Search

This thesis examines the literary and cultural practices of literary journal, Xiandai zazhi (现代, Les Contemporains, May 1932–May 1935), and explores the ways in which a mild cosmopolitan view of Chinese modernity is constructed in relation to the mainstream discourses of nationalism and radical Communist leftism in the early 1930s in China. The thesis situates the discussions of cosmopolitanism within the project of Chinese modernity in the early 1930s, and engages in the issues of nationalism, Westernization, Chinese tradition and revolutionary Communist discourses. Organized around the theme of cosmopolitanism as an alternative view of Chinese modernity, this thesis will first identify the journal’s cosmopolitan attitude, featuring contemporaneity and all-inclusiveness, through its practices of translating and introducing world literature. This cosmopolitan perspective, however, does not imply a radical anti-traditionalism. Rather, Xiandai zazhi opted for a more balanced view towards modernity and Chinese tradition, and this constitutes the second feature of the alternative stance of Xiandai zazhi. The thesis also examines the journal’s attempt to go beyond the class-based stratification of people and literature, as prescribed by the Chinese left-wing camp. Furthermore, it will examine the trans-national and cross-cultural writing practice of Pearl S. Buck and certain Chinese writers as a way of overcoming the ethnographic and national boundaries of self and Other. It thus reveals the spectrum of dimensions of Chinese modernity in the 1930s.

The water quality deteriorations in river and estuarine waters are a global issue. Particularly, the water quality impairment due to contamination of Faecal Bacteria Indicator, such as E. coli and Faecal Coliform in river channel, estuary bathing and shellfish waters are of special interests due to potential risks to human health. These indicators are important in water quality assessment outlined in both EU Water Framework Directive and US Clear Water Act. The hypothesis of the study is that the global climate change and intensive farming would cause severe deterioration to faecal coliform levels in these water bodies. Approaches to quantify these impacts are carried out with numerically modelling through catchment model Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and hydrodynamic model DIVAST with the focus in the coastal catchment of river Frome and Piddle connected to a natural harbour in Dorset, southern England.

The ion-polymer and ion-ion interactions in polymer electrolytes based on high molecular weight, amorphous methoxy-linked PEO (PMEO) and lithium salts have been investigated by conductivity measurement, magic-angle spinning NMR (mas NMR) and pulsed field gradient NMR (pfgNMR) techniques. In the very dilute salt concentration region, ion pairing effects are dominant in these polymer electrolytes. Ion association is found to increase with temperature and salt concentration. Ion transport for these electrolytes is controlled both by segmental motion of the polymer and activation process, in which the former is important for the dilute concentration samples while the latter is important for the concentrated samples. The mass transport process in polymer electrolytes based on a zinc salt has been investigated by steady state dc polarisation and Hittorf techniques. Zinc ion constituents in these electrolytes are mobile with a limiting current fraction of about 0.2 at 80°C, and the transference number measured by the Hittorf method is less than 0.1. The main species in these electrolytes are proposed to be neutral mobile triples. The electrode-electrolyte interfaces in polymer electrolytes based on calcium and magnesium salts have been studied. Dc polarisation experiments for these polymer electrolytes were carried out using two electrode cells with the metal anode and mercury film amalgam cathode. The results of dc polarisation experiments suggest that calcium species are mobile in high molecular weight electrolytes, while magnesium species are immobile. The influence of the molecular weight of the polymer on the dynamics of cation constituents has been studied based on the experimental results of dc polarisation and pfg NMR, and on the theoretical analyses of the reptation theory and the Rouse model. It is found that the transport of the gravity centre of the polymer will influence the ion transport in polymer electrolytes based on PEO in a manner described by the Rouse model when the molecular weight of PEO is less than 3200.

The rapid development of computing devices and artificial intelligence (AI) in recent decades have dramatically reshaped the ecosystem of critical infrastructure systems. Intelligent control and data-driven algorithms have received widespread interests due to their great potential in reducing the operating costs and improving the system efficiency and reliability. The increasing data collected from different sectors of infrastructure provide abundant resources for scientific studies propelled by machine learning and statistics. Nevertheless, successful design and applications of novel intelligent algorithms on infrastructure can be challenging due to the complex domain-specific contexts and constraints therein. The goal of this dissertation is to investigate and design innovative solutions to emerging problems in power systems, transportation, energy efficient buildings, and wildfire camera networks. For power transmission systems, we developed automatic event detection and identification algorithms based on real-world synchrophasor data. For power distribution systems, we investigated and characterized the spatio-temporal correlation between distribution feeders with statistical models. We analyzed and quantified the impacts of different socioeconomic and weather factors on residents' electricity consumption. For transportation systems, we initially formulated the electric vehicle (EV) routing for ride-hailing services as a mixed integer programming problem. This framework does not scale well to large amount of EVs. To address this issue, we developed a reinforcement learning based algorithm to operate an EV fleet, which is characterized by decentralized learning and centralized decision making. For energy efficient buildings, we designed an innovative change-point logistic regression model to provide an accurate forecast of building occupancy. A novel building HVAC control algorithm, which aims at reducing the energy consumption, was developed by embedding the occupancy prediction model into a model predictive control framework. \par For wildfire camera networks, we developed an efficient video smoke detection framework designed for embedded applications on local cameras. We also proposed an optimal wildfire camera placement strategy by maximizing the overall camera network benefits with limited budget.

To extend the imperial authority to the newly conquered lands, early Western Han emperors in the second century BCE dispatched their sons and brothers to reign over a number of remote kingdoms in the unruly border regions, whose people lived in vivid memories of their pre-imperial pasts. While ancient historians only left succinct and fragmentary documents about these kingdoms, modern archaeologists have excavated dozens of royal tombs, which allow us to probe into religious, social, and political agendas of early imperial Chinese rulers. This dissertation scrutinizes one king’s complex identification with himself, his family, and his state in the formative period of the Chinese empire by analyzing his and his wife’s tombs, dubbed Mancheng Tombs 1 and 2, located in Hebei province in the northern border region of the Han Empire. Widely acknowledged as the richest, largest, highest-ranking, and best-preserved royal tombs so far excavated in early imperial China, both tombs were found miraculously intact. More than ten thousand objects, many of which have been declared national treasures of China, were distributed on the floors in meaningful patterns across a cluster of interconnected, house-like burial chambers. These parallel tombs were occupied by King Liu Sheng (d. 113 BCE) and Queen Dou Wan (d. ca. 109 BCE), who re-established the originally non-Chinese “barbaric” state called Zhongshan (literally, “People within Mountains”) in 154 BCE. This dissertation argues that architectural plans, the patterns of furnishing, and the diversity of burial objects addressed the royal couple’s three major concerns during their lives: harmonizing the body with the soul, the husband with the wife, and the Chinese with the “barbaric.” In doing so, this dissertation methodologically synthesizes interdisciplinary methodologies from history of art, archaeology, and sinology by closely reading visual materials from the royal tombs and textual materials about Zhongshan in conjunction with one another. This dissertation consists of three major chapters. Chapter 1 examines the tombs’ pattern of furnishing as the material embodiment of the traditional Chinese philosophy of harmonizing body and soul, which were housed respectively in the rear coffin and the front chamber. Chapter 2 studies the parallel relationship between the twin tombs as a visual commentary on the discourse of ideal husband and wife, who is mirroring and subject to the husband. The last Chapter 3 shows how non-Chinese elements were intertwined with Chinese elements in the tomb to represent the king’s double identity both as the heir to the local “barbaric” cultural tradition and as a Chinese imperial representative. This dissertation makes a contribution to the field of Chinese art history and culture not only by providing the first comprehensive analysis of one of the most important archaeological discoveries of ancient China, but also by offering a theoretical and methodological reflection of what early Chinese tombs were and how to study them as a source for historical inquiries.

Teaching/learning resource selection is an important aspect of teaching and learning activities, which can largely decide what and how teachers teach and what students learn. However, little previous research exists on how to select teaching/learning resources, let alone selecting resources to make Chinese learnable. This research is directed at the development of criteria for teaching/learning resource selection. A main research question addressed by this research is: What are the theories and criteria for teachers of Chinese to select resources to make Chinese learnable for English learners? The contributory research questions are: What are teachers’ attitudes and preferences regarding resource selection and their reasons for these? What are the difficulties or problems teachers in selecting resources and what solutions do they generate? What are students’ attitudes towards the selected resources? What are the criteria for effective teaching/learning resource selection? A grounded theory approach with conceptually-driven data analysis is adopted as the methodology intending to generate theories for effective teaching/learning resource selection. Interviews, observation and document-gathering were employed in data collection to collect evidence from 12 teachers and 48 students. Five criteria were developed from data analysis. Specifically, teaching/learning resource selection should be (a) curriculum-appropriate; (2) make students interested; (3) balance students’ interests and other factors when facing conflicts; (4) students-appropriate; (5) and flexible.