The Reintegration of Hong Kong into the People\u27s Republic of China

On June 30, 1997, the United Kingdom will cede administrative control of Hong Kong to the People\u27s Republic of China. Hong Kong achieved great prosperity under British rule, but the affect of China\u27s influence on Hong Kong\u27s future economic success is an issue of much concern as the 1997 transfer of sovereignty nears. This Note analyzes the transfer of sovereignty and what it will mean to Hong Kong\u27s economic future. The author outlines the history of Hong Kong and discusses the British role in creating the prosperous colony. The author then analyzes the Joint Declaration, the document which governs the transfer of sovereignty, and the Basic Law, which will serve as Hong Kong\u27s constitution. The author addresses the current climate in Hong Kong, focusing on attitudes and developments in both Hong Kong and China, to evaluate how the upcoming transfer has been received and what effects it has created. The author concludes that the Hong Kong of the future will continue to prosper and remain a Pacific economic center. However, the brightest days of Hong Kong have passed, and Hong Kong will not likely recapture the financial success of the glory days of the late 1980s

The neural substrates of natural reading: a comparison of normal and nonword text using eyetracking and fMRI

Most previous studies investigating the neural correlates of reading have presented text using serial visual presentation (SVP), which may not fully reflect the underlying processes of natural reading. In the present study, eye movements and BOLD data were collected while subjects either read normal paragraphs naturally or moved their eyes through paragraphs of pseudo-text (pronounceable pseudowords or consonant letter strings) in two pseudo-reading conditions. Eye movement data established that subjects were reading and scanning the stimuli normally. A conjunction fMRI analysis across natural- and pseudo-reading showed that a common eye-movement network including frontal eye fields, supplementary eye fields, and intraparietal sulci was activated, consistent with previous studies using simpler eye movement tasks. In addition, natural reading versus pseudo-reading showed different patterns of brain activation: normal reading produced activation in a well-established language network that included superior temporal gyrus/sulcus, middle temporal gyrus, angular gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and middle frontal gyrus, whereas pseudo-reading produced activation in an attentional network that included anterior/posterior cingulate and parietal cortex. These results are consistent with results found in previous single-saccade eye movement tasks and SVP reading studies, suggesting that component processes of eye-movement control and language processing observed in past fMRI research generalize to natural reading. The results also suggest that combining eyetracking and fMRI is a suitable method for investigating the component processes of natural reading in fMRI research

Struggling to a monumental triumph : Re-assessing the final stages of the smallpox eradication program in India, 1960-1980

The global smallpox program is generally presented as the brainchild of a handful of actors from the WHO headquarters in Geneva and at the agency's regional offices. This article attempts to present a more complex description of the drive to eradicate smallpox. Based on the example of India, a major focus of the campaign, it is argued that historians and public health officials should recognize the varying roles played by a much wider range of participants. Highlighting the significance of both Indian and international field officials, the author shows how bureaucrats and politicians at different levels of administration and society managed to strengthen—yet sometimes weaken—important program components. Centrally dictated strategies developed at WHO offices in Geneva and New Delhi, often in association with Indian federal authorities, were reinterpreted by many actors and sometimes changed beyond recognition

Purification, growth, and characterization of Zn(x)Cd(1-x)Se crystals

The purification of starting materials which were used in the growth of Zn(x)Cd(1-x)Se (x = 0.2) single crystals using the traveling solution method (TSM) is reported. Up to 13 cm long single crystals and as grown resistivities of 6 x 10(exp 12) ohm/cm could be achieved. Infrared and Raman spectra of Zn(0.2)Cd(0.8)Se are also presented and discussed

Abnormal Speech Motor Control in Individuals with 16p11.2 Deletions.

Speech and motor deficits are highly prevalent (>70%) in individuals with the 600 kb BP4-BP5 16p11.2 deletion; however, the mechanisms that drive these deficits are unclear, limiting our ability to target interventions and advance treatment. This study examined fundamental aspects of speech motor control in participants with the 16p11.2 deletion. To assess capacity for control of voice, we examined how accurately and quickly subjects changed the pitch of their voice within a trial to correct for a transient perturbation of the pitch of their auditory feedback. When compared to controls, 16p11.2 deletion carriers show an over-exaggerated pitch compensation response to unpredictable mid-vocalization pitch perturbations. We also examined sensorimotor adaptation of speech by assessing how subjects learned to adapt their sustained productions of formants (speech spectral peak frequencies important for vowel identity), in response to consistent changes in their auditory feedback during vowel production. Deletion carriers show reduced sensorimotor adaptation to sustained vowel identity changes in auditory feedback. These results together suggest that 16p11.2 deletion carriers have fundamental impairments in the basic mechanisms of speech motor control and these impairments may partially explain the deficits in speech and language in these individuals

A Profile of Immigrants in Arkansas

Discusses key demographic trends, economic factors, and public policy issues associated with immigrants in Arkansas, which has the fourth-fastest-growing immigrant population in the nation

The SISO CSPI PDG standard for commercial off-the-shelf simulation package interoperability reference models

For many years discrete-event simulation has been used to analyze production and logistics problems in manufactur-ing and defense. Commercial-off-the-shelf Simulation Packages (CSPs), visual interactive modelling environ-ments such as Arena, Anylogic, Flexsim, Simul8, Witness, etc., support the development, experimentation and visua-lization of simulation models. There have been various attempts to create distributed simulations with these CSPs and their tools, some with the High Level Architecture (HLA). These are complex and it is quite difficult to assess how a set of models/CSP are actually interoperating. As the first in a series of standards aimed at standardizing how the HLA is used to support CSP distributed simula-tions, the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organiza-tion’s (SISO) CSP Interoperability Product Development Group (CSPI PDG) has developed and standardized a set of Interoperability Reference Models (IRM) that are in-tended to clearly identify the interoperability capabilities of CSP distributed simulations

Collaborating to Improve Collaboration: Informationist Team Support for an Interdisciplinary Research Group

Objectives Three subject librarians and a data librarian, representing three departments and two libraries at a university, were awarded an NLM Informationist Supplement to support an interdisciplinary research group with an NIH grant. The Informationist Team developed a model to utilize the skills of multiple librarians to support the increasing number of interdisciplinary and interprofessional research groups at the university. Methods A pre-survey was administered to the Research Group to provide a baseline assessment of their use of librarian expertise and library services. The Informationist Team met to identify areas of expertise to support the objectives of the grant. Literature searching, bibliographic citation management and sharing, and data management were the first areas to be considered. Librarians routinely attended lab meetings and shared notes with each other to keep up with researcher needs. When possible, research questions were answered in the lab meetings by librarians. Interviews with Research Group members were used to develop a data management plan. Collaborative tools to facilitate team communication and support research being conducted in multiple buildings on two campuses were investigated. Future work will include publication support, assessing research impact, and appraising the usefulness of the Informationist Team to the Research Group