Country of origin effect on products from Mainland China in Hong Kong

This study examines the effect of the country of origin cue on Hong Kong consumers’ purchasing of products from the two countries—China and Japan. The research findings suggest that the country of origin and brand image are the important evaluative criteria for Hong Kong consumer. There are three main objectives in the report. First is to explore the overall image of Mainland Chinese products in Hong Kong market. The other is to assess the impact of the country of origin on Mainland Chinese products in Hong Kong market. Last, we make some suggestions for improving the image of Mainland Chinese products in Hong Kong market. The literature review and survey give the picture of the image of Mainland Chinese products in other markets. Overall, Mainland Chinese products have a negative image in those markets. The country of origin effect influences the country image so much, there has a negative image towards China. Hong Kong people view Mainland Chinese products as old-fashioned, cheap and unattractive. To alleviate that, the Chinese businesses could improve their marketing strategies in Hong Kong, especially the marketing mix. They could change the product designs and packages with good brand names, put more emphasis on promotions and advertising, and improving the advertisements to adapt to the tastes of Hong Kong consumers. In addition, they could increase the number of retail channels that are more convenient for consumers to get information and easier to find the products. The low price of China brand products in Hong Kong gives people “cheap” and “low-class” impression. So, Mainland Chinese firms should raise the quality of products in order to set a higher price in Hong Kong market

The effects of phonological regularity on writing of Hong Kong school-aged children

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2005.Also available in print.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Relative contributions of consonants and vowels to Mandarin sentence intelligibility

This study investigated the relative contributions of consonants and vowels to Mandarin sentence intelligibility using a noise replacement paradigm. In Experiment 1, 20 young normal-hearing native Mandarin listeners recognized Mandarin sentences with various amounts of segmental information preserved. Results showed that the vowel-only sentences (consonants replaced by noise) yielded a remarkable 3:1 intelligibility advantage over the consonant-only sentences (vowels replaced by noise). This ratio was larger than that found in English, suggesting that vowels contribute more to sentence intelligibility in Mandarin than in English. Intelligibility increased significantly when a little portion at vowel onsets was added to the consonant-only sentences. However, intelligibility of the vowel-only sentences was still maintained high when the same portion of vowel onsets and an equal amount of vowel offsets were replaced by noise, suggesting that vowel onsets contain redundant information to vowel centers for Mandarin sentence recognition. In Experiment 2, the same listeners discriminated tones of vowels with various durations preserved at either onsets or centers. Results were compared with the findings in Experiment 1, and suggested that lexical tones are relatively redundant for Mandarin sentence intelligibility in quiet.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Four-dimensional radiation therapy for thoracic carcinoma : Dosimetric evaluation using deformable image registration

Respiratory motion remains a significant challenge for radiation therapy in targeting the tumour. The use of planning margins to avoid geometrical miss of the target volume during respiration results in excessive lung tissue irradiation that limits the prescribed dose to be safely delivered and escalated for better therapeutic gain. The purpose of this study was to develop effective dose planning techniques for treatment to be performed under natural patient breathing. The techniques accounted for the dosimetric influences of tumour movement and aimed to provide an optimized treatment volume by minimizing the internal target volume (ITV) without compromising the target coverage. In the study, the accumulated 4D dose distribution over the tumour volume was calculated using deformable image registration (DIR). A DICOM-RT based tool-box was specially developed for automated 4D dose calculation and evaluations. A new concept of defining the internal target volume from 4D dose coverage, namely inverse ITV (iITV) was introduced via the dose volume enclosed by the minimum accumulated dose in the tumour during the respiratory cycle. The dosimetric advantages of using this iITV with reference to the conventional ITV were confirmed in nine clinical cases by an average dose volume reduction of 16.4% (ranging from 2.3% to 29.9%). 4D radiotherapy involves complex dose distribution which was found to be affected by a number of factors including tumour size, magnitude of tumour displacement, tumour motion characteristics and the reference phases selected for dose planning. Our findings indicate that optimal dose planning was generally, but not always, achieved with the planning CT performed at the temporal mean tumour position and the degree of target coverage maximization strongly depends on the nature of tumour movement. Moreover, the conventionally geometric defined treatment margin could over estimate the treatment volume for a required target coverage. In conclusion, 4D dose calculation based on DIR offers realistic dose estimation, as both geometric and temporal factors are considered, and also provides optimal dose plans by minimizing the treatment volume. However, 4D radiation planning involves a number of factors resulting from the properties of tumours (eg. tumour size, amplitude and characteristics of tumour motion, etc) and from the procedure of treatment planning (eg. reference phase for dose planning, penumbra of dose beam, employed treatment volume etc) that interactively affect the resultant dosimetry. Since these factors vary patient-by-patient, there is no single formula or universal solution that can be used to obtain optimal dose planning. The 4D dose toolbox developed in this study could however provide a user friendly platform for 4D dose calculation and analysis, and allow the optimal treatment modalities and planning techniques to be determined for individuals

miR-10a is aberrantly overexpressed in Nucleophosmin1 mutated acute myeloid leukaemia and its suppression induces cell death

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) with nucleophosmin-1 (<it>NPM1</it>) mutation is a major subtype of AML. The <it>NPM1 </it>mutation induces a myeloproliferative disorder, but evidence indicates that other insults are necessary for the development of AML. We utilised microRNA microarrays and functional assays to determine if microRNA dysregulation could be involved in the pathogenesis of in <it>NPM1 </it>mutated (<it>NPM1^mut</it>)-AML.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We used a stringent locked nucleic acid (LNA) based microRNA microarray platform to profile bone marrow samples of patients with normal karyotype AML. A panel of five microRNAs dichotomised AML patients according to their <it>NPM1 </it>mutational status. miR-10a, let-7b and let-7c were significantly over-expressed, while miR-130a and miR-335 were under-expressed in <it>NPM1^mut</it>-AML when compared to <it>NPM1^wildtype</it>-AML. Of these, miR-10a is the most differentially expressed in <it>NPM1^mut</it>-AML versus <it>NPM1^wildtype</it>-AML (> 10 fold higher as confirmed by qRT-PCR). To investigate the functions of miR-10a, the OCI-AML3 cell line was utilised, which is the only commercially available cell line bearing <it>NPM1^mut</it>. OCI-AML3 cells were firstly demonstrated to have a similarly high miR-10a expression to primary <it>NPM1^mut</it>-AML patient samples. Inhibition of miR-10a expression by miRCURY LNA Inhibitors (Exiqon) in these cells resulted in increased cell death as assessed by MTS, cell cycle and Annexin-V assays and reduced clonogenic capacity, indicative of an involvement in leukaemic cell survival. <it>In silico </it>filtering of bioinformatically predicted targets of miR-10a identified a number of potential mRNA targets with annotated functions in haematopoiesis, cell growth and apoptosis. Lucferase reporter assays confirmed a number of these putative tumorogenic genes that are miR-10a suppressible including <it>KLF4 </it>and <it>RB1CC1</it>. This provides a potential mechanism for the pathogenic role of miR-10a in <it>NPM1^mut</it>-AML.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study provides, for the first time, <it>in vitro </it>evidence of a pro-survival role of miR-10a in <it>NPM1^mut</it>-AML, that it may contribute to the pathogenesis of <it>NPM1^mut</it>-AML and identifies putative tumorogenic targets.</p

Association of the DYX1C1 Gene with Chinese Literacy in a Healthy Chinese Population

DYX1C1, the first dyslexia candidate gene, has been associated with developmental dyslexia in different populations, but its influence on reading abilities in the general population is less well known. Copy number variants (CNVs) have been implicated in neurodevelopmental and childhood-onset disorders involving cognitive development in previous studies. In this report, we investigated the extent to which genomic CNVs for the SNP previously linked to dyslexia, -3G/A (rs3743205) in the gene DYX1C1, contribute to Chinese and English literacy in the general population in a Chinese cohort, and whether these processes, in turn, are influenced by environmental factors, such as family income, parents’ education, and IQ. Our findings suggest that the logR ratio (which is a way to detect CNVs) of a previously reported dyslexia-related SNP, -3G/A (rs3743205) is significantly associated with Chinese literacy in a cohort of Chinese children with normal reading abilities

Phenyl radical + propene: a prototypical reaction surface for aromatic-catalyzed 1,2-hydrogen-migration and subsequent resonance-stabilized radical formation

The C[subscript 9]H[subscript 11] potential energy surface (PES) was experimentally and theoretically explored because it is a relatively simple, prototypical alkylaromatic radical system. Although the C[subscript 9]H[subscript 11] PES has already been extensively studied both experimentally (under single-collision and thermal conditions) and theoretically, new insights were made in this work by taking a new experimental approach: flash photolysis combined with time-resolved molecular beam mass spectrometry (MBMS) and visible laser absorbance. The C[subscript 9]H[subscript 11] PES was experimentally accessed by photolytic generation of the phenyl radical and subsequent reaction with excess propene (C[subscript 6]H[subscript 5] + C[subscript 3]H[subscript 6]). The overall kinetics of C[subscript 6]H[subscript 5] + C[subscript 3]H[subscript 6] was measured using laser absorbance with high time-resolution from 300 to 700 K and was found to be in agreement with earlier measurements over a lower temperature range. Five major product channels of C[subscript 6]H[subscript 5] + C[subscript 3]H[subscript 6] were observed with MBMS at 600 and 700 K, four of which were expected: hydrogen (H)-abstraction (measured by the stable benzene, C[subscript 6]H[subscript 6], product), methyl radical (CH[subscript 3])-loss (styrene detected), H-loss (phenylpropene isomers detected) and radical adduct stabilization. The fifth, unexpected product observed was the benzyl radical, which was rationalized by the inclusion of a previously unreported pathway on the C[subscript 9]H[subscript 11] PES: aromatic-catalysed 1,2-H-migration and subsequent resonance stabilized radical (RSR, benzyl radical in this case) formation. The current theoretical understanding of the C[subscript 9]H[subscript 11] PES was supported (including the aromatic-catalyzed pathway) by quantitative comparisons between modelled and experimental MBMS results. At 700 K, the branching to styrene + CH[subscript 3] was 2-4 times greater than that of any other product channel, while benzyl radical + C[subscript 2]H[subscript 4] from the aromatic-catalyzed pathway accounted for ∼10% of the branching. Single-collision conditions were also simulated on the updated PES to explain why previous crossed molecular beam experiments did not see evidence of the aromatic-catalyzed pathway. This experimentally validated knowledge of the C[subscript 9]H[subscript 11] PES was added to the database of the open-source Reaction Mechanism Generator (RMG), which was then used to generalize the findings on the C[subscript 9]H[subscript 11] PES to a slightly more complicated alkylaromatic system.Think Global Education Trus