Reviving Project:A Chinese-American culture exchange project

Through art exhibitions in Beijing, China and Richmond, Virginia, Reviving project 01 aims to help promote/ revive a craft technique in Qinghai, China that is disappearing due to the urbanized surroundings. American artist were invited to collaborate with people from Qinghai to make new pieces incorporating original crafted pieces.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1191/thumbnail.jp

A Comparison of Transitivity System in English and Chinese

Transitivity system is an important concept of Systematic Functional Grammar (SFG) as well as a useful tool for discourse analysis. Based on Halliday’s theoretical framework, this paper compares the similarities and distinctions between English and Chinese on the transitivity system, hoping to deepen the understanding toward the two languages from a new aspect and throw light on E-C translation. The research indicates that the six processes on the transitivity system in English and Chinese is semantically the same and can remain unchanged in E-C translation, while in certain circumstances process transfer is necessary.Key words: Comparison; Transitivity system; English and Chinese translation implicatio

Pure-Silica-Zeolite MFI and MEL Low-Dielectric-Constant Films with Fluoro-Organic Functionalization

The synthesis of organic-functionalized pure-silica-zeolites (PSZs) with MFI- and MEL-type structures for low-k applications prepared through a direct-synthesis method by adding a fluorinated silane to the synthesis solution is reported. The added fluorine functionality increases the hydrophobicity of the zeolites, which are characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, 29Si and 19F solid-state NMR spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption, and thermogravimetric analysis. The functionalized zeolite powders have low water content and calcined spin-on films prepared from the functionalized nanoparticle suspensions exhibit higher water contact angles and lower k values (2.1 and 1.8 for the functionalized MFI- and MEL-type zeolites, respectively) than PSZ films. The use of a direct-synthesis method to decrease the moisture adsorption in the films eliminates the extra post-spin-on silylation steps that are traditionally used to render the zeolite films hydrophobic

The metabolic repression effect of carbon-ion radiotherapy in synchronous hormone-sensitive oligometastatic prostate cancer

BackgroundMetastatic prostate cancer (PCa) poses a significant public health concern. While radiation therapy (RT) is commonly utilized in the treatment of synchronous oligometastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer (OM-HSPC), the occurrence of biochemical recurrence still remains. To deepen our understanding and optimize the outcome of OM-HSPC, we conducted this study to investigate the characteristics of PCa progression and explore potential synergistic mechanisms involving carbon-ion radiotherapy (CIRT) and neoadjuvant androgen deprivation treatment (naADT) in OM-HSPC.MethodsMetabolomic analysis was conducted with 72 urinary samples (at different timepoints) from 33 Patients (T2-3N0M0-1b) and 18 healthy volunteers by using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). MetaboAnalyst website and R software were employed for metabolomic analysis and visualization (using the criteria of p value < 0.05 and |FC|>1.5). The impact of CIRT on metabolism were further verified and explored through in vitro and in vivo experiments.ResultsWe found that most metabolites (223 out of 233) were upregulated in treatment-naïve PCa samples compared to healthy samples. After naADT, 60 core risk metabolites were still significantly related to PCa’s progression, and the glutamine level which was significantly higher in OM-HSPC compared to other groups. Remarkably, after CIRT treatment, the glutamine levels in OM-HSPC were significantly reduced to the level of healthy samples. Experiments further confirmed CIRT’s ability to suppress glutamine levels in PCa tumors and its potential enhancement with glutamine deprivation intervention.ConclusionCIRT with naADT might synergistically inhibit HS-OMPC development, progression and even the ADT resistance through glutamine metabolism repression, moreover, the glutamine metabolism might be a novel target to further improved the efficacy of CIRT

Exogenous Melatonin Improves Cold Tolerance of Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) through Modulation of DREB/CBF-COR Pathway and Antioxidant Defense System

The strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) is an important fruit crop cultivated worldwide for its unique taste and nutritional properties. One of the major risks associated with strawberry production is cold damage. Recently, melatonin has emerged as a multifunctional signaling molecule that influences plant growth and development and reduces adverse consequences of cold stress. The present study was conducted to investigate the defensive role of melatonin and its potential interrelation with abscisic acid (ABA) in strawberry plants under cold stress. The results demonstrate that melatonin application conferred improved cold tolerance on strawberry seedlings by reducing malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide contents under cold stress. Conversely, pretreatment of strawberry plants with 100 μM melatonin increased soluble sugar contents and different antioxidant enzyme activities (ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, and peroxidase) and non-enzymatic antioxidant (ascorbate and glutathione) activities under cold stress. Furthermore, exogenous melatonin treatment stimulated the expression of the DREB/CBF—COR pathways’ downstream genes. Interestingly, ABA treatment did not change the expression of the DREB/CBF—COR pathway. These findings imply that the DREB/CBF-COR pathway confers cold tolerance on strawberry seedlings through exogenous melatonin application. Taken together, our results reveal that melatonin (100 μM) pretreatment protects strawberry plants from the damages induced by cold stress through enhanced antioxidant defense potential and modulating the DREB/CBF—COR pathway. View Full-Tex

Knowledge and attitudes of healthcare workers in Chinese intensive care units regarding 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To describe the knowledge and attitudes of critical care clinicians during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A survey conducted in 21 intensive care units in 17 provinces in China.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Out of 733 questionnaires distributed, 695 were completed. Three hundred and fifty-six respondents (51.2%) reported their experience of caring for H1N1 patients. Despite the fact that 88.5% of all respondents ultimately finished an H1N1 training program, only 41.9% admitted that they had the knowledge of 2009 H1N1 influenza. A total of 572 respondents (82.3%) expressed willingness to care for H1N1 patients. Independent variables associated with increasing likelihood to care for patients in the logistic regression analysis were physicians or nurses rather than other professionals (odds ratio 4.056 and 3.235, p = 0.002 and 0.007, respectively), knowledge training prior to patient care (odds ratio 1.531, p = 0.044), and the confidence to know how to protect themselves and their patients (odds ratio 2.109, p = 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Critical care clinicians reported poor knowledge of H1N1 influenza, even though most finished a relevant knowledge training program. Implementation of appropriate education program might improve compliance to infection control measures, and willingness to work in a pandemic.</p

Nonperturbative determination of the Collins-Soper kernel from quasitransverse-momentum-dependent wave functions

In the framework of large-momentum effective theory at one-loop matching accuracy, we perform a lattice calculation of the Collins-Soper kernel, which governs the rapidity evolution of transversemomentum-dependent (TMD) distributions. We first obtain the quasi-TMD wave functions at three different meson momenta, on a lattice with valence clover quarks on a dynamical highly improved staggered quark sea and lattice spacing a ¼ 0.12 fm from the MILC Collaboration, and renormalize the pertinent linear divergences using Wilson loops. Through one-loop matching to the light-cone wave functions, we determine the Collins-Soper kernel with transverse separation up to 0.6 fm. We study the systematic uncertainties from operator mixing and scale dependence, as well as the impact from higher power corrections. Our results potentially allow for a determination of the soft function and other transverse-momentum-dependent quantities at one-loop accuracy

Pion and Kaon Distribution Amplitudes from Lattice QCD

We present a state-of-the-art lattice QCD calculation of the pion and kaon light-cone distribution amplitudes (DAs) using large-momentum effective theory. The calculation is done at three lattice spacings a≈{0.06,0.09,0.12}  fm and physical pion and kaon masses, with the meson momenta Pz={1.29,1.72,2.15}  GeV. The result is nonperturbatively renormalized in a recently proposed hybrid scheme with self-renormalization, and extrapolated reliably to the continuum as well as the infinite momentum limit. We find a significant deviation of the pion and kaon DAs from the asymptotic form, and a large SU(3) flavor breaking effect in the kaon D

Three-Dimensional Path Tracking Control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning

In this paper, the three-dimensional (3D) path tracking control of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) under the action of sea currents was researched. A novel reward function was proposed to improve learning ability and a disturbance observer was developed to observe the disturbance caused by currents. Based on existing models, the dynamic and kinematic models of the AUV were established. Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient, a deep reinforcement learning, was employed for designing the path tracking controller. Compared with the backstepping sliding mode controller, the controller proposed in this article showed excellent performance, at least in the particular study developed in this article. The improved reward function and the disturbance observer were also found to work well with improving path tracking performance