An optimization model for a battery swapping station in Hong Kong

In this paper, a battery swapping station (BSS) model is proposed as an economic and convenient way to provide energy for the batteries of the electric vehicles (EVs). This method would overcome some drawbacks to the use of electric vehicles like long charging time and insufficient running distance. On the economic concern of a battery swapping station, the station would optimize the availability of the batteries in stock, and at the same time determine the best strategy for recharging the batteries on hand. By optimizing the charging method of the batteries, an optimization model of BSS with the maximum number of batteries in stock has been developed for the bus terminal at the Hong Kong International Airport. The secondary objective would be to minimize a cost on the batteries due to the use of different charging schemes. The genetic algorithm (GA) has been used to implement the optimization model, and simulation results are shown.published_or_final_versio

Leveraging community assets to tackle social isolation and loneliness: a needs assessment of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham

This study is an investigation of factors that influence the routine adoption and diffusion of evidence-based asset-based community development (ABCD) initiatives to combat social isolation and loneliness in the contemporary setting (using LBH&F as a case study

Krit1 inhibited proliferation and metastasis of human colon cancer via DPPIV signaling pathway

Oral presentationpublished_or_final_versionThe 15th Annual Research Conference of the Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 16 January 2010. In Hong Kong Medical Journal, 2010, v. 16, suppl. 1, p. 67, abstract no. 11

Initial validation of Chinese Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia Scale (C-PAINAD)

2007-2008 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Relationship between the microstructure and nanoindentation hardness of thermally evaporated and magnetron-sputtered electrochromic tungsten oxide films

Author name used in this publication: G. K. H. PangAuthor name used in this publication: C. L. Choy2000-2001 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Promoter hypermethylation and histone hypoacetylation contribute to pancreatic-duodenal homeobox 1 silencing in gastric cancer

Background and Aims: The expression of pancreatic-duodenal homeobox 1 (PDX1) in gastric cancer is aberrantly reduced. The aim of this study was to elucidate the regulation of DNA methylation and histone acetylation at the promoter for PDX1 silencing in gastric cancer. Methods: PDX1 expression in response to demethylation and acetylation was detected in human gastric cancer cell lines by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and western blot. Four CpG islands within the 5#-flanking region of PDX1 gene were analyzed with their transcription activities being detected by dual luciferase assay. Promoter hypermethylation was identified in gastric cancer cell lines and cancer tissues by methylation-specific PCR or bisulfite DNA sequencing PCR analysis. Histone acetylation was determined by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay. Results: Demethylation by 5′-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (5′-aza-dC) and/or acetylation by trichostatin A (TSA) restored PDX1 expression in gastric cancer cells. Hypermethylation was found in four CpG islands in six of seven cancer cell lines. However, only the distal CpG island located in the promoter fragment of PDX1, F383 (c.22063 to 21681 nt upstream of the ATG start codon) displayed significant transcriptional activity that could be suppressed by SssI methylase and increased by 5′-aza-dC and TSA. More than 70% of the single CpG sites in F383 were methylated with hypermethylation of F383 fragment more common in gastric cancerous tissues compared with the paired normal tissues (P < 0.05). ChIP assay showed F383 was also associated with low hypoacetylation level of the histones. Conclusion: Promoter hypermethylation and histone hypoacetylation contribute to PDX1 silencing in gastric cancer. © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.postprin

An IoT-Enabled Stroke Rehabilitation System Based on Smart Wearable Armband and Machine Learning

Surface electromyography signal plays an important role in hand function recovery training. In this paper, an IoT-enabled stroke rehabilitation system was introduced which was based on a smart wearable armband (SWA), machine learning (ML) algorithms, and a 3-D printed dexterous robot hand. User comfort is one of the key issues which should be addressed for wearable devices. The SWA was developed by integrating a low-power and tiny-sized IoT sensing device with textile electrodes, which can measure, pre-process, and wirelessly transmit bio-potential signals. By evenly distributing surface electrodes over user's forearm, drawbacks of classification accuracy poor performance can be mitigated. A new method was put forward to find the optimal feature set. ML algorithms were leveraged to analyze and discriminate features of different hand movements, and their performances were appraised by classification complexity estimating algorithms and principal components analysis. According to the verification results, all nine gestures can be successfully identified with an average accuracy up to 96.20%. In addition, a 3-D printed five-finger robot hand was implemented for hand rehabilitation training purpose. Correspondingly, user's hand movement intentions were extracted and converted into a series of commands which were used to drive motors assembled inside the dexterous robot hand. As a result, the dexterous robot hand can mimic the user's gesture in a real-time manner, which shows the proposed system can be used as a training tool to facilitate rehabilitation process for the patients after stroke

First insights into the phylogenetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Nepal

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in Nepal. Strain variation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis may influence the outcome of TB infection and disease. To date, the phylogenetic diversity of M. tuberculosis in Nepal is unknown. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We analyzed 261 M. tuberculosis isolates recovered from pulmonary TB patients recruited between August 2009 and August 2010 in Nepal. M. tuberculosis lineages were determined by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) typing and spoligotyping. Drug resistance was determined by sequencing the hot spot regions of the relevant target genes. Overall, 164 (62.8%) TB patients were new, and 97 (37.2%) were previously treated. Any drug resistance was detected in 50 (19.2%) isolates, and 16 (6.1%) were multidrug-resistant. The most frequent M. tuberculosis lineage was Lineage 3 (CAS/Delhi) with 106 isolates (40.6%), followed by Lineage 2 (East-Asian lineage, includes Beijing genotype) with 84 isolates (32.2%), Lineage 4 (Euro-American lineage) with 41 (15.7%) isolates, and Lineage 1 (Indo-Oceanic lineage) with 30 isolates (11.5%). Based on spoligotyping, we found 45 different spoligotyping patterns that were previously described. The Beijing (83 isolates, 31.8%) and CAS spoligotype (52, 19.9%) were the dominant spoligotypes. A total of 36 (13.8%) isolates could not be assigned to any known spoligotyping pattern. Lineage 2 was associated with female sex (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.58, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.42-4.67, p = 0.002), and any drug resistance (aOR 2.79; 95% CI 1.43-5.45; p = 0.002). We found no evidence for an association of Lineage 2 with age or BCG vaccination status. CONCLUSIONS: We found a large genetic diversity of M. tuberculosis in Nepal with representation of all four major lineages. Lineages 3 and 2 were dominating. Lineage 2 was associated with clinical characteristics. This study fills an important gap on the map of the M. tuberculosis genetic diversity in the Asian reg

Prevalence of urinary incontinence in middle-aged and elderly adults in 10 areas in China

Objective: To describe the population and area distribution differences in the prevalence of urinary incontinence in middle-aged and elderly adults in 10 areas in China. Methods: A total of 24 913 participants aged 45-95 years who completed the third resurvey of China Kadoorie Biobank during 2020-2021 were included. The prevalence of urinary incontinence was assessed by an interviewer-administered questionnaire, and urinary incontinence was classified as only stress urinary incontinence, only urgency urinary incontinence and mixed urinary incontinence. The prevalence of urinary incontinence and its subtypes were reported by sex, age and area, and the severity of urinary incontinence and treatment were described. Results: The average age of the participants was (65.4±9.1) years. According to the seventh national census data in 2020, the age-standardized prevalence rates of urinary incontinence was 25.4% in women and 7.0% in men. The age-standardized prevalence rates of only stress, only urgency and mixed incontinence were 1.7%, 4.2% and 1.2% in men and 13.5%, 5.8% and 6.1% in women, respectively. The prevalence rates of urinary incontinence and all subtypes in men and the prevalence of urinary incontinence and all subtypes except only stress urinary incontinence in women all increased with age ( P<0.001). After adjusting for age, the prevalence of urinary incontinence in both men and women were higher in rural area than in urban area ( P<0.001). The treatment rates in men and women with urinary incontinence were 15.4% and 8.5%, respectively. Conclusions: The prevalence of urinary incontinence was high in middle-aged and elderly adults in China, and the prevalence rate was higher in women than in men, but the treatment rate of urinary incontinence was low

Excellent capability in degrading azo dyes by MgZn-based metallic glass powders

The lack of new functional applications for metallic glasses hampers further development of these fascinating materials. In this letter, we report for the first time that the MgZn-based metallic glass powders have excellent functional ability in degrading azo dyes which are typical organic water pollutants. Their azo dye degradation efficiency is about 1000 times higher than that of commercial crystalline Fe powders, and 20 times higher than the Mg-Zn alloy crystalline counterparts. The high Zn content in the amorphous Mg-based alloy enables a greater corrosion resistance in water and higher reaction efficiency with azo dye compared to crystalline Mg. Even under complex environmental conditions, the MgZn-based metallic glass powders retain high reaction efficiency. Our work opens up a new opportunity for functional applications of metallic glasses