WEI CHAO LIAO | The University of Hong Kong (original) (raw)

Papers by WEI CHAO LIAO

Beijing International Review of Education, 2021

Příspěvek představuje českou verzi Testu porozumění větám, který byl adaptován ze slovenského jaz... more Příspěvek představuje českou verzi Testu porozumění větám, který byl adaptován ze slovenského jazyka. Obsahem článku je popis testu, stručně též vznik jeho české verze s některými výsledky a diskusí. K testu byly stanoveny percentilové normy pro dospělou populaci s ohledem na věk (Nohová et al., v přípravě). Tento diagnostický nástroj slouží k podrobnému hodnocení porozumění mluvené řeči na úrovni vět. Obsahuje 48 vět s různou syntaktickou konstrukcí a lingvistickými faktory. V klinické praxi jej lze využít u celé řady pacientů-u osob s afázií, s kognitivně-komunikační poruchou a dalších. Jeho další využití je předmětem navazujících i budoucích výzkumů.

International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 2020

Teacher education programs are increasingly critiqued for their limited relationship to student t... more Teacher education programs are increasingly critiqued for their limited relationship to student teachers' needs and for their limited impact on practice. Many appeals are heard for a radical new and effective pedagogy of teacher education in which theory and practice are linked effectively. Teacher education programs need to bridge the "gap" between coursework and the realities of pre-service fieldwork and in-service teaching. Pre-service teachers need to experience coherence and integration among their courses, and between their coursework and fieldwork. It is more likely that practicing in real classroom settings can play a relatively more important role in helping teachers develop their noticing awareness and skills; certain kinds of their professional identities; and contextually-appropriate classroom management strategies and techniques; and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).

Antioxidants, 2019

White peony is a type of white tea (Camellia sinensis) rich in polyphenols. In this study, polyph... more White peony is a type of white tea (Camellia sinensis) rich in polyphenols. In this study, polyphenols were extracted from white peony. In vitro experiments showed that white peony polyphenols (WPPs) possess strong free radical scavenging capabilities toward 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2’-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS). Long-term alcohol gavage was used to induce alcoholic liver injury in mice, and relevant indices of liver injury were examined. WPPs effectively reduced the liver indices of mice with liver injury. The serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase (ATS), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), nitric oxide (NO), and malondialdehyde (MDA) were downregulated, while those of albumin (ALB), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) were upregulated. WPPs also reduced the serum levels of interluekin-6 (IL-6)...

Annals of Translational Medicine, 2019

Physics Letters B, 2009

The Friedberg-Lee (FL) symmetry is generated by a transformation of a fermionic field q to q + ξz... more The Friedberg-Lee (FL) symmetry is generated by a transformation of a fermionic field q to q + ξz. This symmetry puts very restrictive constraints on allowed terms in a Lagrangian. Applying this symmetry to N fermionic fields, we find that the number of independent fields is reduced to N − 1 if the fields have gauge interaction or the transformation is a local one. Using this property, we find that a seesaw model originally with three generations of left-and right-handed neutrinos, with the left-handed neutrinos unaffected but the right-handed neutrinos transformed under the local FL translation, is reduced to an effective theory of minimal seesaw which has only two right-handed neutrinos. The symmetry predicts that one of the light neutrino masses must be zero.

Human brain mapping, Jan 14, 2015

Benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) is often associated with neural circuit dysfun... more Benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) is often associated with neural circuit dysfunction, particularly during the transient active state characterized by interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs). Little is known, however, about the functional neural circuit abnormalities in BECTS without IEDs, or if such abnormalities could be used to differentiate BECTS patients without IEDs from healthy controls (HCs) for early diagnosis. To this end, we conducted resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) and simultaneous Electroencephalogram (EEG) in children with BECTS (n = 43) and age-matched HC (n = 28). The simultaneous EEG recordings distinguished BECTS with IEDs (n = 20) from without IEDs (n = 23). Intrinsic brain activity was measured in all three groups using the amplitude of low frequency fluctuation at rest. Compared to HC, BECTS patients with IEDs exhibited an intrinsic activity abnormality in the thalamus, suggesting that thalamic dysfunction could c...

Polymers for Advanced Technologies, 2008

Melamine salt of tripentaerythriol phosphate (MTP), as a new intumescent flame-retardant, was pre... more Melamine salt of tripentaerythriol phosphate (MTP), as a new intumescent flame-retardant, was prepared from tripentaerythritol (TPE), polyphosphoric acid, phosphoric pentoxide, and melamine, and then incorporated into polypropylene (PP) to obtain flame-retarded PP-MTP. FT-IR analysis showed that MTP was in the form of cage structure. The flammability, combustion behavior, and thermal degradation and stability of flame-retarded PP were characterized by using LOI, UL-94 test, cone calorimetry, and TGA, respectively. By SEM, the char structure of PP-MTP was analyzed. XRD diffraction tests showed that PP-matrix of PP-MTP presented better crystallized phases, when MTP was modified by methyl hydrogen siloxane. The relations of the dispersion of MTP in PP matrix to the compatibility between PP and MTP, and to the flame retardancy were discussed.

Proc. of SPIE Vol

We presents a nanorods AlN films on sapphire substrate deposited at oblique-angle by a radio-freq... more We presents a nanorods AlN films on sapphire substrate deposited at oblique-angle by a radio-frequency reactive magnetron sputtering. A nanorods AlN layer was employed as a buffer layer for a GaN-based LEDs to improve optoelectronic characteristics of LEDs. The diameter of the nanorods AlN buffer layer is in the range of 30-50 nm. Typical current-voltage characteristics of the GaN-based LEDs with a nanorods AlN buffer layer have a forward-bias voltage of 3.1 V at an injection current of 20 mA. The output intensity of LEDs initially increases linearly as the injection current increases from 10 mA to 150 mA. The light output power of the GaN-based LED with a nanoporous AlN layer was about 31% higher than that of a GaN-based LED without a nanoporous AlN layer at an injection current of 250 mA.

Colloids and Surfaces A: …, 2010

A highly hydroxylated barium titanate (BaTiO 3 ) nanopowder has been prepared by oxidizing the Ba... more A highly hydroxylated barium titanate (BaTiO 3 ) nanopowder has been prepared by oxidizing the BaTiO 3 with an aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ). The concentration of the hydroxyl group (OH) derived on the BaTiO 3 surface by H 2 O 2 -treatment is determined ...

Applied and …, 2009

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a common food-borne pathogen that is normally associated with seafood.... more Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a common food-borne pathogen that is normally associated with seafood. In 1996, a pandemic O3:K6 strain abruptly appeared and caused the first pandemic of this pathogen to spread throughout many Asian countries, America, Europe, and Africa. The role of temperate bacteriophages in the evolution of this pathogen is of great interest. In this work, a new temperate phage, VP882, from a pandemic O3:K6 strain of V. parahaemolyticus was purified and characterized after mitomycin C induction. VP882 was a Myoviridae bacteriophage with a polyhedral head and a long rigid tail with a sheath-like structure. It infected and lysed high proportions of V. parahaemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificus, and Vibrio cholerae strains. The genome of phage VP882 was sequenced and was 38,197 bp long, and 71 putative open reading frames were identified, of which 27 were putative functional phage or bacterial genes. VP882 had a linear plasmid-like genome with a putative protelomerase gene and cohesive ends. The genome does not integrate into the host chromosome but was maintained as a plasmid in the lysogen. Analysis of the reaction sites of the protelomerases in different plasmid-like phages revealed that VP882 and ΦHAP-1 were highly similar, while N15, ΦKO2, and PY54 made up another closely related group. The presence of DNA adenine methylase and quorum-sensing transcriptional regulators in VP882 may play a specific role in this phage or regulate physiological or virulence-associated traits of the hosts. These genes may also be remnants from the bacterial chromosome following transduction.

The amygdala is often found to be abnormally recruited in social anxiety disorder (SAD) patients.... more The amygdala is often found to be abnormally recruited in social anxiety disorder (SAD) patients. The question whether amygdala activation is primarily abnormal and affects other brain systems or whether it responds ''normally'' to an abnormal pattern of information conveyed by other brain structures remained unanswered. To address this question, we investigated a network of effective connectivity associated with the amygdala using Granger causality analysis on resting-state functional MRI data of 22 SAD patients and 21 healthy controls (HC). Implications of abnormal effective connectivity and clinical severity were investigated using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Decreased influence from inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) to amygdala was found in SAD, while bidirectional influences between amygdala and visual cortices were increased compared to HCs. Clinical relevance of decreased effective connectivity from ITG to amygdala was suggested by a negative correlation of LSAS avoidance scores and the value of Granger causality. Our study is the first to reveal a network of abnormal effective connectivity of core structures in SAD. This is in support of a disregulation in predescribed modules involved in affect control. The amygdala is placed in a central position of dysfunction characterized both by decreased regulatory influence of orbitofrontal cortex and increased crosstalk with visual cortex. The model which is proposed based on our results lends neurobiological support towards cognitive models considering disinhibition and an attentional bias towards negative stimuli as a core feature of the disorder.