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楊硯. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-244). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in Chinese and English. / Yang Yan.

Chinese newly rich consumers have gained substantial power in the luxury sector through their conspicuous consumption. Chinese consumers’ lack of cultural capital and inexperience in the purchase and use of material commodities in the luxury consumption field has led many to associate their conspicuous consumption with pecuniary display of their newly acquired economic capital. Scholars have either used cultural globalisation theory to suggest that the Chinese consumers are embracing and emulating Western material culture, or have used Chinese face theory to explain their conspicuous consumption in terms of the social norms associated with Chinese family kinship and peer group pressure. This study attempts to look beyond both these assumptions, and for the first time seek a detailed and holistic understanding of Chinese newly rich consumers’ status consumption practices, particularly the relationships between personal taste and the social structure and cultural forces shaping individual taste in the consumption field struggle. Hence, the research question is “What status consumption practices do Chinese newly rich consumers engage in to compete for social distinction through luxury fashion consumption?” Bourdieu’s field analysis has been undertaken in order to enable a new understanding of Chinese newly rich consumers’ luxury consumption practices. The key concepts; cultural capital, habitus, and fields (Doxa and Illusio), have been discussed with respect to Chinese social conditions. Using luxury fashion as a potent example of conspicuous consumption, a qualitative study has been conducted among ten carefully selected Chinese newly rich consumers (Generation 1) residents of Beijing. Data analysis has shown that informants used two distinctive status consumption practices, namely, the materialist status consumption practice, and the cultural idealist status consumption practice (Holt, 1998), which are aligned with their social trajectory route, volume and the composition of their cultural capital. Informants’ cultural idealist status consumption practice indicated two important forms of cultural capital as social distinction: embodied cultural capital and ‘deterritorialized cultural capital’ (Üstüner & Holt, 2010). The embodied cultural capital has been accrued through early socialization, centered on intellectual cultivation and nonmaterialistic daily lives, whereas the ‘deterritorialized cultural capital’ has been accrued in a similar fashion to their Turkish high cultural capital (HCC) counterparts (Üstüner & Holt, 2010), through engagement with the West, despite only having this contact during adulthood, unlike the Turkish HCC. These two forms of cultural capital are centered on non-materialistic aesthetic driven consumption practices, which are similar to Bourdieu’s (1984) and Holt’s (1998) HCC consumers’ cultural idealist consumption practices. Thus, the thesis answers calls for more detailed analyses of consumption practices in Less Industrialised Countries. In doing so it both confirms the suitability of Bourdieu for the study of consumption practices in an Eastern context and provides new insights into the Chinese newly rich group’s consumption practices in the field of luxury fashion.

Les déficients visuels rencontrent de nombreuses difficultés lors de leur navigation web avec un lecteur d’écran, d’autant plus que les interfaces web deviennent de plus enplus riches de par leurs interactions et leur densité et diversité informationnelles. Cette thèse confronte ainsi 2 approches de l’accessibilité : l’approche dite « exhaustive » quivise à assurer l’accessibilité normative - garantissant l’accès à l’information par l’application de normes - et l’approche dite « holistique » qui vise à assurer l’accessibiliténormative mais également l’accessibilité effective - garantissant l’utilisabilité de l’interface - par la prise en compte du contexte d’utilisation des utilisateurs.Les 2 premières études ont analysé l’activité des utilisateurs déficients visuels qui a donné lieu à un modèle de la navigation web de ces utilisateurs. Ce modèle permet deconcevoir une interface suivant l’approche holistique par la prise en compte de leurs besoins, notamment celui de filtrage des informations non pertinentes et redondantes. Lorsde 3 expérimentations, les déficients visuels ont été confrontés à l'approche exhaustive par la retranscription exhaustive des informations et à l'approche holistique par l’accèsdirect au contenu associé à l’action réalisée. Les résultats montrent le bénéfice substantiel apporté par la version holistique concernant l’allègement de la charge cognitive etl’utilisabilité de l’interface selon les 3 critères : efficacité, efficience et satisfaction. Ainsi, cette thèse fournit des arguments probants pour promouvoir l’approche holistique pourguider la conception d’interfaces et l’élaboration de solutions d’assistance pour cette population. / Visually impaired people face many difficulties when navigating on the web with a screen reader, especially as web interfaces become increasingly rich because of theirdynamic interactions and their informational density and diversity. This thesis compares two approaches to accessibility: the current approach called "exhaustive" which aims toensure normative accessibility - guaranteeing access to information through the application of standards - and the approach called "holistic" which aims to ensure bothnormative and effective accessibility - guaranteeing the usability of the interface - by taking into account the context of its use (difficulties, strategies, needs, etc.).The first 2 studies analysed the activity of visually impaired users resulted in a model of the web navigation of these users. This model allows for designing interfaces followingthe holistic approach by taking into account their needs, especially the filtering of irrelevant and redundant information. In 3 experiments, visually impaired users performedtasks in two versions of websites: a version based on the holistic approach that gives access directly to content associated with the user’s action and a version using theexhaustive approach that transcribes exhaustively all the information present on the screen. The results show substantial benefit provided by the holistic version as regards thecognitive load and the usability of the interface according to 3 criteria: effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. Thus, this thesis provides cogent arguments promoting theholistic approach in order to guide the design of interfaces and the development of assistance solutions for screen reader users.

Triacylglycerols (TAGs) are stored in variable amounts (1-90 % by dry weight) in seed and non-seed tissues of various plant species. To gain insights into tissue- and species-specific regulation and biosynthesis of TAG in plants, we used 454 pyro and Illumina sequencing and generated transcriptome for eight species (brassica, castor, nasturtium, euonymus, oil palm, date palm, and avocado). In all tissues analyzed, an increased expression was noted for genes mostly associated with fatty acid biosynthesis in plastid, but much less increase in those for TAG assembly in the endoplasmic reticulum. Furthermore, hexose metabolism in plastid, relative to cytosol, appeared to be crucial in most oil-rich tissues, which is likely associated with directing high pyruvate flux toward plastid fatty acid synthesis. We also identified that WRINKLED1 transcription factor acts as a master switch in regulating oil biosynthesis in most oil-rich seed and non-seed tissues of monocot and dicot plants, suggesting a highly conserved mechanism. Overall, our studies point to distinctive modes of regulation of fatty acid biosynthesis and TAG assembly that are conserved in both seed and non-seed oil-rich plants, which can be extended to other crops for the purpose of generating biofuels.

In the preface, I discuss my poetry and poetics such as the free verse form and the narrative mode. I also discuss my influences such as Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, and Sheri L. Wright. The poems in this manuscript attempt to explore the role of trauma, feminism, and memory in poetry.

The scope of this project is to collect and interpret geochemical and textural data of iron-nickel (Fe-Ni) spherules in impact melt from the Monturaqui Impact Crater, Chile to investigate the processes accounting for the compositional variations. Major element data are collected on in situ spherules in one thin section and three epoxy rounds by electron microprobe and major element, trace element, and platinum group element data are collected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry on spherules separated from impact glass by electric pulse disintegration (Figure 1C-1D). Major element, trace element, and platinum group element data are collected on a piece of iron shale from Monturaqui by using both instruments. Though the variation of the major elements within Fe-Ni spherules has been well documented, the variations of trace elements have not been rigorously investigated. This study aims to document the variations seen in major elements, trace elements, and platinum group elements in the Fe-Ni spherules relative to the iron impactor. The impactor was originally classified as a group I coarse octahedrite based on the Ni content of Fe-Ni spherules in the impact melt as well as the morphology of the iron shale (Bunch and Cassidy, 1972; Buchwald, 1975). For this study, major element, trace element, and platinum group element data were collected on a piece of iron shale from Monturaqui to provide a more robust classification.

I investigated cellular mechanisms of ion and acid-base transport in rainbow trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss), crabs (Neohelice granulata), zebrafish (Danio rerio), Pacific hagfish (Eptatretus stoutii), and mosquito larvae (Aedes aegypti) with a primary focus on discerning the mechanisms governing ion transport and acid base regulation. In rainbow trout I provide the first functional evidence for two physiologically distinct mitochondrion-rich (MR) cells at the gill and demonstrate a new model for transepithelial Na+ uptake from freshwater involving apical Na+ channels and basolateral Na+/HCO3- co-transporters. These data are supported by extensive thermodynamic consideration of Na+ uptake from freshwater. I also demonstrate functional Cl-/HCO3- exchangers in both MR cell subtypes with roles for Cl- uptake and intracellular pH (pHi) regulation respectively and I present the first evidence for a Cl- dependent Na+/H+ exchanger in gill MR cells. Finally I demonstrate a unique Na+ dependent pHi recovery mechanism that requires protein kinase C for activation. A major limiting factor in clarifying the mechanisms of Na+ uptake in freshwater fish is the lack of a typical Na+ channel in any of the fish molecular databases. My work on zebrafish, although preliminary, indicates that a member of the acid-sensing ion channel family could be responsible for Na+ uptake from freshwater. I then expanded my research outside the trout model using an isolated crab gill preparation. I provide a cellular model for H+ secretion in crab gills that supports the transepithelial Na+ transport model that I described in rainbow trout. In Pacific hagfish, I demonstrate that recovery from blood acidosis is dependent on a Na+/H+ exchanger in gill MR cells. This mechanism of regulation involves translocation from the cytoplasm to the apical membrane during acidotic stress. This data combines with other studies demonstrating the mechanisms of acid and base secretion from a single MR cell subtype. Finally, I show that serotonin stimulation alkalinizes the pHi of the anterior midgut cells in the larval mosquito to levels never before observed in cell biology. These data challenge the dogma of pHi regulation in cell biology and demonstrate the power of using a comparative approach to systems physiology. / Physiology, Cell and Developmental Biology

The thesis studies the bulk deformation properties of the Skyrme nuclear energy densityfunctionals. Following simple arguments based on the leptodermous expansion andliquid drop model, the current research applies the nuclear density functional theory toassess the role of the surface symmetry energy in nuclei. To this end, one can validatethe commonly used functional parametrizations against the data on excitation energies ofsuperdeformed band-heads in Hg and Pb isotopes, and fission isomers in actinide nuclei.After subtracting shell effects, the results of our self-consistent calculations are consistentwith macroscopic arguments and indicate that experimental data on strongly deformedcongurations in neutron-rich nuclei are essential for optimizing future nuclear energy densityfunctionals. The resulting survey provides a useful benchmark for further theoreticalimprovements. Unlike in nuclei close to the stability valley, whose macroscopic deformabilityhangs on the balance of surface and Coulomb terms, the deformability of neutron-richnuclei strongly depends on the surface-symmetry energy; hence, its proper determinationis crucial for the stability of deformed phases of the neutron-rich matter and descriptionof fission rates for r-process nucleosynthesis. The results and consequent discussions fromthe thesis were published in Ref. [134].

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