The roles played by unions in the provision of continuing education in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.This thesis develops the argument that unions in Hong Kong have an important role to play in narrowing the gap between employees’ educational needs and the provision of courses. The thesis demonstrates that the special history and the unique features of Hong Kong unions produced opportunities for them to offer education services to employees. The study confirms that the unions’ education services meet employees’ needs for Continuing Education. Hong Kong unions’ provision of educational services is the result of their need to differentiate themselves from other unions in a competitive environment as well as of union members demanding those services in the absence of the Hong Kong Government providing them. The unions’ lack of a legal right to engage in collective bargaining led to the fragmentation of the union movement, with different unions guided by different ideals, and in turn to unions having to provide a range of services, including education services, to attract members and to consolidate their power. In addition, union members demanded that the unions provide educational services since the Hong Kong Government (both before and after 1997, when China assumed sovereignty over Hong Kong) failed to develop proper Continuing Education policies, which in turn led to employees getting the opportunity to study in union training centres. A survey of the demand for Continuing Education by HKU SPACE (Hong Kong University, School of Professional and Continuing Education, 2001) shows that 8% of participants in Continuing Education in Hong Kong studied with the biggest union group, the FTU. This demonstrates that the unions play an important role in the provision of Continuing Education. The research demonstrates that the unique background of Hong Kong unions, their flexible education arrangements and low course fees, and the close relationship between union members and unions, motivate employees to study and help them overcome barriers to study. Unions are not only concerned with employees’ day-to-day work-related knowledge but also with “holistic” life and health issues. The ideal of regarding Continuing Education as a labour right supports the unions’ policy to invest their resources in helping employees to study. The thesis argues that Hong Kong unions have an important role to play in narrowing the gap between employees’ educational needs and the actual provision of courses. The thesis demonstrates that the special history and the unique features of Hong Kong unions produced opportunities for unions to offer education services to employees. The study confirms that the unions’ education services meet employees’ needs for Continuing Education. Seven recommendations are made which are intended to assist unions in narrowing the gap between the educational needs of employees and the provision of education services in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Hormonal control of the metabolic machinery of hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most fatal malignancies worldwide. It is an aggressive cancer with low cure rate, frequent metastasis, and highly resistant to conventional chemotherapies. Better knowledge regarding the molecular and metabolic alterations in HCC will be instrumental to the development of novel therapeutic interventions against HCC. In the August 2015 issue of Hepatology, Nie et al. reports an important molecular pathway that contributes to the Warburg Effect in HCC. They have beautifully demonstrated that the loss of a component of a hormonal system, the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), reprogrammed the metabolic machinery of HCC cells to aerobic glycolysis through the miR-338-3p-PKL/R axis. The implication could be that in addition to drugs that directly target the metabolic enzymes in cancer cells, more translational efforts could be focused on the development of drugs that involve the activation of the MR-aldosterone system or other hormonal systems to target the Warburg effect.published_or_final_versio

Sodium trans-Dicyano[N,N'-1,2-phenylenebis(2-pyridinecarboxamido)]cobaltate(III)

The Co atom in the [ColII(CN)2(CI8HI2N402)] - complex anion is hexacoordinate with a distorted octahedral geometry. The four N atoms in the amide ligand occupy equatorial positions and are coplanar to within 0.007A. The two CN groups are coordinated to Co in a trans configuration. The Na cation interacts with four complex anions through their cyanide-N and amide-O atoms, thereby adopting a distorted tetrahedral coordination.published_or_final_versio

Public health and air pollution in Asia (PAPA) - a forum for further development with new scopes and participants

Pre-Conference Workshop 6 - abstractpostprintThe 2010 Joint Conference of International Society of Exposure Science & International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISES-ISEE 2010), Seoul, Korea, 28 August-1 September 2010

Patient-specific instrument can achieve same accuracy with less resection time than navigation assistance in periacetabular pelvic tumor surgery: A cadaveric study

postprin

Cost-effectiveness of Helicobacter pylori screening and treatment for gastric cancer in Hong Kong: a decision analytic approach

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The changing epidemiology of recurrent pyogenic cholangitis

Recurrent pyogenic cholangitis is prevalent in Hong Kong and East Asia. While the recent influx of Asian immigrants has resulted in more cases appearing in the West, over the past three decades, the overall incidence in East Asia has been in decline. The experience of the Queen Mary Hospital and other hospitals in the region has been confirmed by comprehensive surveys. The decline in incidence has been attributed to the improved economic situation and living standards with the associated westernisation of diet.published_or_final_versio

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

published_or_final_versio

Numerical study of pollutant dilution in a natural ventilated dental clinic: ventilation path types used for exhausting pollutant

A dental clinic was modelled in this study using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) platform. The objective was to study the effect of natural ventilation on pollutant dispersion in this setting. Three basic ventilation paths were identified, the 'single narrow path', 'narrow path' and 'dispersive path'. The results show that the first of these had the highest efficiency, with an escape time of about 1/30 and 1/100 of the narrow and dispersive paths, respectively. Despite the position of the pollutant source and facilities such as bulkheads, escape time was significantly reduced when the ventilation flow rate was increased under the single narrow and dispersive paths. However, for the narrow path, these factors played a more dominant role in the escape time than the ventilation flow rate. © 2012 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Promoting social emotional learning in Chinese schools: a feasibility study of PATHS implementation in Hong Kong

Poster 1Social emotion learning (SEL) can be taught in schools. The present report describes a pilot trial of the PATHS Curriculum, a US developed evidence-based SEL program, among schools in Hong Kong SAR (China). Three elementary schools, 318 students in 12 first grade classrooms, participated in the study. The first grade PATHS lessons were adapted and translated into Chinese. Twelve teachers learned and adopted these lessons in their teaching. Students in these classrooms learned about different emotions and practiced self control. The intervention lasted for four months. After the intervention, students showed increase in their emotion understanding, improvement in their emotional regulation and prosocial behaviors. No change was observed in the levels of children’s problem behaviors. Over 65% of the participating teachers reported high degree of satisfaction and willingness to adopt the intervention in their classrooms. Further analyses indicated that the effects of the intervention varied among schools. There were also variations in the dosage of intervention and principal support, but not the quality of implementation among the 3 schools. Discussion was focused on factors that could shape the adoption and implementation of SEL programs, especially the role of the difference in school systems between Hong Kong and the United States.postprintThe 3rd European Network for Social and Emotional Competence in Children (ENSEC) Conference, Manchester, U.K., 29 June-3 July 2011