The clash of two images: China's media offensive in the United States

Professional project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Journalism from the School of Journalism, University of Missouri--Columbia.At a time when most Western newspaper and broadcasting companies are scaling back, China's state-run media organizations are fast growing and reaching into every corner of the world, especially in North America and Africa. The $7 billion campaign to expand China's soft power has significantly increased its media presence. But are these media offensive efforts effective? This paper analyzes the current state of the media expansion, the motivation behind it, the obstacles, suggestions and the outlook in the decades to come.Includes bibliographic references

Impact of Cold Atmospheric Plasma on the Structure and Functionality of Pea Protein

University of Minnesota M.S. thesis. 2021. Major: Food Science. Advisor: Baraem Ismail. 1 computer file (PDF); 201 pages.Increased consumer demand for alternative plant protein sources other than soy, which is a GMO crop and “Big Eight” allergen, is driving the growth of the pea protein ingredient market. Yellow field peas (Pisum sativum L.), an easy to grow environment-friendly non-GMO crop, with currently low occurrence of allergenicity, have similar protein profile and nutritional quality compared to soy. Therefore, pea protein has the potential to replace soy protein in the global plant protein ingredient market. The functional properties of pea protein, however, are inferior to that of soy protein counterparts, hindering its expanded use. Current breeding efforts, extraction and processing advances, and traditional modification strategies are limited in improving the functional properties of pea protein while maintaining nutritional quality as well as feasible production cost. Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP), a physical nonthermal processing technology that has been explored in electronics, material science, medicine, and agriculture, is being explored as a novel protein modification approach. Several studies reported unfolding and polymerization of proteins and corresponding improvements in functional properties after CAP treatment. However, the link between different plasma reactive species and observed structural changes, and consequent functional enhancement, has not been demonstrated. Additionally, only plasma sources that produce long-lived species (O3, H2O2, NO2-, and NO3-) have been investigated in protein modification studies. Other plasma sources that can generate various short-lived species (such as OH radicals) are worth investigating to optimize CAP conditions for a directed enhancement in pea protein functionality. Therefore, the objectives of this study were: (1) investigate the impact of plasma reactive species, as well as pH conditions and salt content, on pea protein structure and functionality; (2) investigate the impact of different plasma configurations, gas mixtures, and treatment time on pea protein structure and functionality. For objective 1, the impact of RNS and ROS (O3, NxOy, H2O2 and OH) at two pH conditions (pH 2 and pH 7), on the color, structure, and functionality of pea protein isolate (PPI) was evaluated. Structural characteristics of modified pea protein isolates (mPPIs) and PPI were compared by determining the protein profile using SDS-PAGE and SE-HPLC, protein denaturation by DSC, surface charge by measuring zeta potential, surface hydrophobicity as measured by a spectrophotometric method, and protein secondary structure by FTIR. Protein solubility, gelation, and emulsification properties were evaluated. For the second objectives three different CAP treatments, atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) coupled with Ar/O2 mixture, two-dimension dielectric barrier discharge (2D-DBD) coupled with Ar/O2 mixture, and nanosecond pulsed discharge (ns-pulsed) coupled with air, on the color, structure, functionality, and amino acid composition of PPI was evaluated. The effect of treatment time (5, 15, 30, and 45 min) was also determined. Structural characteristics and functional properties of PPI samples were determined following the same stated methods. The amino acid profile and non-protein components of the isolates were characterized using UPLC-MS. Pronounced structural and functional changes were observed upon treatment with reactive species at pH 2. All reactive species induced the formation of disulfide-linked soluble aggregates. Protein denaturation was observed after treatment with all reactive species. A significant increase in β-sheet content and surface hydrophobicity was only induced by treatment with O3 and OH, which resulted in the greatest enhancement in gelation and emulsification. While H2O2 enhanced PPI color by increasing whiteness, it had the least impact on protein structure and functionality. Results indicated that the plasma sources that can generate OH and O3 could be used for pea protein functionalization. Accordingly, different plasmas sources that can generate O3 and OH were further investigated in objective 2. All plasma treatments resulted in reduced yellow color of PPI, denaturation of the proteins, formation of disulfide-linked soluble aggregates, and increased surface hydrophobicity. The plasma-induced structural changes resulted in improvement of gel strength and emulsification capacity. The amino acid composition of PPI was not significantly impacted by 2D-DBD treatment, whereas a slight decrease in tyrosine content was observed after APPJ and ns-pulsed treatment. Results indicated that the 30-minute 2D-DBD (Ar + O2) treatment was the most desirable treatment because of moderate changes in protein structure coupled with significant improvement in the gelation and emulsification properties of PPI, with minimal impact on the amino acid composition. Overall, the study successfully demonstrated the link in structural changes induced by plasma reactive species (NxOy/O3, O3, H2O2, and OH) to improvement in functional properties. Results can be used to explain previously reported observations related to the impact of different CAP systems on the functional properties of proteins. Additionally, this work provided a detailed understanding of the potential of different CAP sources and associated reactive species in enhancing pea protein functionality.Bu, Fan. (2021). Impact of Cold Atmospheric Plasma on the Structure and Functionality of Pea Protein. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/220572

New Characterizations and Properties of Matrix A∞A_\infty Weights

We provide several new characterizations of $A_{p,\infty}$-matrix weights, originally introduced by A. Volberg as matrix-valued substitutes of the classical $A_\infty$ weights. In analogy with the notion of $A_p$-dimension of matrix weights introduced in our previous work, we introduce the concepts of the lower and the upper dimensions of $A_{p,\infty}$-matrix weights, which enable us to obtain sharp estimates related to their reducing operators. In a follow-up work, these results will play a key role in the study of function spaces with $A_{p,\infty}$-matrix weights, which extends earlier results in the more restricted class of $A_p$-matrix weights.Comment: 39 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2304.0029

INTEGRATED ECOLOGICAL PLANNING IN SINGAPORE: NEOTIEWPIA ECO-VILLAGE IN BUSTLING METROPOLITAN

ABSTRACT :The Neotiewpia Eco-Village is located within the Lim Chu Kang district at the north of Singapore. The Eco-Village only comprised of 3.5 sq km. Meanwhile the area was dominated by farms, chalets and Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. In 2006, National University of Singapore, School of Design and Environment (SDE), MSc. Environmental Management and Nature Society of Singapore initiated an ecological planning exercise within the Neotiewpia site to reduce the environmental impact from the development while providing Eco-friendly Tourism and R&D activities that feasible in the site. We did participate in the exercise and we tried explaining the ecological process, the limitation and potential development for integrated ecological planning framework in Developing Countries like Indonesia, Brazil, etc with high ecological-values ecosystems. The Vision of Neotiewpia was “A Model Eco-Village that Respects its Natural Heritage, Builds Strong Community Links and Promotes Economic Development on Nature’s Premises." And Neotiewpia was successfully planned and designed with integrated ecological planning approach. It embraced the land evaluation and impact assessment. Further the plan was found feasible by the Singapore Government by earmarking the Lim Chu Kang and Kranji for Agri-tainment development in 2008 (although partially implemented). The Neotiewpia or Lim Chu Kang area was found thriving with Green-Economy and Agro-Tourism. This integrated ecological planning could be translated to other areas in Developing Countries with agriculture potential and facing development pressures such as Neotiewpia. This concept would give alternate Green-Solution to the current economic crisis