69 research outputs found
Rationality, identity and choice: An ethical criticism of Dr Han Suyin’s autobiography / Florence Kuek Chee Wee
No full textWhen China was completely closed to the Western world between during the Cold War, namely, 1947 to 1991, China-born Eurasian author and physician Dr Han Suyin, who became British citizen and Swiss resident, was among the few who were allowed to visit China. Though controversial, her autobiographical accounts regarding 20th century China was quite notable. Her reconstructed modern Chinese history pointed to the birthing of a ―phoenix‖ namely, China, hinting on a new ethical order in East-West relations. Captured in her six-volume autobiography, namely The Crippled Tree series, the East-West conflicts also surfaced in the microcosm of Han Suyin‘s family history as well as her own identity search. Autobiographies are traditionally understood as means of self-redemption or self-validation of the respective autobiographers. In the case of Dr Han Suyin, it was an epistemological means to her self-knowledge and self-assertion. Having rejected her maiden name Rosalie, Han Suyin learned later that she was to embrace her dual-ethnicity after all. The adoption of the Chinese pseudonym ―Han Suyin‖ was one of her efforts to reconstruct her new identity. By revisiting the ethical issues in her family saga as well as the experience of the mixed-race individuals, Han Suyin went through the plethora of taboo, trauma, confusion, multiple ethical choices, plenty of dilemmas and a lifetime of soul-searching for a place where she could be home. The entire process of rejecting ―Rosalie,‖ accepting ―Rosalie‖ and thriving beyond ―Rosalie‖ was, nonetheless, the best reflection of her mode of survival in a series of debatable ethical choices. Moreover, her choices were in stark difference when compared with the choices made by her siblings and her Eurasian peers. This thesis chiefly employs Ethical Literary Criticism (ELC) in examining the various ethical dimensions in Han Suyin‘s autobiographical series
Chinese literary works translated into Baba Malay: a bibliographical study
No full textAnalyses 68 unique titles of Baba translated works published between 1889 and 1950. The titles are held in the libraries of the University of Malaya (UM), Science University Malaysia (USM), National University of Malaysia (UKM), the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), National University of Singapore (NUS), National Library of Singapore (NLS) and the British Library (BL). The results reveal three periods of active publication of Baba translated works. A total of 18 works were translated before World War I, followed by 10 just after the war, 39 titles were published before the break of the World War II and 1 was identified in 1950. There were 103 persons involved in the 68 translated works, some of whom are responsible for more than one title. The most prominent translators were Chan Kim Boon, Wan Boon Seng, Seow Chin San and Lee Seng Poh. Some of the translators were also be editors, illustrators or editors. There were 31 publishers and 21 printing presses involved, all were located in Singapore. The most active publishers were Wan Boon Seng, Kim Seck Chy Press and Nanyang Romanised Malay Book Co. The translated works mainly cover historical classical Chinese stories, chivalrous stories, romances, folklore and legends. The titles were priced between 10 cents to 2 dollars in Straits currency. The University of Malaya Library held the largest number of unique title (62) out of which 15 were unique titles
Commercialization potential of dye-sensitized mesoscopic solar cells
No full textThesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 2008.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-73).The price of oil has continued to rise, from a high of US140 in the recent weeks (of July). Coupled with increasing insidious greenhouse gas emissions, the need to harness abundant and renewable energy sources is never more urgent than now. The sun is the champion of all energy sources and photovoltaic cell production is currently the world's fastest growing energy market. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are photoelectrochemical cells which mimic the natural photosynthesis process to generate solar electricity. Typically, a monolayer of dye sensitizer molecules is anchored onto a semiconductor mesoporous film such as TiO₂ to generate charges on exposure to illumination. The nanocrystalline particulate threedimensional network provides high surface area coverage for the photogeneration process and percolation of charges. In the thesis, we will review the current research efforts to optimize the DSC performance and develop probable applications to complement existing solid-state photovoltaic technologies. We believe the large and rapidly expanding solar market offers a prime commercial opportunity to deliver a DSC product for mass adoption by consumers. DSC is kept at a low production cost because it bypasses conventional vacuum-based semiconductor processing technologies, instead relying on solution and chemical processing routes. However, our cost modeling analysis show the TCO glass substrate and ruthenium dyes could constitute more than 90% of the overall materials cost.(cont.) Thus, we recommend new technological approaches must be taken to keep the substrate pricing low and continuously improve the energy conversion efficiencies to further lower the production cost.by Kwan Wee Tan.M.Eng
Modeling and simulation of selective laser melting process
No full textSelective Laser Melting (SLM) in 3D manufacturing is increasing in popularity due to the fact that it is full of potential. This technology is widely used in many industries, as there is a high possibility of creating large variety of materials, resulting in a broad range of physical and mechanical properties. As such, in this report, the author will focus on SLM process in 3D printing. The author will create a model using large-scale atomic/molecular massively parallel simulator (LAMMPS) molecular dynamics simulator so as to perform simulations of the SLM process during 3D printing. After which, the author will use the output from the LAMMPS and serve it as an input to OVITO so as to visualize and to understand how the heat from the laser is transferred across the granular powder during additive manufacturing. In addition, the author will insert another layer of granular powder and applied heat so as to simulate the actual SLM process. The results obtained from this simulation will allow the industry to have a rough idea on the thermodynamics and molecular dynamics of SLM process on granular powder. In the future, this will provide the manufacturers with a platform to conduct simulation before the real manufacturing process is conducted. This will help to increase the success rate and reduce the cost of manufacturing failure. In addition, this will also speed up the production rate of complex materials.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering
Face detection and tracking using hybrid margin-based ROI techniques
No full textThis study is to solve the problem of low accuracy and slow processing speed for real-time face detection and tracking systems. A margin-based region of interest approach with fixed and dynamic margin concepts is proposed to speed up the processing time. In addition, a hybrid system is developed to boost the accuracy and overcome the deficiency of the main detection algorithm. This approach consists of two routines, i.e., main and escape routines. Three algorithms are used independently as the main routine to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid approach. These algorithms are Haar cascade, Joint cascade, and multitask convolutional neural networks. The escape routine based on template matching algorithm is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid approach and improve detection accuracy. Two RGB video datasets with diversity and variations in face poses, video backgrounds, illuminations, video resolutions, expressions, over exposed faces, and occlusions of people within various unseen environments have been used for experiments and evaluation. The experiment results confirm that the hybrid approach is capable of detecting and tracking faces in non-frontal orientation with better accuracy and faster processing speed, i.e., four times faster than the conventional full frame scanning techniques
A survey on Singapore's investments in China : characteristics & trends
No full textAfter a thorough study by our group on the characteristics and trends of
Singapore investments in China, it was observed that majority of the firms that
invested in China were not listed and were in fact Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs). These SMEs mostly invested in the form of joint ventures. Majority of the
investors have manufacturing as their principal activities domestically. In their
investments in China, they did not diversify into new sectors. Even for subsequent
projects, these investors chose to stay in their familiar sectors.
A general trend was observed in the provinces where investors chose to invest
in. They have begun to move deeper into inner China instead of restricting themselves
to the coastal provinces as were traditionally the case. Favourite provinces for
investments included Jiangsu, Guangdong, Fujian, Beijing, Shandong and Sichuan.
Our survey also revealed that there was little or no displacement effects arising
from the increasing number of investments in China. Singaporean investors felt that
these investments were beneficial to both Singapore and China in their own ways. To
Singapore or ASEAN, they represented a new and growing market which offered new
business opportunities with possible higher rates of return. To China itself, they
represented transfer of much needed technology and expertise which played an
essential role in stimulating the economic growth of China and providing job
opportunities.
The reasons that were most often cited for investing in China were the large
domestic market of China, the possible strategic alliance and the lower operating costs.
The infamous bureaucracy, its poor infrastructure and the insufficiency of skilled
management remained the major stumbling blocks to foreign investments for China. To
encourage more foreign investments, China needs to improve, if not solve, these
problems. If the present wave of investment flow to China continued, it is highly possible that in time to come, Singapore will become one of the top three foreign
investors in China.ACCOUNTANC
qFIBS: A Novel Automated Technique for Quantitative Evaluation of Fibrosis, Inflammation, Ballooning, and Steatosis in Patients With Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis
No full textNonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a common cause of chronic liver disease. Clinical trials use the NASH Clinical Research Network (CRN) system for semiquantitative histological assessment of disease severity. Interobserver variability may hamper histological assessment, and diagnostic consensus is not always achieved. We evaluate a novel second harmonic generation/two-photon excitation fluorescence (SHG/TPEF) imaging-based tool to provide an automated quantitative assessment of histological features pertinent to NASH. Images were acquired by SHG/TPEF from 219 nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/NASH liver biopsy samples from seven centers in Asia and Europe. These were used to develop and validate qFIBS, a computational algorithm that quantifies key histological features of NASH. qFIBS was developed based on in silico analysis of selected signature parameters for four cardinal histopathological features, that is, fibrosis (qFibrosis), inflammation (qInflammation), hepatocyte ballooning (qBallooning), and steatosis (qSteatosis), treating each as a continuous rather than categorical variable. Automated qFIBS analysis outputs showed strong correlation with each respective component of the NASH CRN scoring (P < 0.001) (qFibrosis [r = 0.776], qInflammation [r = 0.557], qBallooning [r = 0.533], and qSteatosis [r = 0.802]) and high area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) values (qFibrosis [0.870-0.951; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.787-1.000; P < 0.001], qInflammation [0.820-0.838; 95% CI, 0.726-0.933; P < 0.001 ), qBallooning [0.813-0.844; 95% CI, 0.708-0.957; P < 0.001], and qSteatosis [0.939-0.986; 95% CI, 0.867-1.000; P < 0.001]) and was able to distinguish differing grades/stages of histological disease. Performance of qFIBS was best when assessing degree of steatosis and fibrosis but performed less well when distinguishing severe inflammation and higher ballooning grades. Conclusion: qFIBS is an automated tool that accurately quantifies the critical components of NASH histological assessment. It offers a tool that could potentially aid reproducibility and standardization of liver biopsy assessments required for NASH therapeutic clinical trial
Measures of falls efficacy, balance confidence, or balance recovery confidence for perturbation-based balance training
No full textFrom Frontiers via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: collection 2022, received 2022-08-22, accepted 2022-09-28, epub 2022-10-12Peer reviewed: TrueAcknowledgements: The Balance Recovery Confidence Scale was developed as part of the author's PhD studies under the tutelage of Dr Judith Lane, Dr Chee-Wee Tan, and Prof Nigel Gleeson. The author was awarded a PhD scholarship by the Singapore Institute of Technology.Publication status: PublishedShawn Leng-Hsien Soh - ORCID: 0000-0002-8725-5182
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8725-5182There is a growing interest in using perturbation-based balance training (PBT) to reduce falls. The efficacy of PBT has been largely attributed to improved physical ability to arrest falls, such as improved recovery step length and trunk velocity. While PBT is likely to influence psychological factors, the impact on this aspect remains unclear. Several studies have found a limited influence of PBT on falls efficacy or balance confidence. Given that falls is a complex phenomenon, the role of PBT on psychological factors needs to be elucidated adequately. Recently, falls efficacy has been proposed to encompass four domains: balance confidence, balance recovery confidence, safe-landing confidence, and post-fall recovery confidence, alongside the appropriate use of falls efficacy measures. This commentary aims to feature some falls efficacy-related measurement instruments so that researchers and clinicians can choose the most suitable measures for PBT.pubpu
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