Between 1950s and 1990s, Hong Kong had a frenzy for writing and re-writing materials from classical literature and myths. The myth of Madame White Snake is one of the most well known stories that survived a long period of time. The earliest known version of Madame White Snake was a supernatural story in 1550, which later became a prototype of numerous subsequent versions starting in 1624. This prototype was repeatedly re-written throughout history and was also made into different genres including plays, playlets, novels, films and television dramas. One of the latest versions was written by Li Pikwah, a popular novelist in Hong Kong, in 1993, titled, Green Snake. Green Snake is a parody of Madame White Snake written from the perspective of Little Green, the servant of Madame White and an auxiliary figure in the tradition. The novel is also an autobiography of Little Green, who satirically criticizes the story of Madame White Snake in retrospect. Little Green’s autobiography is a nostalgic reflection of the past as well as a critique of the structure of the story that has survived throughout history. These implications made in the story hint at the author’s personal yearning for traditional China as a Chinese resident in Hong Kong. Her nostalgia for traditional China is not idealistic but paradoxical, because her re-writing of the story was an avenue to understand and re-negotiate her identity. Li is also well-known for her other novels, which are parodies of classical literature, traditional myth and legend. Many of these works were also made into films in the 80’s and 90’s. These novels and films were part of a phenomenon in contemporary Hong Kong literary and popular culture that tried to grasp a cultural connection with traditional China in order to embrace the return to mainland China in 1997 after a hundred years of British colonial rule.

While nocturnal basal snakes have rod-dominant retinae, diurnal garter snakes have all-cone retinae. Previous work from the Chang lab identified three visual pigments expressed in the photoreceptors of Thamnophis proximus: SWS1, LWS and RH1. I further characterized T. proximus photoreceptors using electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and in vitro protein expression. T. proximus have four types of morphological cones: double cones, large single cones, small single cones, and very small single cones. Some small single cones have rod-like features, such as rod-like outer-segment membranes and a lack of micro-droplets. Immunohistochemistry showed that rod-specific transducin is expressed in some T. proximus photoreceptors. In vitro expression of T. proximus RH1 produced a functional rhodopsin with λmax at 485nm, which corresponds to microspectrophotometry measurement from some small single cones. Current results suggest that small single cones of T. proximus may have evolved from ancestral rods, and secondarily acquired a cone-like morphology as adaptation to diurnality.

Between 1950s and 1990s, Hong Kong had a frenzy for writing and re-writing materials from classical literature and myths. The myth of Madame White Snake is one of the most well known stories that survived a long period of time. The earliest known version of Madame White Snake was a supernatural story in 1550, which later became a prototype of numerous subsequent versions starting in 1624. This prototype was repeatedly re-written throughout history and was also made into different genres including plays, playlets, novels, films and television dramas. One of the latest versions was written by Li Pikwah, a popular novelist in Hong Kong, in 1993, titled, Green Snake. Green Snake is a parody of Madame White Snake written from the perspective of Little Green, the servant of Madame White and an auxiliary figure in the tradition. The novel is also an autobiography of Little Green, who satirically criticizes the story of Madame White Snake in retrospect. Little Green’s autobiography is a nostalgic reflection of the past as well as a critique of the structure of the story that has survived throughout history. These implications made in the story hint at the author’s personal yearning for traditional China as a Chinese resident in Hong Kong. Her nostalgia for traditional China is not idealistic but paradoxical, because her re-writing of the story was an avenue to understand and re-negotiate her identity. Li is also well-known for her other novels, which are parodies of classical literature, traditional myth and legend. Many of these works were also made into films in the 80’s and 90’s. These novels and films were part of a phenomenon in contemporary Hong Kong literary and popular culture that tried to grasp a cultural connection with traditional China in order to embrace the return to mainland China in 1997 after a hundred years of British colonial rule.

Zugl.: Hannover, University, Diss., 2008.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University, Dept. of History.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University, Dept. of History. / Electronic thesis. Also available in print ed.

O grafeno possui diversas propriedades eletrÃnicas interessantes que o tornam um material decisivo para o futuro desenvolvimento de novos dispositivos. Uma delas à a existÃncia de dois vales (de Dirac) em seu espectro eletrÃnico, o que abre a possibilidade de se fazer dispositivos vale-trÃnicos. AlÃm disso, o grafeno tambÃm apresenta excelentes propriedades mecÃnicas, sendo o material mais fino jà conhecido e, ainda assim, o mais forte jà medido. A sua maleabilidade à uma propriedade fascinante, fazendo com que este material resista a altas tensÃes mecÃnicas. Mais ainda, tem se demonstrado que campos de tensÃo mecÃnica em grafeno podem ser mapeados em campos pseudo-magnÃticos para elÃtrons no material. Isso, entÃo, nos permite usar tensÃes mecÃnicas altas para ajustar as propriedades eletrÃnicas deste material e, assim, expandir seu leque de aplicaÃÃes tecnolÃgicas possÃveis. Nesta dissertaÃÃo, o transporte eletrÃnico atravÃs da direÃÃo paralela a uma barreira pseudo-magnÃtica, produzida pela aplicaÃÃo de uma tensÃo mecÃnica nÃo uniforme em uma fita de monocamada de grafeno, à teoricamente investigado. Na regiÃo onde o campo pseudo-magnÃtico troca de sinal, sÃo observados estados do tipo snake, isto Ã, compostos por semi-Ãrbitas com uma Ãnica direÃÃo de propagaÃÃo, como esperado para o caso anÃlogo de uma barreira desse tipo produzida por um campo magnÃtico externo. Contudo, os campos pseudo-magnÃticos apontam em direÃÃes opostas nos vales K e Kâ, gerando correntes de estados snake com vales polarizados. Ao longo deste trabalho, discutimos como maximizar uma filtragem de vales baseada nesta polarizaÃÃo, atravÃs do ajuste de parÃmetros que definem a distribuiÃÃo de tensÃo ao longo da nanofita de grafeno.

This thesis paper examines how I turned real life experiences and observations into a fictionalized screenplay that explores the potential for vice inherent in tip-based service industry jobs. After that, I move on to the preproduction process and touch on casting, location scouting, visualization, production design, budgeting and crewing. Next I discuss how the preproduction and on-set efforts of individuals were all critical to our production. Then I chronicle the ups and downs of postproduction. Finally, I conclude with an admittedly subjective analysis of the effectiveness of the movie itself.

Between 1950s and 1990s, Hong Kong had a frenzy for writing and re-writing materials from classical literature and myths. The myth of Madame White Snake is one of the most well known stories that survived a long period of time. The earliest known version of Madame White Snake was a supernatural story in 1550, which later became a prototype of numerous subsequent versions starting in 1624. This prototype was repeatedly re-written throughout history and was also made into different genres including plays, playlets, novels, films and television dramas. One of the latest versions was written by Li Pikwah, a popular novelist in Hong Kong, in 1993, titled, Green Snake. Green Snake is a parody of Madame White Snake written from the perspective of Little Green, the servant of Madame White and an auxiliary figure in the tradition. The novel is also an autobiography of Little Green, who satirically criticizes the story of Madame White Snake in retrospect. Little Green’s autobiography is a nostalgic reflection of the past as well as a critique of the structure of the story that has survived throughout history. These implications made in the story hint at the author’s personal yearning for traditional China as a Chinese resident in Hong Kong. Her nostalgia for traditional China is not idealistic but paradoxical, because her re-writing of the story was an avenue to understand and re-negotiate her identity. Li is also well-known for her other novels, which are parodies of classical literature, traditional myth and legend. Many of these works were also made into films in the 80’s and 90’s. These novels and films were part of a phenomenon in contemporary Hong Kong literary and popular culture that tried to grasp a cultural connection with traditional China in order to embrace the return to mainland China in 1997 after a hundred years of British colonial rule. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Biogeography provides a window into the evolutionary history of populations, and helps explain the diversity and distribution of life through time. Viewed from a systematic perspective, biogeographic studies generate convincing arguments to explain the relationships among organisms and categorize them into useful taxonomies. When taxonomies do not reflect evolutionary histories, inaccurate representations of biodiversity confound future studies and conservation efforts. Two thamnophiine snakes, Nerodia clarkii and Nerodia fasciata, harbor unique morphological and ecological adaptations that obscured natural groupings, leading to controversial taxonomic delimitations. Additionally, population declines documented in N. clarkii compressicauda and N. clarkii taeniata led managers to list N. clarkii taeniata as threatened in 1977. I generated a baseline for continued biogeographic and systematic study of the Nerodia clarkii/fasciata clade. I used mitochondrial DNA to build a parsimony-based haplotype network, infer the phylogenetic relationships between the two species and their thamnophiine relatives, and estimate the divergence times of major N. clarkii/fasciata clades. With these data, I tested biogeographic and systematic hypotheses about the origin and distribution of diversity in this clade. I used principal components analyses to summarize morphological data and discuss ecological observations in search of characters that may unite genetic or taxonomic units. The analyses revealed a peninsular and a panhandle clade in Florida that appeared to iv diverge as a result of Pleistocene glacial fluctuations. I found no support genetically, morphologically, or ecologically for the current taxonomy, indicating a need for range-wide research to generate revised nomenclature. My results do not support the protection status of N. clarkii taeniata