Imagining the New Socialist Child: The Cultural Afterlife of the Child Martyr Wang Erxiao

Recent scholarship in modern Chinese studies has established the centrality of the figure of the child in modern configurations of nationhood. Yet very few studies have focused on the motif of child martyrdom and its place within Chinese socialist culture. By exploring the cultural afterlife of the socialist martyr Wang Erxiao in mid-twentieth-century China, this article shows how the heroic sacrificial death of the boy both powered and imperiled the Communist-led revolution and the construction of a new, socialist society. The author argues that, on the one hand, the figure of the socialist child martyr embodied the desire for the child to play a more active role in the Communist revolution and in the creation of a socialist utopia. On the other hand, in lionizing the heroic death of the child—the so-called revolutionary successor—stories like Wang Erxiao’s also posed an existential threat to the socialist community and brought to the fore tensions intrinsic to politicizing and aestheticizing the death of a child. By examining the relationship between children, violence, and sacrificial death, this article highlights the desires and anxieties embedded within the socialist project to create an image of the “new child.” Keywords: child martyrdom, Wang Erxiao, War of Resistance against Japan, socialist literature, Boy Scouts, Alain Badio

Romantic Relationships and Urban Modernity in the Writings of Han Bangqing and Zhang Ailing

Despite the vast amount of research done by Chinese and Western scholars on the writings of Han Bangqing (1854-1894) and, particularly, Zhang Ailing (1920-1995), there has been relatively little scholarship focusing on the connections between these two authors and their views on romance and urban modernity. This thesis seeks to address this problem by first exploring the connections between these two prominent Shanghai authors on three levels - personal, historical/cultural, and literary - and then examining how they portray romance and urban modernity in some of their pieces. In addition to Zhang Ailing's extensive translation work on Han Bangqing's Sing-song Girls of Shanghai, translating it first into Mandarin Chinese from the Wu dialect and then into English, a central connection between these two authors is the preeminent position of Shanghai in their writings. This thesis examines the culture and history of Shanghai and how it affected both writers. The thesis also focuses on the major themes and literary styles found in their works, which, as they exhibit a unique mixture of modern and traditional elements, is emblematic of the transitional periods in which they lived. To illustrate Han Bangqing and Zhang Ailing's similar views on romance, this study examines Han Bangqing's late Qing courtesan novel, Sing-song Girls of Shanghai (1892), and three of Zhang Ailing's representative pieces - "Sealed Off" (1943), "Red Rose, White Rose" (1944), and "Love in a Fallen City" (1943). By exploring these works, the thesis argues that Zhang Ailing's interpretation of the modern urban romantic experience was heavily influenced by Han Bangqing's novel. Similar to Han Bangqing's writing, Zhang Ailing's stories are generally devoid of lofty romantic sentiment. Instead, the modern pursuit of romance for both writers is prosaic and, at times, selfishly calculating. Finally, the thesis also focuses on the emergence of the modern urbanite, illustrated by the blatant imitation of Western ideas and customs by the courtesans and clients in the Sing-song Girls of Shanghai and concludes with an analysis of Zhang Ailing's desolate outlook on the state of the modern urbanite in her lifetime

Concordance groups of links

We define a notion of concordance based on Euler characteristic, and show that it gives rise to a concordance group of links in the 3-sphere, which has the concordance group of knots as a direct summand with infinitely generated complement. We consider variants of this using oriented and nonoriented surfaces as well as smooth and locally flat embeddings

Cre/lox generation of a novel whole-body Kiss1r KO mouse line recapitulates a hypogonadal, obese, and metabolically-impaired phenotype.

Kisspeptin and its receptor, Kiss1r, act centrally to stimulate reproduction. Recent evidence indicates that kisspeptin is also important for body weight and metabolism, as whole-body Kiss1r KO mice, developed with gene trap technology, display obesity and reduced metabolism. Kiss1r is expressed in brain and multiple peripheral tissues, but it is unknown which is responsible for the metabolic phenotype. Here, we sought to confirm that 1) the metabolic phenotype of the gene trap Kiss1r KOs is due to disruption of kisspeptin signaling and not off-target effects of viral mutagenesis, and 2) the Kiss1r flox line is suitable for creating conditional KOs to study the metabolic phenotype. We used Cre/lox technology (Zp3-Cre/Kiss1r flox) to develop a new global Kiss1r KO ("Kiss1r gKO") to compare with the original gene trap KO phenotype. We confirmed that deleting exon 2 of Kiss1r from the entire body induces hypogonadism in both sexes. Moreover, global deletion of Kiss1r induced obesity in females, but not males, along with increased adiposity and impaired glucose tolerance, similar to the gene trap Kiss1r KOs. Likewise, Kiss1r gKO females had decreased VO2 and VCO2, likely underlying their obesity. These findings support that our previous results in gene trap Kiss1r KOs are due to disrupted kisspeptin signaling, and further highlight a role for Kiss1r signaling in energy expenditure and metabolism besides controlling reproduction. Moreover, given Kiss1r expression in multiple cell-types, our findings indicate that the Kiss1r flox line is viable for future investigations to isolate specific target cells of kisspeptin's metabolic effects

Collaborative Two-Stage Testing: A “Less Sad and Intimidating” Way to Test

Traditional individual testing discourages collaboration, increases student anxiety, and does not provide timely and useful feedback. Two-stage tests are an alternative method of assessment that deepens learning while also promoting higher-order thinking skills, such as collaboration, communication, and peer instruction. In a two-stage test, students first complete and turn in the test individually and then, working in preassigned groups of 3 to 4, answer the same test questions again. The individual part of the test is weighted at 85%, while the group part is weighted at 15%. To encourage total participation and address concerns about fairness, students are told that their individual test score will not go down due to the group part. This teaching practice transforms traditional testing into a valuable collaborative learning experience that fully utilizes UNLV\u27s 75-minute class session and improves student perception of the course.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1186/thumbnail.jp

Active Vibration Reduction of Titanium Alloy Fan Blades (FAN1) Using Piezoelectric Materials

The NASA Glenn Research Center is developing smart adaptive structures to improve fan blade damping at resonances using piezoelectric (PE) transducers. In this paper, a digital resonant control technique emulating passive shunt circuits is used to demonstrate vibration reduction of FAN1 Ti real fan blade at the several target modes. Single-mode control and multi-mode control using one piezoelectric material are demonstrated. Also a conceptual study of how to implement this digital control system into the rotating fan blade is discussed

PRIMARY PREVENTION OF VERRUCA PLANTARIS THROUGH TOPICAL HERBAL AND VITAMIN DERIVATIVE

Objective: Verrucae plantaris (VP) results from environmental exposure to human papillomavirus causing plantar warts of the foot, resistantto treatment, and high recurrence rates. Current treatment paradigms focus on the treatment of lesions as opposed to primary prophylaxis. Wehypothesize that a topical combination of herbal supplement with anti-viral properties and a vitamin derivative* can be used prophylactically todecrease the primary incidence.Methods: We initiated a double-blinded clinical study with participants (n=282) randomization into control (lotion emollient only) (n=120),treatment (herbal and vitamin derivative) (n=110) and no treatment (NT) (n=52). Participants underwent examination of the feet at baseline (0months) to exclude VP lesions and were randomized to receive a bottle containing topical lotion with emollient only, control (C), lotion with an herbaland vitamin derivative, treatment (T), or NT, where participants did not apply anything to their feet. C and T participants applied lotion topically to thefeet once daily and were examined at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months to document the incidence of VP.Results: No incidence of VP occurred in the T group (0/110=0% incidence), two lesions in the C group (2/120=1.7% incidence), and five lesions inthe NT group (5/52=9.6% incidence).Conclusion: Treatments for VP rely on treating lesions after they occur, have high degrees of variability in success, risk of continued transmissionduring treatment, and have high rates of recurrence. Although the study number is relatively low, early indications show decreasing incidence ofVP from 9.6% in participants with NT to 1.7% in participants who used lotion only, suggesting increased health of the plantar epidermis, and 0%incidence in those participants applying topical herbal and vitamin derivative*. Additional study with increased numbers of participants is warranted

Cryptococcal aortitis

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27480/1/0000523.pd

Using Real Options Analysis for Evaluating Uncertain Investments in Information Technology: Insights from the ICIS 2001 Debate

Business and information systems (IS) executives continue to grapple with issues of risk and uncertainty in evaluating investments in information technology (IT). Despite the use of net present value (NPV) and other investment appraisal techniques, executives are often forced to rely on instinct when finalizing IT investment decisions. Recognizing the shortcomings of NPV, real options analysis has been suggested as an alternative approach, one that considers the risks associated with an investment while recognizing the ability of corporations to defer an investment until a later period or to make a partial investment instead. Responding to a growing interest in real options analysis among the IS community, a debate involving four prominent researchers was convened at the 2001 International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). In addition to offering a tutorial overview of real options, the goal of the debate was to assess the state of research in this area and to identify avenues for future research. This paper describes the outcomes of the debate, culminating in a series of research questions and topics that set the stage for future research in IT and real options analysis. A transcript of the debate and an overview of real options analysis are included as appendices