Imagining the Supernatural Grotesque: Paintings of Zhong Kui and Demons in the Late Southern Song (1127-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) Dynasties

This dissertation is the first focused study of images of demons and how they were created and received at the turn of the Southern Song and Yuan periods of China. During these periods, China was in a state of dynastic crisis and transition, and the presence of foreign invaders, the rise of popular culture, the development of popular religion, as well as the advancement of commerce and transportation provided new materials and incentives for painting the supernatural grotesque. Given how widely represented they are in a variety of domains that include politics, literature, theater, and ritual, the Demon Queller Zhong Kui and his demons are good case studies for the effects of new social developments on representations of the supernatural grotesque. Through a careful iconological analysis of three of the earliest extant handscroll paintings that depict the mythical exorcist Zhong Kui travelling with his demonic entourage, this dissertation traces the iconographic sources and uncovers the multivalent cultural significances behind the way grotesque supernatural beings were imagined. Most studies of paintings depicting Zhong Kui focus narrowly on issues of connoisseurship, concentrate on the painter's intent, and prioritize political metaphors in the paintings. This study expands understanding of these images by contextualizing them within contemporary beliefs in the supernatural world, which are reconstructed through a heterodox array of thirteenth-century sources encompassing nuo exorcist rituals, physiognomy manuals, joke books, codes of law, and writings on weddings. This study also examines the psychological impact images of grotesque supernatural beings had on their pre-modern viewers by analyzing original translations of inscriptions written in response to these paintings. This study reveals that paintings depicting Zhong Kui are heavily influenced by religious, social, and cultural currents at the time, despite their better-known political readings; that images of demons share interesting iconographic traits with portrayals of humans of foreign origins and in abject conditions; that and that aside from provoking feelings of disgust and fear, demons served as comic relief and spectacles in paintings which had been largely interpreted as moralistic. This study fills a gap in Chinese demonology--which had focused largely on visual and textual sources before the Six Dynasties and after the Ming dynasty--by examining images of demonic creatures from the Song and Yuan periods. It enriches cross-cultural studies of monsters and the monstrous by offering an analysis of comparable Chinese examples. It contributes to studies of Song-Yuan painting by focusing on a category of images that have been understudied because they were at odds with literati taste. Finally, it adds to scholarship on Zhong Kui by offering new readings on three well-known paintings of the Demon Queller and synthesizing studies on him in literature, religion, and folklore

THE DISCRIMINATION OF BARBELL WEIGHT FOR WEIGHTLIFTERS

Ten college weightlifters were recruited in this study. The standard barbell weight (Ws) of each participant was set at 80% of personal best snatch record. The test barbell weights that include Ws, Ws+-1kg, Ws+-2kg, and Ws+-5kg were given randomly, then each lifter was asked to identify the difference between the test weight and standard weight. The discrimination was over 86% when the test weight was Ws+-5kg. For the test weight equal to the standard weight, the discrimination was significantly less than that of other test weights (p less than 01). Based on the results, the weightlifter seems to have good discrimination in the barbell mass at the difference of 5 kg. It seems that they could not be aware of the slight difference (ex: less than 2kg) of barbell mass by 80% of their best snatch record

Effects of ranibizumab on human corneal endothelial cells

AbstractPurposeThis study aims to evaluate corneal endothelial changes occurring over a 3-month period after intravitreal injections of ranibizumab in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration.MethodsThis is a prospective case series. A total of 29 patients (29 eyes) received a 0.5-mg intravitreal injection of ranibizumab. Specular microscopy, including measurement of central corneal thickness and endothelial cell count, was performed on each patient prior to and after completing three intravitreal injections.ResultsAll patients received three intravitreal injections and were followed up for a mean of 3 months. There was no significant change in corneal thickness (p = 0.32) or endothelial cell density (p = 0.38) after ranibizumab injections.ConclusionIntravitreal ranibizumab injections (0.5 mg) have no harmful effects on corneal endothelial cells

Stepwise Increases in Left Ventricular Mass Index and Decreases in Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction Correspond with the Stages of Chronic Kidney Disease in Diabetes Patients

Aims. Patients with diabetic nephropathy are reported to have a high prevalence of left ventricular structural and functional abnormalities. This study was designed to assess the determinants of left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in diabetic patients at various stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods. This cross-sectional study enrolled 285 diabetic patients with CKD stages 3 to 5 from our outpatient department of internal medicine. Clinical and echocardiographic parameters were compared and analyzed. Results. We found a significant stepwise increase in LVMI (P < 0.001), LVH (P < 0.001), and LVEF <55% (P = 0.013) and a stepwise decrease in LVEF (P = 0.038) corresponding to advance in CKD stages. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that increases in LVMI and decreases in LVEF coincide with advances in CKD stages in patients with diabetes

Genotoxicity Assessment of Multispecies Probiotics Using Reverse Mutation, Mammalian Chromosomal Aberration, and Rodent Micronucleus Tests

Genotoxicity assessment is carried out on freeze dried powder of cultured probiotics containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus LCR177, Bifidobacterium adolescentis BA286, and Pediococcus acidilactici PA318. Ames tests, in vitro mammalian chromosome aberration assay, and micronucleus tests in mouse peripheral blood are performed. For 5 strains of Salmonella Typhimurium, the Ames tests show no increased reverse mutation upon exposure to the test substance. In CHO cells, the frequency of chromosome aberration does not increase in responding to the treatment of probiotics. Likewise, the frequency of micronucleated reticulocytes in probiotics-fed mice is indistinguishable from that in the negative control group. Taken together, the toxicity assessment studies suggest that the multispecies probiotic mixture does not have mutagenic effects on various organisms

Effects of human parvovirus B19 VP1 unique region protein on macrophage responses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Activity of secreted phospholipase A (sPLA2) has been implicated in a wide range of cellular responses. However, little is known about the function of human parvovirus B19-VP1 unique region (VP1u) with sPLA2 activity on macrophage.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To investigate the roles of B19-VP1u in response to macrophage, phospholipase A2 activity, cell migration assay, phagocytosis activity, metalloproteinase assay, RT-PCR and immunoblotting were performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the present study, we report that migration, phagocytosis, IL-6, IL-1β mRNA, and MMP9 activity are significantly increased in RAW264.7 cells by B19-VP1u protein with sPLA2 activity, but not by B19-VP1uD175A protein that is mutated and lacks sPLA2 activity. Additionally, significant increases of phosphorylated ERK1/2 and JNK proteins were detected in macrophages that were treated with B19-VP1u protein, but not when they were treated with B19-VP1uD175A protein.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Taken together, our experimental results suggest that B19-VP1u with sPLA2 activity affects production of IL-6, IL-1β mRNA, and MMP9 activity, possibly through the involvement of ERK1/2 and JNK signaling pathways. These findings could provide clues in understanding the role of B19-VP1u and its sPLA2 enzymatic activity in B19 infection and B19-related diseases.</p

The Impacts Of Presentation Modes And Product Involvements On “Line” Short Message Service (SMS) Advertising Effectiveness

In today’s ubiquitous commerce (UC) era, short message service (SMS) advertisement has played an important role in the world of marketing. Convenience and economical reasons influence SMS usage frequency along with social involvement to influence attitudes towards SMS advertising. SMS advertising creates numerous opportunities for the marketers in promoting their products effectively. Adopting the competition for attention theory as the theoretical framework, we developed hypotheses to investigate the influences of presentation mode and involvement on SMS advertising performance (recall of advertising information). An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of three types of information presentation modes (text-only, image-text, and emoji-text) in the contexts of two product types (high- versus low-involvement products) in the “LINE” SMS environment. Specifically, in this current study, we allocate participants to six experimental environments (text-only for high-involvement products, text-only for low-involvement products, image-text for high-involvement products, image-text for low-involvement products, emoji-text for high-involvement products and emoji-text for low-involvement products) randomly to collected empirical data to examine the proposed hypotheses. The research findings are expected to provide instrumental guidelines for the practitioners to better achieve the goals of ads in the “LINE” SMS environment. Also, the empirical results may provide insights into the research of advertising interface design of SMS and integrating efforts from cognitive science and vision research to understand users’ involvement of SMS advertising processes

Preventive and therapeutic role of traditional Chinese herbal medicine in hepatocellular carcinoma

AbstractHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most prevalent malignancies worldwide. The clinical management of HCC remains a substantial challenge. Although surgical resection of tumor tissues seems promising, a high recurrence and/or metastasis rate accounting for disease-related death has led to an urgent need for improved postsurgical preventive/therapeutic clinical intervention. Developing advanced target-therapy agents such as sorafenib appears to be the only effective clinical intervention for patients with HCC to date, but only limited trials have been conducted in this regard. Because of their enhanced preventive/therapeutic effects, traditional Chinese herbal medicine (CHM)-derived compounds are considered suitable agents for HCC treatment. The CHM-derived compounds also possess multilevel, multitarget, and coordinated intervention effects, making them ideal candidates for inhibition of tumor progression and HCC metastasis. This article reviews the anticancer activity of various CHMs with the hope of providing a better understanding of how to best use CHM for HCC treatment

Space Net Optimization

Most metaheuristic algorithms rely on a few searched solutions to guide later searches during the convergence process for a simple reason: the limited computing resource of a computer makes it impossible to retain all the searched solutions. This also reveals that each search of most metaheuristic algorithms is just like a ballpark guess. To help address this issue, we present a novel metaheuristic algorithm called space net optimization (SNO). It is equipped with a new mechanism called space net; thus, making it possible for a metaheuristic algorithm to use most information provided by all searched solutions to depict the landscape of the solution space. With the space net, a metaheuristic algorithm is kind of like having a ``vision'' on the solution space. Simulation results show that SNO outperforms all the other metaheuristic algorithms compared in this study for a set of well-known single objective bound constrained problems in most cases.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure