Contemporary Family Portrait: The Hidden Uncomfortable Truth of Family Dynamics

This thesis examines the hidden aspect of family dynamic and questions the idealized convention of family portraits. Based on Erving Goffman’s theatrical theory of community, family as a relaxing intimate group in the backstage, the underlying tensions, conflicts, and power play are discussed. This thesis draws upon the familial issues and treatments of Leon J. Saul and Rhee Dong Shick to evaluate the family dynamic present in our domestic settings. As the lineage of family portraits from history changed reflecting the differing family values and uncomfortable truths, the idealized family portraits are re-evaluated and questioned to offer a truer description of our family

Towards a feasible income equality

To reach perfect income equality, factors that determine individual income, such as intelligence, inherited wealth, personalities, and social skills, should be identical for everyone. That is an infeasible ideal. Chae Un Kim and Ji-Won Park propose a more feasible and realistic concept of income equality that could be incorporated in the Gini coefficient, the most widely used measure of inequality, guaranteeing the maximisation of overall social welfare without hampering overall economic efficacy

Chain of Log-Concave Markov Chains

We introduce a theoretical framework for sampling from unnormalized densities based on a smoothing scheme that uses an isotropic Gaussian kernel with a single fixed noise scale. We prove one can decompose sampling from a density (minimal assumptions made on the density) into a sequence of sampling from log-concave conditional densities via accumulation of noisy measurements with equal noise levels. Our construction is unique in that it keeps track of a history of samples, making it non-Markovian as a whole, but it is lightweight algorithmically as the history only shows up in the form of a running empirical mean of samples. Our sampling algorithm generalizes walk-jump sampling (Saremi & Hyv\"arinen, 2019). The "walk" phase becomes a (non-Markovian) chain of (log-concave) Markov chains. The "jump" from the accumulated measurements is obtained by empirical Bayes. We study our sampling algorithm quantitatively using the 2-Wasserstein metric and compare it with various Langevin MCMC algorithms. We also report a remarkable capacity of our algorithm to "tunnel" between modes of a distribution

From Text to Sign Language: Exploiting the Spatial and Motioning Dimension

PACLIC 19 / Taipei, taiwan / December 1-3, 200

Visfatin exerts angiogenic effects on human umbilical vein endothelial cells through the mTOR signaling pathway

AbstractThe biologically active factors known as adipocytokines are secreted primarily by adipose tissues and can act as modulators of angiogenesis. Visfatin, an adipocytokine that has recently been reported to have angiogenic properties, is upregulated in diabetes, cancer, and inflammatory diseases. Because maintenance of an angiogenic balance is critically important in the management of these diseases, understanding the molecular mechanism by which visfatin promotes angiogenesis is very important. In this report, we describe our findings demonstrating that visfatin stimulates the mammalian target of the rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, which plays important roles in angiogenesis. Visfatin induced the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in human endothelial cells. Inhibition of the mTOR pathway by rapamycin eliminated the angiogenic and proliferative effects of visfatin. The visfatin-induced increase in VEGF expression was also eliminated by RNA interference-mediated knockdown of the 70-kDa ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70S6K), a downstream target of mTOR. Visfatin inactivated glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) by phosphorylating it at Ser-9, leading to the nuclear translocation of β-catenin. Both rapamycin co-treatment and p70S6K knockdown inhibited visfatin-induced GSK3β phosphorylation at Ser-9 and nuclear translocation of β-catenin. Taken together, these results indicate that mTOR signaling is involved in visfatin-induced angiogenesis, and that this signaling leads to visfatin-induced VEGF expression and nuclear translocation of β-catenin

Smallest Universal Covers for Families of Triangles

International audienceA universal cover for a family T of triangles is a convex shape that contains a congruent copy of each triangle T ∈ T. We conjecture that for any family T of triangles (of bounded area) there is a triangle that forms a universal cover for T of smallest possible area. We prove this conjecture for all families of two triangles, and for the family of triangles that fit in the unit circle

Renewable Biocomposite Properties and their Applications

Recently, with increasing environmental awareness and expanding global waste problems, eco-friendly biofillers have been recognized as a promising alternative to inorganic fillers in the reinforcement of thermoplastic and biodegradable plastics. Therefore, many industries are seeking more eco-friendly materials that will decrease the level of environmental contamination and economic cost. Bacteria cellulose, rice straw, rice husk, natural fiber, lignocellulose, cellulose, and paper sludge are renewable resources owing many beneficial properties; these materials were used to manufacture composite products such as sound absorbing wooden construction materials, interior of bathrooms, wood decks, window frames, decorative trim, automotive panels, and industrial and consumer applications. This chapter elucidates the different renewable biocomposite properties and their applications