Thermal comfort and energy performance of public rental housing under typical and near-extreme weather conditions in Hong Kong

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Building performance evaluation is crucial for sustainable urban developments. In high-density cities, occupants suffer from poor living conditions due to building overheating, especially during increasingly frequent near-extreme summer conditions caused by climate change. To represent this situation, the summer reference year weather data was employed for building simulations using DesignBuilder. This study aims to evaluate the thermal comfort and energy consumption of four typical public rental housing (PRH) building types in Hong Kong. For free-running flats, results show generally higher air temperatures in the oldest PRH type (Slab) with a compact linear building form and the most sensitive response to outdoor temperature changes for another older PRH type (Trident) with a Y-shaped design, possibly owing to its high wall conductivity. Occupants in all building types experience a ???10% increase in the proportion of discomfort hours when compared to results for typical summer conditions, but overheating is the most severe in Slab type PRH. Following an initial assessment of the cooling energy usage, a simple sensitivity test was conducted to explore the potential energy savings by various passive design strategies, including shading and reducing the exposed cooled space. A cross-shaped building form also appears to be more energy efficient. These findings, complemented by further parametric analyses, may prove useful when designing buildings for climate change

Study protocol for a peer-led web-based intervention to promote safe usage of dating applications among young adults: a cluster randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Dating applications are a popular platform to meet new people. At the same time, they have been associated with risks such as unsafe sexual behavior and privacy concerns in young adults. This paper presents a study protocol of a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness of a peer-led web-based intervention to promote its safe usage in young adults. METHODS: The study design is an open-labeled cluster RCT with an intervention and a placebo control arm. The intervention group will receive a web-based intervention developed through focus group discussions, a crowdsourcing contest, and a Peer-Vetted Creative Production (PVCP) workshop. The control group will receive a web-based resource on health and exercise. We aim to recruit approximately 338 young adults aged 17-27 years from three tertiary educational institutions in Hong Kong with the class as the cluster unit. Based on the Information, Motivation, and Behavioral Skills (IMB) model, the primary outcome of this study is self-efficacy in using dating applications measured by the General Self Efficacy Scale. Secondary outcomes include change in risk perception measured by the Risk Propensity Scale and a Risk Assessment Tool. Questionnaires will be administered before the intervention, after the intervention, and at one-month follow-up. Intention-to-treat analysis and multilevel regression modeling will be used to evaluate differences in outcomes between groups and the factors affecting these outcomes, respectively. DISCUSSION: Dating application usage presents opportunities as well as challenges to young adults meeting new friends. Innovative and relatable interventions are needed to promote the safe usage of dating applications to this population. Practical knowledge gained from the development process may be helpful for future intervention utilizing the peer-led approach. If effective, the intervention will be disseminated to non-governmental organizations and educational institutions to be used as a teaching resource. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03685643 . Registered on 26 September 2018. University of Hong Kong Clinical Trials Registry, HKUCTR-2512

Roles of the CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores in post-myocardial infarction patients: Risk of new occurrence of atrial fibrillation and ischemic stroke

Background: Patients with myocardial infarction (MI) are at risk of the development of atrial fibrillation (AF) and ischemic stroke. We sought to evaluate the prognostic performance of the CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores in predicting new AF and/or ischemic stroke in post-ST segment elevation MI (STEMI) patients. Six hundred and seven consecutive post-STEMI patients with no previously documented AF were studied.Methods and Results: After a follow-up of 63 months (3,184 patient-years), 83 (13.7%) patients developed new AF (2.8% per year). Patients with a high CHADS2 and/or CHA2DS2-VASc score were more likely to develop new AF. The annual incidence of new AF was 1.18%, 2.10%, 4.52%, and 7.03% in patients with CHADS2 of 0, 1, 2, and ≥ 3; and 0.39%, 1.72%, 1.83%, and 5.83% in patients with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 1, 2, 3 and ≥ 4. The CHA2DS2-VASc score (C-statistic = 0.676) was superior to the CHADS2 (C-statistic = 0.632) for discriminating new AF. Ischemic stroke occurred in 29 patients (0.9% per year), the incidence increasing in line with the CHADS2 (0.41%, 1.02%, 1.11%, and 1.95% with score of 0, 1, 2, and ≥ 3) and CHA2DS2-VASc scores (0.39%, 0.49%, 1.02%, and 1.48% with score of 1, 2, 3 and ≥ 4). The C-statistic of the CHA2DS2-VASc score as a predictor of ischemic stroke was 0.601, superior to that of CHADS2 score (0.573). CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores can identify post-STEMI patients at high risk of AF and stroke.Conclusions: The CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores can identify post-STEMI patients at high risk of AF and ischemic stroke. This enables close surveillance and prompt anticoagulation for stroke prevention

A comparative study on the indoor thermal comfort and energy consumption of typical public rental housing types under near-extreme summer conditions in Hong Kong

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Residents of the dense urban environment in Hong Kong suffer from poor living conditions due to building overheating, especially during near-extreme summer conditions. In this study, the thermal comfort and energy performance of typical public rental housing (PRH) building types were simulated using DesignBuilder. Results show that the oldest Slab type PRH, which has a compact building form, has the highest indoor air temperature, yet the lowest cooling energy demand. On the other hand, the Trident type PRH, with the largest external wall U-value, performs the worst overall and is the most responsive to outdoor temperature changes

Preliminary findings on the reliability and validity of the Cantonese Birmingham Cognitive Screen in patients with acute ischemic stroke

BACKGROUND: There are no currently effective cognitive assessment tools for patients who have suffered stroke in the People’s Republic of China. The Birmingham Cognitive Screen (BCoS) has been shown to be a promising tool for revealing patients’ poststroke cognitive deficits in specific domains, which facilitates more individually designed rehabilitation in the long run. Hence we examined the reliability and validity of a Cantonese version BCoS in patients with acute ischemic stroke, in Guangzhou. METHOD: A total of 98 patients with acute ischemic stroke were assessed with the Cantonese version of the BCoS, and an additional 133 healthy individuals were recruited as controls. Apart from the BCoS, the patients also completed a number of external cognitive tests, including the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (MoCA), Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Albert’s cancellation test, the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure Test, and six gesture matching tasks. Cutoff scores for failing each subtest, ie, deficits, were computed based on the performance of the controls. The validity and reliability of the Cantonese BCoS were examined, as well as interrater and test–retest reliability. We also compared the proportions of cases being classified as deficits in controlled attention, memory, character writing, and praxis, between patients with and without spoken language impairment. RESULTS: Analyses showed high test–retest reliability and agreement across independent raters on the qualitative aspects of measurement. Significant correlations were observed between the subtests of the Cantonese BCoS and the other external cognitive tests, providing evidence for convergent validity of the Cantonese BCoS. The screen was also able to generate measures of cognitive functions that were relatively uncontaminated by the presence of aphasia. CONCLUSION: This study suggests good reliability and validity of the Cantonese version of the BCoS. The Cantonese BCoS is a very promising tool for the detection of cognitive problems in Cantonese speakers

Identification of QTL genes for BMD variation using both linkage and gene-based association approaches

Low bone mineral density (BMD) is a risk factor for osteoporotic fracture with a high heritability. Previous large scale linkage study in Northern Chinese has identified four significant quantitative trait loci (QTL) for BMD variation on chromosome 2q24, 5q21, 7p21 and 13q21. We performed a replication study of these four QTL in 1,459 Southern Chinese from 306 pedigrees. Successful replication was observed on chromosome 5q21 for femoral neck BMD with a LOD score of 1.38 (nominal p value = 0.006). We have previously identified this locus in a genome scan meta-analysis of BMD variation in a white population. Subsequent QTL-wide gene-based association analysis in 800 subjects with extreme BMD identified CAST and ERAP1 as novel BMD candidate genes (empirical p value of 0.032 and 0.014, respectively). The associations were independently replicated in a Northern European population (empirical p value of 0.01 and 0.004 for CAST and ERAP1, respectively). These findings provide further evidence that 5q21 is a BMD QTL, and CAST and ERAP1 may be associated with femoral neck BMD variation