3-Mercaptopropionic Acid Capped Gold Nanoclusters: Quantized Capacitance in Aqueous Media

3-Mercaptopropionic add monolayer protected gold nanoclusters (MPA-MPCs) were synthesized and characterized by transmission electron microscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The exact value of quantized double-layer capacitance of MPCS in aqueous media was obtained by differential pulse voltammograms.

Investigation of electrochemical charging behaviors of "naked" gold nanoparticles ensembles in aqueous media

Gold nanopartides were Immobilized onto the electrode surface by simple self-assembly technique. Interestingly, the ensembles of these nanopartides exhibit quantized charging behaviors in aqueous solution. Possible mechanism for such behaviors was proposed.

The phenomenon of mutual media in polypyrrole with electroactive ions

The dependence of the differential capacitance of polypyrrole doped with several typical dopants on potential is presented, which shows that the differential capacitance varies with the potential, the doped polypyrroles with electroactive ions give the largest capacitance near their formal potentials, which is attributed to the mutual media for electron transfer between polypyrrole and electroactive dopants. The existence of two conducting phases was observed in the complex capacitance plots. The electroactive anions act as an intra-conducting-phase medium for electron transfer, the electroactive cations act as an inter-conducting-phase medium for electron transfer. The mutual media between polypyrrole and redox dopants lead to the increase of the discharging time.

Information Disclosure, Market Discipline and the Management of Bank Capital: Evidence from the Chinese Financial Sector

Is there evidence that market forces effectively discipline risk management behaviour within Chinese financial institutions? This study analyses information from a comprehensive sample of Chinese banks over the 1998-2008 period. Market discipline is captured through the impact of four sets of factors namely, market concentration, interbank deposits, information disclosure, and ownership structure. We find some evidence of a market disciplining effect in that: (i) higher (lower) levels of market concentration lead banks to operate with a lower (higher) capital buffer; (ii) joint-equity banks that disclose more information to the public maintain larger capital ratios; (iii) full state ownership reduces the sensitivity of changes in a bank's capital buffer to its level of risk;(iv) banks that release more transparent financial information hold more capital against their non-performing loans. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

The Educational Experience of Students of Chinese Origin in a French-Speaking Context : the role of school, family, and community

Cette recherche vise à documenter l’expérience scolaire des élèves québécois d’origine chinoise à l’école secondaire de langue française et à examiner les dynamiques qui influencent la réussite scolaire de ces élèves. Elle s’intéresse plus précisément aux impacts des facteurs relatifs à l’école, à la famille immigrante, et à ceux de la communauté ethnique sur l’intégration de ces jeunes dans un contexte francophone. Les données ont été principalement recueillies à travers des entretiens semi-structurés approfondis auprès d’élèves d’origine chinoise et de différents acteurs du paradigme éducatif (parents, acteurs scolaires et intervenants communautaires). D’autres instruments, tels que l’analyse du contenu de documents et de médias, ont également été utilisés afin de fournir des informations contextuelles et d’enrichir les données d’entrevues. Les données ont été analysées selon un cadre théorique ouvert et inclusif où la réussite scolaire des élèves issus de l’immigration est mesurée en mettant l’accent sur l’influence de la maîtrise de la langue d’enseignement, du capital culturel et social de la famille et de la communauté immigrante, ainsi que des facteurs systémiques au niveau de l’école. Les résultats de cette étude dans trois écoles cibles montrent qu’en général les élèves d’origine chinoise connaissent une expérience positive, surtout en ce qui concerne leur performance scolaire en mathématiques et sciences. Cependant, les nouveaux arrivants ont tendance à éprouver des difficultés dans l’apprentissage du français et pour leur intégration sociale. En effet, le processus d’intégration socioscolaire des jeunes chinois est sous l’influence des différents milieux qu’ils fréquentent. À propos de l’influence des dynamiques scolaires, les résultats de la recherche indiquent qu’une relation maître-élève positive joue un rôle important dans la réussite éducative de ces élèves. Toutefois, l’insuffisance du soutien à l’apprentissage défavorise l’intégration linguistique et sociale des élèves nouvellement arrivés. Les données de cette étude soulignent notamment le rôle de la famille immigrante et de la communauté ethnique dans l’expérience scolaire de ces jeunes. D’une part, sous l’impact des dynamiques familiales, notamment ce qui à trait au projet migratoire, à la culture chinoise et à l’expérience pré- et post-migratoire, les parents immigrants chinois s’impliquent activement dans les études de leurs enfants, malgré des barrières linguistiques et culturelles. D’autre part, afin de surmonter les effets négatifs des faibles liens entretenus avec l’école de langue française, les parents chinois ont largement recours aux ressources au sein de la communauté ethnique, tels que les médias de langue chinoise, les organismes ethnospécifiques de services aux immigrants, l’école du samedi et les institutions religieuses ethniques. Ces institutions sociales ethniques contribuent à soutenir les valeurs culturelles, échanger des informations, établir des modèles pour les jeunes et à fournir des services appropriés en matière culturelle et linguistique.

Planning for development or decline? Education policy for Chinese language in Singapore

This article examines how political discourse, language ideologies, recent Chinese curriculum reforms, and their representations in the media are inextricably related. Using the Speak Mandarin Campaign as background for the inquiry, I focus on textual features of the various media sources, TV advertisements, campaign slogans, official speeches, and newspaper excerpts to illuminate the status and changing role of the Chinese language in Singapore’s sociocultural, economic, and political development. Using critical discourse analysis as an analytical framework, I examine the contradictory ideologies that underpin the government’s language policies and planning activities. On the one hand, the government emphasizes the cultural and economic values of the Chinese language; on the other hand, government schools teach Chinese as a subject. In particular, the recent reforms in Chinese language curriculum have arguably further diluted the content of teaching. In addition I point out how conflicting ideologies behind language policies can lead to cultural confusion and educational uncertainty. These mixed messages make it difficult for schools to offer a consistent language education curriculum that will help students appreciate the value, be it economic, cultural or educational, of the Chinese language.

‘CHOU GAGS CRITICS IN BANDOENG or how the media framed Premier Zhou Enlai at the Bandung Conference, 1955

At the Asian-African Conference at Bandung, Indonesia, in April 1955, the world's press concentrated its gaze on Premier Zhou Enlai of the People's Republic of China. Premier Zhou's every gesture, interaction and statement was scrutinized for evidence that his motivations at Bandung were antagonistic to Western interests. This preoccupation with the motivations of the Chinese was, however, no new phenomenon. By 1955, literary tropes of the ‘Yellow Peril’ had been firmly established in the Western imagination and, after 1949, almost seamlessly made their transition into fears of infiltrating communist Chinese ‘Reds’.

The first half of this paper explores the historical roots of the West's perceptions of the Chinese, through the literary works of Daniel Defoe to the pulp fiction of Sax Rohmer's Dr Fu Manchu series, which ran from 1917 to 1959. It then examines how this negative template was mobilised by the print media at the height of the Cold War to characterize Premier Zhou Enlai, not only as untrustworthy, but also as antagonistically anti-Western. This reading of representations of Premier Zhou at Bandung, as well as the literary tropes propagated in support of eighteenth and nineteenth-century imperial expansion, exposes a history of Western (mis)interpretations of China, and sheds light upon the media network's role in constructing a Chinese enemy in the mid-1950s.

Drawing the line: Chinese calligraphy, cultural materialisms and the “remixing of remix"

Remix in writing has very different expressions, and is grounded in very different legal, philosophical and creative materialisms, in Western and Chinese cultures. The infringement of authors’ Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in China is not only an irritant for Chinese-Western commercial and legal relations. It also points to different formations of the creative and legal domains across global space, and serves to introduce notions of creativity and originality that are largely unfamiliar in the West. Calligraphy, as a pictorial and material mode of writing, comprises a practice of Chinese remix in which the apprentice traces the lines of the master’s work: repetition of Yun 韵 (‘composed body movements’) stimulates the expression of Qing 情 (‘feelings’). What appears from a distance to be slavish imitation actually involves a philosophy of learning (or more precisely, of ‘unlearnt learning’) that, bypassing plagiarism’s traps, effectively ‘remixes remix’ as a creative model no longer dependent on the familiar Western rationales for the legitimacy of remix as appropriation, homage and/or pastiche. To see this though, one has to deploy a Taoist rather than a Confucian framework in the analysis of calligraphic practices. The case of Kathy Acker, allied with the work of Gilles Deleuze, reveals a largely invisible lineage of Taoist-influenced remix in Western creative writing. In this way, calligraphy emerges as a model of remix relevant to all forms of writing—for all writing is material, whether calligraphic or not. Further, as Acker shows, the materiality of writing constantly replenishes its remixing with cultural elements that may not be otherwise visible.

Self-Immolation In Tibet: Beyond The Lens Of The Western Media

This thesis provides a critique of Western media articles concerning self-immolation in Tibet. I begin by illustrating how the Western media provides reductionist accounts of Tibetan self-immolation by depicting the act solely as a form of political protest in response to Chinese occupation. I argue that these limited portrayals of self-immolation can be attributed to the Shangri-La imagery that characterizes much of the Western conceptions of Tibet. Through Shangri-La imagery, both Tibetans and their Buddhist religion are portrayed as utopic, peaceful, and able to provide the antidote to solving Western problems relating to modernization and consumerism. After illustrating the ways in which Shangri-La imagery influences Western media portrayals of Tibetan self-immolation, this thesis explores the commonly disregarded Buddhist dimensions of the act. Looking to Buddhist doctrine, scripture, and history, this thesis establishes a clear relationship between self-immolation and Buddhism, which situates the act as being more complicated than mere political protest. I argue that these limited portrayals given by the Western media are problematic because they overlook a fundamental aspect of self-immolation, thus potentially misrepresenting Tibetans. This thesis explores the Buddhist dimensions of self-immolation as a possible way to further understand what has led more than one hundred Tibetans to perform this act during the time of political crisis.

Disclosure attitudes and social acknowledgement as predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity in Chinese and German crime victims

Objective: Only rare data exist comparing cross-cultural aspects of civilian traumatization. We compared prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in German and Chinese crime victims, and investigated the cross-cultural effect of 2 interpersonal predictors. Method: German (n = 151) and Chinese (n = 144) adult crime victims were assessed several months postcrime. The parallel questionnaire set assessed PTSD symptom severity, disclosure attitudes, social acknowledgement, and demographic and crime characteristics. Results: German and Chinese participants differed significantly in their PTSD symptom severity. However, in both samples, disclosure attitudes and social acknowledgement predicted PTSD symptom severity with a similar strength, in addition to the effects of other PTSD predictors. Conclusions: The results suggest that interpersonal variables are predictors of PTSD symptom severity in both cultures and should be included in etiologic models of PTSD.

Borderless Fandom and Contemporary Popular Cultural Scene in Chinese Cyberspace

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Rapport-building through call in teaching Chinese as a foreign language: An exploratory study

Technological advances have brought about the ever-increasing utilisation of computer-assisted language learning ( CALL) media in the learning of a second language (L2). Computer-mediated communication, for example, provides a practical means for extending the learning of spoken language, a challenging process in tonal languages such as Chinese, beyond the realms of the classroom. In order to effectively improve spoken language competency, however, CALL applications must also reproduce the social interaction that lies at the heart of language learning and language use. This study draws on data obtained from the utilisation of CALL in the learning of L2 Chinese to explore whether this medium can be used to extend opportunities for rapport-building in language teaching beyond the face-to-face interaction of the classroom. Rapport's importance lies in its potential to enhance learning, motivate learners, and reduce learner anxiety. To date, CALL's potential in relation to this facet of social interaction remains a neglected area of research. The results of this exploratory study suggest that CALL may help foster learner-teacher rapport and that scaffolding, such as strategically composing rapport-fostering questions in sound-files, is conducive to this outcome. The study provides an instruction model for this application of CALL.

Tympanometric norms for Chinese schoolchildren

Current tympanometric norms have acknowledged the relevance of age as,in influencing factor. However, little attention has been afforded to other potentialities such its the non-pathological effects of gender, ear asymmetry, and racial heritage. This study aimed to examine normative tympanometric findings in a large sample of Chinese schoolchildren. Using a Madsen 901 Middle Ear Analyzer, data was collected from 269 children (538 ears), ranging in age from 6.2-12.7 years (mean = 9.4 years, SD = 1.7), in Jiangsu province. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the parameters of equivalent car canal volume (chi = 1.03, SD = 0.25, 90% = 0.68-1.46), peak compensated static acoustic admittance (chi = 0.58, SD = 0.34, 90% = 0.26-1.13), tympanometric width (chi = 112, SD=36, 90% = 62-156), and peak pressure (chi = -25, SD = 30, 90% = -85-+10). Statistically significant car asymmetry and grade/age effects were estabished, although differences found were minor. In comparison with past studies in Caucasian paediatric populations, the Chinese normative data displayed minimal disparities.

An examination of the effects of print media exposure and contact on subjective social reality and acculturation attitudes

This study draws upon cultivation theory, acculturation theory, and works on intergroup relations to examine the effects of print media exposure and contact on subjective social reality and acculturation attitudes of Chinese immigrants in Australia. Data was gathered via a survey administered to 265 respondents with Chinese origin. Results indicate that exposure to mainstream newspapers is only positively related to one indicator of subjective reality, namely, outgroup perception whereas exposure to ethnic newspapers was not significantly related to any of the indicators of subjective reality. Acculturation attitudes, on the other hand, are more closely related to group perception and contact but not closely associated with exposure to print media. These findings have again challenged the direct effect assumption of cultivation theory, paved the ground for combining mediated communication variables with interpersonal communication variables in acculturation research and suggested policy implications for interethnic coexistence. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.