Vision development in engineering education during financial crisis and natural disasters

Theme: Towards a safe, reliable, sustainable intelligent power systemPaper no. I9FP0473Risks are seeds of new opportunities. The year 2008 is heart-breaking to global nations. University undergraduates are ambitious, yet within a fortnight after their summer vacation, their sweet day dreams have turned into nightmares. Many youths may indeed become desperate. The University of Hong Kong realizes this impact to their engineering students. Making use of broadening education, the University utilizes recent case studies to make their engineering students observant and alert. The present economic downturn and non-ethical practices provide good lessons in building up maturity and morality in fresh engineers. In the business world, and history recalls, an end in a road is never a dead-end when there is a turn to another road. The one who finds this turn first shall master tomorrow. Hence we enhance students’ vision in exploring new business opportunities. We encourage the whole curriculum to make entry to entrepreneurship competition, and to enroll in visits to places devastated by natural disasters. Through critical thinking and “seeing is believing”, we develop algorithm and passion in these youths to serve the new society with a good heart either through entrepreneurship or engineering or their integration. Already we see maturity substantially in the batch.postprintThe 15th International Conference on Electrical Engineering (ICEE 2009), Shenyang, China, 5-9 July 2009

The association of RANTES polymorphism with severe acute respiratory syndrome in Hong Kong and Beijing Chinese

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chemokines play important roles in inflammation and antiviral action. We examined whether polymorphisms of <it>RANTES, IP-10 </it>and <it>Mig </it>affect the susceptibility to and outcome of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We tested the polymorphisms of <it>RANTES, IP-10 </it>and <it>Mig </it>for their associations with SARS in 495 Hong Kong Chinese SARS patients and 578 controls. Then we tried to confirm the results in 356 Beijing Chinese SARS patients and 367 controls.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>RANTES </it>-28 G allele was associated with SARS susceptibility in Hong Kong Chinese (<it>P </it>< 0.0001, OR = 2.80, 95%CI:2.11–3.71). Individuals with <it>RANTES </it>-28 CG and GG genotypes had a 3.28-fold (95%CI:2.32–4.64) and 3.06-fold (95%CI:1.47–6.39) increased risk of developing SARS respectively (<it>P </it>< 0.0001). This -28 G allele conferred risk of death in a gene-dosage dependent manner (<it>P </it>= 0.014) with CG and GG individuals having a 2.12-fold (95% CI: 1.11–4.06) and 4.01-fold (95% CI: 1.30–12.4) increased risk. For the replication of <it>RANTES </it>data in Beijing Chinese, the -28 G allele was not associated with susceptibility to SARS. However, -28 CG (OR = 4.27, 95%CI:1.64–11.1) and GG (OR = 3.34, 95%CI:0.37–30.7) were associated with admission to intensive care units or death due to SARS (<it>P </it>= 0.011).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>RANTES </it>-28 G allele plays a role in the pathogenesis of SARS.</p

Towards a Rigorous Network of Protein-Protein Interactions of the Model Sulfate Reducer Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough

Protein–protein interactions offer an insight into cellular processes beyond what may be obtained by the quantitative functional genomics tools of proteomics and transcriptomics. The aforementioned tools have been extensively applied to study Escherichia coli and other aerobes and more recently to study the stress response behavior of Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough, a model obligate anaerobe and sulfate reducer and the subject of this study. Here we carried out affinity purification followed by mass spectrometry to reconstruct an interaction network among 12 chromosomally encoded bait and 90 prey proteins based on 134 bait-prey interactions identified to be of high confidence. Protein-protein interaction data are often plagued by the lack of adequate controls and replication analyses necessary to assess confidence in the results, including identification of potential false positives. We addressed these issues through the use of biological replication, exponentially modified protein abundance indices, results from an experimental negative control, and a statistical test to assign confidence to each putative interacting pair applicable to small interaction data studies. We discuss the biological significance of metabolic features of D. vulgaris revealed by these protein-protein interaction data and the observed protein modifications. These include the distinct role of the putative carbon monoxide-induced hydrogenase, unique electron transfer routes associated with different oxidoreductases, and the possible role of methylation in regulating sulfate reduction

Early-onset primary torsional dystonia in a 4-generation Chinese family with a mutation in the DYT1 gene

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Moderating Factors of Immediate, Gross, and Net Cross-Brand Effects of Price Promotions

Contains fulltext : 112127.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)26 p

The correlation between the noise and vibration induced by a bridge movement joint

This study addresses the research on the noise and vibration correlation of a bridge movement joint. The aim of this research is to assess the noise induced by the vibration of a bridge movement joint without lane closure during the operation period. There are two methods of developing the correlation between the tyre/joint noise and vibration: (i) Direct Sound and Vibration Measurement Method, (ii) Acoustic-Box-in-Vehicle Method. The first one is the measurements of the vibration change at a bridge movement joint and roadside noise change induced when a control vehicle is passing it (this one requires lane closure). The correlation between the vibration change and roadside noise change is plotted according the measurement data. The second one is the measurements of the structure-borne noise change in an acoustic box installed into the control vehicle and roadside noise change induced. Similarly, the correlation between the structure-borne noise change and roadside noise induced is plotted. It is found that the two correlations are linear and similar to each other, even though the roadside noise is nonlinearly increasing against the control vehicle speed.link_to_subscribed_fulltex