Het onderzoek beschreven in dit proefschrift is gericht op de identificatie en karakterisering van regulatoren en/of effectoren van TGF-β-signalering en TGF-β-geïnduceerde EMT in pancreas-, long-... Show moreHet onderzoek beschreven in dit proefschrift is gericht op de identificatie en karakterisering van regulatoren en/of effectoren van TGF-β-signalering en TGF-β-geïnduceerde EMT in pancreas-, long- en borstkankertypes. Deze nieuw geïdentificeerde componenten en mechanismen kunnen worden onderzocht voor de ontwikkeling van geneesmiddelen voor kankertherapie. Show less
This dissertation provides a comparative study on the rationale of publicity in the law of corporeal movables and claims. It examines possession, notification, and documental recordation as a means... Show moreThis dissertation provides a comparative study on the rationale of publicity in the law of corporeal movables and claims. It examines possession, notification, and documental recordation as a means of publicity by paying attention to English law, German law, and Dutch law. In this dissertation, a system of registration is argued to be introduced in the transaction concerning corporeal movables and claims. In the end, some proposals are made for Chinese law. Show less
The soil ecosystem consists of the largest reservoir of biodiversity on Earth. Microbial communities are unseen drivers in soil ecosystems and they play an important role in determining a wide... Show moreThe soil ecosystem consists of the largest reservoir of biodiversity on Earth. Microbial communities are unseen drivers in soil ecosystems and they play an important role in determining a wide variety of soil processes in terrestrial ecosystems. Soil microbial communities can influence plant performance and can drive plant species composition on a particular soil. Soil microbes are associated with an extensive range of ecosystem processes, in turn, affect plant growth. While these processes can benefit plant growth, the soil microbial community also harbors microbes that compete with plants for nutrients or are pathogenic and impair plant growth. This leads to the question if plants can manipulate the composition of the soil microbial community to their advantage.In agriculture, the physical structure of the soil is often altered to improve crop production and this modifies biological components and microbial properties of the soil. Moreover, green crop management technologies, such as regulation of soil microbial biodiversity, application of beneficial microbial agents and induction of plant hormonal resistance, are regarded as promising approaches against pests and microbial pathogens. Although many experiments have shown that activation of hormonal signaling pathways can boost a plant’s immunity against pathogenic microbial attacks, whether and how these hormonal signaling pathways affect the soil microbial community and consequently plant growth is still poorly understood. Therefore, to better understand the roles of soil microbial communities at both taxonomic and functional level, studies from a plant defensive perspective are timely and needed, and this is the main focus of this thesis. Show less
This dissertation advances a new interpretation on the national formation of modern China through the lens of Chinese cinema. Primarily, this project explores how cinema—a modern invention imported... Show moreThis dissertation advances a new interpretation on the national formation of modern China through the lens of Chinese cinema. Primarily, this project explores how cinema—a modern invention imported from the West—has shaped China’s sociopolitical transition from a dynastic empire to a nation-state. It is argued that, the concurrence of motion picture’s arrival and nation-state’s advent in China at the turn of the twentieth century, is not to be considered as isolated events, but rather as a dialectical dynamism in which the imagined community of modern China has largely relied on cinema for its symbolic construction, and yet encountered constant resistance from cinematic representation. Viewing the formation of the Chinese nation-state from a cinematic perspective, this study centers on the conflicts between marginal figures and central categories in Chinese films. In approaching this unresolved dilemma, Jiyu Zhang dedicates his study to mapping out a dialectical relationship between China’s internal and external tensions. Through an extensive investigation of cinematic embodiment, Zhang hones in on four groups of characters that he terms the “central frontiers” of modern China’s cultural imaginary: children, women, ethnic minorities, and diaspora. Show less
This thesis presents a thorough survey of the central aspects of the phonology of Shaoxing Chinese from a synchronic perspective and on the basis of recent theoretical phonological developments,... Show moreThis thesis presents a thorough survey of the central aspects of the phonology of Shaoxing Chinese from a synchronic perspective and on the basis of recent theoretical phonological developments, with the secondary goal of casting some light on current issues in Modern Chinese (Mandarin). In particular, the thesis presents an analysis of syllable structure, focusing on the syllabic status of the prenuclear glide in Shaoxing, contributing a multiple-specifier X-bar syllable structure, which allows a syllable to be parsed into Onset and Final, instead of Onset and Rhyme. It argues that the prenuclear glide in Shaoxing is neither in the Onset nor in the Rhyme, but located in the specifier position of N''. This thesis claims that both voiced initial obstruents and low-register tones, though in complementary distribution, occur in the underlying representation in Shaoxing. It assumes that there are 'filler' onsets in the surface representation to satisfy the consonant-tone correlation and that there are also onsetless syllables which are toneless when unstressed, enabling liaison in Chinese. The thesis also presents a systematic and explicit formulation of the intricacies of tone sandhi in SX. It assumes that tone sandhi in Shaoxing is realized by tone feature spreading and delinking, and does not involve register features. It presents a metrically-based analysis with a hierarchical constraint ranking that precisely captures the tonal sandhi behaviour and accounts for all the sandhi rules in Shaoxing disyllabic structures. Show less
