Search

This paper is about the unique spatial arrangement of the capital (Nanjing) and imperial mausoleum (Xiaoling) in fourteenth-century China. According to Confucian principles and traditional practices, the location of tombs should be separated from the space of the living for philosophical and emotional reasons. However, this convention was challenged by the Hongwu emperor (1368–1398), founder of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), who built his own imperial mausoleum, Xiaoling, within the confines of the capital, an unprecedented act. According to primary sources—ritual texts, gazettes, tour books, and poetry—this innovative capital–mausoleum plan suggests an extension of the pattern by which the Hongwu emperor honored his ancestors through spatial arrangements and incorporated the imperial ancestors into dynasty-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare negative-contrast CT cholangiopancreatography (CTCP) and CT angiography (CTA) with MRCP and MR angiography (MRA) for the preoperative evaluation of malignant perihilar biliary obstruction., Materials and Methods: Twenty-one patients with pathologically proven malignant perihilar biliary obstructions who had undergone both CT and MRI examinations were reviewed retrospectively. Two reviewers independently analyzed the two image sets-the negative-contrast CTCP and CTA images (i.e., CT set) and the MRCP and MRA images (i.e., MRI set)-in preoperatively evaluating the classification of malignant perihilar biliary obstruction, hepatic artery and portal vein invasion, nodal metastasis, and organ spread. The results were compared with surgical and pathologic records., Results: For the classification of malignant perihilar biliary obstruction on the two image sets, the accuracy was not statistically significant (p = 1.000 for reviewer 1 and p = 0.500 for reviewer 2). For the evaluation of portal vein invasion, nodal metastasis, and organ spread, the accuracies were also not statistically significantly different (p = 0.335, 0.339, and 0.781 for reviewer 1; and p = 0.403, 0.495, and 0.325 for reviewer 2, respectively). In the assessment of hepatic artery status, the accuracy was statistically significant (p = 0.046 for reviewer 1 and p = 0.036 for reviewer 2)., Conclusion: Compared with the MRI set, the CT set provides equivalent performance in assessing the classification of malignant perihilar biliary obstruction, portal vein involvement, nodal metastasis, and organ spread, but has higher accuracy in assessing arterial invasion.