Hong Kong Baptist University

About: Hong Kong Baptist University is a education organization based out in Hong Kong, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: China & Population. The organization has 7811 authors who have published 18919 publications receiving 555274 citations. The organization is also known as: Hong Kong Baptist College & HKBU.

Functional ecology of an Antarctic Dry Valley

Abstract: The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the largest ice-free region in Antarctica and are critically at risk from climate change. The terrestrial landscape is dominated by oligotrophic mineral soils and extensive exposed rocky surfaces where biota are largely restricted to microbial communities, although their ability to perform the majority of geobiological processes has remained largely uncharacterized. Here, we identified functional traits that drive microbial survival and community assembly, using a metagenomic approach with GeoChip-based functional gene arrays to establish metabolic capabilities in communities inhabiting soil and rock surface niches in McKelvey Valley. Major pathways in primary metabolism were identified, indicating significant plasticity in autotrophic, heterotrophic, and diazotrophic strategies supporting microbial communities. This represents a major advance beyond biodiversity surveys in that we have now identified how putative functional ecology drives microbial community assembly. Significant differences were apparent between open soil, hypolithic, chasmoendolithic, and cryptoendolithic communities. A suite of previously unappreciated Antarctic microbial stress response pathways, thermal, osmotic, and nutrient limitation responses were identified and related to environmental stressors, offering tangible clues to the mechanisms behind the enduring success of microorganisms in this seemingly inhospitable terrain. Rocky substrates exposed to larger fluctuations in environmental stress supported greater functional diversity in stress-response pathways than soils. Soils comprised a unique reservoir of genes involved in transformation of organic hydrocarbons and lignin-like degradative pathways. This has major implications for the evolutionary origin of the organisms, turnover of recalcitrant substrates in Antarctic soils, and predicting future responses to anthropogenic pollution.

Parental influence on the purchase of luxury brands of infant apparel: an exploratory study in Hong Kong

Abstract: With a focus on the purchasing behaviour of parents buying luxury brands of infant apparel, this paper considers the concepts of buying roles, conspicuous consumption/social consumption motivation, and materialism A survey of 134 mothers who had purchased luxury brands of clothing for their infants found that parents are motivated by the good quality and design associated with the luxury brands The relationship between the amount of money spent by parents on luxury brands of infant apparel and social consumption motivation was not significant However, interviewees who spent more on luxury clothing brands for their infants were determined to be more materialistic It is thus recommended that marketers should emphasise the good quality and design of their luxury brands of infant apparel In addition, marketers should promote the materialistic values of purchasing luxury brands of infant apparel, showing that buying luxury brands of infant apparel may be a route to happiness, rather than being a route for impressing others

Suppression of thermal conductivity in graphene nanoribbons with rough edges

Abstract: We analyze numerically thermal conductivity of graphene nanoribbons with perfect and rough edges. We demonstrate that edge roughness can suppress thermal conductivity by two orders of magnitude. This effect is associated with the edge-induced energy localization and suppression of the phonon transport, and it becomes more pronounced for longer nanoribbons and low temperatures.

Moderating the outputs of support vector machine classifiers

Abstract: In this paper, we extend the use of moderated outputs to the support vector machine (SVM) by making use of a relationship between SVM and the evidence framework. The moderated output is more in line with the Bayesian idea that the posterior weight distribution should be taken into account upon prediction, and it also alleviates the usual tendency of assigning overly high confidence to the estimated class memberships of the test patterns. Moreover, the moderated output derived here can be taken as an approximation to the posterior class probability. Hence, meaningful rejection thresholds can be assigned and outputs from several networks can be directly compared. Experimental results on both artificial and real-world data are also discussed.