The engineering graduate training scheme and new technology training scheme in Hong Kong

If Hong Kong is to improve its competitiveness, a sustainable adequate supply of well-educated and trained manpower, particularly at the technologist level, is essential. Given the fact that human capital is the single most important factor supporting Hong Kong\u27s development, the Hong Kong Government has been and will continue to be firmly committed to investing heavily in education and training. This paper describes the operation of two government funded schemes for training technologists in Hong Kong , namely the Engineering Graduate Training Scheme (EGTS) and the New Technology Training Scheme which are administered by the Committee on Technologist Training of the Vocational Training Council(VTC)

Differences in the Fine Motor Performance of Children in Hong Kong and the United States on the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency

ObjectiveCross-cultural differences in motor development is an important issue for occupational therapists to address in the assessment process. The cultural variability of performance in scores interpretation can mislead therapists in their decisions regarding the need for intervention. This study aimed to investigate the differences in fine motor performance on the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP) between school-aged children of Hong Kong and the United States.MethodsThe four fine motor subtests of the BOTMP were administered to a random sample of 264 Hong Kong children aged 6–10 years. The performance scores of participants were compared with those of the American normative samples.ResultsNo significant difference was found in the scores between the two groups in Upper Limb Coordination and Response Speed subtests. However, the Hong Kong children performed significantly better in the subtests of Visual-Motor Control and Upper Limb Speed and Dexterity. In addition, significant gender difference was also present in all subtest scores except for the subtest of Upper Limb Speed and Dexterity.ConclusionThe results suggest that occupational therapists should be cautious of cross-cultural differences when interpreting fine motor performance scores using the BOTMP for Hong Kong school- aged children

Application of SCOPE-C to measure social inclusion among mental health services users in Hong Kong

This study describes the construction of the Chinese version of the Social and Communities Opportunities Profile (SCOPE), henceforth, the SCOPE-C, to measure social inclusion among mental health services users in Hong Kong. The SCOPE-C was developed based on concept-mapping and benchmarking of census questions. The questionnaire consisted of 56 items, went through a standardized linguistic validation process and was pilot tested with qualitative feedback from five users of mental health services. Altogether 168 Chinese service users were recruited through various NGO mental health services to have three times face-to-face interview between October 2013 and July 2014. Results indicated that items related to satisfaction with opportunities and perceived opportunities in various social domains had high consistency. Nearly all the Kappa statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients between the baseline and two rounds of re-test were significant. The SCOPE-C was considered a valid instrument for Hong Kong mental health user population

Proposed fire safety strategy on airport terminals

Fire safety strategy for airport terminals will be proposed in this paper. The local airport terminal is taken as an example. Special features of airport terminals will be outlined. The retail areas are identified as places with higher fire risk. Standards, codes and design guidelines used overseas are reviewed and compared with the local codes. Based on the study, fire safety strategy is suggested to have four parts: passive building construction for fire safety; active fire protection systems or fire services installation; fire safety management; control of risk factors. All four parts will be discussed in this paper. Suggestions are made to give a fire safe airport terminal.Department of Building Services Engineerin

Formalising behaviour trees with CSP

Behaviour Trees is a novel approach for requirements engineering. It advocates a graphical tree notation that is easy to use and to understand. Individual requirements axe modelled as single trees which later on are integrated into a model of the system as a whole. We develop a formal semantics for a subset of Behaviour Trees using CSP. This work, on one hand, provides tool support for Behaviour Trees. On the other hand, it builds a front-end to a subset of the CSP notation and gives CSP users a new modelling strategy which is well suited to the challenges of requirements engineering

Formal Verification of Tokeneer Behaviours Modelled in fUML Using CSP

Much research work has been done on formalizing UML diagrams, but less has focused on using this formalization to analyze the dynamic behaviours between formalized components. In this paper we propose using a subset of fUML (Foundational Subset for Executable UML) as a semi-formal language, and formalizing it to the process algebraic specification language CSP, to make use of FDR as a model checker. Our formalization includes modelling the asynchronous communication framework used within fUML. This allows different interpretations of the communications model to be evaluated. To illustrate the approach, we use the modelling of the Tokeneer ID Station specifications into fUML, and formalize them in CSP to check if the model is deadlock free

Sexual violence against women and children in Chinese societies

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the reported patterns of sexual violence against women and children in China. It reviews the prevalence of and risk factors for various types of sexual violence and discusses community knowledge and perceptions of these violent acts. It also critically examines three major problems of sexual violence research in China. First, the diversity of findings and study methods reported by surveys and criminal reports reflects the problems in obtaining accurate figures on the scope of the problem. Second, precautions must be taken in reading studies on Chinese culture-specific risk factors for domestic violence. Third, the study of culture-specific factors should not focus solely on cultural factors in a vacuum but rather, should examine traditional culture in the context of modern societies and consensus international standards of human rights. Recommendations for future research are also discussed. © 2009 Sage Publications.postprin

Community-based cardiovascular Risk Factors Intervention Strategies (CORFIS) in managing hypertension: A pragmatic non-randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is the number one cardiovascular risk factor in Malaysia. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a Community-Based Cardiovascular Risk Factors Intervention Strategies (CORFIS) in the management of hypertension in primary care. METHODS: This is a pragmatic, non-randomized controlled trial. Seventy general practitioners (GPs) were selected to provide either CORFIS (44 GPs) or conventional care (26 GPs) for 6 months. A total of 486 hypertensive patients were recruited; 309 were in the intervention and 177 in the control groups. Primary outcome was the proportion of hypertensive patients who achieved target blood pressure (BP) of <140/90mmHg (for those without diabetes mellitus) and <130/80mmHg (with diabetes mellitus). Secondary outcomes include change in the mean/median BP at 6-month as compared to baseline. RESULTS: The proportion of hypertensive patients who achieved target BP at 6-month was significantly higher in the CORFIS arm (69.6) as compared to the control arm (57.6), P=0.008. Amongst those who had uncontrolled BP at baseline, the proportion who achieved target BP at 6-month was also significantly higher in the CORFIS arm (56.6) as compared to the control arm (34.1), p<0.001. There was no difference in the patients who had already achieved BP control at baseline. There were significant reductions in SBP in the CORFIS arm (median -9.0mmHg; -60 to 50) versus control (median -2mmHg; -50 to 48), p=0.003; as well as in DBP (CORFIS arm: median -6.0mmHg; ranged from -53 to 30 versus control arm: median 0.0mmHg; ranged from -42 to 30), p<0.001. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who received CORFIS care demonstrated significant improvements in achieving target BP