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Copyright of Journal of Civil Engineering & Management is the property of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) is being developed for the cross-cultural measurement of subjective wellbeing (SWB). This paper reports the findings of its utility with the Hong Kong Chinese and Australian populations. An item on affect, ‘satisfaction with own happiness’ was also investigated to determine whether it should be added to the index. Three-hundred and sixty participants (180 per country), with equal representation from groups aged 18–35, 35–64 and 65 years and above, were recruited from each country. The PWI demonstrated good psychometric performance in terms of its reliability, validity and sensitivity, which are comparable in both countries. The item ‘satisfaction with own happiness’ was found to contribute significantly to the scale’s psychometric performance in Australia but not in Hong Kong. Cultural differences in the perception of the concepts ‘satisfaction’ and ‘happiness’ were suggested as an explanation for this finding. The PWI data are also consistent with homeostasis theory, which proposes that each person’s SWB level is maintained within a limited positive range. For the Australian population, their mean SWB level fell within the established Western range of 70–80, on a scale from 0 to 100. The Hong Kong population, however, fell below this range. Cultural response bias was identified as a plausible explanation for the differences between the Hong Kong and Australian samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Animal Protection Law of China. It examines the animal cruelty defined by the courts in Great Britain, Australia and Hong Kong, China and reflects the problems which rely on anti-cruelty laws for protecting animals from harm. It offers information that the China's draft law has abandoned the inclusion of a duty of care towards animals and prohibits only overt animal cruelty, and emphasizes to include statutory duty of care for effective protection of animals in China.

This study explores the attitudes towards inclusive education of pre-service teachers in teacher training institutions in four different countries: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Using the Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education Scale (Wilczenski, 1995) and a series of demographic variables, this study concludes that pre-service teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education differ between countries across three factors which have been labeled academic and physical, social, and behavioral. Pre-service teachers in this sample are most positive about including students with social concerns. An examination of the items in this factor revealed that these issues, such as shyness, would rarely require immediate intervention and large amounts of extra time and effort on the part of the teacher in the same way that the behavior factor would, which rated low in terms of positive attitudes internationally. Demographic variables which can be emphasized by teacher training institutions such as close contact with a person with a disability, training, teaching experience, knowledge of policy and law, and confidence levels, all had a significant impact on attitudes. This paper argues that teacher training institutions should consider for inclusion in their programs practical experiences with inclusive education in positive and supportive environments, opportunities for students to experience success and reflection, and academic content regarding knowledge of policy and law relating to inclusive education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals have to disclose personal information in order to utilize the manifold options of the Internet. Online users frequently trade data for benefits (privacy calculus). Trust in both the Internet and the vendor has been identified as an important antecedent to disclosing personal information online. The authors introduce the perceived risk of disclosing specific data types as an additional factor in the field of study. The results from a survey in three countries (Austria, Australia, and Hong Kong) show that the perceived risk of disclosing personal information is a stronger stimulus for the intention to provide personal information than having trust in the Internet or in the online vendor. Several significant differences are found in the relationships between the perceived risk of disclosing personal information, trust, and the willingness to disclose personal information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid expansion of the transnational education market, more and more universities join the ranks of transnational education providers or expand their transnational education offerings. Many of those providers regard fully-online provision of their programs as an economic alternative to face-to-face teaching. Do transnational students accept this model as a viable and effective educational alternative? A recent research study investigated students' attitudes towards fully-online provision of computing education programs in one of the most important Australian transnational education markets: Hong Kong. Of interest were students' perceptions about the suitability of fully-online mode of teaching and learning with respect to computing studies, and their views on the importance of face-to-face interaction in their programs. Students from three transnational computing programs, offered in Hong Kong by Australian universities in co-operation with Hong Kong partners, participated in the study; the programs are delivered in face-to-face sessions and rely on the Internet for support and communication (unit Web sites, bulletin boards, email, etc.). The rationale behind the choice of locale and participants for the study was threefold: first, Hong Kong is one of the largest Australian transnational education markets (hence, the results of the study would be of importance); second, it is a well-developed territory where English is commonly spoken (hence, participants would not be biased towards online education because of lack of suitable technological infrastructure or inadequate linguistic skills); and thirdly, computing students were technology savvy and, therefore, would not be biased in their views of online education because of technophobia. Approximately three hundred students participated in the study, which was based on analysis of data collected though a survey and group interviews with students. Results from the survey revealed that students did not regard fully-online provision of transnational programs as a preferred alternative to the current model -- that is one that is based on face-to- face communication and uses the Internet for support. Their opposition was pronounced and ranged from total rejection of fully-online provision in one of the programs (100% of students against the idea), to marginal support of fully-online provision from students in the other two programs (9% and 13% respectively). Students repeatedly stated the importance of face-to-face communication as the most important reason for preferring the current program model. The subsequent group interviews with students sought to explore further the reasons behind the students' views. Students again responded in favor of the current model of the programs reiterating the importance of face-to-face interaction. They regarded face-to-face communication as more conducive to the learning process, affording better opportunity to sharing knowledge and asking for help, "easier" and more interactive, and more compatible with the needs of Hong Kong students. However, the respondents acknowledged the usefulness of the Internet as a means for providing course material, facilitating submission of assignments, and enabling communication with lecturers outside classes. The findings of the study endorse the current trends of Australian transnational education in South East Asia and support the prediction that Web-supported face-to-face delivery is likely to continue as a principal model of transnational tertiary education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Relationships between several built environment factors and physical activity and walking behavior are well established, but internationally-comparable built environment measures are lacking. The Microscale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes (MAPS)-Global is an observational measure of detailed streetscape features relevant to physical activity that was developed for international use. This study examined the inter-observer reliability of the instrument in five countries. Methods: MAPS-Global was developed by compiling concepts and items from eight environmental measures relevant to walking and bicycling. Inter-rater reliability data were collected in neighborhoods selected to vary on geographic information system (GIS)-derived macro-level walkability in five countries (Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Hong Kong-China, and Spain). MAPS-Global assessments (n = 325) were completed in person along a ≥ 0.25 mile route from a residence toward a non-residential destination, and a commercial block was also rated for each residence (n = 82). Two raters in each country rated each route independently. A tiered scoring system was created that summarized items at multiple levels of aggregation, and positive and negative valence scores were created based on the expected effect on physical activity. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was computed for scales and selected items using one-way random models. Results: Overall, 86.6% of individual items and single item indicators showed excellent agreement (ICC ≥ 0.75), and 13.4% showed good agreement (ICC = 0.60–0.74). All subscales and overall summary scores showed excellent agreement. Six of 123 items were too rare to compute the ICC. The median ICC for items and scales was 0.92 with a range of 0.50–1.0. Aesthetics and social characteristics showed lower ICCs than other sub-scales, but reliabilities were still in the excellent range (ICC ≥ 0.75). Conclusion: Evaluation of inter-observer reliability of MAPS-Global across five countries indicated all items and scales had “good” or “excellent” reliability. The results demonstrate that trained observers from multiple countries were able to reliably conduct observations of both residential and commercial areas with the new MAPS-Global instrument. Next steps are to evaluate construct validity in relation to physical activity in multiple countries and gain experience with using MAPS-Global for research and practice applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]