How do gender relations and culture shape the lived experiences of Chinese female expatriates at their workplaces in Sydney?

Globalisation has dramatically accelerated flows of human capital for both long-term migrants and short-term expatriates around the world, making workplaces more culturally diverse than ever before. This poses new challenges regarding cultural differences in workplace communication and organisational values, including differences in practices surrounding gender roles. These challenges are particularly significant given the rise of Asian economies and the increasing presence of Chinese workers and business in places like Australia. This thesis, employing a qualitative approach, explores the experiences of Chinese female expatriates in Australian workplaces to see how these experiences have reshaped their perceptions about work, career, and their personal and professional identities

'I want to have a bit of it all' : new Chinese professional women's careers, work and life

There is increasing literature on the new Chinese diaspora in the West (Ang, 2021; Nyiri, 2018; Li, 2017; Stevens, 2019; Wang, 2018; Wang & Collins, 2020). Yet there is much less research being undertaken on the experiences of new professional Chinese women – a demographic that has grown in Australia in recent decades. Most importantly, the significant impacts of China’s one-child policy and other post-Mao reforms on these women’s work and life choices have received little consideration. This thesis examines the lived experiences of 21 new Chinese professional women, and unpacks the complexity of their choices in career, in the workplace and at home. This study draws on three conceptual ideas – ‘inequality regimes’, intersectionality and Bourdieu’s notions of capital and habitus – to unpack these women’s experiences. A key focus of the thesis is the analysis of the consequences of their status as Dushengnv (only daughter), who experience intensified pressure to achieve success in both their careers and family life. The central objective of this research is to develop a nuanced understanding of what ‘having a career’ and ‘having a life’ mean for these women, embedded in a trajectory shaped by the interaction between its origins in mainland China and its present in Australia. The thesis argues that their aspirations and decisions in career and family life, while clearly gendered, are also dynamic because of the imperative to plan amid constant changes. An idea of Dushengnv capital and new Chinese habitus is developed to understand these changes and make sense of their choices at work and in their family life. The thesis foregrounds the multiple temporal dimensions of paid work and home trajectories to explore the ways ‘work-life balance’ is a constant experience of negotiation. These women’s experiences in the workplace are fluid and contradictory, intensified by a strong professional orientation and the intersectional dynamics of gender, class, race/ethnicity and motherhood. Meanwhile, they also navigate competing priorities in life – as a daughter, wife and mother – demonstrating characteristics of ‘privileged daughters’ (Xie, 2021) and changing parental expectations of ‘daughterly filiality’ (Martin, 2022a)

The role of hypothalamic neuropeptides and BDNF in obesity and the effects of dietary intervention

Obesity is a serious metabolic disorder that has reached epidemic proportions and has produced a heavy financial burden on health care systems worldwide. Obesity is usually induced by excessive energy intake and is highly resistant to treatment by lifestyle intervention. Using a mouse model, this study investigated the role of hypothalamic neuropeptides and neurotrophic factors in diet-induced obesity and obesity reversal by dietary interventions. Furthermore, this study tested the satiating capacity of various protein sources (whey, soy and gluten) through dietary intervention by analysing the meal pattern behaviour of mice. In the first two chapters, the mRNA expression of hypothalamic cocaine- and amphetamine- regulated transcript (CART), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its receptor, tyrosine kinase B (TrkB) was examined by in situ hybridisation in dietinduced obese (DIO) and resistant (DR) mice following dietary intervention. CART mRNA expression was increased in the arcuate hypothalamic nucleus (Arc) and the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), and was decreased in the dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus (DM) and lateral hypothalamic area (LH) of DIO mice compared to DR mice. These results demonstrated for the first time that two groups of CART neurons in the hypothalamus are differentially expressed in DIO mice. BDNF/TrkB mRNA expression was decreased in the hippocampus in DIO mice, suggesting a weakened inhibitory control of food intake. In the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMH), BDNF mRNA expression was lowered in DIO mice even after obesity reversal compared to DR mice. The low level of BDNF expression in the VMH may indicate an intrinsic nature of obese mice which makes them susceptible to overconsumption of a high-fat diet. Furthermore, energy restricted pair-feeding eliminated the differences between vii DIO and DR mice in both body weight and mRNA expression of hypothalamic CART and hippocampal BDNF/TrkB, which suggests that CART and BDNF/TrkB expression are related to body weight changes. The aim of the third chapter was to examine the expression of Arc orexigenic and anorexigenic neuropeptides in response to weight loss after chronic energy intake restriction. DIO and DR mice were placed on an energy restricted diet or continued on their high-fat diet ad libitum. An additional group was fed a low-fat diet throughout the entire study as controls. The results showed that chronic energy restriction corrected the obesity status and decreased plasma leptin in the DIO mice. Chronic energy restriction increased the expression of hypothalamic orexigenic neuropeptide Y (NPY) and agoutirelated protein (AgRP), however, it had no effect on the expression of Arc proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and CART mRNA. These results suggest that orexigenic NPY and AgRP (but not anorexigenic CART and POMC) may contribute to the reestablishment of a body weight set-point after body weight loss. Following on from the above three chapters which investigated the role of hypothalamic neuropeptides and neurotrophic factors in food intake, the fourth chapter investigated the satiating capacities of single or combined whey, soy and gluten protein diets through analysing the meal pattern behaviour of mice. It was found that the whey protein diet potently prolonged intermeal interval and diminished spontaneous meal frequency. This increase in intermeal interval, suggestive of postprandial and postabsorptive satiety effects, is mainly responsible for the inhibition of total energy intake after a whey protein diet. Combinations of whey and gluten caused a lower energy intake, longer inter-meal interval and lower meal number compared to the other paired combinations. Therefore, a combination of whey and gluten may be a better viii formula to provide a high satiety effect and suppress energy intake for antiobesity purposes. In conclusion, this thesis reveals that dietary intervention has a pronounced impact on the gene expression of hypothalamic neuropeptides and neurotrophic factors. High expression of orexigenic neuropeptides NPY/AgRP and low expression of BDNF/TrkB after weight loss may contribute to the recurrence of obesity. Combining dietary protein manipulations for maximising satiety with inhibition of the orexigenic neuropeptides and stimulation of BDNF/TrkB might be critical for potential treatment of obesity and maintenance of weight loss in human obese individuals

On Tutte polynomial uniqueness of twisted wheels

AbstractA graph G is called T-unique if any other graph having the same Tutte polynomial as G is isomorphic to G. Recently, there has been much interest in determining T-unique graphs and matroids. For example, de Mier and Noy [A. de Mier, M. Noy, On graphs determined by their Tutte polynomials, Graphs Combin. 20 (2004) 105–119; A. de Mier, M. Noy, Tutte uniqueness of line graphs, Discrete Math. 301 (2005) 57–65] showed that wheels, ladders, Möbius ladders, square of cycles, hypercubes, and certain class of line graphs are all T-unique. In this paper, we prove that the twisted wheels are also T-unique

Go/No-Go Ratios Modulate Inhibition-Related Brain Activity: An Event-Related Potential Study

(1) Background: Response inhibition refers to the conscious ability to suppress behavioral responses, which is crucial for effective cognitive control. Currently, research on response inhibition remains controversial, and the neurobiological mechanisms associated with response inhibition are still being explored. The Go/No-Go task is a widely used paradigm that can be used to effectively assess response inhibition capability. While many studies have utilized equal numbers of Go and No-Go trials, how different ratios affect response inhibition remains unknown; (2) Methods: This study investigated the impact of different ratios of Go and No-Go conditions on response inhibition using the Go/No-Go task combined with event-related potential (ERP) techniques; (3) Results: The results showed that as the proportion of Go trials decreased, behavioral performance in Go trials significantly improved in terms of response time, while error rates in No-Go trials gradually decreased. Additionally, the NoGo-P3 component at the central average electrodes (Cz, C1, C2, FCz, FC1, FC2, PCz, PC1, and PC2) exhibited reduced amplitude and latency; (4) Conclusions: These findings indicate that different ratios in Go/No-Go tasks influence response inhibition, with the brain adjusting processing capabilities and rates for response inhibition. This effect may be related to the brain's predictive mechanism model

Stroking hardness changes the perception of affective touch pleasantness across different skin sites

Human unmyelinated tactile afferents (CT afferents) in hairy skin are thought to be involved in the transmission of affective aspects of touch. How the perception of affective touch differs across human skin has made substantial progress; however, the majority of previous studies have mainly focused on the relationship between stroking velocities and pleasantness ratings. Here, we investigate how stroking hardness affects the perception of affective touch. Affective tactile stimulation was given with four different hardness of brushes a three different forces, which were presented to either palm or forearm. To quantify the physical factors of the stimuli (brush hardness), ten naive, healthy participants assessed brush hardness using a seven-point scale. Based on these ten participants, five more participants were added to rate the hedonic value of brush stroking using a visual analogue scale (VAS). We found that pleasantness ratings over the skin resulted in a preference for light, soft stroking, which was rated as more pleasant when compared to heavy, hard stroking. Our results show that the hairy skin of the forearm is more susceptible to stroking hardness than the glabrous of the palm in terms of the perception of pleasantness. These findings of the current study extend the growing literature related to the effect of stroking characteristics on pleasantness ratings

Prenatal infection promotes olanzapine-induced obesity in rats: implications for antipsychotic-induced obesity in schizophrenia

Abstract of a poster presentation