Exploring the influence of contract governance on construction dispute negotiation

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by the American Society of Civil Engineers in the Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice. October 2008. This material may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the American Society of Civil Engineers. This material may be found at https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1052-3928(2008)134:4(391)Publishe

Evaluation of a Digital Game-Based Learning Program for Enhancing Youth Mental Health: A Structural Equation Modeling of the Program Effectiveness

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Direct electronic measurement of the spin Hall effect

The generation, manipulation and detection of spin-polarized electrons in nanostructures define the main challenges of spin-based electronics[1]. Amongst the different approaches for spin generation and manipulation, spin-orbit coupling, which couples the spin of an electron to its momentum, is attracting considerable interest. In a spin-orbit-coupled system, a nonzero spin-current is predicted in a direction perpendicular to the applied electric field, giving rise to a "spin Hall effect"[2-4]. Consistent with this effect, electrically-induced spin polarization was recently detected by optical techniques at the edges of a semiconductor channel[5] and in two-dimensional electron gases in semiconductor heterostructures[6,7]. Here we report electrical measurements of the spin-Hall effect in a diffusive metallic conductor, using a ferromagnetic electrode in combination with a tunnel barrier to inject a spin-polarized current. In our devices, we observe an induced voltage that results exclusively from the conversion of the injected spin current into charge imbalance through the spin Hall effect. Such a voltage is proportional to the component of the injected spins that is perpendicular to the plane defined by the spin current direction and the voltage probes. These experiments reveal opportunities for efficient spin detection without the need for magnetic materials, which could lead to useful spintronics devices that integrate information processing and data storage.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Nature (pending format approval

Kawasaki disease in Hong Kong, 1994 to 2000

OBJECTIVE. To describe the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and management of Kawasaki disease in children in Hong Kong. DESIGN. Retrospective survey of medical records from July 1994 to June 1997, and prospective data collection from July 1997 to June 2000. SETTING. Hospitals with a paediatric unit in Hong Kong. PATIENTS. Patients diagnosed with Kawasaki disease between July 1994 and June 2000 in public hospitals in Hong Kong. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES. Incidence of Kawasaki disease and coronary artery aneurysm rates. RESULTS. A total of 696 cases of Kawasaki disease were reported. There were 435 (62.5%) boys and 261 (37.5%) girls giving a male to female ratio of 1.7:1. The age ranged from 1 month to 15 years 5 months with a median of 1.7 years. Infants (<1 year) constituted the largest group of patients (223,32.0%) and overall, 638 (91.7%) were younger than 5 years. Skin rash, conjunctivitis, and oral signs were among the principal clinical features present in over 80% of cases. Prominent cervical lymph nodes larger than 1.5 cm were less commonly found (24%). Coronary artery aneurysms or ectasia were present in 15.7% (109/696), 8.5% (59/696), and 5.0% (35/696) of patients at 2, 4, and 8 weeks, respectively. The incidence of Kawasaki disease per 100 000 children under 5 years was significantly higher in the prospective study period than in the retrospective period (39 vs 26, <0.001). CONCLUSION. The incidence of Kawasaki disease is high in Hong Kong and is 39 per 100 000 children below 5 years of age. The coronary artery aneurysm prevalence is 5%. Intravenous gamma-globulin and high-dose aspirin is the mainstay of treatment.published_or_final_versio

Distinct neural activity associated with focused-attention meditation and loving-kindness meditation

2012-2013 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

VHL Type 2B Mutations Retain VBC Complex Form and Function

Background: von Hippel-Lindau disease is characterized by a spectrum of hypervascular tumors, including renal cell carcinoma, hemangioblastoma, and pheochromocytoma, which occur with VHL genotype-specific differences in penetrance. VHL loss causes a failure to regulate the hypoxia inducible factors (HIF-1a and HIF-2a), resulting in accumulation of both factors to high levels. Although HIF dysregulation is critical to VHL disease-associated renal tumorigenesis, increasing evidence points toward gradations of HIF dysregulation contributing to the degree of predisposition to renal cell carcinoma and other manifestations of the disease. Methodology/Principal Findings: This investigation examined the ability of disease-specific VHL missense mutations to support the assembly of the VBC complex and to promote the ubiquitylation of HIF. Our interaction analysis supported previous observations that VHL Type 2B mutations disrupt the interaction between pVHL and Elongin C but maintain partial regulation of HIF. We additionally demonstrated that Type 2B mutant pVHL forms a remnant VBC complex containing the active members ROC1 and Cullin-2 which retains the ability to ubiquitylate HIF-1a. Conclusions: Our results suggest that subtypes of VHL mutations support an intermediate level of HIF regulation via a remnant VBC complex. These findings provide a mechanism for the graded HIF dysregulation and genetic predisposition fo

Elevated plasma adiponectin levels in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

BACKGROUND: Adiponectin is an anti-inflammatory adipokine that may play a role in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) pathogenesis. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between adiponectin, interleukin (IL) 6, IL-8 and C-reactive protein (CRP) and COPD by evaluating these biomarkers in ever-smokers with or without the disease. METHOD: Plasma levels of adiponectin, IL-6, IL-8 and CRP were measured using commercially available kits in COPD patients (n = 71), healthy ever-smokers (n = 62) and non-smokers (n = 51). RESULTS: There were significant increases in plasma adiponectin, IL-6 and CRP in COPD patients (median [IQR] 4.39 μg/ml [2.68-6.98], 4.19 pg/ml [<2.40-6.40], 8.75 mg/l [4.26-40.63], respectively) compared to healthy ever-smokers (1.90 μg/ml [0.86-2.86], <2.40 pg/ml [<2.40-2.77], 3.71 mg/l [1.97-10.37 mg/l], respectively, P < 0.001) and non-smokers (1.76 μg/ml [1.34-2.52], <2.40 pg/ml [<2.40-2.78], 3.12 mg/l [2.11-5.71], respectively, P < 0.001). COPD patients had lower plasma IL-8 levels than healthy ever-smokers. Among ever-smokers with or without COPD, plasma adiponectin, IL-6 and CRP levels were inversely correlated with forced expiratory volume in 1 second (% predicted) after adjustment for age, body mass index, smoking status and pack-years. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that in COPD patients, adiponectin might be associated with COPD pathogenesis. © 2010 The Union.postprin

Automated quantification of mitral valve anatomy using anatomical intelligence in three-dimensional echocardiography

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Chinese green tea ameliorates lung injury in cigarette smoke-exposed rats

Background: Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), which has been shown to have potent antioxidant effect, comprises 80% of catechins in Chinese green tea. This study was to investigate whether cigarette smoke (CS) exposure would induce lung morphological changes and oxidative stress in the CS-exposed rat model, and whether Chinese green tea (Lung Chen tea with EGCG as its main active ingredient) consumption would alter oxidative stress in sera and lung leading to protection of CS-induced lung damage. Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups, i.e. sham air (SA), 4% CS, 2% Lung Chen tea plus SA or 4% CS. Exposure to SA or 4% CS was performed for 1 h/day for 56 days in ventilated smoking chambers. Sera and lung tissues were collected 24 h after last CS exposure for histology and all biochemical assays. Results: Airspace enlargement and goblet cell hyperplasia were observed after 56-day CS exposure alone, which were abolished in the presence of green tea consumption. Serum 8-isoprostane level was significantly elevated (p < 0.01) as well as lung superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase activities in CS-exposed rats compared to SA-exposed rats (p < 0.05), which returned to the levels of SA-exposed rats after Chinese green tea consumption. Conclusion: These results indicate that increased levels of systemic oxidative stress after CS exposure play an important role in the induction of lung damage. Chinese green tea may have the ability to suppress CS-induced oxidative stress that leads to protection of lung injury. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.postprin

Use of the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) in Chinese male patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia

Purpose: To test the psychometric properties of the International Prostate Symptom Score (Hong Kong Chinese version 2) (IPSS) in Chinese male patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) under secondary care. Methods: A prospective longitudinal study was done by interviewing subjects at baseline, at 2 week after baseline for assessing test–retest reliability and at 26 week after baseline for assessing responsiveness. All subjects were interviewed to complete a structured questionnaire including IPSS, Short Form-12 Health Survey version 2 (SF-12v2) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). Results: The IPSS HRQOL score had weak correlations with SF-12v2 summary and DASS domain scores. For reliability analysis, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.90 for the seven symptom-related items. The intraclass correlation coefficients of the IPSS total symptom score and HRQOL score were 0.90 and 0.86, respectively. For sensitivity, statistically significant differences were detected between the subjects with BPH and those without for IPSS total symptom score (effect size=0.68) but not the IPSS HRQOL score. The areas under ROC curves for the IPSS total symptom and HRQOL scores were 0.67 and 0.60, respectively. Conclusions: The IPSS was valid, reliable instrument in Chinese patients with BPH. The IPSS total symptom score, but not the HRQOL score, is sensitive in differentiating subgroups