Search results for "Chinese"
showing 10 items of 375 documents
Why bother maintaining languages? : A discussion based on diminishing Chinese dialects in Malaysia
2020
Language maintenance and language shift are vital subfields in sociolinguistics. In Malaysia, past studies have observed a shift from Chinese dialects to Mandarin Chinese in the language use of many young generation Chinese, which has led to the endangerment of some dialects. This situation draws attention to the role and survival of Chinese dialects in Malaysian society, and thereby creates a need to discuss the reasons for maintaining them. However, this is not merely a question of continuing to speak Chinese dialects. More deeply, we need to have conversations about who we are, where our ancestors originated from, and how we can make Chinese dialects more worthwhile for maintenance. This…
China-Finland Co-operation, Trade, and Investment: In Search of Common Ground
2015
The importance of co-operation with China has been growing in Finland and the rest of Europe in view of the rising global economic and political status of China and the interest in attracting Chinese investments. In Finland, government agencies have been established for this purpose, and regional and local governments are also actively involved. Delegation visits between China and Finland have been intensively on-going for some years, but matching interests and finding common ground for co-operation, trade and investment often still proves to be a challenging task. Based on interviews with Finnish representatives and on observing delegation visits, this paper explores the difficulties that …
La questione del testo letterario negli apprendenti cinesi: regola, creatività, grammatica
2022
This paper explores how Chinese-speaking students approach and represent Italian literary texts. The author refers to Chinese-speaking students of Italian, about whom he has on-the-job experience. The introduction emphasizes how Chinese culture and philosophy, pivoting around the ideal of harmony, befit the textual teaching in Italian language, within the Romance cultural and linguistic context, where the fracture, the Dyonisian, the textual pathos, are important concepts. The subject is approached with a two-fold perspective. The first is more general and expresses the need for an integrated and dynamic encounter between Chinese and Italian culture. The second is more specific and consider…
Systematic Study of a Library of PDMAEMA-Based, Superparamagnetic Nano-Stars for the Transfection of CHO-K1 Cells.
2017
The introduction of the DNA into mammalian cells remains a challenge in gene delivery, particularly in vivo. Viral vectors are unmatched in their efficiency for gene delivery, but may trigger immune responses and cause severe side-reactions. Non-viral vectors are much less efficient. Recently, our group has suggested that a star-shaped structure improves and even transforms the gene delivery capability of synthetic polycations. In this contribution, this effect was systematically studied using a library of highly homogeneous, paramagnetic nano-star polycations with varied arm lengths and grafting densities. Gene delivery was conducted in CHO-K1 cells, using a plasmid encoding a green fluore…
Audiovisual processing of Chinese characters elicits suppression and congruency effects in MEG
2019
Learning to associate written letters/characters with speech sounds is crucial for reading acquisition. Most previous studies have focused on audiovisual integration in alphabetic languages. Less is known about logographic languages such as Chinese characters, which map onto mostly syllable-based morphemes in the spoken language. Here we investigated how long-term exposure to native language affects the underlying neural mechanisms of audiovisual integration in a logographic language using magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG sensor and source data from 12 adult native Chinese speakers and a control group of 13 adult Finnish speakers were analyzed for audiovisual suppression (bimodal responses…
Understanding technology diffusion in emerging markets
2019
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to use the consumer-based discrepancy theory to examine consumers’ behavioral motivations for using mobile devices and the factors that influence the rapid diffusion of Chinese mobile devices in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using focus group interviews with samples cutting across users, technicians and experts from Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s industrial capital. This study conducted a thematic analysis of the data with NVivo Pro 11 for deductive coding.FindingsThe authors found that weak regulatory environment opened the Nigerian mobile market to the influx of mobile devices from Chinese local manufacturers. Though largely absent in…
“Red wins”, “black wins” and “blue loses” effects are in the eye of beholder, but they are culturally universal: A cross-cultural analysis of the inf…
2014
Abstract Although many studies have demonstrated an influence of uniform colors on sports performance, there are still more questions than answers regarding this issue. In our study, participants from Poland (N = 147) and China (N = 143) watched a two-minute video of a semi-professional boxing match. The participants viewed six different versions of the same fight - the original was modified to change the colors of the boxers’ trunks (red vs. blue, blue vs. red, blue vs. black, black vs. blue, red vs. black, and black vs. red). We experimentally confirmed that “black wins” and “red wins” effects exist, but in a way that caused an erroneous perception of the number of blows landed by boxers …
Traditional Chinese medicine research in the post-genomic era: good practice, priorities, challenges and opportunities.
2012
Abstract Background and aims GP-TCM is the 1st EU-funded Coordination Action consortium dedicated to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) research. This paper aims to summarise the objectives, structure and activities of the consortium and introduces the position of the consortium regarding good practice, priorities, challenges and opportunities in TCM research. Serving as the introductory paper for the GP-TCM Journal of Ethnopharmacology special issue, this paper describes the roadmap of this special issue and reports how the main outputs of the ten GP-TCM work packages are integrated, and have led to consortium-wide conclusions. Materials and methods Literature studies, opinion polls and di…
Cloning of two melanocortin (MC) receptors in spiny dogfish
2004
We report the cloning and characterization of two melanocortin receptors (MCRs) from the spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) (Sac). Phylogenetic analysis shows that these shark receptors are orthologues of the MC3R and MC5R subtypes, sharing 65% and 70% overall amino acid identity with the human counterparts, respectively. The SacMC3R was expressed and pharmacologically characterized in HEK293 cells. The radioligand binding results show that this receptor has high affinity for adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-derived peptides while it has comparable affinity for alpha- and beta-melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH), and slightly lower affinity for gamma-MSH when compared with the human ortho…
Can eastern wisdom resolve western epidemics? Traditional Chinese medicine therapies and the opioid crisis.
2020
The widespread use of opioids to treat chronic pain led to a nation-wide crisis in the United States. Tens of thousands of deaths annually occur mainly due to respiratory depression, the most dangerous side effect of opioids. Non-opioid drugs and non-pharmacological treatments without addictive potential are urgently required. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is based on a completely different medical theory than academic Western medicine. The scientific basis of acupuncture and herbal treatments as main TCM practices has been considerably improved during the past two decades, and large meta-analyses with thousands of patients provide evidence for their efficacy. Furthermore, opinion lead…