Enucleation of painful blind eye for refractory intraocular lymphoma after dose-limiting chemotherapy and radiotherapy

published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 25 May 201

Separable and anonymous identity-based key issuing

In identity-based (ID-based) cryptosystems, a local registration authority (LRA) is responsible for authentication of users while the key generation center (KGC) is responsible for computing and sending the private keys to users and therefore, a secure channel is required. For privacy-oriented applications, it is important to keep in secret whether the private key corresponding to a certain identity has been requested. All of the existing ID-based key issuing schemes have not addressed this anonymity issue. Besides, the separation of duties of LRA and KGC has not been discussed as well. We propose a novel separable and anonymous ID-based key issuing scheme without secure channel. Our protocol supports the separation of duties between LRA and KGC. The private key computed by the KGC can be sent to the user in an encrypted form such that only the legitimate key requester authenticated by LRA can decrypt it, and any eavesdropper cannot know the identity corresponding to the secret key. © 2005 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Studying ICT supported pedagogical practices

During the past decade there has been an exponential growth in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) and this has made pervasive impacts both on the society and on our daily lives. It is thus not surprising to find increasing interest, attention and investment put into the use of ICT in education all around the world. In addition to efforts to make use of ICT to improve learning, the emergence of the knowledge economy has also brought about in recent years a much greater emphasis on education and a number of masterplans in ICT in education has been produced in many countries. Such masterplans detailed not only strategies for implementation but more importantly embedded the plans within a broader framework of education reform that aimed to develop students’ capacities for self-learning, problem-solving, information seeking and analysis, critical thinking and the ability to communicate, collaborate and learn via the internet, abilities that figured much less importantly in the school curricula before. In this context, a new term, “emerging pedagogical practice”, was used in SITES (the Second International Information Technology in Education Study, conducted under the auspices of the IEA) (Pelgrum, 1999) to highlight the changing pedagogical goals and practices that has resulted from the use of ICT in education, as opposed to those uses that just aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of “traditionally important pedagogical practices”. However, the concept of “emerging pedagogical practice” as depicted in the SITES Module 1 (M1) report is still rather vague. When schools have access to computers and the Internet to support teaching and learning, how would teachers and students make use of them? What impact has ICT made on classroom practices? What changes, if any, has ICT made on the roles of teachers and students and the interactions between them? Has the introduction of ICT in schools brought about the desired education reforms envisaged in the ICT in education masterplans or are these wishful optimisms? Are there more effective models of ICT implementation in schools, and if so what are their characteristics? In conjunction with the SITES M1 Hong Kong study, we have conducted a study of good practices in the use of ICT for teaching and learning using the case studies approach. The main goal of this extension study was to explore the above questions in the context of good practices as commonly recognized by members of the education community, and to develop ways of disseminating such good practices. This paper describes the conceptual framework and methodology used in this study and reports briefly on some key findings from the study. The research methodology used in this Study is based on a model of pedagogical practice that is couched within a broad curriculum framework where the pedagogical practice is the implemented curriculum. There are two parts to the research. The first part is to investigate and to build models of pedagogical practices involving use of ICT. Here the assumption (substantiated by observations) is that the way ICT is incorporated into classrooms is very much dictated by the teachers’ general beliefs and approaches to education. The second component of the methodology deals with the models (strategies) of educational change used in different schools in introducing ICT across the curriculum and to explore if particular models of pedagogical practice is linked with specific school implementation strategies.published_or_final_versio

Review of The Electronic Transaction Ordinance: Can The Personal Identification Number Replace The Digital Signature?

In a recent consultation document, the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau proposed that personal identification numbers (PINs) be accepted as a form of signature for the purposes of the Electronic Transactions Ordinance (ETO) (Cap 553). This article explains why this proposal is fundamentally flawed. The article identifies three basic requirements for a signature and examines whether they are satisfied by digital signatures and PINs. It concludes that while a digital signature has built into it all the elements necessary for compliance with the requirements, a PIN can only be used for the purpose of authorisation and cannot be elevated to the status of a signature as required by the ETO.published_or_final_versio

Digital evidence search kit

With the rapid development of electronic commerce and Internet technology, cyber crimes have become more and more common. There is a great need for automated software systems that can assist law enforcement agencies in cyber crime evidence collection. This paper describes a cyber crime evidence collection tool called DESK (Digital Evidence Search Kit), which is the product of several years of cumulative efforts of our Center together with the Hong Kong Police Force and several other law enforcement agencies of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. We will use DESK to illustrate some of the desirable features of an effective cyber crime evidence collection tool. © 2005 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Effect of influenza on cardiorespiratory and all-cause mortality in Hong Kong, Singapore and Guangzhou.

1. Using a common modelling approach, mortality attributable to influenza was higher in the two subtropical cities Guangzhou and Hong Kong than in the tropical city Singapore. 2. The virus activity appeared more synchronised in subtropical cities, whereas seasonality of influenza tended to be less marked in the tropical city. 3. High temperature was associated with increased mortality after influenza infection in Hong Kong, whereas relative humidity was an effect modifier for influenza in Guangzhou. No effect modification was found for Singapore. 4. Seasonal and environmental factors probably play a more important role than socioeconomic factors in regulating seasonality and disease burden of influenza. Further studies are needed in identifying the mechanism behind the regulatory role of environmental factors.published_or_final_versio

Harvesting convalescent plasma for hyperimmune intravenous globulin production: a multicentre randomised double-blind controlled trial for treatment of patients with serious S-OIV H1N1 infection

Poster Presentations: Emerging / Infectious Diseases: abstract no. P107-Ab0089Symposium Theme: Translating Health Research into Policy and Practice for Health of the Populationpublished_or_final_versio

Harvesting convalescent plasma for hyperimmune intravenous globulin production: a multicentre randomised double-blind controlled trial for treatment of patients with serious S-OIV H1N1 infection

Poster Presentations: Emerging / Infectious Diseases: abstract no. P107-Ab0089Symposium Theme: Translating Health Research into Policy and Practice for Health of the Populationpublished_or_final_versio

Validation of Statistical Models for Estimating Hospitalization Associated with Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses

BACKGROUND: Reliable estimates of disease burden associated with respiratory viruses are keys to deployment of preventive strategies such as vaccination and resource allocation. Such estimates are particularly needed in tropical and subtropical regions where some methods commonly used in temperate regions are not applicable. While a number of alternative approaches to assess the influenza associated disease burden have been recently reported, none of these models have been validated with virologically confirmed data. Even fewer methods have been developed for other common respiratory viruses such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), parainfluenza and adenovirus. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We had recently conducted a prospective population-based study of virologically confirmed hospitalization for acute respiratory illnesses in persons <18 years residing in Hong Kong Island. Here we used this dataset to validate two commonly used models for estimation of influenza disease burden, namely the rate difference model and Poisson regression model, and also explored the applicability of these models to estimate the disease burden of other respiratory viruses. The Poisson regression models with different link functions all yielded estimates well correlated with the virologically confirmed influenza associated hospitalization, especially in children older than two years. The disease burden estimates for RSV, parainfluenza and adenovirus were less reliable with wide confidence intervals. The rate difference model was not applicable to RSV, parainfluenza and adenovirus and grossly underestimated the true burden of influenza associated hospitalization. CONCLUSION: The Poisson regression model generally produced satisfactory estimates in calculating the disease burden of respiratory viruses in a subtropical region such as Hong Kong

Intrusion detection routers: Design, implementation and evaluation using an experimental testbed

In this paper, we present the design, the implementation details, and the evaluation results of an intrusion detection and defense system for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The evaluation is conducted using an experimental testbed. The system, known as intrusion detection router (IDR), is deployed on network routers to perform online detection on any DDoS attack event, and then react with defense mechanisms to mitigate the attack. The testbed is built up by a cluster of sufficient number of Linux machines to mimic a portion of the Internet. Using the testbed, we conduct real experiments to evaluate the IDR system and demonstrate that IDR is effective in protecting the network from various DDoS attacks. © 2006 IEEE.published_or_final_versio