Visual Social Media and Vernacular Responses to Environmental Issues in China

This thesis investigates the role of visual social media in providing ordinary Chinese with an alternative space to articulate their opinions on environmental issues. By studying three notable environmental cases, this thesis explores how ordinary Chinese adopt visual social media practices as a response to environmental issues, and to aid in the fight for environmental justice. This thesis provides a new perspective to understand China’s visual social media practices and its networked civic engagement

Three Essays on Health and Labor Markets

The thesis consists of three parts. The first part examines the impact of state-level minimum wages on employment outcomes in local labor markets for youth. This chapter uses county-level Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) data for 2003-2007 in a panel regression to analyze the effects of state variation in the minimum wage on employment levels, earnings, and job flows. Controlling for county fixed effects and general time fixed effects, and using a single Census Region and economic area time effects to control for spatial heterogeneity, this chapter finds a negative relationship between the minimum wage and the level of employment for those age14-18 and 19-21. However, this chapter finds a positive employment effect for workers age 22-24 suggesting the possibility of substitution towards more experienced workers in higher minimum wage jurisdictions, and also finds that the minimum wage is correlated with reduced job turnover for all age groups and faster net job growth for youth between the ages of 22 and 24.The second part studies the effects of hospital mergers on the quality of health outcomes for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients, patients receiving coronary artery by-pass grafting (CABG) surgery, and pregnant women in Pennsylvania during the period 1994-2010. This chapter measures the quality of outcomes as risk-adjusted mortality and readmission for both AMI and CABG patients and as the incidence of preventable complications for pregnant patients, and also uses total charges to measure the resources used for each patient. Using propensity scores to match hospitals involved in mergers with hospitals that have never been involved in a merger, this chapter finds that mergers that occurred in concentrated markets are associated with increased probability of in-hospital mortality and higher readmission rates for AMI patients and with increased probability of preventable complications and reduced resource utilization for pregnant patients. However, there is no evidence showing that mergers in more concentrated areas are associated with worse outcomes for CABG patients. Finally, this chapter finds that the effects of a merger on health outcomes may last for years. The third part is the combination of labor and health economics, which is concerned with the question how economic recessions affect the aggregate health outcomes of a population living in the same community. This chapter uses all inpatient data in Pennsylvania for the 2000-2011 period, during which people experienced two recessions, uses county unemployment rates as the primary indicator of recessions, and analyzes the effects of recessions on the percentage of total population in a community that are hospitalized for certain stress-related diseases, while controlling for the community\u27s socio-demographic characteristics. This chapter finds that recessions significantly increase the risk of hospitalization due to alcohol-related conditions among all communities, but decrease the hospitalization rates for AMI and stroke among the high-population-density and high-poverty communities, respectively. Finally, there is no evidence showing any persistent effects of recessions on health

Geochemical characteristics of n-alkanes and isoprenoids in coal seams from Zhuji coal mine, Huainan coalfield, China, and their relationship with coal-forming environment

Ten coal seams in Upper Shihezi Formation, Lower Shihezi Formation, and Shanxi Formation from the Zhuji mine, Huainan coalfield, China, were analyzed for n-alkanes and isoprenoids (pristine and phytane) using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), with an aim of reconstructing the coal-forming plants and depositional environments along with organic carbon isotope analyses. The total n-alkane concentrations ranged from 34.1 to 481 mg/kg. Values of organic carbon isotope (delta C-13(org)) ranged from -24.6 to -23.7 parts per thousand. The calorific value (Q(b,d)), maximum vitrinite reflectance (Ro(max)), proximate, and ultimate analysis were also determined but showed no correlation with n-alkane concentrations. Carbon Preference Index (CPI) values ranged from 0.945 to 1.30, suggesting no obvious odd/even predominance of n-alkane. The predominance of C-11 and C-17 n-alkanes implied that the coal may be deposited in the fresh and mildly brackish environment. According to the contrary changing trend of pristine/phytane (Pr/Ph) ratio and boron concentrations, Pr/Ph can be used as an indicator to reconstruct the marine transgression-regression in sedimentary environment of coal formation. The influence of marine transgression may lead to the enrichment of pyrite sulfur in the coal seam 4-2. C3 plants (-32 to -21 parts per thousand) and marine algae (-23 to -16 parts per thousand) were probably the main coal-forming plants in the studied coal seams. No correlation of the n-alkane concentration and redox condition of the depositional environment with organic carbon isotope composition were found

Deformations and abelian extensions of compatible pre-Lie algebras

In this paper, we first give the notation of a compatible pre-Lie algebra and its representation. We study the relation between compatible Lie algebras and compatible pre-Lie algebras. We also construct a new bidifferential graded Lie algebra whose Maurer-Cartan elements are compatible pre-Lie structures. We give the bidifferential graded Lie algebra which controls deformations of a compatible pre-Lie algebra. Then, we introduce a cohomology of a compatible pre-Lie algebra with coefficients in itself. We study infinitesimal deformations of compatible pre-Lie algebras and show that equivalent infinitesimal deformations are in the same second cohomology group. We further give the notion of a Nijenhuis operator on a compatible pre-Lie algebra. We study formal deformations of compatible pre-Lie algebras. If the second cohomology group \huaH^2(\g;\g) is trivial, then the compatible pre-Lie algebra is rigid. Finally, we give a cohomology of a compatible pre-Lie algebra with coefficients in arbitrary representation and study abelian extensions of compatible pre-Lie algebras using this cohomology. We show that abelian extensions are classified by the second cohomology group.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2301.06917; text overlap with arXiv:2208.12647, arXiv:2004.02098 by other author

Cohomologies of pre-LieDer pairs and applications

In this paper, we use the higher derived bracket to give the controlling algebra of pre-LieDer pairs. We give the cohomology of pre-LieDer pairs by using the twist $L_\infty$-algebra of this controlling algebra. In particular, we define the cohomology of regular pre-LieDer pairs. We study infinitesimal deformations of pre-LieDer pairs, which are characterized by the second cohomology group of pre-LieDer pairs. We also define the cohomology of regular pre-LieDer pairs with coefficients in arbitrary representation and using the second cohomology group to classify abelian extensions of regular pre-LieDer pairs