Researching inclusive pedagogy with teachers in Hong Kong

This thesis sets out to develop greater understanding of inclusive pedagogy. It explores what teachers do in practice to support everyone’s learning, alongside what they believe about teaching a diversity of learners. In the main part of the empirical work, I researched with six teachers in Hong Kong. Over a period of nine months, I placed myself within the context of these teachers’ work, during which I was able to observe their lessons, as well as reflect with them on their teaching, and discuss their inclusive practices in detail. Their stories of inclusive pedagogy became the six case studies presented here. A key ethical underpinning of this thesis is that learning from teachers requires an open and exploratory approach based on a deep respect for the work that they do. Therefore, while undertaking the six case studies, I sought to apply as far as possible an inclusive research methodological lens. Thus, I was careful to ensure that the research problems were owned by the teachers, and that they were given some control over the processes and outcomes of our exploration where possible. I also considered different presentation strategies so as to reflect more accurately the worldviews of these teacher-researchers. In analysing the individual case studies, I brought together each teacher’s inclusive doing and believing. I then examined the nature of the relationship between these two elements (for example, the extent to which they informed one another), and considered how far this connection might contribute to understanding the teacher’s inclusive practices in context. Through cross-case analysis, I was able to derive two assertions of broader applicability. I have termed these: first, the collective inclusive pedagogy, and second, the growing inclusive pedagogy. I conclude that inclusive pedagogy is a collective responsibility to be shared among all teachers and all children, and it is a capacity which everyone can always improve. This thesis ends with recommendations, based on my key findings, for policy and practice in Hong Kong and beyond. In particular, I propose a signature pedagogy for inclusive teacher education. I also offer some suggestions for future research by drawing upon the methodological strengths and limitations of the study.Jardine Foundatio

The role of e-learning for faculty development in China

While discussion on faculty development in China has been increasing in recent years, our understanding of the strategy for the development remains limited. Th is study with a survey aimed to examine whether e-learning could meet faculty members’ expectations for their professional development. Our findings suggest that e-learning is identified as a preferred means of opening new opportunities to meet the needs of faculty in China where faculty development still remains traditional training and it has bright prospects. Th e result also highlights individual perspectives as a critical factor shaping e-learning behavior, and provides implications for the policy of faculty development

Relationship between group sunspot number and Wolf sunspot number

Continuous wavelet transform and cross-wavelet transform have been used to investigate the phase periodicity and synchrony of the monthly mean Wolf ($R_{z}$) and group ($R_{g}$) sunspot numbers during the period of June 1795 to December 1995. The Schwabe cycle is the only one common period in Rg and Rz, but it is not well-defined in case of cycles 5-7 of Rg and in case of cycles 5 and 6 of $R_{z}$. In fact, the Schwabe period is slightly different in $R_{g}$ and $R_{z}$ before cycle 12, but from cycle 12 onwards it is almost the same for the two time series. Asynchrony of the two time series is more obviously seen in cycles 5 and 6 than in the following cycles, and usually more obviously seen around the maximum time of a cycle than during the rest of the cycle. $R_{g}$ is found to fit $R_{z}$ better in both amplitudes and peak epoch during the minimum time time of a solar cycle than during the maximum time of the cycle, which should be caused by their different definition, and around the maximum time of a cycle, $R_{g}$ is usually less than $R_{z}$. Asynchrony of $R_{g}$ and $R_{z}$ should somewhat agree with different sunspot cycle characteristics exhibited by themselves

Book review: how to be a happy academic: a guide to being effective in research, writing and teaching by Alexander Clark and Bailey Sousa

In How to be a Happy Academic: A Guide to Being Effective in Research, Writing and Teaching, Alexander Clark and Bailey Sousa aim to support fellow academic workers at all career stages to become more efficient, successful and happier through focusing on fostering good habits over and above talent or skills. Eddy Li welcomes this insider perspective on seeing, doing and - most importantly - taming academic work, even if it leaves open the question of how exactly we measure and define “success”

Breast Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma: A Case Report

This report aims to review a case of breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL) by comparing the patient\u27s course with the current literature. BIA-ALCL is a specific type of T-cell lymphoma that can develop after breast implantation, but has only recently been recognized within the last decade. Although overall rare, certain types of breast implants have increased association with developing subsequent lymphoma. This case occurred after mastectomy with breast reconstruction for unilateral invasive ductal carcinoma with a textured, saline Allergan breast implant. BIA-ALCL manifested and was symptomatic nine years after implantation

VAT notches, voluntary registration, and bunching : theory and UK evidence

Using adminstrative tax records for UK businesses, we document both bunching in annual turnover below the VAT registration threshold and persistent voluntary registration by almost half of the firms below the threshold. We develop a conceptual framework that can simultaneously explain these two apparently conflicting facts. The framework also predicts that higher intermediate input shares, lower product-market competition and a lower share of business to consumer (B2C) sales lead to voluntary registration. The predictions are exactly the opposite for bunching. We test the theory using linked VAT and corporation tax records from 2004-2014, finding empirical support for these predictions

Solar variability and climate

Recent precise observations of solar global parameters are used to calibrate an upgraded solar model which takes into account magnetic fields in the solar interior. Historical data about sunspot numbers (from 1500 to the present) and solar radius changes (between 1715 and 1979) are used to compute solar variability on years to centuries timescales. The results show that although the 11 year variability of the total irradiance is of the order of 0.1%, additional, longer lived changes of the order of 0.1% may have occurred in the past centuries. These could, for example, account for the occurrence of climate excursions such as little ice ages.Comment: LaTeX, JGR preprint with AGU++ v16.b and AGUTeX 5.0, use packages graphicx; 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to JGR-Space physic

VKCDB: voltage-gated K+ channel database updated and upgraded

The Voltage-gated K+ Channel DataBase (VKCDB) (http://vkcdb.biology.ualberta.ca) makes a comprehensive set of sequence data readily available for phylogenetic and comparative analysis. The current update contains 2063 entries for full-length or nearly full-length unique channel sequences from Bacteria (477), Archaea (18) and Eukaryotes (1568), an increase from 346 solely eukaryotic entries in the original release. In addition to protein sequences for channels, corresponding nucleotide sequences of the open reading frames corresponding to the amino acid sequences are now available and can be extracted in parallel with sets of protein sequences. Channels are categorized into subfamilies by phylogenetic analysis and by using hidden Markov model analyses. Although the raw database contains a number of fragmentary, duplicated, obsolete and non-channel sequences that were collected in early steps of data collection, the web interface will only return entries that have been validated as likely K+ channels. The retrieval function of the web interface allows retrieval of entries that contain a substantial fraction of the core structural elements of VKCs, fragmentary entries, or both. The full database can be downloaded as either a MySQL dump or as an XML dump from the web site. We have now implemented automated updates at quarterly intervals

Prolonged hypothyroidism severely reduces ovarian follicular reserve in adult rats

Background There is substantial evidence both in humans and in animals that a prolonged reduction in plasma thyroid hormone concentration leads to reproductive problems, including disturbed folliculogenesis, impaired ovulation and fertilization rates, miscarriage and pregnancy complications. The objective of the present study is to examine the consequences of chronic hypothyroidism, induced in adulthood, for the size of the ovarian follicle pool. In order to investigate this, adult female rats were provided either a control or an iodide deficient diet in combination with perchlorate supplementation to inhibit iodide uptake by the thyroid. Sixteen weeks later animals were sacrificed. Blood was collected for hormone analyses and ovaries were evaluated histologically. Results At the time of sacrifice, plasma thyroid-stimulating hormone concentrations were 20- to 40-fold increased, thyroxine concentrations were negligible while tri-iothyronin concentrations were decreased by 40% in the hypothyroid group, confirming that the animals were hypothyroid. Primordial, primary and preantral follicle numbers were significantly lower in the hypothyroid ovaries compared to the euthyroid controls, while a downward trend in antral follicle and corpora lutea numbers was observed. Surprisingly the percentage of atretic follicles was not significantly different between the two groups, suggesting that the reduced preantral and antral follicle numbers were presumably not the consequence of increased degeneration of these follicle types in the hypothyroid group. Plasma anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels showed a significant correlation with the growing follicle population represented by the total ovarian number of primary, preantral and antral follicles, suggesting that also under hypothyroid conditions AMH can serve as a surrogate marker to assess the growing ovarian follicle population. Conclusions The induction of a chronic hypothyroid condition in adult female rats negatively affects the ovarian follicular reserve and the size of the growing follicle population, which may impact fertility