Move On, Move On! What it is to be Chinese in Australia today

The Chinese are all right now. On the whole the mainstream population is quite relaxed about the Chinese presence in their midst. That of course was not the case for the 100 years to the end of WWII. And so it should come as no surprise that now and again old scars will resurface. Yet the Chinese have metamorphosed in the psyche of mainstream Australia: honorary whites like Li Cunxin, lionized professionals like Victor Chang, are neon-lit signs of this change. All the same, as a huayi (overseas Chinese) immigrant, my observations over the last 50 years have compelled me to conclude that there is one last gate for the present-day Chinese to walk through, and that it is time for the remaining rearguards of White Australia to consciously remove themselves from that gate

A Study on Erosion Resistance for Microbially Induced Calcite Treated Beach Sand

Microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP) was used to treat several sandboxes filled with naturally occurring beach sand collected from Atlantic Beach, FL. Unlike most previous MICP studies, a surface-spray technique was used to treat these sandboxes where relatively high-concentration bacteria solution and high concentration calcium chloride/urea solutions were applied directly to the boxes’ surfaces. Several different treatment combinations were tested whereby bacterial optical density, bacteria/urea/calcium chloride volume relative to void space, and bacteria/urea/calcium chloride ratio were manipulated. Treated sandboxes were tested for erodibility using a pocket erodometer and for calcification using a wash method. In addition, sandboxes were dissected after calcification/erosion testing to examine calcification depth. Results showed that higher optical densities, higher bacteria quantities relative to void volume, and higher bacteria quantities relative to urea led to higher calcification. By maximizing these three variables, calcium carbonate precipitation of approximately 6% was achieved after one treatment. After five treatments, calcification approached 15%. However, even with significant calcification like this, erodibility improvements were relatively moderate. In addition, correlations were developed that appeared to show indirect relationships between erodibility and calcite content; and direct relationships between calcification depth and calcite content. Overall, results seem to present a roadmap for upscaling microbial treatment for erosion control – generally, “more is better” and adding as much bacteria, urea, and calcium carbonate as possible to soil appears to produce the most erosion resistance

Gaya Komunikasi Pengurus Dan Hubungannya Dengan Kepuasan Komunikasi Pekerja

Communication is a dynamic process and it happens in all organizations. As a manager in an organization, the skill of communication is crucial because the ability to communicate is a managerial necessity. Good managers are good communicators. poor managers are most often poor communicators. Therefore this quote summarizes the assumed importance of the relationship between communication and management. On this note too, managers' communication style will affect the workers' communication satisfaction. Therefore the objective of this survey is to identify the correlation between the managers'communication style towards the workers' communication satisfaction. Using stratified random sampling, a set of questionnaire consisting of 38 items has been distributed to 136 respondents from a population of 210 workers at the Kedah State Education Department. Seven dimensions of managerial communication has been chosen for this survey and seven hypothesis has also been constructed to be tested in this study. Using Pearson Correlation r and the Mean Test, findings revealed that all the seven null hypothesis were rejected because there is a significant corellation between the managers' communication style towards the workers' communication satisfaction. It is hoped that this findings will give some insight to the administrators, programme planners and trainers as to how effective managerial communication is, especially to the administrators at Kedah State Education Department in handling and interacting with their workers towards a better rapport between administrators and workers

Development Of High Cell Density Recombinant Pichia Pastoris Culture For Human Growth Hormone Production

Methylotrophic yeast, Pichia pastoris has been used as an excellent host to produce more than 400 recombinant heterologous proteins of academic and industrial interests. Pichia pastoris telah digunakan sebagai perumah yang unggul untuk menghasilkan lebih daripada 400 jenis protein heterologus kegunaan bidang akademik dan industri

Image of Taiwan held by Malaysian Muslim tourists: Motivational factors influencing overall image evaluations

In the recent years, the Muslim international tourists market has become the focus of the tourism industries in the Asia Pacific. Taiwan has also noticed the potential of this market segment, and started promoting its tourism products to the international Muslim tourists. In order to promote Taiwan effectively to this market segment, it is important to identify the factors that influence the perception of the Muslim tourists about Taiwan.With this notion, this study set out to establish the prevision tourism image of Taiwan held by the Muslim tourists, and determine the factors that influence the Muslim tourists’ image evaluations.This study employed both structured and unstructured methods in the survey, and the data was analysed using content analysis, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling.The findings indicated that Muslim tourists generally have a positive image of Taiwan; however, this image is fuzzy.Furthermore, the direct effect of travel motivation on effective images was significant, and the ‘Relax’ dimension of travel motivation has the greatest impact. However, the ‘Religious’ dimension of travel motivation did not have significant effect on effective image

A Correlational Study of Jungian Psychological Types and Nineteen Spiritual Gifts

Problem No known study had examined the correlation between the Jungian psychological types and spiritual gifts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible correlation between the Jungian psychological types and a selection of 19 spiritual gifts of the New Testament. Method This study employed two instruments to measure the psychological types and 19 spiritual gifts: The Myers-Briggs type Indicator and The Spiritual Gifts Inventory. The data which were computed and analyzed to test 38 null hypotheses were provided by a total of 430 undergraduate, graduate, and seminary students from Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, and church members from the Beaverton Seventh-day Adventist Church, Oregon. Findings 1. The older the person, the more likely he will manifest the gifts of evangelism, faith, giving, hospitality, intercession, knowledge, prophecy and teaching. 2. The extraverted-sensing-feeling-judgment (ESFJ) type is more common among those with the gifts of prophecy, pastoring, hospitality, and exhortation. 3. Specifically for males: a. The extraverted-intuitive (EN) type is more common among those with gifts of hospitality, administration, mercy, and apostleship. b. The extraverted-intuitive-thinking-judgment (ENTJ) type is more common among those having gifts of administration, apostleship, and teaching. c. The extraverted-thinking (ET) type is more common among those having the gift of evangelism. d. The extraverted-feeling0judgment (EFJ) type is more common among those having the gift of pastoring. e. The introverted-sensing (IS) type is more common among those with gifts of helps and intercession. f. The intuitive-judgment (NJ) type is more common with the gift of knowledge. g. The thinking-perceptive (TP) type is more common among those having the gift of wisdom. 4. Specifically for females: The extraverted type is more common among those having gifts of exhortation, administration, and faith. Conclusions This study validates that psychological types are relevant predictors for 16 of the 19 spiritual gifts. It infers that gifts of intercession and helps are more practical for one-to-one ministeries. It appears that the higher the self-perception of spiritual maturity, the higher is the perception of spiritual giftedness. Finally, it suggests that only the gift of faith is more common among women, but gifts of administration, apostleship, evangelism, knowledge, patoring, and teaching are more common to men

Relationship between Ethical Work Climate and Ethics Factors, and Their Influence on Moral Judgement Competence of Academicians in Private Institutions of Higher Learning

The move towards corporatisation of Malaysian public universities and the establishment of a number of private institutions of higher learning were made to establish Malaysia as one of the regional educational hubs and a centre for providing educational excellence. However, the rapid expansion of private education institutions owned by profit-driven enterprises have posed a number of ethical problems and issues, such as the lack of a code of practice and the drive towards profit maximisation at the expense of a quality education. Issues such as corporate integrity and accountability are being questioned, and professionals are now finding ways to promote and inculcate ethical culture to these organisations. A number of studies have shown that there is clearly a relationship between the corporate organisations and individuals who work in the organisation when it comes to morals or ethics. Corporations could only act as a result of the choices and actions of human individuals in the corporations. This clearly shows that ethical culture of corporations, like the private institutions of higher learning can be affected by the ethical behaviour of the individuals, especially the academic staff. This study was conducted to determine the level of moral judgement competence of academic staff in the private institutions of higher learning, and its relationship with ethical work climate and ethics factors. The research design of this study was a correlational research using a cross-sectional survey approach. Four hundred and six (406) academic staff in Malaysia participated in this study by returning the self-administered questionnaire distributed to them. For computation and analysis of data collected, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows program was used. The findings revealed more than 78.1% of the academic staff had a medium level of moral judgement competence. The findings also indicated the emergence of the instrumental and service dimensions as two dominant dimensions of ethical work climates in the private institutions of higher learning. The relationship between moral judgement competence, ethical work climate, demographic factors, professional factors, and ethic factors were tested and the conclusions of the findings were mixed. However, seven hypotheses tested in this research confirmed that the ethical work climate dimensions and the selected ethics factors had positive and significant relationship with moral judgement competence. The result suggests that consideration must be made with regards to demographic, professional and ethics factors when deciding on any human resource policies and development. The move towards institutionalising ethics through formulation of codes of ethics, formalising ethics training, factoring ethics in performance management and nurturing right ethical climate in the workplace can significantly accelerate the rate of moral development and moral judgement competence

An absence of dystrophin in cerebellar Purkinje cells impairs inhibitory synaptic function in mature dystrophic mice

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rapidly progressive X-linked recessive disease affecting about 1 in 3500 live male births. It is caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene, which result in the loss of dystrophin or expression of a non-functional truncated protein product. Full-length dystrophin is mainly expressed in muscles and the central nervous system. In addition to the degeneration of skeletal musculature, about one-third of patients with DMD display various degrees of intellectual impairment, commonly found with intelligence quotient (IQ) scores of one standard deviation below (IQ of 85) the normal population mean (IQ of 100). However, the mechanism underlying the cognitive deficits in DMD remains unclear and no effective treatment is available to reverse this condition in the affected individual. Recent studies showed that the life span of DMD patients today has increased from teens to their fourth decades. With longer survival, the quality of life becomes increasing important. Therefore, research on the cognitive aspect of DMD is as important as research on the muscular aspects because improvements in cognitive function will enhance the quality of life for the growing population of adult DMD patients. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the role of dystrophin in the central nervous system of the mdx mouse, a widely accepted murine model for DMD. This study employed the use of animal with different age groups, corresponding to young (3-4 months), adult (11-12 months), and aged (23-26 months). Adult and aged mdx mice are the focus in this study with findings from the older mouse especially valuable as, disease progression in aged mice closely resembling that of DMD. As numerous evidence has shown a high similarity between the specific cognitive dysfunctions seen in DMD (i.e. impaired verbal intelligence) and in patients with cerebellar lesions (i.e. language disorders), this study examined the function of cerebellar Purkinje cells in mdx mice using electrophysiological recording and calcium imaging. Overall, the data presented in this thesis provides new insights into the role of dystrophin in cerebellar Purkinje neurons. The findings suggest that dystrophin is important for normal inhibitory synaptic function, intrinsic electrophysiological properties, and calcium handling of the mature cerebellar Purkinje cells. The consequences of the absence of dystrophin including the altered GABAA receptor clustering and reduced peak amplitude of mIPSCs could be ameliorated when dystrophin was successfully rescued with Pip6f-PMO in an organotypic mdx cerebellar culture. If mdx mice and DMD patients share similar neuropathogenesis, the development of drugs targeting the altered functions in mdx Purkinje cells may serve as a potential therapy in alleviating the cognitive impairments seen in DMD

Digital signal propagation delay in a nano-circuit containing reactive and resistive elements

The transient switching delay in a micro/nano-scale circuit containing resistive and reactive elements are sternly affected by the surge in the resistance arising from sub-linear current-voltage (I-V) characteristics limited by the velocity and current saturation. The saturation arises due to the realignment of randomly oriented velocity vectors to the unidirectional streamlined ones in a high electric field when voltage applied across a resistor exceeds its decreasing critical value with reduced channel length. The frequency response f = 1/2πτt is affected by a transit time delay τt is lower than that predicted from the application of Ohm's law. The resistance surge dramatically boosts the RC time constant and switching delay and attenuates the L/R time constant and switching delay