Affective education in guangzhou, China: A case study

While the affective domain is believed globally to be one of the main areas of human experience and development, affective education is interpreted differently in different countries, and its manifestation varies from region to region. It is argued that affective education is culturally contextualized. The present paper reports a qualitative case study attempting to investigate how affective education is conceptualized and implemented in contemporary China. A middle school in Guangzhou, the biggest city in South China, was chosen as the case school. The study was conducted via semi-structured interviews (both individual and group), analysis of textbooks and school documents, and on-site observations. Findings show that perceived aims and contents of affective education were closely related to character formation, traditional Chinese values and political ideology. Affective education was also interpreted as a response to the rapid social changes in modern China. These findings highlight the influences of Chinese cultural values and political ideology on the conceptualization and interpretation of affective education. Our findings suggest that affective education from the Chinese perspective is 'value-oriented' rather than 'affect-oriented' and it serves as the means to promote the well-being of the collective rather than that of the individual. © Common Ground, Kai Yuen Cheng, Eadaoin K. P. Hui.published_or_final_versio

Thirst Sensation Does Not Effect Reaction Time But Decreses Mood in Men

Exercise in hot environments results in dehydration accompanied by thirst sensation, a vital signal for fluid homeostasis. While cognitive performance and mood have been studied with exercise in hot environments and in dehydration states, no studies have investigated the effect of inducing thirst on cognitive performance and mood. PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of inducing thirst on cognitive performance and mood. METHODS: Twelve recreationally active men (mean±SE age: 29±3.6 years; body mass: 74.7±2.3 kg; height, 179.4±2.0 cm; maximal oxygen consumption [VO2max]: 49.8±1.9 ml·kg−1·min−1) performed 90 mins of cycling at 55% VO2max in a environmentally controlled chamber (ambient temperature, 34.9±0.2°C; relative humidity, 30.3±0.3%; wind speed, 3.4 miles ×h-1) followed by a 12 km cycling time trial. Two experimental conditions were performed with: subjects drank 25 mL of water every 5 minutes (NT) and infused 25 mL of isotonic saline every 5 minutes via intravenous intravenous tube (T). to maintain hydration across conditions. Thirst was measured every 5 minutes with the visual analog scales. Additionally, rectal temperature (Trec), skin temperature (Tsk) were recorded every 5 minutes. The Environmental Symptoms Questionnaire (ESQ), Profile of Mood States (POMS), a modified flanker task, and body mass were performed and recorded at the beginning (Pre) and the end (Post) of each trial. The flanker task assesses reaction time with congruent and incongruent conditions. Incongruent measures executive function while congruent trials measure simple reaction time. RESULTS: There was no significance between body mass loss and USG (p\u3e.05) demonstrating similar hydration states between thirst intervention. Trec and thirst were significantly higher in T compared to NT after 15 minutes and throughout the 90 minutes of exercise and 12 km time trial (p.05). Subjects also reported more fatigued after exercise (Pre: 2.0±0.6, Post: 13.8±1.2, p.05). CONCLUSION: After inducing thirst with exercise in hot environments, subjects were more fatigued and experienced trouble concentrating, however, reaction time was not affected . More research is necessary, but the results of this study suggest strategies to mitigate thirst are important to maintain mood during physical performance, however, does not affect cognitive performance

The role of phagocytic respiratory burst in host defense against Mycobacterium tuberculosis

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Digital evidence search kit

With the rapid development of electronic commerce and Internet technology, cyber crimes have become more and more common. There is a great need for automated software systems that can assist law enforcement agencies in cyber crime evidence collection. This paper describes a cyber crime evidence collection tool called DESK (Digital Evidence Search Kit), which is the product of several years of cumulative efforts of our Center together with the Hong Kong Police Force and several other law enforcement agencies of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. We will use DESK to illustrate some of the desirable features of an effective cyber crime evidence collection tool. © 2005 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Comparative evaluation of a point-of-care immunochromatographic test SNAP 4Dx with molecular detection tests for vector-borne canine pathogens in Hong Kong

There are no comprehensive studies on the performance of commonly used point-of-care diagnostic enzyme immunoassay for common arthropod-borne canine pathogens. A comparative evaluation of an immunochromatographic test for these infections with a comprehensive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test panel was performed on 100 pet dogs and 100 stray dogs without obvious clinical symptoms. Of the 162 positive test results from both immunochromatographic test and PCR, there was 85.2% concordance. The 24 discordant results between serology and PCR occurred in tests involving Ehrlichia canis (14) and Anaplasma platys (10), which may be related to the time of infection. No positive cases of borreliosis or rickettsiosis were detected. One important limitation of the immunochromatographic test was its lack of testing for babesiosis and hepatozoonosis. The former is the most prevalent arthropod-borne canine infection in our cohort (41%). Coinfections were found in 19% stray dogs and 6% of pet dogs with both tests (p<0.01). Seventeen and 8 samples from stray and pet dogs, respectively, were initially positive in the PCR test for Ehrlichia. However, on sequencing of the PCR amplicon, 10 from stray and 2 from pet dogs were found to be Wolbachia sequences instead, with 100% nucleotide identity to the 16S rRNA sequence of Wolbachia endosymbiont of Dirofilaria immitis. The presence of Wolbachia DNAemia (6%) correlated well with the molecular test and immunochromatographic antigen test for D. immitis. © Copyright 2011, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.published_or_final_versio

High Diversity of Genogroup I Picobirnaviruses in Mammals

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Methylation of miR-155-3p in mantle cell lymphoma and other non-Hodgkin's lymphomas

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Impact of Habitual Water Intake on Muscle Quality and Total Body Water-A Pilot Study

Proper hydration is essential for critical health and performance functions, such as muscle function and body fluid balance. The effect of acute hydration status has been studied on health and muscle performance; however, the effect of habitual water intake on muscle quality and total body water between high and low consumption has not been examined. PURPOSE: To determine the impact of habitual water intake on muscle quality and total body water. METHODS: Eleven women (age: 27.6±7.9 years; mass: 60.3±10.8 kg) provided a five-day dietary food log to categorize them into HIGH or LOW daily total water intake (TWI). TWI values \u3e2.5-3.3 L/day (HIGH) or \u3c 0.7-1.6 L/day (LOW) were used to determine groups. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and ultrasound images were obtained to assess overall muscle quality and total body fluid balance between the two groups. Analysis of ultrasound images using ImageJ determined length (cm), cross-sectional area (CSA), and muscle quality through echo intensity (EI) of the participant’s right and left rectus femoris (RF). An independent sample T-Test and effect sizes (ES) were used to assess differences between HIGH and LOW. RESULTS: Due to this study being a pilot study, there was no significant differences in right RF length between LOW (1.44±0.22 cm) and HIGH (1.22±0.24 cm, p=0.153) with a large effect size of (ES=0.98). There were no significant differences in left RF length (p=0.861) between HIGH (1.46±0.28 cm) and LOW (1.42±0.32) groups with a trivial effect size (ES=0.11). Right RF CSA had non-significant differences between LOW (3.72±1.18 cm2) and HIGH (2.95±1.05 cm2, p=0.309) with medium effect (ES=0.68). There were no differences in CSA-left between HIGH (3.63 ± 1.06 cm) and LOW (3.83±1.44, p=0.816, ES=0.15). Right RF muscle quality also had a medium effect size (ES=0.78) between HIGH (135.30±21.82 A.U) and LOW (117.71±23.10 A.U). Muscle quality of the left RF had a small effect size (ES=0.26) between LOW (118.29±22.18 A.U) and HIGH (125.97±39.47 A.U, p=0.684). While there was no statistical difference due to the power (p=0.163), total body water (TBW) percentage (%) was greater in HIGH (53.9±1.5%) compared to LOW (50.6±5.4%, ES= 0.75) with medium effects. HIGH and LOW demonstrated no statistical difference (p=0.579) with a small effect size (ES=0.36) between ECF% and ICF%, respectively (41.00±0.72%, 41.39±1.20%; 59.00±0.72%, 58.61±1.20%). CONCLUSION: Despite no significant differences, based on ES, HIGH habitual water intake increases TBW% than LOW. Further data must be collected to draw definitive conclusions; however, these results suggest skeletal muscle quality is high with LOW habitual water intake

Metabolomic profiling of Burkholderia pseudomallei using UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS reveals specific biomarkers including 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol and unique thiamine degradation pathway

© 2015 Lau et al.Background: Burkholderia pseudomallei is an emerging pathogen that causes melioidosis, a serious and potentially fatal disease which requires prolonged antibiotics to prevent relapse. However, diagnosis of melioidosis can be difficult, especially in culture-negative cases. While metabolomics represents an uprising tool for studying infectious diseases, there were no reports on its applications to B. pseudomallei. To search for potential specific biomarkers, we compared the metabolomics profiles of culture supernatants of B. pseudomallei (15 strains), B. thailandensis (3 strains), B. cepacia complex (14 strains), P. aeruginosa (4 strains) and E. coli (3 strains), using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS). Multi- and univariate analyses were used to identify specific metabolites in B. pseudomallei. Results: Principal component and partial-least squares discrimination analysis readily distinguished the metabolomes between B. pseudomallei and other bacterial species. Using multi-variate and univariate analysis, eight metabolites with significantly higher levels in B. pseudomallei were identified. Three of the eight metabolites were identified by MS/MS, while five metabolites were unidentified against database matching, suggesting that they may be potentially novel compounds. One metabolite, m/z 144.048, was identified as 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol, a degradation product of thiamine (vitamin B1), with molecular formula C6H9NOS by database searches and confirmed by MS/MS using commercially available authentic chemical standard. Two metabolites, m/z 512.282 and m/z 542.2921, were identified as tetrapeptides, Ile-His-Lys-Asp with molecular formula C22H37N7O7 and Pro-Arg-Arg-Asn with molecular formula C21H39N11O6, respectively. To investigate the high levels of 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol in B. pseudomallei, we compared the thiamine degradation pathways encoded in genomes of B. pseudomallei and B. thailandensis. While both B. pseudomallei and B. thailandensis possess thiaminase I which catalyzes degradation of thiamine to 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol, thiM, which encodes hydroxyethylthiazole kinase responsible for degradation of 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol, is present and expressed in B. thailandensis as detected by PCR/RT-PCR, but absent or not expressed in all B. pseudomallei strains. This suggests that the high 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol level in B. pseudomallei is likely due to the absence of hydroxyethylthiazole kinase and hence reduced downstream degradation. Conclusion: Eight novel biomarkers, including 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol and two tetrapeptides, were identified in the culture supernatant of B. pseudomallei.published_or_final_versio

Whole-Genome Array CGH Evaluation for Replacing Prenatal Karyotyping in Hong Kong

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