Contracting social services in China: the case of the Integrated Family Services Centres in Guangzhou

This article uses the Integrated Family Services Centres (IFSCs) as an example to illustrate the contractual relationship between the state and NGOs and the capacities of government officials to implement the contracting-out of services in China. The data from 12 focus groups in 2015 indicated that local governments treated IFSCs as foot-soldiers by asking them to fulfil duties beyond their service contracts. Moreover, Guangzhou government’s fragmented service evaluation arrangements and workload-oriented criteria were unable to effectively assess the impact of social work practices. The study concluded that appropriate legislation is required to safeguard the rights of NGOs

Effect of Castor Bean (Ricinus communis L.) Aqueous Extracts on the Performance of Root-Knot Nematodes (Meloideogyne spp.) on Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

The increased concern for environmental and health hazards have called for a reduction in the use of synthetic nematicides for nematode control. Experiments were, therefore, conducted to ascertain the nematicidal potential of castor bean’s crude extract and its five lower concentrations with water as control. In the in vitro studies, crude castor bean aqueous extract and 10, 20, 30 and 40% different concentrations with 100 root-knot nematode eggs or juveniles in separate Petri dishes showed that all the different concentrations had toxic effects on eggs and juveniles of root-knot nematode. Egg hatch inhibition and juvenile mortality increased with increased concentration of the extracts. With an increase in exposure time, juvenile mortality increased. In potted plant studies, crude castor bean aqueous extracts and its lower concentrations of 20, 40 and 60% caused significant improvement in plant growth measures such as height and fresh shoot weight over the water blank control. The crude castor bean extract was nematotoxic to root -knot nematodes in vitro and in potted-tomato plants, but this was not demonstrated in field studies. Further work needs to be done before a firm recommendation can be madeKeywords: Control, juveniles, nematicides, phytochemicals, wate

What we observe is biased by what other people tell us: beliefs about the reliability of gaze behavior modulate attentional orienting to gaze cues

For effective social interactions with other people, information about the physical environment must be integrated with information about the interaction partner. In order to achieve this, processing of social information is guided by two components: a bottom-up mechanism reflexively triggered by stimulus-related information in the social scene and a top-down mechanism activated by task-related context information. In the present study, we investigated whether these components interact during attentional orienting to gaze direction. In particular, we examined whether the spatial specificity of gaze cueing is modulated by expectations about the reliability of gaze behavior. Expectations were either induced by instruction or could be derived from experience with displayed gaze behavior. Spatially specific cueing effects were observed with highly predictive gaze cues, but also when participants merely believed that actually non-predictive cues were highly predictive. Conversely, cueing effects for the whole gazed-at hemifield were observed with non-predictive gaze cues, and spatially specific cueing effects were attenuated when actually predictive gaze cues were believed to be non-predictive. This pattern indicates that (i) information about cue predictivity gained from sampling gaze behavior across social episodes can be incorporated in the attentional orienting to social cues, and that (ii) beliefs about gaze behavior modulate attentional orienting to gaze direction even when they contradict information available from social episodes

WEBGOP : collaborative Web services based on graph-oriented programming

2005-2006 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Review Radix rule application of heat in clinic

為深入了解柴胡在退熱方面的特點及臨床運用規律,從柴胡的配伍、炮制、用量、煎煮方法以及劑型等方面,對柴胡用治發熱的相關文獻進行歸納分析,探討其臨床特點及運用規律。認為柴胡的退熱配伍不少,然對其藥理研究尚不夠;有關使用炮制柴胡的報道亦較少,且炮制的方法也有爭議;柴胡的用量、煎煮方法對臨床治療發熱性疾病有一定的影響,但研究的深度不夠,各家意見不一,有待進一步研究。link_to_OA_fulltex

Greater than the Sum of its Parts: A Heterodinuclear Polymerization Catalyst

Homodinuclear catalysts have good precedent for epoxide and carbon dioxide/anhydride copolymerizations; in contrast, so far pure heterodinuclear catalysts are unknown. The synthesis and properties of a heterodinuclear Zn­(II)/Mg­(II) complex coordinated by a symmetrical macrocyclic ligand are reported. It shows high polymerization selectivity, control, and significantly greater activity compared to either of the homodinuclear analogues or any combinations of them. Indeed, compared to a 50:50 mixture of the homodinuclear complexes, it shows 5 times (CO₂/epoxide) or 40 times (anhydride/epoxide) greater activity

AC transport through a resonant level between ferromagnetic electrodes

We report the investigation of the spin-valve effect through a resonant level between a ferromagnetic electrode in the presence of an external ac bias. We use the current conserving and gauge invariant theory developed by Büttiker to calculate the dynamic conductance. Specifically, we have calculated the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio as a function of various system parameters such as the angle between magnetization of the left and right leads, ac frequency, and the Fermi energy. We found that the TMR ratio can be modulated by ac frequency. At large frequency, the TMR ratio can be negative.published_or_final_versio

Fabrication and functionalization of PCB gold electrodes suitable for DNA-based electrochemical sensing

The request of high specificity and selectivity sensors suitable for mass production is a constant demand in medical research. For applications in point-of-care diagnostics and therapy, there is a high demand for low cost and rapid sensing platforms. This paper describes the fabrication and functionalization of gold electrodes arrays for the detection of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in printed circuit board (PCB) technology. The process can be implemented to produce efficiently a large number of biosensors. We report an electrolytic plating procedure to fabricate low-density gold microarrays on PCB suitable for electrochemical DNA detection in research fields such as cancer diagnostics or pharmacogenetics, where biosensors are usually targeted to detect a small number of genes. PCB technology allows producing high precision, fast and low cost microelectrodes. The surface of the microarray is functionalized with self-assembled monolayers of mercaptoundodecanoic acid or thiolated DNA. The PCB microarray is tested by cyclic voltammetry in presence of 5 mM of the redox probe K3Fe(CN6) in 0.1 M KCl. The voltammograms prove the correct immobilization of both the alkanethiol systems. The sensor is tested for detecting relevant markers for breast cancer. Results for 5 nM of the target TACSTD1 against the complementary TACSTD1 and non-complementary GRP, MYC, SCGB2A1, SCGB2A2, TOP2A probes show a remarkable detection limit of 0.05 nM and a high specificity