Adjectival Modification to Nouns in Mandarin Chinese: Case Studies on "chang+noun" and "adjective+tu shu guan"

Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studie

Compound Event Nouns of the ‘Modifier-head’ Type in Mandarin Chinese

Department of Chinese and Bilingual StudiesRefereed conference pape

Type Construction of Event Nouns in Mandarin Chinese

26th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, PACLIC 2012, Bali, 7 November 2012Natural and non-natural kinds have significant differences. This paper explores the subclasses of each kind and establishes the type system for event nouns. These nouns are divided into natural types, artifactual types, complex types (including natural complex types and artifactual complex types). This new classification not only enriches the Generative Lexicon theory, but also helps us to capture the properties of different types of event nouns.Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studie

Mechanical Turk-based Experiment vs Laboratory-based Experiment: A Case Study on the Comparison of Semantic Transparency Rating Data

In this paper, we conducted semantic trans-parency rating experiments using both the traditional laboratory-based method and the crowdsourcing-based method. Then we com-pared the rating data obtained from these two experiments. We observed very strong cor-relation coefficients for both overall seman-tic transparency rating data and constituent se-mantic transparency data (rho> 0:9) which means the two experiments may yield com-parable data and crowdsourcing-based experi-ment is a feasible alternative to the laboratory-based experiment in linguistic studies. We also observed a scale shrinkage phenomenon in both experiments: the actual scale of the rat-ing results cannot cover the ideal scale [0; 1], both ends of the actual scale shrink towards the center. However, the scale shrinkage of the crowdsourcing-based experiment is stronger than that of the laboratory-based experiment, this makes the rating results obtained in these two experiments not directly comparable. In order to make the results directly compara-ble, we explored two data transformation al-gorithms, z-score transformation and adjusted normalization to unify the scales. We also in-vestigated the uncertainty of semantic trans-parency judgment among raters, we found that it had a regular relation with semantic trans-parency magnitude and this may further reveal a general cognitivemechanism of human judg-ment.

Mechanical Turk-based Experiment vs Laboratory-based Experiment: A Case Study on the Comparison of Semantic Transparency Rating Data

Have you thought of why you get tired or why you get hungry? Something in your body keeps track of time. It is almost like you have a clock that tells you all those things. And indeed, in the suparachiasmatic region of our hypothalamus reside cells which each act like an oscillator, and together form a coherent circadian rhythm to help our body keep track of time. In fact, such circadian clocks are not limited to mammals but can be found in many organisms including single-cell, reptiles and birds. The study of such rhythms constitutes a field of biology, chronobiology, and forms the background for my research and this thesis. Pioneers of chronobiology, Pittendrigh and Aschoff, studied biological clocks from an input-output view, across a range of organisms by observing and analyzing their overt activity in response to stimulus such as light. Their study was made without recourse to knowledge of the biological underpinnings of the circadian pacemaker. The advent of the new biology has now made it possible to "break open the box" and identify biological feedback systems comprised of gene transcription and protein translation as the core mechanism of a biological clock. My research has focused on a simple transcription-translation clock model which nevertheless possesses many of the features of a circadian pacemaker including its entrainability by light. This model consists of two nonlinear coupled and delayed differential equations. Light pulses can reset the phase of this clock, whereas constant light of different intensity can speed it up or slow it down. This latter property is a signature property of circadian clocks and is referred to in chronobiology as "Aschoff's rule". The discussion in this thesis focus on develop a connection and also a understanding of how constant light effect this clock model

Genetic Dissection of Cardiac Remodeling in an Isoproterenol-Induced Heart Failure Mouse Model.

We aimed to understand the genetic control of cardiac remodeling using an isoproterenol-induced heart failure model in mice, which allowed control of confounding factors in an experimental setting. We characterized the changes in cardiac structure and function in response to chronic isoproterenol infusion using echocardiography in a panel of 104 inbred mouse strains. We showed that cardiac structure and function, whether under normal or stress conditions, has a strong genetic component, with heritability estimates of left ventricular mass between 61% and 81%. Association analyses of cardiac remodeling traits, corrected for population structure, body size and heart rate, revealed 17 genome-wide significant loci, including several loci containing previously implicated genes. Cardiac tissue gene expression profiling, expression quantitative trait loci, expression-phenotype correlation, and coding sequence variation analyses were performed to prioritize candidate genes and to generate hypotheses for downstream mechanistic studies. Using this approach, we have validated a novel gene, Myh14, as a negative regulator of ISO-induced left ventricular mass hypertrophy in an in vivo mouse model and demonstrated the up-regulation of immediate early gene Myc, fetal gene Nppb, and fibrosis gene Lgals3 in ISO-treated Myh14 deficient hearts compared to controls

The Synthesis and Characterization of LiFeAs and NaFeAs

The newest homologous series of superconducting As-pnictides, LiFeAs (Li111) and NaFeAs (Na111) have been synthesized and investigated. Both crystallize with the layered tetragonal anti-PbFCl-type structure in P4/nmm space group. Polycrystalline samples and single-crystals of Li111 and Na111 display superconducting transitions at ~ 18 K and 12-25 K, respectively. No magnetic order has been found in either compound, although a weak magnetic background is clearly in evidence. The origin of the carriers and the stoichiometric compositions of Li111 and Na111 were explored.Comment: submitted for publication in Physica C special issue on Fe-pnictide