I know [pɪlɪpɪno] but i say [fɪlɪpɪno]: An investigation into Filipino foregin domestic helpers’ influence on Hong Kong Chinese’s L2 English phonology acquisition

As a response to a preliminary study (Leung 2010) of five HK learners of English which found that those who had grown up hearing Filipino-accented English showed no trace of this accent in their production, this study probes further to look for more subtle signs of exposure to Filipino English. Data were collected from 10 speakers aged 2½ to 25 who were divided into three groups. Both Groups A and B were initially exposed to Filipino-accented English input at home, and Group A continued to receive such input. Group C had not received any Filipino-accented English input at home. Findings from two perception tasks targeting English words with /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, and /v/ onsets spoken in a Filipino accent showed that speakers with exposure to Filipino-accented English could better perceive these words than those who had none. A decline from Group A to C was found in their ability to recognise target phonemes, indicating that quantity and/or recency of input play a role. These results raise the issue of incipient/passive-bi¬lin¬gual¬ism (Diebold 1964; Romaine 1995) and call for more detailed study of attitude, accommodation and identity with respect to the acquisition of a given second language variety

Systemic design: Two Canadian case studies

The currently fragmented state of ‘systems + design’ praxis is curious in light of the affinities between the two interdisciplines. To explain why designers and systems thinkers have not been talking to each other, we may look to their differences. Whereas the designer learns by doing in concrete situations, the systems thinker’s knowledge accrues by abstracting away from the particular details of any specific instance of practice. But if this is sufficient to account for the lack of dialogue between and synthesis of systems + design, then the two interdisciplines are on a collision course. Since the mid-20th Century, design has followed a trajectory of increasing abstractness, migrating from the design of objects, to the design of services, identities, interfaces, networks, projects, and discourses. At the same time, systems thinking has all but abandoned its ambitions to provide a unity for science. Instead, a diversity of systems approaches have flourished as forms of reflective practice, grounded in the methods of action research.The authors of this chapter are approaching the scene of the accident from opposite, but not opposing, directions. One of us is a systems thinker who got involved in the messy business of institutionalizing design within the U.S. military. The other is a business designer who increasingly needs systems thinking to fold design into the core of business strategy development. Although our systemic design methodologies were developed independently, we have found they provide enough similarity to be commensurable, and enough difference to stimulate critical reflection.In this paper, we present two new case studies where systemic design was applied with impact to address strategy and organizational challenges. Before introducing the case studies, we briefly define what we mean by systemic design and provide a common framework for our analysis. In the following section, our first case study concerns a public procurement project within the University of Toronto, where design and a systems mindset helped the Central Procurement Department re-envision how public policy is implemented and how value is created in the broader university purchasing ecosystem. Our second case study involves improving the effectiveness of the Clean Energy and Natural Resources Group (CENRG) within the Government of Alberta. Design was used here to reframe the way that the five departments within CENRG work together and to create a learning system for continuous improvement. We conclude the chapter by interpreting these case studies as a contribution to knowledge on how systems + design might be synthesized to create a practical approach to systemic design

Single Cell Expression Analysis for Understanding the Development of Glaucoma

Glaucoma is characterized as a group of eye diseases where the progressive damage of neurons, particularly Retinal Ganglion Cells (RGCs), leads to vision loss. This disease affects more than 70 million people worldwide, with approximately 10% being bilaterally blind, making it the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world. The initiation and progression of the disease is still unknown, but studies have suggested the involvement of particular cell types in the retina that relate to the pathogenesis of glaucoma. Single cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis is a new technology that provides insight into the gene expression profiles of different cell types. In this study, we employed it to elucidate the transcriptomic changes in various cell types during glaucoma progression. ABCA1-/- mice were used as a normal tension glaucoma model. Single cell RNA-seq experiments were conducted on three wild type (WT) and five knockout (KO) retinal tissues. The data of 62,479 cells were integrated and major cell types were identified, including Müller glia, astrocytes, microglia and RGCs. Ontological analysis suggested strong activation of neuroinflammation and senescence related pathways in KO samples, with specific pathways identified affecting certain cell types. Evidence of macrophage invasion further suggests a knockout-induced inflammatory response, accompanied by sub-type specific RGC degeneration due to excitotoxicity. P2Y6-/- mice were used as a high intraocular pressure (IOP) glaucoma model. 105,772 cells from three WT and three KO retinal tissues were analysed using single cell RNA-seq, with major cell types identified such as RGCs and glial cells. Neuroinflammation and senescence pathways activation was again observed, along with angiogenesis, hypoxia and fibrosis activities activated in knockout glial population. pathogenesis, thus provided data to support future interests in developing potential therapeutical targets in the area. pathogenesis, thus provided data to support future interests in developing potential therapeutical targets in the area

Lifetime and polarization of the radiative decay of excitons, biexcitons and trions in CdSe nanocrystal quantum dots

Using the pseudopotential configuration-interaction method, we calculate the intrinsic lifetime and polarization of the radiative decay of single excitons (X), positive and negative trions (X+ and X−), and biexcitons (XX) in CdSe nanocrystal quantum dots. We investigate the effects of the inclusion of increasingly more complex many-body treatments, starting from the single-particle approach and culminating with the configuration-interaction scheme. Our configuration-interaction results for the size dependence of the single-exciton radiative lifetime at room temperature are in excellent agreement with recent experimental data. We also find the following. (i) Whereas the polarization of the bright exciton emission is always perpendicular to the hexagonal c axis, the polarization of the dark exciton switches from perpendicular to parallel to the hexagonal c axis in large dots, in agreement with experiment. (ii) The ratio of the radiative lifetimes of mono- and biexcitons (X):(XX) is ~1:1 in large dots (R=19.2 Å). This ratio increases with decreasing nanocrystal size, approaching 2 in small dots (R=10.3 Å). (iii) The calculated ratio (X+):(X−) between positive and negative trion lifetimes is close to 2 for all dot sizes considered

Deteriorating standard? A brief look into the English standard in Hong Kong

There is a widely held belief that Hong Kong as a community is suffering from an ongoing decline in its standard of English. A very cursory search in the Internet directs readers to many articles lamenting the purportedly poor English standard of Hong Kong people. Appeals for Hong Kongers to improve their English are easy to find. These often originate out of concerns over the unwelcoming possibility of losing out to their close economic competitors such as Singaporeans and their compatriots from China, owing to the importance of English in international trade and communication. However, through reviewing publicly available data, this article reveals that the critique directed at Hong Kong people’s English standard does not always hold up against scrutiny. This article aims to demythologise the issue and points readers’ attention to the possibility of the emergence of a new standard which helps perform important sociolinguistic functions in Hong Kong society

Ranking algorithms for implicit feedback

This report presents novel algorithms to use eye movements as an implicit relevance feedback in order to improve the performance of the searches. The algorithms are evaluated on "Transport Rank Five" Dataset which were previously collected in Task 8.3. We demonstrated that simple linear combination or tensor product of eye movement and image features can improve the retrieval accuracy

Exploring the Properties of Disordered Rocksalt Battery Cathode Materials by Advanced Characterization

Cation-disordered metal oxides as cathode materials for Li ion batteries have been overlooked from early studies due to to the restriction of Li ion diffusion, leading to poor electrochemical performance. However, the discovery of a new disordered rocksalt (DRX) structured material Li1.211Mo0.467Cr0.3O2 with a high capacity of >260 mAh g−1 at 0.05 C opened new research prospects in this emerging field and established DRX materials as a promising alternative with wider choices of transition metal elements compared with currently widely used layered cathode materials. Some of the major obstacles of the DRX materials include γ-LiFeO2 type cation short-range-order that impedes Li ion diffusion, irreversible oxygen loss, and transition metal dissolution, which also present challenges for appropriate characterization techniques. Several performance optimization strategies have been employed, including fluorine incorporation, high entropy modification, and surface coating. This review article focuses on advancements in characterization techniques to uncover underlying mechanisms of Li ion diffusion and degradation of the DRX cathode materials to address the abovementioned challenges and provide inspiration for future studies of this class of materials

Anion Distribution, Structural Distortion, and Symmetry-Driven Optical Band Gap Bowing in Mixed Halide Cs2SnX6 Vacancy Ordered Double Perovskites.

Mixed anion compounds in the Fm3̅m vacancy ordered perovskite structure were synthesized and characterized experimentally and computationally with a focus on compounds where A = Cs+. Pure anion Cs2SnX6 compounds were formed with X = Cl, Br, and I using a room temperature solution phase method. Mixed anion compounds were formed as solid solutions of Cs2SnCl6 and Cs2SnBr6 and a second series from Cs2SnBr6 and Cs2SnI6. Single phase structures formed across the entirety of both composition series with no evidence of long-range anion ordering observed by diffraction. A distortion of the cubic A2BX6 structure was identified in which the spacing of the BX6 octahedra changes to accommodate the A site cation without reduction of overall symmetry. Optical band gap values varied with anion composition between 4.89 eV in Cs2SnCl6 to 1.35 eV in Cs2SnI6 but proved highly nonlinear with changes in composition. In mixed halide compounds, it was found that lower energy optical transitions appeared that were not present in the pure halide compounds, and this was attributed to lowering of the local symmetry within the tin halide octahedra. The electronic structure was characterized by photoemission spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy revealed vibrational modes in the mixed halide compounds that could be assigned to particular mixed halide octahedra. This analysis was used to determine the distribution of octahedra types in mixed anion compounds, which was found to be consistent with a near-random distribution of halide anions throughout the structure, although some deviations from random halide distribution were noted in mixed iodide-bromide compounds, where the larger iodide anions preferentially adopted trans configurations

Mental illness among Chinese in the United States: myth or reality?

Several mental health professionals have suggested that Chinese in the United States as a group are less subject to mental disorders than other races. Whereas other investigators have also indicated that due to the influences of cultural conflict and racism, Chinese in the United States are under greater emotional distress than members of the host society. When stress from these sources becomes too great, mental health problems are frequently the result. The purpose of this library research thesis is to review the available research works related with Chinese Americans mental health problems in the hope of seeking answers to the following questions: Is mental illness among the Chinese a myth or reality? If mental illness does exist among the group, what is the rate and how is it distributed in the Chinese population? Are there some particular psychiatric maladies more commonly reported among the group than others? First, the literature review confirms that mental illness does exist among the Chinese population residing in the United States. Second, the review shows that the rate of mental illness is not uniform within the group, in that among recent immigrants, the aged and students studying in the United States experience a higher risk of mental break-down than do female immigrants, the young or the native born. Last but not least, research reveal that psychosomatization seems to be the origin of a significant portion of those reported cases of mental disorders. These conclusions are not as extreme as those suggested by Tom in his Chinatown sample, namely that Chinese-Americans have an extremely high rate of mental illness. However, they do indicate the mental health needs of Chinese are sufficient to warrant greater concern. Several suggestions on how to improve the mental health care for Chinese are made in the text. They include training bilingual professionals and paraprofessional modifications in therapeutic concepts and techniques; setting up community health programs in Chinatown\u27s and encouraging more research to be done in this particular area

Reality check: Identity struggle and experiences of NESTs living and teaching abroad

Despite the demand for Native English Speaking Teachers (NESTs) by government and private, commercially driven programs worldwide, not much is known about NESTs’ actual lived experiences. We aim to address the gap by exploring some issues faced by teachers living and teaching overseas. Analyses of interview data collected from 9 NESTs (aged 26–40) who taught in Hong Kong, Japan, Romania, Thailand, and Vietnam showed that participants’ experiences are often complex and vary dramatically depending on locations and programs. Common to all are the shock and anxiety experienced when confronted with reality abroad. Socioprofessional otherization emerged as another key theme, alongside inadequate pre-job training and outside-work support. The native identity provides employment opportunities, but at times it also creates tension and led NESTs to be seen as eternally “foreign.” We underscore the complexity of teachers’ ethnic and professional identities. We also hope to provide a reality check and highlight the importance of preservice training and in-service support to better prepare and facilitate teachers considering a career abroad