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Aggression clearly has an adaptive value as it is necessary to secure resources for survival, growth, and reproduction. The Siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens, have endured a prolonged process of artificial selection for winning paired-fight contests across Southeast Asia, resulting in strains of short-fin aggressive “fighters”. Across centuries, Thai breeders have been selecting these strains by discarding loser batches and allowing winner batches to breed, claiming that they are significantly more aggressive than wild-types. This natural experiment provides a powerful context to investigate the biological basis of aggressive behaviour in fish, the topic of this thesis. To study aggression, it is important to validate and standardize behavioural assays appropriate for the species under study. Further, different aggression-eliciting stimuli, such as live opponents, 3D models, video playback, or mirror images, may elicit non-equivalent behavioural and physiological responses. For B. splendens, in particular, quantifying aggression from live fights is not ethically acceptable as the high levels of aggression of this species usually result in injuries or even death of the opponent. In Chapter II, it was shown that mirror images elicit very similar aggressive displays and endocrine responses to an interacting opponent behind a transparent partition, validating the use of this test to measure aggression in this model species. Further, it was shown that circulating levels of both androgens (11-ketotestosterone and testosterone) and corticosteroids (cortisol) increased in response to the aggression challenge, even in the absence of conflict resolution, questioning the role of these hormones during present and future aggressive contests. Using the previously validated mirror assay and also tests with live conspecifics, we assessed the impact of selection for winning by comparing, in Chapter III, male and female aggressive behaviour of lab-raised fighter and wild-type strains. The hypothesis that selection for male winners enhanced aggressive displays was confirmed, suggesting that the duration and frequency of threat and attack behaviour correlates with winning probability. However, females of the fighter strain, which are not selected for fights, were also more aggressive than wild-type females. This suggests that male and female aggression share common genetic pathways and physiological mechanisms and raises the possibility that selection for alleles that favour male aggression may have promoted intersexual genetic conflict in this species. After confirming the expected differences in aggressive behaviour between fighter and wild-type fish, the following question was whether endocrine systems, in particular those previously shown to respond to aggression, could have been targeted by the selection process. From previous studies in fish and other vertebrates, it was hypothesised that selection for winners could have increased constitutive levels of androgens or led to an enhanced androgen response to a social challenge. However, in chapter IV, it was shown that levels of 11-ketotestosterone and its response to aggression was similar in males of both strains, questioning the role of androgens in the modulation of aggression in B. splendens. On the contrary, constitutive levels of cortisol and the response of this hormone to an aggression challenge were higher in wild-type compared with fighter fish, supporting previous findings that associated high aggression with a blunted cortisol response. Overall, results from Chapter IV suggest that selection for winning had a stronger impact on the hypothalamus-pituitary-interrenal axis than in the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis. My results support the assumption of the “Challenge Hypothesis” proposed by John Wingfield and collaborators in 1990 to explain the relationship between androgens and aggression, according to which androgen levels above a reproductive baseline are a consequence of the frequency and intensity of social interactions, in particular of male-male agonistic encounters. It is becoming clear that androgens increase rapidly after an aggressive contest, independently of fight outcome. However, the function of this increase remains unclear as the frequency of aggressive displays was unrelated with post-fight androgen levels and constitutive levels of androgens, and androgen responsiveness, were similar between fighter and wild-type males. Results obtained for cortisol agree with a “corticosteroid-mediated dominance hypothesis” whereby low baseline levels and a blunted response of corticosteroids would be associated with a dominant status and high aggression. The work advances our knowledge about the endocrine regulation of aggressive behaviour in B. splendens and opens several testable hypotheses about the role of androgens and corticosteroids in the regulation of fish aggressive behaviour

This study analyzed Tencent Holdings Limited’s internal and external factors and future strategies, forecasted the financial statements of the Company for the next ten years, and measured the intrinsic value of the Company on December 31, 2021 and compared it with the stock market price on the same date. The share price’s sensitivity analysis was also conducted to understand the Company's capital structure and profitability, and the sensitivity analysis can be used to reflect the impact of these factors and strategies on the future share price, which can have a high impact on investors' future investment decisions. This study also used the SWOT Analysis and Michael Porter's Five Forces Analysis to analyze the Company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and the Five Competitive Forces that shape the technology industry to evaluate the Company's external and internal environment and enrich the management with a more intuitive analysis leading to recommendations

This study presents the intrinsic value of Moody’s Corporation, a leading credit rating agency in the U.S. The results of the valuation were compared to the market value of Moody’s Corporation of the same date. The aim of the research is to provide a perspective to the investors on whether the actual value of the Company was overvalued or undervalued in the market, and how much the volatility of the stock price by the change of some factors. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were applied in the research. The historical data, economic outlook, and the Company’s strategies were collected to be the metrics to determine the intrinsic value and provide an analysis of the prospects of Moody’s Corporation. Three valuation models were applied in the research to estimate the intrinsic value of the Company’s common stock. The cost of debt, cost of equity, the weighted average cost of capital, and the market risk premium were introduced and calculated in the research as they were the critical components in the valuation process. Since the valuation was based on assumptions and historical data to determine future growth, which indicates that the results could be changed due to uncertain factors. This study demonstrates that there was some discrepancy between the stock’s market price and the intrinsic value per share of Moody’s Corporation as of December 31, 2021

Muslim community is one of the minority groups in Macau SAR China. Muslims are an interesting group in terms of research because of its diversity in respect to language, nationality, social status, and education level. Groups of people migrate for various reasons such as religion, politics, economy, and education. Individuals experience the age in between nineteen and twenty-four, which fall in the category of youth. Studies of Muslim youths have gained more attention in scholarship, statistical data, and research. The study seeks to understand Muslim students’ life and the needs of this minority group and explores how Muslim students perceive Islam and their own ability to cope with school related cultural pressures through qualitative, phenomenological approach, and focuses on exploring the common experiences of Muslim students in this city. This study used a conceptual framework based on critical race theory (CRT). We use in-depth interviews of five Muslim youth, ages between 19 and 24, to investigate their school life experiences and Islamic practices. We also administered questionnaires and field note to understand their social mobility, social capital and to gain a deeper understanding of their daily lives. A thematic analysis of the interview data produced the following themes: 1) Social mobility; 2) Social capital Relationship with friends; 3) Discrimination and micro-aggressions; and 4) Religion Identity. The study found that the Muslim status of the participants did not have a significant impact on their school experience, as they were able to find accommodation in their practice of religion and school life. However, the multiple identities of the participants as Macau citizens and their ethnic backgrounds did affect their social capital and sense of belonging. The study also examined the experiences of the participants within Macau society, including social factors such as racism. The results indicated that language and ethnicity were factors that hindered their integration into the community. In addition to the original themes, the analysis of the participants' stories in this research revealed two counter-narratives that challenge prevailing narratives. These counter-narratives include the deconstruction of oppressed Muslim women's narratives and the influence of local mainstream religious schooling on Muslim students' religious loyalty. These alternative narratives provide new insights into the lives of Muslim youths and challenge conventional stories. The findings of this study have important implications for educators, academics, and members of both Muslim and non-Muslim communities. By allowing youth to establish broader connections with society and increasing their motivation to participate in and contribute to the community, this study highlights the need for inclusive educational environments that support the diverse identities of students. Furthermore, the study provides young Muslims with a voice in society, empowering them to challenge dominant narratives and promote counter narratives that reflect their experiences and perspectives to meet critical race theory ethos of ongoing active struggle

Macao is a city of culture, and history and culture are the wealth of Macao. Over the centuries, the exchange and transmutation of Chinese and Western cultures have given Macao a unique cultural charm, and have also formed and preserved a considerable amount of cultural heritage. Cultural heritage has received increasing attention from all sectors of the community in the tourism industry in Macao, the promotion of the preservation and transmission of cultural heritage through tourism development has become a new issue in the tourism sector. As an independent art form in the urban public space, tile painting has both practical and aesthetic functions, and is a special vehicle for the convergence of multiple cultures in the urban cultural ecology. It is also a medium through which the city's cultural message can be fully disseminated. The paper presents a detailed analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of the development of Macao's cultural heritage tile murals, based on an introduction to the existing status of Macao's cultural heritage tile murals, using the SWOT analysis method, which provides a reference for Macao's cultural heritage tourism

This dissertation aims to research the need and viability of creating a digital platform that assists the creative processes naturally linked to Visual Merchandising. Through the proposal of a digital platform that works as a co-creative tool for display archives and a co-creative tool for display set-ups through mood boards, we will aim at improving the teamwork in retail and provide a unique, fast-forward platform for information sharing and input under the direction of Visual Departments. Building on rich source materials such as bibliography, scientific papers, news, and articles, and interviewing Visual Merchandisers actively working in the field, we will show the importance of creativity in Luxury Retail and what are the most common challenges in the field that we will propose a solution to. We will focus on the study of concepts, reviewing digital application tools being used by professionals and their best features and improvement opportunities. By gathering this information, we hope to provide accurate insights and information that proves the viability of this proposal and understand what features could serve best the target audience. Finally, we will present a conceptual idea in the form of sketches with functions of this digital application tool to be fully developed in the future and hopefully build a consistent well, designed commercial web-based application

China’s economy has entered a critical period of structural adjustment. The developing green industries and the transforming traditional industries have increasing demand for finance, making ""green finance"" increasingly essential. While China's green finance is in the development stage, some newly developed zones serve as pilots for the launch of green financial products. An example is Tongzhou District of Beijing, which aims to expand Beijing’s space, promote the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and explore the optimal development mode of the densely populated economic areas. This thesis aims to study consumer acceptance of green financial technology (fintech) in the case of Tongzhou District. This thesis extended the commonly applied theoretical model for the problem of study, the Energy Augmented Technology Acceptance Model (EA-TAM), to analyze the impacts of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude toward use, intention, usage intention, environmental awareness, and green knowledge on the acceptance of green fintech in Tongzhou District. The survey collected 403 valid responses from people that had been active in Tongzhou District. The quantitative analysis is based on structural equation modeling techniques, including reliability analysis, validity analysis, standard method deviation test, and hypothesis testing. The analytical results show that all the hypothesized factors are significant. In addition, the sample is divided into different gender groups and education groups, so that the impacts of the socio-demographic characteristics can be explored. Males’ environmental awareness and green knowledge are insignificant in determining their acceptance of green fintech. The low-educated group’s acceptance of green fintech does not significantly depend on environmental awareness and perceived usefulness

For many people, an art museum is a place to display artifacts, artworks, and the temporaryhistory of a community or country. It also advocates for an artist’s viewpoints on art. In fact,museum design is closely related to politics. The purpose for building a museum in a city is toexhibit information about the development of the local culture. Moreover, high culturalvalue land is usually built with museums displaying their heritage nearby, so that people canexplore and learn more about the local historical background and artifacts of the place.The abandoned Iec Long Firecracker Factory in Taipa Center, Macau has been on hold formany years and has also been used as a war game venue that resulted in scratches on thewalls of the dilapidated old heritage buildings. Recently, the Macau government has finalizedits plans for the revitalization of this local heritage site. Due to its dispersed layout andsurrounding landscape, there are some design constraints around the preservation of thisimportant heritage site. The design for high cultural value land should not only consider thepreservation and renovation of old buildings but also consider more ways to effectively usethe site as an important public venue for the city.For developing the methodologies of this project, several concepts and case studies wereanalyzed to extract ideas that can be referenced and to unveil strategies for designing apossible solution to this problem. This dissertation intends to create a model for developingand integrating architectural design into this heritage site and will study the spacearrangements for both the indoor space and the outdoor space within the concept of afragmented space integration. Fragmented space, means that a place is designed using adecentralized layout. This conceptualization of a design can preserves the original appearance of the cultural value of land and at the same time, the space can be used moreefficiently to create a circulation for the public to visit and enjoy the location

Vertical housing is essential for modern cities because of its efficiency in using space (Wang, J. Murakami, A. 2019). The architecture of vertical housing is often determined by developers and designers. Therefore, the architecture of the building is fixed, and the end users are not involved nor can they influence its final appearance. For residential buildings, the unit sizes are based on market demand at a given point in time, which does not reflect the dynamic needs of the population as they evolve and may result in a mismatch between the supply and the demand for housing. The design of housing towers that have demographic characteristics and family size is dependent on housing size and can be very uncharacteristic and repetitive. The research question identified and addressed in this study is: How can residential buildings meet the evolving demand for housing units? Based on this question, this research paper develops a prototype for residential to resolve the dilemma between the supply and the demand in terms of the apartment size and layout. This research is a project-oriented project that focuses on residential that reflects the different family sizes required to be housed in the building and is combined with the open building method to maximize building performance. Ultimately, this research represents a meaningful innovation for market-driven architecture and defines architectural design based on the changing needs of the population using the open construction method. It also provides an opportunity to improve the design efficiency and develop a method for future growth, upgrades, and user needs. It may also be able to reflect the current housing ratio of the residential building. This work can be further explored to verify its effectiveness for other housing types and community living spaces

How can we provide more sports areas in a high-density urban environment? Nowadays, most cities in Asia are experiencing high-speed development (Satterthwaite, 2023). There is an intensely increasing demand for land that is confronted with an insufficient supply of space, resulting in a shortfall of suitable construction space to meet the rising demand. Over the past few decades, different countries and cities have created various solutions for this issue. This shortage of space has been resolved in various ways, for example: through land reclamation, renovation, and architectural design (Grydehoj, 2015). This dissertation seeks to analyse and discuss how architects have used design to expand spaces within the limited available areas for public spaces like sports facilities (Carmona, 2021). Understanding how sports modalities influence architecture and space utilisation for sports activities will also be covered. Additionally, it will examine case studies on how to better implement the program in a limited urban area with regards to the typology connections of sports facilities and their interaction with users. Finally, this dissertation is practice-based and oriented, the case study and project development will focus on a sports facility in the high-density populated Taipa Centre (Macau). This specific project solution will address the real problem for the city, and research will conclude by analysing the constraints of sports architecture in high-density areas, providing design solutions for these situations, and thereby contributing to the improvement of public spaces in a city

This paper selects Noble Fitness Club in Zhongshan as a research object, adopting a qualitative method and conducting in-depth interviews with its members to determine what factors affect customers’ choice of a fitness club. This study is important because it enriches the theoretical guidance framework of the fitness market. Moreover, it helps partitioners from the fitness industry realize what factors directly impact customer satisfaction, providing recommendations for them to foster sustainable development. In-depth interviewing is the primary method for data collection. And, the thematic content analysis (TCA) approach is used to analyze the data derived from interview transcripts. Existing research identified eight factors affecting customers’ choice of a fitness club. However, the author discovered three additional factors that also significantly influenced their selection of a fitness club: geographical location, group courses, and fitness atmosphere. The fitness industry has an issue of product homogenization. Attracting more customers while retaining existing members is a challenge many fitness clubs face nowadays. Therefore, operators should avoid engaging in a price war, reducing the profit margin to attract more customers at the expense of sacrificing service quality. Instead, they should prioritize customers’ practical needs and make the best effort to meet their expectations

This research explores the dynamics of stress and social support among professionals in Macao's gambling industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. The economic impact of the pandemic, coupled with the border restrictions, has severely affected Macao's gaming industry, leading to a 70% decrease in gaming revenue and a significant increase in unemployment rates among residents. As a result, many employees have faced downsizing or unpaid leave, posing significant challenges to their daily lives and raising concerns about mental health within the community. To gain a deeper understanding of these changes and the experiences of residents, this research utilized phenomenology as the methodology, employing qualitative interviews. During the recruitment of interviewees, three scales (PSS, MSPSS, and DASS21) were used as screening tools to assess the mental status of participants, allowing for the identification of various combinations of mental states. Through in-depth interviews, significant findings emerged. It was observed that interventions aimed at enhancing social support had a remarkable impact on reducing daily life stress among the interviewees. This included interventions focused on marital relationships, digital communication support, and positive personal beliefs with encouragement. In conclusion, by recognizing and proactively responding to these insights, the industry can create an ecosystem where professionals not only achieve professional excellence but also maintain robust mental and emotional well-being. Future studies should focus on developing holistic support systems within the gaming industry

Although Macau students received years of English lectures as compulsory, the outcome could be more favorable when applied to English written performance. In that written communication requires the individual to consider audience perception of the message, a challenge for ESL writers, this study explores whether different forms of feedback can enhance one’s cultural intelligence.The current study looked into the effect of incorporating peer involvement and instructor feedback in written communication, gaining insight into cultural nuances. In order to attain the objective, data were gathered through the utilization of an action research methodology employing a mixed-method design. Grade twelve local students attended a six-week six-week intervention consisting of two cycles. The focus of the intervention nurtured essay writing; the topics of which were inspired by popular musical lyrics, and involved a drafting process that incorporated feedback both from peer editing and the instructor.. The data collected throughout the study involved analysis of written samples (scores of draft and final version) using a paired samples t-test. In addition, students completed a pre-test and post-test survey of the cultural intelligence instrument (CQ), which measured their performance across four domains. There were statistically significant differences between cognitive CQ and motivational CQ between the scores attained before and directly after the intervention.. This study's findings suggest that the written communication of ESL students may be enhanced by adjusting . These findings enriched our understanding of how peer editing and teacher feedback with songs affected the outcomes of second language learners