The Relational Self: Maternal Inheritance and Eurasian Identity in Han Suyin’s The Crippled Tree

This work examines Han Suyin’s representation of her Eurasian identity in relation to her maternal inheritance, focusing on her autobiography The Crippled Tree, the first volume in the series China: Autobiography, History. Drawing on Paul John Eakin’s concept of relationality in life writing, we consider that Han’s Eurasian identity was formed through her interactions and negotiations with significant others such as her mother. We argue that Han reveals her maternal inheritance in three ways: reconstructing her mother’s subjectivity, recalling her mother’s story, and speaking for her mother: actions that contribute to Han’s self-representation as Eurasian. By intertwining her story with that of her mother, Han shows that her self-identity is relational, and presents the boundaries of the autobiographical ‘I’ as shifting and flexible

Mollugin attenuates glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis in rats via Akt/P13K pathway

Purpose: To investigate the protective effect of mollugin on glucocorticoid (GC)-induced osteoporosis in rats.Methods: A total of 30 female Sprague Dawley rats (weighing 180 to 200 g) were randomly assigned to five groups of six rats each: control, GC and mollugin groups (20, 40 and 80 mg/kg, respectively). Except for the control group, osteoporosis was induced in the rats by intramuscular administration of dexamethasone at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg twice weekly for nine weeks. Bone mineral density (BMD) and serum activities of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) and specific alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and levels of collagen type I fragment (CTX) and osteocalcin were estimated. The effect of mollugin alone, and in the presence of PI3K/Akt inhibitor on the proliferation of bone marrow osteoblasts was investigated using 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Western blotting was used for determination of the expressions of p-Akt, Akt and cyclin D1 protein.Results: There were significant increases in body weights of rats in GC group, when compared with the control group. However, treatment with mollugin significantly reduced the body weights in a dosedependent manner (p < 0.05). The BMD was significantly reduced in GC group, relative to the control group (p < 0.05). Serum activities of TRAP and ALP were significantly higher in GC group than in control group, but were significantly reduced by mollugin treatment (p < 0.05). Serum level of CTX was significantly increased and osteocalcin reduced in the GC group, relative to control (p < 0.05). Osteoblast proliferation was significantly higher in the mollugin-treated groups. The expressions of p-Akt, Akt and cyclin D1 were significantly and dose-dependently higher in mollugin-treated groups (p < 0.05). There were more viable osteoblasts in the mollugin-treated groups than in the untreated group. However, treatment with mollugin in the presence of PI3K/Akt inhibitor significantly reduced their viability (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Mollugin has therapeutic potential for GC-induced osteoporosis via mechanism involving the PI3K/Akt pathway.Keywords: Mollugin, Osteoporosis, Bone, PI3K/Akt inhibitor, Osteoblas

Correlation Between Serum C-Reactive Protein And Cystatin C In Patients With Acute Cerebral Infarction And Carotid Artery Stenosis

To investigate the correlation between serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum cystatin C (Cys-C) levels in patients with acute cerebral infarction and carotid artery stenosis. Methods: From January 2015 to December 2016 admitted to our hospital new acute cerebral infarction parallel neck vascular color Doppler ultrasound examination showed 121 cases of carotid stenosis as the case group; select the same period of hospitalized patients with non-cerebrovascular disease in 50 cases As a control group. Fasting venous blood was collected on the third day after onset of the disease and serum levels of CRP and Cys-C were measured and compared. Results: Serum levels of CRP and Cys-C in case group were significantly higher than those in control group (P <0.05). The correlation between serum CRP and Cys-C was found in any pairwise comparison (r = 0.4732). The level of CRP and Cys-C were closely related to the degree of carotid artery stenosis (P <0.05). Conclusion: The combined detection of serum CRP and Cys-C levels can be used to evaluate the degree of carotid artery stenosis in patients with acute cerebral infarction and provide a reference for the next carotid endarterectomy

Enhancing LGMD-based model for collision prediction via binocular structure

IntroductionLobular giant motion detector (LGMD) neurons, renowned for their distinctive response to looming stimuli, inspire the development of visual neural network models for collision prediction. However, the existing LGMD-based models could not yet incorporate the invaluable feature of depth distance and still suffer from the following two primary drawbacks. Firstly, they struggle to effectively distinguish the three fundamental motion patterns of approaching, receding, and translating, in contrast to the natural abilities of LGMD neurons. Secondly, due to their reliance on a general determination process employing an activation function and fixed threshold for output, these models exhibit dramatic fluctuations in prediction effectiveness across different scenarios.MethodsTo address these issues, we propose a novel LGMD-based model with a binocular structure (Bi-LGMD). The depth distance of the moving object is extracted by calculating the binocular disparity facilitating a clear differentiation of the motion patterns, after obtaining the moving object's contour through the basic components of the LGMD network. In addition, we introduce a self-adaptive warning depth-distance, enhancing the model's robustness in various motion scenarios.ResultsThe effectiveness of the proposed model is verified using computer-simulated and real-world videos.DiscussionFurthermore, the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model is robust to contrast and noise

GPS Tracking in Dementia Caregiving: Social Norm, Perceived Usefulness, and Behavioral Intent to Use Technology

Remote monitoring technology has taken a place in dementia caregiving by providing assistive tools such as tracking devices using Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Nevertheless, caregivers’ attitudes toward this technology are still inconclusive, and the factors leading up to their behavioral intent to use the technology remain unclear. Based on a survey of 202 dementia caregivers, our analysis with structural equation modeling demonstrates that care recipients’ (i.e., persons with dementia) wandering, caregivers’ concern, as well as caregivers’ smartphone usage positively predict caregivers’ behavioral intent to use GPS tracking devices. Meanwhile, social norm and perceived usefulness of technology mediate the relationship between individual attributes and behavioral intent. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Early methodist experience: some prototypical accounts

A great many 20th century studies of 18th century Methodism concern John Wesley himself, and even those which promise to tell you about early Methodist beliefs and activities often turn out to be largely based on Wesley’s alone. Few have concerned themselves with the humble folk who followed him. Yet it is impossible properly to understand even why Wesley himself believed and behaved in the way he did without taking account of the minds and desires of his disciples

Comparative transcriptome analysis reveals immune-related genes involved in allograft and xenograft transplantation in Pinctada fucata

BackgroundThe marine pearl culture industry is a key industry in the Beibu Gulf of China that achieves large-scale pearl production by artificial nucleus insertion in pearls. High-quality pearls can produced by xenotransplantation, but allotransplantation or xenotransplantation can lead to various immune responses, resulting in nucleus rejection or even the recipient shell death and thereby causing significant losses in pearl production.MethodsFew studies have investigated the immune defenses of oysters related to allografts and xenografts. In this study, transcriptomic comparisons of allograft and xenograft Pinctada fucata haemocytes were conducted to identify genes associated with immune responses.ResultsA total of 33.11 Gbp of clean reads were generated from five P. fucata haemocytes. De-novo assembly of quality-filtered reads generated a total of 26,526 unigenes, with 22,002 known genes and 4,524 predicted novel genes. In addition, 34,904 novel transcripts were detected, with 15,620 novel alternative splicing isoforms of known protein coding genes and 4,605 belonging to novel protein coding genes, with the remaining 14,679 comprising long non-coding RNA transcripts. Functional enrichment analysis of immune-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using the Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases revealed 36–44 significantly enriched GO terms and 34 significantly enriched KEGG pathways. Ten DEGs were subjected to validation of expression levels using RT-q PCR analysis, revealing generally consistent values as the high-throughput sequencing data.ConclusionOyster haemocytes were comprehensively evaluated in this study using transcriptomic comparisons and with a focus on immune-related functional genes and pathways. The results revealed numerous DEGs related to immune function that can serve as the basis for subsequent immune response analysis of allotransplantation and xenotransplantation

The relationship of peripheral blood lncRNA-PVT1 and miR-146a levels with Th17/Treg cytokines in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and their clinical significance

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) is a prevalent autoimmune disease. We investigated the relationship of peripheral blood long noncoding RNA-plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 (lncRNA-PVT1) and microRNA (miR)-146a levels with Th17/Treg-related cytokines in HT patients and their clinical significance. Correlations of PVT1 and miR-146a with Th17/Treg-related cytokines were analyzed, and its clinical value in diagnosing HT is assessed. Results showed reduced PVT1 and IL-10 levels and increased miR-146a and IL-17 levels in HT patients. PVT1 negatively interrelated with miR-146a, IL-17, IL-23 and IL-6, and positively interrelated with IL-10; miR-146a positively correlated with IL-17, IL-23 and IL-6, but negatively correlated with IL-10 in HT patients. The area under the curve (AUC) of PVT1 and miR-146a levels for diagnosing HT were 0.822 and 0.844, respectively (sensitivity 88.73% and 86.62%, specificity 67.02% and 69.15%, cut-off values 0.76 and 2.73), with their combined detections yielding a higher AUC. Patients with poorly-expressed PVT1 and highly-expressed miR-146a had elevated HT incidence. PVT1 and miR-146a levels were also found to be an independent influencing factor for HT occurrence. Our findings suggest that HT patients have low peripheral blood PVT1 expression and high miR-146a expression. PVT1 and miR-146a level changes were correlated with Th17/Treg cytokine imbalance and could be a potential diagnostic tool and independent influencing factor for HT