New approaches in the engineering and characterization of macromolecular interfaces across the length scales: applications to hydrophobic and stimulus responsive polymers

The aim of the present Thesis is to enhance characterization and surface engineering approaches to test and control physico-chemical changes on modified hydrophobic (LDPE and PDMS) and stimulus-responsive (PFS) polymers across different length scales. [Here LDPE denotes low density polyethylene, PDMS stands for poly(dimethylsiloxane), and PFS for poly (ferrocenyldimethylsilanes)]. Efforts have been made to design and engineer desired surface properties of selected polymers and to characterize the chemical composition, electrokinetic and mechanical properties by various experimental techniques from the nano to the meso scale. Furthermore, a comparison of these techniques has been carried out in order to understand the aforementioned issues

GLOBAL ASSIMILATION AND GLOBAL ALIENATION: LIVES OF PROFESSIONAL WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA

This dissertation examines the careers and family lives of "professional, white-collar women" in contemporary China in order to understand the ways in which labor markets, state policies, and gender expectations affect these women's lives in an era of rapid globalization. Drawing on multidisciplinary methods including in-depth interviews with twenty women, content analyses of the biweekly, pop-culture magazine Zhiyin, and the literary analyses of two feminist novels, Wei Hui's Shanghai Baby (2001), and Mian Mian's Candy (2003), I discuss how professional women articulate the meaning of their careers and their family lives, and make sense of their experiences as part of China's path to globalization. Analyzing the ways that professional women construct themselves as "women,"--complying with traditional ideologies of womanhood that historically devalued their achievements in the workplace--I interrogate a category of identity, "professional white-collar women." Thus, I present how these "professional white-collar" women's experiences in their multinational workplaces show that their lives are intricately intertwined with the simultaneous process of being assimilated and alienated as a result of the globalization of China. By arguing that, for these women, instead of increasing their personal agency as independent individuals, their careers serve to develop their desire for materialism and capitalist modernity, I present the irony of China's participation in globalization

Role of Phytophthora infestans protease inhibitors and their target tomato proteases in disease

The oomycete Phytophthora infestans causes late blight, a reemerging and ravaging disease of potato and tomato. Data mining of genomic and cDNA sequences revealed that P. infestans evolved 18 extracellular protease inhibitor genes belonging to two major structural classes: (i) Kazal-like serine protease inhibitors (EPI1-14) and (ii) cystatin-like cysteine protease inhibitors (EPIC1-4). We hypothesize that P. infestans secretes proteins that inhibit host proteases and facilitate infection by protecting secreted P. infestans proteins from proteolytic degradation and/or by perturbing host defense signaling cascades that include proteolytic steps. Previous biochemical studies showed that both recombinant EPI1 and EPI10 inhibit and interact with the pathogenesis-related (PR) P69B subtilisin-like serine protease of tomato. We extended our biochemical analyses to EPIC1 and EPIC2 and found that EPIC1 and EPIC2B were unstable in tomato apoplastic fluids and were degraded by tomato P69B but EPI1 protected both proteins from degradation. Affinity purified P69B was sufficient to degrade EPIC1 and EPIC2B but not EPI1a, suggesting selectivity in degradation by P69B. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments revealed that EPIC2 interacts with a novel papain-like extracellular cysteine protease, termed Phytophthora Interacting Protein 1 (PIP1). The interaction was further confirmed by coimmunoprecipitation using in planta expressed PIP1 protein. Altogether, our findings suggest that a cascade of inhibition of host proteases initiated by EPI1 occurs in the tomato apoplast during infection by P. infestans. In addition, this study provides biochemical evidence for a direct contribution of the PR protein P69B subtilase to defense through the degradation of proteins from invading pathogens.National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, grant number # 2005-35319-15305

The Role of Universal Grammar in Second Language Acquisition from the Perspective of Chinese Acquiring English Reflexives

In China, the second language learning has always played an important role in primary and higher education. The issue of how children acquire the second language has experienced a boom in China over the past decade as the proficiency of a person’s English level mainly depends on its acquisition in primary stage. The main focus of this paper is to examine the role of UG in the second language acquisition and to what extent it plays in the process. To illustrate this, the four access hypotheses were given firstly. In addition, the role of UG from the aspect of Chinese learners’ acquiring the English reflexives was discussed. In this section, the importance of analyzing the reflexives and the different features of them in Chinese and English were exhibited