The Cult of the Individual: An Analysis of the Popularity of Astrology and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

In the modern individualist society, astrology and the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) are popular on the media and present a unique pattern of noninstitutional practices. However, there is few research stressing their sociological significance. This thesis argues that the popularity of astrology and MBTI are closely connected to the modern individualism. As a case study, the research focuses on online communities and adopts the Durkheimian theoretical approaches of religion, analyzing, interpreting, and comparing the two cultural products in theory, practice, and application. For both astrology and MBTI, enthusiasts embrace a set of theories promoting the independent self, utilize certain types of learning methods, and hold a pragmatic view about the applications in elucidating the self and providing guidance. In the time of scientific dominance, astrology and MBTI feature knowledge and inquisitiveness, the important characteristics of science, whereas they continue to take the different religious forms. Astrology is an individualistic religion that recognizes a mysterious external principle, while MBTI employs a totemic system that identifies people and suggests their actions. The coexistence of the two distinct religious form in terms of individualism in modern society needs to be further investigated in the future.No embargoAcademic Major: Sociolog

Research on the Function and Orientation of State-owned Power Grid Enterprises Serving the Modernization of National Governance

The modernization of national governance system requires State-owned power grid enterprises to fully fulfil the three major responsibilities of politics, economy and society. This paper discusses the specific roles that the power grid enterprises should play in the modernization of national governance. It is to help build a modern economic system, promote the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system, ensure and improve people's livelihood, and support government governance

Peer is Your Pillar: A Data-unbalanced Conditional GANs for Few-shot Image Generation

Few-shot image generation aims to train generative models using a small number of training images. When there are few images available for training (e.g. 10 images), Learning From Scratch (LFS) methods often generate images that closely resemble the training data while Transfer Learning (TL) methods try to improve performance by leveraging prior knowledge from GANs pre-trained on large-scale datasets. However, current TL methods may not allow for sufficient control over the degree of knowledge preservation from the source model, making them unsuitable for setups where the source and target domains are not closely related. To address this, we propose a novel pipeline called Peer is your Pillar (PIP), which combines a target few-shot dataset with a peer dataset to create a data-unbalanced conditional generation. Our approach includes a class embedding method that separates the class space from the latent space, and we use a direction loss based on pre-trained CLIP to improve image diversity. Experiments on various few-shot datasets demonstrate the advancement of the proposed PIP, especially reduces the training requirements of few-shot image generation.Comment: Under Revie

Shape-centered Representation Learning for Visible-Infrared Person Re-identification

Current Visible-Infrared Person Re-Identification (VI-ReID) methods prioritize extracting distinguishing appearance features, ignoring the natural resistance of body shape against modality changes. Initially, we gauged the discriminative potential of shapes by a straightforward concatenation of shape and appearance features. However, two unresolved issues persist in the utilization of shape features. One pertains to the dependence on auxiliary models for shape feature extraction in the inference phase, along with the errors in generated infrared shapes due to the intrinsic modality disparity. The other issue involves the inadequately explored correlation between shape and appearance features. To tackle the aforementioned challenges, we propose the Shape-centered Representation Learning framework (ScRL), which focuses on learning shape features and appearance features associated with shapes. Specifically, we devise the Shape Feature Propagation (SFP), facilitating direct extraction of shape features from original images with minimal complexity costs during inference. To restitute inaccuracies in infrared body shapes at the feature level, we present the Infrared Shape Restitution (ISR). Furthermore, to acquire appearance features related to shape, we design the Appearance Feature Enhancement (AFE), which accentuates identity-related features while suppressing identity-unrelated features guided by shape features. Extensive experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed ScRL. Achieving remarkable results, the Rank-1 (mAP) accuracy attains 76.1%, 71.2%, 92.4% (72.6%, 52.9%, 86.7%) on the SYSU-MM01, HITSZ-VCM, RegDB datasets respectively, outperforming existing state-of-the-art methods

Exploration of Problems and Key Points in Database Design in Software Development

Starting from the necessity and principles of database design, this article explores the optimization issues. Firstly, analyze the necessity of database design, elaborating on effective management, maintainability, resource utilization, and running speed; Then, a series of issues in database management were discussed, such as user management, data object design specifications, and overall design ideas; Finally, the optimization issues such as normalization rules, inter table redundancy handling, query optimization, indexing, and transactions were elaborated in detail. In the software development lifecycle, database design is indispensable. Its role is not only to ensure the safety and reliability of data, but also to ensure the overall stability and speed of the system. Strengthening the rationality and optimization of design is the key to improving software quality

Effect of astragaloside on vitamin d-receptor expression after endothelin-1-induced cardiomyocyte injury

Background: Astragaloside, which is one of the main components of Astragalus membranaceus, has been widely used in the treatment of congestive heart failure in China, and it can protect cardiomyocytes. Its mechanism of action remains unclear. Therefore, the present study was carried out to investigate the influence of astragaloside on rat cardiomyocytes stimulated with endothelin-1 (ET-1), and explored the underlying mechanism.Materials and Methods: ET-1 was used to stimulate primary rat cardiomyocytes and establish a cardiomyocyte hypertrophy model. Different astragaloside doses were administered in combination with ET-1. Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and apoptosis were examined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and flow cytometry, respectively. The molecular mechanism was explored by analyzing the mRNA of the vitamin D receptor (VDR), cytochrome P450 family 27 subfamily B member 1(CYP27B), cytochrome P450 family 24 subfamily A member 1(CYP24A) and renin mRNA levels by quantificational real-time polymerase chain reaction(qRT-PCR).Results: Rat cardiomyocyte hypertrophy model was established successfully. Astragaloside administration significantly affected cell apoptosis and significantly inhibited ET-1-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in a dose-dependent manner. Astragaloside treatment affected the expression of signaling molecules in the vitamin D axis.Conclusion: Astragaloside inhibits ET-1-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. This effect can be reversed by regulating the levels of the relevant factors in the vitamin D axis.Keywords: cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, Astragaloside, Vitamin D Receptor, reni

Alterations in the leaf lipidome of \u3ci\u3eBrassica carinata\u3c/i\u3e under high-temperature stress

Background: Brassica carinata (A) Braun has recently gained increased attention across the world as a sustainable biofuel crop. B. carinata is grown as a summer crop in many regions where high temperature is a significant stress during the growing season. However, little research has been conducted to understand the mechanisms through which this crop responds to high temperatures. Understanding traits that improve the high-temperature adaption of this crop is essential for developing heat-tolerant varieties. This study investigated lipid remodeling in B. carinata in response to high-temperature stress. A commercial cultivar, Avanza 641, was grown under sunlit-controlled environmental conditions in Soil-Plant-Atmosphere-Research (SPAR) chambers under optimal temperature (OT; 23/ 15°C) conditions. At eight days after sowing, plants were exposed to one of the three temperature treatments [OT, high-temperature treatment-1 (HT-1; 33/25°C), and high-temperature treatment-2 (HT-2; 38/30°C)]. The temperature treatment period lasted until the final harvest at 84 days after sowing. Leaf samples were collected at 74 days after sowing to profile lipids using electrospray-ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Results: Temperature treatment significantly affected the growth and development of Avanza 641. Both hightemperature treatments caused alterations in the leaf lipidome. The alterations were primarily manifested in terms of decreases in unsaturation levels of membrane lipids, which was a cumulative effect of lipid remodeling. The decline in unsaturation index was driven by (a) decreases in lipids that contain the highly unsaturated linolenic (18: 3) acid and (b) increases in lipids containing less unsaturated fatty acids such as oleic (18:1) and linoleic (18:2) acids and/or saturated fatty acids such as palmitic (16:0) acid. A third mechanism that likely contributed to lowering unsaturation levels, particularly for chloroplast membrane lipids, is a shift toward lipids made by the eukaryotic pathway and the channeling of eukaryotic pathway-derived glycerolipids that are composed of less unsaturated fatty acids into chloroplasts. Conclusions: The lipid alterations appear to be acclimation mechanisms to maintain optimal membrane fluidity under high-temperature conditions. The lipid-related mechanisms contributing to heat stress response as identified in this study could be utilized to develop biomarkers for heat tolerance and ultimately heat-tolerant varieties