Thinking About the \u27Ming China\u27 Anew: The Ethnocultural Space In A Diverse Empire-With Special Reference to the \u27Miao Territory\u27

By examining the cultural identity of China\u27s Ming dynasty, this essay challenges two prevalent perceptions of the Ming in existing literature: to presume a monolithic socio-ethno-cultural Chinese empire and to equate the Ming Empire with China (Zhongguo, the “middle kingdom”). It shows that the Ming constructed China as an ethnocultural space rather than a political entity. In essence, China was defined as a Han domain that the Han people inhabited and where Han values were produced, practiced, and preserved in contrast to those of non-Han “barbarians,” be they domestic or foreign. The “Great Ming”—the dynastic title—cannot be confused with China, the ethnocultural space. For the Ming ruling elite, the “Miao territory” in western Huguang and eastern Guizhou provinces represented a land “beyond the pale of civilization” (huawai), which was outside and different from China. The Ming construction of the ethnocultural China connects the imperial heritage to China\u27s modern identity

Thinking About the \u27Ming China\u27 Anew: The Ethnocultural Space In A Diverse Empire-With Special Reference to the \u27Miao Territory\u27

By examining the cultural identity of China\u27s Ming dynasty, this essay challenges two prevalent perceptions of the Ming in existing literature: to presume a monolithic socio-ethno-cultural Chinese empire and to equate the Ming Empire with China (Zhongguo, the “middle kingdom”). It shows that the Ming constructed China as an ethnocultural space rather than a political entity. In essence, China was defined as a Han domain that the Han people inhabited and where Han values were produced, practiced, and preserved in contrast to those of non-Han “barbarians,” be they domestic or foreign. The “Great Ming”—the dynastic title—cannot be confused with China, the ethnocultural space. For the Ming ruling elite, the “Miao territory” in western Huguang and eastern Guizhou provinces represented a land “beyond the pale of civilization” (huawai), which was outside and different from China. The Ming construction of the ethnocultural China connects the imperial heritage to China\u27s modern identity

Pregabalin alleviates postherpetic neuralgia by downregulating spinal TRPV1 channel protein

Purpose: To determine the mechanism involved in pregabalin-induced alleviation of postherpetic neuralgia in a rat model.Methods: Ninety-sixty healthy Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were assigned to sham, model andpregabalin groups (32 rats per group). A model of postherpetic neuralgia (PN) was established. The expressions of IL-1β and TNF-α in spinal cord tissue were determined 7 days after administration of treatments. The proportions of fluorescence areas in astrocytes in the dorsal horn, prefrontal lobe and hippocampus, and level of spinal cord TRPV1 channel protein in each group were evaluated.Results: Relative to model rats, IL-1β and TNF-α in spinal cord of pregabalin rats were significantly reduced (p < 0.05). The areas of fluorescence in astrocytes in dorsal horn of spinal cord, prefrontal lobe and hippocampus of model group were significantly increased, relative to sham, but were decreased in rats in pregabalin group (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Pregabalin significantly alleviates postherpetic neuralgia via mechanisms which may be related to the inflammatory response of spinal dorsal horn and downregulation of TRPV1 channel protein expression. This finding may be useful in developing new drugs for alleviating postherpetic neuralgia

Crystal Structures of the Transcriptional Repressor RolR Reveals a Novel Recognition Mechanism between Inducer and Regulator

Many members of the TetR family control the transcription of genes involved in multidrug resistance and pathogenicity. RolR (Resorcinol Regulator), the recently reported TetR-type regulator for aromatic catabolism from Corynebacterium glutamicum, distinguishes itself by low sequence similarities and different regulation from the previously known members of the TetR family. Here we report the crystal structures of RolR in its effector-bound (with resorcinol) and aop- forms at 2.5 Å and 3.6 Å, respectively. The structure of resorcinol-RolR complex reveal that the hydrogen-bonded network mediated by the four-residue motif (Asp94- Arg145- Arg148- Asp149) with two water molecules and the hydrophobic interaction via five residues (Phe107, Leu111, Leu114, Leu142, and Phe172) are the key factors for the recognition and binding between the resorcinol and RolR molecules. The center-to-center separation of the recognition helices h3-h3′ is decreased upon effector-binding from 34.9 Å to 30.4 Å. This structural change results in that RolR was unsuitable for DNA binding. Those observations are distinct from that in other TetR members. Structure-based mutagenesis on RolR was carried out and the results confirmed the critical roles of the above mentioned residues for effector-binding specificity and affinity. Similar sequence searches and sequence alignments identified 29 RolR homologues from GenBank, and all the above mentioned residues are highly conserved in the homologues. Based on these structural and other functional investigations, it is proposed that RolR may represent a new subfamily of TetR proteins that are invovled in aromatic degradation and sharing common recognition mode as for RolR

Liver-resident NK cells confer adaptive immunity in skin-contact inflammation

Liver natural killer (NK) cells were recently reported to possess memory-like properties in contact hypersensitivity (CHS) models. However, the phenotype and origin of these “memory” NK cells cannot be distinguished from other NK cell subpopulations. Here, we define the transcriptional, phenotypic, and functional features of liver NK cell subsets and their roles in mediating CHS. Liver NK cells can be divided into two distinct subsets: CD49a(+)DX5(–) and CD49a(–)DX5(+). Substantial transcriptional and phenotypic differences existed between liver CD49a(+)DX5(–) NK cells and other NK cell subsets. CD49a(+)DX5(–) NK cells possessed memory potential and conferred hapten-specific CHS responses upon hapten challenge. Importantly, CD49a(+)DX5(–) NK cells were liver resident and were present in the liver sinusoidal blood, but not the afferent and efferent blood of the liver. Moreover, they appeared to originate from hepatic hematopoietic progenitor/stem cells (HPCs/HSCs) but not from the bone marrow, and maintained their phenotypes in the steady state. Our findings of liver-resident NK cells shed new light on the acquisition of memory-like properties of NK cells

1st Workshop on Maritime Computer Vision (MaCVi) 2023: Challenge Results

The 1$^{\text{st}}$ Workshop on Maritime Computer Vision (MaCVi) 2023 focused on maritime computer vision for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), and organized several subchallenges in this domain: (i) UAV-based Maritime Object Detection, (ii) UAV-based Maritime Object Tracking, (iii) USV-based Maritime Obstacle Segmentation and (iv) USV-based Maritime Obstacle Detection. The subchallenges were based on the SeaDronesSee and MODS benchmarks. This report summarizes the main findings of the individual subchallenges and introduces a new benchmark, called SeaDronesSee Object Detection v2, which extends the previous benchmark by including more classes and footage. We provide statistical and qualitative analyses, and assess trends in the best-performing methodologies of over 130 submissions. The methods are summarized in the appendix. The datasets, evaluation code and the leaderboard are publicly available at https://seadronessee.cs.uni-tuebingen.de/macvi.Comment: MaCVi 2023 was part of WACV 2023. This report (38 pages) discusses the competition as part of MaCV