Encountering Christianity In Twentieth Century East Asia: A Case Study Of Jiang Wenhan And Takeda (Cho) Kiyoko

This study explores the twentieth-century Christian indigenization movement in East Asia through a case study of Jiang Wenhan of China and Takeda Kiyoko of Japan, two leading scholars and Christian activists in their respective countries. Drawing primarily on their own writings and recorded activities, both published and unpublished, my narratives include their interactions with Christian leaders and public intellectuals in six aspects – theological, missiological, political, ethical, sinological, and ecumenical – to pinpoint what social-political actions Asian Christians took in response to the unsettling changes and the ecumenical movements of their times. This study also highlights the historical encounters with Christianity in China and Japan to uncover the roles of Asian Christians in the reconstruction of Christianity in East Asia after World War II. It focuses on how Christianity, as a centerpiece of Western civilization, was perceived and received in China and Japan, each with its own distinctive culture, and how this “foreign” religion took root in Asia through confrontational encounters, including the global and the local process of cross-cultural transmission between the “universal” and the “particular” in confrontation, adaptation, competition, coexistence, and mutual influence. As part of globalization, Christian indigenization in East Asia sharpened the churches’ awareness of standing in a dynamic interaction within a multi-cultural and multi-religious society. The profound impact of state-religion hegemony in China and Japan not only created the unique characteristics of local churches and Christian communities but also made two important bases for Christianity: a non-denominational Three-Self church in China and the multi-denominational churches in Japan. From this point of view, Christianity, after repeated endeavors, has finally integrated into East Asian nations. In helping to transform Christianity into an indigenized Asian religion, Jiang Wenhan and Takeda Kiyoko, each in their own way, have made Christian faith more accessible to the common people and Christian churches more acceptable in society. Their interactions with each other and their practices in the indigenization movement, with their Sino-Japanese Christian solidarity crossing a broad terrain from Shanghai to Tokyo, stood as one of the most significant achievements of Asian Christianity in the twentieth century

Phasic cholinergic signaling promotes emergence of local gamma rhythms in excitatory–inhibitory networks

Recent experimental results have shown that the detection of cues in behavioral attention tasks relies on transient increases of acetylcholine (ACh) release in frontal cortex and cholinergically driven oscillatory activity in the gamma frequency band (Howe et al. Journal of Neuroscience, 2017, 37, 3215). The cue‐induced gamma rhythmic activity requires stimulation of M1 muscarinic receptors. Using biophysical computational modeling, we show that a network of excitatory (E) and inhibitory (I) neurons that initially displays asynchronous firing can generate transient gamma oscillatory activity in response to simulated brief pulses of ACh. ACh effects are simulated as transient modulation of the conductance of an M‐type K+ current which is blocked by activation of muscarinic receptors and has significant effects on neuronal excitability. The ACh‐induced effects on the M current conductance, gKs, change network dynamics to promote the emergence of network gamma rhythmicity through a Pyramidal‐Interneuronal Network Gamma mechanism. Depending on connectivity strengths between and among E and I cells, gamma activity decays with the simulated gKs transient modulation or is sustained in the network after the gKs transient has completely dissipated. We investigated the sensitivity of the emergent gamma activity to synaptic strengths, external noise and simulated levels of gKs modulation. To address recent experimental findings that cholinergic signaling is likely spatially focused and dynamic, we show that localized gKs modulation can induce transient changes of cellular excitability in local subnetworks, subsequently causing population‐specific gamma oscillations. These results highlight dynamical mechanisms underlying localization of ACh‐driven responses and suggest that spatially localized, cholinergically induced gamma may contribute to selectivity in the processing of competing external stimuli, as occurs in attentional tasks.Recent experiments showed that cholinergic signaling in the prefrontal cortex is fast and spatially localized in the context of attentional behavioral tasks. The cholinergic transients also generated gamma frequency oscillations that contributed to successful attentional performance. Using computational modeling, we show that transient cholinergic modulation of neural excitability induced the emergence of transient synchronous gamma activity from a background of asynchronous firing in excitatory–inhibitory neural networks.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162747/2/ejn14744.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162747/1/ejn14744_am.pd

Modelling the urban heat island in Birmingham, UK at the neighbourhood scale

Cities have higher peak temperatures compared to surrounding rural areas. The urban-rural surface air temperature difference is known as the urban heat island (UHI). As extreme heat exposure can lead to adverse health effects, information on UHI characteristics of cities is important for future urban climate planning strategies. This study applied the ADMS-Urban Temperature and Humidity model to investigate the key processes driving the UHI in Birmingham, UK, at the neighbourhood scale. This model was configured with a range of input datasets (such as meteorological data, landuse data, building data, anthropogenic heat sources etc) and run on the University of Birmingham’s BlueBEAR HPC. This urban climate modelling was evaluated against the temperature measurement datasets from UK Met Office and Weather Underground. The spatiotemporal variations of surface air temperature in Birmingham, UK were captured by this model. This modelling study can be further applied to explore the impacts of local urban head island mitigation strategies

On digital bioprocessing for manufacturing intelligence: Application of process analytical technology (PAT) and process data analytics (PDA) for upstream process development and intensification

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Youtube como una red social para el desarrollo del turismo en China. El caso de la ciudad de Shanghai

Actualmente, la promoción del turismo tradicional está sufriendo grandes cambios, puesto que internet se ha convertido en la plataforma más grande habilitada para la difusión de información turística. Youtube, como red social y herramienta de marketing, no sólo proporciona un nuevo modelo de promoción y difusión para las empresas turísticas, sino que también ofrece una plataforma más conveniente y práctica para los turistas, convirtiéndose en una importante guía para el desarrollo adecuado de las redes sociales turísticas. Este proyecto ha seleccionado Shanghai como objeto de investigación para explorar la promoción del Turismo de Shanghai con la utilización de Youtube. Como ciudad moderna y centro financiero de China, Shanghai es una de las ciudades con mayor crecimiento socioeconómico y turístico de China. Esto también ha llevado a la llegada de miles de turistas de todo el mundo. El uso de las redes sociales de manera efectiva para difundir información sobre el mercado turístico es un tema importante para Shanghai. En esta investigación se ofrece una aproximación a dicho uso y se realizan propuestas.<br /

Dicer loss and recovery induce an oncogenic switch driven by transcriptional activation of the oncofetal Imp1–3 family

MicroRNAs(miRNAs) are post-transcriptional regulators of gene expressioncritical for organismal viability. Changes inmiRNAactivity arecommonin cancer, buthowthese changes relate to subsequent alterations in transcription and the process of tumorigenesis is not well understood. Here, we report a deep transcriptional, oncogenic network regulated bymiRNAs. Wepresent analysis of the gene expression and phenotypic changes associated with globalmiRNA restoration in miRNA-deficient fibroblasts. This analysis uncovers a miRNA-repressed network containing oncofetal genesImp1, Imp2, and Imp3(Imp1–3) that is up-regulated primarily transcriptionally > 100-fold uponDicer loss and is resistant to resilencing by complete restoration of miRNA activity. This Dicer-resistant epigenetic switch confers tumorigenicity to these cells. Let-7 targets Imp1–3 are required for this tumorigenicity and feed back to reinforce and sustain expression of the oncogenic network. Together, these Dicer-resistant genes constitute an mRNA expression signature that is present in numerous human cancers and is associated with poor survival.United States. Public Health Service (Grant R01CA133404)National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Grant P01CA42063)Marie D. and Pierre Casimir-Lamber

Strength of K-Type of Joint made of S700

Integration of slim floor systems into high strength steel (HSS) trusses with K-joints promotes sustainable construction due to the high strength-to-weight ratio and open space buildings adaptable for different uses. As current design standards such as EN 1993-1-8 inadequately supports the design of HSS truss joints, in this study, two welded K-type joints made of S700 were tested using a scaled-down dimensions and examined numerically by finite element (FE) models. The scaling factors used for determining the dimensions of the downscaled joint were verified by the validated FE models. The tests on two specimens with the different chord lengths were used to define the strength of the HSS joint: which was controlled by either the ultimate strength of the tension bracing or the buckling resistance of the compression bracing. Compared to the joint of the double grade steel S355J2/S420, the results pointed out that the limit load of HSS joint was 70% higher but the joint ductility was decreased by 25% when compared to the joint of double grade steel S355J2/S420. Due to the instability failure of the compression bracing, applying a larger safety factor for the limit load of S700 joint is necessary but additional parametric studies are needed to propose the equations for the joint limit load in design use.The authors are grateful Ruukki Construction Oy for providing the test specimens and for the Department of Mechanical Engineering for enhancing the specimens. The authors are also grateful for the technical team of the laboratory at the Department of Civil Engineering for preparing and performing the experiments

Electrically pumped continuous-wave O-band quantum-dot superluminescent diode on silicon

High-power, broadband quantum-dot (QD) superluminescent diodes (SLDs) are ideal light sources for optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging systems but have previously mainly been fabricated on native GaAs- or InP-based substrates. Recently, significant progress has been made to emigrate QD SLDs from native substrates to silicon substrates. Here, we demonstrate electrically pumped continuous-wave InAs QD SLDs monolithically grown on silicon substrates with significantly improved performance thanks to the achievement of a low density of defects in the III-V epilayers. The fabricated narrow-ridge-waveguide device exhibits a maximum 3 dB bandwidth of 103 nm emission spectrum centered at the O-band together with a maximum single facet output power of 3.8 mW at room temperature. The silicon-based SLD has been assessed for application in an OCT system. Under optimized conditions, a predicted axial resolution of ∼5.3µm is achieved with a corresponding output power of 0.66 mW/facet

GeoChip-based Analysis of Groundwater Microbial Diversity in Norman Landfill

The Norman Landfill is a closed municipal solid waste landfill located on an alluvium associated with the Canadian River in Norman, Oklahoma. It has operated as a research site since 1994 because it is typical of many closed landfill sites across the U.S. Leachate from the unlined landfill forms a groundwater plume that extends downgradient approximately 250 m from the landfill toward the Canadian River. To investigate the impact of the landfill leachate on the diversity and functional structure of microbial communities, groundwater samples were taken from eight monitoring wells at a depth of 5m, and analyzed using a comprehensive functional gene array covering about 50,000 genes involved in key microbial processes, such as biogeochemical cycling of C, N, P, and S, and bioremediation of organic contaminants and metals. Wells are located within a transect along a presumed flow path with different distances to the center of the leachate plume. Our analyses showed that microbial communities were obviously impacted by the leachate-component from the landfill. The number of genes detected and microbial diversity indices in the center (LF2B) and its closest (MLS35) wells were significantly less than those detected in other more downgradient wells, while no significant changes were observed in the relative abundance (i.e., percentage of each gene category) for most gene categories. However, the microbial community composition or structure of the landfill groundwater did not clearly show a significant correlation with the distance from well LF2B. Burkholderia sp. and Pseudomonas sp. were found to be the dominant microbial populations detected in all wells, while Bradyrhizobium sp. and Ralstonia sp. were dominant populations for seven wells except LF2B. In addition, Mantel test and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) indicate that pH, sulfate, ammonia nitrogen and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) have significant effects on the microbial community structure. The results suggest that the leachate from unlined landfills significantly impact the structures of groundwater microbial communities, and that more distal wells recover by natural attenuation

Glutaminase inhibitor compound 968 inhibits cell proliferation and sensitizes paclitaxel in ovarian cancer

Objective: Our overall goal was to investigate the anti-tumor activity of the glutaminase 1 (GLS1) Inhibitor compound 968 in ovarian cancer cells. The human ovarian cancer cell lines, HEY, SKOV3 and IGROV-1 were used. Cell proliferation was assessed by MTT assay after treatment with compound 968. Cell cycle progression and Annexin V expression were evaluated using Cellometer. Western blotting was performed to determine changes in GLS1, cellular stress and cell cycle checkpoints. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) activity were assessed by ELISA assay. Compound 968 significantly inhibited cell proliferation and the expression of GLS1 in a dose-dependent manner in all three ovarian cancer cell lines. Compound 968 induced G1 phase cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Treatment with compound 968 increased ROS levels and induced the protein expression of calnexin, binding immunoglobulin protein (BiP) and protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK). Deprivation of glutamine increased the sensitivity of cells to paclitaxel, and compound 968 sensitized cells to the anti-proliferative effects of paclitaxel. Compound 968 inhibited cell growth in ovarian cancer cells through induction of G1 phase cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and cellular stress, suggesting that targeting GLS1 provide a novel therapeutic strategy for ovarian cancer