The Role of Self-Leadership in Service Leadership

One of the core beliefs of the service leadership curriculum proposed by the Hong Kong Institute of Service Leadership and Management is that ‘Every day, every human occupies a position of leadership and possesses the potential to improve his leadership quality and effectiveness’. This core belief is in sharp contrast to some of the mainstream leadership theories that only a few people and elites can be leaders. In this paper, a lecture plan regarding the nature of self-leadership with reference to service leadership is presented. The topics include definitions and concepts of self-leadership, relationships between self-leadership and service leadership, ways to promote self-leadership, and conclusions and reflections. During the lecture, students are also encouraged to reflect on how well they lead their lives, with reference to the concepts of self-management, self-monitoring, and self-improvement

Positivity of relative canonical bundles and applications

Given a family $f:\mathcal X \to S$ of canonically polarized manifolds, the unique K\"ahler-Einstein metrics on the fibers induce a hermitian metric on the relative canonical bundle $\mathcal K_{\mathcal X/S}$. We use a global elliptic equation to show that this metric is strictly positive on $\mathcal X$, unless the family is infinitesimally trivial. For degenerating families we show that the curvature form on the total space can be extended as a (semi-)positive closed current. By fiber integration it follows that the generalized Weil-Petersson form on the base possesses an extension as a positive current. We prove an extension theorem for hermitian line bundles, whose curvature forms have this property. This theorem can be applied to a determinant line bundle associated to the relative canonical bundle on the total space. As an application the quasi-projectivity of the moduli space $\mathcal M_{\text{can}}$ of canonically polarized varieties follows. The direct images $R^{n-p}f_*\Omega^p_{\mathcal X/S}(\mathcal K_{\mathcal X/S}^{\otimes m})$, $m > 0$, carry natural hermitian metrics. We prove an explicit formula for the curvature tensor of these direct images. We apply it to the morphisms $S^p \mathcal T_S \to R^pf_*\Lambda^p\mathcal T_{\mathcal X/S}$ that are induced by the Kodaira-Spencer map and obtain a differential geometric proof for hyperbolicity properties of $\mathcal M_{\text{can}}$.Comment: Supercedes arXiv:0808.3259v4 and arXiv:1002.4858v2. To appear in Invent. mat

Using music and motion analysis to construct 3D animations and visualisations

This paper presents a study into music analysis, motion analysis and the integration of music and motion to form creative natural human motion in a virtual environment. Motion capture data is extracted to generate a motion library, this places the digital motion model at a fixed posture. The first step in this process is to configure the motion path curve for the database and calculate the possibility that two motions were sequential through the use of a computational algorithm. Every motion is then analysed for the next possible smooth movement to connect to, and at the same time, an interpolation method is used to create the transitions between motions to enable the digital motion models to move fluently. Lastly, a searching algorithm sifts for possible successive motions from the motion path curve according to the music tempo. It was concluded that the higher ratio of rescaling a transition, the lower the degree of natural motio

Rough set and PSO-based ANFIS approaches to modeling customer satisfaction for affective product design

Facing fierce competition in marketplaces, companies try to determine the optimal settings of design attribute of new products from which the best customer satisfaction can be obtained. To determine the settings, customer satisfaction models relating affective responses of customers to design attributes have to be first developed. Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS) was attempted in previous research and shown to be an effective approach to address the fuzziness of survey data and nonlinearity in modeling customer satisfaction for affective design. However, ANFIS is incapable of modeling the relationships that involve a number of inputs which may cause the failure of the training process of ANFIS and lead to the 'out of memory' error. To overcome the limitation, in this paper, rough set (RS) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) based-ANFIS approaches are proposed to model customer satisfaction for affective design and further improve the modeling accuracy. In the approaches, the RS theory is adopted to extract significant design attributes as the inputs of ANFIS and PSO is employed to determine the parameter settings of an ANFIS from which explicit customer satisfaction models with better modeling accuracy can be generated. A case study of affective design of mobile phones is used to illustrate the proposed approaches. The modeling results based on the proposed approaches are compared with those based on ANFIS, fuzzy least-squares regression (FLSR), fuzzy regression (FR), and genetic programming-based fuzzy regression (GP-FR). Results of the training and validation tests show that the proposed approaches perform better than the others in terms of training and validation errors.School of DesignDepartment of Industrial and Systems Engineerin

First-in-class, first-in-human phase I results of targeted agents: Highlights of the 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting

This review summarizes phase I trial results of 11 drugs presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting held in Chicago IL from May 30 to June 3rd 2008: BMS-663513, CT-322, CVX-045, GDC-0449, GRN163L, LY2181308, PF-00562271, RAV12, RTA 402, XL765, and the survivin vaccine

The On-Orbit Performance of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer

We report the first year on-orbit performance results for the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a NASA Small Explorer that is performing a survey of the sky in two ultraviolet bands. The instrument comprises a 50 cm diameter modified Ritchey-Chretien telescope with a 1.25 degree field of view, selectable imaging and objective grism spectroscopic modes, and an innovative optical system with a thin-film multilayer dichroic beam splitter that enables simultaneous imaging by a pair of photon counting, microchannel plate, delay line readout detectors. Initial measurements demonstrate that GALEX is performing well, meeting its requirements for resolution, efficiency, astrometry, bandpass definition and survey sensitivity.Comment: This paper will be published as part of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Astrophysical Journal Letters Special Issu

New light on plant ash glass found in Africa: evidence for Indian Ocean Silk Road trade using major, minor, trace element and lead isotope analysis of glass from the 15th—16th century AD from Malindi and Mambrui, Kenya

Seventeen glass vessels and twenty glass beads recovered from the excavations at the ancient city of Malindi and the archaeological site of Mambrui in Kenya, east Africa were analysed using electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The results show that all of the glass samples are soda-lime-silica glass. They belong to the high alumina -plant ash glass type, characterised by high alumina and relatively low calcium contents, widely distributed in eastern (10th- 16th centuries AD) and southern Africa (13th - 15th centuries AD), Central Asia (9th- 14th centuries AD) and southeast Asia (12th- 13th centuries AD), made with plant ashes and sands. This is an understudied glass type for which previous research has indicated there were three types. When compared with published research on such glasses using Zr, Ti, Ba, Cr, La, Li, Cs, Na2O, MgO and CaO we have identified at least four different compositional groups of v-Na-Al glass: Types A, B, C and D. By comparing the results with contemporary v-Na-Al glass vessels and beads from Central Asia, Africa, and southeast Asia we show that most of the Malindi and Mambrui glass share similar characteristics to the compositions of Mapungubwe Oblate and some of the Madagascar glass beads from southern Africa. They belong to Type A v-Na-Al glass which is characterised by an elevated level of Ti and Ba and a relatively high ratios of Cr/La, relatively low Zr concentrations and low ratios of Zr/ Ti. Differences in Zr, Li, MgO and Na2O concentrations in Type A glass indicates that there are subgroups which might derive from different glass workshop(s) specialising in Type A v- Na-Al glass production. Comparison with the chemical compositions of glass from Ghazni, Afghanistan and Termez, Uzbekistan, and by using lead isotope analysis, we suggest v-Na- Al glass was manufactured in Central Asia and possibly worked into vessels and beads there. Copyright: © 2020 Siu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Placenta-specific methylation of the vitamin D 24-hydroxylase gene: implications for feedback autoregulation of active vitamin D levels at the fetomaternal interface

Plasma concentrations of biologically active vitamin D (1,25- (OH)2D) are tightly controlled via feedback regulation of renal 1-hydroxylase (CYP27B1; positive) and 24-hydroxylase (CYP24A1; catabolic) enzymes. In pregnancy, this regulation is uncoupled, and 1,25-(OH)2D levels are significantly elevated, suggesting a role in pregnancy progression. Epigenetic regulation of CYP27B1 and CYP24A1 has previously been described in cell and animal models, and despite emerging evidence for a critical role of epigenetics in placentation generally, little is known about the regulation of enzymes modulating vitamin D homeostasis at the fetomaternal interface. In this study, we investigated the methylation status of genes regulating vitamin D bioavailability and activity in the placenta. No methylation of the VDR (vitamin D receptor) and CYP27B1 genes was found in any placental tissues. In contrast, the CYP24A1 gene is methylated in human placenta, purified cytotrophoblasts, and primary and cultured chorionic villus sampling tissue. No methylation was detected in any somatic human tissue tested. Methylation was also evident in marmoset and mouse placental tissue. All three genes were hypermethylated in choriocarcinoma cell lines, highlighting the role of vitaminDderegulation in this cancer. Gene expression analysis confirmed a reduced capacity for CYP24A1 induction with promoter methylation in primary cells and in vitro reporter analysis demonstrated that promoter methylation directly down-regulates basal promoter activity and abolishes vitamin D-mediated feedback activation. This study strongly suggests that epigenetic decoupling of vitamin D feedback catabolism plays an important role in maximizing active vitamin D bioavailability at the fetomaternal interface