Application of the Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory (SISRI-24) Among Hong Kong University Students

The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory (SISRI-24). Two hundred thirteen undergraduate students in Hong Kong completed the Chinese SISRI-24, the Meaning of Life Questionnaire, the Metapersonal Self-Construal Scale, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale to allow examination of internal reliability and construct validity. Confirmatory factor analysis was also performed to examine whether the model of King and DeCicco (2009) fit our data. Our results indicated that the full scale of the Chinese SISRI-24 and its four subscales had acceptable internal reliability. The results also showed a positive relationship between spiritual intelligence and metapersonal self-construal. However, no significant relationship was reported between spiritual intelligence and life satisfaction. As such, construct validity was low to moderate. This study can be considered a foundation for understanding and measuring spiritual intelligence among undergraduate students in Hong Kong. Future research directions are suggested

Developing a Holistic Fire Risk Assessment Framework for Building Construction Sites in Hong Kong

Amongst all types of construction accidents, industrial practitioners tend to pay less attention to the prevention of fires at construction sites.  Although fires may not occur frequently on construction sites, statistics show that when they do, the consequences are very serious; involving fatalities, injuries, serious project delays and financial loss.  There are many reasons why fires occur on sites, but a simple lack of awareness of the risks of fire is a major contributor.  Fire risk assessment is not commonly performed on sites.  Hence, it is believed that an appropriate assessment method for evaluating potential fire risk is required in order to improve the awareness of fire risk on construction sites.  This paper reports on the key findings of a research project which aims to develop a comprehensive, objective, reliable, and practical fire risk assessment framework for building construction sites based in Hong Kong.  A comprehensive list of those factors (or conditions) which may constitute a fire risk was compiled using desktop research and structured face-to-face interviews with experienced site personnel.  This list of factors was then used to develop a questionnaire survey form and the Reliability Interval Method (RIM) was used to analyse the survey results and determine the relative importance and rankings of the various fire risk factors at a broad level and risk sub-factors at a detailed level.  It was found that the fire risk factor of “Fire Services Equipment and Installations” has the greatest impact on construction site fire safety, with “Means of Escape in Case of Fire” being the second, and “Attitude of Main Contractor towards Fire Safety” being the third.  In fact, it is the main contractor who plays the pivotal role in maintaining construction site fire safety, which is in line with the high ranking given to the fire risk factor of “Attitude of Main Contractor towards Fire Safety”.  The proposed fire risk assessment framework can be used to develop a useful checklist for assessing the overall level of fire risk for a construction site, and to identify any areas needing improvement.  Although the fire risk assessment framework was developed locally in Hong Kong, the research methodology could be replicated in other countries to produce similar frameworks for international comparison.  Such an extension would aid the understanding of the management of fire risk on construction sites and help discover differences between countries

Quantum field and uniformly accelerated oscillator

We present an exact treatment of the influences on a quantum scalar field in its Minkowski vacuum state induced by coupling of the field to a uniformly accelerated harmonic oscillator. We show that there are no radiation from the oscillator in the point of view of a uniformly accelerating observer. On the other hand, there are radiations in the point of view of an inertial observer. It is shown that Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) like correlations of Rindler particles in Minkowski vacuum states are modified by a phase factor in front of the momentum-symmetric Rindler operators. The exact quantization of a time-dependent oscillator coupled to a massless scalar field was given.Comment: 28 pages, LaTe

Possible role of 3He impurities in solid 4He

We use a quantum lattice gas model to describe essential aspects of the motion of 4He atoms and of 3He impurities in solid 4He. This study suggests that 3He impurities bind to defects and promote 4He atoms to interstitial sites which can turn the bosonic quantum disordered crystal into a metastable supersolid. It is suggested that defects and interstitial atoms are produced during the solid 4He nucleation process where the role of 3He impurities (in addition to the cooling rate) is known to be important even at very small (1 ppm) impurity concentration. It is also proposed that such defects can form a glass phase during the 4He solid growth by rapid cooling.Comment: 4 two-column Revtex pages, 4 figures. Europhysics Letters (in Press

IL-33 ameliorates Alzheimer’s disease-like pathology and cognitive decline

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating condition with no known effective treatment. AD is characterized by memory loss as well as impaired locomotor ability, reasoning, and judgment. Emerging evidence suggests that the innate immune response plays a major role in the pathogenesis of AD. In AD, the accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) in the brain perturbs physiological functions of the brain, including synaptic and neuronal dysfunction, microglial activation, and neuronal loss. Serum levels of soluble ST2 (sST2), a decoy receptor for interleukin (IL)-33, increase in patients with mild cognitive impairment, suggesting that impaired IL-33/ST2 signaling may contribute to the pathogenesis of AD. Therefore, we investigated the potential therapeutic role of IL-33 in AD, using transgenic mouse models. Here we report that IL-33 administration reverses synaptic plasticity impairment and memory deficits in APP/PS1 mice. IL-33 administration reduces soluble Aβ levels and amyloid plaque deposition by promoting the recruitment and Aβ phagocytic activity of microglia; this is mediated by ST2/p38 signaling activation. Furthermore, IL-33 injection modulates the innate immune response by polarizing microglia/macrophages toward an antiinflammatory phenotype and reducing the expression of proinflammatory genes, including IL-1β, IL-6, and NLRP3, in the cortices of APP/PS1 mice. Collectively, our results demonstrate a potential therapeutic role for IL-33 in AD

Magnetic, thermodynamic, and electrical transport properties of the noncentrosymmetric B20 germanides MnGe and CoGe

We present magnetization, specific heat, resistivity, and Hall effect measurements on the cubic B20 phase of MnGe and CoGe and compare to measurements of isostructural FeGe and electronic structure calculations. In MnGe, we observe a transition to a magnetic state at $T_c=275$ K as identified by a sharp peak in the ac magnetic susceptibility, as well as second phase transition at lower temperature that becomes apparent only at finite magnetic field. We discover two phase transitions in the specific heat at temperatures much below the Curie temperature one of which we associate with changes to the magnetic structure. A magnetic field reduces the temperature of this transition which corresponds closely to the sharp peak observed in the ac susceptibility at fields above 5 kOe. The second of these transitions is not affected by the application of field and has no signature in the magnetic properties or our crystal structure parameters. Transport measurements indicate that MnGe is metal with a negative magnetoresistance similar to that seen in isostructural FeGe and MnSi. Hall effect measurements reveal a carrier concentration of about 0.5 carriers per formula unit also similar to that found in FeGe and MnSi. CoGe is shown to be a low carrier density metal with a very small, nearly temperature independent diamagnetic susceptibility.Comment: 16 pages 23 figure