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It is a great fortune to live in Taiwan, because even though it's status as "a country" is still under contention, we have already enjoyed the recognition of a pluralistic democracy, race and culture. Although the Taiwanese have inherited the rich Chinese culture, there are indeed differences still between people across straits, because a sensitive and tense political climate has influenced indirectly their social customs, beliefs, values and thinking. As Chinese, it seems that we are responsible for and are obliged to illustrate clearly the aesthetic differences between both sides of the straits that result from the regional and cultural discrepancy. Based on this ideology, this essay was written with the aim of analyzing two internationally acclaimed directors, from the perspective of aesthetics in Movie Design-taking the works of Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Zhang Yi-Mou (A City of Sadness(1990) and Hero(2003) respectively) as examples. These two movies possess superlative art achievements that act as the symbolic indicators of the epoch and the political consciousness of the people. This research made use of two methods: The comparative method is used to examine the following image analysis procedures, such as compositional interpretation (i.e. shots, narration and custom code analysis), and discourse analysis (seeing it from the audience's perspective, and interpreting the culture and ideology from a personal point of view). The preliminary research shows: 1. Hsiao-Hsien's A City of Sadness (1990) is full of regional characteristics (e.g. Tai Ke culture, long shots displaying the common people's life, and portions of the script that criticizes the political situation at that time). 2. Zhang Yi-Mou's Hero (2003) applies long shots to present Chinese grant territory, and angle shots to display the power and army of the king, with much praise and little criticism towards the political situation. 3. Unique regional images are used in these two movies (e.g. Chinese hero and Taiwanese Tai Ke are from different eras. The influence onto Tai Ke from the colonization era is presented through the costumes and stage setting). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the improvement effects of Xiaotan Huayu Liqiao Formula on cognitive impairment in mice exposed to chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH), and to explore the related mechanisms. Methods: Forty-eight male C57 BL/6 mice were randomly divided into four groups as Normoxia, CIH, Formula+CIH and Formula group. Mice were exposed to normoxia in the normoxia and formula group, or intermittent hypoxia in CIH or Formula+CIH group (in the chambers, mice were filled with 100% N 2 to produce FiO 2 of 9% for 1. 5 min. The FiO 2 gradually returned to 21% over the remainder of each cycle. The exposure cycle was repeated every 3 min, 8 h/day for 35 days). Mice were treated with Xiaotan Huayu Liqiao Formula at the dose of 26. 8 g/kg by intragastric administration before CIH exposure. Meanwhile, mice in CIH and normoxia group were given the same volume of normal saline. When the experiment lasts for 26-35 d, Morris water maze was used to detect cognitive dysfunction in mice. At the end of 35 days, Y-maze was performed in each group. After anesthesia, hippocampus was isolated for morphological observation and Western blot ananlysis. Nissl staining and electron microscopy were adopted to assess the neuronal damage in hippocampus, and Western blot was used to detect the levels of PSD-95 and synapsin expression. Results: Compared with normoxia group,the performance of CIH mice was significantly reduced in Morris water maze and Y-maze( P ＜0. 01, P ＜0. 01). Both the number of Nissl staining positive cells and the thickness of the postsynaptic density in hippocampus were significantly reduced. And, the levels of PSD-95 expression in hippocampus was also decreased in the CIH group( P ＜0. 01), however, no significant change of synapsin expression was observed. Compared to CIH group, administration of Xiaotan Huayu Liqiao Formula markedly improved performance of mice in Morris water maze and Y-maze ( P ＜0. 01), increased Nissl staining positive cells and the thickness of the postsynaptic density and PSD-95 expression in hippocampus ( P ＜0. 01). Conclusion: Xiaotan Huayu Liqiao Formula could alleviate the structural and functional impairment of the postsynaptic dense area, and improved CIH-induced cognitive dysfunction.

Objective: To investigate the effects of Xiaotan Huayu Liqiao formula (the Chinese Medicine) on mesenteric artery function in rats exposed to chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH), and to explore the related mechanism., Methods: Forty-eight male SD rats were randomly divided into four groups as Normoxia, CIH, Formula+CIH and formula group. Rats were exposed to normoxia in the Normoxia and Formula group, or intermittent hypoxia in CIH or Formula+CIH group. Xiaotan Huayu Liqiao formula was given at 24g/kg by intragastric administration before intermittent hypoxia exposure. The pathological changes of mesenteric artery were determined by HE staining, and the relaxation of mesenteric artery (induced by acetylcholine(ACh) and L-arginine(L-Arg)) was recorded by microvascular ring technique. Serums of all rats were collected (0 d and 21 d) and the content of NO was detected by ELISA. The levels of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and p-eNOS were measured by Western blot., Results: Compared with Normoxia group, the mesenteric arterial endothelial injury and media thickening were observed and the relaxation of mesenteric artery was significantly reduced in rats exposed to CIH. The level of NO in serum and the ratio of p-eNOS/eNOS were also decreased in the CIH group. Xiaotan Huayu Liqiao formula administration improved the pathologic changes and dilatation function of mesenteric artery, increased the levels of NO and p-eNOS. Compared with Normoxia group,all the results were not observed significant difference in Formula group., Conclusion: Xiaotan Huayu Liqiao formula increased the bioavailability of NO, and ameliorated the CIH induced mesenteric artery function injury.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the oral endothelin antagonist Bosentan on blood pressure and renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA) in rats exposed to chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH), and to explore the sympathoexcitation mechanism of endothelin-1 (ET-1) in CIH-induced hypertension. Twenty-four male SD rats were randomly divided into normoxia, CIH and Bosentan groups. Rats in the normoxia group were exposed to normoxic environment, and rats in CIH or Bosentan group were exposed to intermittent hypoxia for 3 weeks. Bosentan was given at 50 mg/kg by intragastric administration before intermittent hypoxia exposure in Bosentan group. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was measured by BP-2000, and the change of RSNA to sodium nitroprusside (SNP) or phenylephrine (PE) was recorded by PowerLab signal acquisition system. Serums of all rats were collected and the contents of ET-1 and norepinephrine (NE) were measured by ELISA. Results showed that blood pressure was gradually increased following CIH exposure compared with the normoxia group during the 3 weeks (P < 0.01, P < 0.01, P < 0.001). The basal RSNA was increased and baroreflex sensitivity was decreased in rats exposed to CIH. Furthermore, the blood pressure was positively correlated with the level of ET-1 in serum in rats exposed to CIH (r = 0.833, P = 0.01). Bosentan administration significantly decreased SBP and basal RSNA, increased the baroreflex sensitivity, and decreased serum NE level in rats exposed to CIH. These results suggest that ET-1 is related with blood pressure elevation in rats exposed to CIH, and Bosentan reverses CIH-induced hypertension by decreasing RSNA.

As an important site for the production, storage and release of key regulators for vascular function, the vascular adventitia is thought to be a damage sensing tissue in the vascular wall under certain conditions. The adventitial cells are usually the first ones to respond to vascular stress or injury, and consequently affect the structure and function of blood vessel wall. Growing lines of evidence have shown that the vascular adventitia exhibits the earliest and most prominent changes in vascular remodeling due to hypoxia and related pulmonary hypertension and atherosclerosis. In particular, fibroblasts play an important role in the adaptation and regulation to local microenvironmental changes. This review focuses on the role of vascular adventitia in hypoxia-induced vascular remodeling and the underlying molecular mechanisms.