Emigration and stability in Hong Kong

published_or_final_versio

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

A Brief Mindfulness-Based Family Psychoeducation Intervention for Chinese Young Adults With First Episode Psychosis: A Study Protocol

Family psychoeducation (FPE) has been recommended as a major component in the treatment of psychosis. Many previous studies have implemented an intensive program design that often only emphasized improvements in patients’ illness outcomes but the benefits for caregivers were limited. There have been calls for a time-limited but cost-effective FPE program to mitigate the looming reality of the suffering of people with psychosis and their families. A Brief Mindfulness-Based Family Psychoeducation for psychosis program is developed to reduce caregivers’ burden and promote young adult’s recovery. A randomized controlled trial will be conducted to compare this intervention with an ordinary FPE intervention. Both arms will involve six sessions, with a total contact time of 12 h. 300 caregivers of young adults who have experienced first episode psychosis within last 3 years will be recruited. Program effectiveness will be assessed by comparing outcomes measuring the caregivers’ burden, mental health symptoms, positive well-being, and the young adult’s mental health symptoms during the study and at 9-month post-randomization. The role of expressed emotions, interpersonal mindfulness, and non-attachment in mediating these outcomes will be explored. An additional qualitative approach Photovoice is selected to explore the complex family experiences and the benefits of mindfulness from the caregivers’ personal perspectives.Trial Registration: The trial is registered with the United States Clinical Trials Registry (ClinicalTrials.gov): NCT03688009

Creative Destruction: The Rise of Entrepreneurial Society in China

L’entrepreneuriat est aujourd’hui en plein essor en Chine, alors qu’il existait à peine sur le continent chinois il y a quarante ans. Comment cette nouvelle force entrepreneuriale a-t-elle pu émerger de l’économie socialiste planifiée de la République populaire de Chine (RPC) ? Le chapitre montre que cette dynamique trouve son origine dans deux événements importants : la Grande Révolution culturelle prolétarienne et la rétrocession de Hong Kong à la Chine. La Révolution culturelle a stimulé l’entrepreneuriat de trois façons différentes : en affaiblissant le contrôle de l’état sur la paysannerie entreprenante, en modifiant les structures d’opportunité au sein de la société par un processus de décentralisation, enfin, en créant une migration interne massive qui a donné naissance à de nouveaux entrepreneurs. D’autre part, les négociations sur le futur de Hong Kong qui ont commencé au début des années 1980 ont lancé un défiaux dirigeants chinois. Les communistes chinois ont dû rapidement se familiariser avec les rouages du système capitaliste pratiqué dans la colonie britannique. L’attrait nationaliste pour le rétablissement de la souveraineté chinoise à Hong Kong a légitimé l’adhésion des cadres de l’administration de la RPC à une coexistence paisible d’éléments capitalistes au sein du système socialiste. L’auteur conclut par quelques remarques sur les tensions et les problèmes liés à cette explosion d’énergie entrepreneuriale dans la Chine contemporaine

Functional characterization of Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation of endophilin B1 in macroautophagy in models of parkinson's disease

Macroautophagy is a cellular process that sequesters cytoplasmic content into autophagosomes for subsequent degradation. Precise regulation of macroautophagy ensures cell survival, with either excessive or insufficient level of macroautophagy leading to cell death. In addition, deregulation of macroautophagy has been implicated in the pathophysiology of various neurodegenerative disorders. Nonetheless, the mechanism by which macroautophagy deregulation contributes to neuronal death in these disorders remains largely unclear. Cdk5 is a serine/threonine kinase that is aberrantly activated in a number of neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s disease. While basal Cdk5 activity is important for neuronal survival, aberrant activation of Cdk5 triggers neuronal death. The present study reveals a novel role of Cdk5 in regulating macroautophagy induction in neurons. Cdk5 phosphorylates endophilin B1 at Thr145 to mediate macroautophagy induction in starved neurons. Moreover, Thr145 phosphorylation of endophilin B1 by Cdk5 promotes endophilin B1 dimerization and recruitment of macroautophagy proteins UVRAG and Beclin 1, whereas this phosphorylation does not alter endophilin B1’s lipid binding property or facilitate its localization to pre-autophagosomal membranes. Importantly, macroautophagy induction is essential for neuronal death in two Parkinson’s disease models involving either MPTP toxicity or mutant A53T alpha-synuclein expression. Furthermore, Cdk5-mediated Thr145 endophilin B1 phosphorylation is required for macroautophagy induction and neuronal death in these Parkinson’s disease models. This study thus reveals an unanticipated role of Cdk5 and endophilin B1 in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease through the regulation of macroautophagy

Challenges for log based detection of privacy violations during healthcare emergencies

The widespread adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR) increases the requirement for sufficient auditing mechanisms enabled with health information technologies to protect against deliberate and accidental information misuses. Shared information environments improve the quality of healthcare. Healthcare environments are characterized by unanticipated emergency situations where access to information is essential. The ordinary work-flow of the health system may need to be violated in emergency situations in a \textit{break-the-glass} approach. Hence, a purely preventive approach for information access use is not adequate for the current trends of electronic healthcare systems. Instead, after-the-fact justification of patient data access violations is required. Assessing root causes for unusual human behaviours is feasible through maintenance and analysis of appropriate event logs. Here we describe the challenges of detecting information privacy violations of current EHR systems during emergency situations. We define how a log file with additional information could be used to detect deviations from expected sequences of events during emergency situations in healthcare