In contemporary Taiwan, Mandarin language proficiency and literacy in Han characters are not only key skills needed for success in academic institutions and employment markets, but they also carry meaning as symbolic markers of national and supranational Chinese identity. This study examines how Taiwanese-language medical studies curriculum planners are promoting alternative linguistic practices as a means of resisting the influence of Chinese nationalism in Taiwan and striving to replace it with a rival Taiwanese nationalism. I conducted research for this study during the 2010-2011 school year in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I collected data for this study by engaging in participant observation research at Taiwanese-language curriculum-editing meetings; auditing Taiwanese-language courses at Kaohsiung Medical University; and conducting interviews with both curriculum planners and students at KMU. The role of official languages, literacy, and historical narratives are examined as symbolic components of a Chinese nationalist hegemony, which was constructed through the policies of the Kuomintang's Republic of China administration in post-war Taiwan. This study also examines the relationship between occupation, language skills, and national identification in the context of the contemporary Greater China regional economy. The curriculum planners who are the subjects of this study are employed in the field of medical care, where Taiwanese language skills are valued resources for communicating with patients from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition, medical doctors have historically been vocal opponents of the Kuomintang administration's pro-Chinese nationalist policies. Therefore, this case study illustrates how the curriculum planners' occupations and language practices are utilized as resources in their efforts to foster Taiwanese autonomy in the Greater China region. This study also examines current limits to the effectiveness of language preservation and revitalization policies in Taiwan due to the importance of Mandarin-language literacy in the majority of high-status occupations in Greater China and to changing conceptions of the relationship between language practice and national identity. This study contributes to the fields of linguistic anthropology and Asian studies by examining relationships between nationalism, employment, language practice, and literacy in the context of Taiwan's ambiguous status as a national entity. It also analyzes ways in which language practices and literacy forms are created and modified as strategic acts to both identify people with competing nationalisms and allow them access to employment opportunities in the context of shifting administrative and economic power structures in the Greater China region.

Citrus is the main fruit crop in the world and Spain is the 6th producer and the major exporter for the fresh fruit market. Seedlessness is one of the most important fruit quality traits for this market since consumers do not accept seedy fruits. Recovery of triploid hybrids has become an important breeding strategy to develop new seedless citrus varieties and several of them have been already released from citrus breeding programs worldwide. Despite the undisputable importance of polyploidy in plant species, their genetics are much less well known than those of their diploid counterparts. Citrus triploid hybrids can be routinely recovered from sexual polyploidization (2x ¿ 2x) or interploid crosses (2x ¿ 4x and 4x ¿ 2x). In 2x ¿ 2x sexual crosses, spontaneous triploid hybrids arise from the union of an unreduced (2n) megagametophyte with haploid pollen. In the case of interploid sexual crosses (2x ¿ 4x and 4x ¿ 2x), triploid hybrids result from the fecundation of a diploid gamete arising from the tetraploid parent and a haploid gamete arising from the diploid parent. The genetic and phenotypic structures of triploid populations greatly depend on the parental heterozygosity restitution (HR) in the diploid gamete at each locus, which is mainly affected by the triploid recovery strategy. In 2x ¿ 2x crosses, HR depends on the underlying mechanism leading to the unreduced gamete formation, which are genetically equivalent to First Division Restitution (FDR) or Second Division Restitution (SDR) mechanisms. Moreover, under each restitution mechanism, HR also depends on the locus-centromere genetic distance. In the case of interploid crosses, parental heterozygosity restitution from tetraploid parents depends on the double reduction frequency. In citrus, the unreduced gamete formation mechanism is still controversial; FDR has been the mechanism proposed for sweet orange, whereas SDR has been proposed for clementine. On the other hand, inferring the allelic configurations of genetic markers is a main challenge in polyploidy crops to infer genotypic and gametic structures with the objective to analyze meiosis and inheritance mechanisms. According to this scientific context, the objectives of the thesis where: (i) to develop a new approach for allele dosis assignation when using co-dominant markers, (ii) to implement and apply methods for the analysis of 2n gametes origin and locate centromeres, and (iii) to take advantage of this knowledge to locate a major gene of resistance to Alternaria Brown Spot (ABS) which is a major constraint for triploid mandarin breeding. For microsatellite (SSR) markers, we have demonstrated that triploid progeny genotyping can be successfully performed using the microsatellite allele-counting peak ratio (MAC-PR) method. However, SSR analysis remains relatively costly and time consuming compared with actual SNP genotyping methods. Moreover, with the increasing availability of EST databases and whole genome sequences, SNPs have become the most abundant and powerful polymorphic markers that can be selected along the entire genome. In this thesis, a new method based on competitive allele-specific PCR has been developed to assign SNP allele dosage in an accurate, simple, and cost effective way. Combining the MAC-PR and the new developed SNP genotyping methods offers the possibility to utilize a broad range of molecular markers in genotyping triploid genotypes. Both methods have been used in further works included in this thesis. SDR has been demonstrated as the mechanism underlying unreduced gamete production in `Fortune¿ mandarin by genotyping triploid progenies with SSR markers. In addition, a new method to locate the centromere, based on the best fit between observed heterozygosity restitution within a linkage group and theoretical functions under either partial or no chiasma interference hypotheses has been developed and successfully applied. To expand the knowledge of the mechanism underlying unreduced gamete formation to other citrus genotypes besides clementines and `Fortune¿ mandarin, a maximum likelihood method based on parental heterozygosity restitution of centromeric loci was developed and successfully applied in sixteen mandarin cultivars. The new method developed in the study allows inferring the restitution mechanism both at population level and even at individual level. Maternal origin of 2n gametes was confirmed for all triploid hybrids and SDR was proposed as the restitution mechanism for all analyzed progenies. The information acquired from the mode of heterozygosity restitution in citrus was useful to determine the genetic and phenotypic structures of new triploid populations arising from different breeding strategies. We studied these structures for the resistance to Alternaria brown spot (ABS), a serious fungal disease producing necrotic lesions on fruits and young leaves in susceptible citrus genotypes. In the present work, different approaches were combined taking advantage of the particular genetic structures of 2n gametes resulting from SDR to map a genome region linked to ABS resistance in triploid citrus progeny. The monolocus dominant inheritance of the susceptibility, proposed on the basis of diploid population studies, was corroborated in triploid progeny. A 3.3 Mb genomic region linked to ABS resistance was located near the centromere on chromosome III, which includes clusters of resistance genes. SSR and SNP markers were developed for an efficient early selection of ABS resistant hybrids and they are currently used in our breeding program to perform marker assisted selection. The knowledge obtained in this thesis on the mechanism of sexual polyploidization and inheritance of concrete traits in citrus will allow implementing much more efficient triploid breeding programs on the basis of current and future needs. Indeed, applied outcomes of this PhD are already routinely used in the IVIA triploid breeding program. / Cuenca Ibáñez, J. (2013). Mechanisms of sexual polyploidization and inheritance in triploid citrus populations [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/34671 / TESIS / Premios Extraordinarios de tesis doctorales

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This study focuses on how Middle Chinese zhi and zhao initials are reflected in Modern Mandarin and Wu dialects. Also, the topic of sound change is incorporated based on the results from the study.

The process of language development is quite complex, it occurs under the interactions between diachronic derivation and synchronic derivation. This paper examines the development of Chinese language through the scope of disposal construction to provide evidence that diachronic and synchronic derivations could affect the development of a language simultaneously. From the progression of disposal prepositions in Mandarin based on historical documents, we can observe how diachronic derivation took place. Also, through diachronic derivation, it is safe to say that the earlier sentence structures can have an impact on later sentence structures. By comparing the disposal constructions between Mandarin and Min dialect, the syntactic characteristics and limitations present the possibility of synchronic derivation, which is the result of language contact. The findings of this paper demonstrates the features of language contact through the borrowing of disposal prepositions, and the similarities and differences between the syntax of disposal sentence structure of Mandarin and Min dialect.

In recent years, using dialects in Chinese films has become more and more popular. By observing this phenomenon and investigating its history, I find out three functions that dialect has in cinema: severing as fun maker, indicating the identity of the speaker, helping to describe the speaker’s characteristics. In order to understand why dialects have these functions in cinema, semiotic analysis and discourse analysis are employed in finding the reasons.

This study examined the Voice onset time (VOT) of Mandarin and English initial position stops as produced by native American-English speaking learners of Mandarin and also native speakers. The study primarily investigated the role of second language experience on native-like production of L2 VOT for the Mandarin stops /p, t, k, ph, th, kh/ and additionally examined any evidence for phonetic drift in the L1 English VOT as a result of L2 Mandarin learning and acquisition. To achieve this, the production of L2 Mandarin and L1 English by native AmericanEnglish speaking learners of Mandarin of two different levels of experience (beginner and advanced learners) were compared to that of monolingual Native speakers of Mandarin andEnglish. In total, thirty native American-English speaking learners of Mandarin, eight monolingual native Mandarin speakers, and eight monolingual American-English speakers participated in the study. Data was elicited via participants reading aloud prepared lists of Mandarin and/or English words. Statistical testing indicates that as a group beginner learners produced significantly different mean VOT than native Mandarin speakers for all six stops. In contrast, the advanced learner group's mean VOT only significantly differed with native speakers for /t/, indicating native-like VOT for the remaining five stops. Individual analysis of VOT data for L2 Mandarin long-lag stops /ph, th, kh/ showed that advanced (7 of 15) and even some beginner (3 of 15) participants were capable of producing native-like VOT for the whole set of long-lag stops and also that a number of participants were able to produce native-like VOT for some but not all of the long-lag stops. Logistic regression analysis examining the effect and influence of L2 experience and demographic related variables indicates only gender and Mandarin-speaking church missionary service to have a significant effect on native-like VOT probability with females and returned missionaries significantly more likely to achieve native-like VOT. Analysis of learner participants' L1 English VOT showed that for all three of the English long-lag stops (/p, t, k/), advanced learners of Mandarin produced significantly longer VOT than monolingual English speakers, indicating L1 phonetic drift in the form of assimilation towards the longer length of Mandarin long-lag stops. Significant difference was only found between beginner learner English VOT and monolingual VOT for /p/, suggesting instances of significant L1 drift increase when more L2 experience has been gained.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of talker and listener dialect on the validity and reliability of word recognition scores from two sets of Mandarin speech audiometry materials. Four lists of bisyllabic words in Mainland Mandarin and Taiwan Mandarin dialects were administered to 16 participants of each dialect with normal hearing across two test sessions. The performance on materials presented in the native dialect was compared to performance on non-native dialect assessment to determine validity and reliability of test materials. Statistical analysis indicated significant differences between word recognition scores across test sessions, talker and listener dialect, and among lists. However it is unclear if such differences constitute clinically significant differences.

The purpose of this study was to examine the accuracy of English-speakers in determining the word recognition score of native Taiwan Mandarin-speakers. Digitally recorded Mandarin word lists were presented to 10 native Mandarin-speakers from Taiwan (five male, five female), from whom oral and written responses were collected. Oral responses were scored by 30 native English-speakers, 15 of which had no experience with Mandarin and 15 with two to three years of college-level Mandarin courses or equivalent knowledge of Mandarin. The judges who had experience with Mandarin were able to score the WRS tests with 97% accuracy (with scores ranging from 10% below to 4% above the actual score of the test). The judges without experience with Mandarin scored the WRS tests with 88.8% accuracy (with scores ranging from 34% below to 26% above the actual score of the test). An analysis of variance found that there was a significant difference between a judge's knowledge of Mandarin and his or her ability to accurately score the oral responses. An inspection of the performance of the judges in respect to the five different Mandarin tones indicated that there are some tone combinations that are more difficult to score correctly than others. While it is apparent that tone combination may play a role in the ability to accurately score WRS words in Mandarin, the implications of this for a clinical setting are uncertain because words with these tone combinations were not heard often. Tone perception training for the judges or simply making clinicians aware of this difficulty in tone identification may be of benefit in overcoming this obstacle.

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