Co-creating Agency, Remaking Worlds: Socially Engaged Participatory Art in Hong Kong and Taiwan

Focusing on socially engaged co-creative participatory art, this thesis expands international scholarship by chronicling exemplary cases from East Asia. In addition to offering contextualised exegeses of contemporary projects from Hong Kong and Taiwan between 2000 and 2018, the thesis responds to questions about the efficacy and democratic potential of participatory art by anchoring the study in the concepts of agency and world-making. Complaints Choir of Hong Kong (2009-2011) and Woofer Ten (2009-2014) demonstrated how co-creative participatory art can be a lens for understanding the city’s multifaceted democratic movement in a critical period bracketed by the eventful years of 2009 and 2014, when a growing civil society exercised agency to tactically remake everyday worlds for transcending realpolitik to live in truth. In democratic Taiwan, Textile Playing Workshop (2000-2004) and Papercut Field: Soulaugh Project (2016-2017) furthered the democratic quest at personal and communal levels by engaging women to reclaim their subjectivity visà-vis repressive patriarchy and, against the grain of pervasive urbanisation/modernisation, assert the value of their rural habitat respectively. Methodologically, the surveyed examples provide an empirical ground for considering the “æffects”—a concept bridging the affect of art with the effect of activism—in socially engaged co-creative participatory art. Besides examining the making of social engaged co-creative participatory art, the thesis also ruminates on its curating in a self-reflective account of three curatorial undertakings. A trilogy at the destined site of Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District (2011-2013) experimented with cultural democracy. Tin Shui Collaborative (2014) empowered grassroot resistance against disenfranchisement. Hi! Hill—Art in-Situ (2018) engaged locals to delve into pertinent issues of home and custodianship. Curatorial agency crafted spaces for reciprocally enriching creativity and “caring with,” a collective practice put forth in care ethics for redefining democracy. Written in a context whose recent developments are not insular amidst rising authoritarianism in different parts of the world, this socially engaged art history encapsulates the potential of individual agency and world-making co-creativity in a reservoir of hope

Public Space Usage and Well-Being: Participatory Action Research With Vulnerable Groups in Hyper-Dense Environments

The importance of neighbourhood-level public space and its benefits have been discussed at large during the Covid-19 pandemic. While demands for public space increase, restrictions imposed by the containment policies such as social distancing and public space use have made profound health impacts on the general public. Such impact may further widen the gaps of existing health and social inequalities and engender well-being issues in vulnerable populations living in dense urban environments. To better understand vulnerable groups' perception and experience of access to public spaces and its association with well-being, we conducted participatory action research during the pandemic (October 2020 to April 2021) via surveys, focus group discussions, mapping, and co-creation workshops in Sham Shui Po, a hyper-dense and poverty-stricken district in Hong Kong. Participants reported demands for public space use and its significance to well-being and pointed to several environmental and social factors that hindered their usage, including perceived safety, hygiene concerns, and issues between different genders and ethnic groups in the neighbourhood. Pandemic-containment measures and the fear of infections may contribute to heightened anxiety and stress to some degree among the participants. Directions for local interventions of spatial improvement were identified. Our study further highlights the strength of participatory action research for the development of more user-oriented planning solutions and the potential of community mapping and co-creation activities to empower vulnerable groups and enhance their spatial competence

Changes in fetal mannose and other carbohydrates induced by a maternal insulin infusion in pregnant sheep

BACKGROUND: The importance of non-glucose carbohydrates, especially mannose and inositol, for normal development is increasingly recognized. Whether pregnancies complicated by abnormal glucose transfer to the fetus also affect the regulation of non-glucose carbohydrates is unknown. In pregnant sheep, maternal insulin infusions were used to reduce glucose supply to the fetus for both short (2-wk) and long (8-wk) durations to test the hypothesis that a maternal insulin infusion would suppress fetal mannose and inositol concentrations. We also used direct fetal insulin infusions (1-wk hyperinsulinemic-isoglycemic clamp) to determine the relative importance of fetal glucose and insulin for regulating non-glucose carbohydrates. RESULTS: A maternal insulin infusion resulted in lower maternal (50%, P < 0.01) and fetal (35-45%, P < 0.01) mannose concentrations, which were highly correlated (r(2) = 0.69, P < 0.01). A fetal insulin infusion resulted in a 50% reduction of fetal mannose (P < 0.05). Neither maternal nor fetal plasma inositol changed with exogenous insulin infusions. Additionally, maternal insulin infusion resulted in lower fetal sorbitol and fructose (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Chronically decreased glucose supply to the fetus as well as fetal hyperinsulinemia both reduce fetal non-glucose carbohydrates. Given the role of these carbohydrates in protein glycosylation and lipid production, more research on their metabolism in pregnancies complicated by abnormal glucose metabolism is clearly warranted

CDC5 Inhibits the Hyperphosphorylation of the Checkpoint Kinase Rad53, Leading to Checkpoint Adaptation

The mechanistic role of the yeast kinase CDC5, in allowing cells to adapt to the presence of irreparable DNA damage and continue to divide, is revealed

Interaction between galectin-3 and cystinosin uncovers a pathogenic role of inflammation in&nbsp;kidney involvement of cystinosis.

Inflammation is involved in the pathogenesis of many disorders. However, the underlying mechanisms are often unknown. Here, we test whether cystinosin, the protein involved in cystinosis, is a critical regulator of galectin-3, a member of the β-galactosidase binding protein family, during inflammation. Cystinosis is a lysosomal storage disorder and, despite ubiquitous expression of cystinosin, the kidney is the primary organ impacted by the disease. Cystinosin was found to enhance lysosomal localization and degradation of galectin-3. In Ctns-/- mice, a mouse model of cystinosis, galectin-3 is overexpressed in the kidney. The absence of galectin-3 in cystinotic mice ameliorates pathologic renal function and structure and decreases macrophage/monocyte infiltration in the kidney of the Ctns-/-Gal3-/- mice compared to Ctns-/- mice. These data strongly suggest that galectin-3 mediates inflammation involved in kidney disease progression in cystinosis. Furthermore, galectin-3 was found to interact with the pro-inflammatory cytokine Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1, which stimulates the recruitment of monocytes/macrophages, and proved to be significantly increased in the serum of Ctns-/- mice and also patients with cystinosis. Thus, our findings highlight a new role for cystinosin and galectin-3 interaction in inflammation and provide an additional mechanistic explanation for the kidney disease of cystinosis. This may lead to the identification of new drug targets to delay cystinosis progression

Communities of Practice in Academic Administration: An Example from Managing Undergraduate Research at a Research-Intensive University

Inspired by the need to connect virtually during COVID-19 operations, a community of practice for facilitators of undergraduate research experiences was initiated at our university. Weekly virtual meetings quickly expanded to fill an unmet need for cross-campus support of research experiences more generally, including clarification of liability concerns, best practices for crafting inclusive application materials, culturally competent mentorship, and the abrupt transition to online research experiences. The resulting synergy of ideas also yielded significant new initiatives including an anti-racist research curriculum, federal grant proposals, and campus-wide outreach activities. The community of practice has continued to evolve with a sustainability focus, utilizing the model of a dedicated meeting facilitator and regular meeting times, coupled with responsiveness to pressing issues articulated by participants. Regular participants report improved outcomes for their students as a result of the community of practice discussions, as well as a space for personal and professional support and networking

The early language gap between first- and second-language learners: acquisition of Chinese characters among preschoolers

For culturally and linguistically diverse children, early second language (L2) development is important for school achievement and social inclusion. These children face challenges in acquiring L2, especially in Hong Kong, where the dominant Chinese language contrasts strongly with their home languages. Studies that compared the language abilities of first language (L1) and L2 students in English-speaking contexts have reported young L2 learners’ disadvantage in using the dominant language in oral language and comprehension at school entry. The findings raise the question of whether L2 learners who fall behind their L1 peers in language abilities will be further disadvantaged, showing a weaker development gradient. This study used the Chinese Character Acquisition Assessment (CCAA) to compare character acquisition of 491 L2 children aged from 3 to 6 years against that of 240 of their L1 peers from Hong Kong kindergartens. The CCAA is comprised of six subtests and assesses children’s abilities to make associations among character written form (orthography), sound, and meaning. Results showed that L2 learners had greater development in meaning and sound associations across class levels, implying that they may first develop oral language related abilities. In addition, results indicate that diverging gaps between L1 and L2 learners’ Chinese character acquisition existed across class levels for the associations involving written character form, but not in regard to associations between character meaning and sound. This study highlights the Chinese learning needs of L2 preschoolers and provides understanding of their abilities in mapping among character written forms, sounds, and meanings. The findings suggest the importance of supporting L2 children’s oral language at earlier stages of Chinese learning, and the need to provide instructional support to compensate for their relative weakness in literacy at school entry

Maximize How You Supervise: Report of the 2016 ASHA Ad Hoc Committee on Supervision Training

The success of existing and future audiologists and speech-language pathologists is dependent on skilled supervision. This session presents the findings of the ASHA Ad Hoc Committee on Supervision Training, including resources to enhance supervisor/preceptor skills and strategies for growing a culture of expectation for such training

Engineering Hydroxylase and Ketoreductase Activity, Selectivity, and Stability for a Scalable Concise Synthesis of Belzutifan

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