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The outline of the development plan issued by CPC Central Committee and the State Council for the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Bay Area clearly pointed out that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area should be built into a vibrant world-class urban agglomeration, an international science and technology innovation center, an important support for the construction of the "the Belt and Road," and a demonstration area for in-depth cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao; and a high-quality life circle suitable for living, working, and traveling should be created to become a model of high-quality sustainable development. In order to develop the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area, it is extremely important to enhance the regional business environment. This paper focuses on five influencing factors: policy support, talent guarantee, market supervision, financial support, and cultural promotion. Based on one-way ANOVA and Cobb Douglas function, this paper makes an empirical study on the two important node cities of Zhuhai and Macao. The results show that (1) different factors have different degrees of significant impact on the regional business environment, among which the industry type has the greatest impact, and the duration of enterprise registration has the least impact; (2) when the factors act alone, there is a significant positive correlation between the evaluation dimensions, but most of the correlation degrees are not much different. Finance and talents are the weaknesses of the business environment in the two cities. (3) When the factors are combined, different factors have significant differences in different regions. Zhuhai mainly benefits from policy support, while Macao mainly benefits from market supervision. (4) Regional integration can produce significant association relationship, among which cultural promotion is an important factor. These five important factors have been effectively identified, which have played a leading role in the further design and development direction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area in the future and have an extremely important enlightenment for the study of the business environment in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the analysis effect of traditional arts and crafts, this paper analyzes traditional arts and crafts combined with digital technology, builds an intelligent analysis system to improve the digital processing effect of traditional arts and crafts, and takes the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as an example to verify the system effect. In order to improve the accuracy of subsequent image alignment and defect detection, this paper compares the effects of the pixel-level edge detection algorithm and the subpixel-level edge detection algorithm and finally selects the subpixel-based edge detection algorithm to extract the edge of the image. In addition, this paper compares the traditional defect detection algorithm through research and experiment and proposes an improved image phase difference method according to the actual situation. The experimental research shows that the traditional arts and crafts intelligent analysis system based on digital technology proposed in this paper has a very good effect. At the same time, with the support of this system, the intelligent analysis of traditional arts and crafts in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can be carried out efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the construction of wavelet coherence analysis and frequency-domain spillover framework, this paper makes a comparative study of the volatility spillover effects of international economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on China's Shanghai and Hong Kong stock market from a time-frequency perspective. To fully reflect the international EPU, this paper selects China, the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom and uses the monthly EPU index of these countries and regions. China chooses China's EPU index and Hong Kong's EPU index. At the same time, the 5-minute high-frequency volatility of the Shanghai Composite Index (SSEC) and the Hang Seng Index (HSI) is selected to represent the Shanghai and Hong Kong's stock market, respectively. It is found that there are obvious differences between the EPU and the dependence of the stock market in time domain and frequency domain, and the lead-lag relationship between them has time-varying characteristics. Static and dynamic spillover effects play a dominant role in the analysis of medium- and long-term spillover effects. In particular, the EPU and the risk spillover of the Hong Kong stock market are stronger than those of the Shanghai stock market, and the dynamic frequency-domain net risk spillover between them has frequency characteristics, and there are two-way and asymmetric risk spillovers. This provides a certain reference for policy makers to improve the safety management of financial markets and for market investors to optimize their portfolios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper took the social exchange and social cognitive perspectives to examine the effects between job values and organizational socialization and how to play a mediation in career exploration and moderating effect in demographic characteristics. The research collected 700 valid samples of the youth of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area for statistical analysis and then subjected them to job value scale, career exploration, and organizational socialization scale. With structural equation model and correlation analysis, it verified that the proposed scale had demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity, a theoretical model of a good overall fit. In the final part, this paper used hierarchical regression analysis and path analysis. The results indicated that career exploration plays a mediation role between job value and organizational socialization, demographic characteristics are moderating effect between job value and career exploration, and demographic characteristics make a moderating effect between career exploration and organizational socialization, but demographic characteristics are not moderated on work value and organizational socialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synergistic development is the only way which must be passed and a key point to achieve high-quality economic development. This paper regards regional synergetic development as a composite system, builds up the evaluation indicator system, and calculates the level of economic synergetic development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Urban Agglomeration, by using the collaborative degree model of composite system. The results show that each subsystem of the composite system has a high degree of order from 2007 to 2019, but compared with Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration and Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, the level of economic collaborative development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area urban agglomeration in 2008–2019 is relatively low and has large spatial differences. The main reason is that under the background of "one country, two systems" policy, the institutional differences between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao have not been effectively linked up and synergetic, Greater Bay Area urban agglomeration has not yet formed an organic whole, and the synergy effect of mutual support and promotion is relatively weak. Based on this, we should seize the great historical opportunity of the construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, accelerate the construction of the mechanism for the synergetic economic development of the three areas, accelerate the establishment of an integrated market, build a reasonable division of labor system and collaborative innovation system, and jointly promote the synergetic economic development of Greater Bay Area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development of the economy, the trade volume of customs clearance by land transportation between Guangdong and Hong Kong is increasing, but there are many problems in customs clearance by land transportation between Guangdong and Hong Kong. Therefore, it is necessary to start with the logistics mode of land transportation between Guangdong and Hong Kong, reduce the cost of customs clearance by land transportation between Guangdong and Hong Kong, and increase the trade volume by land transportation between the two places. This paper systematically analyzes the present situation of customs clearance efficiency in China and introduces BPNN (BP neural network) algorithm to optimize customs clearance. The detailed idea and process of the algorithm are introduced, and the BPNN trained by the algorithm is applied to function approximation. The simulation results show that this scheme can not only improve the convergence speed of the algorithm in the training process but also the trained BPNN has strong adaptive and self-learning ability. Comparing the customs clearance efficiency before and after the improvement, the results show that the improved customs clearance efficiency is higher and can save a lot of time, thus verifying the effectiveness and applicability of the model-solving algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To carry out the research on the vulnerability evaluation and influencing factors of the tourism economic system is the objective requirement of formulating the scientific development strategy of the tourism economy and improving the quality of regional tourism development. Methods. Based on the vulnerability analysis of tourism economic system based on BP neural network (BPNN), this paper takes the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) as the research object and selects 14 index data. The mean and standard deviation of the calculated weight values are used to formulate evaluation criteria for the tourism system. Results. The BP neural network (BPNN) model was used to predict the distribution law of vulnerability data within the standard range of the Greater Bay Area after 2020, obtained the spatial distribution law of vulnerability in the geographic structure distribution of the Greater Bay Area, and determined the vulnerability analysis framework and evaluation method. Conclusion. The cities in the Greater Bay Area should first pay attention to the industrial structure; increase financial investment; enhance the attractiveness of tourist destinations, in-depth development of tourism resources, and rational design of tourism products; help reduce the vulnerability of the tourism economic system; and improve regional self-recovery capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area requires the establishment of a comprehensive port cooperation mechanism. Coordination is key to port integration. This paper establishes a multi-group Lotka-Volterra model based on the theory of competition and cooperation to study the evolution of the relationships among Hong Kong Port, Shenzhen Port, and Guangzhou Port. The results show that the three major ports have predator-prey roles and form a symbiotic competition and cooperation ecological pattern. The extended Hotelling model is established to study the central ports' spatial differences; the results show that whether it is the central port cooperation body or the entire central port group, the gains from Shenzhen Port-Guangzhou Port cooperation are greater than between either and Hong Kong Port for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's container business. The biggest competitor to Hong Kong Port in the container business is Guangzhou Port. Hong Kong Port will gain more from cooperation with Shenzhen Port and should strengthen such cooperation. The study provides quantitative support and reference for positioning the strategic development of the high-end shipping business in Hong Kong Port, the pilot free-trade port in Shenzhen Port, and the exploration of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong composite port, Guangzhou Port's comprehensive shipping hub. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The segmental joints are the weak parts of the immersed tunnel structure, and their deformation characteristics are closely correlated with the waterproof behavior and structural safety of the whole tunnel. In order to study the deformation characteristics of the segmental joints of immersed structure, in this paper, the E13 pipe section in the natural foundation section of an immersed tunnel in the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is taken as the research object, and the model test of the immersed tunnel is carried out. The similarity ratio of the model to the prototype is determined according to the actual engineering scale and the capability of the model test system, and the plexiglass is selected as the model material of the immersed tunnel according to the similarity of elastic modulus and density. In the test, various working conditions, including back-silting load and different prestress control values, are analyzed, and the influence of settlement and opening of the immersed tunnel is obtained, along with the stress-strain characteristics of the segment joints. Results show that the increase of the back-silting load will increase the element settlement and the expansion of the segment joints, but the application of prestress increases the overall stiffness of the element, which can effectively restrain the settlement of element and the expansion of joints. Furthermore, based on the model test conditions, a finite element model is established to simulate the mechanical behavior of the immersed tunnel. The settlement curve and stress-strain curve of the numerical analysis are found to be similar to those obtained from the model test, which verifies the reliability of the model test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present era, people are facing enough challenges, either personally or technically, and some people do suffer from having to keep up with the current technological improvements. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GHKMGBA) is one of the areas that has been highly managed for tourism with economic networks in it. Here, the exploitation results in underground spacing management automate the alleviation process using various methods. Apart from the characterization, it is one such mandatory consideration to create a master plan with the rise of utilization and urban underground spacing planned to be placed among large cities for tourism is considered. This paper focuses on the strategy to understand the concepts and popularisation of urban underground spacing. This matter is followed by a complementary approach with a supportive technical system. This research focuses on economic development in the cities of GHKMGBA, and the analysis is carried out with the implementation of the backpropagation neural network (BPNN). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Hong Kong, death and dying are identified as a crucial public health issue, and as the healthcare system has developed, there has been a shift of some care for dying people and their families to cross‐disciplinary collaboration in community settings. This shift enhances the salience of social relationships in non‐medical forms of community‐based end‐of‐life (EOL) care. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to knowledge about relational development in this regard. Abductive grounded theory methodology was used to examine the complex dynamics and mechanisms involved in cultivating mutuality between dying people (and their families) and volunteers and professionals in two community‐based EOL social service agencies in Hong Kong. Qualitative data were collected between June and December 2019 using in‐depth interviews with 14 agency practitioners and two theoretically sampled service users. Theoretical coding followed open coding to reach theoretical saturation. Cultivating mutuality was found to entail processes of finding social commonalities (and hiding differences), immersing in routines, supporting actualisation (granting the wishes of dying persons and their families) and engaging with clients' emotions (encouraging emotional release, demonstrating emotional involvement and actively listening). Findings offered a novel symbolic interactive and relational understanding of community EOL care practice. Contributions include theorising social processes in an intermediate stage of social capital and compassionate community development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce a new slash distribution via the power normal distribution and uniform distribution. This new distribution, called the slash power normal distribution, models more appropriately the skewness and kurtosis of data than the power normal distribution. Moreover, the probability density function and the cumulative distribution function of the slash power normal distribution are derived and the density function curves with different parameters are given. We also study the basic properties of the moments, derive the maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters, and substantiate our arguments with numerical simulations. Finally, we model hourly measurements of sulphur dioxide concentrations of a station in Hong Kong by the slash power normal distribution, power normal distribution, and skew normal distribution and use the K-S test to evaluate the model fittings. The result demonstrates that the slash power normal distribution gives a better fit to the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present some properties of integrable distributions which are continuous linear functional on the space of test function D ℝ 2 . Here, it uses two-dimensional Henstock–Kurzweil integral. We discuss integrable distributional solution for Poisson's equation in the upper half space ℝ + 3 with Dirichlet boundary condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transit network simulation models are often used for performance and retrospective analysis of urban rail systems, taking advantage of the availability of extensive automated fare collection (AFC) and automated vehicle location (AVL) data. Important inputs to such models, in addition to origin-destination flows, include passenger path choices and train capacity. Train capacity, which has often been overlooked in the literature, is an important input that exhibits a lot of variabilities. The paper proposes a simulation-based optimization (SBO) framework to simultaneously calibrate path choices and train capacity for urban rail systems using AFC and AVL data. The calibration is formulated as an optimization problem with a black-box objective function. Seven algorithms from four branches of SBO solving methods are evaluated. The algorithms are evaluated using an experimental design that includes five scenarios, representing different degrees of path choice randomness and crowding sensitivity. Data from the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system is used as a case study. The data is used to generate synthetic observations used as "ground truth." The results show that the response surface methods (particularly constrained optimization using response surfaces) have consistently good performance under all scenarios. The proposed approach drives large-scale simulation applications for monitoring and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep excavations are intensively carried out in many cities in China and other countries. One of the major loadings in such construction work is the water pressure, and great effort is required to assess the seepage problem and the corresponding water pressure on the retaining wall for a good design and construction. Different methods used for the seepage analysis are discussed in this paper through a series of projects in Hong Kong. Some interesting phenomena from the seepage analysis will also be discussed. Two large scale seepage field tests in Hong Kong are also used for the illustration of the back analysis in seepage problems which are seldom carried out. The comparative studies demonstrate that a realistic seepage analysis is very important for deep excavation works, but it was not seriously considered in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of "one belt, one road initiative" and the "Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area," Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao port group development is facing new opportunities. The port group has a large throughput, covering the hinterland with dense population and high economic density, excellent transportation infrastructure, and broad consumption market. However, the port group internal competition is fierce, and the development level is different in space. Based on this, this paper uses the HHI index and spatial economics as research method and aims to study the spatial evolution characteristics and influencing factors of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao port group. Firstly, the HHI index is used to describe the aggregation status. Secondly, the development level index according to port throughput and container throughput is constructed. The spatial development and evolution process of the port group of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao is analyzed by combining with spatial econometrics and economic geography. In summary, the influencing factor "diamond model" is constructed and took empirical research to verify its rationality and scientificity. The empirical results show a strong spatial correlation between the development of the Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao port group. The government intervention and the development of port industry have a negative correlation, and this impact will be weakened over time. There is a negative relationship between the level of marketization and the development of the port industry. There is a multiple and complex relationship between the port auxiliary industry and the development of the port industry, and it shows the short-term influence is smaller than the long-term impact. The level of port transportation infrastructure, the port industry competition, and the economic openness have significant and positive effects on the development of the port group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let B = B t 1 , ... , B t d t ≥ 0 be a d -dimensional bifractional Brownian motion and R t = B t 1 2 + ⋯ + B t d 2 be the bifractional Bessel process with the index 2 HK ≥ 1 . The Itô formula for the bifractional Brownian motion leads to the equation R t = ∑ i = 1 d ∫ 0 t B s i / R s d B s i + HK d − 1 ∫ 0 t s 2 HK − 1 / R s d s . In the Brownian motion case K = 1 and H = 1 / 2 , X t ≔ ∑ i = 1 d ∫ 0 t B s i / R s d B s i , d ≥ 1 is a Brownian motion by Lévy's characterization theorem. In this paper, we prove that process X t is not a bifractional Brownian motion unless K = 1 and H = 1 / 2 . We also study some other properties and their application of this stochastic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the progress of the multiple population mortality model and the defects in parameter estimation and proposes an effective method to improve the performance of the mortality model. We set up a multiple population group, using the data of mainland China, Hong Kong (China), and Japan, to test fitting performance and forecasting performance. Using the TSWLS and TSSVD methods in a multiple population stochastic mortality model has advantages in fitting performance and robustness. In addition, the forecasting value of mortality ratio between any two populations can converge to a fixed constant in a certain time period which obeys the regular of human biological characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A brief intervention using Zero‐time Exercise (ZTEx), a foot‐in‐the‐door approach, was developed to reduce sedentary behaviour and increase physical activity. ZTEx refers to the integration of simple strength‐ and stamina‐enhancing physical activity into daily life, which can be done anytime, anywhere and by anyone. This paper presents the development, feasibility, and preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of this intervention under the Hong Kong Jockey Club FAMILY Project. Needs assessments were conducted with social workers from the Christian Family Services Center(CFSC) and the Social Welfare Department (SWD). This single group prospective ZTEx intervention trial, guided by the Health Action Process Approach, included a 3‐hr core session at baseline and a 1‐hr booster session at 1‐month follow‐up. Fifty‐six participants (social and service‐related workers) from CFSC (n = 28) and SWD (n = 28) received the intervention and completed the self‐administered questionnaires at baseline. Forty‐nine and 43 participants completed the 1‐month and 3‐month self‐administered questionnaires, respectively. Fifteen participants attended the focus group interviews to share their feedback on ZTEx intervention after implementing their community‐based ZTEx activities. Intention‐to‐treat analysis was conducted with missing data replaced by baseline values. Participants reported significant decreases in sitting time by 27 (2, 52) minutes (mean [95% confidence interval]) and 36 (0.2, 71) minutes on a weekday, increases in physical activity while seated by 0.7 (0.2, 1.4) days and 1.1 (0.6, 1.7) days in a week, and improvements in perceived knowledge, outcome expectancies and plan on doing ZTEx at the 1‐month and 3‐month follow‐up, respectively. Balance and muscle strength significantly improved at the 1‐month follow‐up. The effect ranged from small to large (Cohen's d: 0.27–1.05, all p < 0.05). The qualitative feedbacks support the quantitative findings. Our findings show early evidence that ZTEx effectively reduced sedentary behaviour and enhanced physical activity and fitness. Further trials on this simple and low‐cost intervention as the first step to promote higher intensity exercise are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The rising public health concern regarding traumatic brain injury (TBI) implies a growing need for rehabilitation services for patients surviving TBI. Methods. To this end, this paper reviews the practices and research on TBI rehabilitation in Hong Kong so as to inform future developments in this area. This paper begins by introducing the general situation of TBI patients in Hong Kong and the need for rehabilitation. Next, the trauma system in Hong Kong is introduced. Following that is a detailed description of the rehabilitation services for TBI patients in Hong Kong, as exemplified by a rehabilitation hospital in Hong Kong. This paper will also review intervention studies on rehabilitating brain-injured populations in Hong Kong with respect to various rehabilitation goals. Lastly, the implications of culture-related issues will be discussed in relation to TBI. Results/Conclusions. The intervention studies conducted in Hong Kong are generally successful in achieving various rehabilitative outcomes. Additionally, certain cultural-related issues, such as the stigma associated with TBI, may impede the rehabilitative process and lead to various psychosocial problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an elastic demand network equilibrium model for networks with transit and walking modes. In Hong Kong, the multi-mode transit system services over 90% of the total journeys and the demand on it is continuously increasing. Transit and walking modes are related to each other as transit passengers have to walk to and from transit stops. In this paper, the multi-mode elastic-demand network equilibrium problem is formulated as a variational inequality problem where the combined mode and route choices are modeled in a hierarchical logit structures and the total travel demand for each origin-destination pair is explicitly given by an elastic demand function. In addition, the capacity constraint for transit vehicles and the effects of bi-directional flows on walkways are considered in the proposed model. All these congestion effects are taken into account for modeling the travel choices. A solution algorithm is developed to solve the multi-mode elastic-demand network equilibrium model. It is based on a Block Gauss-Seidel decomposition approach coupled with the method of successive averages. A numerical example is used to illustrate the application of the proposed model and solution algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper selects improved maximum likelihood method to conduct parameter estimation of Heston model, and results show that the share option pricing performance of Hang Seng Index is better and pricing error of at-the-money options is the smallest. By comparing parameter estimation of samples in different intervals, it has been found that parameter estimated results of two-year market data are obviously inferior to estimated effect of one-year data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High quality education programs are essential for preparing the next generation of Chinese medicine (CM) practitioners. Currently, training in CM occurs within differing health and education policy contexts. There has been little analysis of the factors influencing the form and status of CM education in different regions. Such a task is important for understanding how CM is evolving internationally and predicting future workforce characteristics. This paper compares the status of CM education in Australia and Hong Kong across a range of dimensions: historical and current positions in the national higher education system, regulatory context and relationship to the health system, and public and professional legitimacy. The analysis highlights the different ways in which CM education is developing in these settings, with Hong Kong providing somewhat greater access to clinical training opportunities for CM students. However, common trends and challenges shape CM education in both regions, including marginalisation from mainstream health professions, a small but established presence in universities, and an emphasis on biomedical research. Three factors stand out as significant for the evolution of CM education in Australia and Hong Kong and may have international implications: continuing biomedical dominance, increased competition between universities, and strengthened links with mainland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Observational studies of smoking cessation with acupuncture have been reported widely; however, few researchers have focused on its predictors. Objective. This paper attempts to explore the predictors for smoking cessation with acupuncture in a Hong Kong population, aiming to provide references for clinical treatment in the future. Methods. We performed a secondary analysis of data from our observational study “Acupuncture for Smoking Cessation (2011–2014)” in Hong Kong. A total of 23 indexes were selected as possible predictors, and study participants with complete information of 23 indexes were included. By taking 8-week and 52-week smoking cessation results as dependent variables, binary logistic regression method was used to identify the predictors. Additionally, based on an M5P decision-tree algorithm, an equation of “successful rate of smoking cessation with acupuncture” was calculated. Results. (1) 2,051 study participants were included in total. (2) According to the results of binary logistic regression, variables including treatment location, total number of acupuncture sessions received, and whether the study participants received at least 6 sessions of acupuncture were taken as the short-term predictors; gender, treatment location, Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), and total number of acupuncture sessions received were taken as the long-term predictors. (3) According to study participants’ FTND, treatment location, and number of cigarettes smoked/day, the equation of “successful rate of smoking cessation with acupuncture” was established. Conclusion. Receiving sufficient and qualified acupuncture is the leading factor for short-term smoking cessation with acupuncture, whereas individual factors and smoking background play a more important role in long-term smoking cessation with acupuncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY A super-tall building with height of 420 m and 88 floors is located in central Hong Kong. Field monitoring of wind effects on the high-rise structure was conducted during the passage of several typhoons on the basis of a wind and movement monitoring system installed in the building. Field data such as wind speed, wind direction, pressures on cladding, acceleration and displacement responses were simultaneously recorded during the typhoons and then analyzed. Typhoon wind parameters including turbulence intensity, gust factor, peak factor, turbulence integral length scale and power spectral density were presented and discussed. The dynamic properties of the high-rise structure were determined from the field measurements and compared with those calculated at the design stage. The damping ratios of the super-tall building were evaluated by a random decrement technique, which demonstrates amplitude-dependent characteristics. The relationships between the structural dynamic responses and the approaching wind speed were analyzed. Wind tunnel tests were conducted to investigate the wind effects on the super-tall building. The field-measured acceleration responses were found to be consistent with the model test results. Finally, the serviceability performance of the super-tall building during the typhoons was assessed on the basis of the field measurement results. The findings of the paper are expected to be of considerable interest and practical use to professionals and researchers involved in wind-resistant designs of super-tall buildings. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong Observatory currently uses a series of meteorological instruments, including long-range LIDAR (light detection and ranging) systems, to provide alerting services of low-level windshear and turbulence for Hong Kong International Airport. For some events that are smaller in spatial dimensions and are rapidly changing, such as low altitude windshear and turbulence associated with buildings or man-made structures, it would be necessary to involve meteorological instruments that offer greater spatial resolution. Therefore, the Observatory has set up a short-range LIDAR on the roof of the AsiaWorld-Expo during the summers over the past several years, conducting field research on the feasibility of strengthening early alerting for windshear and turbulence over the north runway's eastern arrival runway (Runway 25RA) and developing an automated early alerting algorithm. This paper takes the pilot reports for Runway 25RA during the 2013 field research as verification samples, using different thresholds for radial wind velocity spatial and temporal changes detected by the short-range LIDAR to calculate the relative operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and analyzes its early alerting performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatitis B infection is a major global health problem. Vertical transmission is the commonest route of spreading hepatitis B virus (HBV) in many endemic areas. In order to control such transmission in Hong Kong, neonatal immunization programme was implemented for more than two decades. A declining prevalence of HBV infection was expected. However, the prevalence remained unabated at around 10% in recent studies. We suspect that one of the explanations of this persistent high prevalence is deficient knowledge on infection with the HBV and its prevention. Our paper gives an overview of the knowledge on HBV infection among Chinese population in both high and low endemic areas and discusses the potential factors that influenced the knowledge on as well as the implication of the sources of information for HBV infection, which was not addressed in previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While sheet-and-tube absorber is generally recommended for flat-plate photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collector design because of the simplicity and promising performance, the use of rectangular-channel absorber is also tested to be a good alternative. Before a new energy technology, like PV/T, is fully implemented, its environmental superiority over the competing options should be assessed, for instance, by evaluating its consumption levels throughout its production and service life. Although there have been a plenty of environmental life-cycle assessments on the domestic solar hot water systems and PV systems, the related works on hybrid solar PV/T systems have been very few. So far there is no reported work on the assessment of PV/T collector with channel-type absorber design. This paper reports an evaluation of the energy payback time and the greenhouse gas payback time of free-standing and building-integrated PV/T systems in Hong Kong. This is based on two case studies of PV/T collectors with modular channel-type aluminium absorbers. The results confirm the long-term environmental benefits of PV/T applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Window glazing affects much the indoor environment and the energy use in buildings. While double glazing has better thermal performance than single glazing, the airflow window options carry additional advantage of directly removing the absorbed solar energy in glass panes. This paper reports an experimental study in Hong Kong in evaluating the thermal/energy performance of the above-mentioned glazing systems. A new approach of using numerical simulation technique to improve the quality of experimental analysis was introduced. Our findings show that the natural-ventilated glazing system has a better thermal performance than the double-glazing system since the latter received 13.6% more convective heat gain. The main advantage of the exhaust-ventilated glazing system lies in the decrease of convective heat transfer to 34.3% of the double glazing, and 19.4% of the single-glazing types. The results showed that the ventilated glazing schemes in association with daylight utilization could lead to substantial electricity savings in the office environment. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, reasonable paths in transit networks are defined as possible paths that satisfy the acceptable time criterion and transfer-walk criterion. A recursive algorithm for finding all of the reasonable paths in a transit network that does not involve a rapid increase in program run-time with network size is presented. Realistic transit networks in Hong Kong and Guangzhou were selected as case studies of the different phases of the development of a trip planning system. Transport planning practitioners and potential users were invited to test the system to evaluate its performance. The results of the prototype evaluation were satisfactory, and the viability of the system as a useful tool for supporting decision-making has been confirmed by the positive feedback that was obtained from survey questionnaires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of the prediction, potential and control of plume in wet cooling towers from a huge commercial building in Hong Kong based on the weather data available for a particular year. The power input is found to be lower and the coefficient of performance (COP) moderate when all the 10 towers with low speed are in use, while it is found to be reverse when there are five towers, especially, three low and two high-speed towers are used. It is also found that the combined heating and cooling option can be a better approach than that of the heating option alone from the point of view of thermodynamics as well as from the point of view of economics. The COP of the chillers increases from 6.01 to 7.09 when the number of cooling towers increases from five to ten. On the other hand, the power consumption first decreases and then increases which is mainly due to the increment in the consumption of fan power from 270 to 900 kW for both options. The overall power consumption decreases slightly for the combined heating and cooling option, while in the heating option, the overall power consumption increases slightly. However, it is observed that a proper operation of cooling towers is an effective means to control and/or at least reduce the potential of visible plume generated by wet cooling towers at the existing chilling plant design for this particular building. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a case study is carried out in Hong Kong for demonstration of the Transport Information System (TIS) prototype. A traffic flow simulator (TFS) is presented to forecast the short-term travel times that can be served as a predicted travel time database for the TIS in Hong Kong. In the TFS, a stochastic deviation coefficient is incorporated to simulate the minute-by-minute fluctuation of traffic flows within the peak hour period. The purposes of the case study are: 1) to show the applicability of the TFS for larger-scale road network; and 2) to illustrate the short-term forecasting of path travel times in practice. The results of the case study show that the TFS can be applied to real network effectively. The predicted travel times are compared with the observed travel times on the selected paths for an OD pair. The results show that the observed path travel times fall in the 90% confidence interval of the predicted path travel times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is primarily transmitted by bio-aerosol droplets or direct personal contacts. This paper presents a detailed study of environmental evidence of possible airborne transmission in a hospital ward during the largest nosocomial SARS outbreak in Hong Kong in March 2003. Retrospective on-site inspections and measurements of the ventilation design and air distribution system were carried out on July 17, 2003. Limited on-site measurements of bio-aerosol dispersion were also carried out on July 22. Computational fluid dynamics simulations were performed to analyze the bio-aerosol dispersion in the hospital ward. We attempted to predict the air distribution during the time of measurement in July 2003 and the time of exposure in March 2003. The predicted bio-aerosol concentration distribution in the ward seemed to agree fairly well with the spatial infection pattern of SARS cases. Possible improvement to air distribution in the hospital ward was also considered. Our study revealed the need for the development of improved ventilation and air-conditioning systems in an isolation ward or a general hospital ward for infectious respiratory diseases. The outbreak in Ward 8A, which was in a general hospital and could house nearly 40 patients, demonstrated the cross-infection risks of respiratory infectious diseases in hospitals if a potential highly infectious patient was not identified and isolated. Our example simulation, which extended the SARS Busters’ design for an isolation room to Ward 8A, demonstrated that there was room for improvement to minimize cross-infection in large general hospital wards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a procedure for the estimation of origin-destination (O-D) matrices for a multimodal public transit network. The system consists of a number of favored public transit modes that are obtained from a modal split process in a traditional four-step transportation model. The demand of each favored mode is assigned to the multimodal network, which is comprised of a set of connected links of different public transit modes. An entropy maximization procedure is proposed to simultaneously estimate the O-D demand matrices of all favored modes, which are consistent with target data sets such as the boarding counts and line segment flows that are observed directly in the network. A case study of the Hong Kong multimodal transit network is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the analysis and comparisons of discharge headways at 26 sites in Hong Kong. Previous studies here established good understanding of the average discharge headway under various conditions but very few studies dealt with discharge headway of individual vehicles which is a vital component in the traffic simulation at signalized intersections. This study that looked into the discharge headway of individual vehicles found that the discharge headway at different queue position follows the Type I Extreme Value Distribution. A method of estimating site-specific parameters for this distribution has also been proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-border passengers from Hong Kong to Shenzhen by the east Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR) through the Lo Wu customs exceed nearly 200 thousand on a special day such as a day during the Chinese Spring Festival. Such heavy passenger demand often exceeds the processing and holding capacity of the Lo Wu customs for many hours a day. Thus, passengers must be metered off at all entrance stations along the KCR line through ticket rationing to restrain the number of passengers waiting at Lo Wu within its safe holding capacity. This paper proposes an optimal control strategy and model to deal with this passenger crowding and control problem. Because the maximum passenger checkout rate at Lo Wu is fixed, total passenger waiting time is not affected by the control strategy for given time-dependent arriving rates at each station. An equity-based control strategy is thus proposed to equalize the waiting times of passengers arriving at all stations at the same time. This equity is achieved through optimal allocation of the total quota of tickets to all entrance stations for each train service. The total ticket quota for each train service is determined such that the capacity constraint of the passenger queue at Lo Wu is satisfied. The control problem is formulated as a successive linear programming problem and demonstrated for the KCR system with partially simulated data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The average annual daily traffic (AADT) volumes can be estimated by using a short period count of less than twenty-four hour duration. In this paper, the neural network method is adopted for the estimation of AADT from short period counts and for the determination of the most appropriate length of counts. A case study is carried out by analysing data at thirteen locations on trunk roads and primary roads in urban area of Hong Kong. The estimation accuracy is also compared with the one obtained by regression analysis approach. The results show that the neural network approach consistently performed better than the regression analysis approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim This paper is based on research into case management that aimed to evaluate the processes of the introduction of case management for elderly people into the community nursing services in Hong Kong. Background The Hospital Authority in Hong Kong introduced a pilot Case Management scheme into the Community Nursing Services. A research project was therefore developed to evaluate this case management model. Method The processes were measured through information gained from group interviews, daily diaries and weekly activity sheets. Findings The roles and work practices of the Care Co-ordinators and Case Managers are described and the benefits of case management to patients, carers and nurses are highlighted. Difficulties are also discussed and good practices are identified. Conclusion Staff in the hospital and community need time to get used to the model of case management and to the accompanying documentation. The role of the case manager needs to be clearly dilineated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between the dwelling time of trains and the crowding situations at Mass Transit Railway (MTR) stations in Hong Kong. Regression models were established for the dwelling delays of trains due to congestion at stations, and a simulation model making use of the Monte-Carlo technique is developed to assess the reliability of the estimated train dwelling time. Therefore, the distribution and the confidence interval of the train dwelling time can be predicted on the basis of observed boarding and alighting distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]