25 research outputs found
Rural Chinaās Invisible Women: A Feminist Political Economy Approach to Food Security
From a feminist political economy perspective, this article examines two recent trends in agricultural production in china likely to exacerbate gender inequalities that have been growing since the 1980s economic reforms. First, rural women are looking after land contracted to the family to grow food for the family while men are engaging in trade, marketing agricultural products and/or employment in cities. Second, some men have found opportunities, opened up by the government’s land transfer policy, to create agricultural farms by contracting land from other villagers. Women work for these farms as wage laborers. These trends reinforce male-dominated systems of food provision and pose threats to “food security” in China’s countryside, meaning inadequate access to diverse, valued foods that promote good health. These threats are particularly acute as gender disparities in rural areas increase. I conclude that existing examples of agricultural workers' cooperatives are important prefigurative practices. Such cooperatives could serve as places where women cooperators’ voices are strengthened against patriarchal policies in the household and in communities. This has important implications for food security
OpenNDD: Open Set Recognition for Neurodevelopmental Disorders Detection
Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) are a highly prevalent group of disorders
and represent strong clinical behavioral similarities, and that make it very
challenging for accurate identification of different NDDs such as autism
spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Moreover, there is no reliable physiological markers for NDDs diagnosis and it
solely relies on psychological evaluation criteria. However, it is crucial to
prevent misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis by intelligent assisted diagnosis,
which is closely related to the follow-up corresponding treatment. In order to
relieve these issues, we propose a novel open set recognition framework for
NDDs screening and detection, which is the first application of open set
recognition in this field. It combines auto encoder and adversarial reciprocal
points open set recognition to accurately identify known classes as well as
recognize classes never encountered. And considering the strong similarities
between different subjects, we present a joint scaling method called MMS to
distinguish unknown disorders. To validate the feasibility of our presented
method, we design a reciprocal opposition experiment protocol on the hybrid
datasets from Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange I (ABIDE I) and THE ADHD-200
SAMPLE (ADHD-200) with 791 samples from four sites and the results demonstrate
the superiority on various metrics. Our OpenNDD has achieved promising
performance, where the accuracy is 77.38%, AUROC is 75.53% and the open set
classification rate is as high as 59.43%.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Downregulation of TGF-beta receptor types II and III in oral squamous cell carcinoma and oral carcinoma-associated fibroblasts
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The purpose of this study was to assess the expression levels for TĪ²RI, TĪ²RII, and TĪ²RIII in epithelial layers of oral premalignant lesions (oral leukoplakia, OLK) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), as well as in oral carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), with the final goal of exploring the roles of various types of TĪ²Rs in carcinogenesis of oral mucosa.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Normal oral tissues, OLK, and OSCC were obtained from 138 previously untreated patients. Seven primary human oral CAF lines and six primary normal fibroblast (NF) lines were established successfully via cell culture. The three receptors were detected using immunohistochemical (IHC), quantitative RT-PCR, and Western blot approaches.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>IHC signals for TĪ²RII and TĪ²RIII in the epithelial layer decreased in tissue samples with increasing disease aggressiveness (P < 0.05); no expression differences were observed for TĪ²RI, in OLK and OSCC (P > 0.05); and TĪ²RII and TĪ²RIII were significantly downregulated in CAFs compared with NFs, at the mRNA and protein levels (P < 0.05). Exogenous expression of TGF-Ī²1 led to a remarkable decrease in the expression of TĪ²RII and TĪ²RIII in CAFs (P < 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study provides the first evidence that the loss of TĪ²RII and TĪ²RIII expression in oral epithelium and stroma is a common event in OSCC. The restoration of the expression of TĪ²RII and TĪ²RIII in oral cancerous tissues may represent a novel strategy for the treatment of oral carcinoma.</p
Chapter Seven. The Gendered Reality of Migrant Workers in Globalizing China
INTRODUCTION According to a survey by the Development Research Centre of the State Council published in April 2006, there are 200 million rural migrants who are working and living in urban areas, 120 million of whom work in Chinas cities and another 80 million in smaller towns. All of them have left low paying farm life, and they now make up 68 percent of the employees in the manufacturing sector and 80 percent in construction. Most of these workers not only face lower salaries and poorer wor..
Transformative or abortive? : a "de-voluntaristic" analysis of the Nationalist Revolution in modern Chinese history
Interpretations of the Nationalist Revolution in modern
Chinese history, especially the so-called āNanjing decadeā
(1927-1937) are dominated by theoretical notions which see
the state as autonomous in its relationship to society.
This autonomous state model, the dissertation argues, finds
its roots in the voluntaristic ideas of Talcott Parsons.
Arguments based on Parsonsās ideas view the Nationalist
Revolution as abortive.
The dissertation rejects these views and develops an
alternative perspective based on the construction of a
quasi-market model of social relations. The theoretical
underpinnings, in contrast to Parsonsās ideas, are termed
āde-voluntaristic.ā These arguments suggest that
individuals participate in, and have influence on, the
operation of the state.
The application of a quasi-market model suggests that
there was a major transformation in Chinese society during
the Nationalist period. The dissertation argues that the
Nationalist Government after 1927 did not continue to
achieve the initial objectives of the Nationalist Revolution
which, it is suggested, aimed to build a quasi-market
society. The revolution, however, was not abortive. It
transformed the political system.
In the Imperial tradition of government, local elites
protected local communities against state encroachment
through their involvement in property management. After
1927, the Nanjing Government adopted a āfree marketā
approach to political affairs, and centralized the use of
military and legal power to protect property against labour
and the peasants.
Peasant demands for rights to the land they tilled, a
key element in Sun Yat-senās programme for the revolution,
questioned the brokerage market economy, in which local
elites acted as the intermediaries of contractual partners.
Workers, in the context of industrialization, and with
support from Communist organizers, attempted to improve
working conditions. Peasants and workers contested the
power of active elites that grew in the new political order
established by. the Nationalist Government. The Nationalist
State abandoned the traditional role of the Chinese state to
protect the well-being of society. Deeply influenced by new
elites, it protected capital accumulation and safeguarded
the sanctity of contracts.
The Nationalist Revolution ultimately failed as it was
unable to resist the invasions of the Japanese, or the
alternative social formulations of the Communist movement.Arts, Faculty ofAnthropology, Department ofGraduat
Gender equity in transitional China's healthcare policy reforms
This paper explores the gendered impact of Chinese healthcare reforms, drawing attention to the complex and changing nature of gender inequities in China's current economic and social transformations. Using official and academic sources, it examines the reforms' impact on access to reproductive healthcare, the gendered effects of changes in health sector financingļæ½-ļæ½particularly the collapse of insurance systems and rising costs of healthcare, and the implications of China's demographic transition on women's informal healthcare roles. This paper suggests areas that policy-makers, researchers, and activists should prioritize to address inequity, including developing public health policy based on the systematic monitoring of health impacts and trends from a gender perspective, strengthening rural medical facilities to meet the basic healthcare needs of rural populations (including sexual and reproductive health needs), and reforming the healthcare system together with social security systems to equitably cover the poor and the elderly.Chinese healthcare reforms, health insurance, economic and social transition, rights, gender inequality, JEL Codes: I18, I31, O53,
Catabolite Control Protein A Controls Hydrogen Peroxide Production and Cell Death in Streptococcus sanguinisāæ
Streptococcus sanguinis is a commensal oral bacterium producing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) that is dependent on pyruvate oxidase (Spx) activity. In addition to its well-known role in bacterial antagonism during interspecies competition, H2O2 causes cell death in about 10% of the S. sanguinis population. As a consequence of H2O2-induced cell death, largely intact chromosomal DNA is released into the environment. This extracellular DNA (eDNA) contributes to the self-aggregation phenotype under aerobic conditions. To further investigate the regulation of spx gene expression, we assessed the role of catabolite control protein A (CcpA) in spx expression control. We report here that CcpA represses spx expression. An isogenic ĪccpA mutant showed elevated spx expression, increased Spx abundance, and H2O2 production, whereas the wild type did not respond with altered spx expression in the presence of glucose and other carbohydrates. Since H2O2 is directly involved in the release of eDNA and bacterial cell death, the presented data suggest that CcpA is a central control element in this important developmental process in S. sanguinis
A Moderate Duration of Stress Promotes Behavioral Adaptation and Spatial Memory in Young C57BL/6J Mice
Stress may serve multiple roles in cerebral functioning, ranging from a highly appropriate behavioral adaptation to a critical risk factor for susceptibility to mood disorder and cognitive impairment. It is well known that E/I (excitation/inhibition) balance is essential for maintaining brain homeostasis. However, it remains largely unknown how GABAergic and Glutamatergic neurons respond to different stressful stimuli and whether the GABAergic-Glutamatergic neuron balance is related to the transition between adaptive and maladaptive behaviors. Here, we subjected 3-month-old mice to chronic mild stress (CMS) for a period of one, two, and four weeks, respectively. The results showed that the two-week CMS procedure produced adaptive effects on behaviors and cognitive performance, with a higher number of GABAergic neuron and VGluT1-positive neurons, increasing the expressions of p-GluN2B, Reelin, and syn-PSD-95 protein in the hippocampus. In contrast, the prolonged behavioral challenge (4 week) imposes a passive coping behavioral strategy and cognitive impairment, decreased the number of GABAergic neuron, hyperactivity of VGluT1-positive neuron, increased the ratio of p-GluN2B, and decreased the expression of Reelin, syn-PSD-95 in the hippocampus. These findings suggest that a moderate duration of stress probably promotes behavioral adaptation and spatial memory by maintaining a GABAergic-Glutamatergic neuron balance and promoting the expression of synaptic plasticity-related proteins in the brain