On the Modernity of Willa Cather’s My Ántonia

( Zhang¸ Bin ) 동국대학교 영어권문화연구소 2020 영어권문화연구 Vol.13 No.1

Willa Cather is a prominent female novelist in the early of the 20th century, when the modernist novel was taking its form and expanding its influence. Though it is mostly for her realistic and stylistic writing that Willa Cather takes an important place in American literature, her work My Ántonia bears the stamp of modernism both in the writing techniques and the modernist theme. In this paper, My Ántonia’s modernity was analyzed from the use of modernist techniquepolyphony and the modernist theme of people's existential dilemma and the motif of death. To begin with, the characters in this novel have their own independent consciousness and can voice their own understanding of the world equally and freely, and therefore, My Ántonia is definitely what Bakhtin called the “polyphonic novel”. Besides, Jimmy’s life trajectory manifested the modern people’s existential dilemma in the capitalist society. Last but not the least, the motif of death keeps recurring in this novel, which is quite impressive and symbolic. The death story symbolizes the despair of the migrants in America superficially, the despair of the human beings in the large and deep.

ENVIRONMENTAL DYNAMICS IN AN INTEGRATED WALRASIAN-GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM AND NEOCLASSICAL-GROWTH THEORY

Wei-Bin Zhang 중앙대학교 경제연구소 2014 Journal of Economic Development Vol.39 No.3

This study deals with interactions of economic growth and environmental change with heterogeneous households. The analytical framework is built by integrating the three important theories in economics - the Walrasian general equilibrium theory, the neoclassical growth theory, and the neoclassical growth model with endogenous environment. The three theories are integrated by applying Zhang’s approach to household behavior. The economic system consists of one capital goods sector, one consumer goods sector, one environmental sector, and any number (of types) of households. The motion is described by a set of differential equations. For illustration, we simulated the motion of the economic system with three groups. The comparative analyses provide some insights into the complexity of economic growth with environment. For instance, the study by Grossman and Krueger (1995, p. 353) identifies no evidence that “environmental quality deteriorates steadily with economic growth.” Our simulation indicates that although the conclusion made by Crossman and Krueger holds for the national economy, but is invalid for a certain group.

Design and evaluation of a distributed TDR moisture sensor

Bin Zhang,Xinbao Yu,Xiong Yu 국제구조공학회 2010 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.6 No.9

This paper describes the development and evaluation of an innovative TDR distributed moisture sensor. This sensor features advantages of being responsive to the spatial variations of the soil moisture content. The geometry design of the sensor makes it rugged for field installation. Good linear calibration is obtained between the sensor measured dielectric constant and soil physical properties. Simulations by the finite element method (FEM) are conducted to assist the design of this sensor and to determine the effective sampling range. Compared with conventional types of moisture sensor, which only makes point measurement, this sensor possesses distributed moisture sensing capability. This new sensor is not only easy to install, but also measures moisture distribution with much lower cost. This new sensor holds promise to significantly improve the current field instruments. It will be a useful tool to help study the influence of a variety of moisture-related phenomena on infrastructure performance.

AUTONOMOUS LAND VEHICLE PATH PLANNING USING TERRAIN DATABASE

Bin, Zhang Shi,Wei, Tang Guo,Yue, Ma,Wen, Zhang Tian,Xiong, Zhang Shi 대한전자공학회 1992 HICEC:Harbin International Conference on Electroni Vol.1 No.1

We describe a new path planning system using terrain database. The system is adapt to the navigation of autonomous land vehicle under known environment such as road network without unknown moving obstacles. We discuss the terrain database structure, terrain representation, global path planning, local path planning under the direction of global path planning.

Fuzzy Logic Modeling and Its Application to A Walking-Beam Reheating Furnace

Zhang, Bin,Wang, Jing-Cheng Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems 2007 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of FUZZY LOGIC and INTELLIGE Vol.7 No.3

A fuzzy modeling method is proposed to build the dynamic model of a walking-beam reheating furnace from the recorded data. In the proposed method, the number of membership function on each variable is increased individually and the modeling accuracy is evaluated iteratively. When the modeling accuracy is satisfied, the membership functions on each variable are fixed and the structure of fuzzy model is determined. Because the training data is limited, in this process, as the number of membership function increase, it is highly possible that some rules are missing, i.e., no data in the training set corresponds to the consequent part of a missing rule. To complete the rulebase, the output of the model constructed at the previous step is used to generate the consequent part of the missing rules. Finally, in the real time application, a rolling update scheme to rulebase is introduced to compensate the change of system dynamics and fine tune the rulebase. The proposed method is verified by the application to the modeling of a reheating furnace.

VHL Gene Mutation Analysis of a Chinese Family with Non-Syndromic Pheochromocytomas and Patients with Apparently Sporadic Pheochromocytoma

Zhang, Bin,Qian, Jing,Chang, De-Hui,Wang, Yang-Min,Zhou, Da-Hai,Qiao, Gou-Mei Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.5

Objective: The Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome (VHLD), an inherited neoplastic syndrome predisposing to central nervous system hemangioblastoma (CNS), pheochromocytoma (PCC), renal cell carcinoma(RCC), retinal hemangioma (RA) and renal cysts, is caused by mutations or deletions of the VHL tumor-suppressor gene. To assess VHL genotype-phenotype correlations with function of pVHL a gene mutation analysis of members in a Chinese family with non-syndromic PCCs and individuals with apparently sporadic pheochromocytoma (ASP) was performed. Materials and Methods: DNA samples of 20 members from the Chinese family with non-syndromic PCCs and 41 patients with ASP were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction and direct sequencing, confirmed by Taqman probe. Results: Three novel mutations (H125P, 623(^TTTGTtG) and R120T) were identified in the Chinese family and in 3 among 41 ASP patients. The mutations were all located in exon 2 of VHL gene encoding ${\beta}$-domain of pVHL. The tumor type in H125P carriers and R120T carriers was VHL type 2C. And 623(^TTTGTtG) carriers presented VHL type 2B or type 2C. Conclusions: VHL gene abnormalities were identified in the Chinese family with non-syndromic PCCs and patients with APS, resulting in dysfunction of pVHL. H125P and R120T could be associated with VHL type 2C, while 623(^TTTGTtG) might be linked with VHL type 2B or type 2C. Not only is the genetic analysis helpful for early diagnosis and treatment of patients with VHLD, it is also benefitial for research intoVHLD pathogenesis.

Wages, Service Prices and Rent : Urban Division of Labor and Amenities

Zhang, Wei-Bin 서울대학교 1991 Seoul journal of economics Vol.6 No.1

This study proposes an equilibrium model to explain differences in living costs between two cities within a perfectly competitive framework. The economic system consists of two production centers. Each production center specifies in supplying one commodity which is demanded by the residents in the two cities. Services are city-specified in the sense that services are consumed only by the households who work in the city. We assume that all the households have an identical preference and that professional changes and movement between the two cities are costless and the two cities have different levels of amenity and technology. It is proved that the system of the economic geography has equilibria at which the land rent, service prices and wage rates are different between the two cities. We also examine the impact of changes in amenity upon the economic geography. (JEL Classification: D33)

Design and Analysis of Efficient Pulse-driven Magnetically Coupled Resonant Wireless Power Transmission System

Bin Zhang,Xia Lei,Hong Li 보안공학연구지원센터 2014 International Journal of Hybrid Information Techno Vol.7 No.4

Positive Effects of Soy Isoflavone Food on Survival of Breast Cancer Patients in China

Zhang, Ya-Feng,Kang, Hong-Bin,Li, Bi-Li,Zhang, Rui-Ming Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.2

Aim: Soy foods are the major source of isoflavones, which are believed to play important roles in genesis of breast cancer and its progression. We here conducted a prospective study to evaluate the association of soy isoflavone food consumption with breast cancer prognosis. Methods: A prospective study was performed from January 2004 and January 2006 in China. Trained interviewers conducted face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire to collect information on dietary habits and potential confounding factors. The relative risk [hazard ratio (HR)] and 95% CI were calculated from the Cox regression model for all significant predictors from cancer diagnosis to the endpoint of the study (event). Results: After a median follow up of 52.1 months (range, 9-60 months), a total of 79 breast cancer related deaths were recorded in our study, risk being inversely associated with a high intake of soy isoflavone. With an average intake of soy isoflavone above 17.3 mg/day, the mortality of breast cancer can be reduced by about 38-36%. We also found the decreased breast cancer death with high soy protein intake, with a HR (95% CI) of 0.71 (0.52-0.98). Stratified analysis with reference to the ER status, further demonstrated a better prognosis of ER positive breast cancer with a high intake of soy isoflavone (HR 0.59, 0.40-0.93). Conclusion: Our study shows the soy food intake is associated with longer survival and low recurrence among breast cancer patients. A cohort study with a larger sample size and long term follow-up is now needed.

9.73% Efficiency Nonfullerene All Organic Small Molecule Solar Cells with Absorption-Complementary Donor and Acceptor

Bin, Haijun,Yang, Yankang,Zhang, Zhi-Guo,Ye, Long,Ghasemi, Masoud,Chen, Shanshan,Zhang, Yindong,Zhang, Chunfeng,Sun, Chenkai,Xue, Lingwei,Yang, Changduk,Ade, Harald,Li, Yongfang American Chemical Society 2017 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY - Vol.139 No.14

<P>In the last two years, polymer solar cells (PSCs) developed quickly with n-type organic semiconductor (n-OSs) as acceptor. In contrast, the research progress of nonfullerene organic solar cells (OSCs) with organic small molecule as donor and the n-OS as acceptor lags behind. Here, we synthesized a D-A structured medium bandgap organic small molecule H11 with bithienyl-benzodithiophene (BDTT) as central donor unit and fluorobenzo-triazole as acceptor unit, and achieved a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.73% for the all organic small molecules OSCs with H11 as donor and a low bandgap n-OS IDIC as acceptor. A control molecule H12 without thiophene conjugated side chains on the BDT unit was also synthesized for investigating the effect of the thiophene conjugated side chains on the photovoltaic performance of the p-type organic semiconductors (p-OSs). Compared with H12, the 2D-conjugated H11 with thiophene conjugated side chains shows intense absorption, low-lying HOMO energy level, higher hole mobility and ordered bimodal crystallite packing in the blend films. Moreover, a larger interaction parameter (chi) was observed in the H11 blends calculated from Hansen solubility parameters and differential scanning calorimetry measurements. These special features combined with the complementary absorption of H11 donor and IDIC acceptor resulted in the best PCE of 9.73% for nonfullerene all small molecule OSCs up to date. Our results indicate that fluorobenzotriazole based 2D conjugated p-OSs are promising medium bandgap donors in the nonfullerene OSCs.</P>