Consumer-Citizens of China

This book presents a comprehensive examination of Chinese consumer behaviour and challenges the previously dichotomous interpretation of the consumption of Western and non-Western brands in China. The dominant position is that Chinese consumers are driven by a desire to imitate the lifestyles of Westerners and thereby advance their social standing locally. The alternative is that consumers reject Western brands as a symbolic gesture of loyalty to their nation-state. Drawing from survey responses and in depth interviews with Chinese consumers in both rural and urban areas, Kelly Tian and Lily Dong find that consumers situate Western brands within select historical moments. This embellishment attaches historical meanings to Western brands in ways that render them useful in asserting preferred visions of the future China. By highlighting how Western brands are used in contests for national identity, Consumer-Citizens of China challenges the notion of the "patriot’s paradox" and answers scholars’ questions as to whether Chinese nationalists today allow for a Sino-Western space where the Chinese can love China without hating the West. Consumer-Citizens of China will be of interest to students and scholars of business studies, Chinese and Asian Studies and Political Science. Kelly Tian is Professor of Marketing and holds the Anderson Chair of Business at New Mexico State University. Lily Dong is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. Chapter One IMAGINING CHINA, IMAGINING BRANDS: Foreign Brands as Global Brands from the Imagined West; Western and Domestic Brands As Materials for Realizing an Imagined Future China; Obscured State Influence and Consumer Autonomy; Organization of the Book Chapter Two RETHINKING POPULAR NOTIONS OF CHINESE CONSUMERS’ MOTIVES FOR RESPONDING TO WESTERN BRANDS: The Emulative Motive For Western Brand Consumption; The Patriotic Motive for Rejecting Western Brands; Rethinking the Primacy of the Emulative Motive for Consuming Western Brands; Rethinking "Consumer Nationalism" as Synonymous with Western Brand Boycotting; Chinese Consumers as Active Meaning Makers Chapter Three HIGHLIGHTED MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF BRANDED GOODS IN CHINA: The Emergence of Branded Goods in Late Imperial China; Branded Goods in Semi-colonial China of the Early 20 th Century; Branded Goods Since Gaige Kaifang- China’s Economic Reform; Relevance of These Past Moments to Present-Day Brand Meanings Chapter Four FOREIGN BRANDS IN CHINA AS GLOBAL BRANDS FROM THE IMAGINED WEST: Overview of Research Method; Data Collection Sites; Our Data Collection Methods; Foreign Brands as Western Brands With Distinguishing Characteristics Chapter Five CHINESE NATIONAL NARRATIVES AND THE MEANINGS OF WESTERN BRANDS: The West as Experiential Venue, Western Brands as Instruments of Freedom; The West as Imperialist Oppressor, Western Brands as Instruments of Domination; The West as Subjugated, Conquered Western Brands as Redemption; The West as Economic Partner, Western Brands as Instruments of Economic Progress Chapter Six NATIONAL NARRATIVES IN IMAGINATIVE PROCESSING OF WESTERN BRAND PROMOTIONS: Imagined Consumption; Western Brand Producers’ Efforts to Evoke Consumption Fantasies; Individual Psychological Processes of Enlivening Consumption Fantasies; Narratives and Imagined Identity Transformations From Western Brand Consumption; The Influence of East-West Narratives On the Processing of Western Brands Promotions; Discussion Chapter Seven CITIZEN-CONSUMERS IN AN AGE OF GLOBALIZATIO

Optimal Data Distribution for Big-Data All-to-All Comparison using Finite Projective and Affine Planes

An All-to-All Comparison problem is where every element of a data set is compared with every other element. This is analogous to projective planes and affine planes where every pair of points share a common line. For large data sets, the comparison computations can be distributed across a cluster of computers. All-to-All Comparison does not fit the highly successful Map-Reduce pattern, so a new distributed computing framework is required. The principal challenge is to distribute the data in such a way that computations can be scheduled where the data already lies. This paper uses projective planes, affine planes and balanced incomplete block designs to design data distributions and schedule computations. The data distributions based on these geometric and combinatorial structures achieve minimal data replication whilst balancing the computational load across the cluster

Near-Optimal Budgeted Data Exchange for Distributed Loop Closure Detection

Inter-robot loop closure detection is a core problem in collaborative SLAM (CSLAM). Establishing inter-robot loop closures is a resource-demanding process, during which robots must consume a substantial amount of mission-critical resources (e.g., battery and bandwidth) to exchange sensory data. However, even with the most resource-efficient techniques, the resources available onboard may be insufficient for verifying every potential loop closure. This work addresses this critical challenge by proposing a resource-adaptive framework for distributed loop closure detection. We seek to maximize task-oriented objectives subject to a budget constraint on total data transmission. This problem is in general NP-hard. We approach this problem from different perspectives and leverage existing results on monotone submodular maximization to provide efficient approximation algorithms with performance guarantees. The proposed approach is extensively evaluated using the KITTI odometry benchmark dataset and synthetic Manhattan-like datasets.Comment: RSS 2018 Extended Versio

WorldGPT: A Sora-Inspired Video AI Agent as Rich World Models from Text and Image Inputs

Several text-to-video diffusion models have demonstrated commendable capabilities in synthesizing high-quality video content. However, it remains a formidable challenge pertaining to maintaining temporal consistency and ensuring action smoothness throughout the generated sequences. In this paper, we present an innovative video generation AI agent that harnesses the power of Sora-inspired multimodal learning to build skilled world models framework based on textual prompts and accompanying images. The framework includes two parts: prompt enhancer and full video translation. The first part employs the capabilities of ChatGPT to meticulously distill and proactively construct precise prompts for each subsequent step, thereby guaranteeing the utmost accuracy in prompt communication and accurate execution in following model operations. The second part employ compatible with existing advanced diffusion techniques to expansively generate and refine the key frame at the conclusion of a video. Then we can expertly harness the power of leading and trailing key frames to craft videos with enhanced temporal consistency and action smoothness. The experimental results confirm that our method has strong effectiveness and novelty in constructing world models from text and image inputs over the other methods.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, 2 table

Unique prospects of graphene-based THz modulators

The modulation depth of 2-D electron gas (2DEG) based THz modulators using AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures with metal gates is inherently limited to < 30%. The metal gate not only attenuates the THz signal (> 90%) but also severely degrades the modulation depth. The metal losses can be significantly reduced with an alternative material with tunable conductivity. Graphene presents a unique solution to this problem due to its symmetric band structure and extraordinarily high mobility of holes that is comparable to electron mobility in conventional semiconductors. The hole conductivity in graphene can be electrostatically tuned in the graphene-2DEG parallel capacitor configuration, thus more efficiently tuning the THz transmission. In this work, we show that it is possible to achieve a modulation depth of > 90% while simultaneously minimizing signal attenuation to < 5% by tuning the Fermi level at the Dirac point in graphene.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Loss of survivin in intestinal epithelial progenitor cells leads to mitotic catastrophe and breakdown of gut immune homeostasis

A tightly regulated balance of proliferation and cell death of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) is essential for maintenance of gut homeostasis. Survivin is highly expressed during embryogenesis and in several cancer types, but little is known about its role in adult gut tissue. Here, we show that Survivin is specifically expressed in transit-amplifying cells and Lgr5(+) stem cells. Genetic loss of Survivin in IECs resulted in destruction of intestinal integrity, mucosal inflammation, and death of the animals. Survivin deletion was associated with decreased epithelial proliferation due to defective chromosomal segregation. Moreover, Survivin-deficient animals showed induced phosphorylation of p53 and H2AX and increased levels of cell-intrinsic apoptosis in IECs. Consequently, induced deletion of Survivin in Lgr5(+) stem cells led to cell death. In summary, Survivin is a key regulator of gut tissue integrity by regulating epithelial homeostasis in the stem cell niche

Neuronal ICAM-5 Inhibits Microglia Adhesion and Phagocytosis and Promotes an Anti-inflammatory Response in LPS Stimulated Microglia

The intercellular adhesion molecule-5 (ICAM-5) regulates neurite outgrowth and synaptic maturation. ICAM-5 overexpression in the hippocampal neurons induces filopodia formation in vitro. Since microglia are known to prune supernumerous synapses during development, we characterized the regulatory effect of ICAM-5 on microglia. ICAM-5 was released as a soluble protein from N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA)-treated neurons and bound by microglia. ICAM-5 promoted down-regulation of adhesion and phagocytosis in vitro. Microglia formed large cell clusters on ICAM-5-coated surfaces whereas they adhered and spread on the related molecule ICAM-1. ICAM-5 further reduced the secretion of the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor a (TNF-alpha) and interleukin 1 beta (IL-1 beta), but on the contrary induced the secretion of the antiinflammatory IL-10 from lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated microglia. Thus, ICAM-5 might be involved in the regulation of microglia in both health and disease, playing an important neuroprotective role when the brain is under immune challenges and as a "don't-eat-me" signal when it is solubilized from active synapses.Peer reviewe

UnifiedVisionGPT: Streamlining Vision-Oriented AI through Generalized Multimodal Framework

In the current landscape of artificial intelligence, foundation models serve as the bedrock for advancements in both language and vision domains. OpenAI GPT-4 has emerged as the pinnacle in large language models (LLMs), while the computer vision (CV) domain boasts a plethora of state-of-the-art (SOTA) models such as Meta's SAM and DINO, and YOLOS. However, the financial and computational burdens of training new models from scratch remain a significant barrier to progress. In response to this challenge, we introduce UnifiedVisionGPT, a novel framework designed to consolidate and automate the integration of SOTA vision models, thereby facilitating the development of vision-oriented AI. UnifiedVisionGPT distinguishes itself through four key features: (1) provides a versatile multimodal framework adaptable to a wide range of applications, building upon the strengths of multimodal foundation models; (2) seamlessly integrates various SOTA vision models to create a comprehensive multimodal platform, capitalizing on the best components of each model; (3) prioritizes vision-oriented AI, ensuring a more rapid progression in the CV domain compared to the current trajectory of LLMs; and (4) introduces automation in the selection of SOTA vision models, generating optimal results based on diverse multimodal inputs such as text prompts and images. This paper outlines the architecture and capabilities of UnifiedVisionGPT, demonstrating its potential to revolutionize the field of computer vision through enhanced efficiency, versatility, generalization, and performance. Our implementation, along with the unified multimodal framework and comprehensive dataset, is made publicly available at https://github.com/LHBuilder/SA-Segment-Anything.Comment: 9 pages, 29 figure

The DNA Helicase Activity of BLM Is Necessary for the Correction of the Genomic Instability of Bloom Syndrome Cells

Bloom syndrome (BS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by growth deficiency, immunodeficiency, genomic instability, and the early development of cancers of many types. BLM, the protein encoded by BLM, the gene mutated in BS, is localized in nuclear foci and absent from BS cells. BLM encodes a DNA helicase, and proteins from three missense alleles lack displacement activity. BLM transfected into BS cells reduces the frequency of sister chromatid exchanges and restores BLM in the nucleus. Missense alleles fail to reduce the sister chromatid exchanges in transfected BS cells or restore the normal nuclear pattern. BLM complements a phenotype of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae sgs1 top3 strain, and the missense alleles do not. This work demonstrates the importance of the enzymatic activity of BLM for its function and nuclear localization pattern