The executive

With the election of Leung Chun-ying as the fourth chief executive (CE) of the Hong Kong Special Admininstration Region (HKSAR), the people of Hong Kong are keen to have a new government with policy visions and leadership. This public expectation is running high because Hong Kong has been suffering from a seris of critical and deep-seated socio-economic problems: the polarization of wealth, low social mobility, the subtraction of public (government) services, and so on. The inability of the HKSAR governments to address these problems has its roots in the governing system in general and the institutional design for selecting the CE and forming the executive in particular. This chapter therefore first examines the establishment and functions of the executive of the HKSAR, and then the way the CE and the executive govern, and their interaction with the Legislative Council (Legco) in terms of general policy-making and budgetary decision-making processes. Lastly, various challenges faced by the executive are considered

選舉裂隙與九七後的香港政治動態 = Electoral cleavages and the post-1997 Hong Kong\u27s political dynamics

八十年代的香港，可說是充滿著政治改革的氣味。在一連串的改革中，以普選制度的引入，最為重要。普選制度的引入，不單止令整個社會日趨「政治化」和要求政治參與的訴求日漸提高，更深遠的影響是政治權力的重新分配，以及新的政治秩序和管治模式的浮現。因此，對冒升中的普選和政黨市場的了解是十分重要的。而本文的目的，正是提供和介紹一個研究香港普選市場的裂隙分析架構，以及基於此架構來討論「九七」後香港的政治動態。 The introduction of popular elections is one of the most important political reforms carried out in Hong Kong since the 1980s. It has not only politicized the whole society and heightened the aspiration of political participation, but also has the effect of power redistribution and thus paved the way for a new political order there. As a result, the study of the emerging electoral and party markets are timely and commendable. This paper sets out to provide a cleavage approach of analyzing the electoral market of Hong Kong and of discussing the political dynamics of the post-1997 Hong Kon

Elections and political mobilisation: The Hong Kong 1991 direct elections.

Previous studies of the first direct elections to the Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) in 1991 were largely focused on the effect of the Tiananmen Incident on voters' choice, neglecting the domestic dimension of social conflict evolving within Hong Kong from the 1970s. Adopting the social cleavage approach, the present thesis argues that two electoral cleavages, centre-periphery and collective consumption, were important by 1991. It, therefore, explores the international, social and political contexts within which the 1991 LegCo direct elections took place in order to explain the political alignments and electoral cleavages during the period 1982-1991. First, the study examines the Sino-British attitudes towards political reforms in Hong Kong and the development of the centre-periphery cleavage in the 1980s as the two countries negotiated the transfer of sovereignty. Second, the expansion of the Hong Kong Government's activities and its privatisation programmes are analyzed in order to describe the increasingly intimate relations between government and society and to show that, as a result, conflicts evolved over issues of collective consumption. Third, the emerging competition at the time of the 1991 elections is discussed with reference to political mobilisation and alignments during the previous decade. Fourth, the electoral market of 1991 is examined to explain voters' choice. Finally, the election results are analyzed to demonstrate that two electoral cleavages, centre-periphery and collective consumption, played a significant role. The data used in this study were collected from: official documents, such as the Hong Kong Government Gazette, the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the Basic Law, the Hong Kong Census and By-census reports, the annual reports of various government departments; opinion polls and one exit poll of the 1991 LegCo direct elections; personal interviews with leading political leaders; campaign materials and election debates on television; and newspaper cuttings

Immunopanning purification and long-term culture of human retinal ganglion cells

Purpose: To establish a robust method to isolate primary retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) from human fetal retina for long-term culture while maintaining neuronal morphology and marker protein expression. Methods: A total of six human retinas were obtained from aborted fetuses at 10 to 12 weeks of gestation with informed consent from mothers. RGCs were isolated and purified by a modified two-step immunopanning procedure. The cells were maintained in a serum-free defined medium supplemented with brain-derived neurotrophic factor, ciliary neutrophic factor, and forskolin. The viable RGCs and the extent of neurite outgrowth were examined by calcein-acetoxymethylester assay. Expression of RGC markers was studied by immunocytochemistry. Results: Primary RGCs from human fetal retinas were isolated and maintained in vitro for one month with substantial neurite elongation. In cell culture, almost 70% of the isolated cells attached, spread, and displayed numerous dendrites. They were immunoreactive to RGC-specific markers (Thy-1, TUJ-1, and Brn3a) and negative for glial fibrillary acidic protein and amacrine cells marker HPC-1. Conclusions: Human RGCs were successfully isolated and maintained in long-term culture. This can serve as an ideal model for biologic, toxicological, and genomic assays of human RGCs in vitr

Circulating microRNAs as Specific Biomarkers for Breast Cancer Detection

Background: We previously showed microRNAs (miRNAs) in plasma are potential biomarkers for colorectal cancer detection. Here, we aimed to develop specific blood-based miRNA assay for breast cancer detection. Methodology/Principal Findings: TaqMan-based miRNA profiling was performed in tumor, adjacent non-tumor, corresponding plasma from breast cancer patients, and plasma from matched healthy controls. All putative markers identified were verified in a training set of breast cancer patients. Selected markers were validated in a case-control cohort of 170 breast cancer patients, 100 controls, and 95 other types of cancers and then blindly validated in an independent set of 70 breast cancer patients and 50 healthy controls. Profiling results showed 8 miRNAs were concordantly up-regulated and 1 miRNA was concordantly down-regulated in both plasma and tumor tissue of breast cancer patients. Of the 8 up-regulated miRNAs, only 3 were significantly elevated (p<0.0001) before surgery and reduced after surgery in the training set. Results from the validation cohort showed that a combination of miR-145 and miR-451 was the best biomarker (p<0.0001) in discriminating breast cancer from healthy controls and all other types of cancers. In the blind validation, these plasma markers yielded Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve area of 0.931. The positive predictive value was 88% and the negative predictive value was 92%. Altered levels of these miRNAs in plasma have been detected not only in advanced stages but also early stages of tumors. The positive predictive value for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) cases was 96%. Conclusions: These results suggested that these circulating miRNAs could be a potential specific biomarker for breast cancer screening. © 2013 Ng et al.published_or_final_versio

EDN1 Lys198Asn is Associated with Diabetic Retinopathy in Type 2 Diabetes

Purpose: We tested the hypothesis that genetic variants in vasoactive and angiogenic factors regulating the retina vasculature contribute to the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Methods: A case-control study was performed to study the genetic association between DR and polymorphic variants of EDN1 (Lys198Asn), LTA (IVS1–80C>A, IVS1–206G>C, IVS1–252>G), eNOS (Glu298Asp), and ITGA2 (BgI II) in a Chinese population with type 2 diabetes mellitus. A well defined population with type 2 diabetes, consisting of 127 controls and 216 DR patients, was recruited. Results: A higher frequency of the Asn/Asn genotype of EDN1 was found in individuals with at least 10 years of diabetes and no retinopathy (controls) compared with DR patients with any duration of diabetes (DR: 2.3%; control: 11.0%; p=0.0002). The Asn allele was also more frequent in controls than DR patients (DR: 16.4%; control: 29.5%; p=0.007). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the Asn/Asn genotype was the factor most significantly associated with reduced risk of DR (odds ratio=0.19; 95% CI: 0.07-0.53; p=0.002) and with late onset of diabetes (Asn/Asn: 59 years; Lys/Lys + Lys/Asn: 53 years; p=0.02). Moreover, the Lys/Lys genotype was more common among patients with nonproliferative (75.7%) than proliferative DR (56.9%; p=0.008). The distributions of Lys198Asn alleles in hypertension did not differ from normotensive subjects. No associations between DR and polymorphisms of LTA, eNOS, or ITGA2 were detected, and there were no detectable gene-gene or gene-environmental interactions among the polymorphisms.Conclusions The Asn/Asn genotype of EDN1 was associated with a reduced risk of DR and with delayed onset of type 2 diabetes

Opportunities for organoids as new models of aging.

The biology of aging is challenging to study, particularly in humans. As a result, model organisms are used to approximate the physiological context of aging in humans. However, the best model organisms remain expensive and time-consuming to use. More importantly, they may not reflect directly on the process of aging in people. Human cell culture provides an alternative, but many functional signs of aging occur at the level of tissues rather than cells and are therefore not readily apparent in traditional cell culture models. Organoids have the potential to effectively balance between the strengths and weaknesses of traditional models of aging. They have sufficient complexity to capture relevant signs of aging at the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels, while presenting an experimentally tractable alternative to animal studies. Organoid systems have been developed to model many human tissues and diseases. Here we provide a perspective on the potential for organoids to serve as models for aging and describe how current organoid techniques could be applied to aging research