Geochemistry of Trace and Rare Earth Elements in Red Soils from the Dongting Lake Area and Its Environmental Significance

Trace element(TE) and rare earth element(REE) contents in red soils from the Dongting Lake area of China were determined to understanding the provenance and weathering characteristics of the red soils.The results showed similar REE distribution patterns among red soils from the Dongting Lake area,Xiashu loess from Zhenjiang,loess and Pliocene red soil from the Loess Plateau.These patterns implied a similar provenance from dust-storms,except for red soil R5 which formed by bedrock weathering and had significant light REE(LREE) enrichment and heavy REE(HREE) depletion due to longer weathering periods and higher intensity of weathering.Trace element,especially the Rb/Sr and Li/Ba ratios,and REE,especially the LREE/HREE ratio and δEu could trace weathering intensity.Higher Rb/Sr,Li/Ba,and LREE/HREE ratios and negative Eu anomalies were present in the red soils from the Dongting Lake area.The weathering intensity was in the decreasing order of R5 in the Dongting Lake area > red soils from the Dongting Lake area(including reticulate red soil,weak reticulate red soil,and homogeneous red soil formed by dust storms) > Xiashu loess from Zhenjiang > loess-paleosol and Pliocene red soil from the Loess Plateau.Variations in the TE and REE contents of soil could be effectively used to study the provenance and the weathering intensity.

The Bitter Butter Knife＂ Puttermesser＇s Problematic Paradise

This paper analyzes how the themes of magical realism and female divinity intersect in the novel The Puttermesser Papers （1997） by Cynthia Ozick. In the ＂Introduction＂, the writer defines magical realism and discusses its connections to Women＇s Studies. The next section, ＂The Bitter Butter Knife＂, discusses the protagonist＇s （Ruth Puttermesser） boring existence and pathetic attempts to connect to her Jewish ancestry. In ＂The Problematic Paradise＂, the author focuses on Puttermesser＇s attempts to take control of her life by creating the first female golem and the ups and downs of paradise. This author argues that the female protagonist of the novel utilizes magical realism as a tool of empowerment over personal oppression.

Same Plight, Different Struggle： A Comparison of Female Protagonists in Hamlet and ＂The Yellow Wallpaper＂

Approaching from the perspective of feminist criticism, this paper compares the female protagonists in Shakespeare＇s well-known tragedy Hamlet and Gilman＇s short story ＂The Yellow Wallpaper＂. While the first person narrator in ＂The Yellow Wallpaper＂ is a modem signifier of the archetypal Ophelia as the sacrificial lamb of the patriarchal oppression, the two differ in their manifestations of madness, which could be accounted for by their respective historical and social environment with women＇s awakening consciousness of self-identity

Application Prospects for the Innovation of Defined Fungal Starter in Rice Wine Fermentation

The feasibility of pilot-scale manufacture of defined fungal starter and its application in rice wine production from different local starchy materials were investigated. Starter consisting of Arnylomyces rouxii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae gave high performance in winemaking when prepared in conditions of rice flour 80% and cassava flour 20% with 4 incubation days. The starter level at 20% was favourably employed for manufacture with the initial amount of I0 kg mixed-flours, Dry starter granules which were vacuum packed could adapt ambient temperature （approx. 28-32℃） during 8 months of storage. The defined starter performed as superior inoculum for winemaking from different agricultural starchy resources. The undesirable bacteria were found at approx. 2 Log CFU/g of dry starter. By morphology, biochemical and physiological growth and the genetic partial 16S analyses, three bacterial isolates were characterized as Bacillus subtilis/amvloliquefaciens which may contaminate tbod but not cause food poisoning and not considered as a human pathogen.

Orientalism, ＂Yellow Peril,＂ and the ＂New Yellow Journalism

In this essay, I take the recent publication of several texts examining the historical and contemporary phenomena of Sinophobia, Orientalism, and Sinologism as an opening for theorizing underlying and related issues including pervasive anti-China biases in Western journalism and China＇s position therein. In addition to illustrating how the concepts of Orientalism arise from Western historical and epistemological foundations, I theorize what I call a ＂new yellow journalism＂ that has grown in tandem with ＂China＇s rise＂ and the threat this indicates to many Western observers, and how this threat and others like it have been met in the age of ＂new imperialism.＂ I compare this new phenomenon with its historical antecedents, ＂yellow journalism＂ and America＇s emergence as a imperialism power with the Spanish-American War （1898）, and note several key insights offered by recent critical analyses of that period, which together suggest a confluence of different players, including policymakers, new media business models, and what I describe as a type of public ＂corporatism＂ in which citizens, particularly Americans, function effectively as shareholders in maintaining hegemonic if not imperialist power.

Distribution of n-alkanes in Miocene loess in Qinan, western Chinese Loess Plateau, and its palaeoenvironmental implications

Neogene eolian successions are one of the most important terrestrial palaeoenvironmental archives in East Asia.However, they have received far less attention than Quaternary loess deposits, especially in the case of lipid biomarker analysis.In order to obtain a better insight into the early-middle Miocene palaeoenvironment, we conducted a study of n-alkane biomarkers from sediments of the QA-I section(Qinan) in the western Chinese Loess Plateau, and compared the results with those of previous n-alkane analyses of eolian and aquatic sediments of varying age. Our principal results are as follows:(1) All QA-I samples contain n-alkanes ranging from C_(14) to C_(35), among which the relative content of short-chain n-alkanes(C_(14)–C_(20)) from microorganisms is significantly greater than that of long-chain n-alkanes(C_(26)–C_(35)) from the waxes of terrestrial higher plants;the main peak is at C_(16)–C_(18). All samples have a relatively lower abundance of medium-chain n-alkanes(C_(21)–C_(25)) than that of long-and short-chain n-alkanes, similar to strongly weathered palaeosols in Quaternary loess and Late Miocene-Pliocene Hipparion Red-Earth; however, this distribution is significantly different from that in weakly-weathered loess of Quaternary loess and Late Miocene-Pliocene Hipparion Red-Earth, as well as from aquatic sediments.(2) Despite some odd-over-even carbon predominance of long-chain n-alkanes in the QA-I samples, the carbon preference index(CPI) values are significantly lower than those of most of the weakly-weathered sediments. Our results show that strong weathering and microbial processes have significantly altered the n-alkanes in the Miocene eolian deposits in Qinan, and led to a significant oxidation and degradation of long-chain n-alkanes and the predominance of short-chain n-alkanes from bacteria. Therefore, the contribution of microorganism to total organic carbon(TOC) and its resulting in carbon isotopic composition should be carefully assessed in future studies.