Liberal studies students' conceptions of "edutainment"

This study attempts to discover and describe students’ conceptions towards edutainment (i.e. the integration of education and entertainment) in Liberal Studies, the application of a novel educational notion in a novel subject. Seventeen junior secondary and senior secondary students from the practicum school where the researcher worked were interviewed individually for around half an hour. The teaching and learning activities focusing on various edutainment genres and elements (e.g. the use of multimedia, ICT, and games) throughout the LS lessons was point of departure to unfold students’ conceptions of edutainment in the interview. Open-ended questions on what is edutainment and what edutainment means to the informants were asked to enable students to express their ideas. Five conceptions of edutainment were found. The revealed conceptions were of different degree of complexity and found to be in hierarchical order and formed an outcome space which showed students’ conception of edutainment. Students interviewed demonstrated intra-contextual shifts in conceptions and changes in focal awareness amidst the interviews. On one hand, the conceptions of edutainment perceived by the students in this study surprisingly contained rudiments of the concepts of edutainment developed by the educational theorists; on the other hand, students’ conceptions of edutainment were found strongly associated with the Hong Kong educational context. The students’ conceptions of edutainment are greatly shaped by the ways in which the tasks were framed in the learning and teaching contexts. The conceptions revealed provide implication and insight for teaching and learning to benefit students in Hong Kong.published_or_final_versionEducationBachelorBachelor of Education in Liberal Studie

Synaptic mitochondria regulate hair cell synapse size and function

Mechanosensitive hair cells of the inner ear and lateral line are specialized sensory cells that are required to evoke vital behaviors such as hearing, maintaining an upright posture and evading predators. To encode these sensory signals, hair cells use specialized ribbon synapses. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been implicated in hearing loss but the role of healthy mitochondria in hair cells or at ribbon synapses is unclear. I show that mitochondrial Ca2+ couples with presynaptic activity and plays distinct roles at hair cell synapses in mature and developing cells. I show that in mature hair cells, evoked-presynaptic-Ca2+ influx initiates mitochondrial-Ca2+ uptake; block of mitochondrial-Ca2+ uptake depresses presynaptic-Ca2+ activity and long-term block of mitochondrial-Ca2+ uptake can impact synapse integrity. I show that in developing hair cells, mitochondrial-Ca2+ uptake coincides with spontaneous presynaptic rises in Ca2+. Block of spontaneous presynaptic rises in Ca2+ or mitochondrial-Ca2+ uptake in developing hair cells enlarges presynaptic ribbon structure during synapse formation. Presynaptic ribbon size is composed primarily of the self-aggregating structural protein Ribeye. My work indicates that mitochondrial-Ca2+ may impact ribbon formation by modulating Ribeye-Ribeye protein interactions via the NAD(H) binding domain on Ribeye. Spontaneous mitochondrial-Ca2+ loading lowers cellular NAD+/NADH and ultimately downregulates ribbon formation. Furthermore, I found that direct application of NAD+ or NADH can directly increase or decrease ribbon formation respectively. Our results propose that mitochondrial-Ca2+ is an important component of presynaptic function and formation

Canal switch after canalith repositioning procedure for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo

Canal switch is a complication following canalith repositioning procedure (CRP) for posterior canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). Instead of being returned to the utricle, the loose otoconia migrate into the superior or horizontal semicircular canal. Patients remain symptomatic, and treatment can be ineffective unless the switch is recognized and additional repositioning maneuvers directed toward the appropriate semicircular canal are performed. This report provides the first videographic documentation of canal switch involving conversion of unilateral posterior semicircular canal BPPV to geotropic horizontal canalithiasis. Laryngoscope, 2012Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93562/1/23315_ftp.pd

Prolonged dexamethasone exposure enhances zebrafish lateral-line regeneration but disrupts mitochondrial homeostasis and hair cell function

The synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone is commonly used to treat inner ear disorders. Previous work in larval zebrafish has shown that dexamethasone treatment enhances hair cell regeneration, yet dexamethasone has also been shown to inhibit regeneration of peripheral nerves after lesion. We therefore used the zebrafish model to determine the impact of dexamethasone treatment on lateral-line hair cells and primary afferents. To explore dexamethasone in the context of regeneration, we used copper sulfate (CuS

A mobile game (safe city) designed to promote children's safety knowledge and behaviors: protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Children have high levels of curiosity and eagerness to explore. This makes them more vulnerable to danger and hazards, and they thus have a higher risk of injury. Safety education such as teaching safety rules and tips is vital to prevent children from injuries. Although game-based approaches have the potential to capture children’s attention and sustain their interest in learning, whether these new instructional approaches are more effective than traditional approaches in delivering safety messages to children remains uncertain. Objective: The aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of a game-based intervention in promoting safety knowledge and behaviors among Hong Kong school children in Grades 4-6. It will also examine the potential effect of the game-based intervention on these children’s functioning and psychosocial difficulties. Methods: This study comprises the development of a city-based role-playing game Safe City, where players are immersed as safety inspectors to prevent dangerous situations and promote safety behavior in a virtual city environment. The usability and acceptability tests will be conducted with children in Grades 4-6 who will trial the gameplay on a mobile phone. Adjustments will be made based on their feedback. A 4-week randomized controlled trial with children studying in Grades 4-6 in Hong Kong elementary schools will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of the Safe City game–based intervention. In this trial, 504 children will play Safe City, and 504 children will receive traditional instructional materials (electronic and printed safety information). The evaluation will be conducted using both child self-report and parent proxy-report data. Specifically, child safety knowledge and behaviors will be assessed by a questionnaire involving items on knowledge and behaviors, respectively, for home safety, road safety, and sport-related safety; child functioning will be assessed by PedsQL Generic Core Scales; and psychosocial difficulties will be assessed by the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. These questionnaires will be administered at 3 time points: before, 1 month, and 3 months after the intervention. Game usage statistics will also be reviewed. Results: This project was funded in September 2019. The design and development of the Safe City game are currently under way. Recruitment and data collection will begin from September 2020 and will continue up to March 1, 2021. Full analysis will be conducted after the end of the data collection period. Conclusions: If the Safe City game is found to be an effective tool to deliver safety education, it could be used to promote safety in children in the community and upgraded to incorporate more health-related topics to support education and empowerment for the larger public. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04096196; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04096196 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/1775

精神病及癌症照顧者的社會支持及需要研究報告

本研究旨在探討非正式照顧者在照顧60歲或以上受精神病或癌症困擾的家庭成員時遇到的困難、長時間照顧工作帶來的問題和他們的非正式社會支持。同時亦針對他們的需要提出相關建議。受精神問題及癌症困擾的年長患者數字持續上升，這兩類患者的非正式照顧者(下文統稱為照顧者)多面對因患者的情緒起伏和病情轉變化而帶來的巨大壓力。為深入了解他們的現況和為制定相關政策及服務提供參考，研究團隊以半結構性訪談的方法搜集了15位精神病及癌症患者的照顧者和17位服務提供者的意見。 研究結果發現，精神病患者照顧者常遇到的困難包括：缺乏私人空間、經濟壓力大、對相關疾病資訊不了解和因社會的負面標籤不願向外界求助。同時，他們因要長時間照顧患者，人際關係、身體狀況和就業狀況均受到負面影響。對於照顧癌症家屬的照顧者，他們多不了解現有的支援服務，而且需要面對沉重的經濟壓力。由於需要長時間照顧患者，照顧者的日常生活和心理狀況皆受到影響，他們與患者的關係轉差。這兩類照顧者的非正式社會支援網絡主要為家人、朋友及教會會友。 針對照顧者的需要，研究團隊提出了五個建議。一、加強公眾教育以去除社會對精神病患者的負面標籤，減低患者家人及照顧者對尋求外界協助的顧慮。二、增加暫託服務的資源和人手以縮短輪候時間，並推行以地區為本的照顧者「社區保姆」計劃，提供空間予照顧者暫時離開患者，以處理突發或私人事務。三、設立地區性照顧者服務中心，提供輔導服務，推行照顧者技巧培訓、經濟諮詢、喘息活動和「社區保姆」計劃，令到照顧者可以在同一個服務單位獲得所需的服務。四、政府可透過線上資源整合平台為照顧者提供相關照顧資訊，讓照顧者及其家庭更易知悉社會支援服務。對於年長的照顧者，建議政府可以在他們常出現或較容易接觸到的地方擺設攤位街站，派發相關小冊子。五、增加照顧者的經濟支援，提供「喘息及活動津貼」，並且將「照顧元素」融入經濟援助項目，使到綜援申請人和長者生活津貼領取人可獲得一定比率的照顧者津貼金額

Identification of microbial community in the urban environment: The concordance between conventional culture and nanopore 16S rRNA sequencing

IntroductionMicrobes in the built environment have been implicated as a source of infectious diseases. Bacterial culture is the standard method for assessing the risk of exposure to pathogens in urban environments, but this method only accounts for <1% of the diversity of bacteria. Recently, full-length 16S rRNA gene analysis using nanopore sequencing has been applied for microbial evaluations, resulting in a rise in the development of long-read taxonomic tools for species-level classification. Regarding their comparative performance, there is, however, a lack of information.MethodsHere, we aim to analyze the concordance of the microbial community in the urban environment inferred by multiple taxonomic classifiers, including ARGpore2, Emu, Kraken2/Bracken and NanoCLUST, using our 16S-nanopore dataset generated by MegaBLAST, as well as assess their abilities to identify culturable species based on the conventional culture results.ResultsAccording to our results, NanoCLUST was preferred for 16S microbial profiling because it had a high concordance of dominant species and a similar microbial profile to MegaBLAST, whereas Kraken2/Bracken, which had similar clustering results as NanoCLUST, was also desirable. Second, for culturable species identification, Emu with the highest accuracy (81.2%) and F1 score (29%) for the detection of culturable species was suggested.DiscussionIn addition to generating datasets in complex communities for future benchmarking studies, our comprehensive evaluation of the taxonomic classifiers offers recommendations for ongoing microbial community research, particularly for complex communities using nanopore 16S rRNA sequencing

The C-terminal fragment of the ribosomal P protein complexed to trichosanthin reveals the interaction between the ribosome-inactivating protein and the ribosome

Ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) inhibit protein synthesis by enzymatically depurinating a specific adenine residue at the sarcin-ricin loop of the 28S rRNA, which thereby prevents the binding of elongation factors to the GTPase activation centre of the ribosome. Here, we present the 2.2 Å crystal structure of trichosanthin (TCS) complexed to the peptide SDDDMGFGLFD, which corresponds to the conserved C-terminal elongation factor binding domain of the ribosomal P protein. The N-terminal region of this peptide interacts with Lys173, Arg174 and Lys177 in TCS, while the C-terminal region is inserted into a hydrophobic pocket. The interaction with the P protein contributes to the ribosome-inactivating activity of TCS. This 11-mer C-terminal P peptide can be docked with selected important plant and bacterial RIPs, indicating that a similar interaction may also occur with other RIPs

「回首．動情．傳承」長者生命故事計劃

嶺南大學亞太老年學研究中心獲華人永遠墳場管理委員會（「華永會」）資助為期一年的「回首．動情．傳承」長者生命故事計劃(「計劃」)。此計劃旨在讓青年人認識長者生命經驗，學習克服困難與挫折以提升抗逆力，建立正向人生觀。 近年，主流媒體經常批評年輕人的負面人生觀，例如：「躺平主義」、「享樂主義」、「犬儒心態」等，亦不時看到青年人輕生的新聞。我們曾在大學內處理過不少受情緒困擾及企圖自殺的個案，與學生深入交流後，發現他們面對着沉重的學業壓力、財政困難或複雜的家庭關係，內心充滿掙扎不安。 此計劃讓嶺大學生與長者導師進行深度的對談，透過了解長者走過的路、他們經歷過的挫折和教訓，給予年輕人生命的啟示。如果我們以旅遊比喻人生，長者就像環遊世界的資深背包客，即使大家遊覽不同的地點、觀賞過不同的風景，他們總能夠分享一些旅遊的心得，讓新手遊客走少一點冤枉路，或領悟到旅遊的樂趣和意義。長者亦可以藉由敍述人生片段回顧他們生命中的故事，學習接納過去，增加自我認同感。青年人創作生命教育書冊，將長者積極的人生觀傳給年輕一代，並藉此鼓勵其他長者豁達地度過餘年。 我們於2022年初招募嶺南大學學生接受「生命故事敍述」培訓，內容包括：本港的人口老化現象、敍述治療理論、與長者溝通的技巧及模擬實踐練習等，以裝備同學的知識和技巧。本中心再向屯門、元朗區的長者機構發邀請信，誠邀長者擔任生命導師接受訪問。 嶺大安排同學以兩人一組的小隊形式，於2022年6至7月期間前往長者中心、日間護理中心、嶺南大學或長者家中，與十二位長者進行深入訪談。訪談結束後，同學根據訪談的內容，為長者書寫他們獨特的生命故事。例如在人離鄉賤的異國環境下，努力打拼事業的Alfred；堅持不懈持續進修的淑芹和馮春林；即使沒機會求學，仍憑一雙巧手闖出一片天的譚惠；在文化大革命的漩渦中，憑着熱忱而改變命運的蘭英；還有為家人無私奉獻的鳳群、歐婆婆、雅芳及細女；離鄉別井勇闖異地的阿美和阿水；即使被家人賣去做「妹仔」，仍能以「阿Q精神」面對的諒餘。 為保障長者的私隱權益，本書內所有刊登之故事皆經過受訪者或社工審閱，部份受訪者選擇以化名的形式來分享自己的故事，我們亦移除了部份敏感的個人資料。https://commons.ln.edu.hk/apias_guide/1008/thumbnail.jp

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data