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This study coated CrN films onto oxynitriding-treated Vanadis 23 high-speed steel using the DC magnetron sputtering process of the PVD technique. The experimental parameters include various deposition temperatures (275, 300, 325, and 350°C), a bias of -25 V, a power of 100 W, a gas flow rate of 45/30 (Ar/N2) sccm, and a deposition time of 2.5 h. The research results show that when the coatings were deposited at 325°C, the CrN coatings possessed an obvious columnar crystal structure, the highest hardness (13.4 GPa), and the highest elastic modulus (159.7 GPa). In addition, the CrN coating had the best wear properties (the lowest specific wear rates were 1.07×10− 6 and 1.33×10− 6 mm3·m− 1·N− 1 under the loads of 2 N and 4 N, respectively) and good corrosion resistance (corrosion current was 8.90×10− 5 A·cm− 2, and polarization resistance was 822.11 Ω·cm2 in a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution).

Humor has always been important in Chinese drama. The four major role-types in traditional Chinese drama include the chou (usually translated as “clown”), the others being male roles, female roles, and “painted face” roles. Although placed last in the four-tier hierarchy, the humble clown with his comical facial makeup and humorous speech is an indispensable figure in any play, tragedy or comedy. Hence, the adage “without the chou there would not be drama.” This paper will discuss how this modern Peking opera employs traditional dramatic form and the role of the clown to address contemporary issues. In a departure from convention, Xu Jiujing, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, is cast as a clown. In his trial of two equally powerful officials involved in the kidnapping of a young bride, he succeeds in bringing the criminal to justice not by the power of law vested in him but by the humor, wit, and clever tricks of the clown. The reward for his labor is not promotion but termination of his career—he resigns from his judgeship to become a wine peddler. The question of power vs. law and the abuse of power raised in this opera can be found in many other literary works published after the Cultural Revolution. After ten long years of lawlessness, Chinese people were eager to establish an effective legal system as safeguard against future political upheavals. By setting the action in the past, the playwrights of this opera followed the time-honored tradition of using the past to criticize the present.

Introduction of Western-style drama into China in the early twentieth century produced a new dramatic genre, huaju (spoken drama), which is distinguished from traditional xiqu (musical theatre) by its use of spoken dialog and a more realistic portrayal of contemporary life. Many reform-minded Chinese intellectuals saw in this new drama a fitting vehicle to promote social reforms. Some of them even advocated replacing the old theatre with this more socially conscious form of theatre. While spoken drama became the favorite of the intellectual elites, traditional theatre, with its deep cultural roots and many regional forms, remained the popular form of entertainment for the masses. This article investigates the interactions between these two theatrical forms by analyzing two modern adaptations of the play Hezhu pei (Hezhu’s Match), one produced in mainland China, one in Taiwan. It will examine how the adapters utilized traditional sources to produce plays more relevant to contemporary society, and what performance techniques they employed to replace the old convention of song and dance. In addition to the old versus the new, the Chinese and Taiwanese adaptations will be compared to illuminate how social and political conditions influenced literary and artistic creations. My study will also discuss how the Taiwanese production marked the beginning of the Little Theatre Movement, which ushered in a new era in modern drama in Taiwan.

The story about Mulian rescuing his mother from Hell is widely known in China. It has been the subject of numerous operas from many regions of the country from the eleventh century to the present. It is even considered the beginning of Chinese drama. This study investigates how this story of Indic origin has become a Chinese cultural phenomenon by tracing its long evolution and process of Sinification. It also discusses the relationship between rituals and stage performance of the legend.

Background & aims Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) manifests as chronic abdominal pain. One pathophysiological theory states that the brain–gut axis is responsible for pain control in the intestine. Although several studies have discussed the structural changes in the brain of IBS patients, most of these studies have been conducted in Western populations. Different cultures and sexes experience different pain sensations and have different pain responses. Accordingly, we aimed to identify the specific changes in the cortical thickness of Asian women with IBS and to compare these data to those of non-Asian women with IBS. Methods Thirty Asian female IBS patients (IBS group) and 39 healthy individuals (control group) were included in this study. Brain structural magnetic resonance imaging was performed. We used FreeSurfer to analyze the differences in the cortical thickness and their correlations with patient characteristics. Results The left cuneus, left rostral middle frontal cortex, left supramarginal cortex, right caudal anterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral insula exhibited cortical thinning in the IBS group compared with those in the controls. Furthermore, the brain cortical thickness correlated negatively the severity as well as duration of abdominal pain. Conclusions Some of our findings differ from those of Western studies. In our study, all of the significant brain regions in the IBS group exhibited cortical thinning compared with those in the controls. The differences in cortical thickness between the IBS patients and controls may provide useful information to facilitate regulating abdominal pain in IBS patients. These findings offer insights into the association of different cultures and sexes with differences in cortical thinning in patients with IBS.

As the building sector accounts for about 30% of Taiwan’s carbon footprint, improving the Green Building Literacy (GBL) of building owners or users through general education is important to the carbon reduction commitment. This study aimed to use Delphi method and action research to innovate undergraduate curriculum of Green Building Introduction in general education to foster GBL. According to the suggestions by the Delphi panel and guidance of GBL model which was constructed from paper review and countrywide survey data by using structural equation modeling, the GBL curriculum not only conveys the knowledge of fact but more emphasizes on the knowledge for action and basic design skill through the involvement in the specific activities, which are also used to improve students’ attitudes and responsibility to promote their behavioral performance. The evaluation of the curriculum showed that there are significant improvements in the cognitive domain and the attitude-behavior domain of students’ GBL.

The construction industry accounts for a significant amount of the total carbon dioxide emissions. Promoting green building policy is one of the most effective ways to meet the national carbon reduction commitment. It is essential to increase green building literacy among people to achieve success in energy saving and carbon reduction. This study constructed a framework for green building literacy and developed a questionnaire as a tool for measuring college students’ green building literacy. The questionnaire was finalized in the format consists of twenty cognitive items and nineteen affective/behavioral items. The full-scale reliability of the trial survey was .90, attesting to the internal consistency of this questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis was also conducted to attest the construct validity. The preliminary results from the trial surveys showed that green building literacy education should not only focus on students’ knowledge but their attitudes and values, and most importantly their green building-related behaviors.

The progress of light-emitting-diode (LED) development based on nitride nanocolumn (NC) growth, including InGaN/GaN quantum-well (QW) growth on NCs and regularly arranged GaN NC growth, is first reviewed. Then, the coalescence-overgrowth results based on patterned GaN NC growth are introduced. The overgrowth quality dependence on NC cross-sectional size and NC spacing size is discussed. Generally, a smaller NC dimension and spacing size lead to higher overgrowth quality, including lower threading dislocation (TD) density and larger lateral domain size. Next, the emission enhancement results of blue- and green-emitting InGaN/GaN QW and LED structures based on NC growth and coalescence overgrowth are presented. Significant enhancements (up to ~100% output intensity increase in a blue LED) are demonstrated. For LED applications, the TD density reduction in an overgrown GaN template can more effectively enhance the emission efficiency of a blue LED, when compared with a green LED.

Phosphor-free monolithic InGaN-based white-light LED has the advantages of simpler device process and potentially higher efficiency. Several techniques have been developed for implementing such white-light LEDs. Among them, the key issue is the growth of a high-quality high-indium InGaN/GaN quantum well (QW). An underlying InGaN layer growth technique is introduced for enhancing the crystal quality of a high-indium QW. To demonstrate the superior properties of a QW grown with this technique, a green LED is fabricated based on the underlying growth technique to compare with another LED of the same emission wavelength based on the conventional growth method. Then, the underlying growth technique is used to grow three yellow-emitting QWs of high efficiency. The yellow photons mix with blue light from an overgrown blue-emitting QW to produce white light. The improved properties of the phosphor-free monolithic white-light LED are discussed in detail.

The crystal quality, as determined by X-ray diffraction, of GaN epitaxial films synthesized by MOCVD overgrowth of oriented GaN nanocolumns on Si(1 1 1) is studied as a function of film thickness and compared with control films grown on sapphire substrate. Samples were characterized using a three-beam X-ray diffraction technique from which depth-dependent rocking-curve widths (for the (0 1 1¯ 3)/(0 1¯ 12¯) crystal plane) are obtained as functions of depth. Through the examination of four samples prepared under conditions spanning key growth parameters it is found that optimizing for overgrowth at higher substrate temperatures can lead to coalesced films with significantly narrower rocking-curve widths. The results indicate that initially disconnected crystal domains stemming from individual columns do merge under the right conditions and that the coalesced crystal improves with increasing thickness. Overgrowth with the substrate temperature at 1000 °C (the highest of the study) resulted in a GaN overgrowth with properties superior to those of the control sample, a standard high-quality 2 μm MOCVD GaN thin-film grown on sapphire substrate.

Armillaridin (AM) is an aromatic ester compound isolated from honey medicinal mushroom, Armillaria mellea, which has anti-cancer potential. This study was designed to examine the effects of AM on differentiation and activation macrophages, the major ontogeny of innate immunity. Macrophages were derived from CD14+ monocytes which were sorted from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Cell viability was assessed by trypan blue exclusion test. Cells were stained with Liu's dye for observation of morphology. Expression of surface antigens was examined by flow cytometric analysis. Phagocytosis and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), as functional assays, were evaluated by counting engulfed yeasts and DCFH-DA reaction. The viability of macrophages was not significantly reduced by AM. AM at nontoxic concentrations markedly increased cytoplasmic vacuoles. The expression of surface CD14, CD16, CD36, and HLA-DR was suppressed. The phagocytosis function, but not ROS production, of macrophages was inhibited by AM. Armillaridin could inhibit the differentiation and activation of human macrophages. It may have potential to be developed as a biological response modifier for inflammatory diseases.

We use the techniques of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and strain state analysis (SSA) to show the material nanostructures of two InGaN/GaN quantum-well (QW) samples. In one of the samples, a low-indium InGaN/GaN QW is grown before five high-indium ones, which are grown under the same conditions as those for growing the five QWs in another sample (the control sample). From the calibrations of the average indium contents of those QWs based on the SSA images, it is found that the QWs close to the low-indium one have higher indium contents than those in the control sample. Such an increase of indium incorporation is attributed to the pre-strain effect of the low-indium QW on the barrier layer right above it. The pre-strain effect diminishes along the growth of more QWs. This effect represents an effective approach for increasing indium contents for implementing yellow-red light-emitting diodes based on InGaN/GaN QW structures.

We grew and processed a blue/green two-wavelength light-emitting diode (LED) based on the mixture of two kinds of quantum wells (QW) in epitaxial growth. The X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence measurements indicated that the crystalline structure and the basic optical property of individual kinds of QW are not significantly changed in the mixed growth. The relative electroluminescence (EL) intensity of the two colors depends on the injection current level, which controls the hole concentration distribution among the QWs. At low injection levels, the top green-emitting QW dominates in EL. As the injection current increases, the blue-emitting QWs beneath become dominating. We also coated CdSe-ZnS nanocrystals on the top of the two-wavelength LED for converting blue photons into red light. With the coating of such nanocrystals, the device emits blue, green, and red lights for white light generation

Coalescence overgrowth of GaN nanocolumns on Si and sapphire substrates with metalorganic chemical vapor deposition is implemented to show high crystal and optical qualities. Depth-dependent X-ray diffraction is realized to understand the coalescence growth process.