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Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are common in life trajectories, and continued exposure to childhood adversities has long-term consequences that can lead to lifelong physical, mental, and emotional deficiencies. This study aims to address the research gap in the ACEs context in Macao by enhancing our understanding of the cultural sensitivity, applicability, and acceptability associated with assessing ACEs among Chinese childhood and adolescents in Macao. The study utilized the Chinese version of The International Trauma Exposure Measure – Children and Adolescents (ITEM-CA) to facilitate the exploration of cultural adaptation needs related to ACEs measurement tools in Macao. Employing a qualitative methodology with an explanatory and descriptive design, the study collected opinions and suggestions through an online questionnaire from professionals working with children aged 7-17 years old, as well as parents or caregivers of children within the same age group. Several key findings emerged from the study. Firstly, it underscored the adequacy and pertinence of the Chinese ITEM-CA in covering the topics of traumatic events and deeming it more suitable for children aged 12 or above. Secondly, it emphasized the importance of maintaining anonymity and the involvement of dedicated and trained personnel throughout the ACEs assessment process. Lastly, it highlighted the need to increase public awareness regarding traumatic events and ACEs in Macao society. These findings have significant implications for researchers studying the prevalence of ACEs in Macao and for policymakers in Macao implementing ACEs surveillance. Additionally, there is a recommendation for organization, especially schools, to respond to ACEs using trauma-informed approaches, supporting the well-being of children, fostering resilience, and minimizing the risk of re-traumatization

This study presents a case study that explores teachers’ perspectives on the role of cooperative learning as a pedagogical approach in promoting equity, inclusion, and collaboration within inclusive classrooms. Additionally, it identifies both the perceived benefits and challenges associated with its application. The researcher sought data from primary school teachers in one inclusive school in Macau and employed in-depth semi-structured interviews. Twelve participants were involved in this qualitative study. The findings underscore the significant impact of cooperative learning in creating inclusive, engaging, and equitable educational environments, particularly for students with special educational needs. Overall, the participants viewed cooperative learning as a valuable pedagogical approach that fosters equity, interaction, student engagement, and collaboration in inclusive classroom settings. While cooperative learning presents several benefits in promoting an inclusive and equitable learning environment, the findings also reveal unique challenges that require careful management and adaptation by teachers. Some of these challenges include certain students dominating group work, difficulties in integrating students with different disabilities, and time management issues for effective cooperative learning implementation. Overall, the case study contributes valuable insights into to the complex dynamics of cooperative learning in mixed ability classes

The inundation problem in Macao is getting more attention recently, especially after the destructive impacts of typhoons Hato (2017) and Mangkut (2019). The inundation caused by storm surges is getting more severe with the rapid sea-level rise in Macao. Moreover, the potential threat of a tsunami in Macao, may be enhanced with rising sea-level. This research evaluated the risk of coastal hazards in Macao by analyzing the local meteorological data. The results of the analysis indicate a rising trend in the tropical cyclone intensity and more severe storm surges are expected to occur in the future. Moreover, this research explores the potential of Nature-based Solutions (NbS), particularly mangroves, to address the inundation problem in Macao. The study included a preliminary laboratory-based experiment and the application of local mangroves data in numerical models. The results of the experiment and numerical models demonstrate the ability of mangroves to attenuate waves. These findings, although preliminary, indicate that mangroves could be a promising NbS to address inundation issues in Macao. To effectively implement this NbS, further field investigations are needed to measure attenuation in-situ, as well as determine optimal locations for mangrove restoration projects

I have met many friendly and patient professors and classmates during my two years of university. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for the support and encouragement when I encountered difficulties, also professors detailed sharing and explanations in my learning and growing. Taking classes with my job at the same time is a very challenging task, especially in the thesis writing stage, it is difficult to manage the time allocation as well as concentration on thesis writing, and I even had the thoughts of giving up for a few times, but I am very thankful to my supervisor for his continuous support and encouragement during the thesis writing period, and for his attentive guidance whenever I have confusion during the time, he has provided me with a lot of practical and valuable advice, which inspired me a lot. In addition, I would like to thank those who helped me to complete the questionnaire survey. Without their help, I believe it would have been difficult for me to collect enough questionnaires. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the two interviewees who agreed to be interviewed, as it is a difficult task to conduct interviews as a student in Macau. I would like to thank both for their support of the academic research, and the experience that they shared with us is very important to this study. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family, friends, and colleagues for always providing me with positive support, listening to my concerns, and helping me to overcome difficulties one after another. Once again, I would like to thank all those people who have helped me to complete my thesis

This research study explores the corporate communication strategies and media shifts adopted by large enterprises in Macau during the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic era. Taking SJM Resorts, a large enterprise roots in Macau for over 60 years, as an example to analyze the shift and changes in its corporate communication practices and media usage during the pandemic and post-pandemic era. Moreover, recent literatures on related topic were reviewed to support this research. The researcher invited eight leaders from the case study to conduct semi-structured interviews for qualitative analysis, whilst to distribute 500 e-questionnaire surveys to public for collecting empirical data for quantitative analysis. Issues such as the proportion of offline and online media usage and corporate communication and media strategies and impacts were raised. The study result provides theory and practice reviews for related academic fields. Since there are relatively few research reviews on enterprises’ corporate communication and media landscape during the pandemic and the post-pandemic era at recent stage, this study can fill this gap, provide new research results to the related field as well as enrich the current literature database in related fields

As the world becomes more globalized, it is now more important than ever for brands and advertisers to find effective ways to engage with consumers of different cultural backgrounds. Developing marketing that targets people of different cultural backgrounds, or multicultural marketing, carries specific nuances and complexities that may make traditional methods fall short. With this being said, there is still a lack of studies that explore the correlation between consumer's cultural background and their overall brand perception. Neuromarketing has proven to be an effective tool to understanding consumer behavior, by utilizing neuroscience tools. To employ a more sophisticated and in-depth understanding of consumer perception, the current research study makes use of neuroscience tools and aims to study the influence of cultural background in brand perception, while in a controlled environment. Using physiological neuroscience tools, namely, facial expression analysis (FEA), electrodermal activity (EDA), and eye-tracking (ET), a total of thirty-eight individuals, with ages between 19 and 50 years old, from 12 different countries and regions, participated in this research study. Findings suggest that participants of different cultural backgrounds perceive multicultural commercials as more favorable than monocultural commercials. However, future research should be done with a larger sample size, as well as include a wider variety of commercials. Research would also benefit from adopting a statistical analysis to help determine the significance of the results obtained

Chevron Corporation (CVX) is one of the world’s largest energy companies, which operates across the entire Oil and Gas industry, including exploration and production as an Upstream operation and refining and marketing as a Downstream operation. Chevron has a strong presence worldwide, with operations in North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe, which includes more than 180 countries, where the US, in terms of production, represents 39.4% of the net oil-equivalent production in 2022. Its global presence, sustained by its competitive advantages, is challenged by its worldwide competitors, industry factors, and the economic environment. It is essential to understand the impact of such changes on the industry and the Company to accurately assess the intrinsic value of Chevron and its future positioning. To provide investors with helpful information, comparing the intrinsic value resulting from three valuation models with the Company's market share price as of December 31st, 2022, is essential

As societies globalize, mastery of a second or multiple languages has become an important index to enhance interaction in the society. In that English is a is a widely used medium of communication globally for engagement in international business, commerce, science, technology and governance, the benefits of an efficacious English language teaching force to facilitate the English acquisition process of students in classrooms around the world is highly valued. For the purpose of this study, the English language teacher efficacy instrument (ELTEI) was adapted to the local context to measure the professional efficacy of the English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher participants. The objective of the research was to investigate the degree of relationship between antecedent conditions and specific teacher efficacy in Macao. A mixed-method approach in a sequential phase design was adopted to explore the efficacy of English language teachers serving Chinese medium schools in a non-English speaking region in Asia. Phase-one employed a qualitative approach to contextualize the measurement instrument and to ascertain important characteristics of the target population. Phase-two ensured a quantitative approach to yield understanding regarding the influence of key antecedent conditions on the efficacy of English language teachers in Macao. As evidenced through multiple linear regressions and structural equation modeling, openness, neuroticism, and perceived school support were significant predictors for teacher’s self-efficacy in English teaching. Recommendations for the school management to enhance and sustain the efficacy of EFL teachers in Macao were discussed

Since early times, the effects of a booming sector in other sectors of a small economy have been of interest to scholars. There is a general perception that the booming Gaming sector has contributed to the overall growth in Macau through the trickle-down effect, passing on the benefits of growth to other sectors. After the liberalization of the gaming industry in 2002, this booming sector experienced several years of exponential growth, becoming the driving industry for Macao’s economy. Several scholars and researchers have dedicated their studies to the effects of the casino gaming industry as a booming sector in such a small economy. However, there is a gap in what concerns measuring the influence of the Gaming sector as a driving industry for several other sectors or following industries of Macau’s economy. The purpose of this research study is to investigate in what measure the Gaming sector in Macao leveraged the other economic sectors and how related or correlated are the different industries of Macao’s Economy. A protocol-driven understanding of the state of the art on the interrelations between economic sectors and different techniques used to study those inter-relations was conducted through a systematic literature review. Given the limited available data on the Gross Value Added (GVA), or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on the supply side, as a central measure of economic activity in the different sectors, several possible interpolation models using auxiliary high-frequency data (indicators) were compared, to achieve the optimal model for interpolation of each variable. Several forecasts for the future performance of Macau's four major economic sectors were presented based on different regression techniques. Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models were developed to assess the dependence of the future performance of a sector’s GVA on its past performance. Optimal Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models were created to identify the explanatory power of some sectors of Macau’s economy in others. Based on available auxiliary data in high-frequency (quarterly) it was possible to interpolate the quarterly GVA per economic sector, available only in low-frequency (annually), for the major sectors of Macao’s economy. Some sectors have a considerable explanatory power on the performance of other sectors, however, the proposed regression models did not identify a clear relation between the performance of the Gaming sector and the performance of other major sectors from Macao’s economy

This thesis explores language teaching and language acquisition by multilingual learners using a Variation Theory approach and multilingual teaching in a university setting in Macao, China. It includes three case studies applied to students of the Spanish language in the introductory level which took place from late August to early December of the year 2017. The first study describes Macao’s multilingual language learners in the University of Macao in 2017. Based on the LEAP-Q questionnaire, a questionnaire was created to inquire all Spanish language students about their languages´ background, their motivations to learn new languages, as well as their learning strategies. The second study shows how the usage of Variation Theory techniques and multilingual teaching techniques boosted the teaching and the learning during the semester. This study employs a case study methodology, by analysing in-class multiple interactions gathering information on how multilinguals´ language background affects the pedagogical process. It analyses a total of 28 classes of 1 hour and 15 minutes. The third study presents the analysis of a questionnaire to 82 students of the initial level of Spanish language in the University of Macao, along with the analysis of interviews from 10 selected multilingual students about their linguistic background and how they experienced the semester. These interviews collected more information about the effectiveness of the Variation Theory in the semester in terms of in-class teaching and learning. From the triangulation of these three studies, some conclusions have been drawn about the advantages of using Variation Theory and multilingual teaching techniques for multilingual students, for the language teacher and ultimately also into the curricular design of foreign language teaching. In sum, that the linguistic background of students plays a major role in how they acquire a new language and, that applying Variation Theory techniques can be an immensely effective technique in a language classroom setting; suggesting that multilingual students will gain from being previously identified and placed in a separate class where these variation techniques were applied. Since this thesis focuses solely on an introductory language course, there is ground to explore this same approach on more advanced multilingual language learners