This paper aims to construct a scale for Jupsang leadership orientation (JSLO). We first provide a theoretical background for the concept of Jupsang, which originates from the ancient literature of ...Sun Tsu and Lao Tsu and the modern literature of Maoism and Deng Xiaoping in China. We used a grounded theory approach to obtain five dimensions of the Jupsang concept: agility orientation, innovation orientation, vigilant orientation, market awareness orientation, and visionary orientation. Items were generated through 12 in-depth interviews in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China and were included in a questionnaire, which we used to collect data from two large forums in Hong Kong, where 440 middle and senior executives from China attended. Using SPSS Version 25 and following the scale development procedures provided by Churchill and De Villis, we found the Jupsang scale reliable and valid. This paper contributes to providing a brand new scale for strategic leadership. Practically, it can enhance the relationship between a leader and his/her followers. Finally, we provided limitations and directions for future research.
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In this paper, we propose a new approach to accelerate the pocketing tool-path generation by using graphic hardware (graphic processing units, GPU). The intersections among tool-path elements can be ...eliminated with higher efficiency from GPU-based Voronoi diagrams. According to our experimental results, the GPU-based computation speed was seven to eight times faster than that of CPU-based computation. In addition, the difference of tool-path geometry between the CPU-based and GPU-based methods was insignificant. Therefore, the GPU-method can be efficiently used to accelerate the computation while the precision is assured for the tool-path generation in pocketing machining.
To systematically evaluate human rod opsin (
) mRNA for potential target sites sensitive to posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS) by hammerhead ribozyme (hhRz) or RNA interference (RNAi) in human ...cells. To develop a comprehensive strategy to identify and optimize lead candidate agents for PTGS gene therapeutics.
In multidisciplinary RNA drug discovery, computational mRNA accessibility and in vitro experimental methods using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to map accessibility in full-length
transcripts. HhRzs targeted predicted accessible and inaccessible sites and were screened for cellular knockdown using a bicistronic reporter construct. Lead hhRz and RNAi PTGS agents were rationally optimized for target knockdown in human cells.
Systematic screening of
mRNA targeting agents resulted in lead candidate identification of a novel hhRz embedded in an RNA scaffold. Rational optimization strategies identified a minimal 725 hhRz as the most active agent. Recently identified tertiary accessory elements did not enhance activity. A 725-short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) agent exerts log-order knockdown. Silent modulation of the 725-hhRz target site in
mRNA resulted in resistance to knockdown.
Combining rational RNA drug design with cell-based screening allowed rapid identification of lead agents targeting
. Optimization strategies identified the agent with highest intracellular activity. These agents have therapeutic potential in a mutation-independent strategy for adRP, or other degenerations where
is a target. This approach can be broadly applied to any validated target mRNA, regardless of the disease.
This work establishes a platform approach to develop RNA biologicals for the treatment of human disease.
Abstract
Introduction: Obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are growing health concerns. A ten-fold increase of T2DM was noted in the Hong Kong paediatric population from 1997 to 2007. T2DM is ...often asymptomatic at presentation, but complications can emerge rapidly, especially in youngsters. Experience in Japan, Korea and Taiwan suggests that urine glucose screening is a practical and non-invasive screening tool for identification of T2DM. The Hong Kong Student Health Service (SHS) offers yearly health checks for students and is a good platform for screening of T2DM since attendance rate is over 90% for primary school students and over 70% for secondary school students. Method: In 2005, SHS and the Hong Kong Paediatric Society formulated a protocol on urine glucose screening for early diagnosis of T2DM in students with obesity. Students between the ages of 10–18 years old with age- and sex- specific body mass index (BMI) >97th percentile were recruited. Those screened positive for glycosuria were referred to paediatric departments for workup under a standardized protocol, whilst those who screened positive for both glucose and ketones were referred to the emergency departments. Students enrolled from school year 2005–2006 to 2017–2018 were included. Demographic data, clinical presentation, investigatory results and co-morbidities were captured using a structured reply letter. Results: A total of 219,276 eligible students attended SHS in the years specified and 216,528 students (99%) completed urine glucose screening. 381 (0.18%) students were tested positive for urine glucose; 18 (4.7%) had concomitant urine ketones. In total 120 students had T2DM, 41 had pre-diabetes impaired fasting glucose and /or impaired glucose tolerance and 126 turned out normal. 43 students defaulted the referrals and 51 students had known diabetes. 21 students (17.5%) were started on insulin therapy upon diagnosis. A significant proportion of students with T2DM had co-morbidities including raised alanine amino-transferase (57%), hypercholesterolaemia (59%), and hypertension (13%). Five students (4.2%) had microalbuminuria at presentation. Of those with ketonuria, two students had serum glucose of over 20mmol/L and required fluid resuscitation ± insulin infusion in high dependency unit. Conclusion: Our pick up rate for T2DM from students with obesity aged 10–18 years using urine glucose is 0.05% (120/216,528). According to the Hong Kong Childhood Diabetes Registry, the crude incidence of T2DM for this age group was 6.16 /100,000/year over the study period, which equates to 506 new cases of T2DM. Thus 24% of the new T2DM cases were diagnosed by this program and many had associated co-morbidities at diagnosis. Our study shows that urine glucose testing is an inexpensive and simple test that allows for early diagnosis and treatment of T2DM in the primary care setting in this at risk population.
The Boublik-Mansoori-Carnahan-Starling-Leland (BMCSL) equation of state is examined for binary hard sphere mixtures. It is argued that this equation of state is reliable for a large diameter ratio. ...Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are performed for many states, some of high density and large diameter ratio. At moderate densities away from the solid-liquid transition, the MC results show reasonably good agreement with the BMCSL's prediction of the compressibility factor. This confirms the earlier findings of Jackson et al. for the validity of BMCSL in the liquid phase. The failure of the BMCSL prediction in some states is due to proximity to the solid-liquid transition and not due to the large diameter ratio. The individual pair distribution functions predicted by the BMCSL in all cases, however, can be poor, especially, for a pair of large spheres at very low concentration. Comparison of the MC distribution functions and those predicted by several theories are made.
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jHISC is an object-oriented processor for embedded system aiming at accelerating Java execution by hardware approach. Garbage collection is one of the critical tasks in a Java Virtual Machine. In ...this paper, we have conduct a study of dynamic object allocation and garbage collection behavior of Java program based on SPECjvm 98 benchmark suite and MIDP applications for mobile phones. Life, size, and reference count distribution of Java objects are measured. We found most Java objects die very young, small in size and have small number reference counts. Reference counting object cache with hardware write barrier and object allocator is proposed to provide the hardware concurrent garbage collection for small size objects in jHISC. Hardware support on write barrier greatly reduces the overhead to perform the reference count update. The reference counting collector reclaims the memory occupied by object immediately after the object become garbage. The hardware allocator provides a constant time object allocation. From the investigation, over half of Java objects can be garbage collected by the object cache that makes it unnecessary for these objects to copy to the main memory.
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In the past, programming language are procedural, the design concept is based on the module and scope which are difficult to manage, but nowadays, the programming trend is Object-Oriented Programming ...(OOP), where objects are the key elements to build up application and the communications between different objects are through method invocation. A novel object-oriented processor offers an opportunity to enhance the system security, performance and provides a more effective way to manipulate OOP instead of using a software Virtual Machine. jHISC is a novel object-oriented processor which provides a natural way to map the concept of OOP into architectural level through the hardware object data structure. Our solution is to design secure hardware object data structures on a novel processor with Just-In-Time compilation for Java which then makes it possible to implement complex OO related bytecodes at hardware level and access some fields of object in parallel to improve the execution speed. It mainly targets J2ME and implements about 93% bytecodes and 83% OO related bytecodes in hardware directly.
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Previously, we have proposed an approximation for the contact values of the radial distribution functions of a hard sphere mixture. For most situations, this approximation is similar to earlier ...approximations. However, our approximation is quite different in the colloidal limit, where one species is large in size but whose concentration is very dilute. We called this approximation the ad hoc approximation to emphasize that this new approximation was untested. In this paper, we seek to test this ad hoc approximation by computing, by means of a Monte Carlo simulation, the pair correlation functions for a binary hard sphere mixture. We are able to consider mixtures in which the large hard sphere is up to 10 times the size of the small hard sphere and concentrations of the large sphere as small as 1%. While not the colloidal limit, these results are informative. The ad hoc approximation is found to be in good agreement with the simulation results.
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