Teaching in HIGHER education

This study explores Chinese students’ perceptions of effective teaching and good teachers. The qualitative data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 72 associate degree students in Hong Kong. Adopting a thematic analysis, three main themes are foun

韓寒散文作品語言特色及其變化之分析

韓寒的散文寫作手法別樹一格。在1999年，韓寒參加新概念作文大賽即席創作，以〈杯中窺人〉一文奪下首獎。他自此踏上了散文創作之路，出版不同的散文集，如《通稿2003》、《飄移中國》、《青春》等。當網絡熱潮興起，他在博客發佈大量的散文，內容主題多樣，漸具個人寫作特色。而隨時間的推移亦可看出他的散文風格上有所轉變。 本文選取韓寒不同時期的散文集作研究對象，包括：《零下一度》、《通稿2003》、《青春》、《飄移中國》、《出發》和《我所理解的生活》，從語音、語匯、修辭和語法四方面，分析其散文作品寫作語言特色及變化。 首先有緒論作簡介，其後進入正文部份。正文第一節分析韓寒散文作品的語音的特色，第二節分析韓寒散文作品的詞匯使用上的特色，第三節分析韓寒散文作品的修辭特色，第四節分析韓寒散文作品的語法特色，第五節分析韓寒散文語言特色有以上變化的原因。最後為總結

Desire for experiential travel, avoidance of rituality and social esteem: An empirical study of consumer response to tourism innovation

AbstractThis study investigates tourist consumption responses toward tourism innovation. To measure tourist responses, this study posits three key consumption drivers, namely social esteem, desire for experiential travel, and avoidance against rituality of tourism settings (a subscale of need for uniqueness) and models consumers’ affective response within the context of tourism innovation. It involves 295 respondents in an empirical survey. The findings affirm the three drivers toward tourist consumption behavior. Avoidance of rituality reflects tourist preference toward tourism product and service innovation. Desire for experiential travel and the pursuit of social esteem signify tourism management and marketing innovation. Social esteem, need for status and creative choice have significant influence on tourists’ affective responses. Acquiring unique tourist products, desire for experiential travel and seeking social esteem are important motivations for tourist consumption. The implications of the study enrich the existing literature of consumer behavior and tourist consumption in response to tourism innovation

The impact of managerial characteristics on business strategies under the environmental change: an investigation of the Israeli diamond industry

The changing business environment has required firms to adopt new strategies to facilitate efficient organizational adaptation. Previous upper echelons studies suggested that the demographic characteristics of top managers influence their choice of strategies, and ultimately the firms’ performance. These studies tended to examine firms in a homogenous way. The characteristics of family-owned firms, together with the unique external environment within which they operate, have been largely ignored. This study aims to fill this gap and examine the relationships between the top managers’ characteristics and their choice of exchange strategy within the diamond industry in light of the environmental changes. This paper illustrates the evolutionary stages of the diamond industry and how players adjust their strategies in-line with the environment. We interviewed 100 diamond firm managers to gather the empirical data. The results have shown that certain managerial characteristics, such as family background and marketing experience, have positively influenced the choice of using the arm’s length market exchange strategies. Our findings have also reflected that the relationship between managers’ characteristics and strategic choice is social and normative. Many managers follow the family or community traditions and imitate other key industry players in order to achieve legitimacy from the stakeholders and improve competitiveness

Managing inter-agency co-ordination : an analysis of district level administration in Hong Kong

published_or_final_versionPolitics and Public AdministrationMasterMaster of Public Administratio

Hong Kong's Mandatory Provident Fund system : a study of the evolution of governance and policy tools

published_or_final_versionPolitics and Public AdministrationMasterMaster of Public Administratio

Use of switching barriers to retain customers: Online retail stock traders in Hong Kong

Why some customers decide to stay withexisting service provider after having thought of switchinghas apparently not been examined adequately in extantresearch. The purpose of this research is to identifyfactors relevant to building constructs to representswitching barriers in online retail stock trading industryin Hong Kong. Review of extant literature, development ofa questionnaire and focus group interviews are the threeprincipal methods used for this research. Four factors thatare relevant for measuring switching barriers areidentified: two positive barriers involve service recoveryand trust and two negative barriers relate to higherswitching costs and lack of attractive alternatives

Shaolin Dan Tian Breathing Fosters Relaxed and Attentive Mind: A Randomized Controlled Neuro-Electrophysiological Study

Neuro-electrophysiological studies on meditative breathing revealed its association with either a relaxed or an attentive state. The present study aimed to investigate whether the Shaolin Dan Tian Breathing (DTB) technique, which consists of the Passive and Active subtypes and can be considered as a relaxation exercise and Qigong, would induce both relaxed and attentive states. Twenty-two adults and 22 age-, gender- and education-matched controls received training on the Shaolin DTB (experimental group) and the progressive muscle relaxation respectively for one month. Eyes-closed resting EEG data before and immediately after each type of breathing were obtained individually at baseline and after one-month training. At baseline, the EEG changes after the Shaolin DTB between both groups were comparable. After one-month training, participants in the experimental, but not the control, group showed enhanced temporal alpha asymmetry (an index of relaxation and positive mood) after performing the Passive DTB for five minutes, and enhanced intra- and inter-hemispheric theta coherence (an index of attention and alertness) after performing the Active DTB. The present findings suggested a positive effect of the Shaolin DTB technique on enhancing human neural activity and connectivity, which may possibly enhance mood state and cognitive functions

Exogenous Expression of Human apoA-I Enhances Cardiac Differentiation of Pluripotent Stem Cells

The cardioprotective effects of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and apolipoprotein A1 (apoA-I) are well documented, but their effects in the direction of the cardiac differentiation of embryonic stem cells are unknown. We evaluated the effects of exogenous apoA-I expression on cardiac differentiation of ESCs and maturation of ESC-derived cardiomyocytes. We stably over-expressed full-length human apoA-I cDNA with lentivirus (LV)-mediated gene transfer in undifferentiated mouse ESCs and human induced pluripotent stem cells. Upon cardiac differentiation, we observed a significantly higher percentage of beating embryoid bodies, an increased number of cardiomyocytes as determined by flow cytometry, and expression of cardiac markers including α-myosin heavy chain, β-myosin heavy chain and myosin light chain 2 ventricular transcripts in LV-apoA-I transduced ESCs compared with control (LV-GFP). In the presence of noggin, a BMP4 antagonist, activation of BMP4-SMAD signaling cascade in apoA-I transduced ESCs completely abolished the apoA-I stimulated cardiac differentiation. Furthermore, co-application of recombinant apoA-I and BMP4 synergistically increased the percentage of beating EBs derived from untransduced D3 ESCs. These together suggests that that pro-cardiogenic apoA-I is mediated via the BMP4-SMAD signaling pathway. Functionally, cardiomyocytes derived from the apoA-I-transduced cells exhibited improved calcium handling properties in both non-caffeine and caffeine-induced calcium transient, suggesting that apoA-I plays a role in enhancing cardiac maturation. This increased cardiac differentiation and maturation has also been observed in human iPSCs, providing further evidence of the beneficial effects of apoA-I in promoting cardiac differentiation. In Conclusion, we present novel experimental evidence that apoA-I enhances cardiac differentiation of ESCs and iPSCs and promotes maturation of the calcium handling property of ESC-derived cardiomyocytes via the BMP4/SMAD signaling pathway

Double deboronation and homometalation of 1,1'-bis(ortho-carborane)

Diastereomeric diruthenium and dicobalt species derived from double deboronation and metalation of 1,1′-bis(ortho-carborane) have been prepared and characterised.</p