Chronic benign neutropenia among Chinese children

Objective. To delineate the clinical behaviour of chronic benign neutropenia in Chinese children in Hong Kong. Design. Retrospective study. Setting. University teaching hospital, Hong Kong. Patients. All infants and children with absolute neutrophil count of 1.5 × 109 /L or lower for more than 3 months. Main outcome measures. Development of significant infection, and achievement of remission. Results. Twenty-four children with chronic benign neutropenia were identified between 1992 and 2001. Their median age of diagnosis was 9 months. The mean (standard deviation) initial absolute neutrophil count was 0.28 × 109 /L (0.24 × 109 /L). Twenty-three patients presented with infection. Of the 19 patients tested, four (21%) were positive for anti-neutrophil antibodies. Bone marrow examination was performed in 17 patients: nine had normal results, but six showed evidence of peripheral consumption, one showed late maturation arrest at band stage, and one showed phagocytosis of myeloid cells by histiocytes. The overall hospitalised infection rate was 51.6 episodes per 1000 patient-months. Ten percent of cases were considered 'significant' infections and required hospital admission with either surgical intervention or intravenous therapy (antibiotics or fluid replacement). In the first year of diagnosis, more than 80% of patients had their lowest absolute neutrophil count (mean, 0.16 × 109 /L; standard deviation, 0.11 × 109 /L). Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor was used to treat three patients and induced transient elevation of absolute neutrophil count in all three. The projected remission rate was 55.4% at 3 years. Even for those with persistent disease, there was significant recovery in absolute neutrophil count to a mean of 0.5 × 109 /L (P<0.01). Conclusions. Patients with chronic benign neutropenia experienced a relatively benign clinical course regardless of their remission status. Only a small proportion of patients developed significant infections. A multi-centre prospective study may help identify predictive factors of remission.published_or_final_versio

A Modified Protocol with Improved Detection Rate for Mis-Matched Donor HLA from Low Quantities of DNA in Urine Samples from Kidney Graft Recipients

published_or_final_versio

Addressing commonality and language specifics: challenges in ESP material development

Conference Theme: Transcending Boundaries in Language Learning: Language Arts and ELT Across the Curriculu

Teaching technical manual writing: a genre-based, English-in-the-discipline approach in EAP

Conference theme: Faces of English: Theory, Practice and PedagogyLanguage teaching using a genre-based approach (Bhatia, 1993; Swales, 1990) and authentic materials (Gilmore, 2007) has received significant attention, but little research has been devoted to their application in teaching technical manual writing. This study seeks to leverage authentic manuals on engineering devices in teaching organizational and linguistic features specific to a technical manual as a genre. Consciousness-raising tasks were designed to help a group of third-year medical engineering undergraduates in a Hong Kong university to write a manual on operating a portable electrocardiogram (a heartbeat measurement device). Questionnaire findings on students’ receptiveness of the approach will be discussed in terms of the relevance of learning materials, the perceived level of difficulty, and the enhancement of subject understanding and knowledge application. Post-study manual writing by students will also be examined with respect to the concepts applied and the avoidance of common pitfalls. Challenges to teachers, on the other hand, include the demand of time and subject-matter knowledge in materials selection. Recommendations will be offered on the use of genre knowledge to promote academic literacy in specific disciplines (Hyland, 2012), aiming to not only improve the quality of English-in-the-discipline teaching but also facilitate a potential partnership between subject-matter and language teachers

Leveraging authentic materials in learning task design in a technical communication course: an example of teaching user manual writing

Session A (Z1307)：English-in-the-discipline: Design and materials development in technical communication coursesThe Conference program's website is located at http://c021.wzu.edu.tw/front/bin/ptdetail.phtml?Part=2014SEES_3The effectiveness and issues of authentic materials in promoting foreign language learning has received significant attention, but less study has been devoted to how they can be leveraged in the design of learning tasks for specific genres in the context of technical communication. This pilot study attempts to introduce the rationale and approach to employing authentic materials in design learning tasks in an English-in-the-discipline course on writing a user manual on a portable electrocardiogram device (a heartbeat measurement device) for a group of second-year medical engineering undergraduates in the University of Hong Kong. I will first explain how the collaboration with a medical engineering professor and the analysis of past student texts informed the selection of various authentic texts, and then discuss the way they were incorporated into learning tasks to illustrate structural and linguistic features characteristic of manual writing. Questionnaire findings suggest that students were generally receptive of the approach in terms of the clarity of learning outcomes, the relevance of learning materials, the enhancement of subject understanding and knowledge application, and the perceived level of difficulty. A review of the post-pilot manual writing also appears to indicate some application of the concepts introduced and avoidance of common pitfalls. Challenges to teachers, on the other hand, may necessitate more time and subject matter knowledge in selecting and adapting various authentic materials, and in eliciting responses from students. I will attempt to offer recommendations and future directions in this respect to not only improve the quality of learning activities but also facilitate partnership between subject matter experts and language teachers

Designing English courses for engineers: addressing commonality and language specifics

Session A (Z1307)：English-in-the-discipline: Design and materials development in technical communication coursesThe Conference program's website is located at http://c021.wzu.edu.tw/front/bin/ptdetail.phtml?Part=2014SEES_

Reducing the Language Barrier between ESP Classroom and Professional Practice

Sunday Session I: ACLL - Language Educatio