The use of smart phones and their mobile applications among older adults in Hong Kong: An exploratory study

The purpose of this study was to explore social participation using smart phones by the older population in Hong Kong. The present study was conducted from 10-June-2013 to 16-August-2013. It was a cross-sectional survey study, and data were collected from street interviews. Potential participants were approached and invited to respond to a questionnaire. The locations for collecting data were evenly distributed on Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories. The size of the samples for Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories were calculated based on their respective proportion of the Hong Kong population in 2011. The estimated time to complete the questionnaire was approximately 10 minutes. The questionnaire included questions on demographic data and the use of smart phones and their related features. A total of 982 participants were interviewed, 46% of whom were male and 54% female. The participants were divided into the following two groups: the young-old (age 50-69) and the old-old (age 70 or above). The mean age was 67.93±10.386. The findings showed that, in comparison with the young-old group (age 50 to 69), a smaller percentage of the old-old group (70 and over) used smart phones and mobile messaging applications to communicate with others. There were no differences in patterns with regard to the type and frequency of the mobile applications being used. However, a smaller percentage of the old-old group had installed the mobile app by themselves and introduced the mobile app to others. This study reveals the behavioral patterns of the young-old and the old-old groups in the use of mobile devices to communicate. The young-old and old-old groups exhibited the same patterns in terms of the types and frequency of the mobile apps used; however, a smaller percentage of the old-old group used mobile apps to communicate. Different educational programs on the importance of social support should be established, and the promotional strategies for these programs need to be tailored to older adults

Infrared Nonlinear Optics

Contains report on one research project.U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F49620-80-C-0008

Infrared Nonlinear Optics

Contains report on one research project.U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F49620-84-C-0010

Infrared Nonlinear Optics

Contains a report on one research project.U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F49620-80-C-008

Discovering the structure and organization of a free Cantonese emotion-label word association graph to understand mental lexicons of emotions

Emotions are not necessarily universal across different languages and cultures. Mental lexicons of emotions depend strongly on contextual factors, such as language and culture. The Chinese language has unique linguistic properties that are different from other languages. As a main variant of Chinese, Cantonese has some emotional expressions that are only used by Cantonese speakers. Previous work on Chinese emotional vocabularies focused primarily on Mandarin. However, little is known about Cantonese emotion vocabularies. This is important since both language variants might have distinct emotional expressions, despite sharing the same writing system. To explore the structure and organization of Cantonese-label emotion words, we selected 79 highly representative emotion cue words from an ongoing large-scale Cantonese word association study (SWOW-HK). We aimed to identify the categories of these emotion words and non-emotion words that related to emotion concepts. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to generate word clusters and investigate the underlying emotion dimensions. As the cluster quality was low in hierarchical clustering, we further constructed an emotion graph using a network approach to explore how emotions are organized in the Cantonese mental lexicon. With the support of emotion knowledge, the emotion graph defined more distinct emotion categories. The identified network communities covered basic emotions such as love, happiness, and sadness. Our results demonstrate that mental lexicon graphs constructed from free associations of Cantonese emotion-label words can reveal fine categories of emotions and their relevant concepts

Infrared Nonlinear Optics

Contains reports on four research projects.DARPA/Universities Research Initiative (Contract NOOO14-46-K-0760)SDI/IST managed by the Naval Research Laboratory (Contract N00014-87-K-2031

Maintenance treatment with quetiapine versus discontinuation after one year of treatment in patients with remitted first episode psychosis: randomised controlled trial

Objective To study rates of relapse in remitted patients with first episode psychosis who either continued or discontinued antipsychotic drugs after at least one year of maintenance treatment

Experimental and theoretical investigation of ligand effects on the synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles

ZnO nanoparticles with highly controllable particle sizes(less than 10 nm) were synthesized using organic capping ligands in Zn(Ac)2 ethanolic solution. The molecular structure of the ligands was found to have significant influence on the particle size. The multi-functional molecule tris(hydroxymethyl)-aminomethane (THMA) favoured smaller particle distributions compared with ligands possessing long hydrocarbon chains that are more frequently employed. The adsorption of capping ligands on ZnnOn crystal nuclei (where n = 4 or 18 molecular clusters of(0001) ZnO surfaces) was modelled by ab initio methods at the density functional theory (DFT) level. For the molecules examined, chemisorption proceeded via the formation of Zn...O, Zn...N, or Zn...S chemical bonds between the ligands and active Zn2+ sites on ZnO surfaces. The DFT results indicated that THMA binds more strongly to the ZnO surface than other ligands, suggesting that this molecule is very effective at stabilizing ZnO nanoparticle surfaces. This study, therefore, provides new insight into the correlation between the molecular structure of capping ligands and the morphology of metal oxide nanostructures formed in their presence

Disparities and risks of sexually transmissible infections among men who have sex with men in China: a meta-analysis and data synthesis.

BACKGROUND: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including Hepatitis B and C virus, are emerging public health risks in China, especially among men who have sex with men (MSM). This study aims to assess the magnitude and risks of STIs among Chinese MSM. METHODS: Chinese and English peer-reviewed articles were searched in five electronic databases from January 2000 to February 2013. Pooled prevalence estimates for each STI infection were calculated using meta-analysis. Infection risks of STIs in MSM, HIV-positive MSM and male sex workers (MSW) were obtained. This review followed the PRISMA guidelines and was registered in PROSPERO. RESULTS: Eighty-eight articles (11 in English and 77 in Chinese) investigating 35,203 MSM in 28 provinces were included in this review. The prevalence levels of STIs among MSM were 6.3% (95% CI: 3.5-11.0%) for chlamydia, 1.5% (0.7-2.9%) for genital wart, 1.9% (1.3-2.7%) for gonorrhoea, 8.9% (7.8-10.2%) for hepatitis B (HBV), 1.2% (1.0-1.6%) for hepatitis C (HCV), 66.3% (57.4-74.1%) for human papillomavirus (HPV), 10.6% (6.2-17.6%) for herpes simplex virus (HSV-2) and 4.3% (3.2-5.8%) for Ureaplasma urealyticum. HIV-positive MSM have consistently higher odds of all these infections than the broader MSM population. As a subgroup of MSM, MSW were 2.5 (1.4-4.7), 5.7 (2.7-12.3), and 2.2 (1.4-3.7) times more likely to be infected with chlamydia, gonorrhoea and HCV than the broader MSM population, respectively. CONCLUSION: Prevalence levels of STIs among MSW were significantly higher than the broader MSM population. Co-infection of HIV and STIs were prevalent among Chinese MSM. Integration of HIV and STIs healthcare and surveillance systems is essential in providing effective HIV/STIs preventive measures and treatments. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO NO: CRD42013003721

Optogenetic control of Drosophila using a red-shifted channelrhodopsin reveals experience-dependent influences on courtship

Optogenetics allows the manipulation of neural activity in freely moving animals with millisecond precision, but its application in Drosophila melanogaster has been limited. Here we show that a recently described red activatable channelrhodopsin (ReaChR) permits control of complex behavior in freely moving adult flies, at wavelengths that are not thought to interfere with normal visual function. This tool affords the opportunity to control neural activity over a broad dynamic range of stimulation intensities. Using time-resolved activation, we show that the neural control of male courtship song can be separated into (i) probabilistic, persistent and (ii) deterministic, command-like components. The former, but not the latter, neurons are subject to functional modulation by social experience, which supports the idea that they constitute a locus of state-dependent influence. This separation is not evident using thermogenetic tools, a result underscoring the importance of temporally precise control of neuronal activation in the functional dissection of neural circuits in Drosophila