Insights From Students' Private Work In Their Notebooks: How Do Students Learn From The Teacher's Examples?

Students’ seatwork plays an important part in their learning in their lessons, and very often, students record their private work in the notebooks during seatwork. The students’ private work in their notebooks reflects students’ learning and thinking, representing explicit learning outcomes. The students’ private work in their notebooks of 14 mathematics lessons of an eighth-grade Hong Kong classroom was analyzed. The mathematical tasks used in the lessons were categorized with the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) cognitive domains framework. The implementation of the tasks was recorded in cycles of teacher’s examples (TEs) and students’ exercises (SEs). By comparing the methods employed by the students and the teacher, the students’ methods were found to be mainly imitation or partial imitation regardless of the cognitive domains of the students’ exercises. The students’ perspectives on the instructional practice expressed in the post-lesson interviews were used as a triangulation for the results. The results showed that the students appreciated the teacher’s explanation and demonstration in the teacher’s exposition. Finally, the authors argue that the high percentages of imitation of teacher’s methods not only are due to the students’ choice, but also are influenced by the Confucian heritage cultures.postprin

Students’ class works: an example in Hong Kong 8th grade mathematics classroom

Topic Study Group 21 - Research on classroom practiceThe student’s class work of an 8th grade mathematics classroom in Hong Kong has been studied. The data were obtained from the Learning Perspective Study (LPS). Five consecutive lessons for the topic of “solving simultaneous equation by the graphical method and the method of substitution” were analyzed. The tasks in the lessons were differentiated as the teacher’s examples and the student’s class work. The cognitive domains of the student’s class work were further classified. All the tasks were classified as either knowing or applying, and no reasoning domain was identified. Results showed that most of students imitated the teacher’s examples completely or partly. Only two of the tasks showed modification of teacher’s method and one task solved by student’s own method. Finally, we argue that the strong direct role of teacher might help the students master their mathematical content in a relatively short time but may have the danger of limiting the students’ opportunity for independent thinking.postprin

Cumulative disease damage in southern Chinese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)

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海浪發電

由於全球人口不斷增長，所以能源需求日益增加。地球上大部份的能源主要來自化石燃料。不過，燃燒化石燃料發電會釋出大量二氧化碳和污染物，造成溫室效應從而導致環境破壞；而且，化石燃料是有限的能源。雖然可用核原料發電，但是核能的安全問題與風險管理不斷受人們爭論。故此，對再生能源的研究及開發是刻不容緩的。本章主要討論其中一種再生能源，海浪發電的好處及近期一些研究成果。published_or_final_versio

Validation and application of health utilities index in Chinese subjects with Down Syndrome

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

Conference Theme: Challenges to specialists in the 21st centurypublished_or_final_versio

N-wasp Is Required For Structural Integrity Of The Blood-testis Barrier.

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Phenotypic and functional abnormalities of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells in systemic lupus erythematosus

Introduction: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by autoreactive T and B cells, which are believed to be secondary to deficient dendritic cells (DCs). However, whether DC abnormalities occur during their development in the bone marrow (BM) or in the periphery is not known.Methods: Thirteen patients with SLE and 16 normal controls were recruited. We studied the morphology, phenotype, and functional abilities of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) generated by using two culture methods: FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (Flt3)-ligand (FL) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) plus interleukin-4 (IL-4), respectively.Results: BMDCs induced by FL exhibited both myeloid (mDC) and plasmacytoid DC (pDC) features, whereas GM-CSF/IL-4 induced mDC generation. Substantial phenotypic and functional defects of BMDCs were found from patients with SLE at different stages of cell maturation. When compared with healthy controls, SLE immature BM FLDCs expressed higher levels of CCR7. Both immature and mature SLE BM FLDCs expressed higher levels of CD40 and CD86 and induced stronger T-cell proliferation. SLE BM mDCs expressed higher levels of CD40 and CD86 but lower levels of HLA-DR and a lower ability to stimulate T-cell proliferation when compared with control BM mDCs.Conclusions: Our data are in accordance with previous reports that suggest that DCs have a potential pathogenic role in SLE. Defects of these cells are evident during their development in BM. BM mDCs are deficient, whereas BM pDCs, which are part of BM FLDCs, are the likely culprit in inducing autoimmunity in SLE. © 2010 Nie et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.published_or_final_versio

Relationship between autoantibody clustering and clinical subsets in SLE: cluster and association analyses in Hong Kong Chinese

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify the existence of, and relationship between autoantibody clusters and clinical subsets in Chinese SLE patients. METHODS: Data from 1928 SLE patients from Hong Kong were analysed. Using cluster analysis, patients were grouped by autoantibodies into clusters. The frequencies of various clinical manifestations were then compared between each cluster. Separate association analyses between individual autoantibodies and clinical manifestations as well as between clinical manifestations were also performed without any prior clustering. RESULTS: Three separate autoantibody clusters were identified, each with significantly different clinical manifestations. Cluster 1 was characterized by anti-dsDNA and the greatest prevalence of renal disorder but the lowest frequencies of other clinical manifestations. Cluster 2 was represented by the predominance of anti-Smith, anti-RNP and aPL, with greater prevalence of malar rash, oral ulcers, arthritis and serositis. Cluster 3 was characterized by anti-Ro and anti-La with greater prevalence of discoid rash, photosensitivity and haematological involvement. Individual association analysis also revealed similar findings. Patients of clusters 2 and 3 were more closely related, while cluster 1 was more distinct, associated with renal disorder only and negatively associated or not associated with other manifestations. CONCLUSION: We conclude that autoantibody clustering and clinical subsets exist in SLE patients of our locality. These clusters may be viewed as a bipolar spectrum of related autoantibody and clinical manifestations. At one end are patients with over-representation of anti-dsDNA and renal disorder, while at the other end are two distinct autoantibody clusters (anti-Sm/anti-RNP/aPL and anti-Ro/anti-La) with overlapping of other clinical manifestations.postprin

Human Infection with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H7N9) Virus, China

The recent increase in zoonotic avian influenza A(H7N9) disease in China is a cause of public health concern. Most of the A(H7N9) viruses previously reported have been of low pathogenicity. We report the fatal case of a patient in China who was infected with an A(H7N9) virus having a polybasic amino acid sequence at its hemagglutinin cleavage site (PEVPKRKRTAR/GL), a sequence suggestive of high pathogenicity in birds. Its neuraminidase also had R292K, an amino acid change known to be associated with neuraminidase inhibitor resistance. Both of these molecular features might have contributed to the patient's adverse clinical outcome. The patient had a history of exposure to sick and dying poultry, and his close contacts had no evidence of A(H7N9) disease, suggesting human-to-human transmission did not occur. Enhanced surveillance is needed to determine whether this highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H7N9) virus will continue to spread.published_or_final_versio