CREATING VISUAL EMBLEMS FOR EASTERN ZHOU MILITARIZED FRONTIER SOCIETIES (771-221 BCE)

My dissertation examines the hybrid imagery on burial objects from the tomb of the Zhao (赵) Minister of the Jin (晋) State in and the Zhao King Tomb No. 2, for example, gilded plaques decorated with paired dragon motifs (Fig. 1) and bronze daggers with a combat scene of tiger and bird (Fig. 2). These objects were considered to be modeled on Sino-Siberian motifs in past scholarship. Instead of using the term ‘hybridity’ merely as a stylistic label to describe these bronze artifacts as in previous scholarship, I re-define my use of this term and analyze how hybridity is practiced in different aspects. Hybridity is seen as a hybrid design on burial objects. It is also reflected in the purposeful selection of different practice for elite tombs and in the co-existence of both Zhou (周) and local population in commoner burials in this frontier region. My research explores multiple meanings of these hybrid artifacts of the Jin and Zhao and consists of manifold approaches. I analyzed the broad social and political context of Jin and Zhao based on textual documents, which accounts for the needs of empowering themselves. A more confined perspective to examine these hybrid artifacts in burial setting aims to analyze how the Jin and Zhao elites used these artifacts to create a unique identity displayed at the time of their death. The third approach focuses on trade networks and bronze production in the region in order to show the development in the design of these hybrid style bronzes and to suggest a reciprocal relationship between the Chinese states and the frontier groups. In conclusion, the creation and placement of the hybrid bronze artifacts in the elite Jin and Zhao tombs revealed a unique cultural identity for them that goes along with the unstable political tides around the 500 BCE. The practice of hybridity manifested itself on burial artifacts and programs and so were in accord with their all-inclusive diplomatic strategies that these practices became the sanctioned and collective means to negotiate their cultural identity and assert their power in the region

Prevention and prognosis of cervical cancer : the interplay of human papillomavirus, vaccination and screening

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the major cause of cervical cancer. The well-established natural history from HPV infection to the occurrence of invasive cervical cancer serves as the basis for prevention of cervical cancer through prophylactic HPV vaccination (primary prevention) and cervical screening (secondary prevention). Cervical cancer detected through screening also has better chances of being cured than cancers not detected through screening. This thesis addresses research questions on prevention and prognosis of cervical cancer within the framework of the interplay of HPV, vaccination, and cervical screening, and it also provides insights for evidence-based decision-making. In Paper I, we examined the association between cervical screening with cytology and risk of adenosquamous cell carcinoma (ASC) and rare histological types of invasive cervical carcinoma (RICC). Based on a nationwide cervical cancer Audit, we conducted a nested case- control study including 338 cases of ASC and RICC diagnosed during 2002-2011 in Sweden with their year-of-birth-matched controls. We found that screening with cytology was associated with decreased risk of ASC and RICC, but the magnitude of risk reduction in relation to cervical screening was less for RICC than for ASC. The majority of ASC and RICC cases were positive for high-risk HPV in tumor tissues. In Paper II, we evaluated whether the tumor high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) status was associated with the prognosis of cervical cancer. In a nationwide population-based study, we included 2845 primary invasive cervical cancer cases diagnosed in Sweden during 2002– 2011, and comprehensively tested diagnostic blocks for 13 hrHPV types and 24 HPV types which were not established as oncogenic. Women with hrHPV-positive cervical tumors had a substantially better prognosis (39% lower excess mortality) than women with hrHPV-negative tumors. The difference of prognosis by tumor hrHPV status remained statistically significant, irrespective of age, cancer stage, and histological type. In Paper III, we investigated screening performance in terms of positive predictive value (PPV) of cytology for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or worse (CIN2+) among HPV- vaccinated birth cohorts. Using a population-based cohort design, we included women born 1989-1993 who were resident in Sweden since the introduction of HPV vaccination and attended cervical screening at age 23, based on records from Swedish National Cervical Screening Registry (NKCx). We found that vaccinated women had lower PPV of cytology for CIN2+ compared to unvaccinated women. The decrease in PPV was greater among women vaccinated before age 17 than those vaccinated at age 17-22. In Paper IV, we assessed the association between HPV vaccination and the risk of invasive cervical cancer in a population-based cohort study. An open cohort of women aged 15-30 (including age 30) living in Sweden were included and followed during 2006-2017 for HPV vaccination and first occurrence of invasive cervical cancer. The findings showed that HPV vaccination was related to a 52% lower risk of invasive cervical cancer for vaccinated women compared to unvaccinated women. Younger age at vaccination initiation was associated with a more pronounced risk reduction (83% risk reduction when vaccinated before age 17). In conclusion, this thesis shows that cervical screening can effectively reduce the risk of ASC and RICC, which is beyond the established evidence on preventing squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. HPV vaccination can effectively reduce the risk of cervical cancer; the ultimate goal of cervical cancer prevention. With the implementation of HPV vaccination, the PPV of cytology for CIN2+ has decreased in vaccinated women compared to unvaccinated women, especially among those vaccinated at younger age. Tumor hrHPV status is associated with the prognosis of cervical cancer, which could add value to the clinically established prognostic factors. Taken together, these studies add knowledge to the current understanding of cervical cancer prevention strategies and prognosis of cervical cancer, and serve as a basis for evidence-based decision-making and policy changes in the future

Observations and Problems in Researching the Contemporary Glass-Bead Industry of Northern China

The status of glass-bead manufacturing in northern China is undergoing rapid change due to the development of the plastic-bead industry. Several manufacturing plants, including the large Beijing Glass Ware Factory, are no longer making beads and several other plants are contemplating changes. The variety of domestic glass beads available for purchase today would indicate a greater number of manufacturing sites than are mentioned in the popular literature

The Formation Mechanism of House Price Differences in China’s Urban Area in the Same City—Based on Lasso Bayesian Model Averaging Method

With the development of economy and the expansion of urban scale, the variation of housing prices within Chinese cities has gradually become significant. Based on the housing prices of 79 districts in Chengdu, this paper analyzes the reasons for such differences. With an index system of the price difference of locational housing, a semi-log linear regression Lasso Bayesian average model is constructed, which can realize variable selection while estimating coefficients. Empirical evidence shows that the inequality of social-economic resources and the imbalance of housing supply and demand in the area are important internal factors that lead to the difference in housing prices between areas within the city; the related housing prices have an extremely significant positive impact, showing that the mobility of the place of purchase and the contagion of the house price are the main reasons for housing price; in addition, influential factors have strong positive interaction effects

The Effect of Different Presentations on English Words Retention of Chinese Learners of English

The authors of the present paper carried out some experiments of different presentations of English words (context, image and semantic field) so as to observe the effects of different presentations upon the memory retention of Chinese learners of English. The subjects of the experiments were 36 non-English majors from North China Electric Power University. The words used in the experiments were 45 English words selected from the glossary in the Band Eight Syllabus for English Majors, published by the Ministry of Education. The data from the experiments were mainly obtained through one immediate test and two delayed tests. After the experiments, the researchers interviewed several subjects to gain more feedback and further information. The results of the study show that image presentation is the most effective on short-term memory, and that context presentation is the most effective on long-term memory. Keywords: English words; presentation; image; context; semantic field; effect; Chinese learners of Englis

Industry Interactions and Their Influence on Dreams, Goals, Work Interests, and Vocational Attitude of Sport Industry Job Seekers

The sport industry is filled with passionate job seekers (e.g., Todd & Andrew, 2008) who often craft lofty future work desires and idyllic dreams (Odio et al., 2014). But little is known about how these are shaped over time. Previous studies noted how plans of sport job seekers often change after encountering realistic information about the actual work in sport (Koo et al., 2016; Todd & Magnusen, 2014). This urges a closer examination of the way in which sport job seekers interact with the industry in a continuous, iterative way, and how that impacts vocational attitude and imaginations. Findings suggest that industry interaction are positively related to job seeker’s future work self, career identity, career optimism, and negatively related to career reconsideration. Implications to sport industry human resource managers are discussed

Fault diagnosis of electro-mechanical actuator based on WPD-STFT time-frequency entropy and PNN

Electro-mechanical actuators (EMAs) are increasingly being used as critical actuation devices of the aircraft. It will cause serious accidents once the fault of EMAs occurs, thus the fault diagnosis of EMAs is essential to maintain the normal operation of aircraft. In this paper, a method based on WPD-STFT time-frequency entropy and PNN is proposed to achieve fault diagnosis of EMAs by processing the vibration signals collected by the accelerometer installed in the EMAs. Firstly, the vibration signals are decomposed by wavelet packet to obtain the signal components of different frequency bands, the signal components are subjected to STFT and spectrograms are obtained. Then, time-frequency entropy is calculated and combined with principal component analysis (PCA) for dimension reduction as the feature vector. Finally, the probabilistic neural network (PNN) classifier is introduced to classify the fault modes. The experimental result shows that this method can accomplish the accurate fault diagnosis of EMAs. Moreover, the performance of the proposed WPD-STFT time-frequency entropy method has an advantage over that of WPD-PCA method or STFT combined with mass-moment entropy method for feature extraction

Dissecting the genome-wide evolution and function of R2R3-MYB transcription factor family in Rosa chinensis

Rosa chinensis, an important ancestor species of Rosa hybrida, the most popular ornamental plant species worldwide, produces flowers with diverse colors and fragrances. The R2R3-MYB transcription factor family controls a wide variety of plant-specific metabolic processes, especially phenylpropanoid metabolism. Despite their importance for the ornamental value of flowers, the evolution of R2R3-MYB genes in plants has not been comprehensively characterized. In this study, 121 predicted R2R3-MYB gene sequences were identified in the rose genome. Additionally, a phylogenomic synteny network (synnet) was applied for the R2R3-MYB gene families in 35 complete plant genomes. We also analyzed the R2R3-MYB genes regarding their genomic locations, Ka/Ks ratio, encoded conserved motifs, and spatiotemporal expression. Our results indicated that R2R3-MYBs have multiple synteny clusters. The RcMYB114a gene was included in the Rosaceae-specific Cluster 54, with independent evolutionary patterns. On the basis of these results and an analysis of RcMYB114a-overexpressing tobacco leaf samples, we predicted that RcMYB114a functions in the phenylpropanoid pathway. We clarified the relationship between R2R3-MYB gene evolution and function from a new perspective. Our study data may be relevant for elucidating the regulation of floral metabolism in roses at the transcript level