Marys Medicine

未命名 -

It is my great pleasure to attend this opening ceremony of the first DST Undergraduate Welcome to the first Division of Science and Technology (DST) Undergraduate Poster Poster Presentation. Presentation. First, let me briefly explain the purpose of this exhibition. UIC is a liberal arts college. One important aspect of liberal arts education is to equip students with life- As you all know that UIC is a liberal arts college, not a research oriented university. Why long learning and working skills so that they will be better able to adapt to our fast then, do we require all our students to undertake a Final Year Project? FYP actually takes changing world when they leave UIC. Besides taking courses in their majors, students up a lot of UIC's resources and teachers' time. But we still insist on this policy because are exposed to a variety of subjects through general education courses. This gives them a we believe that research training is a very important part of your undergraduate broader perspective in life, and enhances their skills in problem solving and decision education. It teaches you how to identify important problems to be solved, how to making. In parallel to the broad-based education, students are also trained in the ability formulate a strategy to solve them, how to gather and analyze available information, and to conduct in-depth investigation of a particular subject. In DST, students perform carry out your work plan to achieve the goals. These skills are important for your future original laboratory research, field research, or literature review in a subject related to careers, no matter what they are. They are a part of the life-long education. You should their majors. Besides acquiring research skills, we also expect them to be able to consider yourself fortunate that you are provided with these research trainings at UIC, as communicate effectively to others about their research findings. Thus, DST launches this even in most research intensive universities, only a few undergraduate students have the annual Undergraduate Poster Presentation, to provide students an opportunity to present opportunity to participate in it. In these universities, research is primarily done by their research work. Poster presentation is an important skill they might need in their graduate students. future career. The poster must be attractive, the content has to be concise yet all- inclusive due to space limitation and audience's awareness. Unfortunately in this Equally important to research skill is communication skill. You have to be able to explain Presentation, only a selected number of students were chosen to showcase their work complicate concepts to people who might not be familiar with the field. This again, will due to space and time limitation. We hope that in the future, every student in DST will be be important for your future career. Therefore I am glad that DST organizes this poster able to participate. presentation. This gives you a chance to practice how to tell your story to the audience, in the limited time they spent in front of your poster.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to our guests and visitors for taking time to attend this event. We hope that you will give your valuable opinions to the I would like to congratulate all students who participate in this event. I know that you student presenters and let us know of any improvement that we could make in our next have put in a lot of thoughts and work in preparing your posters. I would also like to thank the teachers who advised the students in their FYP and organized this poster presentation. I am sure the students appreciate the extra time and effort you spent in guiding their research and presentation. Professor Stephen S.M. Chung Dean, Division of Science and Technology President Ng Ching Fai BNU-HKBU United International College BNU-HKBU United International College Table of Contents Table of Contents APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY Effects of Meditation on Intervening Internet Addiction
Influence of Cell Phone Usage on Undergraduate Students'
Willingness to Communicate
M.J. Wu*, Q.Y. Wang, Y.Z. Zhu, X, Liu, T, Lin, Y.F. Li, J.X. Fan Supervisor: Dr. P.C. Lee Supervisor: Dr. Ghee, Ho Applied Psychology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-756-13631246334, E-mail:[email protected] Applied Psychology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13631246353, E-mail: [email protected] Internet addiction, defined as a common disorder in DSM-V, is a compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorder that involves online and/or offline computer usage and contains at least three subtypes: excessive gaming, The influence of cell phone usage in changing the outlook of social networking and communication patterns sexual preoccupations and e-mail/text messaging. Previous research has shown that meditative methods are has been widely investigated. While cell phone usage is found positive on the aspects of daily scheduling, effective for treating alcoholism, smoking, and illicit drug use. Taking on this beneficial trend, this study contacting people and maintaining regular social circles, its drawback is tied to the worrying trend of moves on to investigate the impact of meditation on the effects of internet addiction on university students replacing young adults' traditional face-to-face communications. Out of this concern, this study attempts to with regard to a number of psychological disorders including depression, attention deficit, hyperactivity investigate how cell phone usage affects undergraduate students' willingness to communicate in authentic disorder, social phobia hostility, compulsive behaviours, lying, social isolation, time distortion and contexts (e.g., group discussion, meeting, interpersonal, and public speaking) with different types of real disruption, relation problem, low refusal self-efficacy and low sense of well-being. This research plans to world people (e.g., strangers, acquaintances, and friends). This study employs Willingness To Communicate employ the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) with an addition of several items consisting of name, age and (WTC) scale and self-report questionnaire to measure the different types of communication patterns and contact number. University student participants will be chosen on a random sampling basis in Guangdong, engagement styles. Student participants come from a local college in Zhuhai where students' tuition fee in China. The participants who were scored higher than 50 points in the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) will be average is approximately ten times greater than other counterpart universities in the region. With a response asked to participate in individual-based interviews. Using Derogatis's Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), rate of 72% on the questionnaire administered, 68 student participants aged from 17 to 23 have been investigators will record interviewees' self-reported psychological symptoms with the purpose to ranking the investigated. Preliminary findings indicate a negative correlation between time spent in cell phone and the effects of internet addiction of university students. The intervening procedure will invite participants to join WTC scale, meaning that those who spend more time on cell phone applications (e.g., browsing the Internet) in a series of meditation sessions over an 8-week period. Participants will also be retested during the midterm are less likely to form regular communication patterns with people. By contrast, those who spend more time stage, right at the end and after the end of the project. One possible implication may help inform professional on text messaging are more likely to communicate with people in the public, and those who spend more time counsellors of what to do to enhance their special counselling skills.
in voice calls are more likely to communicate with strangers.
Keywords: Internet addiction, top 10 effects, meditation. Keywords: Cell phone usage, Willingness to communicate, Face-to-face communication. APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY Gender Affects Perceiving the Association Between Darkness and
Parenting Style of Children with Autism in China
LIU Qing-bin*, Lin Lu Sang Qin*, Siying Cen, Rui Zhao Supervisor: Dr. Ghee Ho Supervisor: Dr. Yi-Lung Kuo Applied Psychology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Applied Psychology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13631241505, E-mail: [email protected] * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13631246342, E-mail: [email protected] Hundreds of different colors can be perceived by human beings due to the existence of three types of visual Whilst the studies over genetic influences on the occurrence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have cone systems on the retina and various ratios of stimulation in response to different wavelengths of light. reached a far-reaching and overwhelming level of evidence, parenting styles in the ASD population have Color is also associated with weight as darker objects are interpreted heavier to the perception of the eyes. been increasingly studied recently. Compared to parents with non-ASD children, parents of children with When gender difference is taken in investigation, some studies show that males and females perceive colors ASD have weak central coherence in cognition mingled with communicative difficulties. Further, they are at differently. Taking on this basis of understanding known, this study further investigates whether gender higher risks for suffering from affective disorders due to the additional stresses from raising the child(ren) difference is a mediating factor influencing on whether females perceive and interpret darker and lighter with ASD, let alone with ASD children's poor attachment relationship with their parents which leads to colors different from males. In this study, fifty voluntary participants (25 males and 25 females) chosen severe impairment in social interaction development. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences randomly from the campus pedestrians took part in a 2 x 2 factorial designed experiment. With nothing on parenting styles between regular children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in China. carrying in their hands, they were asked to look at some bags that only differ in the surface color, and to tell Approximately sixty families with one or more children diagnosed with ASD between the ages of 2 and 10 whether they perceived and interpreted the darker and the lighter ones to be heavier or the same. In order to years from a regional rehabilitation centre in Guangdong and sixty families with regular children were generate findings more ecologically valid to real-life living, the participants were also offered a "looking + invited to participate in this study. This study collected background information of parents, parenting styles, hefting" procedure, meaning that they could carry the bags while interpreting the color differences. parental locus of control as well as family cohesion and adaptability were assessed by means of self-reported Systematically analyzed by SPSS, preliminary results indicate that gender role tends to be a significant questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Final results were presented in terms of descriptive statistics, component mediating between visual darkness and weight. Limitation of this study is, however, tied to mean comparisons and effect sizes. The implication of this study is to provide better guidance to Chinese samples only selected from college students in Zhuhai, China. parents on improving coping strategies for children with ASD and to help special education centers on developing better parenting programs based on the needs of children living with ASD.
Keywords: Color-weight illusion, Gender. Keywords: Parenting styles, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Special education. APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY Influence of Reward-based Game Program on Students Performance
A Study of Socioeconomic Status, Hardiness and Leadership
and Attitude for Eye Massage
Raymond Wong*, Enya Shum, Vicky Cheung, Bunny, Liang Supervisor: Dr. Alan Lai Supervisor: Dr. Alan Lai Applied Psychology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Applied Psychology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College *Corresponding author. Tel: +8613631246353, E-mail: [email protected] *Corresponding author. Tel: +8613631246409, E-mail:[email protected] Traditional eye massage exercise based on Chinese acupressure points has long been a myopia prevention Hardiness is a psychological construct that represents personality characteristics associated with people's and vision improvement program for all primary and secondary school children across China since 1982. maintenance of health and performance under stress. It is also positively related to leadership performances Proven to be effective on myopia prevention and eye soothing when properly followed with correct and problem-solving skills, functioning as a significant moderator in stress and benefit to relations. In this procedures, this eye-care program is, however, presently tied to a current issue that most of the school study, hardiness is further reframed as a kind of mental support for enhancing leadership skills. Based on children have been reported to be far from following proper instructions with poor attitude and weak Bartone's study (2009) that low socio-economical status (SES) is associated with higher hardiness skills than motivation. With this problematic trend in minds, a reward-based competition by individual and group medium and high SES, this paper sets out to further understand whether low SES of family is associated with involving a novel yet interest-stimulating game is created, administered to a group of 18 junior secondary university students' display of hardiness in leadership contexts. To this end, this study plans to collect data school children aged 12 to 16 from Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Middle School located in Zhongshan, and through a 15-item hardiness scale questionnaire and interviews: 250 students from low SES and another documented for further evaluation. A research team of health psychology has been established to investigate group of 250 students from medium and high SES families in China will be chosen to participate while some how the student participants respond to the eye massage game and competition environment in terms of of the participants' teachers and student participants will also be randomly selected and interviewed. On one attitude and performance change in three testing trials within a one-week period. Embedded in a pre-test and strategy, participants will be reached by sending out self-report questionnaire via e-mails to students in a post-test research setting, this study employs a performance checklist – modified from the original version school in Guangzhou. On the other one, interviews will be structured to elicit responses in different ways developed by the Ministry of Education of China – as an assessment tool to shedding light on its potential including pre-determined questions and discussion-oriented questions with regard to leadership influences to any attitude and performance change towards the eye massage exercise. Findings will performance. Collected data will be systematically analyzed to show whether students of low SES families contribute to implications that may help construct more effective programs strategically for increasing would tend to have a higher level of hardiness. This study may help design more robust training programs on Chinese school children's knowledge about Chinese acupressure points as well as improving their eye vision, leadership skills and stress management. Moreover, it may also provide constructive insights for cultivating protection, and care improvement.
adaptive characters conducive to academic or career development. Keywords: Eye Massage, Chinese Acupressure, Myopia prevention. Keywords: Hardiness, Leadership Performance, Socioeconomic status, Chinese undergraduates. COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Camera Tricks: An Award-winning Android Drawing App
Guitar Robot: A Mechanistic Look into An Award-winning Design
Z. Chen*, Y.P. Lv, S. Ye X.M. Yan*, Y.H. Xu, C. Qiu Supervisor: Dr. Louis TANG Supervisor: Dr. Louis. Tang Computer Science & Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Computer Science & Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-756-13750022597, E-mail: [email protected] * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13631240967, E-mail: [email protected] This study demonstrates a smart phone application based on an Android-operating platform. The design This project study aims to develop a programmable instrument which works like an acoustic guitar but outcome of this application emerged from incidental learning that most Chinese students have experienced without depending on people. This is a combination work of mechanical design, software development and from art classes during childhood. In the art class environment, what students usually do is a piece of hardware integration. For a better design, we followed a systematic flow of procedure reviewing existing transparent paper to use to copy a picture placed underneath. After transferring this idea digitally to a smart work samples and their corresponding features. The action stage began when we digitally built a 3D model of phone, we developed a novel yet creative application. First, this phone app lets the user draw pictures, drag the instrument by using AutoCAD. Implementation work was technically based on an Intel Atom CPU or put some prepared drawing elements on an easy-to-use canvas. When a new drawing is ready, the user platform. With this technology, we chose to employ a pneumatic system to play the guitar, a PLC board to turns on the phone camera at the back, and then the skeleton of the picture will appear on a camera view. Next, operate as the control module, and the COM serial port to mediate as the communication interface. One last the user puts a white piece of paper under the back camera. When looking through the camera view, the effect detail to bring in to the design was the use of MIDI music file as the music source as it has long been widely is like the drawing being projected on the piece of paper. In this way, the user can copy the picture on that used as the standard protocol in the digital music industry. Called Guitar Robot, this hardware design begins piece of paper. With a user interface that we create, the user can follow and complete the entire drawing task to function when the input MIDI music file is decoded to generate some control signals which are then sent to intuitively. Except this main function, this phone app can also provide the some functions to enhance and the control module for controlling the pneumatic system to press certain frets and to plug the strings of the enrich the user's drawing experience, including (1) drawing function (to provide the user a paint brush to guitar-like instrument for musical output. Along with this system, real-time 3D graphic effects are also draw pictures, (2) image processing function (to extract the contour of the input image and use its contour as generated according to the notes decoded from the MIDI music file. The underlying purpose of this a painting element aide), and (3) social network function (to help the user to share the paining in social additional feature is to serve audience for their better experience with music. This system is suitable to be networks). As an encouraging note, this work won the third prize from the 3rd Google Android Developer used in various places such as airport, restaurant, hotel, school campus or the likes. We project that its Challenge for Chinese College Students.
application will be well-received since this design has been awarded the second prize from the 2012 Intel Cup Undergraduate Electronic Design Contest- Embedded System Design Invitation Contest (ESDC).
Keywords: Smart phone application, Android platform. Keywords: Programmable instrument, Hardware implementation, Pneumatic system, MIDI music file, Real- time 3D Graphic effect. COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Creating Android-based Home Appliances Remote Control Prototype
Fourier Series Project
Supervisor: Dr. Louis Tang Supervisor: Prof. S. C. Barrett Computer Science & Techology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Computer Science and Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750016147, E-mail: [email protected] * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-756-13631242680, E-mail: [email protected] This project study aims to develop a low-price smart house system to intelligently manage household Every periodic waveform can be represented by an infinite series of simpler sine and cosine waves known as appliances which could be controlled by an infra-red light controller including, but not limiting to, air- a Fourier series. This project uses such a series to reconstruct the unknown input used in eliciting the conditioners or microwave ovens. This design is placed in two phases. First, we develop a universal infra-red frequency response of some hypothetical piece of electronic equipment.
light remote controller application on a smart phone. Second, we build an operation system which allows the user to send out control commands remotely from home to operate specific home-based appliances. The frequency response of the equipment was recorded in the form of two systems of five linear equations each. In the experiment, Gauss-Jordan elimination is used on the matrix forms of the ten equations in order to On a prototypical level, we manage to get the system in the first phase through by using an Android platform. extract their Fourier coefficients, an and bn. Through application of Fourier's theorem to the coefficients, a This application picks up infra-red light control signals copied from another remote controller as inputs, and set of sine and cosine waves were then be obtained, and subsequently plotted in Matlab. Finally, the emit the infra-red light signals out through a 3.5 mm infra-red light plug-in circuit. We also build a signal individual waves were recomposed by Matlab back into the original input signal from which they were acquisition system on computer to help copy infra-red light signals from other controllers. The infra-red light signals can be first received by a transmitter circuit plugged into the USB port. Signals will then be decoded and stored by using an existing open source package called Linux Infra-red Remote Control (LIRC). At the conclusion of the experiment the actual input signal used in creating the linear systems was made available, allowing for a direct comparison between it and the experimentally derived results, thereby In phase two, we are striving to construct a home-based device which functions as a station to connect to the confirming Fourier's thesis that complicated periodic waves can indeed be decomposed into only sine and internet to receive and emit command signals to operate the home-based appliances. We currently consider collaborating with some established social networking systems to further enhancing the functionality and stability of this new design.
The main tool used in conducting the experiment was Matlab 7.0, running on Windows XP. Matlab was used to implement the Gauss-Jordan algorithm by which the linear equations were solved, and additionally, for Keywords: Low cost, Smart house, Smart phone application, Android platform, Infra-red light control. plotting all mathematical functions encountered in the course of the experiment.
Keywords: Fourier Series, Waveform composition, Matlab7.0. COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Chinese Shadow Puppetry with an Interactive Interface
Interactive UIC Virtual Tour Using the Kinect Sensor
Using the Kinect Sensor
Y. Song*, Z. Chen, J. Cai, P. Shen, J. Qiu, X. Fu, Y. Zhang, C. Zhuo Supervisor: Dr. H. Zhang Supervisor: Dr. H. Zhang Computer Science & Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Computer Science & Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750029421, E-mail: [email protected] * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750021451, E-mail: [email protected] This study addresses the problem of using body gestures to control Chinese shadow puppets in animation This study presents an interactive virtual tour of a college campus located in Zhuhai, China – cultural village with a Microsoft Kinect device. First, we capture an actor's movements by making use of the Kinect depth – by making use of the Microsoft Kinect RGBD sensor. Using Autodesk 3Ds Max, we first constructed some sensor and use the gestures to play a digital version of a famous Chinese shadow puppetry known as Wu Song 3D models of the terrain, the buildings and the plants in the campus. Next, we modelled the inside scenery of Fights the Tiger. By analysing the motion of the actors, we propose a general development framework for in-campus restaurant that affords entrance visitors to enter and visit inside. Pictures of real scenery were controlling two digital shadow puppets including a human model and an animal model. We use normal human taken and mapped precisely onto the 3D model surfaces in order to provide a realistic experience to the user. motions to control the human model and use the left and right parts of the human body to control the animal System development is based on the game engine called Unity3D. By connecting the Microsoft Kinect sensor model. The performer can now conduct simple actions such as turning the head, stretching the arms or to Unity3D through Kinect SDK, the players are now able to interact with the virtual campus. The players kicking the legs. However, it is more difficult for the performer to complete more complicated movements could navigate through and enter rooms by body movements. This study also demonstrates how to solve the such as back flips and splits. To work around with this problem, we define some special body postures to technical problems of penetrating buildings by making use of collision detection. To stimulate interests to overcome these difficult movements. users, we also employ some special functions such as snowing in the winter. Users could also turn on and off the road lights in the cyberspace by moving the body. Preliminary results indicate that the virtual tour system We also use 3Ds Max to model the scenery of the 3D drama as well as the 2D puppets. The puppet texture is and problem-solving strategies are operational and effective.
mapped using photos of real puppets. The models are then integrated into the system which is developed on top of the game engine (i.e., Unity3D). By connecting the Kinect device to Unity3D through the APIs in Keywords: Kinect, Virtual Tour, RGBD sensor, 3Ds Max. Kinect SDK, the performer is now able to control the puppets and interact with the scene. In order to be compatible with the Chinese drama style, we adopt watercolour to paint the background scenery and the foreground characters. Besides performing, a game element is also integrated into the system. Insofar as the system undergoes feasibility testing, preliminary results indicate that this animation system is both feasible and operational for real application. Keywords: Kinect, Shadow puppetry, 3D drama, Gesture. COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY People Search Engine
Renxia Wang*, Zhitian Wang, Chengzhang Li, Yuxuan He Supervisor: Dr. Weifeng Su Supervisor: Dr. Weifeng Su Computer Science and Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Computer Science and Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750022711, E-mail: [email protected] * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750016138, E-mail: [email protected] The World Wide Web, the single largest data source in the world, has become one of the most popular and This study systematically describes the implementation of a people search engine. As such, it documents how convenient platforms for daily news reading. However, the current system remains too complicated to search it accepts queries and returns relevant structured information with social graphs through data crawling, for news on demand. To address this problematic issue, this study develops a programming-based news information extraction and result presentation. First, the data crawling component fetches on-line data from extractor that can gather target news automatically for online users. The main challenge is specifically tied to the web Baidu Encyclopedia and Hudong Encyclopedia as source data. Since source data are not structured, the structural lack of web data that could extract specific news on demand from websites efficiently and the information extraction component is needed to extract significant data from based on name entity accurately. Possible solutions are to obtain news in batches and to transfer them into structured records (e.g., recognition, entity relation recognition and duplicates elimination. Name entity recognition is dynamically article title, writer, published date, content, source, type or picture etc.) based on the user's input. It seems to driven by rules and part-of-speech tagging. Its output is processed by the rule-based entity relation work but unreliable if the web structure changes constantly with reliance on some extraction methods recognition. Duplicates elimination, which is based on a decision tree model, is applied to detect and including absolute path-based and tag-based methods. Another problem goes to adjusting the extractor to eliminate repeated information. At last, extracted data are indexed and presented to the users via a result keep up with and monitoring the changes. To respond to all the problems, HMM, which is a classical presentation interface constructed in a website.
statistical model, is adopted in this project to test whether it can keep up the accuracy of extraction in an acceptant range when the web structure changes. This method first trains HMM according to the features of This study resulted in crawling 450,000 data items from the Baidu Encyclopedia and 150,000 data ones from web information, employs related algorithms to analyze the source code of web pages, and use the model to Hudong Encyclopedia. To detect duplicates, this study found that the decision tree model could be trained by extract the news on the web site in the final stage. Experimental results show that the extracting accuracy has a training data set with 100 labeled samples. Within this parameter, 33947 duplicates were successfully better performance by using HMM, suggesting that HMM is an effective approach to dealing with ever- detected and eliminated.
changing web structures.
Keywords: People search engine, Data crawling, Information extraction, Name entity recognition, Entity Keywords: Information Extraction, Hidden Markov Model, Web Extraction. relation recognition, Duplicates elimination.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Adsorption of Acesulfame Potassium in Water by Activated Carbon
Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal Contamination in the Fishery
Derived from Waste Materials
Products of Qi'ao Island in Zhuhai City
Supervisor: Prof. Huada, Ruan Supervisor: Dr. S.T. Tsim Environmental Science, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Environmental Science, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13549892008, Email: [email protected] *Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750019539, E-mail:[email protected] Acesulfame potassium is one of the most popular sugar substitutes in the world that is widely used in food In recent years, many environmental problems in South China have occurred resulting from heavy metal and beverages for sweet taste enhancement. This study aimed to evaluate the adsorption of acesulfame contaminations. The safety issue of particularly fishery products in this area either from catching or potassium by activated carbon produced by chemical activation with phosphoric acid. An organic waste aquaculture has attracted growing attention from the public. In this study, we targeted our investigative focus material provided as a precursor for activated organic carbons was chemically activated by five different on Qi'ao Island, a place in Zhuhai City located in the Pearl River Delta publically claimed to be of concentrations of phosphoric acid in four different impregnated ratios. Not only that, the yields of activated contaminating in the fishery products. To look into this place, the heavy metal contents in some fishery carbons were also measured to evaluate the efficiency of the method used for producing activated carbon in product samples of Qi'ao Island were examined through the use of ICP analysis. In particular, two sampling the experiment. The effects of concentration of activating agent and impregnated ratio on adsorption rate and areas were chosen: the fishponds of Qi'ao Island and the food market in Jinding. From there, eleven species of adsorption capacity of activated carbon were investigated experimentally by comparing results in the amount fish, one species of shrimp and one species of oyster were systematically examined with six of their heavy of acesulfame potassium in water removed by selected activated carbon for 24 hours. Ultraviolet-visible metal levels including copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd). After spectrophotometer was used to measure the amount of acesulfame potassium remaining in aqueous solution the single factor contamination index, Pi, was calculated for each sample, the results showed that the after absorbing activated organic carbon. The removal of acesulfame potassium by activated carbon was majority of samples were not polluted by heavy metals. However, Cr contents in fish and shrimp samples analyzed, and different adsorption rates and capacities of activated carbons were obtained from the were at a light level of contamination whereas the species of grass carp was in medium pollution level with experiment. In this study, the yields of activated carbon obtained were between 30.42% and 61.10% with the Cr. Comparing with GB 18406, 4-2001, the fish and shrimp samples fulfilled the safety requirements of average yield being 42,939%. As a whole, the adsorption rate of activated carbon tended to decrease as the fishery products. This study also indicates that the oyster samples were facing potential risks in being concentration of acesulfame potassium increased in solution due to the limited adsorption capacity of contaminated by copper and cadmium. If an adult continuously consumes 30g of the oysters each day for a activated carbon. The adsorption capacity of activated carbon increased rapidly at a lower concentration week, the intake level of Cd content will exceed the maximum level set by FAO/WHO Expert Committee on level of acesulfame potassium in solution but then leveled off to constant gradually. The activated carbon Food Additives (JECFA). Long-term accumulation of Cadmium could lead to chronic cadmium poisoning, produced by 40% of phosphoric acid with the impregnated ratio of 1:2.5 had the highest adsorption capacity causing serious damages to the kidneys and the body's filtering mechanism which is important to the which went up to 30.32mg/g.
retention of essential proteins and sugars in the body. This study urges the government to draw up more concrete strategies to controlling any pollution source (e.g., industrial plants in the region) and the public to Keywords: Activated carbon, Phosphoric acid, Acesulfame potassium, Adsorption rate, Adsorption capacity. become more aware of and sensitive to the suitable intake level of Qi'ao oysters.
Keywords: Heavy metals, Qi'ao Island, Aquatic organisms, Public health risk. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Assessment of Heavy Metals in the Top Soil at Zhuhai Urban Area
Physical and Chemical Characterization of Activated Carbon
Converted from Solid Organic Waste Materials
Y.Z. Tong*, Z.Y. Huang Supervisor: Dr. S.T. Tsim Supervisor: Dr. Lee Chiu-Hong Environmetal Science, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Environmental Science, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College *Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750021460, E-mail:[email protected] * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750019573, E-mail: [email protected] According to a United Nations report published in 2007, more than half the world's population lives in cities. Carbonaceous waste materials with high carbon content have been proven to be ideal for producing activated With the urban population arising continuously, the quality of urban environment (e.g., soil condition in carbon. The aim of this study is to optimize the parameters for the production of activated carbon using a kind urban areas) becomes more closely tied to people's health and wellbeing. In this vital context, this study aims of solid organic waste material of biodiesel production known as the residue of jatropha curcas seed. to assess the concentration levels of various heavy metals in the topsoil in several urban areas located in Chemical activation methods using zinc chloride and phosphoric acid were applied for the production. The Zhuhai, China. In this study, soil samples were collected from three urban regions including Doumen, Jinwan product yield and the results of methylene blue test and iodine test were also applied to evaluate the quantity and Hengqin. In each region, two main streets were selected, and then soil samples were collected from the and quality of the products. The parameters under study were activation time, acid concentration and front, middle and rear parts of the street, yielding 54 soil samples for assessments. To detect the impregnation ratio. The activated carbon produced was grinded into powder in different sizes before having concentration levels of heavy metals (including Mn, Zn, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Cd) in the samples, ICP was used their adsorption of iodine and methylene blue measured. The results showed that for producing activated as the key instrument. Collected data were then compared with the China National Standard (GB 15618- carbon with zinc chloride, an impregnation ratio of 1.2 and activation time of 30 minutes were the best 1995) levels with the purpose of pinpointing some possible pollution sources as well as correlation and conditions. Activated carbon powder of particle sizes that passed through a mesh-200 sieve resulted in the potential risks of heavy metals in soil. Results indicate that the mean concentration levels of Mn, Zn, Cr, Cu, greatest adsorption of iodine and the highest yield amount. On the other hand, the best conditions for the Ni, Pb and Cd in urban soil at Zhuhai were below the standard concentration levels. Specifically, all the mean production of activated carbon using phosphoric acid went with 40% phosphoric acid under an impregnation concentration levels of heavy metals in Jinwan and Hengqin regions were below the standard levels, but the ratio of 1.0. In this case, activated carbon powder of particle sizes that passed through a mesh-300 sieve concentration of Zn in Doumen was over the standard as a turnout probably due to the region's heavy traffic, turned out to be the greatest adsorption of iodine as well as the highest yield amount. In overall, jatropha industrial activities and other urbanization processes by people. In comparison, heavy metal concentration curcas seed residues were shown to be a suitable material for activated carbon production.
levels in Zhuhai – except Zn in Doumen region of Zhuhai – were lower in concentration levels than other major cities of the world. This reveals that the urban topsoil in Zhuhai area has yet been seriously polluted by Keywords: Activated carbon, Jatropha curcas seed, Zinc chloride, Phosphoric acid, Methylene blue/Iodine heavy metals, but caution should be mounted on monitoring the current pollution threats to the region. adsorption tests. Keywords: Zhuhai, Heavy metals, Urban, Topsoil. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Water Quality Assessment on Eight Brands of Bottled Mineral Water
Multigenerational Effects of DEHP on Japanese Medaka
Available in China
Supervisor: Dr. B. H. Yuen Supervisor: Dr. B. H. Yuen Environmental Science, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Environmental Science, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-18665814906, E-mail: [email protected] Corresponding author. Tel: +86-756-13750022627, E-mail: [email protected] Eight brands of bottled mineral water (Ganten, Tibet Spring 5100, Kunlun Mountain, Yi Li, Canada Icefield, Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is a plasticizer, which is mainly used as additives to increasing the Evian, Volvic and Spa Reine), tap water and distilled water samples were analyzed by physical (temperature flexibility and distensibility of plastics. This study focused on studying the effects of DEHP on Japanese and pH), chemical (chloride ion content) and biological measurements (total bacteria, total coliforms and medaka (Oryzias latipes). The fertilized eggs (f0) collected from parental fish samples were exposed with Escherichia coli). A taste preference survey was also conducted with an aim to deciphering any relationship 0.001ppb, 0.1ppb, and 10ppb DEHP for a post-hatching period of two weeks and returned to normal embryo between taste of water, pH and chloride ion content. Results showed that bottled mineral water and distilled rearing medium for maturation. Compared with the vehicle control group, egg production of f0 fish treated water did not contain any total coliforms and E.coli, but total coliforms (1 colony/100ml) were detected in a with 0.001ppb, 0.1ppb, and 10ppb DEHP were reduced to 70%, 42.5% and 20%, respectively. The hatching tap water sample. Total bacteria, however, could be detected in all water samples. Tap water contained rates of f1 generation (eggs produced by f0 generation) were 63%, 57% and 48% in 0.001ppb, 0.1ppb, and 10 Colony-Forming Unit (CFU) of 1.52/ml and Evian water contained the highest total bacteria amount (0.15/ml ppb DEHP treatment, respectively. Furthermore, quantitative morphological studies on the gonads of mature CFU) among the eight brands of bottled mineral water. pH values in most water samples were ranged between fish suggest that exposure to DEHP in early developmental stages reduce the size of oocytes and decrease the 7 and 8, but Ganten and distilled water had a pH value of around 6, making them slightly acidic. All bottled number of ovum in the ovary in female fish as well as decreased the number of sperms and increased the mineral water samples contained chloride ion less than 20mg/L, except Kunlun Mountain water which interstitial space between the tissues in testis in male fish. This study also discovers that a brief exposure of contained twice the amount of chloride ion (48.98mg/L) than tap water (23.99mg/L). Survey results DEHP at 0.001ppb to f0 generation has significant long-term effect on the reproduction of f1 progenies, indicated that most people favoured Canada Icefield and Spa Reine water, suggesting that a negative which suggests the importance of implementing multigenerational studies in setting national water quality correlation between taste preference and chloride ion content as well as no correlation between that and pH guidelines to adequately protecting our aquatic species.
was found. Additionally, measurements taken in this study were compared to four national drinking water quality standards (China Standard GB 5749-2006, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Northern Ireland Keywords: Plasticizer, Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), Japanese medaka, Multigeneration study, Environment Agency, and Canada Federal-Provincial-Territorial Committee on Drinking Water). Total bacteria, E. coli and chloride ion content in all water samples complied with the above standards. However, total coliforms detected in tap water and the pH level in Ganten and distilled water failed to meet the standards. After evaluating all the parameters and the taste factor, this study considers Canada Icefield water to be safe, tasty and the most economical. Furthermore, due to the high bacterial count and chloride ion content found in tap water, it is advised that tap water must be properly boiled before consumption.
Keywords: Water quality, Mineral water, Total bacteria, E. coli, Chloride ion. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Sub-acute Toxicity of Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Bromate on
Effects of Copper, Cadmium and DEHP on Zebrafish and
Japanese Medaka
Supervisor: Dr. B. H. Yuen Supervisor: Dr. B. H. Yuen Environmental Science, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Environmental Science, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College *Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750019578, E-mail: [email protected]. * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-756-13750029436, E-mail: [email protected] Sodium benzoate (C6H5COONa) and potassium bromate (KBrO3) are commonly used as food additives in The sub-acute effects of copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and their mixtures China, but both of them have been banned recently in food processing in many developed countries (e.g., the on Zebrafish (i.e., Danio rerio) and Japanese Medaka (i.e., Oryzias latipes) were investigated in this study. United States and Japan). The effects of C6H5COONa and KBrO3 have been conducted extensively on Both fish species were exposed to Cu alone, Cd alone, DEHP alone, Cu+DEHP, Cd+DEHP or Cu+Cd+DEHP mammals, but investigations on aquatic species are very few. The basis of this study is laid on (1) the fact that with acetone as solvent control for 28 days. The concentrations for each chemical were 0.1ppm Cu (GB, most chemicals would ultimately enter the aquatic system, and (2) previous studies on the effects of the two grade Ⅱ ), 0.01ppm Cd (GB, grade Ⅴ ), and 6ppb DEHP (USEPA) respectively. Results revealed that compounds mentioned on the behavioral patterns, liver cell density and hepatohistopathology of adult Japanese Medaka exhibited higher sensitivity responses towards Cu, Cd and DEHP than Zebrafish as the Zebrafish (i.e., Danio rerio). Using this kind of fish species as samples for this study, they were exposed to mortality rates were much higher in Japanese Medaka. Alterations of hepatocytes, such as oedema, 100ppm C6H5COONa, 1000ppm KBrO3 and a combination of 100ppm C6H5COONa and1000ppm KBrO3 vaculation, necorsis, pyknotic nuclei, and enlarged sinusoid space, were observed in both fish species with for a 28 days period. Results indicate that both behavioral pattern and physical appearance changes including the Cu+Cd+DEHP treatment group showing the highest degree of hepatohistopathology. In overall, DEHP reduced swimming rate, reduction in the intensity of blue strip along the body and prolonged stationary at the lowered the individual heavy metal toxicity in mortality observations. In addition, although Zebrafish was bottom of the container were found in all the treatment groups. With regard to liver histopathology, tolerant to 0.1 ppm Cu and 0.01 ppm Cd or a combination of them, exposure to all the three toxicants (i.e., Cu, hepatocyte borders were obscure, and further investigation found cell vacuolar degeneration and lipofuscin Cd and DEHP) simultaneously resulted in 20% death rate during the exposure period of 28 days long, which in the C6H5COONa group. Also, low degree of vacuolation, destruction of cell structures, and increase in suggests that there are synergistic effects in the three chemicals. Although the highest mortality rate was sinusoidal spaces were noted in the KBrO3 group. Nuclear condensation, destruction of cell structures and observed in Medaka treated with 0.01 ppm Cd alone, exposure to a mixture of three chemicals exhibited a vacuolation steatosis were observed in the combination group. Hepatocyte density of KBrO3 group was 3366 higher toxicity level than the individual chemical. This study also demonstrated that current National Surface cells/mm2 which was as twice the density as in the control group (i.e., 1693 cells/mm2). Fish treated with Water Standard (GB3838-2002) (Grade II copper and Grade V cadmium) could not protect Japanese Medaka, C6H5COONa alone and the combination of C6H5COONa and KBrO3 resulted in 1426 and 3647 liver cells/ meaning that the national water standard should be revised to take chemical interactions into account.
mm2 respectively. Overall findings indicate that cell proliferation probably plays a major role in KBrO3 carcinogenesis. Additionally, the interaction between 100ppm C6H5COONa and 1000ppm KBrO3 might Keywords: Copper, Cadmium, DEHP, Toxicity, Zebrafish, Japanese Medaka. have been antagonistic as the mortality rate of the combined group was found lower than that of the KBrO3 treatment group. It demonstrates that both C6H5COONa and KBrO3 are able to exert toxic effects on adult Zebrafish and means that monitoring these two chemical compounds in the aquatic environment is necessary. Keywords: sodium benzoate, potassium bromate, food additives, zebrafish, toxicity, liver histopathology. FINANCIAL MATHEMATICS FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHOLOGY The Quantitative Easing's Impact on China's Economy
Protein Profiling of a Novel Tamoxifen Resistant Ovarian Cancer
Cell Line
Xiaomeng Wang*, Yulu Ma, Yun Chen Supervisor: Dr. Kevin Zhen Supervisor: Dr. Robbie Chan Financial Mathematics, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Food Science and Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: 13726267508, E-mail: [email protected] *Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750015966, E-mail: [email protected] The intensification of the global financial crisis in September 2008 led to worldwide governments and A novel tamoxifen, an estrogen receptor antagonist and a resistant ovarian cancer cell line (i.e., C13.9TR central banks taking a variety of measures to stabilizing financial conditions and saving the global economy. cells), is newly established. The C13.9TR cells show a high degree of resistance to both tamoxifen and ICI One of them was the quantitative easing monetary policy imposed by America. This policy has a significant 182,780 which is an absolute antagonist of estrogen receptors. In order to study the mechanism of anti- impact on international financial market as well as China's financial market. This paper aims to describe the estrogen resistance in C13.9TR cells, cytoplasmic proteins and nuclear proteins were isolated from C13.9TR contents of America's quantitative easing monetary policy from the first round to the fourth one as well as cells and their parental C13 cells which are tamoxifen sensitive. The concentrations of protein fractions were focus on the analysis of the quantitative easing monetary policy's impact on China and how China should measured by Bradford Method. Profiles of protein fractions prepared from C13.9TR and C13 cells were then react on this.
analyzed by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detection using wavelength of 280 nm. Results from the analysis of cytoplasmic proteins show that there are 12 proteins In quantitative easing, FED increases money-printing and, as such, leads to an appreciation of China's uniquely expressed in CT13.9TR cells but they are absent in C13 cells. In contrast, there are four unique- currency and depreciation of the dollar. In this environment, RMB currently faces enormous pressure of existing proteins whose expressions are not found in C13.9TR. The analysis of the profiles of nuclear appreciation while large amounts of short-term international capitals have made China encounter a huge proteins shows that there are ten nuclear proteins distinctly detected in C13.9TR cells but not in C13 cells. inflationary pressure. Since the U.S dollar is the main pricing currency of global energy and commodity Also, there are noticeably six nuclear proteins expressed in C13 cells but not in C13.9TR. The detectable today, the weaker dollar directly drives energy and commodity prices up. China's current demand for raw differences in protein expressions between C13 and C13.9TR potentially facilitates a deeper understanding materials energy is still depending on import. As import cost increases, China's import and export growths of the development of anti-estrogen resistance in ovarian cancer. These proteins may also potentially be able accelerate but imbalance appears, which in turn reduces foreign trade surplus. China's international market to serve as cancer makers for better diagnosis, prognosis of the disease, and outcome prediction of the anti- thus becomes less competitive.
estrogen therapy of malignancy.
This study suggests that China strengthen the supervision of the flowing international capital, which can Keywords: Ovarian cancer, Anti-estrogen, Tamoxifen, HPLC. reduce the hot money pouring into China. China should keep RMB at a "reasonable and balanced level" as Premier Wen pledges. Besides, in order to decrease foreign currency reserves shrink risk caused by depreciation of the dollar, China should invest multinational foreign exchange reserves and adjust purchase structure. Furthermore, China should enhance the development of economy and let more foreign consumers purchase China's government debts. Meanwhile, China should also strengthen export sectors and expand the scope and scale of RMB to make it become more widely used and gradually internationalized. Keywords: Quantitative easing, China, Money-printing. FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHOLOGY FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHOLOGY Differential Growth Effects of Estrogen on Estrogen-Receptor Positive
Growth Characterization of a Novel Anti-Estrogen Resistant
Cancer Cells
Ovarian Cancer Cell Line
Supervisor: Dr. Robbie Chan Supervisor: Dr. Robbie Chan Food Science and technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Food Science and Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College *Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750015952, E-mail: [email protected] *Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750015939, E-mail: [email protected] Estrogen positive breast cancers and ovarian cancers are the two most frequent diagnosed cancer types in Ovarian cancer represents one of the most common gynecological cancers, ranking fifth in cancer deaths women. The objective of this project is to study the differential growth effect of estrogen on estrogen- among women and accounting for more deaths than any other cancers of female reproductive system. In the dependent cells. Breast cancer cell line MCF-7 and ovarian cancer cell line C13 which are estrogen receptor context that ovarian cancer cells are estrogen-receptor positive, cisplatin is commonly used to treat ovarian positive are used as the target models of this investigation. Both low range of concentration (i.e., 10-12M to cancers while anti-estrogen, such as tamoxifen, is used to treat cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancers. 10-9M) and high range of concentration (i.e., 10-8M to 10-6M) of β-estradiol were used to treat MCF-7 and Nevertheless, a considerable number of ovarian cancers are not responsive to anti-estrogen. In order to study C13 cells. Low concentrations of β-estradiol were found to increase proliferation of both lines of cells while, the phenomenon and mechanism of anti-estrogen resistance in ovarian cancer, a novel tamoxifen resistant in comparison with the control samples, high concentrations of β-estradiol significantly brought the viable ovarian cancer cell line C13.9TR used as a model for the investigation of molecular mechanisms that lead to cell number down. Co-treatment of MCF-7 cells and C13 cells with tamoxifen, an antagonist of estrogen- anti-estrogen resistance in the disease was established. This project was set off to study the growth receptor, resulted in blocking the growth stimulatory effect and cytotoxic effect of low concentrations and characterization of tamoxifen resistant ovarian cancer cell line C13.9TR and the mechanistic actions of this high concentrations of estrogen respectively. It is concluded that the growth stimulatory and cytotoxic effect resistance. Both parental C13 and C13.9TR cells were subjected to treatments of different concentrations of of estrogen is mediated through estrogen receptor. While further investigation on the mechanism of the estrogen and anti-estrogen tamoxifen. By measuring the rate of cell growth and cell survival through the use cytotoxic effect of estrogen is worth underway, understanding the mechanism of cell death mediated by of MTT colorimetric assay, results indicate that tamoxifen renders agonistic effect on the growth of estrogen receptor (1) sheds light on estrogen receptor's signaling pathway and (2) brings knowledge forth to tamoxifen resistant ovarian cancer cell, which offers an explanation, at least in part, regarding the low developing new cancer therapy in the industry of designing new drugs that could activate the cytotoxic responsive rate of tamoxifen therapy on treating cisplastin-resistant ovarian cancers – absolute estrogen pathway of estrogen receptor.
receptor antagonist ICI182,780 exerts cytostatic effect on C13.9TR cells. Further characterization and study of tamoxifen-resistance mechanism in C13.9TR is currently undertaken.
Keywords: Estrogen, Estrogen-receptor cancer, Cytotoxic, Tamoxifen. Keywords: Estrogen, Estrogen-receptor cancer, Tamoxifen, ICI182,780, Anti-estrogen resistance. FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHOLOGY FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHOLOGY The Market Research and the Major Functional Component Analysis
Preparation of Soybean Energy Bar
for the Promotion of Soyjoy Energy Bar
Supervisor : Bo Lei Supervisor: Dr. Baojun Xu Food Science and Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Food Science and Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-756-13750015957, E-mail: [email protected] * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750029513, E-mail: [email protected] Currently promoted in China as a kind of functional food, soy-based energy bars manufactured by Weiwei Soybean contains unsaturated fatty acid, a variety of trace elements, vitamins and high quality protein. Group are widely considered as healthy and nutritious. This study aims to inform the manufacturer of better Recently, a group of people think soybean as healthy food can be accepted by human beings. However, production strategies and quality enhancement based on analytical data drawn from the market, consumer soybean unique smell or limited cooking methods to make some people still prefer to intake other food to behavior and laboratory experiments on the functional components of some Soyjoy energy bar samples. replace soybean nutrition. The soybean products adopt low-temperature baking technique and combine Based on the collected data, 66 out of 198 survey respondents believed that sensory aspect should be dessert manufacture process to improve product's taste, texture and flavour. These types of soybean product considered the most critical factor in China, followed by retail pricing. On the contrary, 23 out of 49 is madding by soybean, Vb12, low gluten flour, high gluten flour, egg, cream (butter), white sugar and delta- respondents in the United States thought functional properties are more important than other factors for gluconolactone, what we do is more like a mix of different things together by baking process. In order to energy bars. As the analysis of the market research results both in China and U.S. indicated, older adults with satisfy the demand of some particular group like vegetarian, we simultaneously added vitamin B12 in the a higher income considered more on functional properties related to health. As a consequence, isoflavones in product. Salt as a preservative is used in food processing and it is very important in this product to neutralize Soyjoy energy bar were analyzed while taking daidzin, glycitin, genistin, daidzein, genistein and soybean unique smell. A major reason is taste; salt is vey cheap way to add flavour to food. According the malonyldaidzin in account. It was found out that the highest amount of isoflavones in the samples were experiment, the best recipes of soybean energy bar (150 grams per one bar) as follow: 20.5% soybean malonyldaidzin with a concentration ranged from 259.4 to 339.5μg/g. As a soy powder based food product, powder, 18% high gluten flour, 20% low gluten flour, 19% butter, 40% eggs, 20% white sugar, 1.5% delta- Soyjoy contains isoflavones that may increase the total amount of isoflavones people consume. Although a gluconolactone, 1.2% vitamin B12 and salts.
proper amount of isoflavones contributes to health, the distinct flavor of soybean makes it unpleasant to certain respondents, especially westerners. Taking this aspect into consideration, this study suggests Weiwei Keywords: Soybean product, Baking processing. Group to take sensory properties of Soyjoy product as one of the primary concerns when devising better strategies on marketing. Of course, functional properties should also be formulated properly for maintaining the health image of the energy food products.
Keywords: Market research, Isoflavones, Soyjoy energy bar. FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHOLOGY FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHOLOGY A Comparative Study on Kinetic Changes of Nutrients and Antioxidant
Food Product Formulation and Development of
Capacity of Germinated Soybean (Glycine max) and Mung Bean (Vigna
Laksa Soup Paste Set
radiata) with Germination Time
Supervisor: Dr. Bo Lei Supervospr : Dr. Baojun Xu Food Science and Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750015944, E-mail: [email protected] Food Science and Technology, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: 136-3236-2288, Email: [email protected] Originated in Malaysia and Singapore, Laksa is a kind of spicy soup with a mixture of seasonings. Becoming popular as a kind of commercial products across Southeast Asia, Laksa is known with its antioxidant contents The current study aims to systematically analyze the functional values of germinated soybeans and mung which may prevent aging as well as some kinds of chronic diseases like cancers. However, the current beans in order to determine the best germination time for each functional substance. Changes in the contents commercial processes that manufacture and store the products of laksa could reduce its antioxidant effects. of phenolics, antioxidant capacities, ascorbic acid, isoflavone of soybean and mung bean in different In addition, most of the current commercial products of laksa paste contain preservatives for extending the germination periods (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 days) were administered under 25℃ to determine the optimal shelf life. To rein back the original effects of Laksa, this study attempts to formulate a new product of laksa germination period. Results indicate that germination has a positive effect on the enhancement of bioactive paste in such a safe and healthy way free from preservatives while maintaining its antioxidant effects. compounds in the soybean and mung bean samples. 1, 3 and 5 days of germination are optimal to yield germinated mung beans with high phonetics, ascorbic content and antioxidant capacities (0.2 µmol/g dry During the formulation of the recipe for the new product, the study began from processing the raw product) respectively. By contrast, 2 and 4 days of germination are suitable to produce germinated soybeans ingredients without extra addition of food preservatives. In the same time, the preservative contents of the with high ascorbic, phenolic content and antioxidants capacities (0.133 µmol/g dry product) respectively. commercial product were determined by the HsPLC method to making sure that the shelf life of the Both composition and content of isoflavone in soybeans could be influenced by germination, and three days commercial product was with preservatives. The determined sample was chosen as one of the rare germination should be optimal for the production of germinated soybeans with the highest total isoflavone commercial products of laksa paste that claimed to be free from preservatives. After testing, results indicate content (4.678 mg/g dry product). The contents of genistein, daidzein and total aglycone in germinated that the product does not contain any preservatives. However, experimental results based on the in vitro free soybean were increased by 3, 2.4, and 2.5 folds respectively as compared to non-germinated soybean. This radical scavenging capacity analysis show that the concentration of the antioxidant contents in the new study provides preliminary support for the production of germinated beans with abundant functional product produced in this study is significantly higher than the commercial product. In the final stage, the new compounds, which could facilitate further production of functional products. product was tested by a taste panel which commented that the new product could be served as a dish after Keywords: Germination, Mung bean, Soybean, Ascorbic acid, Phenolic, Antioxidant Capacities, Keywords: laksa, Soup, Paste, Antioxidant.
Mixture Discrepancy and Threshold-Accepting Algorithm
Support Vector Machine for Multi-classification Problems
Supervisor: Prof. K.T. Fang Supervisor: Prof. J.Z. Zhang Statistics, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Statistics, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-756-13750021418, E-mail: [email protected] * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-13750015898, E-mail: [email protected] It is universally acknowledged that uniform design has played an important role in computer experiments. The ability to navigate in extreme environments is important for any mobile devices. Robot navigation refers Currently, a majority of uniform design tables with good uniformity have been generated with the centered to its ability to determining its own positions according to its frame of reference and to directs itself towards L2-discrepancy (CD) and the wrap-around L2-discrepancy (WD). This study aims to point out some a target location. As indicated by a great deal of research on operation system designed mainly for robots has weaknesses of those discrepancies and introduce a new one named mixture discrepancy (MD), which has been spread out, robot navigation is a kind of classification problems. it could be dealt with by using various been proposed recently to overcome the disadvantages to a large extent. This study applies threshold- classification algorithms. Among those popular classification algorithms (decision tree, KNN, neural accepting (TA) algorithm under MD, WD and CD in both small sized and large sized designs. Next, we network, etc.), support vector machine is a relatively new tool and has been developed in a high speed after compare and analyze different discrepancies of those selected uniform designs in order to test the reliability of TA under MD. In addition, an advantage of MD as an objective function in TA is given through the analysis of rank differences between discrepancy and the total score. Finally, two conclusions laid on TA algorithm SVMs, also called support vector networks, are supervised learning models with associated learning under MD are drawn. One is being that the reliability of TA under MD is confirmed while the other one is that algorithms that analyze data and recognize patterns for classification and regression analysis. SVM the uniformity measurement for the designs derived from TA under MD is more consistent with the classification is to find the optimal separating hyper plane or surface that can separate the data while uniformity measurement based on the total score, and MD is more advantageous as an objective function in maximizing the margin (i.e., the distance between it and the nearest data point of each class). In this context, TA. In future, the TA under MD needs to be improved when being put into practice for gaining a group of this study aims to build up a proper SVM model for robot navigation in terms of the chosen dataset. It turns large-sized uniform designs.
out that the robot navigation system in-built with this model would represent several distinctive features. Furthermore, comparison among different classifiers would be made to illustrate their advantages as well as Keywords: Uniform design, Mixture discrepancy, Threshold-accepting algorithm. disadvantages, and SVM model shows its competence when compared with other classifiers.
Keywords: Robot navigation, Classification problems, Decision tree, KNN, Neural network, Support vector machine, SVM model. Order Selection in Autoregressive Models Using Adaptive-LASSO
Multivariate Classification via Local-Moment Nonparametric
Supervisor: Dr. H. J. Ye Supervisor: Dr. G. I. Papkov Statistics, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Statistics, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-756-13750015926, E-mail: [email protected] * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-756-13750015915, E-mail: [email protected] The Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) method has attracted growing attention on This study demonstrates how to apply the smoothed polynomial histogram by applying multivariate order and variable selection methods in linear models recently. As an improvement of LASSO, Adaptive- classification and the Fisher's iris data set. As a newly developed nonparametric density estimation LASSO (ALASSO) is a powerful order selection method based on the penalized log-partial likelihood with technique, the smoothed polynomial histogram performs in satisfaction with binned data. Additionally, since the adaptive-weighted L1 penalty on regression coefficients. Adaptive-LASSO method owns the advantages a classification result relies heavily on the estimated distribution, multivariate classification is achieved by of LASSO and SCAD (Smoothly Clipped Absolute Deviation), which gives different penalties to different utilizing the bivariate smoothed polynomial histogram (BSPH). Specifically via the BSPH, density estimates variables so that the unimportant variables can obtain larger penalties while the important ones acquire small of the iris data set are computed, and the classification method is based on Bayes' theorem. In order to gain penalties. In other words, the essential variables have more opportunities to remain in the model by dropping an accurate estimate, cross-validation is applied to determine the appropriate smooth parameters of the out the unnecessary ones. The main purpose of this study is to utilize the Adaptive-LASSO method for order BSPH, and difference penalties are used to work with tensor products of B-splines during computational selection and estimation in autoregressive models. A simulation study is conducted to check on the processes. This study also sheds light on how well the BSPH classifies data by determining the performance of the ALASSO estimators under stationary autoregressive models with predefined misclassification rate as applied to the iris data set. The application of classifying the iris data set is achieved coefficients. The Using three sample sizes of 30, 70, and 100 respectively, and repeating each simulated by using R software. Visualized contour plots are conducted to verify the classification results. Since parts of sample for 100 times by using the statistical software R with package "parcor", the accuracy of the estimation the conditions of the BSPH method are simplified due to time limitations during application, potential ways result is improved while the sample size increases. In addition, a real data example of the wolfer sunspot are made possible to improve the classification performance.
numbers (i.e., the data set contains 100 data points of average sunspot numbers each year from 1770 to 1869) is carried out to illustrate the efficiency of this method. Through the numerical studies, Adaptive-LASSO Keywords: Binned data, Smoothed polynomial histogram, Cross-validation, Density estimation, method is found to be an efficient and precise approach for both order selection and coefficient estimation.
Classification, Tensor product. Keywords: Adaptive-LASSO, LASSO, Order Selection, Simulation, Penalized Likelihood. On the Component-wised Condition Number of Random Sparse Matrix
On Some Classical Hypothesis Testing Problems
Supervisor: Dr. Dennis C.W. Cheung Supervisor: Dr. Lingyun Zhang Statistics, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College Statistics, Division of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College * Shihao Zhang. Tel: +86-13750015893, E-mail: [email protected] * Corresponding author. Tel: +86-15989202664, E-mail: [email protected] The round-off error appears during all real computation. In this regard, precision problems appear not just in In the field of statistics, hypothesis testing plays a critical role on estimating parameter and deducing LRT theory but in practice also although the errors are usually very small and under control. To deal with this statistics. Commonly-used hypothesis tests, such as Z-test, T-test, Chi-square-test, F-test and t-test, have problem more, condition number ((A)) was introduced by Turing in 1948. (A) is defined as the ratio between also been widely used. However, lack of resources on guiding test-statistics derivation has unfortunately led the input error and output error. As a result, it is meaningful to unearth those pathways for condition numbers. to a problematic gap between methods of finding tests and test-statistics, which is seriously affecting many For random triangular matrices, the expected value of logarithm of the norm-wised condition number is of statistics graduates in practice and research. Addressing this growing issue, this study brings forth a novel order: (n). In previous studies, the expected value of logarithm of the component-wised condition numbers methodology called the Likelihood Ratio Tests (LRT) to deriving test statistics in a more efficient way. It is for random sparse matrices has been proved to be in order (i.e., log(n)). Smoothed analysis is a relatively new developed for one to two sample problems, showing the equivalence between the LRTs and other commonly probability model introduced. Results for smoothed analysis are more robust than that for the traditional used ones, such as z-test and t-test, with the assumption of normality. Results indicate that this method is free probability models. The main objective of this project is to prove an upper bound for the expected value of from biasedness. This study concludes that the use of simulation could play an important role in logarithm of the component-wised condition numbers for smoothed analysis but to the extent of only a part of administering this method.
the proof (Lemma 3.2). Results were analyzed through simulations of random triangular matrix and found to be significantly positive on the proof, suggesting a promising method in helping fix the issue of round-off Keywords: LRT, Hypothesis, Biasedness. Keywords: Condition number, Norm-wised condition number, Component-wised condition number, Smoothed Analysis, Random Sparse Matrix, Random Triangular Matrix Division of Science and Technology
BNU-HKBU United International College
About UIC 学院简介
United International College (UIC), situated in Zhuhai and jointly founded by Beijing Normal University (BNU) and Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), is the first full-scale cooperation in higher education between the Mainland and Hong Kong. Its charter has been approved by the Ministry of Education with full support from local authorities. UIC shoulders the historical mission of advancing the internationalization of Chinese higher education and taking the lead in implementing liberal arts education in China. Since its first enrolment in 2005, UIC has grown into an international institution with innovative educational approaches. Twenty undergraduate programmes are currently being offered by three divisions: namely, the Division of Business and Management, the Division of Humanities and Social Science, and the Division of Science and Technology. UIC has extended its enrolment of Category 1 candidates from more than 20 provinces and municipalities. There are approximately 4400 students now, including those from Hong Kong, Macau and overseas. Teaching staff from more than 20 countries and regions make it possible for UIC to use English as the medium of instruction. Graduates will be awarded Bachelor's Degrees by HKBU and Graduation Certificates by UIC. About DST 理工科技学部简介
The Division of Science and Technology offers the following six Honours Degree Programmes: Applied Psychology, Computer Science and Technology, Environmental Science, Food Science and Technology, Financial Mathematics, and Statistics. The Division has over 40 professors, visiting professors, associate professors and assistant professors. They Our Vision 目标
We emphasize students' overall development, including professional knowledge, social consciousness and personal cultivation. We aspire to cultivate comprehensive professionals with practical abilities and good leading skills. 理工科技学部注重学生专业知识、社会意识及个人修养的全面发展，以培养应用型、复合型和具管理方面的专才为目标。 Organizing Committee: Dr. Alan Lai, Applied Psychology Our Mission 使命
Dr. Hui Zhang, Computer Science and Technology  Provide students with comprehensive professional knowledge and training, making it possible for them to develop Dr. Siutai Tsim, Environmental Science a career in respective industries; Dr. Philip Leung, Financial Mathematics  Offer various after-school study opportunities to students, such as field work, research studies with teaching staff, Prof. Mildred Yang, Food Science and Technology and internship in enterprises, strengthening students' ability to solve complicated problems in the real world; Dr. Dennis Cheung, Statistics  Prepare students for post-graduate studies or professional career.
Published by: BNU-HKBU-UIC Date: March 20, 2013

Source: http://uic.edu.hk/en/files-list/category/123-abstractbook?download=1509:abstract-book-2013