Performance and movement kinematics of mouse pointing task: Perspectives from age, psychomotor ability, and visual ability.

Results from the first study confirmed the suspicion that not all kinematic measures reported in the literature were related to performance. For instance, although peak velocity is the most reported measure in the literature, it does not have any effect on performance. Kinematic measures correlate with performance are mainly temporal in nature, such as time to peak velocity, time to peak acceleration, and time from peak velocity until the end of movement. In the second study, as expected, age effects were detected in various kinematic measures. However, further investigation revealed the differences could in fact be attributed to psychomotor ability, but not the age effect per se. In general, the results confirm the notion of age being a surrogate variable, and that the causal relationship is in fact more directly related to age-related changes in psychomotor ability. In the third study, kinematics of the initial submovement for the low vision and the normal vision groups are stereotypical. However, the homing phase was significantly different between the two groups.This dissertation research consists of three related studies evolving around the movement kinematics of mouse-mediated pointing task. Movement time and error rates are the common performance measures used in similar studies. However, the performance-oriented approach is not capable of providing information about what happens "during" the movement. It is believed that much can be learned from studying the movement process. Investigation of movement process is often done by studying its kinematics, by which can be characterized using various measures. However, despite the common belief, it is suspected that certain kinematic measures do not have any relationship with movement performance. Therefore, the first study was conducted to determine the kinematics-performance relationship of a mouse pointing task.Of greater interest are the effects of age and functional abilities on the kinematics of aiming movement. The age effect is often identified as the cause of reduced performance. However, some argue the direct cause of such a reduction is actually due to age-related changes in functional abilities such as psychomotor ability. Based on that notion, it is hypothesized that the age effect on mouse use will become negligible if the effect of psychomotor ability is considered in parallel. Thus, the second study investigated the effects of age on mouse use, including after the psychomotor ability is included. Since good eye-hand coordination is required for mouse use, the research will be incomplete without considering how varying degree of visual ability can affect movement kinematics. Following along that line, the third study determined kinematic differences between people with low vision and those with normal vision

America new China policy : the hedgagement approach

In the past few decades, the rise of China has shifted the political landscape in the Asia Pacific region. China has succeeded in economic development since the reform in 1979. It is transforming its growing economic strength into military power by substantially increasing military expenditure. According to the estimation of Global Trends 2025, by 2025 China will be the second largest economic and military power if current trend persists. The emergence of China has inevitably altered its international role when it is becoming the great power. With increasing economic interdependence and the anti-terrorism, the Sino-U.S. relations have become more complicated than ever before. On one hand, China has been an economic cooperator of the United States. The United States is calling for further economic cooperation between them, especially after the outbreak of Financial Tsunami. On the other hand, China is simultaneously the potential competitor. The United States is misgiving about overtaking from China in the 21st century. It worries the rise of China will constitute the same type of security threat to it that Germany did to Britain in the two World Wars. To respond the rise of China, Joseph Nye remarked that the development of Indo-U.S. strategic ties would be able to dissuade the future ambition of China and thus encourage China to be a “responsible stakeholder” in the international system. The objectives of this research are to identify the nature of the current China policy towards the U.S. and the feasibility of this strategy. To understand the current China policy it is crucial that we understand how the United States has coped with the rise of China. In order to test the current nature of Chinese policy, it will be necessary to compare the engagement and containment policy. The United States is implementing a two-pronged policy towards China that combines “engagement” and “hedging”. The term “engagement” means integrating China into the existing international system through economic cooperation and institutionalization. The term “hedging” means preserving enough dissuasive power to prevent the emergence of aggressive China in future. The strategic goal of this policy is to engage China while dissuading it from challenging the United States militarily in future. However, until now, there is still a question over how does the United States cope with the rise of China as the essence of U.S. two-pronged policy is still uncertainty. The controversy is whether the branch of hedging equals to the containment or not. To analyze the essence of U.S. hedging policy, this policy will be compared with U.S. containment policy towards the Soviet Union during the Cold War era as well as U.S. foreign policy towards other rising powers, such as India and Brazil. Then, India will be used as a case study in order to test the feasibility of U.S. two-pronged foreign policy toward China

Biological evaluations of novel 2,3,3-Trisphosphonate in osteoclastic and osteoblastic activities

Bisphosphonates (BPs) are the first line treatment for many bone diseases including hypercalcimia associated with bone malignancies. In this paper, we introduce a new analogue of bisphosphonate called the 2,3,3-Trisphosphonate (2,3,3-TriPP) that was synthesised in a two steps reaction. In vitro investigations using a medically known bisphosphonate (Etidronate) and the 2,3,3-TrisPP were performed with an aim to evaluate biological effect of this novel compound in major bone cells. 2,3,3-TrisPP showed to have potential to supress the bone resorption process, as our data found that this novel compound exhibited cytotoxic effect in osteoclastic cells at a low concentration of 0.172 mg/mL (LC50). A molecular docking computational simulation calculated a high level of binding affinity between the human farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (hFPPS) and 2,3,3-TrisPP. This calculation suggested 2,3,3TrisPP may have undergone the mevalonate pathway to prevent the prenylation step during biosynthesis and subsequently resulted in the deactivation of osteoclastic cells. Finally, high levels of osteoblast mineralisation potentials were recorded upon treatments with 2,3,3-TrisPP (0.01-0.1 mg/ml), which implied 2,3,3-TrsiPP may also facilitate bone regeneration.Peer reviewe

Improving the Apparel Virtual Size Fitting Prediction under Psychographic Characteristics and 3D Body Measurements Using Artificial Neural Network

3D virtual simulation prototyping software combined with computer-aided manufacturing systems are widely used and are becoming essential in the fashion industry in the earlier stages of the product development process for apparel design. These technologies streamline the garment product fitting procedures, as well as improve the supply chain environmentally, socially, and economically by eliminating large volumes of redundant samples. Issues of non-standardized selection on garment sizing, ease allowance, and size of 3D avatar for creating 3D garments have been addressed by many researchers. Understanding the relationship between body dimensions, ease allowance, and apparel sizes before adopting virtual garment simulation is fundamental for satisfying high customer demands in the apparel industry. However, designers find difficulties providing the appropriate garment fit for customers without fully understanding the motivation and emotions of customers’ fitting preferences in a virtual world. The main purpose of this study is to investigate apparel sizes for virtual fitting, particularly looking at garment ease with consideration of body dimensions and the psychographic characteristics of subjects. In order to develop a virtual garment fitting prediction model, an artificial neural network (ANN) was applied. We recruited 50 subjects between the ages of 18 and 35 years old to conduct 3D body scans and a questionnaire survey for physical and psychological segmentation, as well as fitting preferences evaluation through co-design operations on virtual garment simulation using a commercial software called Optitex. The results from the study demonstrate that ANN is effective in modeling the non-linear relationship between pattern measurements, psychological characteristics, and body measurements. This new approach and the proposed method of virtual garment fitting model prediction on garment sizes using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is significant in prediction accuracy. The project also achieves the concept of mass customization and customer orientation and generates new size-fitting data that can bring a new level of end-user satisfaction

Predicting student satisfaction of emergency remote learning in higher education during COVID-19 using machine learning techniques

Despite the wide adoption of emergency remote learning (ERL) in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is insufficient understanding of influencing factors predicting student satisfaction for this novel learning environment in crisis. The present study investigated important predictors in determining the satisfaction of undergraduate students (N = 425) from multiple departments in using ERL at a self-funded university in Hong Kong while Moodle and Microsoft Team are the key learning tools. By comparing the predictive accuracy between multiple regression and machine learning models before and after the use of random forest recursive feature elimination, all multiple regression, and machine learning models showed improved accuracy while the most accurate model was the elastic net regression with 65.2% explained variance. The results show only neutral (4.11 on a 7-point Likert scale) regarding the overall satisfaction score on ERL. Even majority of students are competent in technology and have no obvious issue in accessing learning devices or Wi-Fi, face-to-face learning is more preferable compared to ERL and this is found to be the most important predictor. Besides, the level of efforts made by instructors, the agreement on the appropriateness of the adjusted assessment methods, and the perception of online learning being well delivered are shown to be highly important in determining the satisfaction scores. The results suggest that the need of reviewing the quality and quantity of modified assessment accommodated for ERL and structured class delivery with the suitable amount of interactive learning according to the learning culture and program nature

An experiment in first language acquisition : a case study of a Malaysian Indian child acquiring English

This academic exercise has been written in five chapters. Chapter one, the introduction, sets out to give the reader a brief outline on the aim of this study, the procedure used for data collection and an introductory account on the methodology used.Chapter two provides a review of the literature of child language acquisition commencing from sources of interest in child language learning to the earliest stage - babbling,to the language comprehension stage (18 months). The chapter ends with a view of theories of first language acquisition

Modulation of West Nile Virus Capsid Protein and Viral RNA Interaction through Phosphorylation

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Exploiting the antiviral potential of intermetallic nanoparticles

© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Viral pandemic outbreaks cause a significant burden on global health as well as healthcare expenditure. The use of antiviral agents not only reduces the spread of viral pathogens but also diminishes the likelihood of them causing infection. The antiviral properties of novel copper-silver and copper-zinc intermetallic nanoparticles against Escherichia coli bacteriophage MS2 (RNA virus) and Escherichia coli bacteriophage T4 (DNA virus) are presented. The intermetallic nanoparticles were spherical in shape and were between 90 and 120 nm. Antiviral activity was assessed at concentrations ranging from 0.05 to 2.0 wt/v% for 3 and 24 h using DNA and RNA virus model organisms. Both types of nanoparticles demonstrated strong potency towards RNA viruses (> 89% viral reduction), whilst copper-silver nanoparticles were slightly more toxic towards DNA viruses when compared to copper-zinc nanoparticles. Both nanoparticles were then incorporated into polymeric fibres (carrier) to investigate their antiviral effectiveness when composited into polymeric matrices. Fibres containing copper-silver nanoparticles exhibited favourable antiviral properties, with a viral reduction of 75% after 3 h of exposure. The excellent antiviral properties of the intermetallic nanoparticles reported in this study against both types of viruses together with their unique material properties can make them significant alternatives to conventional antiviral therapies and decontamination agents.Final Published versio

Ammonium halide selective ion pair recognition and extraction with a chalcogen bonding heteroditopic receptor †

The first example of a heteroditopic receptor capable of cooperative recognition and extraction of ammonium salt (NH4X) ion-pairs is described. Consisting of a bidentate 3,5-bis-tellurotriazole chalcogen bond donor binding cleft, the appendage of benzo-15-crown-5 (B15C5) substituents to the tellurium centres facilitates binding of the ammonium cation via a co-facial bis-B15C5 sandwich complex, which serves to switch on chalcogen bonding-mediated anion binding potency. Extensive quantitative ion-pair recognition 1H NMR titration studies in CD3CN/CDCl3 (1 : 1, v/v) solvent media reveal impressive ion-pair binding affinities towards a variety of ammonium halide, nitrate and thiocyanate salts, with the heteroditopic receptor displaying notable ammonium halide salt selectivity. The prodigious solution phase NH4X recognition also translates to efficient solid–liquid and liquid–liquid extraction capabilities

Synergistic Antifungal Study of PEGylated Graphene Oxides and Copper Nanoparticles against Candida albicans

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).The coupling reactions of polyethylene glycol (PEG) with two different nano-carbonaceous materials, graphene oxide (GO) and expanded graphene oxide (EGO), were achieved by amide bond formations. These reactions yielded PEGylated graphene oxides, GO-PEG and EGO-PEG. Whilst presence of the newly formed amide links (NH-CO) were confirmed by FTIR stretches observed at 1732 cm−1 and 1712 cm−1, the associated Raman D- and G-bands resonated at 1311/1318 cm−1 and 1584/1595 cm−1 had shown the carbonaceous structures in both PEGylated products remain unchanged. Whilst SEM images revealed the nano-sheet structures in all the GO derivatives (GO/EGO and GO-PEG/EGO-PEG), TEM images clearly showed the nano-structures of both GO-PEG and EGO-PEG had undergone significant morphological changes from their starting materials after the PEGylated processes. The successful PEGylations were also indicated by the change of pH values measured in the starting GO/EGO (pH 2.6–3.3) and the PEGylated GO-PEG/EGO-PEG (pH 6.6–6.9) products. Initial antifungal activities of selective metallic nanomaterials (ZnO and Cu) and the four GO derivatives were screened against Candida albicans using the in vitro cut-well method. Whilst the haemocytometer count indicated GO-PEG and copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) exhibited the best antifungal effects, the corresponding SEM images showed C. albicans had, respectively, undergone extensive shrinkage and porosity deformations. Synergistic antifungal effects all GO derivatives in various ratio of CuNPs combinations were determined by assessing C. albicans viabilities using broth dilution assays. The best synergistic effects were observed when a 30:70 ratio of GO/GO-PEG combined with CuNPs, where MIC50 185–225 μm/mL were recorded. Moreover, the decreased antifungal activities observed in EGO and EGO-PEG may be explained by their poor colloidal stability with increasing nanoparticle concentrations.Peer reviewe