Evaluating Class and Sexuality: Money Boys in Contemporary China

This research aims to examine the lived experiences of Money Boys (MBs), male-to-male prostitutes, in the People’s Republic of China, by asking, as a result of their experience, if issues of class and sexuality should be critically inspected in today’s Chinese culture, and whether new gendered/classed subjects are being generated. Based on the fieldwork that I researched in Shanghai, this thesis uses the analytical lens of “value/s” by interrogating how specific values are produced through new political economic apparatus—namely neo-liberalism and its relationship to traditional and socialist values. The thesis asks why some values have become significant to the forms of cultural and economic exchange performed by Money Boys. Using participant observation and in-depth interviews obtained in a brothel, bars and cruising parks, the data makes visible the ways in which different values are put into effect by the Money Boys by accessing resources from their working class backgrounds and bodies. Specifically the thesis shows how Money Boys problematise emergent Chinese homosexual identity which is currently normalised by urban citizens and the State. It also shows how Money Boys redefine the concept of cosmopolitanism to describe how they imagine and shape their future. Taken as a whole, this research proposes that there is an urgent need to reconsider how Chinese society is configured through the contemporary formation of material struggles, including the rural and urban polarisation and class relations of the newly rich and migrant poor. It demonstrates that materiality organises the ways in which values are redistributed and performed differently by different classed/gendered subjects. Money Boys, and their lived experiences, offer a critical way to illuminate how performing value in today’s China is a dynamic, contested process and how sex work complicates value formation through the sexualised body

A systematic review and meta-analysis of guided tissue regeneration/osseous grafting for the treatment of Class II furcation defects

AbstractBackground/purposeThe purpose of this article was to conduct a systematic review of the clinical evidence on the efficacy of guide tissue regeneration (GTR) with/without osseous grafting (OG) in treating periodontal furcation Class II defects.Materials and methodsReports from randomized controlled clinical trials, with at least 6 months follow-up, comparing open flap debridement (OFD); GTR, and GTR + OG were located from various sources. Sources included the electronic databases of Cochrane Oral Health Group specialist trials register, MEDLINE, and PubMed; in addition, journal archives were hand-searched. Trials up to and including March 2012 were included. Using the PICO (Patient or Problem, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome) question format, data from eligible articles were extracted and meta-analyzed. The outcomes measures were furcation closure rate, vertical/horizontal bone fill (re-entry), and vertical/horizontal attachment level gain.ResultsThe meta-analysis showed that the GTR and GTR + OG groups obtained greater furcation closure rate, vertical/horizontal bone fill, and vertical/horizontal attachment level gain than the OFD group in mandibular molars. The GTR group obtained greater vertical/horizontal bone fill and vertical attachment level gain than the OFD group in maxillary molars. The GTR + OG group achieved better clinical outcomes than the GTR group did in all the comparing outcomes in mandibular molars.ConclusionGTR technique seemed to be more effective than OFD for resolving Class II periodontal furcation defects, and the GTR + OG technique showed even better clinical results. The outcomes were better for mandibular molars than for maxillary molars

Conserved charged amino acid residues in the extracellular region of sodium/iodide symporter are critical for iodide transport activity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) mediates the active transport and accumulation of iodide from the blood into the thyroid gland. His-226 located in the extracellular region of NIS has been demonstrated to be critical for iodide transport in our previous study. The conserved charged amino acid residues in the extracellular region of NIS were therefore characterized in this study.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fourteen charged residues (Arg-9, Glu-79, Arg-82, Lys-86, Asp-163, His-226, Arg-228, Asp-233, Asp-237, Arg-239, Arg-241, Asp-311, Asp-322, and Asp-331) were replaced by alanine. Iodide uptake abilities of mutants were evaluated by steady-state and kinetic analysis. The three-dimensional comparative protein structure of NIS was further modeled using sodium/glucose transporter as the reference protein.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All the NIS mutants were expressed normally in the cells and targeted correctly to the plasma membrane. However, these mutants, except R9A, displayed severe defects on the iodide uptake. Further kinetic analysis revealed that mutations at conserved positively charged amino acid residues in the extracellular region of NIS led to decrease NIS-mediated iodide uptake activity by reducing the maximal rate of iodide transport, while mutations at conserved negatively charged residues led to decrease iodide transport by increasing dissociation between NIS mutants and iodide.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This is the first report characterizing thoroughly the functional significance of conserved charged amino acid residues in the extracellular region of NIS. Our data suggested that conserved charged amino acid residues, except Arg-9, in the extracellular region of NIS were critical for iodide transport.</p

Intelligent multi-agent collaboration model for smart home IoT security

© 2018 IEEE. While the Internet of Things (IoT) continue to extend deeper into the daily lives of people, the domain of the smart home offers a unique need for security. Traditional firewalls and antivirus are not sufficient to protect the connected home from security threats, and to date, there have been limited solutions provided for this problem. This paper explores the recent works in this area and presents a new approach towards securing smart home networks through multi-agent collaboration. The model uses Beliefs, Desires, and Intentions (BDI) architecture for intelligent agent decision making, as well as a multi-agent collaboration model for achieving mutual security goals within the smart home network. For initial proof of concept, we provide a use case demonstrating the coordination of the threat response decision between operational availability and security risk agents as a qualitative coalitional game. This model can also be extended to other areas such as threat modeling, vulnerability scanning, and patching, as well as more advanced threat engagement and distraction. Throughout, we also consider operational goals of convenience and availability as required for a usability perspective within the smart home environment

Emodin, a Naturally Occurring Anthraquinone Derivative, Ameliorates Dyslipidemia by Activating AMP-Activated Protein Kinase in High-Fat-Diet-Fed Rats

The aim of this study was to investigate the antiobesity and antihyperlipidaemic effects of emodin on high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese rats, and on the regulation of the expression of the genes involved in lipid metabolism to elucidate the mechanisms. After being fed HFD for two weeks, Wistar rats were dosed orally with emodin (40 and 80 mg kg−1) or pioglitazone (20 mg kg−1), once daily for eight weeks. Emodin (80 mg kg−1 per day) displayed similar characteristics to pioglitazone (20 mg kg−1 per day) in reducing body weight gain, plasma lipid levels as well as coronary artery risk index and atherogenic index of HFD-fed rats. Emodin also caused dose related reductions in the hepatic triglyceride and cholesterol contents and lowered hepatic lipid droplets accumulation in HFD-fed rats. Emodin and pioglitazone enhanced the phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and its primary downstream targeting enzyme, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, up-regulated gene expression of carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1, and down-regulated sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 and fatty acid synthase protein levels in hepatocytes of HFD-fed rats. Our findings suggest emodin could attenuate lipid accumulation by decreasing lipogenesis and increasing mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation mediated by activation of the AMPK signaling pathway

Speech Enhancement Guided by Contextual Articulatory Information

Previous studies have confirmed the effectiveness of leveraging articulatory information to attain improved speech enhancement (SE) performance. By augmenting the original acoustic features with the place/manner of articulatory features, the SE process can be guided to consider the articulatory properties of the input speech when performing enhancement. Hence, we believe that the contextual information of articulatory attributes should include useful information and can further benefit SE in different languages. In this study, we propose an SE system that improves its performance through optimizing the contextual articulatory information in enhanced speech for both English and Mandarin. We optimize the contextual articulatory information through joint-train the SE model with an end-to-end automatic speech recognition (E2E ASR) model, predicting the sequence of broad phone classes (BPC) instead of the word sequences. Meanwhile, two training strategies are developed to train the SE system based on the BPC-based ASR: multitask-learning and deep-feature training strategies. Experimental results on the TIMIT and TMHINT dataset confirm that the contextual articulatory information facilitates an SE system in achieving better results than the traditional Acoustic Model(AM). Moreover, in contrast to another SE system that is trained with monophonic ASR, the BPC-based ASR (providing contextual articulatory information) can improve the SE performance more effectively under different signal-to-noise ratios(SNR).Comment: Will be submitted to TASL

Chinese Herbal Medicine Therapy and the Risk of Mortality for Chronic Hepatitis B Patients with Concurrent Liver Cirrhosis: a Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is increasingly recognized as a public health problem in Taiwan. After affected patients are diagnosed with contaminant liver cirrhosis (LC), adverse clinical outcomes, especially death, are common. This study aimed to investigate the effect of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM), an essential branch of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), on the mortality risk among CHB patients with contaminant LC. This longitudinal cohort study used the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database to identify 1522 patients 20–70 years of age with newly diagnosed CHB with LC during 1998–2007. Among them, 508 (33.37%) had received CHM products after the onset of CHB (CHM users), and the remaining 1014 patients (66.63%) were designated as a control group (non-CHM users). All enrollees were followed until the end of 2012 to determine deaths during the study period. We applied the Cox proportional hazards regression model to compute the hazard ratio for the association of CHM use and the subsequent risk of death. During the follow-up period, 156 CHM users and 493 non-CHM users died. After controlling for potential confounders, CHM users were found to have a significantly reduced risk of death compared with non-CHM users by 56%, and the effect was predominantly observed among those treated with CHM for \u3e 180 days. CHM therapy lowered the risk of death among CHB patients with contaminant LC, which supported CHM might provide further treatment options for those with chronic liver diseases

Using Sidereal Rotation Period Expressions to Calculate the Sun’s Rotation Period through Observation of Sunspots

We utilize sidereal rotation period expressions to calculate the sun’s rotation period via sunspot observation. From the well-known astronomical sites, we collected sunspot diagrams for 14 months, from January 2013 to February 2014, to analyze, compare, and implement statistical research. In addition to acquiring the average angular rate of the movement of sunspots, we found that even the same number of sunspots moved at different angular rates, and generally the life of larger sunspots is longer than 10 days. Therefore the larger sunspots moved around the back of the sun, and a handful of relatively smaller sunspots disappeared within a few days. The results show that the solar rotation period varied with the latitude. However, if we take the average of the sunspots at high and low latitudes, we find that the calculated value is very close to the accredited values