Receipt of informal care in the Chinese older population

This paper examines the factors affecting the receipt of informal care among older people in China. It uses the second wave data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey, which collected ageing and health-related information on a nationally representative sample of 8,906 older people aged 60 and over in 2013. Apart from the factors that have been examined in the contexts of developed countries, the paper further investigates two factors specific to Chinese society: rural–urban residence and regular financial assistance from children. Based on binary and multinomial logit regression analyses, the research findings are threefold: the determinants of receiving informal care differ remarkably according to the sources of care; disability and living arrangements are the most important determinants; rural–urban residence plays a vital role in the Chinese context, but regular financial assistance from children makes little difference. It is estimated that 53 million older people are receiving informal care each year, a figure equivalent to the entire population of England. With continuous population ageing, Chinese society will face huge pressure to meet the demand for social care among older people in the future. The Chinese government needs to build a well-rounded welfare system that tackles this challenge from multiple dimensions. The formal care services should aim to complement informal care in the short run and reduce inequality in social care in the long run

Economic Recessions and Infant Mortality in the U.S., 1999-2008

Objectives: Prior studies of US data from the 1990s have shown that economic growth is associated with higher all cause mortality. This paper updates prior findings to more recent data on US infant mortality for blacks and whites. Methods: We analyzed data from 50 US states from 1999 to 2008 using state fixed-effects regression models stratified to identify the racially disparate impact of each state’s economic performance on infant mortality, controlling for state policy-related variables, reflecting population,% black, % on TANF, % on Medicaid, and alcohol consumption. Results: Economic recessions are significantly associated with lower post-neonatal mortality for white infants, but not black infants. Each 1% decrement a state’s gross state product, would be associated with an approximately 2.3 fewer infant deaths (95% CI: -0.294-4.894) in an average state with 64,000 total births. Results were robust to the inclusion of state trends, national trends, state fixed effects, lagged gross state product, and the inclusion of measures of unemployment and state policy variables. Conclusions: This study in combination with studies from the 1990s reflects growing evidence that economic growth in the US can be harmful to child health. Policy makers need to be informed and mindful about the “side effects” of economic growth on health

中國新詩與古典詩關係研究 (1917-1937) : 以聞一多、卞之琳、林庚和郭沫若為中心

本論文從新詩和古典詩關係的角度切入，探討1917 年至1937 年的新詩作家怎樣借用古典詩歌的文化資源，並結合時代環境因素和個人因素，探索和發展新詩的形式和語言，並以具體創作加以實踐。論文以個案形式展開論述，重點考察對象，包括：聞一多(1899－1946)、卞之琳(1910－2000)、林庚(1910－2006)和郭沫若(1892－1978)。這些作家有共同的背景：他們具有深厚的古典文學素養，同時寫作新詩和舊體詩，創作經歷是從舊體詩的沉浸中而來，並漸漸對新詩創作產生興趣，因而自覺地繼承古典詩歌的文化資源，再轉化成新詩的形式和語言，表達屬於現代的思想，對往後新詩的形式和語言發展有重要的影響力。中國古典詩歌的文化資源影響中國新詩的形成，促成中國詩歌的現代轉型。本論文重點探討以下問題：第一，探討詩人如何繼承和轉化古典詩傳統，發展成新詩的傳統。第二，分析詩人如何從古典詩歌汲取養份，建構新詩的形式和語言範式。第三，檢討在中國詩歌的現代轉型過程中，傳統民族文學因素在新詩建構工程中的位置。 透過各章節的分析，本論文進一步釐清新詩人如何借助古典詩的文化資源，作為新詩創作的參考理論。傳統民族文學因素在新詩建構工程中的位置十分重要，古典詩所確立的詩學觀、形式句法、意象系統和語言系統，在聞一多、林庚、卞之琳和郭沫若的新詩中，有不同的承繼和轉化。這四位詩人對「新詩特質」有不同理解，這與時代因素、文學觀念的取態和創作目的有密切關係。「新詩特質」的理解影響他們接受古典詩文化資源的方針，從中可見中國現代文學史的新詩和古典詩關係，遠比很多人想像中複雜

中文寫作與世界詩歌 : 北島詩歌研究

北島 ( 趙振開1949- ) 是當今中國最具代表性的詩人之一，於1970 年開始創作。1978 年，他創辦《今天》及對外發表詩作，與芒克、多多、顧城和舒婷等年青詩人同受注意，被評論界譽為朦朧詩派的重要代表。然而，他的創作經歷不同階段，首先在1980 年他主編的文學刊物《今天》被勒令停刊，其後又經過朦朧詩論爭，作品不斷被批評為晦澀難懂，1989 年後更流亡海外，足跡遍 及歐美等地，直至2001 年才得以短暫歸國探親，現任教於香港中文大學。 本篇論文將北島放入世界文學的視野，透過討論他在不同時期的詩歌創作。論文以宇文所安於1991 年所寫的一篇書評“The Anxiety of Global Influence: What is World Poetry?” (中譯〈世界影響的焦慮：什麼是世界詩歌〉) 的提問切入，探討北島怎樣在跨文化和跨語言的情況下創作詩歌。本文並不是論證宇文所安對北島的評論是否正確，但希望從他對世界詩歌和世界文學的論述，尋找討論北島的詩歌創作新的切入點。論文第一章是導言，說明研究題旨和範圍，簡述研究概況。第二章探討北島的創作經歷。第三章分析北島，身處的革命背景怎樣影響他早期的創作，討論詩歌如何表達革命意識。第四章討論北島怎樣 運用現代主義進行中文詩歌創作。第五章討論北海流亡海外後的詩歌，透過表達懷鄕和放逐的主題，呈現回歸故地和流動異域的矛盾心理。第六章是結論

Efficient production of pullulan by Aureobasidium pullulans grown on mixtures of potato starch hydrolysate and sucrose

AbstractPullulan is a natural exopolysaccharide with many useful characteristics. However, pullulan is more costly than other exopolysaccharides, which limits its effective application. The purpose of this study was to adopt a novel mixed-sugar strategy for maximizing pullulan production, mainly using potato starch hydrolysate as a low-cost substrate for liquid-state fermentation by Aureobasidium pullulans. Based on fermentation kinetics evaluation of pullulan production by A. pullulans 201253, the pullulan production rate of A. pullulans with mixtures of potato starch hydrolysate and sucrose (potato starch hydrolysate:sucrose=80:20) was 0.212h−1, which was significantly higher than those of potato starch hydrolysate alone (0.146h−1) and mixtures of potato starch hydrolysate, glucose, and fructose (potato starch hydrolysate:glucose:fructose=80:10:10, 0.166h−1) with 100gL−1 total carbon source. The results suggest that mixtures of potato starch hydrolysate and sucrose could promote pullulan synthesis and possibly that a small amount of sucrose stimulated the enzyme responsible for pullulan synthesis and promoted effective potato starch hydrolysate conversion effectively. Thus, mixed sugars in potato starch hydrolysate and sucrose fermentation might be a promising alternative for the economical production of pullulan

射出成形機における繊維強化樹脂可塑化過程の可視化実験解析と繊維折損の評価

学位の種別: 課程博士審査委員会委員 : （主査）東京大学教授 横井 秀俊, 東京大学教授 新野 俊樹, 東京大学教授 金 範埈, 東京大学准教授 梶原 優介, 東京大学准教授 古島 剛University of Tokyo(東京大学

Identification of Regulatory Requirements Relevant to Business Processes: A Comparative Study on Generative AI, Embedding-based Ranking, Crowd and Expert-driven Methods

Organizations face the challenge of ensuring compliance with an increasing amount of requirements from various regulatory documents. Which requirements are relevant depends on aspects such as the geographic location of the organization, its domain, size, and business processes. Considering these contextual factors, as a first step, relevant documents (e.g., laws, regulations, directives, policies) are identified, followed by a more detailed analysis of which parts of the identified documents are relevant for which step of a given business process. Nowadays the identification of regulatory requirements relevant to business processes is mostly done manually by domain and legal experts, posing a tremendous effort on them, especially for a large number of regulatory documents which might frequently change. Hence, this work examines how legal and domain experts can be assisted in the assessment of relevant requirements. For this, we compare an embedding-based NLP ranking method, a generative AI method using GPT-4, and a crowdsourced method with the purely manual method of creating relevancy labels by experts. The proposed methods are evaluated based on two case studies: an Australian insurance case created with domain experts and a global banking use case, adapted from SAP Signavio's workflow example of an international guideline. A gold standard is created for both BPMN2.0 processes and matched to real-world textual requirements from multiple regulatory documents. The evaluation and discussion provide insights into strengths and weaknesses of each method regarding applicability, automation, transparency, and reproducibility and provide guidelines on which method combinations will maximize benefits for given characteristics such as process usage, impact, and dynamics of an application scenario