A Study on the Fire Safety Issues for Large Window Openings in Supertall Residential Buildings in Hong Kong

The trend in building supertall residential buildings with large glass pane and window openings has becoming a modern building design. It is well understood that with this design, better views and borrowing more light from the outside environmental are well known and accepted by people living in metropolitan city like Hong Kong. However, there is no report specifically on the fire safety issues related to this kind of building feature. The study aims to look for the trend and associate fire risks for large window pane and opening area and the gross floor area of each unit on the floor as well as the relationship between these two design features. These specific features will be studied separately using statistical method to ascertain the general trend in the latest building designs. In this study, the floor layouts of thirty-one supertall residential blocks from the same number of building developments will be studied. The study involves a building survey to take measurement from approved building plans on one typical floor of each block. Two sets of data, one on the total window and glass pane areas of each unit and the other on the gross floor area of the same unit will be taken. All the units on the floor will be taken into consideration. In general, larger area of the window pane will mean wider the window pane since the floor height is fixed. It is understood that the height of the window pane will not exceed the height of the floor. In the case of Hong Kong the clear height of each floor is around 2.8 meters. It has been reported that wider the window, the closer against the wall will be the flame to rise in fire situation causing fire spreading to the immediate floor/s above. The trajectory of the flame from fire below normally requires the breakage or falling-out of window pane of the affected floor and the floor/s above; as such a report on the performance of glass under the effect of fire will also be included in this study. Finally, a fire safety studies on the heat release rate in a fire compartment with references to the window openings and the floor areas will also be conducted by adopting the derived results from sophisticated studies on flashover fire in compartments. Co-relation of the results will be discussed and analyzed

Privatisierung in China

During the last ten years Chinese government’s attitude towards private enterprises has shifted significantly. Early in the 90s private capital was regarded as a mere supplement to the state sector of the economy, but since the 15th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 1997 the private sector has been regarded as an „important component part“ of the economy. This policy shift occured because Chinese economy went into serious difficulties threatening the reform process. Declining profits of state owned enterprises, caused by shrinking monopoly rents, the high gearing of these firms, over capacities due to a duplicative industrial structure emerging as a result of an ill framed system of management in the early stages of reform and a severe fiscal crisis, brought about by eroding fiscal revenue speeded up privatization of all kinds of firms and fostered the sale of state equities in listed companies. Thus state budget simply was lacking the funds for restructuring state owned enterprises and no realistic alternative to privatization remained

Educational Usage of Mobile Devices: Differences Between Postgraduate and Undergraduate Students

The rapid increase of smartphone usage in recent years has provided students the opportunity to participate in mobile learning (m-learning) anywhere, anytime. Academic institutions are also following this trend to launch many m-learning services. This article investigates the differences of the user needs between undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) students though an online survey with 140 Library Information Systems (LIS) subjects in a Japanese university in order to provide solid foundations for future m-learning studies. We find that UG and PG students do not show significant differences in adopting m-learning by smartphones despite the fact that they have different learning patterns. The m-learning frequencies of smartphones generally range from weekly to monthly, where using search engines is the most frequent, and reading academic resources is the least frequent. They tend to use these services for handling their daily routines (such as search engine, social networks) rather than their academic activities (such as using online databases to search for academic materials). Further, the results also show that content displaying issues (e.g., small display screen, text unable to enlarge) are barriers for most subjects in using these m-learning services

The Effects of Increased Provision of Thoracic Surgical Specialists on the Variation in Lung Cancer Resection Rate in England

Introduction:There is a wide variation in the lung cancer resection rate in England. We assessed the effect of the regional provision of thoracic surgery service on the variation in lung cancer resection rate.Methods:A retrospective observational study correlating National Lung Cancer Audit data with thoracic surgery workforce data was performed to review the lung cancer resection rate in England in 2008 and 2009.Results:In 2008, there was a sixfold variation in resection rate, with a higher resection rate in hospitals where surgeons were based (base hospitals) than in peripheral hospitals (20.0% versus 11.6%, p < 0.001). The resection rate was also higher in cancer networks, which were served by two or more specialist thoracic surgeons (14.6% versus 12.7%, p = 0.028), and where surgeons were present in more than two-thirds of the lung cancer multidisciplinary team meetings (14.4% versus 12.0%, p = 0.046). In 2009, the overall resection rate increased from 14.5% to 18.4%. Four units increased their number of specialist thoracic surgeons and had a significantly higher increase in resection rate than units without expansion (relative rise 66.3% versus 19.2%; p = 0.022).Conclusions:The large variation in the resection rate seems, in part, to be related to the local availability of specialist thoracic surgeons. The greatest improvement in the resection rate was in units with expansion of specialist thoracic surgeons. We suggest the expansion of specialist thoracic surgeons will improve the resection rate and thereby the overall survival of lung cancer in England. This has significant implications for the future of training in cardiothoracic surgery and organization of cancer services

Compromising building regulations and user expectations in the design of high-rise domestic kitchens

Purpose ??? The purpose of this paper is to discuss the significance and relevance of social and habitual behaviours of home occupants to the building design process. It argues that introducing quantitative measures such as daylight level alone may not result in a ???healthy and functional??? kitchen without appreciating or factoring-in the impacts of the social roles and user expectations of kitchens in high-rise and compact urban situations.\ud Design/methodology/approach ??? The study investigated three common types of apartment buildings in Hong Kong. Case studies suggested that it is crucial to include in a design process proper considerations of human behaviours byway of preferred approaches andmodes of living, space usage, and weightings of end-user responses that would influence architectural design in a direct and crucial way.\ud Findings ??? The study noted that daylight quality of a kitchen is perceived by most families to be not as important as building control officials and designers thought it would. Instead, it is found that social and cultural factors are more important parameters for users. The study observed that designers rely on physical and quantitative approaches such as daylight factor, window size and window-to-room area ratio to qualify a design solution and ignore the socio-cultural parameters.\ud Originality/value ??? The paper calls for designers and building control officials to incorporate the study of functionality and socio-cultural preferences of users groups in the building design process. The study envisages that an integrated design methodology would enhance the living environment

“Segues” in Botanica: una documentazione fotografica

researchNel contesto di una esercitazione in classe, è stato chiesto agli studenti iscritti al corso “Introductory Ethnobotany” dell’University of Hawai`i at Manoa di dare un nome a 40 esemplari di piante fresche evitando di utilizzare nomi co¬muni. Uno degli scopi di questo esercizio è stato quello di raccogliere informazioni riguardanti la reazione visiva degli studenti. Gli studenti hanno inventato nomi correlati a forma, colore ed altre caratteristiche morfologiche delle piante campione. Un modo significativo ed esplicativo per comprendere i risultati raccolti con questo esperimento è quello di raffigurare quello che effettivamente gli studenti hanno fatto in classe. Poiché le immagini sono uno stru¬mento potente per esprimere informazioni, il metodo uti¬lizzato in questo esperimento è presentato qui come doc¬umento fotografico con la speranza che ricercatori e in¬segnanti di altre parti del mondo possano condurre simili esercitazioni in classe con i propri studenti

A Price Worth Paying: The Case for Controlling Marine Emissions in the Pearl River Delta

The Pearl River Delta (PRD) is a region with a single airshed, but different administrative and legal practices for controlling air quality. Under the Regional Cooperation Plan on Building a Quality Living Area (QLA Plan) released in June 2012 the Governments of Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau have outlined a strategy to collaborate in reducing emissions from vessels throughout the PRD. This report provides evidence designed to assist policymakers in the region with this objective. It focuses on regulating toxic exhaust emissions from ocean-going vessels (OGVs) -- the most significant contributors of marine emissions. The findings show that marine sources of sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions currently account for 519 premature deaths per annum in the PRD. These deaths could be reduced by 91% should an Emission Control Area (ECA) mandating the use of fuels with lower sulphur content be introduced. The report also demonstrates that three less comprehensive control measures would also reduce OGV emissions and associated public health impacts by 41-62%. Policymakers are encouraged to introduce these measures as stepping-stones on the way to establishment of an ECA for the PRD