Music information behaviors and system preferences of university students in Hong Kong

The Conference proceedings' website is located at http://www.terasoft.com.tw/conf/ismir2014/Proceedings.htmlThis paper presents a user study on music information needs and behaviors of university students in Hong Kong. A mix of quantitative and qualitative methods was used. A survey was completed by 101 participants and supplemental interviews were conducted in order to investigate users’ music information related activities. We found that university students in Hong Kong listened to music frequently and mainly for the purposes of entertainment, singing and playing instruments, and stress reduction. This user group often searches for music with multiple methods, but common access points like genre and time period were rarely used. Sharing music with people in their online social networks such as Facebook and Weibo was a common activity. Furthermore, the popularity of smartphones prompted the need for streaming music and mobile music applications. We also examined users’ preferences on music services available in Hong Kong such as YouTube and KKBox, as well as the characteristics liked and disliked by the users. The results not only offer insights into non-Western users’ music behaviors but also for designing online music services for young music listeners in Hong Kong. © Xiao Hu, Jin Ha Lee, Leanne Ka Yan Wong.published_or_final_versio

CR2Cancer: a database for chromatin regulators in human cancer

Identification of Master Regulators (MRs) during cancer development contributes greatly to the design of novel targeted therapy. However, it is challenging to trace the MR that regulate the gene signature (e.g. differentially expressed genes) derived from a limited number of transcriptome profiles. The main reason is that the targets (collectively termed as regulon) of MRs in cancer type-specific context is not available for enrichment analysis in the signature. To this aim, we generated the regulon of MRs using high throughput omics data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and developed a web server MR4Cancer, which can prioritize MRs driving phenotypic differentiation of interest in 26 cancer types. Based on the input gene list or expression profiles, it outputs six groups of ranked MRs, including transcription regulators, miRNAs, recurrently mutated genes, kinases, phosphatases, and hubs from protein-protein interaction network. Simultaneously, Gene Ontology and canonical pathway analyses are also conducted to further elucidate the function of MR candidates. Moreover, our tool presents dynamic network visualization for MR-target relations, and users can interactively customize it as high quality figures for their publications. We expect this user-friendly and powerful web application will provide researchers new insights into carcinogenesis and therapeutic intervention.published_or_final_versio

Nesting problem using an immune-inspired optimization algorithm

Conference Theme: Unfolding the New Era of Business CollaborationSession D: Modeling and Optimization - D4-2: no. 22

Develop an evidence-based protocol of maintaining normothermia of colorectal patients

Conference Theme: A New Era of Patient Care - 創優立新為民

Surgical hand-washing

Pre-operative hand-washing is essential for the reduction of surgical site infection (SSI) rate. This article aims to review the current literature regarding the issues on: (i) the duration of washing; (ii) the use of the brush; and (iii) the reagents used. Based on current evidence, preoperative hand-washing for 10 min is not recommended and 2-5 min is adequate. There is no evidence supporting the use of the brush, and washing without the brush may confer further advantages of reducing skin irritation and delayed colonization. The newly developed aqueous alcoholic solutions (AAS) are equally effective as conventional reagents such as chlorhexidine gluconate and povidone-iodine in preventing SSI. Aqueous alcoholic solutions have the advantage of better user compliance and causing fewer occupational hazards. The author concluded that a 1 min non-antiseptic hand-wash, followed by thorough rubbing with AAS until dry and without brushing is a safe and effective alternative to the conventional scrubbing technique.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Dendritic Cells for Behaviour Detection in Immersive Virtual Reality Training

This paper presents a cross-disciplinary research of artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) that presents a real application of an aircraft door operation training conducted in an immersive virtual environment. In the context of the study, AI takes an imperative role in distinguishing misbehaviour of trainees such as inappropriate steps and positions in the virtual training environment that mimics a real training scenario. Trainee’s behaviours are detected by the classical Dendritic Cell Algorithm (DCA) which is a signal-based classification approach that is inspired from the segmented detection and interaction with the signal molecules mechanisms of the human dendritic cells. The resulted approach demonstrated accurate detection and classification processes that are evidence in the experimental studies. This position paper also reveals the ability of the DCA method in human behaviour detection/classification in a dynamic environment

Expression of maspin in gestational trophoblastic disease

Background. Maspin is a tumor suppressor gene whose expression is altered in neoplasia and malignancies of many tissues. In the human placenta, the maspin gene is expressed in trophoblastic cells and might act as an inhibitory regulator of trophoblastic invasion. Hence, in gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD), where there is increased propensity for invasion in the trophoblastic tissue, we hypothesized that maspin expression would be decreased. The present study aimed at investigating the expression of maspin in GTD and its prognostic significance. Methods. Using immunohistochemical staining, we firstly studied the expression of maspin in hydatidiform moles, with gestational age-matched normal first trimester placenta used as control. A total of 38 cases of hydatidiform moles were studied, including 20 complete moles (CM) and 18 partial moles (PM). Among them, 10 cases of the CM group and 8 cases of the PM group subsequently developed gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN). Immunostaining was also performed on tissue from 4 cases of choriocarcinoma and 5 cases of placental site trophoblastic tumor. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was further performed on RNA extracted from 10 hydatidiform moles (5 with GTN and 5 without) and 6 normal first-trimester placentae. Results. In all tissue sections, nuclear expression of immunostaining signal was demonstrated, mainly in the cytotrophoblasts. The percentage of trophoblastic nuclei stained in both complete and partial moles was significantly lower than that in normal first-trimester placenta (P 0.05). There was also significantly lower expression of maspin in those cases subsequently developing GTN than those which did not (P = 0.01). Immunostaining on choriocarcinoma and placental site trophoblastic tumor showed reduced expression of maspin in all the tumor cells. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction revealed that the expression of maspin was consistently down-regulated in all the hydatidiform mole samples. Conclusions. Our results suggest that there is down-regulated expression of maspin in gestational trophoblastic diseases, and the down-regulation is more prominent in cases developing gestational trophoblastic neoplasia. This may play a role with prognostic significance in the pathogenesis and malignant transformation of hydatidiform moles. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Development of immersive virtual reality system for planning of cargo loading operations

The real-time planning visualisation, precise allocation and loading optimisation in air cargo load planning operations are increasingly important as more considerations are needed on dangerous cargo loading, locations of lithium batteries, weight declaration and limited aircraft capacity. The planning of the unit load devices (ULD) can often be carried out only in a limited number of hours before flight departure. A dynamic air cargo load planning system is proposed with the optimisation of cargo load plan and visualisation of planning results in virtual reality systems. The system aims to optimise the cargo load planning and visualise the simulated loading planning decision on air cargo terminal operations. Adopting simulation tools, Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) and virtual reality technologies, the results of planning with reference to weight and balance, Unit Load Device (ULD) dimensions, gateway, cargo nature and aircraft capacity are optimised and presented. The virtual reality system facilities planning, operations, education and training. Staff in terminals are usually trained in a traditional push-approach demonstration with enormous manual paperwork. With the support of newly customized immersive visualization environment, users can master the complex air cargo load planning techniques in a problem based training with the instant result being immersively visualised. The virtual reality system is developed with three-dimensional (3D) projectors, screens, workstations, truss system, 3D glasses, and demonstration platform and software. The content will be focused on the cargo planning and loading operations in an air cargo terminal. The system can assist decision-making process during cargo load planning in the complex operations of air cargo terminal operations. The processes of cargo loading, cargo build-up, security screening, and system monitoring can be further visualised. Scenarios are designed to support and demonstrate the daily operations of the air cargo terminal, including dangerous goods, pets and animals, and some special cargos

Polymorphisms of glutathione S-transferase genes and functional activity in smokers with or without COPD

OBJECTIVE: To determine the role of polymorphisms of genes regulating glutathione S-transferase (GST) and its plasma GST activity in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). DESIGN: Case-control study. METHODS: One hundred and sixty-three patients with stable COPD from several community or regional hospitals were matched for age and pack-years smoked with the same number of health controls from the general population. Each participant underwent an interview-based respiratory and smoking questionnaire, lung function testing and gave a blood sample. Genotyping was carried out using a polymerase chain reaction-based method for polymorphisms of glutathione S-transferase theta 1 (GSTT1), glutathione S-transferase mu 1 (GSTM1) and glutathione S-transferase P 1 (GSTP1) genes. Plasma GST activity was measured using the spectrofluorometric method. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the distribution of various genotypes of polymorphisms of GSTT1, GSTM1 and GSTP1 between COPD patients and healthy controls. GST activity was significantly higher in patients compared with controls, irrespective of their different genotypes, and was not different between patients with different levels of airflow obstruction. CONCLUSION: Polymorphisms of GSTT1, GSTM1 and GSTP1 genes are unlikely to be involved in the pathogenesis of COPD in Chinese in Hong Kong and Southern China. © 2007 The Union.link_to_subscribed_fulltex