One Country, Two EIA Systems: the public engagement in the EIA systems of Hong Kong and China

INTRODUCTION: The paper examines two distinctive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) practices in the aspects of public engagement process applied in Hong Kong and China mainland. Under the “One Country, Two Systems” governance framework, Hong Kong enjoys high level of autonomy. Due to the unique historical background, the practices of environmental management between the two places are different. This paper uses the EIA of Shenzhen Western Corridor project, a trans-boundary EIA (TEIA) between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, to compare and contrast the institutional setting of EIA system in Hong Kong and China mainland in terms of public engagement process. The paper ends with a disc…postprin

Will mothers of sick children help their husbands to stop smoking after receiving a brief intervention from nurses? Secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial

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Disease burden of breast cancer in Hong Kong: an exploration of trends for screening policy and resource allocation

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Towards informed decisions on breast cancer screening: Development and pilot testing of a decision aid for Chinese women

OBJECTIVE: To pilot-test a novel, self-use breast cancer (BC) screening decision aid (DA) targeting Hong Kong (HK) Chinese women at average risk of BC. METHODS: Women were recruited through a population-based telephone survey using random digit dialling between October 2013 and January 2014. Eligible participants completed our baseline survey and then received the DA by post. Participants (n=90) completed follow-up telephone interviews one month later. RESULTS: Most participants thought that all/most DA content was presented clearly (86.7%), and was useful in helping women make screening-related decisions (88.9%). It also achieved its expected impact of improving informed decision-making and increasing shared-participation preference without increasing participants' anxiety levels. Participants showed a modest non-statistical increase in their screening knowledge scores. Older women rated the perceived severity of a BC diagnosis as significantly lower, and more educated women reported significantly lower perceived anxiety about the disease. CONCLUSION: Our DA appears acceptable and feasible for self-use by HK Chinese women who need to make an informed decision about BC screening without increasing overall anxiety levels. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This study supports the potential of self-use DAs for cancer screening-related decision support in a Chinese population. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.postprin

Investigation of voltage dip restorer using square wave inverter

Author name used in this publication: K. W. E. ChengAuthor name used in this publication: S. L. HoAuthor name used in this publication: K. P. WongRefereed conference paper2004-2005 > Academic research: refereed > Refereed conference paperVersion of RecordPublishe

Developments in the fluidised bed process for fibre recovery from thermoset composites

Carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) is being used in increasing quantities particularly in the transport industry to reduce carbon emissions through weight reduction and in the energy industries for renewable technologies, such as wind turbines. As a high value and energy intensive material to manufacture a good case can be made for recovering and reusing carbon fibre from waste material. A number of companies in Europe and the USA are now in the early stages of commercial operation, but the focus is upon the recycling of clean, uncontaminated scrap from manufacturing processes and it is recognised that CFRP that is mixed with other materials eg. sandwich panels, metal inserts, painted surfaces and composites made from toughened polymers are more difficult to recycle effectively with existing commercial processes. The fluidised bed process developed at the University of Nottingham for recovering carbon fibre from waste composite material has the potential to process mixed and contaminated CFRP waste. The oxidising conditions allow full removal of any organic materials and the fluidised bed effectively separates the carbon fibres from other incombustible materials, such as metals. The process has now been developed to a scale representative of commercial operation and a waste CFRP comprising intermediate modulus carbon fibre and toughened epoxy resin has been processed successfully and good quality recycled fibres recovered. This paper will present the results and discuss the quality of the carbon fibre recovered from the process. A discussion of some of the key requirements to build a viable fluidised bed plant will also be presented

Predictors of intention to quit at participation and six-month abstinence in the participants of Hong Kong Quit-to-Win Contest (2009-2013)

Poster Discussion 23. Cessation - Predictors and Policies: no. PD-864-20Conference Theme: Tobacco and Non-Communicable DiseasesBACKGROUND: Quit and Win Contests were organized in many countries to attract a large number of smokers, who mostly had not sought professional cessation support, to quit with the grand monetary prize as an incentive. The present study aims to explore the influential factors of being ready to quit (want to quit within 7 days) and abstinence in these participants. DESIGN/METHODS: The 4 rounds of Quit-to-Win Contests (2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013) recruited 4,093 adult daily …published_or_final_versio

A family smoking cessation intervention for parents of children 0-18 months: a randomized controlled trial

Oral Session 23: 24-Health Promotion in the Community &19- Global Warning,Sustainable Earth and Health (English Session)Conference Theme: Empowerment for Healthy Settings - Healthy City and Community, Healthy School and University, Healthy Hospital and Healthy Workplace.Aim: This is a single-blinded, multi-site randomized controlled trial aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of a proactive multi-step theory-based family smoking cessation intervention delivered by smoking cessation nurses to non-smoking mothers and smoking fathers, to protect their infants from exposure to household second-hand smoke and to help the fathers quit smoking. Methods: A total of 24,315 families were screened at 22 Maternal Child Health Centres in 2008- 2010. 1,158 families with smoking father, non-smoking mother and an infant under 18-month were randomized into intervention and control groups. The intervention group received face-to-face and telephone counselling (mothers) on executing a complete household-no smoking policy and supporting their husbands to quit smoking; 3 telephone smoking cessation counselling sessions (fathers); an additional face-to-face family intervention session with NRT (if necessary); and a smoke-free kit with health education materials. The control group received a pamphlet about smokefree home (mothers) and a self-help smoking cessation pamphlet (fathers). All families were followed up at 6- and 12-month to assess the fathers’ smoking status, implementation of household smoking policy (mothers), role of mothers’ general self-efficacy to assist fathers quit smoking, change in marital relationship (both spouses), and the utilization of health services (infants) .....published_or_final_versio

Congenital myopathies: characteristic and subtypes in Hong Kong

This journal suppl. entitled: 20th International Congress of The World Muscle SocietyCongenital myopathies are a group of childhood onset neuromuscular disorder with the diagnosis mainly based on genetic and pathological features. This is a unique group with phenotypic, genotypic and pathological heterogeneity, so the confirmation of an underlying diagnosis is often challenging. This is the first congenital myopathy case series in Hong Kong. A total of 15 patients have been diagnosed to have congenital myopathies with 11 patients had the genetic mutations being identified (4 patients had RYR1 mutations, 3 patients had ACTA1 mutations, 2 patients had KLHL40 mutations, 1 patient had MTM1 mutation and 1 patient had DNM2 mutation).postprin

Improved Cell Survival and Paracrine Capacity of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Promote Therapeutic Potential for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Although transplantation of adult bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) holds promise in the treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), the poor survival and differentiation potential of adult BM-MSCs have limited their therapeutic efficiency. Here, we compared the therapeutic efficacy of human embryonic stem cell-derived MSCs (hESC-MSCs) with adult BM-MSCs for the treatment of PAH in an animal model. One week following monocrotaline (MCT)-induced PAH, mice were randomly assigned to receive phosphate-buffered saline (MCT group); 3.0×106 human BM-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs group) or 3.0 ×106 hESC-derived MSCs (hESC-MSCs group) via tail vein injection. At 3 weeks posttransplantation, the right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP), degree of RV hypertrophy, and medial wall thickening of pulmonary arteries were lower=, and pulmonary capillary density was higher in the hESC-MSC group as compared with BM-MSC and MCT groups (all p < 0.05). At 1 week posttransplantation, the number of engrafted MSCs in the lungs was found significantly higher in the hESC-MSC group than in the BM-MSC group (all p < 0.01). At 3 weeks posttransplantation, implanted BM-MSCs were undetectable whereas hESC-MSCs were not only engrafted in injured pulmonary arteries but had also undergone endothelial differentiation. In addition, protein profiling of hESC-MSC- and BM-MSC-conditioned medium revealed a differential paracrine capacity. Classification of these factors into bioprocesses revealed that secreted factors from hESC-MSCs were preferentially involved in early embryonic development and tissue differentiation, especially blood vessel morphogenesis. We concluded that improved cell survival and paracrine capacity of hESC-MSCs provide better therapeutic efficacy than BM-MSCs in the treatment for PAH. © 2012 Cognizant Comm. Corp.published_or_final_versio