TEACHING AND PROMOTION ON INQUIRYBASED INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE

The purpose of this study is to design two teaching modules that will enable science teachers to teach laboratory course for students to achieve a meaningful and useful learning. We emphasize students’ self-exploration about science. Each module can be modified for students of different grades (7-12 students) and abilities. The modules greatly enhanced the teacher's own understanding of what he/she wishes the laboratory teaching to achieve. The module contained inquiring activities with explicit teaching of the nature of science. At the same time, these activities can promote their learning motivation; let the students have a better understanding of the science concepts by doing the experiments, and to undergo an experience of learning and reflection by themselves. By observing interesting phenomena and practicing the scientific process skills repeatedly, the modules also efficiently inspired students who lack of learning motivation. This study involves the design of two experimental teaching modules dealing with concepts about animal life, plant life, foraging behavior and social behavior. The designed modules are: 1) Ecosphere experimental teaching module: including photosynthesis, respiration and burning; and 2) Animal behavior ecological observation experimental teaching module: including foraging behavior and social behavior

A study of consumer protection law in Hong Kong

Consumption of goods and services is inevitable in our daily life. So consumer protection is essential for every consumer. However, the existing consumer protection system in Hong Kong is not comprehensive enough to protect consumers. Thus, this project concentrates on studying the consumer protection law in Hong Kong to evaluate its sufficiency for protecting consumers. Besides, we also investigate the Hong Kong consumer protection system, including the functions and powers of the Consumer Council, and make compare it with Australia’s consumer protection system. The Consumer Council is the only statutory consumer protection body in Hong Kong. It is not an independent unit in its operation. Moreover, it lacks investigative, legislative and enforcement powers. Furthermore, the laws and ordinances are not sufficient and comprehensive enough to protect all consumers. Most importantly, the government’s attitude towards consumer protection is non-interventionist. After a comparison is made with the Australia’s system, we discover that Australia’s consumer protection body, the National Consumer Affairs Advisory Council, is a purely advisory body to deal with the matters about consumer protection. It is independent from the other non-government consumer organizations, such as the Trade Practices Commission. Not only does it have investigative, legislative and enforcement power, it also has a comprehensive competition policy to protect consumers. Due to the lack of the consumer protection law in Hong Kong, we recommend that other developed countries’ consumer protection systems, such as Australia, should be used as an example to improve our consumer protection system. The comprehensive competition policy, including competition laws and authority, should be introduced in order to ensure that more consumers could be in the protective net. Besides, the Consumer Council should be given more powers to operate and deal with the consumer problems. In addition, the government should do more for consumer protection. It can be done by increasing the resources to the Consumer Council and educating the public about their consumer rights. Most importantly, the Consumer Council should act independently to achieve its objectives on consumer protection. Thus, all consumers can be better protected under these improvements

Optimal production-shipment decisions for the finite production rate model with scrap

This paper is concerned with the decision-making on the optimal production batch size and optimal number of shipments for a finite production rate model with random scrap rate. The classic finite production rate (FPR) model assumes a continuous inventory issuing policy for satisfying product demand and perfect quality for all items produced. However, in a real life vendor-buyer integrated production-inventory system, a multiple shipment policy is practically used in lieu of the continuous issuing policy, and it is inevitable to generate defective items during a production run. All nonconforming items produced are assumed to be scrap, and the finished (perfect quality) products can only be delivered to customers if the whole lot is quality assured at the end of the production run. The fixed-quantity multiple instalments of the finished batch are delivered to customers at a fixed interval of time. Mathematical modelling is employed and the renewal reward theorem is used to cope with the variable production cycle length. The long-run average cost for the proposed model is derived, and its convexity is proved by the use of the Hessian matrix equations. A closed-form optimal production-shipment policy for such an imperfect FPR model is obtained and a special case is discussed. Finally, a numerical example is provided to demonstrate the model’s practical usage

How to Create Suitable Augmented Reality Application to Teach Social Skills for Children with ASD

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are characterized by a reduced ability to appropriately express social greetings. Studies have indicated that individuals with ASD might not recognize the crucial nonverbal cues that usually aid social interaction. This study applied augmented reality (AR) with tabletop role-playing game (AR-RPG) to focus on the standard nonverbal social cues to teach children with ASD, how to appropriately reciprocate when they socially interact with others. The results showed that intervention system provides an AR combined with physical manipulatives and presents corresponding specific elements in an AR 3D animation with dialogue; thus, it can be used to help them increase their social interaction skills and drive their attention toward the meaning and social value of greeting behavior in specific social situations. We conclude that AR-RPG of social situations helped children with ASD recognize and better understand these situations and moderately effective in teaching the target greeting responses

Rdzeniowy zespół twarzowo-palcowy: częsty zespół w nietypowej lokalizacji

Background and purpose Cheiro-oral syndrome (COS) is an established neurological entity characterized by a sensory impairment confined to the mouth angle and ipsilateral finger(s)/ hand. The current understanding of localization is a concomitant involvement of the spinothalamic and trigeminothalamic tract between the cortex and pons. The cervical spinal cord has not been mentioned in this situation yet, and this unusual location may heretofore increase the risk of misdiagnosis. Material and methods Six patients who presented with unilateral COS due to cervical cord disorder are reported. Results All patients were women and their age ranged between 42 and 70 years. Their neurological deficits included unilateral paraesthesiae restricted to cheiro-oral distribution, positive radicular sign, and mild change of tendon reflex. Cervical spinal stenosis at middle/lower cervical spine with variable magnitude of cord compression and intrinsic cord damage was found. A diagnostic dilemma obviously arises from the lack of tangible neurological signs or typical pattern of myelopathy, in addition to the previous concept of cerebral involvement. A benign course ensued in all reported patients. Conclusions Cheiro-oral syndrome can be an early neurological sign for cervical cord disorder; it further suggests that it is a strong neurological but weak localizing sign. A reciprocal influence of multiple factors is considered to generate COS at the cervical cord. Therefore, an absence of brain pathology should lead to a thorough examination of the cervical cord in case of COS.Wstęp i cel pracy Zespół twarzowo-palcowy (ZTP) jest znanym zespołem neurologicznym, który cechuje się niedoczulicą ograniczoną do kącika ust i palców ręki lub ręki po tej samej stronie. Bieżący stan wiedzy dotyczący lokalizacji uszkodzenia w tym zespole wskazuje na jednoczesne zajęcie dróg rdzeniowo-wzgórzowej i trójdzielno-wzgórzowej pomiędzy mostem i korą mózgową. W tym kontekście nie wymieniano dotąd uszkodzenia rdzenia kręgowego w odcinku szyjnym, a taka nietypowa lokalizacja uszkodzenia może zwiększyć ryzyko błędnego rozpoznania miejsca uszkodzenia. Materiał i metody W pracy przedstawiono dane dotyczące 6 pacjentek z jednostronnym ZTP spowodowanym występowaniem nieprawidłowości w obrębie rdzenia kręgowego. Wyniki Zakres wieku pacjentek wynosił od 42 do 70 lat. Objawy neurologiczne obejmowały jednostronne parestezje ograniczone do obszaru twarzy i ręki, objaw korzeniowy i niewielkie nieprawidłowości w zakresie odruchów głębokich. Stwierdzono występowanie zwężenia kanału kręgowego w środkowej lub dolnej części odcinka szyjnego z uciskiem rdzenia kręgowego i uszkodzeniem wewnątrz rdzenia kręgowego. Wątpliwości diagnostyczne wynikały z braku typowych objawów neurologicznych mielopatii i stwierdzenia lokalizacji zmian nieodpowiadającej wcześniejszym opiniom na temat mózgowego pochodzenia zespołu. U wszystkich opisywanych pacjentek przebieg schorzenia był łagodny. Wnioski Zespół twarzowo-palcowy może być wczesnym objawem neurologicznym nieprawidłowości w obrębie rdzenia kręgowego. Stanowi istotny objaw neurologiczny, ale jego wartość lokalizacyjna jest niewielka. Powstawanie ZTP wskutek uszkodzenia rdzenia kręgowego wynika z wzajemnych oddziaływań wielu czynników. W razie braku uchwytnej patologii mózgu należy w przypadkach ZTP przeprowadzić szczegółowe badania rdzenia kręgowego w odcinku szyjnym

Overview of Contraindicated Chinese Medicines for Pregnancy

Chinese medicines should be classified into drugs, which have both beneficial and harmful effects. For centuries, Chinese medicines have been widely used to relieve many symptoms and to treat complications during pregnancy. It is not clear how safe the Chinese medicines are being used during pregnancy and if there is any adverse effects to embryo-fetal development and prenatal and postnatal growth. Some Chinese medicines are indicated that they cannot be used in pregnancy. In this chapter, we will conduct a systematic review to summarize and characterize in details the Chinese medicines classified as contraindicated, not recommended and cautiously used for pregnancy in most updated version of Pharmacopeia of the People’s Republic of China. Clinical reports including clinical trials, case reports, case series and animal studies including short-term and long-term toxicity, specific organ toxicity and different species of the Chinese medicines will be studied. Unlike those pharmaceutical drugs not recommend for use during pregnancy because of known or suspected adverse or teratogenic effects evident by animal studies and/or clinical trials, most of the Chinese medicines were utilized for long history in culture which, however, has very limited scientific data regarding the adverse pregnant outcomes

Observational Constraints on Exponential Gravity

We study the observational constraints on the exponential gravity model of f(R)=-beta*Rs(1-e^(-R/Rs)). We use the latest observational data including Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP) Union2 compilation, Two-Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS), Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7) and Seven-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP7) in our analysis. From these observations, we obtain a lower bound on the model parameter beta at 1.27 (95% CL) but no appreciable upper bound. The constraint on the present matter density parameter is 0.245< Omega_m^0<0.311 (95% CL). We also find out the best-fit value of model parameters on several cases.Comment: 14pages, 3 figures, accepted by PR