Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation empirically explores the association between filial norms, the parent-child relationship, intergenerational support, and older parents' well-being, all in the Chinese context. Specifically, there were four questions of interest: Are filial norms associated with giving support to and receiving support from older parents? Does the parent-child relationship mediate the above association between filial norms and support? How are giving support, receiving support, and the balance of support related to the well-being of older parents? Do the parent-child relationship and filial norms help explain the relationship between intergenerational support and well-being? Data were taken from the family module in East Asian Social Survey 2006. Ordinary Least Square and ordinal logistic regression, factor loading analysis, and mediation and moderation tests were performed to answer these questions. Results largely confirmed the significant impact of filial norms and the parent-child relationship on intergenerational support and older parents' well-being. Filial expectations and patriarchy relate positively to both support received and support given, yet negatively link to older parents' well-being. Closeness and conflict within the parent-child relationship mediate the effect of patriarchy and moderate the effect of filial expectations on support. Closeness and less conflict in the parent-child relationship are associated with better well-being among parents. Results show that filial norms by older parents were highly endorsed in financial and emotional support exchanges, but not in instrumental support exchanges, which shows a(n) change/erosion of filial norms. Financial security, endorsement of patriarchy, and the parent-child relationship are three proximate factors for older parents' well-being

Institutionalization among the elderly in Japan and China: a comparative study

poste

MicroRNA-542 suppressed the proliferation of human glioma cells by targeting talin-2 (TLN2)

Purpose: To investigate the effect of miR-542 in the development of human glioma. Methods: The expressions of miR-542 and TLN2 in glioma cells and normal human astrocytes were determined using qRT-PCR, while MTT and colony formation assays were used to determine cell proliferation. Western blotting was used to determine protein expression. Results: It was revealed that miR-542 was significantly downregulated in glioma cells. Overexpression of miR-542 inhibited the proliferation and clonogenicity of glioma cells via induction of apoptosis. The percentage of apoptotic U87 cells increased from 5.32 in control to 26.76 upon miR-542 overexpression. Moreover, TLN2 was identified as the functional regulatory target of miR542 in glioma. The expression of TLN2 was markedly upregulated in human glioma cells. However, overexpression of miR-542 suppressed TLN2 expression. Silencing of TLN2 mimicked the tumor-suppressive effects of miR-542 in glioma cells, but this effect was blocked by TLN2 over-expression. Conclusion: These results suggest that miR-542 exerted glioma-suppressive effect, with TLN2 as its functional regulatory target. Keywords: Glioma; Proliferation; Micro-RNA; Tumorigenesis; MiR-542; Apoptosis; Prognosis; talin-2; Oncogen

Novel Sb−SnO2 Electrode with Ti3+ Self-Doped Urchin-Like Rutile TiO2 Nanoclusters as the Interlayer for the Effective Degradation of Dye Pollutants

Stable and efficient SnO2 electrodes are very promising for effectively degrading refractory organic pollutants in wastewater treatment. In this regard, we firstly prepared Ti3+ self-doped urchin-like rutile TiO2 nanoclusters (TiO2-xNCs) on a Ti mesh substrate by hydrothermal and electroreduction to serve as an interlayer for the deposition of Sb−SnO2. The TiO2-xNCs/Sb−SnO2 anode exhibited a high oxygen evolution potential (2.63 V vs. SCE) and strong ⋅OH generation ability for the enhanced amount of absorbed oxygen species. Thus, the degradation results demonstrated its good rhodamine B (RhB), methylene blue (MB), alizarin yellow R (AYR), and methyl orange (MO) removal performance, with the rate constant increased 5.0, 1.9, 1.9, and 4.7 times, respectively, compared to the control Sb−SnO2 electrode. RhB and AYR degradation mechanisms are also proposed based on the results of high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry and quenching experiments. More importantly, this unique rutile interlayer prolonged the anode lifetime sixfold, given its good lattice match with SnO2 and the three-dimensional concave–convex structure. Consequently, this work paves a new way for designing the crystal form and structure of the interlayers to obtain efficient and stable SnO2 electrodes for addressing dye wastewater problems

Perceptions of Violence against Women among College Students in the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam and China

Violence against women is a global health issue that threatens the health and human rights of women. Intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence are the most common forms of violence against women. While previous studies examined incidence of IPV and other forms of violence against women in the United States (US), little is known about variations in the perceptions of violence against women among college students in other countries. This study explored differences in perceptions of violence against women among college students in the US, Japan, India, Vietnam and China. A total of 1,136 college students from these countries participated in a self-administered survey in 2012-2013. The students’ perceptions about the prevalence of domestic violence is in their country varied across countries. Furthermore, more than half of the students across the countries perceived alcoholism and drug addiction to be causes of domestic violence against women. It was also found that the levels of knowledge about laws on domestic violence in their country varied among the students. These findings show the importance of understanding country level variations that may affect violence against women. The results of this study provide important insights by documenting cross country variations in students’ perceptions about violence against women that can provide helpful inputs in framing country-specific programs and policies to prevent violence against women. Keywords: Violence against women, perceptions, college students, the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, Chin

The change of intimate relationship between people with Alzheimer's disease and their adult child caregivers : An interpretative phenomenological analysis

This study aims to explore the change of intimate relationship between people with Alzheimer’s disease and their adult child caregivers as the disease progresses. Twelve adult child caregivers were recruited through purposive sampling. Explanatory phenomenological analysis was conducted to analyse data collected by semi-structured in-depth interviews. This study found a dynamically changing relationship between adult child caregivers and their parents with Alzheimer’s disease during care giving that evolved with the progress of the disease. The relationship was the most intimate in the middle stage of the disease for most caregivers and a new reciprocal relationship developed due to caregiving. Caregivers experienced different degrees of self-growth when providing care, though caregiver burdens were common. The positive experience and perception of caregivers were important for improving the quality of life for adult child caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease

Determining threshold values for root-soil water weighted plant water deficit index based smart irrigation

Trabajo desarrollado bajo la financiación del proyecto “Soil Hydrology research platform underpinning innovation to manage water scarcity in European and Chinese cropping Systems” (773903), coordinado por José Alfonso Gómez Calero, investigador del Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS).Plant water deficit index (PWDI) represents the extent of water stress by relating soil moisture to the ability of a plant to take up water including consideration of the relative distribution of soil water to roots. However, for a smart irrigation decision support system, we are challenged in determining reliable thresholds of PWDI to initiate irrigation events to achieve predetermined yield and/or water use efficiency (WUE) targets. Taking drip irrigated maize and sprinkler irrigated alfalfa as examples, field experiments were conducted to investigate the choice and effects of PWDI thresholds. The results indicated that, with increasing PWDI thresholds, irrigation times and quantity of water, as well as crop transpiration, growth, and yield, were all significantly limited while WUE was enhanced except under extremely stressed conditions. To disconnect the unpredictable effects of other factors, yield and WUE were normalized to their corresponding potential values. Within the experimentally determined range of PWDI, relative yield and WUE were described with linear functions for maize, and linear and quadratic functions for alfalfa, allowing identification of the most efficient threshold value according to the objective parameter of choice. The method described can be adopted in smart irrigation decision support systems with consideration of spatial variability and after further verification and improvement under more complicated situations with various crop types and varieties, environmental conditions, cultivation modes, and wider or dynamic PWDI thresholds allowing regulated deficit irrigation.This research was supported partly by National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFE0118100, 2016YFD0200303), National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1706211, 51790532), Special Fund for Scientific Research in the Public Interest (201411009), and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Project SHui, grant agreement No 773903.Peer reviewe

Observation of nonrelativistic plaid-like spin splitting in a noncoplanar antiferromagnet

Spatial, momentum and energy separation of electronic spins in condensed matter systems guides the development of novel devices where spin-polarized current is generated and manipulated. Recent attention on a set of previously overlooked symmetry operations in magnetic materials leads to the emergence of a new type of spin splitting besides the well-studied Zeeman, Rashba and Dresselhaus effects, enabling giant and momentum dependent spin polarization of energy bands on selected antiferromagnets independent of relativistic spin-orbit interaction. Despite the ever-growing theoretical predictions, the direct spectroscopic proof of such spin splitting is still lacking. Here, we provide solid spectroscopic and computational evidence for the existence of such materials. In the noncoplanar antiferromagnet MnTe$_2$, the in-plane components of spin are found to be antisymmetric about the high-symmetry planes of the Brillouin zone, comprising a plaid-like spin texture in the antiferromagnetic ground state. Such an unconventional spin pattern, further found to diminish at the high-temperature paramagnetic state, stems from the intrinsic antiferromagnetic order instead of the relativistic spin-orbit coupling. Our finding demonstrates a new type of spin-momentum locking with a nonrelativistic origin, placing antiferromagnetic spintronics on a firm basis and paving the way for studying exotic quantum phenomena in related materials.Comment: Version 2, 30 pages, 4 main figures and 8 supporting figure

Study on the Adaptive Utilization of Urban and Architectural Heritages under Urban Renewal from a Human-oriented Point of View -- Taking York and Pingyao as Examples

Book of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Definite Space – Fuzzy Responsibility, Prague, 13-16th July, 2015How to protect the urban and architectural heritages from being damaged and how to utilize and develop these heritages to satisfy the demand of people against the background of rapid economic and social development are two significant subjects in urgent need of solution. Taking Pingyao and York as examples, this paper studies the utilization of urban and architectural heritages under urban renewal from a human-oriented point of view. First of all, on the basis of the humanistic theory, urban renewal theory, urban and architectural heritage protection theory, this paper adopts the method of document research and theory deduction, to provide solutions for the protection of urban and architectural heritages under city renewal from the perspective of cognition. Secondly, by applying the comparative study and empirical study to compare and study the protection and utilization of urban and architectural heritages on national level, urban level (Pingyao and York), and on specific instances (the South Avenue of Pingyao and the Shambles of York) of Britain and China, this paper analyses and concludes different architectural utilization methods under different environments that are applicable to the development demand of human, so as to provide instruction and guidance for the protection and utilization of urban and architectural heritages.Published Versio