Developing autonomous writers in a report writing course

Theme: Developing Students as Readers and Writers in the four-year Curriculum: the role of the English Language CentresThe Conference program's website is located at http://symposium2011.elc.polyu.edu.hk/index.php/SELC/SELC2011/schedConf/programWith the implementation of the 4-year curriculum in 2012 the current English enhancement courses for second year students offered by the Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES) of the University of Hong Kong will be replaced by 'English in the Discipline' courses which are jointly developed by the CAES and faculty. To align with the goal of the Faculty of Social Sciences in developing critical inquiry the course designers of 'Writing reports and proposals', one of the five courses to be offered to students of Social Sciences in the new curriculum, have adopted an inductive approach which allows students to participate as knowledge builders in writing. This approach aims to develop students into autonomous learners (Thornbury, 1999) through encouraging them to explore the relationship between language use and the purposes, context, and intended readership of different sub-genres of report writing, thereby enhancing their self-reliance in learning as well as their disciplinary-specific and professional literacies. This paper will discuss the evaluation of a pilot module on report writing conducted within an 'English for Professional Communication' course for second year students of Social Sciences. Teacher' and students' feedback on the module will be presented to reflect on the current development of the course.postprin

Promoting self-directed learning in the curriculum: training new teachers

Theme: Research into Practice in the Four-year curriculumIn the new curriculum being implemented for the 4-year curriculum at The University of Hong Kong, an important emphasis is being placed on out-of-class learning which, in many parts of the curriculum, may contribute up to two-thirds of the students’ learning hours. In the new English academic literacy courses being developed by the Centre for Applied English Studies, a major component of the out-of-class learning will be self-directed learning. To enhance its impact, self-directed learning is being directly integrated into many of those new courses as a tangible component that will be monitored by teachers and will contribute to success in the assessment of other parts of the course. However, …postprin

Training new teachers to promote self-directed learning

Conference theme: Autonomy in a Networked WorldSession 3: Autonomy and learning environmentpublished_or_final_versio

The travelling gamer : an ethnography of video game events

This thesis is an ethnography of video gamers and video game events. It considers the social and cultural practices of video gamers away from the video game screen, and in particular focuses on those who participate in, and attend, various video game related events. Previous studies on video games have often focused on the isolation of video gamers (in small groups) or the textual analysis of video games themselves. However, these focuses have often been too closely aligned with a very narrow understanding of (direct) play, which often ignore the social aspect of video gaming away from the video game screen. Using an ethnographic approach, consisting of questionnaires, interviews, group interviews, and extensive observational research, this research considers the social significance of video games in enabling and maintaining social networks, patterns and the identity formations of those who attend various video game events across the United Kingdom; including video game conventions [MCM Comic Con, Eurogamer/EGX Rezzed, Play Expo], tournaments and competitions [Edmas 2, Edintines, Manchester Monthly Regionals], local area network parties [Insomnia Gaming Festivals i50/i51/i52/i53/i54/i55/i56], game related musical events [Video Games Live, Final Fantasy Orchestral concerts and Legend of Zelda Orchestral concerts] and other video game practices away from the video game screen. The research findings suggest that video game events are not just about playing video games. Video game events provide a unique opportunity for video gamers, who are usually separated by distance, to come together and interact in meaningful ways, besides gaming itself. Many of those who attend video game events often engage themselves through various forms of socialisation, tuition, and social progression, that are often taken for granted. Therefore, this research seeks to provide an understanding of an important, but largely under-researched aspect of video gamer culture

Comparison of three topologies for VRM fast transient application

This paper compares three topologies for voltage regulator module VRM for fast transient application. The topologies are the most popular multi-phase converter, a synchronous rectifier buck converter topology and a recently introduced new stepping inductor converter. Analysis and simulation show that the stepping inductor topology gives the fastest response with minimal amount of output filter capacitance.published_or_final_versio

Loss analysis of a single phase fast transient VRM converter

This paper analyzes the losses of a stepping inductor converter in the presence of load transients. Stepping inductor converter is a buck VRM topology which only employs a single phase. Stepping inductor converter is very effective in dealing with fast transient and at the same time it can give better steady state efficiency. Occurrences of transient load current changes are measured in a PC and data are used for the comparison to evaluate the real world performance of the stepping inductor converter and the multiphase interleaved buck converter.published_or_final_versio

Anti-cancer effects of a novel quinoline derivative 83b1 on human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma through Down-Regulation of COX-2 mRNA and PGE2

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Competitive Binding Between Id1 and E2F1 to Cdc20 Regulates E2F1 Degradation and Thymidylate Synthase Expression to Promote Esophageal Cancer Chemoresistance

Purpose: Chemoresistance is a major obstacle in cancer therapy. We found that fluorouracil (5-FU)-resistant esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines, established through exposure to increasing concentrations of 5-FU, showed upregulation of Id1, IGF2, and E2F1. We hypothesized that these genes may play an important role in cancer chemoresistance. Experimental Design: In vitro and in vivo functional assays were performed to study the effects of Id1–E2F1–IGF2 signaling in chemoresistance. Quantitative real-time PCR, Western blotting, immunoprecipitation, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and dual-luciferase reporter assays were used to investigate the molecular mechanisms by which Id1 regulates E2F1 and by which E2F1 regulates IGF2. Clinical specimens, tumor tissue microarray, and Gene Expression Omnibus datasets were used to analyze the correlations between gene expressions and the relationships between expression profiles and patient survival outcomes. Results: Id1 conferred 5-FU chemoresistance through E2F1-dependent induction of thymidylate synthase expression in esophageal cancer cells and tumor xenografts. Mechanistically, Id1 protects E2F1 protein from degradation and increases its expression by binding competitively to Cdc20, whereas E2F1 mediates Id1-induced upregulation of IGF2 by binding directly to the IGF2 promoter and activating its transcription. The expression level of E2F1 was positively correlated with that of Id1 and IGF2 in human cancers. More importantly, concurrent high expression of Id1 and IGF2 was associated with unfavorable patient survival in multiple cancer types. Conclusions: Our findings define an intricate E2F1-dependent mechanism by which Id1 increases thymidylate synthase and IGF2 expressions to promote cancer chemoresistance. The Id1–E2F1–IGF2 regulatory axis has important implications for cancer prognosis and treatment. ©2015 AACR.postprin

Suicide with psychiatric diagnosis and without utilization of psychiatric service

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Considerable attention has been focused on the study of suicides among those who have received help from healthcare providers. However, little is known about the profiles of suicide deceased who had psychiatric illnesses but made no contact with psychiatric services prior to their death. Behavioural model of health service use is applied to identify factors associated with the utilization of psychiatric service among the suicide deceased.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>With respect to completed suicide cases, who were diagnosed with a mental disorder, a comparison study was made between those who had (contact group; n = 52; 43.7%) and those who had not made any contact (non-contact group; n = 67; 56.3%) with a psychiatrist during the final six months prior to death. A <it>sample </it>of 119 deceased cases aged between 15 and 59 with at least one psychiatric diagnosis assessed by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR (SCID I) were selected from a psychological autopsy study in Hong Kong.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The contact and non-contact group could be well distinguished from each other by "<it>predisposing</it>" variables: age group & gender, and most of the "<it>enabling"</it>, and "<it>need" </it>variables tested in this study. Multiple logistic regression analysis has found four factors are statistically significantly associated with non-contact suicide deceased: (i) having non-psychotic disorders (OR = 13.5, 95% CI:2.9-62.9), (ii) unmanageable debts (OR = 10.5, CI:2.4-45.3), (iii) being full/partially/self employed at the time of death (OR = 10.0, CI:1.6-64.1) and (iv) having higher levels of social problem-solving ability (SPSI) (OR = 2.0, CI:1.1-3.6).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The non-contact group was clearly different from the contact group and actually comprised a larger proportion of the suicide population that they could hardly be reached by usual individual-based suicide prevention efforts. For this reason, both universal and strategic suicide prevention measures need to be developed specifically in non-medical settings to reach out to this non-contact group in order to achieve better suicide prevention results.</p