Unsteady features of bluff body wake with application to building wake length

ABSTRACT: This study is targeted at obtaining fluctuating characteristics of building wakes through measurement of unsteady velocity fields with time-resolved particle image velocimetry (PIV). Proper orthogonal decomposition is applied to the PIV data to identify low-dimensional substructures of the building wake. This leads to a more reliable estimation of the fluctuating ground-level length of the building wake from an instantaneous PIV snapshot. The statistics of unsteady wake lengths is important in the probability-based risk assessment of critical events of wind environment around buildings such as dispersion of hazardous pollutants, pedestrian danger and risks to aircraft landings on airport runways.published_or_final_versio

School effectiveness in East Asia: Concepts, origins and implications

Identifies several features in East Asian schools which coincide with commonly recognized characteristics of effective schools in the Western literature: community support, teacher professionalism, attention to quality and high expectations. Attributes this to the East Asian culture and discusses three major dimensions of the East Asian culture: the individual-community dimension, the effort-ability dichotomy and the holistic-analytic tendency in analyses. Traces the origin of such cultural dimensions in the ancient literature and explores the implications of such cultural dimensions in school management. Briefly highlights two major challenges to the adoption of an effective schooling system in East Asia.published_or_final_versio

Estimation of genetic parameters for body weight traits in squab pigeons

International audienc

Advancing 21st Century Competencies in Hong Kong

This paper is one of five case studies that accompany the Asia Society reportpublished_or_final_versio

From training to education. Lifelong learning in China

Lifelong learning was nothing unusual in the Chinese tradition. There was no age limit for education in ancient China, although education in those days was mainly for examinations, which were the testing ground for officials. A system of adult education was established in the 1950s, but that was to complement the formal education system as an instrument to implement state manpower planning. Lifelong education as a modern notion was introduced to China only at the end of the 1970s immediately after the Cultural Revolution. The notion did not gain much ground when education was closely associated with state manpower plans, and individuals did not have much room for personal development. The break away from strict manpower planning in the early 1980s has given rise to individual aspirations for education. Such aspirations have integrated with the long tradition of self-motivation in learning and have given rise to spectacular expansion in all kinds of adult education. While the motives for such learning are still very much related to jobs and incomes, alternative objectives for learning are fast developing outside the formal sectors of education. This article analyses the recent development of lifelong education in China, and uses Shanghai, the most developed city, as an illustration.postprin

Wind flow in the recessed cavities of a tall building

Fulltext in: http://www.iawe.org/Proceedings/7APCWE/M3D_3.pdfTechnical Session: M3-D Computational Wind Engineering (2), no.3In a congested city like Hong Kong, residential tall buildings are often built with an irregular plan form and with a number of apartments arranged as wing sections extending from a central core. To provide views and sufficient ventilation to the apartments, deeply recessed cavities are placed between adjacent building wings. This paper reports a CFD study of the wind-induced flow inside a recessed cavity of a tall building with an objective to assess the adequacy of ventilation inside the cavity. The dimensions of the cavity are varied systematically to investigate the flow exchange between the cavity and the outside at different heights. It is found that the flow inside the cavity is not a simple cross flow or a stagnation flow. Flow exchange takes place in different directions along the building heights.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Recursos electrònics en història de la ciència

Màster oficial en història de la ciència: ciència, història, societa

Education Leadership: the post-industrial challenge

This is a one day symposium on how leadership in schools, including principals, key teachers can leverage the potential of IT to support changes and innovation in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices. It builds on the insight gained from in-depth case studies of leadership practices in 10 schools to share experiences and stimulate further exploration and collaboration among school leaders on pathways to change and innovation with IT. The symposium has 4 main components: 1. Plenary introduction to the eleadership stories and the four key dimensions of leadership identified 2. Group discussions on the experiences and issues in eleadership 3. Plenary presentation: eLeadership at the School Level 4. Plenary presentation and panel discussion: eLeadership beyond the School Levelpublished_or_final_versionCentre for Information Technology in Education, University of Hong Kon

Can education values be borrowed? Looking into cultural differences

In this article I describe the cultural origins of educational values and practices in East Asia, particularly Japan and China. Values and assumptions concerning ability and effort have deeply rooted origins in the cultural traditions of these nations. The observable differences in educational practice and thinking between these nations and the West exist for reasons that lie beneath the surface. Such unseen factors are not easily changed by simple advocacy or even by formal educational policies. I argue that at the same time that trends towards global diffusion of educational policies are gathering steam, care must be taken to understand the cultural context from which policies are being borrowed and into which they will be implemented.published_or_final_versio

Chemical Printing of Biological Tissue by Gold Nanoparticle-Assisted Laser Ablation

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