Creating interaction in online learning: a case study

This paper uses the case‐study method to examine detailed data related to student and tutor usage of an asynchronous discussion board as an interactive communication forum during a first‐semester associate degree course in applied psychology at the City University of Hong Kong. The paper identifies ‘what works’ in relation to discussion board use, demonstrating how students might gradually create an online community of their own, but only if prompted in a timely and appropriate way by the course structure. It also identifies three distinct phases in online interaction and suggests these might, to some extent, be mediated by assessment tasks

Factors affecting developers' decisions in choosing forms of redevelopment in Hong Kong

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2004.published_or_final_versio

Exploration of the trajectory of being a breast cancer patient through collaborative writing in imaginal dialogue

This study aims to examine my personal lived experience, as a breast cancer patient, in navigating the liminality in the trajectory of illness. It focuses on developing understanding of the complexity in the thoughts, feelings and behaviours related to the (traumatic) cancer- related events that I have encountered over the past three years since diagnosis. The methodology is collaborative writing through imaginal dialogue (CW-ID) with Arthur Frank, the author of the books “At the Will of the Body” (2002 [1991]) and “The Wounded Storyteller” (2013 [1995]). It opens a creative and safe space for me to make sense of the life-threatening process. I discover that CW-ID, as a research methodology, supports me, as a researcher and cancer patient, in researching how the existential vulnerability of human beings is encountered and negotiated in the trajectory of illness. Surprisingly, CW-ID also manifests itself as therapeutic by making it possible for me to bring the overwhelming emotions in navigating the liminal spaces in the trajectory of illness to my supervisor. He bears witness to this creative-relational relationship which evolved over time between me, Frank, and others in both imaginal and real encounters in my trajectory of illness. The contribution of this study is that it offers an alternative to an autoethnographic approach in researching the deep, personal experience of health conditions that are biographically disruptive. It also opens an invitation to others who are interested in expanding the boundary of working collaboratively through imaginal dialogue with me and others. This can contribute to the knowledge creation of how human beings with medical conditions can develop a renewed sense of self in the process of navigating the liminal spaces in the trajectory of illness

The influence of religion on the drug treatment and rehabilitation in Hong Kong

This is a case study on the effect of religion on the voluntary residential drug treatment and rehabilitation in Hong Kong. The samples were drawn from two voluntary residential drug treatment and rehabilitation centres which are similar in their objectives, treatment programmes and after-care services. The major differences are, one is operated under the auspices of a religious group with emphasis on Christian beliefs as the major value underlying the detoxification and rehabilitation programme, the other group is under the secular auspices, and secondly, the difference in length of time of incarceration. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in the two voluntary residential centres for data collection. Included in this study were 30 inmates who had completed the rehabilitation programmes, 15 inmates from a Christian drug rehabilitation facility and 15 inmates from a non-Christian drug rehabilitation facility. These 30 cases were divided into the successful and unsuccessful groups for data analysis. Based mainly on Durkheim’s integrative functional approach of religion and Kanter’s multi-dimension model of commitment, that is group continuance, group cohesion and moral control, the study is going to examine religion effect being capable of providing an effective belief system and a set of moral rules to the group and have influence on it. Religiosity acts as a support factor to enhance group cohesion and group continuance of the Christian group, finally it can achieve a bit higher success rate in drug rehabilitation than the secular drug treatment. From the information gathered from the drug rehabilitation facilities that were visited, Christian rehabilitation facility was found under a strong influence of religious values, particularity those who were highly affiliated and converted to the Christian values, was found to have influence on the inmates during the incarceration and after the discharge, it enhances the moral control, family relationship, withdrawal from deviant subculture and involvement of occupational and educational situation. However, by comparing with the successful and the unsuccessful groups of the two drug treatment facilities, from the secular drug treatment facility, the factors contributed to the success of drug treatment and rehabilitation, except the moral control, it is the social cohesion, improvement of family relationships and involvement of occupation and education institutions contributing to the success of the drug treatment and a lower rate of residivism. In addition, it was also found that the length of time in drug treatment period also affecting the result of drug treatment, the longer the length of drug treatment, the greater the influence on inmates. Finally it was argued that religiosity acts as enhancing group cohesion and improving the relationship between the inmates and other social institutions. It is the group cohesion factor, improvement of family relationship and involvement of occupation and education act as the crucial factors contributing to the success of drug treatment. Religious factor is neither a necessary or sufficient factor to drug treatment success. The effect of religion is mainly to serve as a mediator to the other factors. The findings provided a understanding of Hong Kong voluntary residential drug treatment in Hong Kong

Experimental investigation on feedback insensitivity in semiconductor ring lasers

The insensitivity to optical feedback is experimentally measured for a semiconductor ring laser (SRL) and compared to that of a Fabry–Perot laser (FPL) fabricated with the same technology and on the same material. An analysis of the optical spectra reveals that the SRL remains nearly unaffected for values of optical feedback as strong as −23  dB. Furthermore, through both optical linewidth and self-mixing measurements, we show that the tolerance to feedback in SRLs is 25–30 dB stronger than in FPLs. This property makes SRLs very interesting candidates for the development of feedback-insensitive optical sources

Perianal Endometriosis Mimicking Recurrent Perianal Abscess

Endometriosis of the perianal region is an extremely rare condition usually seen in episiotomy scars and can involve the septum separating vagina and anal canal. The clinician is unlikely to suspect it if there is no scar in the perineum and patient the does not give a history of episiotomy. Moreover it is difficult to suspect when the patient does not report cyclical pain and therefore it is likely to be treated as perianal sepsis. We report the rare case of a 35-year-old woman who presented with recurrent painful nodule of endometriosis of the perianal area without previous episiotomy

Dispersion pattern and sampling plan for Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) in a citrus orchard

The ecology of the psyllid and its spatial distribution as the basis for the development of a reliable sampling plan are very important. The abundance and spatial distribution of Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) were studied in a commercial citrus orchard in southwestern Sarawak, Malaysia from April 2013 to December 2014. The spatial distribution of D. citri eggs, nymphs and adults were analysed using Taylor’s power law and Iwao’s patchiness regression. Taylor’s power law fitted the data better and produced higher values of R2 than Iwao’s regression model but did not work well with the egg populations. Based on both regression models, the field dispersion patterns of D. citri eggs, nymphs and adults were aggregated among flush shoots in individual trees as indicated by the regression slopes that were significantly >1. By homogeneity tests on both regression methods, the slopes of Taylor’s power law and Iwao’s regression model did not differ significantly for the D. citri population on honey tangerine for both years. The minimum number of flush shoots per tree required for estimates of D. citri densities varied from 2, 4 and 6 flush shoots for adults, nymphs and eggs, respectively, for the average density of each developmental stage obtained during our studies. Prediction suggested that a sampling plan consisting of 10 trees with the optimum number of six flush shoots per tree was required for a reasonably accurate density estimation of the three life stages of D. citri acceptable enough for population studies and pest management program in citrus orchards