O Ensino da Literatura Portuguesa na China: Conceção e Metodologia

Tese de mestrado em Literatura de Língua Portuguesa: Investigação e Ensino na Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de CoimbraA presente dissertação, partindo de uma visão humanista e da natureza cultural e artística da língua e da literatura, procura analisar o estado atual do ensino da literatura portuguesa em universidades chinesas, apoiando-se em teorias pedagógicas e literárias desenvolvidas no trabalho, após a leitura de vários artigos e obras académicas de estudiosos, sobretudo portugueses, no intuito de definir o objeto, objetivos e métodos do Ensino da Literatura Portuguesa em cursos de Licenciatura em Língua Portuguesa, na China. Assim, temos como objetivo estimular através do ensino da literatura, o desenvolvimento da capacidade de reflexão intelectual, com autonomia. Procuramos também apontar lacunas nas práticas educativas no momento presente, de acordo com os dados recolhido dos questionários e dos diálogos estabelecidos com os docentes portugueses e chineses, bem como propor algumas medidas para melhorar o atual “status quo”, que julgamos deficiente

The Effect of WeChat Usage on Upward Social Comparison in Undergraduates

To explore the status of undergraduates’ WeChat usage and upward social comparison, and analyze the relationship between the above two variables. Totally 754 WeChat undergraduates were selected through poster recruitment from 5 colleges in Guangdong Province. They were investigated with Access Frequency to Social Networking Site Scale (AFSNSS), Upward Social Comparison Subscale of Iowa-Nwtherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM-USCS). The score of overall emotional engagement(OEE) of AFSNSS and the total standard score of INCOM– USCS (TSSI-U) were (22.41±4.70) and (0±4.5), respectively. The correlation between WeChat frequency and TSSI-U was not significant. TSSI-U was significantly positively correlated with the score of OEE and other items of AFSNSS (r=0.161~0.413, P <0.01). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that The scores of item 1,7and 8 of AFSNSS, as well as family economic status, grade ranking of academic performance (GRAP) and the purpose of WeChat use were postively correlated with TSSI-U (β=.104~.234, P<.05). Class cadre or not and origin were negatively correlated with TSSI-U (β=-.089, -.130, P<.05). Conclusion: It suggests that WeChat usage may be a related factor for undergraduates’ upward social comparison

Janus.net, e-journal of international relations. VOL13 N2, TD1 - Thematic dossier “Perspectives on China's International Presence: Strategies, Processes and Challenges”, December 2022. Consulted [online] on date of the last view, https://doi.org/10.26619/1647-7251.DT22.5

Small states, despite their power deficits, are able to influence large states. This paper explores how Portugal appears to have selected strategies to modulate yet improve its relations with China during the Covid19 pandemic. According to the Theory of Asymmetrical Negotiations (TAN) advanced by Habeeb, small states adopt soft strategies when they have high levels of commitment, worse alternatives available to them, and a low degree of control. During the pandemic, an increase in deficits drove Portugal’s government to seek to expand exports, attract investment, and improve its competitiveness. The authors find that Portugal has exhibited different behaviour regarding commitment, seeking alternatives, and exerting control in issues related to investment, export, and competitiveness. Portugal has flexibly employed soft strategies towards China during the pandemic, while reacting to external intervention from the US and maintaining internal compliance within the EU. With these strategies, Portugal has successfully, and without conflict, defended its interests, maintained its EU status, and limited the intensity of competition between the US and China regarding Portugal

Molecular manipulation of keratin 8/18 intermediate filaments: modulators of FAS-mediated death signaling in human ovarian granulosa tumor cells

Background: Granulosa cell tumors (GCT) are a rare ovarian neoplasm but prognosis is poor following recurrence. Keratin intermediate filaments expressed in these tumors are a diagnostic marker, yet paradoxically, may also constitute a target for therapeutic intervention. In the current study, we evaluated keratin 8/18 (K8/18) filament expression as a mechanism of resistance to apoptosis in GCT, specifically focusing on regulation of the cell surface death receptor, Fas (FAS). Methods: The GCT cell line, KGN, was transiently transfected with siRNA to KRT8 and KRT18 to reduce K8/18 filament expression. Expression of K8/18, FAS, and apoptotic proteins (PARP, cleaved PARP) were evaluated by fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometric analysis, and immunoblotting, respectively. The incidence of FAS-mediated apoptosis in KGN cells was measured by caspase 3/7 activity. All experiments were performed independently three to six times, using a fresh aliquot of KGN cells for each experiment. Quantitative data were analyzed by one- or two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by a Tukey’s post-test for multiple comparisons; differences among means were considered statistically significant at P \u3c 0.05. Results: Control cultures of KGN cells exhibited abundant K8/18 filament expression (~90 % of cells), and minimal expression of FAS (\u3c25 % of cells). These cells were resistant to FAS-activating antibody (FasAb)-induced apoptosis, as determined by detection of cleaved PARP and measurement of caspase 3/7 activity. Conversely, siRNA-mediated knock-down of K8/18 filament expression enhanced FAS expression (\u3e 70 % of cells) and facilitated FasAb-induced apoptosis, evident by increased caspase 3/7 activity (P \u3c 0.05). Additional experiments revealed that inhibition of protein synthesis, but not MEK1/2 or PI3K signaling, also prompted FasAb-induced apoptosis. Conclusions: The results demonstrated that K8/18 filaments provide resistance to apoptosis in GCT by impairing FAS expression. The abundance of keratin filaments in these cells and their role in apoptotic resistance provides a greater mechanistic understanding of ovarian tumorgenicity, specifically GCT, as well as a clinically-relevant target for potential therapeutic intervention

Assessing the Therapeutic Effect of 630 nm Light-emitting Diodes Irradiation on the Recovery of Exercise-induced Hand Muscle Fatigue with Surface Electromyogram

This paper aims to investigate the effect of light emitting diode therapy (LEDT) on exercise-induced hand muscle fatigue by measuring the surface electromyography (sEMG) of flexor digitorum superficialis. Ten healthy volunteers were randomly placed in the equal sized LEDT group and control group. All subjects performed a sustained fatiguing isometric contraction with the combination of four fingertips except thumb at 30% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) until exhaustion. The active LEDT or an identical passive rest therapy was then applied to flexor digitorum superficialis. Each subject was required to perform a re-fatigue task immediately after therapy which was the same as the pre-fatigue task. Average rectified value (ARV) and fractal dimension (FD) of sEMG were calculated. ARV and FD were significantly different between active LEDT and passive rest groups at 20%–50%, 70%–80%, and 100% of normalized contraction time (P \u3c 0.05 ). Compared to passive rest, active LEDT induced significantly smaller increase in ARV values and decrease in FD values, which shows that LEDT is effective on the recovery of muscle fatigue. Our preliminary results also suggest that ARV and FD are potential replacements of biochemical markers to assess the effects of LEDT on muscle fatigue

Degraded Synergistic Recruitment of sEMG Oscillations for Cerebral Palsy Infants Crawling

Background: Synergistic recruitment of muscular activities is a generally accepted mechanism for motor function control, and motor dysfunction, such as cerebral palsy (CP), destroyed the synergistic electromyography activities of muscle group for limb movement. However, very little is known how motor dysfunction of CP affects the organization of the myoelectric frequency components due to the abnormal motor unit recruiting patterns.Objectives: Exploring whether the myoelectric activity can be represented with synergistic recruitment of surface electromyography (sEMG) frequency components; evaluating the effect of CP motor dysfunction on the synergistic recruitment of sEMG oscillations.Methods: Twelve CP infants and 17 typically developed (TD) infants are recruited for self-paced crawling on hands and knees. sEMG signals have been recorded from bilateral biceps brachii (BB) and triceps brachii (TB) muscles. Multi-scale oscillations are extracted via multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD), and non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) method is employed to obtain synergistic pattern of these sEMG oscillations. The coefficient curve of sEMG oscillation synergies are adopted to quantify the time-varying recruitment of BB and TB myoelectric activity during infants crawling.Results: Three patterns of sEMG oscillation synergies with specific frequency ranges are extracted in BB and TB of CP or TD infants. The contribution of low-frequency oscillation synergy of BB in CP group is significantly less than that in TD group (p &lt; 0.05) during forward swing phase for slow contraction; however, this low-frequency oscillation synergy keep higher level during the backward swing phase crawling. For the myoelectric activities of TB, there is not enough high-frequency oscillation recruitment of sEMG for the fast contraction in propulsive phase of CP infants crawling.Conclusion: Our results reveal that, the myoelectric activities of a muscle can be manifested as sEMG oscillation synergies, and motor dysfunction of CP degrade the synergistic recruitment of sEMG oscillations due to the impaired CNS regulation and destroyed MU/muscle fiber. Our preliminary work suggests that time-varying coefficient curve of sEMG oscillation synergies is a potential index to evaluate the abnormal recruitment of electromyography activities affected by CP disorders

Pt nanowire growth induced by Pt nanoparticles in application of the cathodes for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs)

Improving cathode performance at a lower Pt loading is critical in commercial PEMFC applications. A novel Pt nanowire (Pt-NW) cathode was developed by in-situ growth of Pt nanowires in carbon matrix consisting Pt nanoparticles (Pt-NPs). Characterization of TEM and XRD shows that the pre-existing Pt-NPs from Pt/C affect Pt-NW morphology and crystallinity and Pt profile crossing the matrix thickness. The cathode with Pt-NP loading of 0.005 mgPt-NP cm−2 and total cathode Pt loading of 0.205 mgPt cm−2 has the specific current density of 89.56 A gPt−1 at 0.9 V, which is about 110% higher than that of 42.58 A gPt−1 of the commercial gas diffusion layer (GDE) with Pt loading of 0.40 mg cm−2. When cell voltage is below 0.48 V, the Pt-NW cathode has better performance than the commercial GDE. It is believed that the excellent performance of the Pt-NW cathode is attributed to Pt-NP induction, therefore producing unique Pt-NW structure and efficient Pt utilization. A Pt-NW growth mechanism was proposed that Pt precursor diffuses into the matrix consisting of pre-existent Pt-NPs by concentration driving, and Pt-NPs provide priority sites for platinum depositing at early stage and facilitate Pt-NW growth

Detection and attribution of nitrogen runoff trend in China's croplands

Reliable detection and attribution of changes in nitrogen (N) runoff from croplands are essential for designing efficient, sustainable N management strategies for future. Despite the recognition that excess N runoff poses a risk of aquatic eutrophication, large-scale, spatially detailed N runoff trends and their drivers remain poorly understood in China. Based on data comprising 535 site-years from 100 sites across China's croplands, we developed a data-driven upscaling model and a new simplified attribution approach to detect and attribute N runoff trends during the period of 1990–2012. Our results show that N runoff has increased by 46% for rice paddy fields and 31% for upland areas since 1990. However, we acknowledge that the upscaling model is subject to large uncertainties (20% and 40% as coefficient of variation of N runoff, respectively). At national scale, increased fertilizer application was identified as the most likely driver of the N runoff trend, while decreased irrigation levels offset to some extent the impact of fertilization increases. In southern China, the increasing trend of upland N runoff can be attributed to the growth in N runoff rates. Our results suggested that increased SOM led to the N runoff rate growth for uplands, but led to a decline for rice paddy fields. In combination, these results imply that improving management approaches for both N fertilizer use and irrigation is urgently required for mitigating agricultural N runoff in China

Tunable superluminal propagation at spectral hole-burning regions in magneto-optical atomic medium

In the context of spectral hole-burning, normal dispersion with subluminal propagation is usually observed in the spectral hole-burning depth region. However, anomalous dispersion can occur in the continuous absorption peak region, which leads to superluminal light propagation. In this paper, we report an unusual behavior of dispersion at discontinued absorption kink regions. We demonstrate both normal dispersion at the kink absorption region and anomalous dispersion at the spectral hole-burning depth region. The unusual dispersion leads to a positive group index in the absorption kink region and a negative group index in the spectral hole-burning depth region. The spectral hole-burning is due to variation of magnetization rather than the molecular distribution. The outcomes of our work offer promising applications in communication technologies and storage devices

Yes-associated protein 1 is required for proliferation and function of bovine granulosa cells in vitro

Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) is a major component of the Hippo signaling pathway. Although the exact extracellular signals that control the Hippo pathway are currently unknown, increasing evidence supports a critical role for the Hippo pathway in embryonic development, regulation of organ size, and carcinogenesis. Granulosa cells (GCs) within the ovarian follicle proliferate and produce steroids and growth factors, which facilitate the growth of follicle and maturation of the oocyte.We hypothesize that YAP1 plays a role in proliferation and estrogen secretion of GCs. In the current study, we examined the expression of the Hippo signaling pathway in bovine ovaries and determined whether it was important for GC proliferation and estrogen production. Mammalian STE20-like protein kinase 1 (MST1) and large tumor suppressor kinase 2 (LATS2) were identified as prominent upstream components of the Hippo pathway expressed in granulosa and theca cells of the follicle and large and small cells of the corpus luteum. Immunohistochemistry revealed that YAP1 was localized to the nucleus of growing follicles. In vitro, nuclear localization of the downstream Hippo signaling effector proteins YAP1 and transcriptional co-activator with PDZbinding motif (TAZ) was inversely correlated with GC density, with greater nuclear localization under conditions of low cell density. Treatment with verteporfin and siRNA targeting YAP1 or TAZ revealed a critical role for these transcriptional co-activators in GC proliferation. Furthermore, knockdown of YAP1 in GCs inhibited follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)-induced estradiol biosynthesis. The data indicate that Hippo pathway transcription co-activators YAP1/TAZ play an important role in GC proliferation and estradiol synthesis, two processes necessary for maintaining normal follicle development