Students’ understanding of generic skills development in a university in Hong Kong

For many years universities around the world have placed students’ development of generic skills high on the agenda. However, limited empirical studies can be found on how these generic learning outcomes are achieved within the curriculum. This paper reports some initial qualitative findings of interview data on students’ understanding of generic skills and their experiences of such development in university. The findings will inform the development a survey instrument for use in a subsequent part of the present study and for further research in the local and international higher education arena.postprin

Is the convergence of accounting standards good for stock markets?

This paper examines the impact of the convergence of Hong Kong Accounting Standard 40 (HKAS 40) with the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) on the stock prices of firms in the property industry. Using a sample of 22111 firm-day observations, we show that the new standard has a negative impact on the stock performance of these firms.published_or_final_versio

Effectiveness of a universal school-based programme for preventing depression in Chinese adolescents: a quasi-experimental pilot study

BACKGROUND: Evidence of the effectiveness, rather than efficacy, of universal school-based programmes for preventing depression among adolescents is limited. This study examined the effectiveness of a universal depression prevention programme, 'The Little Prince is Depressed' (LPD), which adopted the cognitive-behavioural model and aimed to reduce depressive symptoms and enhance protective factors of depression among secondary school students in Hong Kong. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was adopted for this pilot study. Thirteen classes were assigned to the intervention or control conditions according to the deliberation of the programme administrator of the four participating schools. Implementation was carried out in two phases, with a professional-led first phase and teacher-led programme second phase. LPD consisted of a 12-week school-based face-to-face programme with psycho-educational lessons and homework assignments. RESULTS: Students completed the programme generally showed positive development in help-seeking attitudes and self-esteem. For students who had more depressive symptoms at pre-assessment, the programme was found to be significant in enhancing cognitive-restructuring skills and support-seeking behaviours. The programme was not, however, found to be statistically significant in reducing depressive symptoms of the participants over the study period. LIMITATIONS: A small sample size, a high attrition rate, and a short follow-up time frame. CONCLUSIONS: The LPD programme was successful in building resilience of the students in general and enhancing the cognitive-behavioural skills of students with depressive symptoms. While we did not find sufficient evidence for concluding that the LPD was effective in reducing depressive symptoms, we believe that these results highlight the challenges of implementing evidence-based practices generated from highly controlled environments in real-life settings.postprin

Comparing accuracy of obstetric sonography and fetal echocardiography during paediatric cardiology consultation in prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease

OBJECTIVE: Compare the diagnostic accuracy of fetal echocardiogram performed by obstetrician alone and that performed jointly by obstetrician and paediatric cardiologist for congenital heart disease. METHOD: All cases of suspected fetal congenital heart disease referred to Prenatal Diagnostic Clinic in ...published_or_final_versio

Application of the lumped age-class technique to studying the dynamics of malaria-mosquito-human interactions

A series of models of malaria-mosquito-human interactions using the Lumped Age-Class technique of Gurney & Nisbet are developed. The models explicitly include sub-adult mosquito dynamics and assume that population regulation occurs at the larval stage. A challenge for modelling mosquito dynamics in continuous time is that the insect has discrete life-history stages (egg, larva, pupa & adult), the sub-adult stages of relatively fixed duration, which are subject to very different demographic rates. The Lumped Age-Class technique provides a natural way to treat this type of population structure. The resulting model, phrased as a system of delay-differential equations, is only slightly harder to analyse than traditional ordinary differential equations and much easier than the alternative partial differential equation approach. The Lumped Age-Class technique also allows the natural treatment of the relatively fixed time delay between the mosquito ingesting Plasmodium and it becoming infective. Three models are developed to illustrate the application of this approach: one including just the mosquito dynamics, the second including Plasmodium but no human dynamics, and the third including the interaction of the malaria pathogen and the human population (though only in a simple classical Ross-Macdonald manner). A range of epidemiological quantities used in studying malaria such as the vectorial capacity, the entomological inoculation rate and the basic reproductive number (R0) are derived, and examples given of the analysis and simulation of model dynamics. Assumptions and extensions are discussed. It is suggested that this modelling framework may be a natural and useful tool for exploring a variety of issues in malaria-vector epidemiology, especially in circumstances where a dynamic representation of mosquito recruitment is required

Daphnias: from the individual based model to the large population equation

The class of deterministic 'Daphnia' models treated by Diekmann et al. (J Math Biol 61: 277-318, 2010) has a long history going back to Nisbet and Gurney (Theor Pop Biol 23: 114-135, 1983) and Diekmann et al. (Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde 4: 82-109, 1984). In this note, we formulate the individual based models (IBM) supposedly underlying those deterministic models. The models treat the interaction between a general size-structured consumer population ('Daphnia') and an unstructured resource ('algae'). The discrete, size and age-structured Daphnia population changes through births and deaths of its individuals and throught their aging and growth. The birth and death rates depend on the sizes of the individuals and on the concentration of the algae. The latter is supposed to be a continuous variable with a deterministic dynamics that depends on the Daphnia population. In this model setting we prove that when the Daphnia population is large, the stochastic differential equation describing the IBM can be approximated by the delay equation featured in (Diekmann et al., l.c.)

Erectile dysfunction in patients with substance abuse : a preliminary report in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia

Substance abuse (psychoactive) has multiple adverse effects, i.e., biological, psychological, economic, social or legal. Among the biological effects, little is known about its impact on sexual function, especially erectile dysfunction (ED) in men. The study’s objective was to determine the patient’s risk factors of ED comorbid with substance abuse at the Methadone Maintenance Therapy Program Clinic (MMTPC), Hospital Dr. Hasan Sadikin Clinic, Bandung, Indonesia. This was a crosssectional study among patients at the MMTPC, Hospital Dr. Hasan Sadikin Clinic, Bandung, Indonesia. We obtained the ED data using the self-reporting International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) questionnaire. Based on 30 respondents who attended the clinic, the age of the subjects ranged from 24-52 years, with a mean age of 40 years. The respondents with substance abused included those misusing opioids (N= 27, 90%), cannabis (N = 18, 60%), amphetamines (methamphetamines and ecstasy) (N= 10, 33.3%), benzodiazepine drugs (N= 7, 23.3%), alcohol (N= 2, 6.7%) and others (antidepressants and suboxone) (N= 2, 6.7%). ED occured in 90% of the respondents (n=27) where 64% (n=19) had mild, 23% (n=7) mild-moderate, 3% (N=1) moderate ED, and 10% (n=3) without an ED. There was no severe ED in the subjects of this study. Respondents without multiple drug abuse had a lower degree of ED with a median IIEF-5 score of 17.0 (IQR: 15.0-20.0) compared to those taking multiple substances (Median score = 20.0, IQR: 18.5-21.0). Respondents who reported cannabis use had a lower median IIEF-5 score of 17.0 (IQR: 15.0- 20.3), i.e., lesser ED than those with multiple drug substances (Median score = 19.5, IQR: 19.0-21.0). We performed additional analyses to identify variables, i.e., age, total type of drugs used, and duration of use in years associated with lower IIEF-5 scores and none of thosee variables showed a significant correlation with the IIEF-5 score (Spearman’s correlation coefficients >0.05). In conclusion, a high incidence of ED in substance abuse patients undergoing methadone maintenance therapy programmes requires special attention from healthcare workers during the consultation in MMTPC

Suicide in Hong Kong: A case-control psychological autopsy study

Background. The relative contribution of psychosocial and clinical risk factors to suicide among Chinese populations is an important issue. In Hong Kong, this issue requires vigorous examination in light of a 50% increase in suicide rate between 1997 and 2003. Method. Using a case-control psychological autopsy method, 150 suicide deceased were compared with 150 living controls matched by age and gender. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the next-of-kin of the subjects. Data were collected on a wide range of potential risk and protective factors, including demographic, life event, clinical and psychological variables. The relative contribution of these factors towards suicide was examined in a multiple logistic regression model. Results. Six factors were found to significantly and independently contribute to suicide: unemployment, indebtedness, being single, social support, psychiatric illness, and history of past attempts. Conclusions. Both psychosocial and clinical factors are important in suicides in Hong Kong. They seem to have mediated suicide risk independently. In addition, socio-economic adversities seem to have played a relatively important role in the increasing suicide rate in Hong Kong. © 2006 Cambridge University Press.published_or_final_versio

Predators reduce extinction risk in noisy metapopulations

Background Spatial structure across fragmented landscapes can enhance regional population persistence by promoting local “rescue effects.” In small, vulnerable populations, where chance or random events between individuals may have disproportionately large effects on species interactions, such local processes are particularly important. However, existing theory often only describes the dynamics of metapopulations at regional scales, neglecting the role of multispecies population dynamics within habitat patches. Findings By coupling analysis across spatial scales we quantified the interaction between local scale population regulation, regional dispersal and noise processes in the dynamics of experimental host-parasitoid metapopulations. We find that increasing community complexity increases negative correlation between local population dynamics. A potential mechanism underpinning this finding was explored using a simple population dynamic model. Conclusions Our results suggest a paradox: parasitism, whilst clearly damaging to hosts at the individual level, reduces extinction risk at the population level

Daphnia revisited: Local stability and bifurcation theory for physiologically structured population models explained by way of an example

We consider the interaction between a general size-structured consumer population and an unstructured resource. We show that stability properties and bifurcation phenomena can be understood in terms of solutions of a system of two delay equations (a renewal equation for the consumer population birth rate coupled to a delay differetial equation for the resource concentration). As many results for such systems are available, we can draw rigorous conclusions concerning dynamical behaviour from an analysis of a characteristic equation. We derive the characteristic equation for a fairly general class of population models, including those based on the Kooijman-Metz Daphnia model and a model introduced by Gurney-Nisbet and Jones et al., and next obtain various ecological insights by analytical or numerical studies of special cases