Caught between cultures: case study of an “out of school” ethnic minority student in Hong Kong

This paper reports a case study on Maneesha Rai, a Nepalese girl living in Hong Kong and an “out of school” student. Based on in-depth interviews, a case was constructed of her previous school days and current “out of school” days. These provided a vivid picture of her life and several themes were created using schema analysis that help explain the reasons for her “dropping out” of school after Form Five. It has been common to attribute school failure for ethnic minority students in Hong Kong to problems with Chinese language education. Yet Maneesha’s case study shows that her experience of failure in other subjects such as Mathematics and Science contributed to her lack of successful schooling. Maneesha’s school failure was more than simply a consequence of academic failure. Rather, there were many other interrelated factors such as peer and community factors, dropout history in the family, racism, differences in schooling culture found that contributed to her school failure. In addition, Maneesha, like many of her ethnic minority friends, enjoyed the freedom afforded her in Hong Kong, but it seemed such freedom also meant inadequate attention from her teachers.     

Functional Significance of Orienters in Prose Learning

Orienters were defined as stimuli that activate the focal attentive mechanisms which are considered to be important for deeper processing of information. Several kinds of Orienters were identified. Orienters act by initiating an orienting response which is characterized by two stages—(1) a brief molar phase involving a gross orientation of the receptor, followed by (2) a tonic phase involving a fine scanning of details. The tonic phase was considered to correspond to the activation of focal attentive mechanisms in Neisser’s terminology. It was concluded that Orienters may in fact activate focal-attentive mechanisms, but mere activation of such mechanisms may not necessarily aid retention of information. Retention of information is also dependent upon S’s decision to retain the information to which he has been alerted.     

A preliminary study of protein thiols and serum cholinesterase in assisted reproduction

In this study we sought to investigate the levels of serum protein thiols and cholinesterase levels before and after intrauterine insemination (IUI).We observed 68% patients showed a decrease in protein thiols and 63% showed a decrease in serum cholinesterase levels after insemination as compared to their respective pre procedure levels. The fall in thiols was statistically significant (p=0.021) indicating there is increased oxidative stress after the procedure. However, we could not comment on any reason for the fall in cholinesterase. Whether the changes in above parameters may have some implication on the overall success rate of IUI is yet to be ascertained.     

Oxidative stress and antioxidant status in normolipidemic AMI patients

The objective of the study was to observe the correlation between oxidative stress and antioxidants in myocardial infarct patients with normal lipid profile. In the present study investigation of lipid peroxidation and antioxidants were done in patients. This study was carried out on 165 AMI patients, (123 males and 42 females). The control group consisted on 165 normal healthy age-sex matched subjects (123 males and 42 females). Levels of Superoxide dismutase, Glutathione Peroxidase, Catalase, Malondialdehyde and Conjugated dienes were measured. The study found Superoxide dismutase, Glutathione Peroxidase, Catalase were significantly lower in activities (p<0.001) in AMI patients compared to controls. The markers of lipid peroxidation namely Malondialdehyde and Conjugated dienes were higher in AMI patients as compared to controls (p<0.001). The present study is clearly suggestive of increased oxidative stress in AMI patients. Oxidative stress appears as an etiological factor for myocardial infraction as a consequence the free radical scavengers levels are lowered in AMI patient.     

A Comparative Study on Obedient/Disobedient Behavior in Secondary ＋ 1 Level Students

The present study was carried out to compare the obedient/disobedient behavior in secondary ＋ 1 level students. Objectives of the study were： （1） to study and compare the obedience/disobedience in secondary ＋ 1 level students on gender basis; （2） to study and compare the obedient/disobedient behavior in secondary ＋ 1 level students in relation to their stream （arts/science）; and （3） to study the interactional effect of gender and stream on the obedient/disobedient behavior in secondary ＋ 1 level school students. ODTS （obedient-disobedient tendency scale） by Mehta and Hasnain was used for the present study. The results reveal that males are disobedient in their behavior, whereas, females show the mixed behavior, i.e., both obedience and disobedience; arts students are disobedient, i.e., both boys and girls in comparison to science stream students; gender and stream have a significant interactional effect on the obedient/disobedient behavior of secondary ＋ 1 level students.     

Pseudohyperkalemia in Serum and Plasma: The Phenomena and Its Clinical Implications

Hyperkalemia is a life threatening electrolyte derangement that must be recognized and treated quickly. Pseudohyperkalemia is defined as a difference between serum and plasma potassium concentration of more than 0.4 meq/L with serum values on the higher side when both the samples are obtained at the same time, remain at room temperature and are tested within 1 h of sample collection. Given the implication of basing medical decisions on falsely elevated potassium levels, timely identification of the entity of pseudohyperkalemia and differentiating it from true hyperkalemia becomes utmost important. Here we present a case report of a 36 year old female admitted with a provisional diagnosis of pyrexia of unknown origin with hepatosplenomegaly and anaemia under evaluation. During hospital stay her potassium levels in whole blood, serum and plasma reportedly differed significantly. An abnormal WBC count beyond assay range was reported and during subsequent investigations this lead to a peripheral smear being advised and diagnosis revealed chronic lymphoblastic leukaemia with blast crisis and 86% blast cells. In patients with leukocytosis and thrombocytosis, pseudohyperkalemia may exist in the absence of electrocardiogram changes or other clinical manifestations of true hyperkalemia thus leading to reevaluation of potassium values in serum, plasma and whole blood to arrive at the true picture.