Conceptual Structures of Vietnamese Emotions

ABSTRACT This dissertation presents a comparative study of the metaphoric and metonymic systems underlying the conceptualizations of two emotions, anger and sadness, in Vietnamese, American English, and Chinese. The analytic and theoretical approach is based on previous studies by Lakoff and Kövecses (1987), Kövecses (1988), Barcelona (1986), King (1989) and Yu (1995). The research presented here on emotion concepts reveals cultural variation and potential universals in the conceptualization of emotions. These results support the “Cultural Embodied Prototype” view proposed by Kövecses (2004:14) which proposes that conceptualizations of human emotions is motivated by both physiological embodied experiences (physiological embodiment) and the particular system of social-cultural experiences, which Maalej (2004, 2007, 2008) calls cultural embodiment. This study, based on analysis of anger and sadness expressions in Vietnamese, presents conceptual metaphors, metonymies, and cognitive models of the two emotions in Vietnamese in order to examine the similarities and differences in the ways the two emotions are conceptualized in Vietnamese, Chinese, and American English. Recent research on metaphor (e.g., Steen 1999; Cameron 1999; Semino et al., 2004; Pragglejaz Group 2007) have stressed the importance of rigorous metaphor identification procedures. This study offers a new metaphor identification procedure, based on the principles of the MIP (Pragglejaz Group 2007), which is designed to improve the identification of conceptual metaphors, especially those in discourse contexts. I examine discourse contexts to focus, in particular, on the metaphors and metonymies of the emotions in the three languages in order to distinguish the physiological and cultural embodied experiences which motivate them. The results of this study show that the shared and possibly universal conceptualizations of emotions can be found at the generic level, while the cultural variations of emotion operate at the specific level. The study thus contributes to the research on universality versus cultural specificity of emotion conceptualizations by presenting linguistic evidence of the use of emotion language in Vietnamese

Controlled cortical impact traumatic brain injury in 3xTg-AD mice causes acute intra-axonal amyloid-β accumulation and independently accelerates the development of tau abnormalities

Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized pathologically by progressive neuronal loss, extracellular plaques containing the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides, and neurofibrillary tangles composed of hyperphosphorylated tau proteins. Aβ is thought to act upstream of tau, affecting its phosphorylation and therefore aggregation state. One of the major risk factors for AD is traumatic brain injury (TBI). Acute intra-axonal Aβ and diffuse extracellular plaques occur in ∼30% of human subjects after severe TBI. Intra-axonal accumulations of tau but not tangle-like pathologies have also been found in these patients. Whether and how these acute accumulations contribute to subsequent AD development is not known, and the interaction between Aβ and tau in the setting of TBI has not been investigated. Here, we report that controlled cortical impact TBI in 3xTg-AD mice resulted in intra-axonal Aβ accumulations and increased phospho-tau immunoreactivity at 24 h and up to 7 d after TBI. Given these findings, we investigated the relationship between Aβ and tau pathologies after trauma in this model by systemic treatment of Compound E to inhibit γ-secretase activity, a proteolytic process required for Aβ production. Compound E treatment successfully blocked posttraumatic Aβ accumulation in these injured mice at both time points. However, tau pathology was not affected. Our data support a causal role for TBI in acceleration of AD-related pathologies and suggest that TBI may independently affect Aβ and tau abnormalities. Future studies will be required to assess the behavioral and long-term neurodegenerative consequences of these pathologies

Optimal control of thermally coupled Navier Stokes equations

The optimal boundary temperature control of the stationary thermally coupled incompressible Navier-Stokes equation is considered. Well-posedness and existence of the optimal control and a necessary optimality condition are obtained. Optimization algorithms based on the augmented Lagrangian method with second order update are discussed. A test example motivated by control of transport process in the high pressure vapor transport (HVPT) reactor is presented to demonstrate the applicability of our theoretical results and proposed algorithm

Design an Intelligent System to automatically Tutor the Method for Solving Problems

Nowadays, intelligent systems have been applied in many real-word domains. The Intelligent chatbot is an intelligent system, it can interact with the human to tutor how to work some activities. In this work, we design an architecture to build an intelligent chatbot, which can tutor to solve problems, and construct scripts for automatically tutoring. The knowledge base of the intelligent tutoring chatbot is designed by using the requirements of an Intelligent Problem Solver. It is the combination between the knowledge model of relations and operators, and the structures of hint questions and sample problems, which are practical cases. Based on the knowledge base and tutoring scripts, a tutoring engine is designed. The tutoring chatbot plays as an instructor for solving real-world problems. It simulates the working of the instructor to tutor the user for solving problems. By utilizing the knowledge base and reasoning, the architecture of the intelligent chatbot are emerging to apply in the real-world. It is used to build an intelligent chatbot to support the learning of high-school mathematics and a consultant system in public administration. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method in comparison with the existing systems

The control of purity and stoichiometry of compound semiconductors by high vapor pressure transport

In this report we summarize the results of a three year research program on high pressure vapor transport (HPVT) of compound semiconductors. Most of our work focused onto pnictides, in particular ZnGeP2, as a model system. Access to single crystals of well controlled composition of this material is desired for advancing the understanding and control of its point defect chemistry in the contest of remote, real-time sensing of trace impurities, e.g., greenhouse gases, in the atmosphere by ZnGeP2 optical parametric oscillators (OPO's)

HIV prevalence and factors associated with HIV infection among male injection drug users under 30: a cross-sectional study in Long An, Vietnam

BACKGROUND: Sufficient targeted HIV prevention activities aiming at reducing HIV transmission within and from an extremely marginalized population of injection drug users (IDUs) must urgently and efficiently be implemented in Vietnam. This study was conducted to facilitate the development of such activities by describing transmission risks of young IDUs and evaluating factors in association with HIV infection. METHODS: Thirty clusters were selected from 29 hotspot communes in Long An province by probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling method. The snowball technique was used for enrolling participants in each cluster. The cross-sectional association of factors obtained during direct structured interviews to 248 male IDUs aged 14 to 29 years old and with their HIV test results were examined. RESULTS: The HIV prevalence among the studied IDUs was 32%. Age range of 18–20 years old, low educational level, sharing injection equipment or injection drug use in the other cities were independently associated with HIV serostatus in the multivariate analysis. Sexual behaviors did not differ between HIV-positive and -negative IDUs. Among HIV seropositive IDUs who had sexual contact with primary (n = 37), casual (n = 6), and commercial (n = 15) partners, only 5.4% (n = 2), 33.3% (n = 2), and 46.7% (n = 7), respectively, responded that they had used condoms every time. CONCLUSION: About one-third of young IDUs aged less than 30 identified in the hotspot communes in Long An, Vietnam was found to be infected with HIV, and socio-demographic and injection-related factors might account for the infection risk. Prevailing risky sexual behavior of this extremely marginalized population highlights the need to reduce their high transmission risks as a public health priority

War-Gaming Applications for Achieving Optimum Acquisition of Future Space Systems

This chapter describes an innovative modeling and simulation approach using newly proposed Advanced Game-based Mathematical Framework (AGMF), Unified Game-based Acquisition Framework (UGAF) and a set of War-Gaming Engines (WGEs) to address future space systems acquisition challenges. Its objective is to assist the DoD Acquisition Authority (DAA) to understand the contractor’s perspective and to seek optimum Program-and-Technical-Baseline (PTB) solution and corresponding acquisition strategy under both the perspectives of the government and the contractors. The proposed approach calls for an interdisciplinary research that involves game theory, probability and statistics, and non-linear programming. The goal of this chapter is to apply the proposed war-gaming frameworks to develop and evaluate PTB solutions and associated acquisition strategies in the context of acquisition of future space systems. Our simulation results suggest that our optimization problem for the acquisition of future space systems meets the affordability and innovative requirements with minimum acquisition risk

Encouraging Dialogue around Social Issues with Latinx Students Through Literature Discussion and Culturally Relevant Literature

This teacher research study examines literature discussions with fourth and fifth grade Latinx students about books that reflect Latinx experiences. For this study, the following questions are explored (1) What social issues do students discuss in literature groups? (2) How do literary response strategies influence student dialogue? And (3) How does my theoretical frame influence my decision making as a teacher? Theories that informed the construction of the literature discussions and the decision making occurring throughout the study are examined closely. The theories intertwine and bridge education and students’ experiences as a resource in learning more about the educational setting. In this study, the discussions of students and the literature response strategies are explored as the data is analyzed to examine the student discussions around issues of immigration, family separation, borders, and so much more. The findings in this study indicate that the experiences of Latinx students are integral to the educational setting and an education that invites who they are enhances their learning experiences. Latinx students are eager for learning opportunities that invite their voices and stories. It is through the construction and assessment of the educational setting that educators can promote culturally responsive, relevant, and sustaining teaching experiences that go beyond the classroom setting. Latinx students build relationships with each other and their teachers as they engage in discussions that allow them to share and learn with each other. This study is a reminder of the crucial role teachers play in creating such powerful spaces and the value that Latinx students bring into the classroom when invited to discuss, engage, and create powerful learning experiences