Without Rice, Even the Cleverest Housewife Cannot Cook: Sustainable Livelihoods Research in a Poor Chinese Village

Ling Zhong1, Megan Blaxland2 and Ting Zuo1 한국사회복지학회 2015 Asian Social Work and Policy Review Vol.9 No.1

This paper presents findings of a qualitative study investigating the assets, the risks and shocks, and the anti-risk mechanisms of the households of a poor village in rural northern China. The paper explores the vulnerability of the rural households to becoming impoverished and presents some implications for Chinese social policy. The research shows that income sources and assets of the households were considerably varied, and that this, in turn, affected the kinds of strategies they could implement to manage risk. Poorer households had fewer assets, smaller social networks, and less capacity to manage risk than better-off households, despite all living in the same poor village. Moreover, poorer households were much more likely to have family members with chronic ill-health or disability. These findings point to a need to ensure better access for all rural households to social support, health and care services, and opportunities to find new sources of income within their village.

How the International Cooperation in “Sci-tech +Industry” Model Working in Developing Mango as “One Village and One Product”: Citing the Industrial Upgrading Experience in Baihua Village as An Example

Yanxiu Zuo(Yanxiu Zuo),Junxiang Qian(Junxiang Qian),Lichi Li(Lichi Li),Zhangguan Ni(Zhangguan Ni),Jun Wu(Jun Wu),Huiyun Zhang(Huiyun Zhang),Yufu Chen(Yufu Chen),Huiyun Zhang(Huiyun Zhang),Li Yao(Yao L 아시아사회과학학회 2022 Jornal of Asia Social Science Vol.9 No.1

Baihua Village is a typical mountainous village in the southwest part of Lujiang county, Longyang District, Baoshan City, Yunnan Province. Residents there made a living on the land, including growing sugarcane and planting maize, whose annual income was no more than 2000 yuan before 2006. Since then when a research institute has set it as one of the pilot villages for mango growing impetus with sci-tech. For the sake of “One village and One Product”, mango breeding and relevant techniques have been applied to daily work. Within years, the developed model of has been explored: simply “villages are the main carriers facilitated by the specialized cooperative for mango growing, back-up by science and technology. Technical trainings serve as the driving force for the leading growers, meanwhile, sellers work as the bridge link the producing-end and the markets”.

STRUCTURAL AND SPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF k-QUASI-*-PARANORMAL OPERATORS

ZUO, FEI,ZUO, HONGLIANG The Kangwon-Kyungki Mathematical Society 2015 한국수학논문집 Vol.23 No.2

For a positive integer k, an operator T is said to be k-quasi-*-paranormal if ${\parallel}T^{k+2}x{\parallel}{\parallel}T^kx{\parallel}{\geq}{\parallel}T^*T^kx{\parallel}^2$ for all x $\in$ H, which is a generalization of *-paranormal operator. In this paper, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for T to be a k-quasi-*-paranormal operator. We also prove that the spectrum is continuous on the class of all k-quasi-*-paranormal operators.

Bisphenol A and the related alkylphenol contaminants in crustaceans and their potential bioeffects

Zuo, Yuegang,Zhu, Zhuo,Alshanqiti, Mohammed,Michael, Joseph,Deng, Yiwei Techno-Press 2015 Advances in environmental research Vol.4 No.1

Bisphenol A is widely used in plastic and other industrial consumer products. Release of bisphenol A and its analogues into the aquatic environment during manufacture, use and disposal has been a great scientific and public concern due to their toxicity and endocrine disrupting effects on aquatic wildlife and even human beings. More recent studies have shown that these alkylphenols may affect the molting processes and survival of crustacean species such as American lobster, crab and shrimp. In this study, we have developed gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) methods for the determination of bisphenol A and its analogues in shrimp Macrobrachium rosenbergii, blue crab Callinectes sapidus and American lobster Homarus americanus samples. Bisphenol A, 2,4-bis-(dimethylbenzyl)phenol and 4-cumylphenol were found in shrimp in the concentration ranges of 0.67-5.51, 0.36-1.61, and < LOD (the limit of detection)-1.96 ng/g (wet weight), and in crab of 0.10-0.44, 0.13-0.62, and 0.26-0.58 ng/g (wet weight), respectively. In lobster tissue samples, bisphenol A, 2-t-butyl-4-(dimethylbenzyl)phenol, 2,6-bis-(t-butyl)-4-(dimethylbenzyl)phenol, 2,4-bis-(dimethybenzyl)phenol, 2,4-bis-(dimethylbenzyl)-6-t-butylphenol and 4-cumylphenol were determined at the concentration ranges of 4.48-7.01, 1.23-2.63, 2.71-9.10, 0.35-0.91, 0.64-3.25, and 0.44-1.00 ng/g (wet weight), respectively. At these concentration levels, BPA and its analogs may interfere the reproduction and development of crustaceans, such as larval survival, molting, metamorphosis and shell hardening.

Mapping Quantitative Trait Loci for Meat Quality on Pig Chromosome 3, 4 and 7

Zuo, Bo,Xiong, YuanZhu,Su, YuHong,Deng, ChangYan,Zheng, Rong,Jiang, Siwen Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2003 Animal Bioscience Vol.16 No.3

The objective of this study was to localize QTL affecting meat quality in a pig family of three generations. All animals were genotyped for twenty-four microsatellites on SSC3 (Sus scrofa chromosome 3), SSC4 and SSC7. One hundred and forty $F_2$ offsprings were scored for eleven meat quality traits. Least square regression interval mapping revealed quantitative trait loci (QTL) effect for meat pH (m. Semipinalis Capitis, SC) on SSC4 and SSC7; for moisture (m. Longissimus Dorsi, LD) on SSC3. Furthermore, there was suggestive evidence for a QTL on SSC4 affecting intramuscular fat (IMF) content that nearly approached the chromosomewise (p=0.05) significance threshold.

Wind tunnel study of wind loading on rectangular louvered panels

Zuo, D.,Letchford, C.W.,Wayne, S. Techno-Press 2011 Wind and Structures, An International Journal (WAS Vol.14 No.5

Drag forces on a rectangular louvered panel, both as a free-standing structure and as a component in a generic low-rise building model, were obtained in a wind tunnel study. When tested in a building model, the porosity ratio of the wall opposite the louvered panel was varied to investigate its effect on the loading of the louvered panel. Both mean and pseudo-steady drag coefficients were obtained. Comparisons with the provisions for porous walls in contemporary loading standards indicate that for some opposite wall porosity ratios, the standards specify significantly different wind loads (larger and smaller) than obtained from this wind tunnel study.

Structure and electrical properties of Pr6O11-doped CaCu3Ti4O12 NTC ceramics

Zuo Yang,Tian Jian,Tian Yuxin,Miao Guangtan,Fu Peng 한국세라믹학회 2023 한국세라믹학회지 Vol.60 No.3

The xPr6O11–(1 − x)CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) ceramics with perovskite structure were prepared by the solid-state reaction method. The effects of Pr 6O11 addition on the microstructure and electrical properties of the CCTO ceramics were studied. The addition of Pr 6O11 promoted the sintering of CCTO ceramics, and the mean grain sizes increased gradually from 2.13 to 5.08 μm with increasing Pr 6O11 content. All the samples had noticeable negative temperature coefficient (NTC) effect, and both the grain and grain boundary effects contributed to their NTC characteristics. The thermistor characteristic parameter B25/75 decreased from 6883 to 5291 K as Pr 6O11 contents increased from 0.00 to 0.08. The analysis shows that the conductivity of Pr 6O11–CCTO ceramics arises mainly from the electron hopping transport mechanism. The GB resistances are noticeably higher than grain resistances at the same Pr 6O11 content. All the samples showed electrical relaxation behavior. The above observations indicate that the structures and electrical properties of CCTO ceramics can be attuned precisely by adjusting the Pr 6O11 concentration.

Nonlinear boundary parameter identification of bridges based on temperature-induced strains

Zuo-Cai Wang,Guo-Peng Zha,Wei-Xin Ren,Ke Hu,Hao Yang 국제구조공학회 2018 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.68 No.5

Temperature-induced responses, such as strains and displacements, are related to the boundary conditions. Therefore, it is required to determine the boundary conditions to establish a reliable bridge model for temperature-induced responses analysis. Particularly, bridge bearings usually present nonlinear behavior with an increase in load, and the nonlinear boundary conditions cause significant effect on temperature-induced responses. In this paper, the bridge nonlinear boundary conditions were simulated as bilinear translational or rotational springs, and the boundary parameters of the bilinear springs were identified based on the measured temperature-induced responses. First of all, the temperature-induced responses of a simply support beam with nonlinear translational and rotational springs subjected to various temperature loads were analyzed. The simulated temperature-induced strains and displacements were assumed as measured data. To identify the nonlinear translational and rotational boundary parameters of the bridge, the objective function based on the temperature-induced responses is then created, and the nonlinear boundary parameters were further identified by using the nonlinear least squares optimization algorithm. Then, a beam structure with nonlinear translational and rotational springs was simulated as a numerical example, and the nonlinear boundary parameters were identified based on the proposed method. The numerical results show that the proposed method can effectively identify the parameters of the nonlinear boundary conditions. Finally, the boundary parameters of a real arch bridge were identified based on the measured strain data and the proposed method. Since the bearings of the real bridge do not perform nonlinear behavior, only the linear boundary parameters of the bridge model were identified. Based on the bridge model and the identified boundary conditions, the temperature-induced strains were recalculated to compare with the measured strain data. The recalculated temperature-induced strains are in a good agreement with the real measured data.

Effects of exploration and molecular mechanism of CsV on eNOS and vascular endothelial functions

Zuo, Deyu,Jiang, Heng,Yi, Shixiong,Fu, Yang,Xie, Lei,Peng, Qifeng,Liu, Pei,Zhou, Jie,Li, Xunjia Techno-Press 2022 Advances in nano research Vol.12 No.5

This study aimed to investigate the effects and potential mechanisms of Chikusetsusaponin V (CsV) on endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and vascular endothelial cell functions. Different concentrations of CsV were added to animal models, bovine aorta endothelial cells (BAECs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) cultured in vitro. qPCR, Western blotting (WB), and B ultrasound were performed to explore the effects of CsV on mouse endothelial cell functions, vascular stiffness and cellular eNOS mRNA, protein expression and NO release. Bioinformatics analysis, network pharmacology, molecular docking and protein mass spectrometry analysis were conducted to jointly predict the upstream transcription factors of eNOS. Furthermore, pulldown and ChIP and dual luciferase assays were employed for subsequent verification. At the presence or absence of CsV stimulation, either overexpression or knockdown of purine rich element binding protein A (PURA) was conducted, and PCR assay was employed to detect PURA and eNOS mRNA expressions, Western blot was used to detect PURA and eNOS protein expressions, cell NO release and serum NO levels. Tube formation experiment was conducted to detect the tube forming capability of HUVECs cells. The animal vasodilation function test detected the vasodilation functions. Ultrasonic detection was performed to determine the mouse aortic arch pulse wave velocity to identify aortic stiffness. CsV stimulus on bovine aortic cells revealed that CsV could upregulate eNOS protein levels in vascular endothelial cells in a concentration and time dependent manner. The expression levels of eNOS mRNA and phosphorylation sites Ser1177, Ser633 and Thr495 increased significantly after CsV stimulation. Meanwhile, CsV could also enhance the tube forming capability of HUVECs cells. Following the mice were gavaged using CsV, the eNOS protein level of mouse aortic endothelial cells was upregulated in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, and serum NO release and vasodilation ability were simultaneously elevated whereas arterial stiffness was alleviated. The pulldown, ChIP and dual luciferase assays demonstrated that PURA could bind to the eNOS promoter and facilitate the transcription of eNOS. Under the conditions of presence or absence of CsV stimulation, overexpression or knockdown of PURA indicated that the effect of CsV on vascular endothelial function and eNOS was weakened following PURA gene silence, whereas overexpression of PURA gene could enhance the effect of CsV upregulating eNOS expression. CsV could promote NO release from endothelial cells by upregulating the expression of PURA/eNOS pathway, improve endothelial cell functions, enhance vasodilation capability, and alleviate vessel stiffness. The present study plays a role in offering a theoretical basis for the development and application of CsV in vascular function improvement, and it also provides a more comprehensive understanding of the pharmacodynamics of CsV.

Propagation speed of wrinkled premixed flames within stoichiometric hydrogen-air mixtures under standard temperature and pressure

Zuo-Yu Sun,Guo-Xiu Li 한국화학공학회 2017 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.34 No.6

To explore the influence mechanism of initial turbulence on propagation speed of wrinkled flames, the turbulent combustion behavior of wrinkled stoichiometric hydrogen premixed flames was studied in a spherical fanstirred closed vessel under standard temperature and pressure. The variations on flame structure were first observed; turbulent flames first were distorted and then became cellular, and both first and second critical flame radii of cellularity declined with a increased rate as turbulent intensity rose. Then, the variations of stretch effects were compared to laminar flame; the global stretch rate on turbulent flame at a same flame size was raised while the enhancement extent was obviously enlarged with the increase of initial turbulent intensity and/or the growth of flame size. Finally, the variation regulations of propagation speed induced by varying turbulent intensity were analyzed; the nexus between propagation speed and initial turbulence was discussed with the considerations of cellularity phenomenon and stretch effects.