Nanomedicine: A new frontier in cancer therapeutics

Nanotechnology is a cutting edge and rapidly evolving technology in medicine. The potential of nanomedicine in cancer therapy is infinitely promising due to the fact that novel developments are constantly being explored. This is particularly the case in the use of nanoparticles in both tumor diagnosis, as well as treatment. This article will attempt to describe some recent advances using nanoparticle drug delivery system in cancer therapy. The evolution history, the challenges and the role of nanoparticles in cancer drug delivery will briefly be discussed together with additional opportunities in cancer therapy. An overall understanding of these issues will help with further advancement of designing better drug delivery system that can be applied clinically. © 2011 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.published_or_final_versio

Ratewise efficient estimation of regression coefficients based on Lp procedures

We consider the problem of estimation of regression coefficients under general classes of error densities without assuming classical regularity conditions. Optimal orders of convergence rates of regression-equivariant estimators are established and shown to be attained in general by Lp estimators based on judicious choices of p. We develop a procedure for choosing p adaptively to yield Lp estimators that converge at approximately optimal rates. The procedure consists of a special algorithm to automatically select the correct mode of Lp estimation and the m out of n bootstrap to consistently estimate the log mean squared error of the Lp estimator. Our proposed adaptive Lp estimator is compared with other adaptive and non-adaptive Lp estimators in a simulation study, that confirms superiority of our procedure.published_or_final_versio

Engineering education opportunities, perceptions and career choice of secondary school students in Hong Kong SAR, China

Session Title: Engineering Education and Comparative Studies at Universities throughout Asia, Far East: AC 2012-5321This paper presents an investigation into engineering education opportunities and engagement among secondary school students in Hong Kong SAR, China (HK). We adapted and validated an international questionnaire and executed it in HK secondary schools. The questionnaire is designed to identify pedagogy, students' perception, and experience (formal and informal) of engineering education, and measure their effects on students' career choice in engineering. We investigate how do factors like age, gender, family background (local versus new immigrants), subjects taken at school, and perceptions of the engineering profession affect their career choice in engineering. Identifying factors affecting young people's career choice in engineering is interesting as HK is in an early post-industrial position. Such study can provide an excellent comparative example to contrast between post-industrial societies such as the United States and industrializing societies such as other cities in the mainland China. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.postprin

Smart Content Recognition from Images Using a Mixture of Convolutional Neural Networks

With rapid development of the Internet, web contents become huge. Most of the websites are publicly available, and anyone can access the contents from anywhere such as workplace, home and even schools. Nevertheless, not all the web contents are appropriate for all users, especially children. An example of these contents is pornography images which should be restricted to certain age group. Besides, these images are not safe for work (NSFW) in which employees should not be seen accessing such contents during work. Recently, convolutional neural networks have been successfully applied to many computer vision problems. Inspired by these successes, we propose a mixture of convolutional neural networks for adult content recognition. Unlike other works, our method is formulated on a weighted sum of multiple deep neural network models. The weights of each CNN models are expressed as a linear regression problem learned using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms both single CNN model and the average sum of CNN models in adult content recognition.Comment: To be published in LNEE, Code: github.com/mundher/NSF

Quality of life (QoL) in southern Chinese with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)

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Stanniocalcin-1 Reduces Tumor Size in Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Growing evidence has revealed high expression levels of stanniocalcin-1 (STC1) in different types of human cancers. Numerous experimental studies using cancer cell lines demonstrated the involvement of STC1 in inflammatory and apoptotic processes; however the role of STC1 in carcinogenesis remains elusive. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) an exemplified model of inflammation-related cancer, represents a paradigm of studying the association between STC1 and tumor development. Therefore, we conducted a statistical analysis on the expression levels of STC1 using clinicopathological data from 216 HCC patients. We found that STC1 was upregulated in the tumor tissues and its expression levels was positively correlated with the levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8. Intriguingly tumors with greater expression levels of STC1 (tumor/normal >= 2) were significantly smaller than the lower level (tumor/normal<2) samples (p = 0.008). A pharmacological approach was implemented to reveal the functional correlation between STC1 and the ILs in the HCC cell-lines. IL-6 and IL-8 treatment of Hep3B cells induced STC1 expression. Lentiviral-based STC1 over-expression in Hep3B and MHCC-97L cells however showed inhibitory action on the pro-migratory effects of IL-6 and IL-8 and reduced size of tumor spheroids. The inhibitory effect of STC1 on tumor growth was confirmed in vivo using the stable STC1-overexpressing 97L cells on a mouse xenograft model. Genetic analysis of the xenografts derived from the STC1-overexpressing 97L cells, showed upregulation of the pro-apoptotic genes interleukin-12 and NOD-like receptor family, pyrin domain-containing 3. Collectively, the anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic functions of STC1 were suggested to relate its inhibitory effect on the growth of HCC cells. This study supports the notion that STC1 may be a potential therapeutic target for inflammatory tumors in HCC patients.published_or_final_versio

Cultural fairness of the Digit Vigilance Test

This study was designed to examine the cultural fairness of the Digit Vigilance Test by comparing performance on the test between Chinese and American participants. Thirty-five Chinese undergraduates, 12 male and 23 female, were recruited as participants. Their scores on the test, specifically the time and error scores, were compared with the published American norms. The findings indicated equivalent performance of the two samples on the test, suggesting the cultural fairness of the Digit Vigilance Test. Nevertheless, generalization of the present findings to other Chinese populations should take into consideration the unique characteristics of the sample in this study.published_or_final_versio

The effectiveness of low-dose desmopressin in improving hypothermia-induced impairment of primary haemostasis under influence of aspirin - a randomized controlled trial.

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Streptokinase is ineffective in restoring early myocardial reperfusion in Asian patients with acute myocardial infarction

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Implementing Effective Group Work for Mathematical Achievement in Primary School Classrooms in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Education Bureau recommends that primary school pupils’ mathematical achievement be enhanced via collaborative discussions engendered by group work. This pedagogic change may be hindered by Confucian heritage classroom practices and Western-dominated group work approaches that predominate in Hong Kong. To overcome these obstacles, we introduced a relational approach to group work in a quasi-experimental study. Our sample included 20 teachers randomly allocated to experimental (12) and control (8) conditions and their 504 mathematics pupils (aged 9–10). The relational approach focused on the development of peer relationships in a culturally appropriate manner and was implemented over 7 months. Pupils were pre-/post-tested for mathematical achievement and systematically observed, and the teachers were assessed for subject knowledge and pre-/post-tested for pedagogic efficacy. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) results show enhanced mathematical achievement, supported by improved peer-based communication skills and time-on-task for the experimental pupils. Experimental teachers raised their pedagogic efficacy. Results indicate the potential of the relational approach for boosting academic achievement via enhanced child-peer-teacher interaction and the need to reassess the role of peer-based latent collectivist learning in Confucian heritage classrooms.postprin