Cut-out: music, profanity, and subcultural politics in 1990s China

This thesis examines the subcultural politics of the “cut-out generation” in 1990s China. It is driven by a double aspiration, and aims to bridge gaps in two main fields of literature. The first aspiration is a historical one: I offer a fine historical account of the “cut-out generation” as a slice of 1990s Chinese society, which remained overlooked in Chinese studies. The second aspiration is a theoretical one: I interrogate existing theories and concepts in the larger field of cultural studies, including music and materiality, subculture and profanity, regime of value and structure of feeling, with evidence found in this Chinese case, and point toward a comprehensive framework for the analysis of subcultural politics. The methodological approach consists of 72 in-depth life history interview and archival analysis of a “cut-out archive”, both conducted through an “ethnographic imagination” lens. The thesis unpacks subcultural politics by looking into the materiality of subcultural objects, the sensuous interactions between people and things, and the dialectical interplay between a subculture and its historical, structural settings. It has three main empirical foci corresponding to each empirical chapter and organized under three theoretical themes: politics of value, dialectics of profanity, and structure of feeling. The first empirical chapter (politics of value) investigates three contested materialities of the cut-outs as plastic scrap, defective records, and “music info”, demonstrating in this way the different regimes of value which the cut-outs travelled through. The second one (dialectics of profanity) reveals how the cut-outs became a music object whose profanity was realized in various sensuous and creative relationships formed with Chinese consumers. The last empirical chapter (structure of feeling) provides a historicized analysis of the structure of feeling of the “cut-out generation”, which functioned as an affective infrastructure which both “emerged” from and “penetrated” the historical context of 1990s China

The Directional Transport of Self-Propelled Ellipsoidal Particles Confined in 2D Channel

Transport phenomenon of self-propelled ellipsoidal particles confined in a smooth corrugated channel with a two-dimensional asymmetric potential and Gaussian colored noise is investigated. Effects of the channel, potential and coloured noise are discussed. The moving direction changes from along x axis to opposite x axis with increasing load f. Proper size of pore is good at the directional transport, but too large or too small pore size will inhibit the transport speed. Large x axis noise intensity will inhibit the directional transport phenomena. Proper y axis noise intensity will help to the directional transport. Transport reverse phenomenon appears with increasing self-propelled speed v0. Perfect sphere particle is more easier for directional transport than needlelike ellipsoid particle

Velocity distribution characteristics and parametric sensitivity analysis of liquid nitrogen jet

Liquid nitrogen is expected to be used as a jet medium in petroleum engineering because of its cryogenic and non-polluting characteristics. To identify the velocity distribution characteristics of liquid nitrogen jet, a computational fluid dynamics model was built by coupling the equations for nitrogen properties. The velocity and pressure distributions of liquid nitrogen jet were analyzed by comparing them with water jet ones. Meanwhile, the influences of relevant parameters on the centerline velocity distributions of liquid nitrogen jet were researched as well. The simulation results showed that the liquid nitrogen jet not only displayed higher velocity but also presented fewer kinetic energy losses than the water jet during jetting process. The nozzle outlet velocity of liquid nitrogen jet was increased by increasing the nozzle pressure drop, and was slightly influenced by confining pressure and nozzle diameter. In the external space of the nozzle, the attenuation amplitude of centerline velocity was decreased with the growth of nozzle diameter, and was slightly influenced by nozzle pressure drop and confining pressure. This study is expected to provide a theoretical guide for parametric design of liquid nitrogen jet

Where PI3K/Akt Meets Smads: The Crosstalk Determines Human Embryonic Stem Cell Fate

Coordinated interactions between signaling networks govern the balance of cell fate decisions in human embryonic stem cells. In this issue, Singh et al. (2012) report that PI3K/Akt signaling switches Activin/Smad activity between pro-self-renewal and prodifferentiation by regulating ERK and GSK3β/β-catenin signaling

Further-Adjusted Long-Term Temperature Series in China Based on MASH

A set of homogenized monthly mean surface air temperature (SAT) series at 32 stations in China back to the 19th century had previously been developed based on the RHtest method by Cao et al., but some inhomogeneities remained in the dataset. The present study produces a further-adjusted and updated dataset based on the Multiple Analysis of Series for Homogenization (MASH) method. The MASH procedure detects 33 monthly temperature records as erroneous outliers and 152 meaningful break points in the monthly SAT series since 1924 at 28 stations. The inhomogeneous parts are then adjusted relative to the latest homogeneous part of the series. The new data show significant warming trends during 1924–2016 at all the stations, ranging from 0.48 to 3.57°C (100 yr)−1, with a regional mean trend of 1.65°C (100 yr)−1; whereas, the previous results ranged from a slight cooling at two stations to considerable warming, up to 4.5°C (100 yr)−1. It is suggested that the further-adjusted data are a better representation of the large-scale pattern of climate change in the region for the past century. The new data are available online at http://www.dx.doi.org/10.11922/sciencedb.516

Cholesterol Derivatives Based Charged Liposomes for Doxorubicin Delivery: Preparation, In Vitro and In Vivo Characterization

Cholesterol plays a critical role in liposome composition. It has great impact on the behavior of liposome in vitro and in vivo. In order to verify the possible effects from cholesterol charge, surface shielding and chemical nature, two catalogs of liposomes with charged and PEGylated cholesterols were synthesized. Anionic liposomes (AL) and cationic liposomes (CL) were prepared, with charges from hemisuccinate and lysine in cholesterol derivatives, respectively. Characteristics of different formulated liposomes were investigated after doxorubicin encapsulation, using neutral liposomes (NL) as control. Results showed that after PEGylation, AL and CL liposomes displayed prolonged retention release profile, while kept similar size distribution, encapsulation efficiency, low cytotoxicity and hemolysis comparing with NL. Confocal laser scanning microscopy and flow cytometry experiments confirmed the significantly higher cell uptake from AL and CL vesicles than the NL in mouse breast carcinoma and melanoma cells, human epithelial carcinoma and hepatoma cells. It was in accordance with our corresponding cellular mortality studies of DOX-loaded liposomes. The in vivo anti-tumor effect experiments from charged liposomes also presented much higher tumor inhibition effect (70% vs 45%, p \u3c 0.05) than NL liposomes. This is the first time reporting anti-cancer effect from charged cholesterol liposome with/without PEGylation. It may give deeper understanding on the liposome formulation which is critical for liposome associated drug research and development