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The aim of this research is to explore the sexual politics of Chinese nationalism in Taiwan between 1945 and 1979, focusing on the politicisation of prostitution and its role in the reproduction of postcolonial !lationhood. In the period following Japanese colonisation (1895-1945), US-backed nationalism was intensively promoted by the KMT in Taiwan to construct 'Free China' in opposition to the mainland Chinese communist regime (1945-1979). This thesis examines the political struggle over prostitution policy that was framed within and through contested knowledge, rationales and tactics underpinning the nationalist project, constructing and policing prostitution as a social/national problem, and yet also created a market for prostitution and turned it into political opportunities that served a variety of nationalistic interests. This thesis opens with a critical overview of key theoretical frameworks for the structure of this thesis based on the themes of 'nationalism', 'representation', and 'sexual governance', interwoven with postcolonial studies and an overview of historical research methods used. It then offers four thematic chapters exploring four dominant techniques of governmg prostitution as employed by different KMT nationalist activists: rescue, abolition/rehabilitation, medicalisation and policing.

Advertising has long been regarded as providing reasons for consumers to buy. However, in academic research, the significant role of emotion has generally been neglected. Neuroscience research has made considerable advances in the study of emotion and has resulted in a reconsideration of the rational view of decision-making behaviour. In addition, a review of the marketing literature reveals that there is a missing link between repetitive emotions, mixed emotions, continuous measures of emotions and the dominant emotion. This thesis provides this link and proposes a new theoretical research construct: the consumer’s emotional corridor Self-reported measurements have been widely used to measure consumers’ emotional responses to advertising stimuli or consumption-related experiences and have been a consistently popular method for practitioners and researchers. There is, however, a problem known as “cognitive bias” which often arises from self-reported measurements. Several researchers have highlighted the demand for the measurement of emotion to go beyond self-reported measurements and have called for collaboration with other research fields to advance consumer behaviour research in the study of emotion. This research collaborates with researchers in the field of human-computer interaction and suggests an alternative method: the Slogan Validator. This research adopts a multi-strategy approach in combining qualitative research (semi-structured interviews) and quantitative research (survey and experiment). The purpose of the first stage of the research is to assist in defining criteria of cognitive appraisals that consumers use for advertising slogans and on validating the research model. The second stage involves conducting a survey research, which is called study one in this thesis. The main purpose of study one is to test the proposed research model. The third stage of the research methodology involves the Slogan Validator and self-reported measurements (which is called study two in this research). The main purpose of study two is to compare the results of self-reported measurements and the Slogan Validator in measuring emotions. For study one, this research notes that there exist some differences in the types of determinants and their levels of influence on the attitude towards the advertisement, the attitude towards the brand and the purchase intention across four slogan cases. Nonetheless, the cognitive appraisal-outcome of desirability appears to be significant in all fourteen out of the sixteen models. In general, this factor plays the critical role in the advertising effectiveness. Moreover, the results of study one reveal that affective-related factors play the significant role in the advertising process in both the low and high involvement groups. For study two, the findings show that the results of the self-reported questionnaires and the Slogan Validator are almost completely different, except for the ‘happy’ emotion in the cases of McDonald’s and Kentucky. Implications, limitations and further research are discussed. The major contributions of this research are twofold. In terms of theoretical perspective, this research models consumers’ emotional responses to advertising slogans integrated with the new theoretical research construct, the consumer’s emotional corridor, and uncovers the determinants of advertising effectiveness from the consumers’ emotional responses to the advertising slogan standpoint. In terms of methodological perspective, this research initiates the employment of a novel method, namely, the Slogan Validator, which is the voice recognition study, in advertising literature.

In the brain, classical (canonical) transient receptor potential (TRPC) channels are thought to be involved in different aspects of neuronal development. This study investigated the postnatal developmental expression profile of the different TRPC subunits in rat cerebellum for the first 6 weeks after birth to establish potential links between cellular development and TRPC channel expression as well as TRPC expression in diseased human cerebellar tissue.

As a conceptually different approach for achieving stereoselective radical reactions, metalloradical catalysis (MRC) utilizes metal-centered radicals as open-shell catalysts for the catalytic generation of metal-stabilized organic radicals as key intermediates to control subsequent one-electron homolytic reactions. Cobalt(II) complexes of porphyrins, as stable 15e-metalloradicals with a well-defined low-spin d7 configuration, have so far dominated the ongoing development of MRC. Through fine-tuning the environments of D2-symmetric chiral amidoporphyrin platform as the supporting ligands, the Co(II)-based metalloradical system can effectively activate various α-aryldiazomethanes to cyclopropanate different dehydroaminocarboxylates under mild conditions, enabling the stereoselective synthesis of chiral cyclopropyl α-amino acid derivatives. Besides, Co(II)-based metalloradical system can homolytically activate both diazomalonates and α-aryldiazomethanes containing different alkene functionalities under mild conditions for effective radical bicyclization, delivering cyclopropane-fused tricyclic chromanones and chromanes, respectively, in high yields with excellent control of bothdiastereoselectivities and enantioselectivities. To broaden MRC beyond the use of Co(II)-based metalloradical catalysts, we illuminate systematic studies that demonstrate the application of a Fe(III)-based system for asymmetric radical transformations. Specifically, we report that five-coordinate Iron(III) complexes of porphyrins with an axial ligand, which represent another family of stable 15e-metalloradicals, are potent metalloradical catalysts for the olefin cyclopropanation with different classes of diazo compounds as well as the intramolecular 1,5-C(sp3)–H amination of various aryl azides, furnishing the valuable cyclopropanes and indolines, respectively, in high yields with high control of stereoselectivities. Mechanistically, a series of experimental investigations, together with DFT computations, offer convincing evidence in support of both Co(II)- and Fe(III)-based MRC and shed light on the details of the stepwise radical mechanism for corresponding catalytic reactions.

The application of the widely used mass balance model in determining portable air purifier (PAP) effectiveness in particulate matter (PM) removal was not validated in occupied residential settings. The corresponding size-resolved information and measurements for the model parameters and PAP effectiveness were also limited to better characterize human exposure to indoor PM. Additionally, effects of ambient factors, such as meteorology, and their long-term impacts on occupant indoor exposure to outdoor PM was unclear. We achieved well-mixed environment and steady state of PM concentrations that met the mass balance model assumptions. Size-resolved particle deposition rate was determined using non-linear mixed effects model, whereas linear mixed effects model was used to estimate the slope between the measured and modeled effectiveness for validation purpose. To evaluate the impact of ambient factors on PM exposure, we assembled data from two cohorts in the greater Boston area, assessing the monthly and long-term effect of temperature and other meteorology on Sr. Long-term meteorology was projected using 15 weather models for the past and future 20 years to estimate Sr for the corresponding periods with mixed effects models. Both particle deposition rate and portable air purifier effectiveness were highly particle size-dependent. Filtration was found to be the dominant removal mechanism for submicrometer particles, whereas deposition could play a more important role in ultrafine particle removal. There was reasonable agreement between measured and modeled effectiveness with size-resolved slopes ranging from 1.11±0.06 to 1.25±0.07 (mean±SE), except for particles <35 nm. Sr was found to be a robust measure of indoor exposure to outdoor PM, and temperature was its significant predictor. Seasonal effect of temperature was much more dominant when compared to long-term effect on Sr, which differed in the whole population and the subpopulation of naturally ventilated homes. However, long-term temperature effect was small, with maximum of <10% for summer Sr compared to the past. Findings from the studies improved characterization of indoor PM exposure. The study design and methods can be used in the future to better understand exposure scenarios and their correlation to health effects in other homes or populations.

Research has shown that chronic inflammation is associated with many diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and asthma. This chronic inflammation is caused by the failure of proper resolution of the inflammation overtime. Therefore, this dissertation explores the biosynthesis of lipoxygenase-derived products from DHA, drug discovery, and site-directed mutagenesis to determine the substrate and inhibitors binding to the lipoxygenase active site in order to understand how these pro-resolving molecules are made and help to guide for chronic disease therapy. The first chapter probes the electrostatic and steric requirements for substrate binding in human 12-LOX. The second chapter investigates the biosynthetic pathway of NPD1 and PDX by human lipoxygenase isozymes. The third chapter determines the dimeric interface of human 12-LOX by site-directed mutagenesis. The fourth and fifth chapters discover potent and selective inhibitors against human 12-LOX and 15-LOX-2 for thrombosis and atherosclerosis therapy.

The goal of my dissertation is to shed new light on how genetic variation and developmental experiences sculpt cognitive flexibility in young adulthood. My dissertation is intended to inform public health and understanding of human adversity by using mice as a model. However, this work may also contribute to a more established scientific understanding of how an organism’s life experience can interact with development and have profound and persistent effects on expression of the neurobiological and behavioral phenotypes. This interaction between the environment and a developing organism has previously been studied in various fields under different names, as experience dependent plasticity in neuroscience, adaptive developmental plasticity (ADP) in biology, and life history theory in ecology. These three fields do not often interact because they tend to focus on different levels of analysis. Neuroscience tends to focus on the proximate or mechanistic level, while ultimate level questions about evolution are the domain of biology and ecology. By looking at neural systems and examining the effects of genotype and developmental experience, I attempt to forge links between the proximate and ultimate levels of understanding. At the proximate level, I focus on the role of the striatal dopamine (DA) system in behaviors requiring cognitive flexibility or flexible updating. This critical executive function, responsible for adaptive learning and goal-directed behaviors, has been shown to rely heavily on the DA system. At the ultimate level, I discuss how genetic polymorphisms and phenotypic plasticity allow adaptation to different environmental conditions and how the application of ADP and life history theory may strengthen the interpretation of the changes in behavioral phenotypes and neural functions. Through a similar lens, cognitive flexibility may represent how sensitive an organism is to cues from the environment, with greater sensitivity associated with greater flexibility. In Chapter 1, I first briefly introduce the framework of ADP by presenting different levels that ADP can act on as well as different models and hypotheses. I also review ideas of life history theory and sensitive periods which interact with ADP and together affect and sculpt developmental trajectories of cognitive, behavioral, and neural functions. I then review the growing literature that demonstrates behavioral and neurobiological variables are sensitive to early life developmental experiences, with a special focus on cognitive function and the striatal DA system. Based on the ADP framework and the neurobiological literature, I develop a model of how experience may have profound effects on the development of striatal DA systems that support learning and decision making. In Chapter 2, I present data from a mouse model of a common human genetic polymorphism in the brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene, Val66Met. In these mice, we find that genotype affects cognitive flexibility in two separate tasks. Met/met mice (homozygous with the mutant allele) showed greater flexibility than the Val/Val controls. I discuss these findings in the context of literature that views this polymorphism as a plasticity allele instead of a risk allele. I also explore how the ADP framework explains why a genetic polymorphism that affects cognitive flexibility might be maintained in a population. In Chapter 3 and 4, I focus on the impacts of developmental food abundance versus food scarcity on brain and behavior. Food abundance and scarcity are important environmental variables affecting organisms’ survival and are relevant to public health. Food scarcity and unpredictability is known in public health as food insecurity. Currently, this is a growing public health challenge both nationally and globally. For this work, I developed a novel mouse model of food insecurity using a varying schedule of feeding for 20 days during development. In Chapter 3, I examine the impacts of juvenile-adolescent (Postnatal Day (P)21-40) developmental feeding history on learning, cognitive flexibility, and decision-making in adulthood. I found that adult male mice with different developmental feeding histories (ad libitum or food insecurity treatment) during the juvenile-adolescent period P21-40 exhibited differences in cognitive flexibility, past reward integration, and sensitivity to reward uncertainty when tested after P60. These group effects were not found in females nor in males when the differences in feeding experience and testing were both shifted twenty days later, suggesting a sex difference and a sensitive window for the effects of treatment or testing. I also applied computational modeling to further characterize that behavioral differences in adult males with different P21-40 feeding histories. I found that differences in behavioral performance in the two tasks were due to differences in updating in response to negative outcomes, weighing of past unrewarded history, and sensitivity to different reward probabilities. While I did not see impacts of feeding experience on learning and cognitive flexibility in adult female mice, I did observe effects on adult weight gain in females. In Chapter 4, I examine the impacts of developmental feeding history on neurobiological measures of DA neurons and DA release in the striatum in brain slices. I found that adult male mice with different developmental feeding histories showed differences in AMPAR/NMDAR-mediated excitatory postsynaptic currents ratios on mesolimbic DA neurons and differences in DA release in the nigrostriatal DA pathways in vitro. In both Chapter 3 and 4, I explore how we may use the ADP framework to explain our results as a predictive adaptive response to the developmental experience of food abundance or scarcity. Together, my data demonstrate how genes and experience can impact cognitive flexibility and serve as an example of how we can use multiple levels of analyses to understand phenotypic variation. I hope to advance the field of adversity studies by using theoretical and mechanistic models and novel insights to explain how information from the environment can act on neural circuits and in turn alter expression of behavioral phenotypes. Furthermore, my data suggests that the juvenile adolescent period is a potentially significant time for interventions to impact core learning and decision making systems. This last point may have special relevance during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the subsequent economic downturn increases food insecurity.

Following the method developed by Waldspurger and Beuzart-Plessis in their proof of the local Gan-Gross-Prasad conjecture, we are able to prove a local trace formula for the Ginzburg-Rallis model. Then by applying that trace formula, we prove a multiplicity formula for the Ginzburg-Rallis model for tempered representations. Using that multiplicity formula, we prove the multiplicity one theorem for all tempered L-packets. In some cases, we also proved the epsilon dichotomy conjecture which gives a relation between the multiplicity and the exterior cube epsilon factor. Finally, in the archimedean case, we proved some partial results for the general generic representations by applying the open orbit method.

A lot of research has been compiled on students’ motivations to learn, however, teachers’ motivations for teaching have been rarely discussed. The study of teachers’ motivations may be categorized into three parts: motivation to start teaching, motivation to continue teaching, and motivation to excel in teaching. This thesis focuses on identifying and analyzing the factors that affect novice teachers’ motivations to excel at teaching, specifically in the context of Chinese language pedagogy. Furthermore, this study examines what factors create a successful Chinese language teacher training program, as well as highlight the strengths and weaknesses of current Chinese language teacher training programs.To answer these questions, I collected data through class observations, by distributing questionnaires and interviewing four Chinese language teachers. Two of the teachers participated in a Chinese language teacher training program at a large Midwest state university and currently teach at the same university, and two who are teaching at two different U.S. universities and attended training programs at a small state university in the Northwest. Although the two teacher training programs are at different locations, they follow a similar pedagogical approach. The questionnaire consists of eleven motivating factors for teachers that the four subjects have to fill out, with one representing the factor that motivates them the most and eleven being the factor that motivates them the least. In addition to the questionnaire, an interview consisting of two sections with eleven and seven open-ended questions respectively was administered. The questionnaire and interview are both written in English.This thesis finds that novice teachers’ primary motivations to excel stem from their personal interests and goals, which in the study include factors such as teachers’ ambition to develop and manage a Chinese language program and choosing a career in Chinese language teaching. Moreover, regarding the Chinese language teacher training programs, the strengths of the investigated programs include combining the teacher training program with intensive language program. This provides opportunities for the trainees to teach and tutor real learners of Chinese, design course-related materials, and receive a series of informative lectures on theoretical and practical issues. On the other hand, the weaknesses of the investigated programs may include having imbalanced opportunities for the trainees to teach Listening & Speaking and Reading & Writing classes, as well as beginning level and higher-level classes and issues related to tight class schedule. However, this imbalance is actually by design; the real issue may be conveying this to trainees to better alleviate their concerns.Based on the research results, it is recommended that what motivate teachers the most are those sustainable and continued intrinsic motivations, rather than those temporary and extrinsic ones. Additionally, by understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the current Chinese language teacher training programs as well as teachers’ motivations, this study wishes to provide constructive insights for the design of future Chinese language teacher training programs associated with inculcating a sustainable motivation.

Study of multiple drug usage is common in chemotherapy. Many research studies examine the effect multiple usage of these anticancer drugs. The study of these drugs together could help clarify the biological effects of agents that affect microtubules. This could guide future cancer treatment for patients especially these with breast cancer, an important public health issue. The main purpose of this paper is to apply and compare methods for examining the combined effects of anticancer drugs. We focus on Paclitaxel and Discodermolide. While in the process of modeling the single drug effect, we noticed that these anticancer drugs may be unable to kill all the cells even at high concentration, or that, some subpopulation is far less sensitive: there may be a mixed population of two types of cells with very different sensitivities. According to this description, one population of cell is very sensitive to the drug and the other one is nearly resistant to the drug. This model is difficult to fit. One approach is to fit the low-concentration and high-concentration portion of the dose-response curve separately, and then combine them. We constructed a simple method to predict the combined drug effects while adjusting for the assumption of mixed cell populations. We will summarize the commonly used methods for evaluating drug combination. Two models are commonly used as reference models to test the drug additive effect, which are dose-additive models and effect-additive models. For effect-additive models, we focus on the "mutually exclusive" and "mutually non-exclusive" additive effect models, and another additive effect model based on a population log kill mixture model.

Adolescence is a time of widespread and particularly intense feelings of loneliness. This study investigated how the quantity and quality of evolving interpersonal relationships affect adolescent feelings of belongingness to family, friends, and romantic partners, and moreover, how such relationships influence their experiences with loneliness. A total of 479 Taiwanese adolescents aged 12 to 22 from a middle school, a senior high school, and an university participated in the study. A quantitative approach using structural equation modeling was employed to address the appropriateness of the hypothetical adolescent loneliness model from the perspective of belongingness. The study’s results indicated that the hypothetical model was reliable for assessing loneliness during the three stages (early, middle, and late) of adolescence. As predicted, the interaction between the quality and quantity of adolescents’ interpersonal relationships with family members contributed to their feelings of belongingness to family. Similarly, interaction between relationship quality and quantity with a best friend contributed to adolescents’ feelings of belongingness to their friends. Moreover, feelings of belongingness to family and friends decreased adolescents’ level of loneliness. However, the results from multiple group modeling failed to demonstrate predicted differences between adolescents’ feelings of loneliness and belongingness to family and friends for the three stages of adolescence. Interestingly, the interaction between relationship quantity and quality with one’s father on adolescents’ feelings of belongingness to family was more important for middle and late adolescents than for early adolescents. Furthermore, for those adolescents who had romantic partners at the time the study was conducted, their level of belongingness to a romantic partner significantly decreased their feelings of loneliness. However, for those adolescents who did not have a romantic partner, the presence of past a romantic partner(s) failed to predict feelings of loneliness. The study’s findings also found that adolescent individuation of movement toward the pursuit of friendships and romantic partners, including their increased appreciation of these relationships, were achieved without loss of connection with family members.