General values and work values of social work students in Hong Kong

This paper reports research that examines general values and work values held by university students studying social work in Hong Kong. Comparison is also made with values held by similar students studying in different majors. Results indicated that social work students rated general values such as benevolence, self-direction, universalism and tradition higher than their non-social work counterparts. They also rated work values such as altruism, creativity, supervisory relations, independence and intellectual stimulation more highly. However, the social work students held lower values associated with economic returns, thus supporting a view that students with an inclination towards social work tend to espouse self-transcendence and intrinsic work values, and are less influenced by material rewards. Among the social work respondents, gender differences were found in both general and work values. Differences were also noted between the groups with different modes of study. Implications for social work education and future research are discussed.postprin

Super's Work Values Inventory: Issues of Subtest Internal Consistency Using a Sample of Chinese University Students in Hong Kong

The authors discuss observed weaknesses in internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas below .60) within five subtests of the Work Values Inventory when translated into Chinese and used with a sample of 211 university students in Hong Kong. Possible reasons for the weaknesses are explored, and suggestions are made for improvement.postprin

Parameter control by the entire search history: Case study of history-driven evolutionary algorithm

Special Session on Evolutionary Computer VisionHistory-driven Evolutionary Algorithm (HdEA) is an EA that uses the entire search history to improve searching performance. By building the approximated fitness landscape and estimating the gradient using the entire history, HdEA performs a parameter-less adaptive mutation. In order to decrease the number of parameters that makes the HdEA more robust, this paper proposes a novel adaptive parameter control system. This system is as an add-on component to HdEA, which uses the whole search history in HdEA to control the parameters in an automatic manner. The performance of the proposed system is examined on 34 benchmark functions. The results shows that the parameter control system gives similar or better performance in 24 functions and has the benefit that two parameters of the HdEA are eliminated; they are set and varied automatically by the system. © 2010 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Provision of Consultantation Service: Revamp of the Teachers' IT Training Framework

The existing framework of teachers' information technology (IT) training in Hong Kong, with a series of programmes aiming to develop teachers' IT competency at Basic (BIT), Upper Intermediate (UIT) and Advanced (AIT) Levels, was launched under the Five-year Information Technology in Education (ITEd) Strategy in 1998. With the inception of the IT in education strategy in 2004, it is anticipated that more emphasis should be centered upon using IT to enhance teaching and learning as well as the development of students' information literacy and high-order thinking. In light of this, revamping the teacher professional development framework is thus of paramount importance. A Joint Consultation Service Team (JCST) from CUHK, HKBU, HKIED and HKU has been formed and is now undertaking a consultancy service for Information Technology in Education Section, EMB. The outcome of this service would be a proposal for the revamp of teachers' information technology (IT) training framework. Thus, this consultation seminar endeavours to solicit opinions from the stakeholders and to establish a rapport and a dialogue with frontline teachers regarding the proposed revamped frameworkpublished_or_final_versionCentre for Information Technology in Education, University of Hong Kon

Development and evaluation of a positive youth development course for university students in Hong Kong

Author name used in this publication: Y. H. ChuiAuthor name used in this publication: S. W. LitAuthor name used in this publication: Yida Y. H. ChungAuthor name used in this publication: S. W. Ngai2012-2013 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Predictive impact of rare genomic copy number variations in siblings of individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

Identification of genetic biomarkers associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) could improve recurrence prediction for families with a child with ASD. Here, we describe clinical microarray findings for 253 longitudinally phenotyped ASD families from the Baby Siblings Research Consortium (BSRC), encompassing 288 infant siblings. By age 3, 103 siblings (35.8%) were diagnosed with ASD and 54 (18.8%) were developing atypically. Thirteen siblings have copy number variants (CNVs) involving ASD-relevant genes: 6 with ASD, 5 atypically developing, and 2 typically developing. Within these families, an ASD-related CNV in a sibling has a positive predictive value (PPV) for ASD or atypical development of 0.83; the Simons Simplex Collection of ASD families shows similar PPVs. Polygenic risk analyses suggest that common genetic variants may also contribute to ASD. CNV findings would have been pre-symptomatically predictive of ASD or atypical development in 11 (7%) of the 157 BSRC siblings who were eventually diagnosed clinically

A review of the phytochemistry and pharmacological activities of Raphani Semen

Author name used in this publication: Daniel Kam-Wah Mok2012-2013 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Metabolomic profiling of Burkholderia pseudomallei using UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS reveals specific biomarkers including 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol and unique thiamine degradation pathway

© 2015 Lau et al.Background: Burkholderia pseudomallei is an emerging pathogen that causes melioidosis, a serious and potentially fatal disease which requires prolonged antibiotics to prevent relapse. However, diagnosis of melioidosis can be difficult, especially in culture-negative cases. While metabolomics represents an uprising tool for studying infectious diseases, there were no reports on its applications to B. pseudomallei. To search for potential specific biomarkers, we compared the metabolomics profiles of culture supernatants of B. pseudomallei (15 strains), B. thailandensis (3 strains), B. cepacia complex (14 strains), P. aeruginosa (4 strains) and E. coli (3 strains), using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS). Multi- and univariate analyses were used to identify specific metabolites in B. pseudomallei. Results: Principal component and partial-least squares discrimination analysis readily distinguished the metabolomes between B. pseudomallei and other bacterial species. Using multi-variate and univariate analysis, eight metabolites with significantly higher levels in B. pseudomallei were identified. Three of the eight metabolites were identified by MS/MS, while five metabolites were unidentified against database matching, suggesting that they may be potentially novel compounds. One metabolite, m/z 144.048, was identified as 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol, a degradation product of thiamine (vitamin B1), with molecular formula C6H9NOS by database searches and confirmed by MS/MS using commercially available authentic chemical standard. Two metabolites, m/z 512.282 and m/z 542.2921, were identified as tetrapeptides, Ile-His-Lys-Asp with molecular formula C22H37N7O7 and Pro-Arg-Arg-Asn with molecular formula C21H39N11O6, respectively. To investigate the high levels of 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol in B. pseudomallei, we compared the thiamine degradation pathways encoded in genomes of B. pseudomallei and B. thailandensis. While both B. pseudomallei and B. thailandensis possess thiaminase I which catalyzes degradation of thiamine to 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol, thiM, which encodes hydroxyethylthiazole kinase responsible for degradation of 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol, is present and expressed in B. thailandensis as detected by PCR/RT-PCR, but absent or not expressed in all B. pseudomallei strains. This suggests that the high 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol level in B. pseudomallei is likely due to the absence of hydroxyethylthiazole kinase and hence reduced downstream degradation. Conclusion: Eight novel biomarkers, including 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol and two tetrapeptides, were identified in the culture supernatant of B. pseudomallei.published_or_final_versio

High Diversity of Genogroup I Picobirnaviruses in Mammals

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