Advantages of Blood Pressure Optimisation Study

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Urotensin II in hypertension

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Factors influencing school connectedness: Chinese adolescents' perspectives

This study explored the concept of school connectedness and the factors that may influence its development with a sample of Chinese adolescents. Six focus groups involving 52 high school students were conducted using a set of predetermined discussion topics. Results indicated that the students fully understood the notion of school connectedness and could identify a number of key influences affecting its development. These factors could be grouped under several domains including teacher care, peer relations, broader school relationships, school disciplinary policies and practices, activities within the school's guidance and counseling program, and opportunities for talent development. The students were also able to suggest practical strategies that schools might introduce to enhance and strengthen students' acquisition of connectedness to school. The implications from the findings are discussed with particular reference to implementing comprehensive school guidance and counseling program in Hong Kong. © 2011 The Author(s).published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

The use of a noninvasive and nondestructive method, microcomputed tomography, to evaluate the anti-osteoporotic activity of erxian decoction, a Chinese medicinal formula, in a rat model of menopausal osteoporosis

Aim of the study: The anti-osteoporotic activity of Erxian Decoction, a Chinese medicinal formula, in a rat model of menopausal osteoporosis was evaluated by microcomputed tomography (microCT). Materials and methods: Menopause causes a decline in both endocrine function and bone mineral density in human. In this study, 20-month-old female Sprague-Dawley-rats (SD-rats) with a low serum estradiol level and bone mineral density were employed. The anti-osteoporotic activity of EXD was assessed by the determination of trabecular material bone mineral density at the L2 mid-vertebral body after treatment. Serum estrogen levels were also determined to assess the effect of EXD on the endocrine status. Results: Results revealed a significant elevation in serum estradiol level and trabecular bone mineral density at the L2 mid-vertebral body in the EXD-treated menopausal rat model. Conclusions: The results obtained from the present investigation revealed that the EXD had anti-osteoporotic activity as evidenced by an increase of serum estradiol level and bone mineral density. ©2009 IEEE.published_or_final_versionProceedings of the 2009 2nd International Conference On Biomedical Engineering And Informatics (BMEI 2009), Tianjin, China, 17-19 October 2009, v. 1 p. 47-49, article number 530482

Enhancing life skills development: Chinese adolescents' perceptions

This study explored Chinese adolescents' perceptions of their own life skills development and the importance they place on such skills. The study also investigated the within-school and outsideschool influences that may help develop and enhance life skills development. Six focus groups involving 52 high school students were conducted, using a set of predetermined discussion topics. Results revealed students' awareness of many salient life skills, including those related directly to academic development, 'learning to learn', personal and social growth, and future career planning. The students were also able to suggest practical strategies that schools might use to further enhance students' life skills development. Contextual factors influencing the development of life skills appear to include not only experiences within the school curriculum and the guidance and counseling program, but also talent development opportunities, and family and peer relationships. The implications of the findings are discussed with particular reference to implementing comprehensive school guidance and counseling programs in Hong Kong. © 2010 NAPCE.postprin

Lipid profile of the Hong Kong Cardiovascular Risk Factor Prevalence Study cohort

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Fate of the Josephson effect in thin-film superconductors

The dc Josephson effect refers to the dissipationless electrical current -- the supercurrent -- that can be sustained across a weak link connecting two bulk superconductors. This effect is a probe of the fundamental nature of the superconducting state. Here, we analyze the case of two superconducting thin films connected by a point contact. Remarkably, the Josephson effect is absent at nonzero temperature, and the resistance across the contact is nonzero. Moreover, the point contact resistance is found to vary with temperature in a nearly activated fashion, with a UNIVERSAL energy barrier determined only by the superfluid stiffness characterizing the films, an angle characterizing the geometry, and whether or not the Coulomb interaction between Cooper pairs is screened. This behavior reflects the subtle nature of the superconductivity in two-dimensional thin films, and should be testable in detail by future experiments.Comment: 16 + 8 pages. 1 figure, 1 tabl

Association of hypertension with single nucleotide polymorphisms in the quantitative trait locus for abdominal obesity-metabolic syndrome on chromosome 17

Genome scan in Chinese revealed an association of blood pressure with the microsatellite marker D17S1303, which lies in a quantitative trait locus for the abdominal obesity-metabolic syndrome (AOMS2) at 17p12 on chromosome 17. We previously reported that D17S1303 was associated with hypertension and obesity. Therefore, we studied 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) within 3 kb of D17S1303. One hundred and eighty hypertensive subjects (91 men, 89 women, age 53 ± 12 years) and 180 normotensive matched controls (91 men, 89 women, age 52 ± 11) were genotyped using the Sequenom genotyping platform. Allelic frequencies in these Chinese subjects differed from those reported for Caucasians. Three SNPs (rs11656507, rs1357926, rs852319) were homozygous in our subjects. The genotype frequencies of rs852320, rs852321 and rs852322 did not differ between hypertensive and normotensive subjects. However, there were significant differences for rs1525402 (P = 0.048), rs2692343 (P = 0.022), rs2692344 (P = 0.017) and rs2321313 (P = 0.028). A four-locus haplotype comprising G at rs1525402, C at rs2692343, C at rs2692344 and G at rs2321313 was associated with lower systolic blood pressure (P = 0.023) and normotension (P = 0.048). Our results provide further evidence that there is a gene, as yet unidentified, influencing blood pressure in the vicinity of D17S1303 in a quantitative trait locus for abdominal obesity-metabolic syndrome at 17p12. © 2006 Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved.postprin

Ripple Texturing of Suspended Graphene Atomic Membranes

Graphene is the nature's thinnest elastic membrane, with exceptional mechanical and electrical properties. We report the direct observation and creation of one-dimensional (1D) and 2D periodic ripples in suspended graphene sheets, using spontaneously and thermally induced longitudinal strains on patterned substrates, with control over their orientations and wavelengths. We also provide the first measurement of graphene's thermal expansion coefficient, which is anomalously large and negative, ~ -7x10^-6 K^-1 at 300K. Our work enables novel strain-based engineering of graphene devices.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Transport Spectroscopy of Symmetry-Broken Insulating States in Bilayer Graphene

The flat bands in bilayer graphene(BLG) are sensitive to electric fields E\bot directed between the layers, and magnify the electron-electron interaction effects, thus making BLG an attractive platform for new two-dimensional (2D) electron physics[1-5]. Theories[6-16] have suggested the possibility of a variety of interesting broken symmetry states, some characterized by spontaneous mass gaps, when the electron-density is at the carrier neutrality point (CNP). The theoretically proposed gaps[6,7,10] in bilayer graphene are analogous[17,18] to the masses generated by broken symmetries in particle physics and give rise to large momentum-space Berry curvatures[8,19] accompanied by spontaneous quantum Hall effects[7-9]. Though recent experiments[20-23] have provided convincing evidence of strong electronic correlations near the CNP in BLG, the presence of gaps is difficult to establish because of the lack of direct spectroscopic measurements. Here we present transport measurements in ultra-clean double-gated BLG, using source-drain bias as a spectroscopic tool to resolve a gap of ~2 meV at the CNP. The gap can be closed by an electric field E\bot \sim13 mV/nm but increases monotonically with a magnetic field B, with an apparent particle-hole asymmetry above the gap, thus providing the first mapping of the ground states in BLG.Comment: 4 figure