Sir John Jordan and the Afffairs of China, 1906-1916, With Special Reference to the 1911 Revolution and Yuan Shih-k'ai.

Apart from several journalistic articles there is no major work on Sir John Jordan who was the British minister to Peking from 1906 to 1920. This can probably be explained by the fifty years' rule which had until recently prevented the opening to the public of Foreign Office materials pertaining to the later years of Jordan's service. This thesis is a study of his work as British minister in Peking between 1906 and 1916. However, as the title indicates, not every aspect of Jordan's ministry nor every major event in China in these ten years is dealt with in the thesis. The emphasis is on those which have a direct bearing on his role in the 1911 revolution and his relationship with Yiian Shih-k'ai. This also accounts for choosing 1916, when Ytlan died, as the closing year of the study. Jordan's ministry between 1906 and 1916 is worthy of study in that it throws light on a vital period of Chinese internal history which was crammed with dramatic changes. Institutionally, China changed from being a dynasty to a republic and then almost to a dynasty again; militarily, she suffered from three civil wars; and politically, she was to reap from these ten years decades of internal chaos and strife which was only brought to a temporary end with the institution of the communist regime in the middle of the century. Jordan, as the British representative, as a senior diplomat with great knowledge of China and as a friend of Yiian Shih-k'ai, played an important part in these events. The primary purpose of the thesis is to identify and assess his role. It is also hoped that the thesis will throw light on British policy towards China and, to a lesser extent, Japan during these years. In this respect, it is important to bear in mind that it was during this period that Britain's predominance in China, and the Far East, was for the first time being seriously challenged. Finally, Jordan himself is an interesting person to study. His activities during these ten years serve as a case study of the place of personal influence in policy-making in the peculiar political and international setting of the time

Bridging dentistry and traditional Chinese medicine : a study on the current mutual understanding among the future practitioners

Objectives: This project aimed to promote the mutual understanding between dental and TCM students. The objectives were to describe the current teaching of dentistry in the TCM schools and that of TCM in the dental school, to describe the TCM students’ knowledge on dentistry and the dental students’ knowledge on TCM, and to produce promotional materials for enhancing the mutual understanding between dental and TCM students. Methods: Information on the current teaching of dentistry in the TCM schools and that of TCM in the dental school was collected through a search on the undergraduate programme syllabus and conducting interviews with the leaders of the schools. Questionnaire surveys were conducted among the final year students of the TCM and the dental schools to collect information on their knowledge of the counter profession. Two leaflets and a short video were produced with the aid of computer software and used in the promotional activities. Results: It was found that very little information on dentistry was covered in the undergraduate programmes of the three TCM schools, and vice versa in the dental school. A total of 39 TCM students and 55 dental students completed the questionnaire survey. Most of the students did not know the basic theories and practice of the counter profession. Less than half of the student knew what types of patient cases may be suitable for cross-referral to the other profession. Conclusions: The TCM and dental schools in Hong Kong do not have scheduled teaching on the counter profession. The TCM students have little knowledge on dentistry and how to collaborate with dental practitioners on patients presented with oral problems. Conversely, it is the same for the dental students. Lastly, informative printed and audio-visual promotional materials can be produced with limited resources and used to facilitate the mutual understanding between TCM and dental practitioners.published_or_final_versio

Transcriptional analysis highlights three distinct immune profiles of high-risk oral epithelial dysplasia

Oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) are precursors of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and the presence of oral epithelial dysplasia (OED) in OPMD confers an increased risk of malignant transformation. Emerging evidence has indicated a role for the immune system in OPMD disease progression; however, the underlying immune mechanisms remain elusive. In this study, we used immune signatures established from cancer to delineate the immune profiles of moderate and severe OED, which are considered high-risk OPMD. We demonstrated that moderate and severe OEDs exhibit high lymphocyte infiltration and upregulation of genes involved in both immune surveillance (major histocompatibility complex-I, T cells, B cells and cytolytic activity) and immune suppression (immune checkpoints, T regulatory cells, and tumor-associated macrophages). Notably, we identified three distinct subtypes of moderate and severe OED: immune cytotoxic, non-cytotoxic and non-immune reactive. Active immune surveillance is present in the immune cytotoxic subtype, whereas the non-cytotoxic subtype lacks CD8 immune cytotoxic response. The non-immune reactive subtype showed upregulation of genes involved in the stromal microenvironment and cell cycle. The lack of T cell infiltration and activation in the non-immune reactive subtype is due to the dysregulation of CTNNB1, PTEN and JAK2. This work suggests that moderate and severe OED that harbor the non-cytotoxic or non-immune reactive subtype are likely to progress to cancer. Overall, we showed that distinct immune responses are present in high-risk OPMD, and revealed targetable pathways that could lead to potential new approaches for non-surgical management of OED

Anglo-Chinese diplomacy in the careers of Sir John Jordan and Yüan Shih-kʻai, 1906-1920

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Acetabular Reconstruction with Reinforcement Ring and Morsellised Graft: Technique and Medium-term Result

Background: Acetabular bone defects are commonly seen in both primary and secondary total hip arthroplasty, creating difficulties in restoring anatomical hip centres, which results in high mechanical failure rate. Methods: Total hip arthroplasty with acetabular reinforcement rings were performed in 18 hips in 18 patients from 1996 to 2011 in United Christian Hospital. Both clinical and radiographical assessment were performed during follow-up. Results: Eight patients died of unrelated diseases with average follow-up of 30.5 months. At the latest follow-up, none of them showed radiographic signs of loosening or migration of implants and none of them required revision surgery. The remaining 10 patients with mean age of 77.9 years (range, 65–88) at the time of operation were followed-up for an average of 67.4 months (range, 11–121). The average Harris hip score was 78.3 (range, 58.5–87). The average vertical and horizontal difference of hip centres was 1.5 mm superiorly (p = 0.431) and 0.4 mm medially (p = 0.619) respectively when postoperative hip centres were compared to their contralateral hips. The average inclination of the polyethylene cup was 47.8 degrees (range, 42–58). There was no evidence of radiographic loosening during our follow-up and none of them required revision surgery. Conclusion: Acetabular reconstruction with the use of acetabular reinforcement rings and morsellised bone grafts showed satisfactory clinical and radiographic results at a medium-term follow-up

High Accuracy Localization of Long Term Evolution Based on a New Multiple Carrier Noise Model

A high accuracy localization technique using Long Term Evolution (LTE) based on a new and accurate multiple carrier noise model has been developed. In the noise consideration, the LTE multiple carriers phase noise has been incorporated so that a new and accurate noise model is achieved. An experiment was performed to characterize the phase noise of carriers at 2 GHz. The developed noise model was incorporated into LTE localization analysis in a high traffic area in Hong Kong to evaluate the accuracy of localization. The evaluation and analysis reveals that the new localization method achieves an improvement of about 10% accuracy comparing to existing widely adopted schemes