Low cost DIY solar energy hot water system

Author name used in this publication: N. C. CheungRefereed conference paper2004-2005 > Academic research: refereed > Refereed conference paperVersion of RecordPublishe

A family smoking cessation intervention for parents of children 0-18 months: a randomized controlled trial

Oral Session 23: 24-Health Promotion in the Community &19- Global Warning,Sustainable Earth and Health (English Session)Conference Theme: Empowerment for Healthy Settings - Healthy City and Community, Healthy School and University, Healthy Hospital and Healthy Workplace.Aim: This is a single-blinded, multi-site randomized controlled trial aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of a proactive multi-step theory-based family smoking cessation intervention delivered by smoking cessation nurses to non-smoking mothers and smoking fathers, to protect their infants from exposure to household second-hand smoke and to help the fathers quit smoking. Methods: A total of 24,315 families were screened at 22 Maternal Child Health Centres in 2008- 2010. 1,158 families with smoking father, non-smoking mother and an infant under 18-month were randomized into intervention and control groups. The intervention group received face-to-face and telephone counselling (mothers) on executing a complete household-no smoking policy and supporting their husbands to quit smoking; 3 telephone smoking cessation counselling sessions (fathers); an additional face-to-face family intervention session with NRT (if necessary); and a smoke-free kit with health education materials. The control group received a pamphlet about smokefree home (mothers) and a self-help smoking cessation pamphlet (fathers). All families were followed up at 6- and 12-month to assess the fathers’ smoking status, implementation of household smoking policy (mothers), role of mothers’ general self-efficacy to assist fathers quit smoking, change in marital relationship (both spouses), and the utilization of health services (infants) .....published_or_final_versio

Disease burden of breast cancer in Hong Kong: an exploration of trends for screening policy and resource allocation

published_or_final_versio

Towards informed decisions on breast cancer screening: Development and pilot testing of a decision aid for Chinese women

OBJECTIVE: To pilot-test a novel, self-use breast cancer (BC) screening decision aid (DA) targeting Hong Kong (HK) Chinese women at average risk of BC. METHODS: Women were recruited through a population-based telephone survey using random digit dialling between October 2013 and January 2014. Eligible participants completed our baseline survey and then received the DA by post. Participants (n=90) completed follow-up telephone interviews one month later. RESULTS: Most participants thought that all/most DA content was presented clearly (86.7%), and was useful in helping women make screening-related decisions (88.9%). It also achieved its expected impact of improving informed decision-making and increasing shared-participation preference without increasing participants' anxiety levels. Participants showed a modest non-statistical increase in their screening knowledge scores. Older women rated the perceived severity of a BC diagnosis as significantly lower, and more educated women reported significantly lower perceived anxiety about the disease. CONCLUSION: Our DA appears acceptable and feasible for self-use by HK Chinese women who need to make an informed decision about BC screening without increasing overall anxiety levels. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This study supports the potential of self-use DAs for cancer screening-related decision support in a Chinese population. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.postprin

Longitudinal diffusion tensor MR imaging study of radiation induced white matter damage in a rat model

published_or_final_versio

Predictors of intention to quit at participation and six-month abstinence in the participants of Hong Kong Quit-to-Win Contest (2009-2013)

Poster Discussion 23. Cessation - Predictors and Policies: no. PD-864-20Conference Theme: Tobacco and Non-Communicable DiseasesBACKGROUND: Quit and Win Contests were organized in many countries to attract a large number of smokers, who mostly had not sought professional cessation support, to quit with the grand monetary prize as an incentive. The present study aims to explore the influential factors of being ready to quit (want to quit within 7 days) and abstinence in these participants. DESIGN/METHODS: The 4 rounds of Quit-to-Win Contests (2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013) recruited 4,093 adult daily …published_or_final_versio

Identification of “sarsasapogenin-aglyconed” timosaponins as novel Aβ-lowering modulators of amyloid precursor protein processing

published_or_final_versio

Top quark tensor couplings

We compute the real and imaginary parts of the one-loop electroweak contributions to the left and right tensorial anomalous couplings of the $tbW$ vertex in the Standard Model (SM). For both tensorial couplings we find that the real part of the electroweak SM correction is close to 10$$ of the leading contribution given by the QCD gluon exchange. We also find that the electroweak real and imaginary parts for the anomalous right coupling are almost of the same order of magnitude. The one loop SM prediction for the real part of the left coupling is close to the 3$\sigma$ discovery limit derived from $b\rightarrow s \gamma$. Besides, taking into account that the predictions of new physics interactions are also at the level of a few percents when compared with the one loop QCD gluon exchange, these electroweak corrections should be taken into account in order to disentangle new physics effects from the standard ones. These anomalous tensorial couplings of the top quark will be investigated at the LHC in the near future where sensitivity to these contributions may be achieved.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure

Dimension-Six Terms in the Standard Model Lagrangian

When the Standard Model is considered as an effective low-energy theory, higher dimensional interaction terms appear in the Lagrangian. Dimension-six terms have been enumerated in the classical article by Buchmueller and Wyler [3]. Although redundance of some of those operators has been already noted in the literature, no updated complete list has been published to date. Here we perform their classification once again from the outset. Assuming baryon number conservation, we find 15 + 19 + 25 = 59 independent operators (barring flavour structure and Hermitian conjugations), as compared to 16 + 35 + 29 = 80 in Ref.[3]. The three summed numbers refer to operators containing 0, 2 and 4 fermion fields. If the assumption of baryon number conservation is relaxed, 4 new operators arise in the four-fermion sector.Comment: 16 pages, no figures, v3: Redundant B-violating operator remove

The impact of albendazole treatment on the incidence of viral- and bacterial-induced diarrhea in school children in southern Vietnam: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Anthelmintics are one of the more commonly available classes of drugs to treat infections by parasitic helminths (especially nematodes) in the human intestinal tract. As a result of their cost-effectiveness, mass school-based deworming programs are becoming routine practice in developing countries. However, experimental and clinical evidence suggests that anthelmintic treatments may increase susceptibility to other gastrointestinal infections caused by bacteria, viruses, or protozoa. Hypothesizing that anthelmintics may increase diarrheal infections in treated children, we aim to evaluate the impact of anthelmintics on the incidence of diarrheal disease caused by viral and bacterial pathogens in school children in southern Vietnam.This is a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial to investigate the effects of albendazole treatment versus placebo on the incidence of viral- and bacterial-induced diarrhea in 350 helminth-infected and 350 helminth-uninfected Vietnamese school children aged 6-15 years. Four hundred milligrams of albendazole, or placebo treatment will be administered once every 3 months for 12 months. At the end of 12 months, all participants will receive albendazole treatment. The primary endpoint of this study is the incidence of diarrheal disease assessed by 12 months of weekly active and passive case surveillance. Secondary endpoints include the prevalence and intensities of helminth, viral, and bacterial infections, alterations in host immunity and the gut microbiota with helminth and pathogen clearance, changes in mean z scores of body weight indices over time, and the number and severity of adverse events.In order to reduce helminth burdens, anthelmintics are being routinely administered to children in developing countries. However, the effects of anthelmintic treatment on susceptibility to other diseases, including diarrheal pathogens, remain unknown. It is important to monitor for unintended consequences of drug treatments in co-infected populations. In this trial, we will examine how anthelmintic treatment impacts host susceptibility to diarrheal infections, with the aim of informing deworming programs of any indirect effects of mass anthelmintic administrations on co-infecting enteric pathogens.ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02597556 . Registered on 3 November 2015