270 research outputs found
American fantasies of China and the Chinese: Constructing China and its people in Hollywood Films to 1949
This thesis analyses the characteristics of and influences upon constructions of China and the people of China in American feature films from c. 1910 until after the end of World War II. Chapter 1 addresses the derogatory representations of China and the Chinese created in American popular culture (especially print media) against a backcloth from the 1870s of increasingly vehement anti-Chinese sentiment. During the late nineteenth century, similar unfavourable images of Chinese people also emerged in theatrical productions. Chapter 2 analyses the filmic representations of China and the Chinese produced in the 1910s and 1920s and their connections with traditional media (both print and theatrical), also exploring the historical context within which these early films were produced. Chapters 3 and 4 investigate Hollywoodâs China/Chinese constructions in the 1930s, a period during which the movie industry itself experienced major changes, including the beginning of effective self-regulation and financial difficulties brought by the Great Depression. Chapter 3 analyses the growing 1930s attention to China as a cinematic subject, portraying it as an exciting locale and its people as exotic beings (e.g. Manchurians, warlords). Chapter 4, however, argues that, despite the efforts of the Production Code Administration and the active role played by Chinese diplomats in attempting to influence Hollywoodâs representation of their country and people, traditional unfavourable images remained largely constant until World War II. Chapter 5 analyses wartime propaganda films, which changed and subverted these unfavourable constructions of the Chinese. The Federal government began to intervene in the film industry after the creation of the Office of War Information in 1942, and many sympathetic â if unrealistic â portrayals of China on screen become prevalent. This chapter reviews these changing constructions yet concludes that, though seemingly more positive in their representations of China, they were in reality still influenced by earlier prejudices and stereotypes
Determination of Volatile Compounds of Illicium verum Hook. f. Using Simultaneous Distillation-Extraction and Solid Phase Microextraction Coupled with Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
Purpose: To determine the characteristic aromatic constituents of star anise (Illicium verum Hook. f.) and identify its main aroma compounds for sensory evaluation.Methods: The volatile compounds of star anise were prepared by simultaneous distillation-extraction (SDE) and the compounds were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). The flavor compounds were confirmed by gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O). Their flavor dilution factor (FD) values were determined using aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA). Finally, standard samples that meet the requirements for sensory evaluation were extracted by the solid-phase microextraction (SPME) to further validate characteristic aroma molecules.Results: Forty seven compounds were confirmed, with trans-anethole, estragole, and anisaldehyde the main aroma components. The content of trans-anethole was the highest (75.76 %), followed by linalool (1.44 %). Limonene (1.01 %) and 4â- ethoxypropiophenone (0.72 %) were the lowest.Conclusion: Combining SDE coupled with AEDA and SPME coupled with GC-MS is beneficial for identifying characteristic aroma compounds for star anise, such as trans-anethole, linalool and limonene in terms of FD value. The findings may be useful for star anise quality control in the food industry.Keywords: Aroma, Flavor dilution factor (FD value), Gas chromatography-olfactometry, Simultaneous distillation-extraction, Sensory evaluation, Star anise, Illicium verum, Trans-anethole, Linaloo, Limonen
MP-MVS: Multi-Scale Windows PatchMatch and Planar Prior Multi-View Stereo
Significant strides have been made in enhancing the accuracy of Multi-View
Stereo (MVS)-based 3D reconstruction. However, untextured areas with unstable
photometric consistency often remain incompletely reconstructed. In this paper,
we propose a resilient and effective multi-view stereo approach (MP-MVS). We
design a multi-scale windows PatchMatch (mPM) to obtain reliable depth of
untextured areas. In contrast with other multi-scale approaches, which is
faster and can be easily extended to PatchMatch-based MVS approaches.
Subsequently, we improve the existing checkerboard sampling schemes by limiting
our sampling to distant regions, which can effectively improve the efficiency
of spatial propagation while mitigating outlier generation. Finally, we
introduce and improve planar prior assisted PatchMatch of ACMP. Instead of
relying on photometric consistency, we utilize geometric consistency
information between multi-views to select reliable triangulated vertices. This
strategy can obtain a more accurate planar prior model to rectify photometric
consistency measurements. Our approach has been tested on the ETH3D High-res
multi-view benchmark with several state-of-the-art approaches. The results
demonstrate that our approach can reach the state-of-the-art. The associated
codes will be accessible at https://github.com/RongxuanTan/MP-MVS
A Survey of Lower Limb Rehabilitation Systems and Algorithms Based on Functional Electrical Stimulation
Functional electrical stimulation is a method of repairing a dysfunctional limb in a stroke patient by using low-intensity electrical stimulation. Currently, it is widely used in smart medical treatment for limb rehabilitation in stroke patients. In this paper, the development of FES systems is sorted out and analyzed in a time order. Then, the progress of functional electrical stimulation in the field of rehabilitation is reviewed in details in two aspects, i.e., system development and algorithm progress. In the system aspect, the development of the first FES control and stimulation system, the core of the lower limb-based neuroprosthesis system and the system based on brain-computer interface are introduced. The algorithm optimization for control strategy is introduced in the algorithm. Asynchronous stimulation to prolong the function time of the lower limbs and a method to improve the robustness of knee joint modeling using neural networks. Representative applications in each of these aspects have been investigated and analyzed
Efficacy of Qigong Exercise for Treatment of Fatigue: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Objective: Several studies suggested that Qigong exercise (QE) can relieve fatigue in patients diagnosed with various diseases. Our review aimed to evaluate the efficacy of QE for alleviating fatigue.Methods: A related literature search was performed in the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, China Biology Medicine disc (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, and VIP data bases from inception to November 2020. Information on fatigue, malaise, tiredness, and Qigong research data was collected.Results: Sixteen randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were reported in patients with cancer (n = 4), chronic fatigue syndrome (n = 2), and other diseases (n = 10). The QE groups showed significant improvements in total fatigue intensity [15 RCTs, p < 0.00001; standard mean difference (SMD) â0.69 (â0.95 to â0.44)]. The QE groups did not show significant improvement in quality of life [4 RCTs, p = 0.08; SMD 0.53 (â0.07 to 1.14)]. The statistically significant difference of the subgroup analyses (different primary diseases, QE types, and study quality) also remained unchanged.Conclusion: The findings of this meta-analysis indicate that QE may be beneficial for improving fatigue in patients diagnosed with various diseases. Considering the limitations of the study, we draw a very cautious conclusion regarding the resulting estimate of the effect. Further studies are warranted to better understand the benefits of QE in primary medical care
Efficient Approximation Algorithms for Adaptive Seed Minimization
As a dual problem of influence maximization, the seed minimization problem
asks for the minimum number of seed nodes to influence a required number
of users in a given social network . Existing algorithms for seed
minimization mostly consider the non-adaptive setting, where all seed nodes are
selected in one batch without observing how they may influence other users. In
this paper, we study seed minimization in the adaptive setting, where the seed
nodes are selected in several batches, such that the choice of a batch may
exploit information about the actual influence of the previous batches. We
propose a novel algorithm, ASTI, which addresses the adaptive seed minimization
problem in expected
time and offers an approximation guarantee of in expectation, where is the
targeted number of influenced nodes, is size of each seed node batch, and
is a user-specified parameter. To the best of our
knowledge, ASTI is the first algorithm that provides such an approximation
guarantee without incurring prohibitive computation overhead. With extensive
experiments on a variety of datasets, we demonstrate the effectiveness and
efficiency of ASTI over competing methods.Comment: A short version of the paper appeared in 2019 International
Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD '19), June 30--July 5, 2019,
Amsterdam, Netherlands. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 18 page
Phase diagram of superconducting vortex ratchet motion in a superlattice with noncentrosymmetry
Ratchet motion of superconducting vortices, which is a directional flow of
vortices in superconductors, is highly useful for exploring quantum phenomena
and developing superconducting devices, such as superconducting diode and
microwave antenna. However, because of the challenges in the quantitative
characterization of the dynamic motion of vortices, a phase diagram of the
vortex ratchet motion is still missing, especially in the superconductors with
low dimensional structures. Here we establish a quantitative phase diagram of
the vortex ratchet motion in a highly anisotropic superlattice superconductor,
(SnS)1.17NbS2, using nonreciprocal magnetotransport. The (SnS)1.17NbS2, which
possesses a layered atomic structure and noncentrosymmetry, exhibits
nonreciprocal magnetotransport in a magnetic field perpendicular and parallel
to the plane, which is considered a manifest of ratchet motion of
superconducting vortices. We demonstrated that the ratchet motion is responsive
to current excitation, magnetic field and thermal perturbation. Furthermore, we
extrapolated a giant nonreciprocal coefficient ({\gamma}), which quantitatively
describes the magnitude of the vortex ratchet motion, and eventually
established phase diagrams of the ratchet motion of the vortices with a
quantitative description. Last, we propose that the ratchet motion originates
from the coexistence of pancake vortices (PVs) and Josephson vortices (JVs).
The phase diagrams are desirable for controlling the vortex motion in
superlattice superconductors and developing next-generation energy-efficient
superconducting devices
Relationship between biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance of Klebsiella pneumoniae and updates on antibiofilm therapeutic strategies
Klebsiella pneumoniae is a Gram-negative bacterium within the Enterobacteriaceae family that can cause multiple systemic infections, such as respiratory, blood, liver abscesses and urinary systems. Antibiotic resistance is a global health threat and K. pneumoniae warrants special attention due to its resistance to most modern day antibiotics. Biofilm formation is a critical obstruction that enhances the antibiotic resistance of K. pneumoniae. However, knowledge on the molecular mechanisms of biofilm formation and its relation with antibiotic resistance in K. pneumoniae is limited. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of biofilm formation and its correlation with antibiotic resistance is crucial for providing insight for the design of new drugs to control and treat biofilm-related infections. In this review, we summarize recent advances in genes contributing to the biofilm formation of K. pneumoniae, new progress on the relationship between biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance, and new therapeutic strategies targeting biofilms. Finally, we discuss future research directions that target biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance of this priority pathogen
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