A School-based Survey on Adolescent Alcohol Drinking in Hong Kong

Symposium Theme: Translating Health Research into Policy and Practice for Health of the PopulationParallel Session 1 - Population Health & Policy: no. S2INTRODUCTION: The effective control of underage drinking requires a thorough understanding of its risk factors and effects, but little is known about the drinking pattern in Hong Kong adolescents. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the drinking pattern and associated risk factors and problems in Hong Kong secondary school students. METHODS: In a territory-wide survey of 44 randomly selected schools, 21627 Secondary 1 to 6 students (mean age 14.7, SD 1.8; 51.6% boys) provided valid data using an anonymous questionnaire in 2012-13. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, alcohol drinking, peer and co-residents’ drinking, exposure to pro-drinking and anti-drinking messages, parental pro-drinking practices and health outcomes were collected. Descriptive data were weighted by sex, age and grade distribution of students in Hong Kong. Risk factors and problems associated with adolescent drinking were …published_or_final_versio

Sociodemographic risk factors of alcohol drinking in Hong Kong adolescents

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EGFR Mutant Structural Database: computationally predicted 3D structures and the corresponding binding free energies with gefitinib and erlotinib

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Simple marginally noninformative prior distributions for covariance matrices

A family of prior distributions for covariance matrices is studied. Members of the family possess the attractive property of all standard deviation and correlation parameters being marginally noninformative for particular hyper-parameter choices. Moreover, the family is quite simple and, for approximate Bayesian inference techniques such as Markov chain Monte Carlo and mean eld variational Bayes, has tractability on par with the Inverse-Wishart conjugate fam-ily of prior distributions. A simulation study shows that the new prior distributions can lead to more accurate sparse covariance matrix estimation. © 2013 International Society for Bayesian Analysis

Cross-sectional study on parental pro-drinking practices and adolescent alcohol drinking in Hong Kong

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Correlates of pro-drinking practices in drinking parents of adolescents in Hong Kong

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Suizid und Internet

The number of people aged 14 and older that use the Internet in Germany has doubled to 35.7 millions (55.3%) since the year 2000. The Internet also more and more expands into the domain of psychiatry and psychotherapy, and is used by psychiatric patients for information, communication and therapeutic purposes. Nevertheless, the infinite possibilities of the World Wide Web are linked with several advantages and disadvantages. Easily accessible information, numerous opportunities for exchange among like-minded people and therapeutic support from online therapies are juxtaposed with such risks as frequently lacking quality and transparency of the available information, possible enhancement of social withdrawal and certain Websites concerning suicide. If the mentioned risks of the Internet rather provoke new problems and trigger suicidality or if the chance of an easily accessible online discussion rather results in mental relief cannot be answered generally

Counterflow dielectrophoresis for trypanosome enrichment and detection in blood

Human African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness is a deadly disease endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, caused by single-celled protozoan parasites. Although it has been targeted for elimination by 2020, this will only be realized if diagnosis can be improved to enable identification and treatment of afflicted patients. Existing techniques of detection are restricted by their limited field-applicability, sensitivity and capacity for automation. Microfluidic-based technologies offer the potential for highly sensitive automated devices that could achieve detection at the lowest levels of parasitemia and consequently help in the elimination programme. In this work we implement an electrokinetic technique for the separation of trypanosomes from both mouse and human blood. This technique utilises differences in polarisability between the blood cells and trypanosomes to achieve separation through opposed bi-directional movement (cell counterflow). We combine this enrichment technique with an automated image analysis detection algorithm, negating the need for a human operator

Perceived drinking prevalence in adolescents, parents, teachers and doctors, and its association with adolescent drinking and intention to drink

Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine Frontiers Seriese-PosterConference Theme: MOOCs in Postmodern Asia (Oct 27, 2014) and Big Data and Precision Medicine (Oct 28, 2014)postprin