Capital Budgeting Evaluation Practices of Building Contractors in Hong Kong

This paper reports the results of an investigation into capital budgeting evaluation practicesin the construction industry of Hong Kong. The aim of this study was to identify thepopularity and extent of usage of various techniques for capital budget evaluation, investmentappraisal, risk analysis, and management science. The current study was comparedwith a similar survey conducted in 1994 to establish the changes in the capital budgetingevaluation practices of contracting firms over time. The results indicate that there was ageneral increase in the popularity and extent of usage in certain capital budget evaluationtechniques such as “best/worst estimate” and “formal financial evaluation”. In addition,the evaluation techniques examined were fitted into a discriminant function analysis (DFA),and a model has been developed which allows contracting firms to be classified accordingto their predominant characteristics in capital budget evaluation

Education and awareness of modern health care amongst aboriginal people: the case of the Jakuns of Peninsular Malaysia

Previous studies have indicated that the resettlement of the Orang Asli communities into areas nearer to towns was with the intention of improving the health conditions of the aboriginals. Subsequent researches have since focused on the relation between mainstream orthodox medical approaches and traditional healing practices in search of improved approaches to advance further the health cause of the aboriginal communities. However, none of these works have addressed the central question of how the Orang Asli have been adapting themselves to the mainstream healthcare system while still holding strong beliefs in their traditional medicine. To close the gap this study examined the readiness and intentions of the Orang Asli in adapting to modern health care approach amidst old traditional health beliefs and healings practices. A qualitative study based on in-depth interviews and field observations was carried out at a Jakun village of Kampung Kedaik, Rompin, Pahang involving 12 male and 13 female informants between 18 – 70 years old. Results of the study showed that as the Orang Asli people received proper education they appeared to think about health differently. Most of the informants preferred modern over traditional medicine predominantly because of their deteriorating faith in, and relative inaccessibility to traditional medicine. The findings implied that in this modern day most of the indigenous communities were open to social change which in this context included modern health care so as to improve their health conditions

COVID-19: Ensuring safe clinical teaching at university optometry schools

The COVID-19 pandemic has been spreading across the globe for several months. The nature of the virus (SARS-CoV-2) with easy person-to-person transmissions and the severe clinical course observed in some people necessitated unprecedented modifications of everyday social interactions. These included the temporary suspension of considerable elements of clinical teaching at optometry schools worldwide. This article describes the challenges optometry schools were facing in early to mid 2020. The paper highlights the experiences of six universities in five countries on four continents. Strategies to minimise the risk of virus transmission, to ensure safe clinical optometric teaching and how to overcome the challenges presented by COVID-19 are described. An outlook on opportunities to further improve optometric education is provided.</p

Evidence of ozone-induced visible foliar injury in Hong Kong using Phaseolus vulgaris as a bioindicator

(1) Background: Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with millions of people exposed to severe air pollution. Surface ozone, mostly produced photochemically from anthropogenic precursor gases, is harmful to both humans and vegetation. The phytotoxicity of ozone has been shown to damage plant photosynthesis, induce early leaf death, and retard growth. (2) Methods: We use genotypes of bush bean Phaseolus vulgaris with various degrees of sensitivity to ozone to investigate the impacts of ambient ozone on the morphology and development of the beans. We use ozone-induced foliar injury index and measure the flowering and fruit production to quantify the ozone stress on the plants. (3) Results: We expected that the ozone-sensitive genotype would suffer from a reduction of yield. Results, however, show that the ozone-sensitive genotype suffers higher ozone-induced foliar damage as expected but produces more pods and beans and heavier beans than the ozone-resistant genotype. (4) Conclusions: It is postulated that the high ozone sensitivity of the sensitive genotype causes stress-induced flowering, and therefore results in higher bean yield. A higher than ambient concentration of ozone is needed to negatively impact the yield production of the ozone-sensitive genotype. Meanwhile, ozone-induced foliar damage shows a graduated scale of damage pattern that can be useful for indicating ozone levels. This study demonstrates the usefulness of bioindicators to monitor the phytotoxic effects of ozone pollution in a subtropical city such as Hong Kong

Assessment of landuse/landcover dynamics of Kaduna watershed, using remote sensing data and GIS techniques

Watershed assessment and developmental strategy demands precise measurement of the past and present land use parameters. Failure of Shiroro dam in 1999 and 2004 was attributes to upstream soil erosion. Hence, the study of land use change within the corridors of the reservoir for proper understanding of the watershed dynamics becomes very crucial. These dynamics was studied for a period of 38 years (1975-2013) in the Kaduna watershed, north central Nigeria using Soil and Water Assessment Tool. The land-use land cover of the year 1975, 2000, and 2013 was reclassified into nine (9) classes in 1975 and eight (8) classes in 2000 and 2013, because of the extinction of Forest evergreen land use between 1975 and 2000. The classification shows the percentage land area of each of the land use type and the area in hectares. Findings revealed total extinction of the 0.03% of Forest evergreen land before 2000, in 2013 range grasses, forestmixed and wetlands-forested land-use have lost 23.92%, 2.06%, 3.77%, watershed land area respectively while, wetlands-mixed, agricultural land, water, barren and built-up land gained 0.18%, 27.81%, 0.53%, 0.02% and 1.25% respectively as at 2013. The lost in land-use area was attributed to human activities such as clearing and degradation of the natural landscape to another land-use type which posed a stern threat to the Shiroro dam downstream and the environment. If this persists it might contribute to global warming problems and land exposure to agents of erosion. Thus, appropriate best management practice of the watershed become essential

Ad hoc influenza vaccination during years of significant antigenic drift in a tropical city with 2 seasonal peaks

We evaluated the acceptability of an additional ad hoc influenza vaccination among the health care professionals following seasons with significant antigenic drift. Self-administered, anonymous surveys were performed by hard copy questionnaires in public hospitals, and by an on-line platform available to all healthcare professionals, from April 1st to May 31st, 2015. A total of 1290 healthcare professionals completed the questionnaires, including doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals working in both the public and private systems. Only 31.8% of participating respondents expressed an intention to receive the additional vaccine, despite that the majority of them agreed or strongly agreed that it would bring benefit to the community (88.9%), save lives (86.7%), reduce medical expenses (76.3%), satisfy public expectation (82.8%), and increase awareness of vaccination (86.1%). However, a significant proportion expressed concern that the vaccine could disturb the normal immunization schedule (45.5%); felt uncertain what to do in the next vaccination round (66.0%); perceived that the summer peak might not occur (48.2%); and believed that the summer peak might not be of the same virus (83.5%). Furthermore, 27.8% of all respondents expected that the additional vaccination could weaken the efficacy of previous vaccinations; 51.3% was concerned about side effects; and 61.3% estimated that there would be a low uptake rate. If the supply of vaccine was limited, higher priority groups were considered to include the elderly aged ≥65 years with chronic medical conditions (89.2%), the elderly living in residential care homes (87.4%), and long-stay residents of institutions for the disabled (80.7%). The strongest factors associated with accepting the additional vaccine included immunization with influenza vaccines in the past 3 years, higher perceived risk of contracting influenza, and higher perceived severity of the disease impact. The acceptability to an additional ad hoc influenza vaccination was low among healthcare professionals. This could have a negative impact on such additional vaccination campaigns since healthcare professionals are a key driver for vaccine acceptance. The discordance in perceived risk and acceptance of vaccination regarding self versus public deserves further evaluation

Characterization of the humoral immune response to the EBV proteome in extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma

Extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL) is an aggressive malignancy that has been etiologically linked to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, with EBV gene transcripts identified in almost all cases. However, the humoral immune response to EBV in NKTCL patients has not been well characterized. We examined the antibody response to EBV in plasma samples from 51 NKTCL cases and 154 controls from Hong Kong and Taiwan who were part of the multi-center, hospital-based AsiaLymph case-control study. The EBV-directed serological response was characterized using a protein microarray that measured IgG and IgA antibodies against 202 protein sequences representing the entire EBV proteome. We analyzed 157 IgG antibodies and 127 IgA antibodies that fulfilled quality control requirements. Associations between EBV serology and NKTCL status were disproportionately observed for IgG rather than IgA antibodies. Nine anti-EBV IgG responses were significantly elevated in NKTCL cases compared with controls and had ORshighest vs. lowest tertile > 6.0 (Bonferroni-corrected P-values < 0.05). Among these nine elevated IgG responses in NKTCL patients, three IgG antibodies (all targeting EBNA3A) are novel and have not been observed for other EBV-associated tumors of B-cell or epithelial origin. IgG antibodies against EBNA1, which have consistently been elevated in other EBV-associated tumors, were not elevated in NKTCL cases. We characterize the antibody response against EBV for patients with NKTCL and identify IgG antibody responses against six distinct EBV proteins. Our findings suggest distinct serologic patterns of this NK/T-cell lymphoma compared with other EBV-associated tumors of B-cell or epithelial origin

Use of plasma DNA to predict mortality and need for intensive care in patients with abdominal pain

Background We investigated the value of plasma deoxyribonucleic acid concentrations in patients presenting with acute abdominal pain to predict need for intensive care or mortality. Methods Plasma deoxyribonucleic acid taken from patients with acute abdominal pain was analyzed for the β-globin gene using the quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The primary outcome measure was the combined 28-day mortality or admission to the intensive care unit. Results Of 287 consecutive patients with acute abdominal pain recruited, 12 patients were admitted to the intensive care unit and/or died. Median plasma DNA concentrations were higher in patients with cancer and major organ inflammation. Mean plasma DNA concentrations were three-fold higher in patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome, five-fold higher in patients who died within 28 days, and eight-fold higher in patients admitted to the intensive care unit. The area under the receiver operator curve for plasma DNA concentrations and intensive care unit admission/mortality was 0.804. At a cut-off of 1100 GE/ml, the sensitivity was 67% (95%CI 35–90) and specificity was 89% (95%CI 84–92). At a cut-off of 175 GE/ml, the sensitivity was 100% (95%CI 73–100) and specificity was 30% (95%CI 25–36). Plasma DNA concentration predicted need for intensive care unit admission or death (adjusted odds ratio 1.4; P < 0.0001). Conclusions Plasma DNA may have a role in patients with acute abdominal pain as a marker for inflammation and cancer, and a predictor of intensive care unit admission/mortality

SABINA + Hong Kong: a territory wide study of prescribing trends and outcomes associated with the use of short-acting β2 agonists in the Chinese population

Background: Excessive use of short-acting β2 agonists (SABA) in patients with asthma continues to be a notable concern due to its link to higher mortality rates. Global relevance of SABA overuse in asthma management cannot be understated, it poses significant health risk to patients with asthma and imposes burden on healthcare systems. This study, as part of global SABINA progamme, aimed to describe the prescribing patterns and clinical outcomes associated with SABA use in the Chinese population. Methods: Retrospective cohort study was conducted using anonymized electronic healthcare records of Clinical Data Analysis and Reporting System (CDARS) from Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HA). Patients newly diagnosed with asthma between 2011 and 2018 and aged ≥12 years were included, stratified by SABA use (≤2, 3–6, 7–10, or ≥11 canisters/year) during one-year baseline period since asthma diagnosis date. Patients were followed up from one-year post-index until earliest censoring of events: outcome occurrence and end of study period (31 December 2020). Cox proportional regression and negative binomial regression were used to estimate the mortality risk and frequency of hospital admissions associated with SABA use respectively, after adjusting for age, sex, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), and inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) dose. Outcomes include all-cause, asthma-related, and respiratory-related mortality, frequency of hospital admissions for any cause, and frequency of hospital admissions due to asthma. Results: 17,782 patients with asthma (mean age 46.7 years, 40.8% male) were included and 59.1% of patients were overusing SABA (≥ 3 canisters per year). Each patient was prescribed a median of 5.61 SABA canisters/year. SABA overuse during baseline period was associated with higher all-cause mortality risk compared to patients with ≤2 canisters/year. Association was dose-dependent, highest risk in those used ≥11 canisters/year (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.42, 95% CI: 1.13, 1.79) and 3–6 canisters/year (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.50). Higher SABA prescription volume associated with increased frequency of hospital admissions with greatest risk observed in 7–10 canisters/year subgroup (adjusted rate ratio: 4.81, 95% CI: 3.66, 6.37). Conclusions: SABA overuse is prevalent and is associated with increased all-cause mortality risk and frequency of hospital admissions among the patients with asthma in Hong Kong