC aggregates which then seemed to become monocytes. When interleukin 4 was used to suppress monocyte development (Jansen, J. H., G.-J. H. M. Wientjens, W. E. Fibbe, K. Willemze, and H. C. Kluin-Nelemans. 1989. J. Exp. Med. 170:577.), the addition of GM-CSF led to the formation of large proliferating DC aggregates and within 5-7 d, many nonproliferating progeny, about 3-8 million cells per 40 ml of blood. The progeny had a characteristic morphology and surface composition (e.g., abundant HLA-DK and accessory molecules for cell-mediated immunity) and were potent stimulators of quiescent T cells. Therefore, large numbers of DCs can be mobilized by specific cytokines from progenitors in the blood stream. These relatively large numbers of DC progeny should facilitate future studies of their FceRI and CD4 receptors, and their use in stimulating T cell-mediated resistance to viruses and tumors

Improving the establishment submodel of a forest patch model to assess the long-term protective effect of mountain forests

Simulation models such as forest patch models can be used to forecast the development of forest structural attributes over time. However, predictions of such models with respect to the impact of forest dynamics on the long-term protective effect of mountain forests may be of limited accuracy where tree regeneration is simulated with little detail. For this reason, we improved the establishment submodel of the ForClim forest patch model by implementing a more detailed representation of tree regeneration. Our refined submodel included canopy shading and ungulate browsing, two important constraints to sapling growth in mountain forests. To compare the old and the new establishment submodel of ForClim, we simulated the successional dynamics of the Stotzigwald protection forest in the Swiss Alps over a 60-year period. This forest provides protection for an important traffic route, but currently contains an alarmingly low density of tree regeneration. The comparison yielded a significantly longer regeneration period for the new model version, bringing the simulations into closer agreement with the known slow stand dynamics of mountain forests. In addition, the new model version was applied to forecast the future ability of the Stotzigwald forest to buffer the valley below from rockfall disturbance. Two scenarios were simulated: (1) canopy shading but no browsing impact, and (2) canopy shading and high browsing impact. The simulated stand structures were then compared to stand structure targets for rockfall protection, in order to assess their long-term protective effects. Under both scenarios, the initial sparse level of tree regeneration affected the long-term protective effect of the forest, which considerably declined during the first 40years. In the complete absence of browsing, the density of small trees increased slightly after 60years, raising hope for an eventual recovery of the protective effect. In the scenario that included browsing, however, the density of small trees remained at very low levels. With our improved establishment submodel, we provide an enhanced tool for studying the impacts of structural dynamics on the long-term protective effect of mountain forests. For certain purposes, it is important that predictive models of forest dynamics adequately represent critical processes for tree regeneration, such as sapling responses to low light levels and high browsing pressur