Cantonese as an additional language in Hong Kong

Based on data obtained from a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews with four Caucasians and four dark-skinned Asians, this study shows that while some ‘foreigners’ do make an effort to learn Cantonese, many find the teaching methods not so useful and the language difficult to master, especially its tone system. The data are analyzed following the interactive multicultural model of acculturation. The findings point toward a huge chasm between non-local groups and the Cantonese-speaking community. The receptivity of Hong Kong Chinese towards attempts by members of non-local groups to speak Cantonese varies, depending on their racial identity and socioeconomic status

Colonial Education as a Mode of Governance in the Philippines Under U.S. Rule, 1900-1916

Concentrating on colonial education policy in the Philippines during the period of U.S. rule, this thesis explores the dynamics of knowledge circulation – namely the transfer and continuities of racial preconceptions and administrative techniques – within the American imperial enterprise. Mapping the emergence of the U.S. colonial administration in the islands with the establishment of the Taft Commission in 1900 to the move Filipino self-rule with the passage of the Philippine Autonomy Act in 1916, this thesis assesses elite commentaries and discourses concerning the management of non-white subject populations and the contingent manner in which these policies corresponded to or differed in their formulation and execution according to their respective zones of application. Spanning the contours of knowledge transfers in the trans-imperial and intra-imperial arenas, it analyses the interactions and exchanges between congruent and disparate colonial jurisdictions – both within the U.S. empire and among the neighboring possessions of their European peers

Learning English for Academic Purposes: Why Chinese EFL Learners Find EAP So Difficult to Master

El mayor número de estudiantes de Inglés para Fines Académicos (IFA) en el mundo se encuentra en la Gran China (Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwán y China continental). La mayoría de ellos suelen experimentar dificultades en el dominio del IFA debido, en parte, a las grandes diferencias tipológicas/lingüísticas entre las lenguas inglesa y china, las cuales pertenecen a dos familias de lenguas con escasas características en común. El conocimiento que los estudiantes chinos tienen de su lengua madre prácticamente no les sirve de referencia en el proceso de aprendizaje del inglés, que constituye la lengua extranjera de mayor relevancia. En este artículo se describen algunas de las diferencias tipológicas más significativas que explican algunos de los errores léxico-gramaticales más comunes en la producción discursiva de los estudiantes chinos de IFA.Greater China has the largest number of learners of English in the world, with English for Academic Purposes (EAP) as the target variety. Most of them have difficulty mastering EAP. This may be partly explained by tremendous typological/linguistic differences between English and Chinese, which belong to different language families and have hardly any features in common. Very little of Chinese learners’ knowledge of their first language has any reference value in the process of learning English, the most important foreign language. This paper discusses some of the most salient typological differences and a few lexico-grammatical errors commonly found in Chinese EAP learners’ language output

How fast and how often: the pharmacokinetics of drug use are decisive in addiction

How much, how often and how fast a drug reaches the brain determine the behavioural and neuroplastic changes associated with the addiction process. Despite the critical nature of these variables, the drug addiction field often ignores pharmacokinetic issues, which we argue can lead to false conclusions. First, we review the clinical data demonstrating the importance of the speed of drug onset and of intermittent patterns of drug intake in psychostimulant drug addiction. This is followed by a review of the preclinical literature demonstrating that pharmacokinetic variables play a decisive role in determining behavioural and neurobiological outcomes in animal models of addiction. This literature includes recent data highlighting the importance of intermittent, ‘spiking’ brain levels of drug in producing an increase in the motivation to take drug over time. Rapid drug onset and intermittent drug exposure both appear to push the addiction process forward most effectively. This has significant implications for refining animal models of addiction and for better understanding the neuroadaptations that are critical for the disorder

Acute Suppuration of the Pancreatic Duct in a Patient with Tropical Pancreatitis

Background/Aim: Pancreatic sepsis secondary to infected necrosis, pseudocyst, or pancreatic abscess is a well-known clinical entity. Acute suppuration of the pancreatic duct (ASPD) in the setting of chronic calcific pancreatitis and pancreatic ductal obstruction with septicemia is a rare complication that is seldom reported. It is our aim to report a case of ASPD with Klebsiella ornithinolytica, in the absence of pancreatic abscess or infected necrosis. Case Report: A 46-year-old Asian-Indian man with chronic tropical pancreatitis who was admitted with recurrent epigastric pain that rapidly evolved into septic shock. A CT scan of abdomen revealed a dilated pancreatic duct with a large calculus. Broad-spectrum antibiotics, vasopressors and activated recombinant protein C were initiated. Emergency ERCP showed the papilla of Vater spontaneously expelling pus. Probing and stenting was instantly performed until pus drainage ceased. Repeat CT scan confirmed the absence of pancreatic necrosis or fluid collection, and decreasing ductal dilatation. Dramatic clinical improvement was observed within 36 hours after intervention. Blood cultures grew Klebsiella ornithinolytica. The patient completed his antibiotic course and was discharged. Conclusion: ASPD without pancreatic abscess or infected necrosis is an exceptional clinical entity that should be included in the differential diagnosis of pancreatic sepsis. A chronically diseased pancreas and diabetes may have predisposed to the uncommon pathogen. The presence of intraductal pancreatic stones obstructing outflow played a major role in promoting bacterial growth, suppuration and septicemia. Immediate drainage of the pancreatic duct with endoscopic intervention is critical and mandatory

The breakdown of the Nagaoka phase in the 2D t-J model

In the limit of weak exchange, J, at low hole concentration, the ground state of the 2D t-J model is believed to be ferromagnetic. We study the leading instability of this Nagaoka state, which emerges with increasing J. Both exact diagonalization of small clusters, and a semiclassical analytical calculation of larger systems show that above a certain critical value of the exchange, Nagaoka's state is unstable to phase separation. In a finite-size system a bubble of antiferromagnetic Mott insulator appears in the ground state above this threshold. The size of this bubble depends on the hole concentration and scales as a power of the system size, N

Measuring sin 2\beta in Bs(t) -> phi K_s

We show that, unlike other pure b -> d penguin processes, the decay Bs(t) -> phi K_s is dominated by a single amplitude, that of the internal t-quark. The contributions of the u- and c-quark operators each vanish due to a cancellation between the (V-A) \otimes (V-A) and (V-A) \otimes (V+A) matrix elements. Thus, the indirect CP asymmetry in this decay probes sin 2\beta. Although this cancellation is complete only for certain values of the s- and b-quark masses, the theoretical uncertainty on sin 2\beta is still less than 10% over most (~80%) of the parameter space. By measuring the direct CP asymmetry, one can get a better idea of the probable error on sin 2\beta.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX, 4 figure

Global Incidence and mortality of oesophageal cancer and their correlation with socioeconomic indicators temporal patterns and trends in 41 countries

Oesophageal cancers (adenocarcinomas [AC] and squamous cell carcinomas [SCC]) are characterized by high incidence/mortality in many countries. We aimed to delineate its global incidence and mortality, and studied whether socioeconomic development and its incidence rate were correlated. The age-standardized rates (ASRs) of incidence and mortality of this medical condition in 2012 for 184 nations from the GLOBOCAN database; national databases capturing incidence rates, and the WHO mortality database were examined. Their correlations with two indicators of socioeconomic development were evaluated. Joinpoint regression analysis was used to generate trends. The ratio between the ASR of AC and SCC was strongly correlated with HDI (r = 0.535 [men]; r = 0.661 [women]) and GDP (r = 0.594 [men]; r = 0.550 [women], both p < 0.001). Countries that reported the largest reduction in incidence in male included Poland (Average Annual Percent Change [AAPC] = −7.1, 95%C.I. = −12,−1.9) and Singapore (AAPC = −5.8, 95%C.I. = −9.5,−1.9), whereas for women the greatest decline was seen in Singapore (AAPC = −12.3, 95%C.I. = −17.3,−6.9) and China (AAPC = −5.6, 95%C.I. = −7.6,−3.4). The Philippines (AAPC = 4.3, 95%C.I. = 2,6.6) and Bulgaria (AAPC = 2.8, 95%C.I. = 0.5,5.1) had a significant mortality increase in men; whilst Columbia (AAPC = −6.1, 95%C.I. = −7.5,−4.6) and Slovenia (AAPC = −4.6, 95%C.I. = −7.9,−1.3) reported mortality decline in women. These findings inform individuals at increased risk for primary prevention

Remarks on a class of renormalizable interpolating gauges

A class of covariant gauges allowing one to interpolate between the Landau, the maximal Abelian, the linear covariant and the Curci-Ferrari gauges is discussed. Multiplicative renormalizability is proven to all orders by means of algebraic renormalization. All one-loop anomalous dimensions of the fields and gauge parameters are explicitly evaluated in the MSbar scheme.Comment: 24 pages. no figure